Kitsunehime: Ok, just one announcement. The place where Koryu rules as Warlord Prince has been changed from Amdarh to Dea al Mon.
Sakuya: And that's because she just remembered that Amdarh is a city within a Territory.
Marian: And she hasn't fixed the chapter that mentions it because it makes her brain hurt just thinking about figuring out which chapter's which since ff.net numbers differently than she does.
Kitsunehime: Exactly. ^_^ Anyhow, portable sewing machines are evil.
Inuyasha: WTF?!
Kitsunehime: They're evil! I swear! Practically every stitch I made with it came right back out! Aaarrgghh! Die die die die die die die die die die die die! *repeatedly whacks the machine against the table*
Lucivar: *whistles* Whoo, temper problem!
Daemon: You're temper's just as bad, if not worse.
Lucivar: At least I don't try to "kill" inanimate objects.
Daemon: *funny look* Riiiight . . . .
Kitsunehime: *dumps the pitiful remnants in the trash* Well, yeah, welcome to chapter . . . *quickly checks computer screen* Chapter 29, Variation One! You know the standard procedure, so I will shut up right now and let you read. MAJOR fluff ahead! XD
To Rule the Darkness
ch. 29, Variation One: Moonlight Party
"You said yes!" Kagome exclaimed, happily rummaging through Sango's closet to find her something to wear to the party. "I knew it!"
"Knew what?" Sango asked suspiciously, catching the wooden geta Kagome threw at her. "Look, I don't know why I agreed, so — " She was cut off as a green and blue kimono was thrown over her head.
"Oops, sorry Sango," Kagome said sheepishly. "I wasn't watching where I was throwing things."
"Remind me . . . Exactly why are you throwing things are around?"
"To find you the perfect outfit for your date with Miroku, of course!"
"Right . . . Speaking of the party, shouldn't you be picking out your own kimono?" Sango pointed out, just to get Kagome to let her think in peace.
"Oh! Right, see you later then, Sango!" Waving, she trotted off down the hall.
As soon as she left, Sango piled all of the scattered clothing back into her closet, then sat down on the bed, hugging her pillow.
'Why did I say yes?' she wondered. Unbidden, a thought came to her.
Love.
"Aaack, no!" she exclaimed, burying her face in the pillow. "No, I don't . . . "
'Yes you do.' her conscience whispered.
'No I don't.'
'Yes you do. You can't hide those feelings from me.'
'Remind me . . . who are you again?'
'Your conscience, baka. Now back to the subject of Miroku . . . '
'Not that again . . . I said, I do not love him!'
*sigh* 'I am you. So I should know.'
'And I am me, so I should know even better!'
'I give up. You're a hopeless case.'
Turning her head to look at the still-open closet door, she sighed. She really did look forward to the party, but, like Kagome said, there was the problem of what to wear.
Then a flash of pale pink and white caught her eye. Turning her head a bit, she saw one of the silk kimonos she'd missed, with pale pink peonies on creamy white cloth.
'Perfect,' she thought, rejoicing at how easy it really was.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Oi! Oyaji!"
Inutaishou turned around in annoyance at being interrupted. "What?"
Inuyasha was nearly in a panic. "Kagome-wanted-me-to-take-her-and-I-said-yes-and-I don't-know-why-but-I-did-and-I-have-no-clue-where-it-is-and — "
"Slow down!" Inutaishou roared. He had only understood the part about taking Kagome somewhere.
Sheepishly, Inuyasha asked, "Where's the moonlight party going to be?"
Inutaishou fell over. "Are you serious?! You agree to accompany Kagome there, all the while not knowing — "
"Shut up and tell me where it is!"
Inutaishou only plopped down in his desk chair and laughed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Stupid old mutt," Inuyasha muttered irritably later, waiting for Kagome to come out. Inutaishou had laughed for nearly an hour before he calmed down enough to tell Inuyasha what he wanted to know.
"Well, aren't you dressed up today. What stupid old mutt?" Rin asked, popping out of her room, wearing a dusky purple kimono with darker purple lilies around the hems. "You can't mean harmless old Inutaishou, could you?"
"Who are you calling 'harmless, stupid, and old?!'" Inutaishou yelled from below the stairs.
"You, $hi+head!" Inuyasha yelled back, and was about to add more to that when Sakuya flung a rubber band at the back of his head. "What the — ?!"
"Kagome's out," she said wryly, going with Rin down the stairs.
Inuyasha turned around, and couldn't help a small intake of breath.
Kagome's face fell. "Do I look that bad?"
"N-no, it's not that . . . You look . . . great," Inuyasha stammered, at a loss for words. The pale blue and white ocean-foam kimono she was wearing set off her complexion perfectly, the hint of makeup accenting her eyes beautifully. Inuyasha was, in short, stunned into near speechlessness. He didn't move until Fahleing elbowed him, then he offered his arm to Kagome.
Yawning, Shippou rubbed his eyes. "Can I please come too?"
"You're too little to stay up this late," Koryu replied firmly, picking the little kitsune up by his tail and depositing him in his own room.
"But it's not fair!" he wailed.
"Of course it is. Souta and Kohaku aren't coming either."
"You better not try anything funny," Sango grumbled as she allowed Miroku to lead her down the stairs.
He looked hurt. "Why, Sango, I didn't know you thought so little of me," he said grievously. "How could such a lovely being be so bitter?"
"Cut the crap, Miroku."
"How can I, when you truly are the loveliest creature I have ever laid eyes on?"
Rolling her eyes, Sango gave up.
"Ready to go?" Youko asked once they were all gathered in the entrance. Everyone nodded, and they all set off for the small village in the vicinity.
Once there, Youko and Miyu veered off towards the river, supposedly to sit among the sakura and the fireflies. Rin departed for the nearby grove with Kirara. Inutaishou and Sakuya found a rather secluded corner to watch the proceedings from, since the living were usually uneasy around their kind.
Inuyasha and Kagome wandered, hand in hand, around the village and eventually ended up out in the fields.
"The moon really is beautiful tonight," Kagome said blissfully. "Thank you for bringing me, Inuyasha."
"It was your idea," he replied.
Feigning indignance, she lightly smacked him. "You have no sense of romance at all!"
"What? You want me to trot out lines of rhyming drivel?"
"Inuyasha!" Silence. "What am I really to you?" she asked, not quite pleadingly. 'I really need to know," she added in her thoughts.
'W-what – Why is she asking me this?' Inuyasha thought, freaking out. "I . . . I . . . " Mentally, he cursed himself. This was the second time in one day he found his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.
His lack of response was burning Kagome, and she could feel her heart beginning to sink. "Am I nothing than somebody to waste time with?" she asked tremulously, tears threatening to spill out.
'$hi+!' "No, don't cry! Anything but that!" Inuyasha cried, quickly throwing his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he said, stroking her hair. "I just couldn't think of what to say. I love you, pure and simple."
"Really?"
"Really. Now stop crying already!"
"Okay!"
Inuyasha looked at her suspiciously. "Were those tears just a trick?"
"How would I have gotten you to confess otherwise?" Kagome asked happily, hugging him back. "Just kidding. I'm happy you feel that way. What you said was true though, wasn't it?"
"Of course it is," Inuyasha replied gruffly, holding her closer. "As true as the fact we'll be together for the rest of our lives."
"We will?" Kagome blinked. "Wait, was that a proposal?"
Strongly resembling a ripe tomato by now, Inuyasha nodded. "So . . . your answer is . . . ?"
Smiling joyfully, Kagome reached up and kissed him soundly. "Yes!"
Feeling a delight far greater than words can describe, Inuyasha enthusiastically returned the kiss.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Where are we going, you lecher?" Sango asked, exasperated, as Miroku led her through the village square for what had to be the twelfth time. "We're going to stay in sight of either Inutaishou, Sakuya, or Fahleing, no ifs, ands, or buts."
"Why? Are we like children or something?" he asked, confused.
"To make sure you don't try any of your lecherous tricks!"
"My Lady, I'm hurt by such harsh words!" he said sorrowfully. "Did you not see that I have scarcely looked at another woman today but for you, much less touch one?"
"I'm sorry," Sango amended, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
Miroku nodded to show that he accepted her apology, then led her under a large willow tree, obscured from others beneath its long, sweeping branches.
"Am I that bad to be around?" Miroku asked.
"W-why are you asking me that?" Sango stuttered, skirting around the question itself. "I-is this s-some joke?"
"I'm perfectly serious, Sango. Please, answer me."
"I . . . I . . . "
"Wack!"
Both Sango and Miroku turned around to look at the source of the sound.
Inutaishou smiled rather sheepishly. "Sorry to interrupt, I'll be going now." Quickly grabbing the back of Sakuya's kimono, he dragged her out with him.
"I told you to be quiet!" Sakuya complained. "I wanted to see what would happen!"
"And I told you it was indecent! And what the hell did you pinch me for?!"
Soon, both voices faded away and the two left under the willow were alone in the silence. A frog croaked.
"You still haven't answered," Miroku said after a while.
Caught, Sango realized she had to come up with a reply, like it or not. "W-well . . . It . . . It's not that you're . . . bad company, but . . . but I . . . "
Patiently, Miroku waited for the rest. But he knew his patience would eventually wear out. He hoped she would answer before then.
"I . . . well . . . I . . . It . . . It's because of your lechery," she finished lamely.
"Because of that," he said softly, with a touch of bitterness. "I've tried – and have sometimes succeeded – to stop, but you still avoid me for it. Can't you give me a chance?"
"A . . . A chance for what?" Sango asked, almost afraid to find out. But find out she did, for the answer was clearly expressed in his eyes.
"A chance to show you I can and will change, should you wish it. A chance to . . . " to be your beloved. Although unspoken, Sango understood.
"So . . . Will you give me that chance, Sango?"
Unable to form an response, she parted the curtain of living branches and stared at the moon, stared as if it held the knowledge of her heart.
'Do I want to give him that chance?' she asked herself. 'Do I want to let him get close to me, to . . . '
'So that's what you really fear. That you and he will become lovers, only to have him torn way from you by death.'
'I . . . it's very possible . . . '
'Bull$hi+. Since when have you let fears decide your life for you? See for yourself. If you say yes, he will do his very best to stay with you, and never leave. All he asks is for you to let him try.'
As her conscience said that, Miroku laid a hand on her shoulder. "Sango?"
And, at that moment, all doubts fled, and she knew her answer. "Yes."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fahleing could see Inuyasha and Kagome together in the distant field. She also remembered seeing Miroku and Sango duck under the weeping willow earlier. Sighing, she tried to convince herself she was truly happy for them.
But, no matter what she tried, there was always that nagging little voice in the back of her mind, one that whispered, 'If they can have such happiness, why can't I?'
'I can live without it," she insisted. 'Besides, the four of them deserve it.'
'And you don't?' her conscience persisted. 'What idiot ever said that?'
'I'm a half-breed Priestess who's tried to play the role of a Queen.'
'Whoever said Priestesses can't rule in absence of a Queen? Miyu does.'
'But Miyu isn't a Priestess. She's a Black Widow. And she has a Warlord prince, Youko, with her. And there was a Queen . . . the innkeeper's daughter at the village.'
'Her?! That little hussy?! Look, you were, and still are, much stronger than she is, and a much better ruler than she could ever aspire to be. She would have sold the Forest to Naraku long ago. And look where she is now! Dead, rotting in an unknown, unmarked grave!'
'But I'm still a half-breed.'
'Gawd! Stop throwing this load of crap at me! Fine, four reasons: One, so what? Two, it's not your fault your mother and father were from different races. Three, Inuyasha's in the same situation, and he's found love. And four, both sides of your family are perfectly honorable stock. Your father was an aristo Warlord Prince, for heaven's sake!'
Then Itsuki tripped over a root, hit his noggin, knocked his brains loose, and started to sing "Never Ending Dreams."
O.O Whoa, my brain getting really off track . . . pls disregard that last sentence. ^.^;;;;;;; (BTW, major fans of YYH may be able to recognize that "joke" ^_^) Anywho, as it seems I will only get further and further off the subject if I continue with no sleep, I will end this chapter here. Hey, it's long enough, right?
R.K 1: At the risk of sounding really stupid, exactly what is Harvest Moon?
Ja!