The Guise of Apathy
By: Rachel Elizabeth
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However, to her surprise, he leaned his head towards her hair unintentionally to get a better grip on her waist and time froze. He was doing that thing again . . . that thing he had been doing earlier, where he was almost—sniffing—her, but this time it was different. He did not seem repulsed instead he moved closer to her, almost as though he were doing this of his own . . . free will. However, the longer his head stayed in her hair, the more fearful she became of the consequences of her actions. When he let her go, she could see in his eyes that the anger had taken control of him.
His eyes were no longer pink or white; they had turned a shade of red that was darker than blood
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—The Dangerous Fascination—
In the air, Sesshoumaru could smell that the wench thought that his anger had not abated and this, exceeding anything else, caused the fear which he smelt. However, Sesshoumaru knew the real reason why his instincts were taking over, but he would not share that bit of information with the human. It disgusted him; it made him feel as though he was as base as a human male. The closer his nose became to her hair, the more he felt himself weakening his resolve to steer clear of her.
The door to his room was mellifluously knocked upon and started creaking open, and Sesshoumaru raised his head from Kagome's eyes to growl low in his throat. He did not need one of his servants walking in on him like this. He had grabbed the wench by her waist and hung on to her, embarrassingly, as though he didn't want her scent to be so far from his nose.
Kagome wasn't sure what was going on inside Sesshoumaru's head. The longer she stood there, in front of him, the more fearful she became that he was going to kill her. Every time that they had met before he had only been seconds away from killing her. Kagome didn't think for a minute that Sesshoumaru even liked her that much as a human being, if he even liked human beings at all. She didn't know much about him, but that didn't dissuade her from trying to escape or plead with him to let her go.
Sesshoumaru was almost euphoric when her smell started to change from fear to something that was akin to—interest—in . . . him. What was this feeling of utter domination over a human wench? He had had complete control of her before, but the last strands of logic left inside his head screamed at him that he was lying to himself. He had never had complete control over this wench, which was the reason that he had become so obsessive over her. He had never had to once think twice that a female residing in his lands was not obeying his every command. However, ever since that . . . that—wench had come into his home and onto his land, he had done nothing except futilely attempt to control her every action. He had even locked her in a specific room where her every movement could be monitored, so that he could know when the wench thought to escape.
And now, after days of the endless power struggle, she was noticing him, not simply as a yokai and not simply as a man, but as someone that she could become vaguely interested in. Sesshoumaru absentmindedly wondered if this feeling that he was experiencing was one of disgust, mirth, or ambiguous curiosity in the wench as well, knowing that she saw him beyond the façade of terror. He realized idly that he had allowed the wench to unintentionally become closer to his true nature. Spending so much time with her in his castle had obviously addled his brain cells.
"Get out," he muttered, bothered that the control he had over himself would snap and he would grab her. The only thoughts running through his mind at that point were ones of her whimpering. He was, after all, still a full blooded animal, and with her unpredictable scent changing back and forth, he didn't know how long it would be before he marked her, if she continued to stand in front of him, in his room.
Not only did Kagome misunderstand his meaning entirely, but as she stepped out of his room, she glanced back at him. She wasn't too sure what had changed his attitude so quickly, but she was sure that at that point, she didn't care to know. As fast as her legs would take her, she ran towards the front of the house, knocking over servants who were in her way. When she got to the doors at the front of the castle, she briefly glanced over her shoulder to make sure that this wasn't a dream. Mama, Souta, Kagome thought, intent on going home first thing when she got back to Inu Yasha and the rest of her friends.
Kagome started running, worried that Sesshoumaru would change his mind and come looking for her to kill. She was more afraid for her life at that moment than she had ever been before. She had never once thought of her life before others, it had always come naturally that she was worried about someone other than herself. However, Kagome never once thought of Rin as she ran deep into the forest of the Western Lands.
Sesshoumaru heard the raucous in his hallway minutes before Jaken appeared to inform him that the wench had escaped his castle. The wrath that emanated off of Sesshoumaru hit Jaken like a volcano; he had never seen his Lord engender that particular look on his face before.
Sesshoumaru looked at Jaken distantly, infuriated that he had allowed the wench to escape so easily. "There will be repercussions for your disobedience." Jaken swallowed perceptibly, wincing at the tone of Sesshoumaru's voice.
Sesshoumaru flew out of his room, pulsing with fury over the wench's clear defiance of his orders. He had never thought for a second that he had to specify every little thing that he said to the wench, but the oversight would not happen again. If the wench thought that he would so easily let her be free of him, then she did not know as much as she liked to believe she did about him. Anything, including anyone that belonged to him, did not leave his sight for long and that included his brother's human.
When he finally found her, she was still running through the woods, the tears in her eyes decreasing her ability to see. Sesshoumaru caught up with her quickly and grabbed her around the waist, taking one hand to grab her hair to pull her head back so that he could speak into her face, "I should kill you now." Seizing her small body into his arm, he threw her down against the nearest tree trunk. She landed with a thud on the ground and tried to, unsuccessfully, glare up at Sesshoumaru. Numbly, she stood up from her place on the ground, too afraid to do much else.
"I—I thought when you sai—"
"I do not need to hear what you thought. Listen to me closely, human girl," Sesshoumaru spat, putting his face mere inches from hers and his hands on the sides of her face, "Unless specifically told otherwise, you don't think anything. Assumptions will get you killed." Sesshoumaru realized his mistake in getting so close a minute before his logical brain stopped working. Her scent surrounded him, it was intoxicating. With everything that had happened tonight, the adrenaline from chasing her must have caused his body to go into overdrive. There was no other explanation for the feelings that the girl was evoking inside of him.
Sesshoumaru wondered absentmindedly when he had stopped referring to her as 'wench' and 'human'. He noted that it was probably right before he had started sniffing her scent because he liked the way it smelled. Every time he got near this girl it was as though he couldn't help himself; he had become unnecessarily obsessive over a human girl. He couldn't explain what was going on inside his brain, but he did know that all logic had ceased and he was beginning to admire the girl for several different reasons. He had never before allowed himself to become so close to anyone as he had been with the girl. She was constantly either right in front of him, or threatening his life with his sword. Sesshoumaru snorted.
Kagome looked up, surprised at the sudden sound that came from Sesshoumaru. She wasn't sure what was going on inside his head, but the power that he so normally radiated seemed as though it had lessened noticeably. She didn't know if that was her cue to turn and run away from him or play it smart and stay where he told her to. After all, wouldn't Inu Yasha come to save her? There was also the matter that the longer she stayed right in front of Sesshoumaru the more she became vaguely aware of the masculine appeal he held. When had she become so adept at acknowledging these things? She was only sixteen! She wasn't even out of Middle School yet. However, with every minute that passed by in Sesshoumaru's arm, the more aware she became of him as a cute—dog. Okay, so maybe she needed to rethink her current strategy. Standing in Sesshoumaru's arm and thinking of him as a . . . cute—something—was not helping her cause any.
Nonetheless, she couldn't help it because, in the end, Sesshoumaru was a very handsome guy. Kagome didn't think that she would ever be able to define the exact moment that that reality hit her, nor did she think that she particularly cared to know, but there it was. Sesshoumaru was definitely all male. Whether or not she knew if she, as a person and as a female, could understand, or like the situation that she had unintentionally put herself into, it had become, nonetheless, a situation. She had accidentally become fascinated by Sesshoumaru.
Sesshoumaru noticed that not only had her scent changed, again, [the girl could never make up her mind what she thought of him], but that she had become relaxed, taking her arms away from her defensive pose to let them lay by her sides. He wondered briefly at this thought, before her hand reached up to move aside some of his hair that had fallen into his face. Sesshoumaru growled low in his throat, but even that threat didn't seem to faze her in the least. She only smiled timidly at him before tucking the strands behind his ear, making sure that she barely even touched his skin. Sesshoumaru didn't know if it was out of self-preservation or fear that she did not touch his skin, but he had become interested in knowing which it was.
When she went to pull her hand back away from his face, he grabbed her wrist and examined it carefully. The girl wisely held her tongue. Before Kagome had a chance to even defend her actions, Sesshoumaru had placed her hand against his ear, determined to make her touch the skin that she seemed so horrified to touch earlier. Sesshoumaru could vaguely hear the intake of her breath and the faint exhale when she realized that he was not going to harm her before she let her index finger roam down the side of his ear. Sesshoumaru mistakenly let a tiny growl slip from his throat before Kagome retracted her hand from his ear, afraid of the consequences.
Kagome wasn't even sure why she thought that he was going to spring out and kill her; it had been his own fault! He had grabbed her hand and put it on his ear! What did he think she was going to do? Did he think that she wouldn't give in to impulse and rub the outside of his ear that was so unfamiliar to her?
"Let's go," he announced, before he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Well, he just may be cute, but he sure didn't know how to treat a girl!
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AN: Does anyone notice how fast I'm getting these chapters out? I think it's because I love this story. Really, I mean it, I adore this story. I'm not blowing my own horn, my writing sucks, but I really like the story that I have worked out in my head. Anyway, to anyone who noticed the slight scene-stealing from Beauty and the Beast, gomen! I tried to make that scene as original as possible, but it's a redundant scene, and so many people have done it before. Anyway, once again, don't forget to review. And thank you guys who have reviewed so far. It means so much to me!
