"I love you." That was what the young lord said before he left that morning. The golden rays of the rising sun formed a halo around Inu-Yasha that lent him a mystical aura. A person had to be especially cynical or dim to not believe his words. Her heart fluttered oddly at the declaration as she sighed at the naïveté of Lord Inu-Yasha. Lady Kikyo could almost believe that his words were earnest and true.
However, Lady Kikyo had heard that phrase uttered to her many times before, both by drunken merchants and by inexperienced youth. They never meant it nor did they remember when the act was over. Though, she mused, Lord Inu-Yasha is older me, he still seems incredibly naïve about many things. Never before had a man utter those words to her with so much sincerity and honesty.
Unlike her normal clients who feigned sophistication, Lord Inu-Yasha did not bother with the cover of society. At times, he was temperamental and cloddish, both worldly yet naïve. He let his emotions rule his judgment and he was quick to judge, but he never had regrets. And no matter how rough he was, he was never rough with her.
Even though he was passionate in speech and behavior while awake, when sleeping Lady Kikyo often heard him whimper because of the nightmares. Before this monumental change in their relationship, Lady Kikyo would often hold Inu-Yasha's hand to keep the nightmares at bay. After they became… intimate, Lady Kikyo would often find herself being tightly embraced during those episodes.
Lady Kikyo often wondered about his time during the war. Whether or not Lord Inu-Yasha met her father, fought beside him, and then watched him die. Or were the lives of common soldiers too lowly to be remembered. She wanted to ask. Many times she almost did, but the fear of what his answers would be always topped her inquiries.
Often she wished to be bolder, like him. However, his passionate behavior and proclamations both puzzled and frightened her. Her own strange responses to those gestures and words often occupied her mind. Why did her heart flutter when he would look her in the eyes and smile? If she should feel for a client, Lady Kikyo reasoned, then it would make sense for Lord Naraku be the one she… admired, as she had known him much longer. Lord Inu-Yasha was scarcely better than a stranger.
Lady Kikyo shook her head at the distracting thoughts because now was not one of the moments she could have to herself. Nanano-san had ordered a meeting this morning to discuss her future at the establishment. He said there was "important news." Lady Kikyo gave an unladylike snort at his comment. His important news often involved a private party with high-class officials who drank too much, tipped too little and with hands that wonders faster than mice.
She glided down the steps from the suite toward Nanano's office, knocked lightly on the panel before she slid it aside to enter the room, and knelt before the table. Nanano, nervous looking even on his best days, looked like the world was coming to an end and the devil himself had come to collect his soul.
"Lady Kikyo, I have some very important news for you." Nanano paused to wait for her reaction and to assemble his fleeting courage. When neither seemed to be forthcoming, he quickly continued with his anxious speech. "As you know, Lord Naraku is a very powerful man… Also, as you know, Lord Naraku seemed, uh, especially taken with you." There he paused again as if to gather his thoughts and marshal the last of his courage. "Therefore, I sold your contract to Lord Naraku. In three days, you will belong to him. I... I know he will treat you well."
Nanano Han almost flew out of the room after that announcement with his hands sweaty from tension.
Lady Kikyo still knelt at the table unmoving minutes later when another serving girl came to check up on her. She suddenly rose before the girl could reach out to touch her unmoving body. Without help or word, Lady Kikyo glided out of the room.
That night, Inu-Yasha again came to the Ichiban no Sakura. His dress indicated he came straight from the palace and he seemed to be in a foul mood. Lady Kikyo tried to lighten his mood by first reading to him, then massaging his back, but neither seemed to help in relieving his stress. Her own lack of interest in those activities hastened her decision to look for another form of entertainment.
Curiosity and need to cover the awkward silence won over her habitual reserve; Lady Kikyo gently asked Inu-Yasha about what was troubling him.
Reluctant to talk about his troubles with Lady Kikyo, Inu-Yasha just mumbled an incoherent sentence about "trouble." He then turned his thoughts from the unbelievable turn of events at court to the object of his infatuation sitting next to him. Lady Kikyo wore a white kimono with silver threads making patters of waves on the hem. Inu-Yasha saw she hung the large pearl like jewel on her sash that night. For as long as he had been acquainted with Lady Kikyo, the jewel was always placed somewhere on her body. Even asleep, she wore the jewel around her neck.
"Why do you wear that pearl?" He asked. He did not expect an answer from her. Her mysteriousness was one of the things that fascinated Inu-Yasha. Her surprised expression was enough of a reaction to please him.
Instead of answering the question, she smiled coyly at him and carefully untied the sash and dripped it on to the floor. She dropped the pearl as if it was of no importance but Inu-Yasha saw the hesitation. She proceeded to slowly peel away the layers of her kimono until she stood nude in front of a wide-eyed Inu-Yasha. As an encore to her striptease, she knelt and crawled on top of Inu-Yasha to kiss him deeply on the mouth. Any other question Inu-Yasha might have had fled as soon as a creamy white shoulder emerged from under her obi.
If her lovemaking efforts that night seemed frantic and desperate, Inu-Yasha did not notice. For the first time, their rolls reversed. Instead of Inu-Yasha clinging desperately to her, Lady Kikyo clung to him all through the night.
Inu-Yasha's mood greatly improved before court the next day, but the private conference with the emperor from the past day still rang in his mind and plagued his thoughts.
"Lord Protector Inu-Yasha," the emperor began as soon as Inu-Yasha knelt, "there are many things troubling about this report you sent me. The border raid in the north still persists even after the treaty of peace. Though they seemed like bandits, it is too coincidental that the bandits only steal government files or make just enough nuisances of themselves for the guards to be sent. "
"Lord Inu-Yasha, I want you to investigate this, not the border raid as they are even now being stopped, but the possibility of a spy. I have long suspected that someone from within my court is feeding the enemy information. Those attacks and the stolen documents are insignificant in and of themselves, but together, they may prove dangerous."
"You cannot trust anyone with this information. Even your brother, Lord Sesshomaru, cannot be notified of this. I trust you will serve me to the best of your ability, Lord Inu-Yasha. You have full authority to do whatever is necessary to end the search, but do it well and quickly. I want this to end!" His words ended in a tone of steel indicating the Emperor's anger and frustration at the matter. When the audience ended, Inu-Yasha rose from his kneeling position and backed out of the chamber troubled with the news.
Eliminating the flow of information between the capital and the enemy was the first objective Inu-Yasha set out to accomplish that day. He had extra guards posted along the city walls and anyone who tried to enter or leave the city was required to state their give name, reason for their excursion, and a place of residence. He also heightened the security around the palace, doubling the guards to eliminate the possibility of a break-in.
With the border secure and the city protected, Inu-Yasha began in earnest the task of looking for the traitor.
That night, after eating dinner with his brother, Inu-Yasha once again contemplated the problem of a traitor at court. He tried to imagine Sesshomaru as the traitor but the image could not be summoned. Sesshomaru may have been many things but a traitor was not one of them. Besides, the thought of the toad like Jaken as an in between was too unbelievable. Jaken being hog-tied and kicked around like a ball was more believable than Jaken as a spy.
The Rat on the other hand was the perfect low life traitor. He was rich enough to finance the equipments needed for espionage. The way he tried to take Lady Kikyo away from him demonstrated that he would be greedy enough to want the throne for himself. He was a pervert and a leech and…
"Inu-Yasha," Sesshomaru began, "have you thought about your problem?"
Startled out of his thought and over the fact that Sesshomaru knew about the investigation, Inu-Yasha asked suspiciously. Maybe he had misjudged Sesshomaru, "What do you know about this problem?"
Amused by Inu-Yasha's obvious display of stupidity, Sesshomaru indulgingly said, "Well, since you are still unmarried and pinning away for that whore, I assume you haven't really taken my suggestion to heart. Just as well, there is no need to hurry. The emperor is still considering your marriage and Princess Aikiko. By the way, I expect you to be at mine in three days. Wear something nice." After tossing the written invitation on the table in front of a flabbergasted Inu-Yasha, Sesshomaru sauntered out of the room.
Inu-Yasha's mind still had not processed Sesshomaru's word before he looked into the invitation. 'Yup, he is getting married,' Inu-Yasha thought dazedly. In his daze, he stumbled on the toad of a servant Jaken.
"Jaken, why couldn't you be like a pervert and wear some women's clothing! At least then you'd be bright enough to be noticed. You blend in with the back ground already, I don't need to trip over you because you are too ugly to be seen." Inu-Yasha felt a bit more normal after his pounding on Jaken as he walked to meet Lady Kikyo.
Lady Kikyo waited for him in her room instead of the suite. She massaged his shoulders while he sat in silence. Lady Kikyo asked again of his troubles. This time, Inu-Yasha answered with a stunned "he's getting married."
"Who's getting married?" Lady Kikyo asked.
"My asshole of a brother, the great Lord Sesshomaru, is getting married in three days. Oh my god!" The impact of that announcement had finally reached Inu-Yasha.
Lady Kikyo smiled in amusement at his display of immaturity, but she said nothing as he sat and contemplated the implications. She knew his residence was no longer with his older half-brother, Lord Sesshomaru. Lord Inu-Yasha had moved into his own manor and out of his ancestral home. He was not dependent upon Sesshomaru in any way nor did there appear to be any love lost between the two brothers, but why should the marriage of Lord Sesshomaru affect Lord Inu-Yasha so much?
"I'm going to get married!" Inu-Yasha exclaimed.
"Then shouldn't you be courting the lady that would be your wife, my lord?" Lady Kikyo intoned emotionlessly while her heart skipped a beat.
"No, no, I'm not getting married yet, but once that bastard Sesshomaru gets married, then he's going to be hell bent on me to get married. He's already thinking up ideas like Princess Aikiko. I don't need that bastard to mess in my life. I'll marry who I choose."
Lady Kikyo smiled readily at him and murmured words meant to comfort, but while she spoke those words, she could not help but think about the naïveté of youth and the privileged. She often wished that they could experience what worries plagued her so they would understand the triviality of the catastrophe in their lives.
I would never have the luxury of marriage. That thought echoed over and over in her mind as they made love that night. As Inu-Yasha bent down to kiss her lips, she closed her eyes to accept both the kiss and her fate. When the passion subsided and Inu-Yasha the verge of sleep, she turned her back toward him for the first time because she did not want him to see her tears.
***
The investigation into Naraku's business dealings was going nowhere until his agents could get with reports. That, Inu-Yasha estimated, would take anywhere from five days to two weeks. He could not search Naraku's home without sufficient cause for fear of its repercussion. A rat Naraku may be, but he was still a powerful rat. Subsequently Inu-Yasha had to be patient while waiting for the investigation to go through. A few other noble families were also considered for the possibility of treason, but Inu-Yasha's instincts all point toward Naraku.
Another problem in Inu-Yasha's life involved his "overbearing, narcissistic, effeminate looking" older half brother. Sesshomaru was getting married in two days and Inu-Yasha had no idea even who was the unfortunate bride. Of course, he'd have to find an appropriate gift for the 'ungrateful bastard' and his new lady. There would be children produced by the marriage of course. Inu-Yasha shuddered at the thought of a whole litter of miniature Sesshomarus looking down at him from Jaken's height.
Thoughts of Sesshomaru's wedding brought to mind the uncomfortable thoughts of Inu-Yasha's own future. He did not want to get married, at least not to Princess Aikiko whom he had never met. Nor did he want to marry any other lord's daughter.
'If only Lady Kikyo was really a lady or a freeborn woman, then we could get married,' Inu-Yasha thought wistfully. 'Why not?' he thought furiously, ' I don't need to marry well to uphold the family name, that's Sesshomaru's job, for once I pity him. The emperor won't refuse me. All I have to do is to buy Lady Kikyo away from the Ichiban no Sakura. That's easy enough to do. I know she'll be thrilled. After we get married, I'll give her all the pearls in the world.'
Happy with his decision, Inu-Yasha took his mind back to court where a lower end official gave the tax collection report for the eastern lands.
That night, Inu-Yasha nervously paced the inside of his room while thinking of a way to tell Lady Kikyo the news of their marriage plans. He had his servant Myoga pick out a vibrant blue silk kimono. As Myoga dressed him and presented Inu-Yasha with his sword, their difference in height caused Inu-Yasha suddenly to wake from his daydream and exclaim, "why are annoying servants so short?"
Myoga, wisely, did not answer.
***
Inu-Yasha was nervous through out the next day with the thoughts of Lady Kikyo's answer. Though the possibility of a rejection never crossed his mind, his nervousness could not be abated. What worried him the most about his impending marriage were the reactions of his peers and the Emperor. In the end, he decided to marry her first and handle the obstacles as they come.
He held on precariously as he walked through the doors of the Ichiban no Sakura. He was surprised to find her already in the lobby of the house instead of waiting to be summoned. 'She knew I was coming.' Inu-Yasha thought giddily. Her look of astonishment barely registered on him before he reached her side.
The vision of Lady Kikyo took his breath away. Her gray eyes and her black hair seemed to glisten. Her white kimono decorated with cherry blooms showed off her delicate skin. Inu-Yasha had to fight down the urge to carry her from the awful place and marry her right away.
Inu-Yasha tenderly took hold of Lady Kikyo's trembling hand. His voice shook with emotion and excitement as he asked, "Will you marry me, Lady Kikyo?"
A look of happiness and pain crossed Lady Kikyo's pretty features. Before she could fashion a reply to this wonderful question, a hand jerked them apart. Lady Kikyo's hand flew out of Inu-Yasha's grip as a triumphant Lord Naraku proclaimed to the flabbergasted crowd "Lady Kikyo is mine, Lord Inu-Yasha. She was mine and she will be mine forever. From this minute forth, she belongs to me. Don't ever touch her again."