Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha...
A/N: I am so sorry for the lack of updates, but I was so stuck on this story... But, this chapter is finally complete! Hope you enjoy it! (And sorry about the long title, but it kinda grew on me after I typed it out... kinda long... [sweat-drop])
Some Sedated Slumber, Shrewd Shock's Stun, Stoical Sesshomaru Slips
Kagura watched the lights roll by slowly as she boredly tapped her fingers on the comfortable leather seat beneath her, a hand rested idly in her lap. Although the vehicle was one of the most up to date pieces of machinery, she found no enjoyment in television or World Wide Wierdness... What use was it to her? She never needed them, why waste her time with the mind contolling contraptions?
... Though the aspect of taking some time off to surf and obtain a nice tan were very enticing in her overworked mind. The taunt muscles in her back seemed to call for a massage...
Oh, the irony... (A/N: For those of you who can't guess- just wait a little bit. It'll make sense.
The mintutes ticked by as hours, the seconds like those now-hour-minutes should be...
A trip to Hawaii with a gorgeous man... who's hair was silver and eyes golden embers... Otherwise known as a moon lightened night beside a camp fire... The glowing moon overhead with the fire to give sight. That's how she saw it. Everything else about him, like the perverbial surrounding wood would be, was a mystery.
'I like camping... too bad I only went once,' she thought, holding back a sigh from the maximum monotony she had been thrust in to all day long, starting off at work. 'And it continues to drag on and on...'
As if on cue, her beeper cried for attention.
It was an hour later, one whole hour later, that the limo pulled to a complete stop and the engine halted. The door was opened a few minutes later by the chauffer, his smile wide. She nodded politely to him as she stepped out of the stretched vehicle to look up at the airliner jet a few meters away, the woman named Yura standing beneath it.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves - it figured her most irritating client would be the one to call - to an acceptible point, Kagura strode over to stand beside Yura, watching the woman who was speaking with a man, the pilot supposedly.
"No, I'm telling you - DON'T let him see you, AT ALL," Yura was saying. "He's dangerous when he's mad and -" this was the point that Yura say Kagura "- and - and his missuse never arrived..."
The man, balding slightly, raised two peppered eyebrows, but didn't comment. He sighed,
nodded, then stalked back into the plane.
"Gomen nasai, about that," Yura muttered, turning to fully face her. "Well, Sesshomaru's missuse never arrived so he might be a bit touchy... plus, he is still asleep. A quick word of advice - be careful around him when he wakes up, okay? He hasn't had a good few days." Kagura merely nodded and waited for her to continue. "He's been so busy- hasn't been to the clubs or out hiking for weeks! He'd love some time to surf, I'd bet. Great choice with Hawaii."
"Un."
"Well, call me if you need anything," Yura beamed before walking to her car and driving away.
Kagura took a few steps toward the jet and hesitated...
What kind of feeling was this...? Foreboding... Fear... Overwhelmed... Whatever it was, it was foreign and, needless to say, unwelcome.
With another deep breath, Kagura walked up the flight of stairs and boarded the air craft. It was spacious, yes, but oddly... uncomfortable through its silence. Unlike the silence in the limo, this was laced with tension. The tension - between the pilot and the unconscious man lying face down on a couch.
"Sir?"
The pilot jumped slightly, turning a bright red with embarrassment being caught staring at Sesshomaru out of curiosity. "Y-yes, ma'am?"
"We may leave now," Kagura stated, sinking slowly into a chair beside the couch, the feeling somehow extremely familiar. "If you don't mind, I'd like to be there as soon as possible."
"O-of course!" He bowed quickly, then departed for the cockpit.
Kagura, making sure the man was gone from sight, stood and kneeled by the slumbering form,
shaking his shoulders. Not so much as a groan greeted her. He was out cold. With narrowed eyes, she moved the curtain of silver tresses from the side of his face to find a rather gorgeous (could you call slightly femine 'handsome'?) profile presented to her.
Blinking once, she removed her hand and sat back on her heels, soon getting lost in her thoughts. 'He seems... disturbed... almost as if he fell asleep during an arguement of some type...'
The engines roared to life and the plane slowly rolled forward, lifting from the ground a few minutes later. Kagura ignored it.
'Yura said he liked clubs and hiking, but... Surely he would know that... and he would have told me...' Kagura frowned. 'What reason would she have to lie about something so... petty... It doesn't make much sense...
'Plus,' she thought, looking at the tense back and shoulder muscles still visible, uncovered from the silver hair, 'it looks like he's never had a missuse work on him before - EVER... How in the world does he live with such a stressful life without one?'
She had to admire him for that.
And time ticked by with little change, other than her moving the chair she ealier used to place it where she had been kneeling. Minutes turned to hours and hours turned to... well, accumulated hours, until the intercom beeped.
"We'll be arriving in one half hour," the pilot's voice commented. "Please stay seated."
Kagura smirked. He could have just turned around and shouted through the curtain, but he was obviously still embarrassed about the earlier events, staring like some child watching a butterfly silently bat its thin wings...
Sesshomaru's hand twitched, causing only the slightest of starts in Kagura as she eyed him expectently. When he made no more move to show he was awaking, Kagura sighed and shook his shoulder. "Oi..."
"Shut up, Jaken."
Kagura blinked. 'Jaken?'
"Pesky bug of an employee..."
She couldn't keep back the smile from creeping into her face, lighting her eyes with mirth. 'A sleep talker, is he?'
"Should have... fired..."
She snorted. "Wake up, Mr. Himitsu."
He didn't respond, just slipped back into silence and continued to slumber.
What a deep sleeper.
Kagura thanked the man standing at her door in a dimissing manner. He, taking the hint, left the woman with the unconscious man he had helped her carry into the beach house from his taxi and shut the door silently behing him. Kagura turned a suspicious eye on Sesshomaru. 'He's drugged.'
This realization, for some odd reason, had no effect on her as she, strugglingly, arranged his limbs to a more comfortable position and pulled the blanket up over him. She knew that if she had been anyone else, she would have felt like a mother just then... However, never having had a mother herself, she didn't feel anything save for the fabric of the satin-like covering.
Taking a bit of money from her purse and the keys to the room, Kagura left for the nearest store that would hold brushes and a comfortable set of night clothing. Would a store be open this late?
She soon found out that, like Tokyo, there was always some store open at odd hours of the night.
Purchasing her assorted items, she hurried back to the beach house, smiling at the stars that twinkled contently about her and the moon that shown bright as ever. She had always loved Hawaii.
Her eyes dropped a bit as she stepped into the house, locking the door behind her and depositing the keys on the nearest table and hurried to the bathroom in order to change and brush her teeth, letting her hair down finally. Running her newly bought brush through it as she slipped out of the bathroom and into her bed, placing the brush on the stand next to her, Kagura turned in order to face Sesshomaru, once again able to see him more clearly.
'He looks... mad... at the world, almost... and,' she yawned, 'yet, calmly so...'
She shook off the thought and let sleep claim her.
Sesshomaru knew it as soon as he heard the birds chirping in his ears - something was way out of place... Specifically, him.
Eyes still closed, memories flooded back...
Kagome, Kikyou, Yura... Payback...
Oh, Inuyasha was in for it now! Why Inuyasha? Because it wasn't right to be so cruel toward a woman. He did have a small amount of morale when it came to releasing frustration. He always selected a reciever who could take the blow and stay standing or even grow from the stimulation. Namely Inuyasha.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he rolled to his side, the satin sheets moving with him. Gold glittered like sunlight on the small ripples in a sea-blue lake as lids moved to take in surroundings with sight to accompany the sounds and tangy smells.
Magenta orbs peered back.
"Good morning."
Sesshomaru sighed. So maybe his brother wouldn't pay since he was still sleeping after all. Maybe he'd wake up soon...
"Mr. Himitsu, I have a feeling you think you're still sleeping," the voice guessed, smooth and feminine. Almost like the whisper of that breeze that lifts your hair and stirs the leaves, but brings a foreign peace with it, seemingly settling all of life's problems. "After all, you were drugged- or so I concluded- but last time I checked, I was real and so was the plane flight that brought us here..."
He blinked, echoing, "Here..."
The magenta eyes shown with a smile of amusement. "One of the islands of Hawaii."
"Hawaii..." Sesshomaru shook his head lightly, sitting up and shucking off the blanket that clung to him. It was hot enough - What was it with Japan's weather lately? - and his head was foggy.
Wait... Drugged...
Right- Kagome, Kikyo, Yura... payback...
So it wasn't a dream after all.
"... Oh. I see," he breathed, running a hand through his bangs. "So I'm stuck in Hawaii with a stranger for payback."
"That's what this is about?" the woman implored, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, just inside his view range. "I'm guessing Yura had some kind of grudge over you?"
He shook his head, "Kagome did." He looked up to meet her gaze again. "So are you some expert in slow and painful torture or are you some lunatic stalker they found?"
"Neither as far as I know."
He nodded, the haziness starting to disapate and bringing with it the missing ability of comprehension. "You're neither, but Kagome picked you to bug me?"
The woman frowned, a speculative spark igniting behind her oddly colored eyes. "No, I won the chance of an expence-free, one-week trip to anywhere I wanted to go with one Sesshomaru Himitsu. You are Sesshomaru Himitsu, correct?"
"Yes... You won... I was on auction!?"
Her eyebrows shot up, "no... but that would have been a sight. I doubt I could have outbid some of those people there, though." A teasing smile tugged at her lips.
"... No?"
His head was beginning to spin. Could he get a straight, enlightening answer for once in his life? Was it too much to ask for?
"I won a contest- an inquisition against four other women." She paused for a moment, leaving the bed to collect the television set's remote and switching channels a few times. "I'm sure the media soaked up the story. They're most-likely replaying last night for the world to see."
A news channel proved her theory correct seconds later, a quick overview of the multiple 'scheduel changes' in Demonic's concert playing though.
"-where Kagome Higurashi addressed the crowd to offer an astounding chance of a one-week,
expence-free trip to any lucky woman with Demonic's manager Sesshomaru Himitsu. Of five competitors to appear on stage, a local psychologist, Kagura Gumo, walked away victorious. She was bound for Hawaii an hour later on a World Glider Jet with Mr. Himitsu. They landed only hours ago on the coast of Kauai and are taking residence in a currently unknown location.
"Kagome Higurashi was a woman who rocked the concert hall over and over with her hyped attitude during the friendly 'cat-fight' and her stunning debut. A song said to be straight from the top of her head - or, tip of the tongue - rushed from the mic to meet eager ears."
The speaker paused as the volume turned up in the background, a voice cutting through the silence.
"So, this is how it is,
Saying one thing and doing another,
It's all just fun and games to you,
But to me we need each other,
When-"
The music faded out again as the singer on the screen continued soundlessly.
"She gave the audience something to talk about, that's for sure. A roit started early this morning when eager music seekers found no store stocked with a CD featuring the newest diva-dubbed voice of Kagome Higurashi-"
The screen went black with the push of a button.
"She can sing," came an airy whisper.
"Yes, she can." So this woman, Kagura if the news was anything to go by, was in fact a contest winner. "I suppose you've noticed this trip was not to my knowledge."
"I speculated as much."
"Hm." With a now much clearer mind, Sesshomaru took in the room. It was a comfortingly spacious place, but small enough to need no adding to in order to make it homely. The walls were a soft manilla, the carpet a plush tan. The beds were covered with off-white blankets and feather pillows. "Needs more color."
"Yes, I'd say so too, but the flowers outside make up for it."
Sesshomaru looked back at the woman.
Then it hit him.
Like a sack of bricks, and a landslide to boot.
He was in hawaii with nothing but the clothing on his back and a woman he did not know.
Kagura stared, unable to move from her spot on the edge of Sesshomaru's bed. He had been calm one moment, then wild the next.
'Shock is a wonder,' her mind thought wisfully of the natural sedative. 'Or maybe it's the drug. I wonder if he'll start screaming nonsense soon.'
"That wench- who does she think she's messing with!?" the man bellowed, throwing a nearby lamp across the room for it to collide with an obviously unsatisfying 'crashhh!' if his tempertantram meant anything. "She thinks she can get away with it!? I think not- that lousy bitch, after all I've done! She wouldn't have seen her precious 'Dogboy' a second more if I hadn't- oh, she won't get away with this- And Inuyasha! That good-for-nothing, flea-ridden mutt of a brother- I swear..."
A deep breath later, Kagura had to rub her eyes in fear of hallucinating.
He was calm and composed once more.
'Impressive,' her inner voice whistled approvingly.
"Excuse me a moment," he mumbled, bowing quickly as he walked - no, it could only be discribed as gliding - to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "GRRRRAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Kagura smirked. So he did let off steam by screaming uninteligably. Interesting, most interesting...
Shrugging it off, Kagura moved to her bed, running the brush through her hair before she swept it up into its usual tight bun. Worrying her bottom lip as she approximated the amount of time she had left before he left the bathroom, she hurried to slip out of her pjs and into a fresh pair of clothes, thanking her over sight to purchase them from the local store last night and her proper time guestamation because naught more than a second later, the door opened.
Sesshomaru paused mid-step, seeing, as if for the first time, the woman who he was trapped with.
She wore a long, flowing floral skirt that reached her feet on the left side and her knee on the right. Her shirt was a simple white, thin strapped top with an embroidory of a yellow hibicus blossom centered in a ring of brightly colored topical floors, the words 'Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka poro' arched above and under it. Her coal black hair was pulled into a swift, sophisticated bun and her magenta eyes were highlighted by the dark eye-liner, red eyeshadow, and thin arched eyebrows. To top it off, her professional stance pulled the outfit into the mix to radiate the aura of a business woman who didn't take 'no' for an answer.
He was dazzled by the affect she had over her clothes and not the clothes over her. The clothes,
in this case, definitely did not make the man- woman.
His pause must have been longer than he thought because she cleared her throat and waved for his attention. Eyebrows lifted slightly. "Yes?"
"I didn't properly introduce myself," she began, stepping forward and extending her manicured hand. He took it in a formal shake. "I'm Kagura Gumo, a psyciatrist based in Okinawa. I'm also a professional missuse." His eyebrows raised further. "I find that the best way to relax the mind and mouth is to relax the body first. That's why I'm the ONLY psyciatrist in Okinawa. No one could stand the competition."
He nodded. "Stratigical, aren't you?"
"More so than you know."
The sentence sent a warning signal to his mind as his body shivered at the tingle running up his spine from the bottom of his feet. Something about that statement sounded threatening. "Really?"
She merely smirked and released her grip on his hand. "Really."
Kagura's brain was running double its usual pace, plans forming, being flung out the window before flying back to her on joyful wings with sweet fruit of more ideas in their claws; numbers,
words, thought coming and going with as little difficulty as it took for the rejected plans to make a comeback and sound appealing; the face of a certain man pasted on the wall of the chamber that was her mind dead-center, laughing at her attempts to please him.
"I see..." Sesshomaru muttered, his hands raising in what she assumed was his typical shrug. "And nothing came with me?"
"No."
"... Very well." He moved to take a seat at the table in the center of the room. "Is there a phone here?"
"Besides my cellular?" Kagura questioned, continuing without a pause, "no."
He was silent a moment, nails drumming against the table top distractedly, eyes staring unfocused at the soft carpetted floor. Kagura took the time to brush her teeth and fix her hair properly with the help of a mirror, her mind unconsciously playing 'Mirror, mirror' by M2M.
"Would you mind lending me your phone for a moment?" Sesshomaru's voice drifted into her ears. "I think my brother needs something to keep him busy."
"Oh? How so?" Kagura implored, exitting the room to search through her purse sitting on the bedside stand. Finding her quarry, she made her way to Sesshomaru and depositted the phone in his hand.
"... That's personal... and classified," he replied, standing from his seat and retreating to the sanctity of the nearby wooded area beside the small beach house.
Kagura felt herself sigh. So much for an easy battle of wills. Looked like she had a struggle waiting for her...
Why she wanted him to open up to her?
Simple.
Knowing a person's strengths and weeknesses...
Sesshomaru dialed the number with deft movements, his anger smoldering inside him but restrained from portraying itself. He wasn't mad at his situation at the moment, only that he allowed himself to explode so irrationally in front of a stranger he would be stuck with.
Yes, he would be stuck and he was certain Kagome knew that and why that was.
Bad publicity and lawsuits. Not a mix he liked.
"Meisei inc. Headquarters, Nikki Morimoto speaking. How may I help you?"
"Mrs. Morimoto, I'd like to speak with..." He paused for the affect of giving the impression he was a new client- both testing his newest secretary and making certain the person he asked for would be most surprised with his call. "Yura Sakasagami."
"Please state your business with Ms. Sakasagami."
"I have the information she was looking for about Kauaii."
"Can you hold for a moment, sir?"
"Yes."
The line was silent a few moments before it buzzed, announcing he had been patched through.
"Yura Sakasagami speaking. How may I help you?" A cheerful voice chirped.
"By telling me what I'm supposed to do stuck on an island with a woman I don't know with no money, no clothes, and no phone."
"... Right," she breathed. "Let me explain the birds and the bees to you, Mr. Himitsu..."
"Yura..." The warning in his tone firmly stopped the words on her lips. "I doubt any other employer would tolerate this, but since I understand so well what is going on..."
"Kagome and the girls did leave, Sesshomaru, if that's what you think is happening. Inuyasha's been silent ever since, and Miroku hasn't so much as smiled. Kouga's... well... I haven't seen him, actually. He took Rin to the park. So," Yura concluded airily, "it wasn't to keep them together, just pay you back."
They didn't stay together... Now, that shocked him to no extent. He was so sure those love-sick pups would be at play as soon as he was out of sight.
"Well, tell my dear brother to get his vocals working. I'm booking his week... Really booking it this time."
"What's the scheduel looking like for Demonic?"
Sesshomaru smirked. "Unbearable."
Kagura watched him from the window, his hand running through his hair as his lips quirked up into a satisfied, mischivous smirk. As he pulled the phone from his ear and dialed another numbed, she shook her head and moved to clean the smashed remains of the lamp thrown by Sesshomaru during his rant.
... It all just went to show...
Someone who never showed emotion could be the last person you ever angered.
A/N: Now that was a long wait for a rather short chapter. Gomen nasai. And I'm sure the formatting is awful... but that's ff's fault for being so damn... picky! --; Sorry again, everyone.
A/N: I am so sorry for the lack of updates, but I was so stuck on this story... But, this chapter is finally complete! Hope you enjoy it! (And sorry about the long title, but it kinda grew on me after I typed it out... kinda long... [sweat-drop])
Some Sedated Slumber, Shrewd Shock's Stun, Stoical Sesshomaru Slips
Kagura watched the lights roll by slowly as she boredly tapped her fingers on the comfortable leather seat beneath her, a hand rested idly in her lap. Although the vehicle was one of the most up to date pieces of machinery, she found no enjoyment in television or World Wide Wierdness... What use was it to her? She never needed them, why waste her time with the mind contolling contraptions?
... Though the aspect of taking some time off to surf and obtain a nice tan were very enticing in her overworked mind. The taunt muscles in her back seemed to call for a massage...
Oh, the irony... (A/N: For those of you who can't guess- just wait a little bit. It'll make sense.
The mintutes ticked by as hours, the seconds like those now-hour-minutes should be...
A trip to Hawaii with a gorgeous man... who's hair was silver and eyes golden embers... Otherwise known as a moon lightened night beside a camp fire... The glowing moon overhead with the fire to give sight. That's how she saw it. Everything else about him, like the perverbial surrounding wood would be, was a mystery.
'I like camping... too bad I only went once,' she thought, holding back a sigh from the maximum monotony she had been thrust in to all day long, starting off at work. 'And it continues to drag on and on...'
As if on cue, her beeper cried for attention.
It was an hour later, one whole hour later, that the limo pulled to a complete stop and the engine halted. The door was opened a few minutes later by the chauffer, his smile wide. She nodded politely to him as she stepped out of the stretched vehicle to look up at the airliner jet a few meters away, the woman named Yura standing beneath it.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves - it figured her most irritating client would be the one to call - to an acceptible point, Kagura strode over to stand beside Yura, watching the woman who was speaking with a man, the pilot supposedly.
"No, I'm telling you - DON'T let him see you, AT ALL," Yura was saying. "He's dangerous when he's mad and -" this was the point that Yura say Kagura "- and - and his missuse never arrived..."
The man, balding slightly, raised two peppered eyebrows, but didn't comment. He sighed,
nodded, then stalked back into the plane.
"Gomen nasai, about that," Yura muttered, turning to fully face her. "Well, Sesshomaru's missuse never arrived so he might be a bit touchy... plus, he is still asleep. A quick word of advice - be careful around him when he wakes up, okay? He hasn't had a good few days." Kagura merely nodded and waited for her to continue. "He's been so busy- hasn't been to the clubs or out hiking for weeks! He'd love some time to surf, I'd bet. Great choice with Hawaii."
"Un."
"Well, call me if you need anything," Yura beamed before walking to her car and driving away.
Kagura took a few steps toward the jet and hesitated...
What kind of feeling was this...? Foreboding... Fear... Overwhelmed... Whatever it was, it was foreign and, needless to say, unwelcome.
With another deep breath, Kagura walked up the flight of stairs and boarded the air craft. It was spacious, yes, but oddly... uncomfortable through its silence. Unlike the silence in the limo, this was laced with tension. The tension - between the pilot and the unconscious man lying face down on a couch.
"Sir?"
The pilot jumped slightly, turning a bright red with embarrassment being caught staring at Sesshomaru out of curiosity. "Y-yes, ma'am?"
"We may leave now," Kagura stated, sinking slowly into a chair beside the couch, the feeling somehow extremely familiar. "If you don't mind, I'd like to be there as soon as possible."
"O-of course!" He bowed quickly, then departed for the cockpit.
Kagura, making sure the man was gone from sight, stood and kneeled by the slumbering form,
shaking his shoulders. Not so much as a groan greeted her. He was out cold. With narrowed eyes, she moved the curtain of silver tresses from the side of his face to find a rather gorgeous (could you call slightly femine 'handsome'?) profile presented to her.
Blinking once, she removed her hand and sat back on her heels, soon getting lost in her thoughts. 'He seems... disturbed... almost as if he fell asleep during an arguement of some type...'
The engines roared to life and the plane slowly rolled forward, lifting from the ground a few minutes later. Kagura ignored it.
'Yura said he liked clubs and hiking, but... Surely he would know that... and he would have told me...' Kagura frowned. 'What reason would she have to lie about something so... petty... It doesn't make much sense...
'Plus,' she thought, looking at the tense back and shoulder muscles still visible, uncovered from the silver hair, 'it looks like he's never had a missuse work on him before - EVER... How in the world does he live with such a stressful life without one?'
She had to admire him for that.
And time ticked by with little change, other than her moving the chair she ealier used to place it where she had been kneeling. Minutes turned to hours and hours turned to... well, accumulated hours, until the intercom beeped.
"We'll be arriving in one half hour," the pilot's voice commented. "Please stay seated."
Kagura smirked. He could have just turned around and shouted through the curtain, but he was obviously still embarrassed about the earlier events, staring like some child watching a butterfly silently bat its thin wings...
Sesshomaru's hand twitched, causing only the slightest of starts in Kagura as she eyed him expectently. When he made no more move to show he was awaking, Kagura sighed and shook his shoulder. "Oi..."
"Shut up, Jaken."
Kagura blinked. 'Jaken?'
"Pesky bug of an employee..."
She couldn't keep back the smile from creeping into her face, lighting her eyes with mirth. 'A sleep talker, is he?'
"Should have... fired..."
She snorted. "Wake up, Mr. Himitsu."
He didn't respond, just slipped back into silence and continued to slumber.
What a deep sleeper.
Kagura thanked the man standing at her door in a dimissing manner. He, taking the hint, left the woman with the unconscious man he had helped her carry into the beach house from his taxi and shut the door silently behing him. Kagura turned a suspicious eye on Sesshomaru. 'He's drugged.'
This realization, for some odd reason, had no effect on her as she, strugglingly, arranged his limbs to a more comfortable position and pulled the blanket up over him. She knew that if she had been anyone else, she would have felt like a mother just then... However, never having had a mother herself, she didn't feel anything save for the fabric of the satin-like covering.
Taking a bit of money from her purse and the keys to the room, Kagura left for the nearest store that would hold brushes and a comfortable set of night clothing. Would a store be open this late?
She soon found out that, like Tokyo, there was always some store open at odd hours of the night.
Purchasing her assorted items, she hurried back to the beach house, smiling at the stars that twinkled contently about her and the moon that shown bright as ever. She had always loved Hawaii.
Her eyes dropped a bit as she stepped into the house, locking the door behind her and depositing the keys on the nearest table and hurried to the bathroom in order to change and brush her teeth, letting her hair down finally. Running her newly bought brush through it as she slipped out of the bathroom and into her bed, placing the brush on the stand next to her, Kagura turned in order to face Sesshomaru, once again able to see him more clearly.
'He looks... mad... at the world, almost... and,' she yawned, 'yet, calmly so...'
She shook off the thought and let sleep claim her.
Sesshomaru knew it as soon as he heard the birds chirping in his ears - something was way out of place... Specifically, him.
Eyes still closed, memories flooded back...
Kagome, Kikyou, Yura... Payback...
Oh, Inuyasha was in for it now! Why Inuyasha? Because it wasn't right to be so cruel toward a woman. He did have a small amount of morale when it came to releasing frustration. He always selected a reciever who could take the blow and stay standing or even grow from the stimulation. Namely Inuyasha.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he rolled to his side, the satin sheets moving with him. Gold glittered like sunlight on the small ripples in a sea-blue lake as lids moved to take in surroundings with sight to accompany the sounds and tangy smells.
Magenta orbs peered back.
"Good morning."
Sesshomaru sighed. So maybe his brother wouldn't pay since he was still sleeping after all. Maybe he'd wake up soon...
"Mr. Himitsu, I have a feeling you think you're still sleeping," the voice guessed, smooth and feminine. Almost like the whisper of that breeze that lifts your hair and stirs the leaves, but brings a foreign peace with it, seemingly settling all of life's problems. "After all, you were drugged- or so I concluded- but last time I checked, I was real and so was the plane flight that brought us here..."
He blinked, echoing, "Here..."
The magenta eyes shown with a smile of amusement. "One of the islands of Hawaii."
"Hawaii..." Sesshomaru shook his head lightly, sitting up and shucking off the blanket that clung to him. It was hot enough - What was it with Japan's weather lately? - and his head was foggy.
Wait... Drugged...
Right- Kagome, Kikyo, Yura... payback...
So it wasn't a dream after all.
"... Oh. I see," he breathed, running a hand through his bangs. "So I'm stuck in Hawaii with a stranger for payback."
"That's what this is about?" the woman implored, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, just inside his view range. "I'm guessing Yura had some kind of grudge over you?"
He shook his head, "Kagome did." He looked up to meet her gaze again. "So are you some expert in slow and painful torture or are you some lunatic stalker they found?"
"Neither as far as I know."
He nodded, the haziness starting to disapate and bringing with it the missing ability of comprehension. "You're neither, but Kagome picked you to bug me?"
The woman frowned, a speculative spark igniting behind her oddly colored eyes. "No, I won the chance of an expence-free, one-week trip to anywhere I wanted to go with one Sesshomaru Himitsu. You are Sesshomaru Himitsu, correct?"
"Yes... You won... I was on auction!?"
Her eyebrows shot up, "no... but that would have been a sight. I doubt I could have outbid some of those people there, though." A teasing smile tugged at her lips.
"... No?"
His head was beginning to spin. Could he get a straight, enlightening answer for once in his life? Was it too much to ask for?
"I won a contest- an inquisition against four other women." She paused for a moment, leaving the bed to collect the television set's remote and switching channels a few times. "I'm sure the media soaked up the story. They're most-likely replaying last night for the world to see."
A news channel proved her theory correct seconds later, a quick overview of the multiple 'scheduel changes' in Demonic's concert playing though.
"-where Kagome Higurashi addressed the crowd to offer an astounding chance of a one-week,
expence-free trip to any lucky woman with Demonic's manager Sesshomaru Himitsu. Of five competitors to appear on stage, a local psychologist, Kagura Gumo, walked away victorious. She was bound for Hawaii an hour later on a World Glider Jet with Mr. Himitsu. They landed only hours ago on the coast of Kauai and are taking residence in a currently unknown location.
"Kagome Higurashi was a woman who rocked the concert hall over and over with her hyped attitude during the friendly 'cat-fight' and her stunning debut. A song said to be straight from the top of her head - or, tip of the tongue - rushed from the mic to meet eager ears."
The speaker paused as the volume turned up in the background, a voice cutting through the silence.
"So, this is how it is,
Saying one thing and doing another,
It's all just fun and games to you,
But to me we need each other,
When-"
The music faded out again as the singer on the screen continued soundlessly.
"She gave the audience something to talk about, that's for sure. A roit started early this morning when eager music seekers found no store stocked with a CD featuring the newest diva-dubbed voice of Kagome Higurashi-"
The screen went black with the push of a button.
"She can sing," came an airy whisper.
"Yes, she can." So this woman, Kagura if the news was anything to go by, was in fact a contest winner. "I suppose you've noticed this trip was not to my knowledge."
"I speculated as much."
"Hm." With a now much clearer mind, Sesshomaru took in the room. It was a comfortingly spacious place, but small enough to need no adding to in order to make it homely. The walls were a soft manilla, the carpet a plush tan. The beds were covered with off-white blankets and feather pillows. "Needs more color."
"Yes, I'd say so too, but the flowers outside make up for it."
Sesshomaru looked back at the woman.
Then it hit him.
Like a sack of bricks, and a landslide to boot.
He was in hawaii with nothing but the clothing on his back and a woman he did not know.
Kagura stared, unable to move from her spot on the edge of Sesshomaru's bed. He had been calm one moment, then wild the next.
'Shock is a wonder,' her mind thought wisfully of the natural sedative. 'Or maybe it's the drug. I wonder if he'll start screaming nonsense soon.'
"That wench- who does she think she's messing with!?" the man bellowed, throwing a nearby lamp across the room for it to collide with an obviously unsatisfying 'crashhh!' if his tempertantram meant anything. "She thinks she can get away with it!? I think not- that lousy bitch, after all I've done! She wouldn't have seen her precious 'Dogboy' a second more if I hadn't- oh, she won't get away with this- And Inuyasha! That good-for-nothing, flea-ridden mutt of a brother- I swear..."
A deep breath later, Kagura had to rub her eyes in fear of hallucinating.
He was calm and composed once more.
'Impressive,' her inner voice whistled approvingly.
"Excuse me a moment," he mumbled, bowing quickly as he walked - no, it could only be discribed as gliding - to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "GRRRRAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Kagura smirked. So he did let off steam by screaming uninteligably. Interesting, most interesting...
Shrugging it off, Kagura moved to her bed, running the brush through her hair before she swept it up into its usual tight bun. Worrying her bottom lip as she approximated the amount of time she had left before he left the bathroom, she hurried to slip out of her pjs and into a fresh pair of clothes, thanking her over sight to purchase them from the local store last night and her proper time guestamation because naught more than a second later, the door opened.
Sesshomaru paused mid-step, seeing, as if for the first time, the woman who he was trapped with.
She wore a long, flowing floral skirt that reached her feet on the left side and her knee on the right. Her shirt was a simple white, thin strapped top with an embroidory of a yellow hibicus blossom centered in a ring of brightly colored topical floors, the words 'Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka poro' arched above and under it. Her coal black hair was pulled into a swift, sophisticated bun and her magenta eyes were highlighted by the dark eye-liner, red eyeshadow, and thin arched eyebrows. To top it off, her professional stance pulled the outfit into the mix to radiate the aura of a business woman who didn't take 'no' for an answer.
He was dazzled by the affect she had over her clothes and not the clothes over her. The clothes,
in this case, definitely did not make the man- woman.
His pause must have been longer than he thought because she cleared her throat and waved for his attention. Eyebrows lifted slightly. "Yes?"
"I didn't properly introduce myself," she began, stepping forward and extending her manicured hand. He took it in a formal shake. "I'm Kagura Gumo, a psyciatrist based in Okinawa. I'm also a professional missuse." His eyebrows raised further. "I find that the best way to relax the mind and mouth is to relax the body first. That's why I'm the ONLY psyciatrist in Okinawa. No one could stand the competition."
He nodded. "Stratigical, aren't you?"
"More so than you know."
The sentence sent a warning signal to his mind as his body shivered at the tingle running up his spine from the bottom of his feet. Something about that statement sounded threatening. "Really?"
She merely smirked and released her grip on his hand. "Really."
Kagura's brain was running double its usual pace, plans forming, being flung out the window before flying back to her on joyful wings with sweet fruit of more ideas in their claws; numbers,
words, thought coming and going with as little difficulty as it took for the rejected plans to make a comeback and sound appealing; the face of a certain man pasted on the wall of the chamber that was her mind dead-center, laughing at her attempts to please him.
"I see..." Sesshomaru muttered, his hands raising in what she assumed was his typical shrug. "And nothing came with me?"
"No."
"... Very well." He moved to take a seat at the table in the center of the room. "Is there a phone here?"
"Besides my cellular?" Kagura questioned, continuing without a pause, "no."
He was silent a moment, nails drumming against the table top distractedly, eyes staring unfocused at the soft carpetted floor. Kagura took the time to brush her teeth and fix her hair properly with the help of a mirror, her mind unconsciously playing 'Mirror, mirror' by M2M.
"Would you mind lending me your phone for a moment?" Sesshomaru's voice drifted into her ears. "I think my brother needs something to keep him busy."
"Oh? How so?" Kagura implored, exitting the room to search through her purse sitting on the bedside stand. Finding her quarry, she made her way to Sesshomaru and depositted the phone in his hand.
"... That's personal... and classified," he replied, standing from his seat and retreating to the sanctity of the nearby wooded area beside the small beach house.
Kagura felt herself sigh. So much for an easy battle of wills. Looked like she had a struggle waiting for her...
Why she wanted him to open up to her?
Simple.
Knowing a person's strengths and weeknesses...
Sesshomaru dialed the number with deft movements, his anger smoldering inside him but restrained from portraying itself. He wasn't mad at his situation at the moment, only that he allowed himself to explode so irrationally in front of a stranger he would be stuck with.
Yes, he would be stuck and he was certain Kagome knew that and why that was.
Bad publicity and lawsuits. Not a mix he liked.
"Meisei inc. Headquarters, Nikki Morimoto speaking. How may I help you?"
"Mrs. Morimoto, I'd like to speak with..." He paused for the affect of giving the impression he was a new client- both testing his newest secretary and making certain the person he asked for would be most surprised with his call. "Yura Sakasagami."
"Please state your business with Ms. Sakasagami."
"I have the information she was looking for about Kauaii."
"Can you hold for a moment, sir?"
"Yes."
The line was silent a few moments before it buzzed, announcing he had been patched through.
"Yura Sakasagami speaking. How may I help you?" A cheerful voice chirped.
"By telling me what I'm supposed to do stuck on an island with a woman I don't know with no money, no clothes, and no phone."
"... Right," she breathed. "Let me explain the birds and the bees to you, Mr. Himitsu..."
"Yura..." The warning in his tone firmly stopped the words on her lips. "I doubt any other employer would tolerate this, but since I understand so well what is going on..."
"Kagome and the girls did leave, Sesshomaru, if that's what you think is happening. Inuyasha's been silent ever since, and Miroku hasn't so much as smiled. Kouga's... well... I haven't seen him, actually. He took Rin to the park. So," Yura concluded airily, "it wasn't to keep them together, just pay you back."
They didn't stay together... Now, that shocked him to no extent. He was so sure those love-sick pups would be at play as soon as he was out of sight.
"Well, tell my dear brother to get his vocals working. I'm booking his week... Really booking it this time."
"What's the scheduel looking like for Demonic?"
Sesshomaru smirked. "Unbearable."
Kagura watched him from the window, his hand running through his hair as his lips quirked up into a satisfied, mischivous smirk. As he pulled the phone from his ear and dialed another numbed, she shook her head and moved to clean the smashed remains of the lamp thrown by Sesshomaru during his rant.
... It all just went to show...
Someone who never showed emotion could be the last person you ever angered.
A/N: Now that was a long wait for a rather short chapter. Gomen nasai. And I'm sure the formatting is awful... but that's ff's fault for being so damn... picky! --; Sorry again, everyone.