I finally sat down and planned out the timelines for Sesshomeru's life, Kura's life and the story itself. That means I'm changing a couple of the figures previously stated. Ex: Sesshomeru has had territory in Tokyo for 20 years, not 16.

I'd like to thank Kat Morning for the setting of my story, which is based on the alternate universe of her inu fanfic "Blood Ties."

Disclaimer: I do not own Miroku, Sesshomeru, or any other Inuyasha characters. They are owned by their author/creator, Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 23: Peanut Butter and a New Alliance

Kura stood shakily, completely baffled by the wind demon's visit. Rubbing absent-mindedly at her neck, she felt the raised scars left by vampire fangs. How many years ago had she received the mark? Six? Six years of fear and struggle, ever since the unseen world had invaded her own.

Satisfied that she had her trembling under control, Kura padded softly into the kitchen. Sure, Sesshomeru had told her to stay in Rin's room, but Kura wasn't feeling particularly cooperative. Plus, she was hungry. She poked past raw ingredients, searching for something already prepared. She found a half-jar of peanut butter in the refrigerator, and a box of sugary cereal in the cabinet. Could be worse.

Munching on her strange peanut-butter goop, Kura's thoughts turned to the demon lord, and to the way she had annoyed him. Kura had only wanted to help the humans . . . Surely Sesshomeru could understand. She felt the beginnings of shame when she remembered that she hadn't even thanked him for saving her life. Again.

Kura wasn't in the habit of being protected. Part of her felt resentful of the demon lord's strength. A much larger part of her felt more relaxed and secure than she had in years. She trusted Sesshomeru. Just a tiny sliver of her mind felt uneasy about that. Trusting demons wasn't conducive to living a long life.

Kura heard the apartment door open, and Masayo's voice drifted into the kitchen. ". . . the bat demon are also assumed to be against us, judging from past alliances. The mouse demons are staying neutral for the time--" She was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. "Yes? . . . Are you certain? . . . Do you know why? . . . Do you have any guesses as to why-- . . . I see. I'll pass this on to Sesshomeru-sama immediately." She turned the phone off with the press of a button and said, "My lord? Your Council informant reports that their offensive action has been postponed."

"Oh?"

"It seems there has been some dispute over leadership between the Tokyo and National branches."

"Hmm," the demon lord muttered. He added in a worried tone, "Do you smell something strange? From the kitchen?" As he pushed open the door, he covered his nose and stared at Kura. "I thought I told you to wait in Rin's room."

"I got bored and hungry. You want some?" She held out her mixture to the demon lord, who was horrified.

"You're . . . you're eating that?!? What is it?"

"Cereal, peanut butter, milk, corn chips, leftover rice and an orange."

"You mixed them all together?"

She shrugged, explaining, "I don't cook."

"With taste like yours, I find that a blessing," Sesshomeru said with some asperity. "I am going to ask you to stay out of this kitchen, under all circumstances."

Kura scowled. "This from a guy who probably eats the hearts of his enemies."

"Perhaps, but I would never eat them with peanut butter." It was an irrefutable point.

Masayo's cell went off again. She ducked her head apologetically at her lord as she answered. "Yes?" she said, then paused for a long moment. "Could you please repeat that?" After another pause, she covered the receiver and looked up at Sesshomeru with wide eyes. "The caller says she is Sango Himake, squadron leader from National Council. She wants to talk to you about an alliance."

Sesshomeru went absolutely still. He held out his hand for the phone. "Himake-san. I've been hoping to hear from you. This is Sesshomeru."

Sango's voice was a bit strained. "You kidnap a Council Senior, break into a Council meeting, destroy part of a shopping mall. Then you leave a message on Miroku's phone. I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself."

"How generous," Sesshomeru drawled, "but I think you'll see everything is quite self-explanatory. Sanada entered my territory. I had intended to interrogate and dispose of her, but she pledged her service to me. When Council attempted to arrest her, they were interfering with one of my representatives. The regrettable incident at the mall is a private affair between myself and one of my warriors."

Sango was stunned by the demon's arrogance. She sputtered, "A private affair? A private affair? Nine humans were killed, seven of them deliberately murdered, and twenty others were injured. You call that private?!?"

"The incident occurred within the boundaries of my territory, and it involved one of my agents," Sesshomeru noted calmly. "The demon who killed those individuals will die for his crime, of course. However, under my law, his sole crime was flouting my orders. Understand? Human laws mean nothing to me."

"And human lives?" Sango asked.

"I have a duty to those who serve me, or fight with me, and will of course honor the terms of any negotiation. Any other ningen are hardly my concern. I prefer to stay uninvolved in human affairs." He turned the conversation back to his main concern, asking, "What has all that to do with the proposed alliance?"

"I don't make deals with the devil."

"But you will make one with this demon. You don't have a choice. Attack without the necessary spells, and all of your precious human warriors will be cannon fodder. You need my help." Sesshomeru's voice held a note of contempt.

"Oh?" Sango asked, her anger rising. "It seems to me that you need our help as well, o great demon lord."

There were three seconds of silence before Sesshomeru acknowledged, "You are correct. I have found the necessary ancient spells to bring down the Nosferatu's shield, but I require a human magician of considerable skill to cast them. I believe you hold in your custody the monk Miroku Higurashi . . . ?"

"You think Miroku has enough power?" Sango asked doubtfully. She shrugged off Miroku's query, shushing him.

Sesshomeru answered, "I am certain."

Sango chewed on her lip. "IF I were to agree . . . there would have to be conditions."

"Naturally," the demon lord agreed.

"You have to promise not to kill any humans--," Sango began.

Sesshomeru scowled. "That I cannot swear. What if humans should attack myself or my agents? Am I not allowed to defend my territory?"

Sango considered. "Self-defense is reasonable, but how are we to work together if you threaten death to any Council member who enters your territory?"

"Will you guarantee the safety of my demon agents who roam outside of my territory?"

"Of course not!"

"Then it seems we are at an impasse."

Kura watched Sesshomeru, her fists white-knuckled, trying to guess at the other half of the conversation.

"My squad found two of your agents attacking a pair of young women."

"Describe the demons."

Sango thought. "One was about six feet tall, long black hair back in a braid, mostly human appearance. He fought with a spear--"

"And the other?" Sesshomeru interrupted.

"Bald, toad-like, could breathe fire--"

"Hiten and Maten. Brothers who have been in my service for over a hundred years. Do I guess correctly that you killed one of them?" Sesshomeru's voice was cool and distant.

Sango paused, worried, but said defiantly, "Yes, we did."

"It seems I owe you thanks," Sesshomeru admitted. "I assure you, his brother will be dead within a fortnight."

"What?"

"I'll kill him for defying my orders," Sesshomeru explained. He felt Kura's eyes on him, trying to burn through him. With a mental sigh, he set aside the verbal sparring to go straight to the point. "I have a proposal: I pledge to act in a way that will benefit you and yours if you do the same for me and mine."

Sango was stunned by the simplicity of the statement. "Shouldn't we agree on specifics first . . . ?"

"That is necessary only between untrustworthy parties." The demon lord assured her, "My honor would never allow me to break a pact, and I trust that you will keep your end of the bargain." Sesshomeru did not add his unspoken thought: 'even if you are a human'. "Besides, it is clearly in both of our own best interests for this alliance to survive."

"I see. I . . . I agree."

"Plan to join with my forces to assault the Nosferatu early the day after tomorrow. Do what you can to continue to delay Council's plans to attack the Nosferatu and myself."

Sango swallowed nervously. "You knew about that?" Sesshomeru snorted. There was a muffled exchange on Sango's end, then the squad leader asked tentatively, "Sesshomeru-sama? Miroku would like to speak to your prisoner, if you will allow it . . ."

Sesshomeru raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Your prisoner wishes to speak to mine?"

"Miroku isn't my prisoner any longer," Sango retorted.

"Nor is Kura mine," Sesshomeru replied evenly. He handed the phone to Kura.

The human woman accepted the phone with as much care as she would show a live bomb. She had a single thought looping through her brain: "What the hell do I say to Miroku?" She brought the phone tentatively to her ear. "Moshi moshi?"

"Kura." Miroku's voice was filled with conflicting emotions. Concern won out. "Are you OK? Did he . . . did he hurt you? Because if that youkai laid a single finger on you, I swear I'll--"

"Miroku, don't be a worrywart. I'm fine. Sesshomeru-sama saved my life." She winced. "Three times and counting, actually." She sidestepped the question of whether or not the demon lord had hurt her. "Listen, Miroku, there's something I have to say: gomen nasai. That argument we had, what I said about you, what I put you through, I . . . shimatta, I'm not good at this aplogizing. I just wanted you to know that I was a real jerk, and I'm ashamed of it."

Miroku knew he had just received the most sweeping and sincere apology Kura could make. Part of him was touched, but he still felt a bit of resentment. He asked cooly, "How close did you come to fulfilling your death wish?"

Kura winced at his tone. "Really, really close," she admitted. "That Nosferatu lord was . . . kuso, he was strong. And fast. I felt like a damned rag doll, the way he was tossing me around. Thank the gods he was careless, too. I pinned his foot with that knife you gave me . . . the one with the sutra, remember?"

"Yeah, your birthday present."

"Mmm-hmm. It gave me time to run, and Sesshomeru-sama rescued me." Kura didn't try to explain WHY she had entered the demon lord's territory. Miroku wasn't ready to hear it. She forced out the next words through the wall of her pride. "Miroku, I . . . I was . . . scared. I wanted you to . . . to be there." Why was that so hard to say?

Miroku's voice was soft. "You scared me too. I thought I'd killed you."

"It wasn't your fault, damn it!"

"I know that, but knowledge couldn't stop me from feeling guilty." There was an awkward pause before Miroku said cautiously, "Kura, when you disappeared, and were presumed dead, the Council . . . it broke the seal on your death envelope."

"So?" One of the first acts of any Council member was to sign over their legal possessions to the Council and to write an unofficial will, left in a sealed "death envelope". The leaders had discovered several decades before how difficult it was to prove a member was dead, especially when their body was missing or savaged beyond identification. They used death envelopes to sidestep the legal system completely.

"Kura, you . . . you left me everything you own. Well, you left everything to Yumi and me . . ."

Kura tried to guess what Miroku was getting at. "Did you spend all my money?"

"No!" Miroku cried, horrified. "Of course not. I just . . . Why didn't you leave it to your family?"

"What would my mother and father do with miko blood and throwing knives? Not to mention dingy furnishings in Tokyo?"

Miroku snapped, "That's not the point."

"What is your point then?" Kura was getting irritated at his hedging.

"You put us down as your next of kin, to be contacted in case of your death."

Kura explained, "I've got an aunt on Okinawa, but I didn't want to look up her address. Besides, I've never met the old lady."

"Dammit, Kura, what about you parents and siblings? Don't you want your family to know that you died?" He paused, then asked more quietly, "Are your parents . . . dead?"

"No."

"Then why didn't you--"

"I didn't want to remind them that they had a daughter. It would bring back unpleasant memories, disrupt their state of denial." Kura's voice was more bitter than he had ever heard it. "Listen, Miroku, it's been a long day, what with dying and being resurrected and all. We'll talk later, OK?"

Miroku gulped and answered, "Uh, sure, later." Kuso, she could be really defensive when you poked her in a sensitive spot.

Kura flipped the phone closed and handed it to Masayo. She scowled fiercely, daring the rabbit demon or Sesshomeru to ask her about her family. Masayo dropped her eyes, and Sesshomeru gave her an unreadable, blank expression. She turned to leave, but the demon lord grabbed her arm.

"Kura, we still need to talk. Come . . ." Sesshomeru trailed off, his eyes narrowing in puzzlement. He gave her arm a tug, forcing her to stumble into his chest. He could feel the flex of muscles in her arm as she stiffened, suspicious. Her mouth dropped open in shock when he pulled aside her hair and bent his head to sniff her hair and down her neck.

Kura thought wildly, "Is he going to lick me too? Or bite my neck? Why do demons and vampires have a neck fetish?" However, Sesshomeru merely sniffed her neck and released her so suddenly that she stumbled backwards. He regarded her with a raised eyebrow and veiled curiosity. Before she could collect her composure enough to say a word, he had swept past her, headed for his room. "We'll talk shortly. Wait in Rin's room." As he entered his office, he called over his shoulder, "Masayo?"

"Yes, my lord," the rabbit demon answered, scurrying in after him and closing the door behind her.

Kura rubbed her neck, once again flabbergasted. Were demons completely unfamiliar with the concept of personal space? And what the hell was so interesting about the left side of her neck?