Disclaimer: again...messa no owning any of des peoples. I must disclaim because I do not wish to have an enraged Rumiko Takahashi chasing me down, while throwing Inuyasha collectables at me and yelling Japanese obscenties.

have fun kids...

Chapter 2: Meet Kikyou

It was a nice palace, he'd give this Kikyou that, but it wasn't enough to impress him. Especially considering he was being forced to see her anyway...

When they'd entered the grandeous structure, it was all too apparent that their hosts were doing the most to try and show off their riches and social highness. Family portraits, hundreds of years old probably, where placed exquitsely to where guests could see them well, but just far enough apart that they weren't drawing attention away from the walls that seemed to be painted in gold.

Inuyasha's father elbowed him and gave him a very unfatherly-like wink. Inuyasha, in turn, gave his father a smug look. It greatly potrayed the fact that he had no interest in any of this whatsoever. Lord Nishi and Inuyasha were promptly led by a well-dressed servant, to the dining room, where a meal was waiting for them, along with Princess Kikyou.

Kikyou wore a fancy kimono, full of vibrant color, and flying cranes. She had a pale rounded face and with dark eyes. From looking at her Inuyasha guessed she wouldn't speak much, which made him slightly happy. He could almost feel her muscles straining to keep the posture that had been ground into her very being since she was a little girl, even though she never wavered and her face stayed gracefully bowed, in respect.

All in all, she wasn't a shocker to Inuyasha. He had been brought up around her type, these girls were infinitely boring, or extremely giddy. He was more curious about the dishes that were sitting in front of her on the table. They were really nice dishes after all.

Next to Kikyou's upright figure sat the man, Inuyasha presumed to be her father. He wore mostly dark colors and held a grim kind of smile that never reached it's full potential, but stayed in a state that only kept it curved in the slightest.

Inuyasha and his father took their seats, on the opposite side of the table as their host, and Inuyasha, without waiting for the rest, picked up his chopsticks and started eating. He never did like all that stupid formal crap. His father quickly started a conversation with...Onigumo?

Something about that name made him cringe slightly, it was border line repulsion. He'd almost choked on his ramen, but that was the name his father had addressed Kikyou's father by.

"So, what do you think of my daughter, Nisha-sama?" Onigumo questioned lightly.

'not the pointless small talk!' Inuyasha's mind screamed.

"She is a lovely maiden." Nishi-sama replied, glancing quickly at his son, and back. Inuyasha flashed Onigumo a look, than refocused his attention on his ramen. In his mind, no one in the room, inculding himself, had any intention of marrying Kikyou, so this was all a waste of time...except for the ramen, of course.

That's when it hit him, the feeling that he was being watched. He looked up from his bowl, to see Kikyou, who was staring openly into his face, smiling like she'd seen heaven. Even though Kikyou knew that he saw her, she didn't even falter in her gaze. 'I guess now I have a stalker..'

Inuyasha practically inhaled his remaining noodles. " Father," he ground out, trying to sound as polite and formal as possible. As much as he hated formality, he did not want to upset his father, who was, unlike him, a full demon, and exactly like him, very short on patience. "May I... retire early?"

His father nodded a 'yes' in response.

"Thank you." Inuyasha stood quickly to leave. He hadn't intended to stick around, and play the good little prince. As soon as he'd gotten out of the door, Inuyasha had planed to run off into the city somewhere, get in a couple good fights to blow off some frustration, and then come back to the castle...oh a week or so later...But noooooo, Onigumo had to go and ruin his great escape.

"Kikyou, why don't you escort our guest to his quarters?"

Inuyasha mentally cursed, than snapped his head back. He gave Onigumo a rather sinister look. Onigumo merely smiled back.

Kikyou stood with practiced grace and bowed. "Yes." she answered, making her way toward a very unhappy hanyou. Inuyasha forced a smile and walked out into the hall, closing the shoji behind him, Kikyou right on his heels, grinning maniacally.

'I'll kill him!' Inuyasha cursed Onigumo for ever helping to conceive Kikyou and for now tormenting him with that very mistake.

"You don't talk much, do you?" The mistake of topic spoke, drawing Inuyasha from his thoughts of how he was going to slowly dismember her unfortunate father.

"I'm not very talkative" Inuyasha didn't look at Kikyou as he spoke through his teeth.

"I believe I was supposed to lead you to your quarters?" Kikyou said matter-of-factly.

"Oh...by all means take your lead..." Inuyasha laid the scracasm on real thick.

The two walked in silence, Inuyasha trailing Kikyou. His room seemed to be on the otherside of the world,' and if this girl walks any slower, I'll be old enough to be her grandfather by the time I get we get to where we're going..' In the meantime, Kikyou kept looking back at the prince and giggling as they went, and her giggle was the most annoying sound ever to echo inside his sensitive ears. It was somewhere between the annoying level of nails on a chalk board and chewing on sand. It was enough to drive a weaker man mad, fortunately for Inuyasha, he was only half man...

Finally, they arrived at, what Kikyou gestured, was his quarters.

"Your room" Kikyou bowed to him. Inuyasha, a wicked smile creeping over his mouth, bowed back, and slowly opened the shoji to his quarters. He stepped into the room, and turned to face the girl, who smiled again.

Than he slammed the shoji in the girl's face. This action gave him an astonishing surge of joy. He could hear her going down the hall, muttering about how rude he was.

Life was good.

Somewhere between spreading his futon, and getting comfortable for bed, the girl in the crowd had slipped back into his mind. What was so special about her that he'd thought of her again? She wasn't gorgeous or anything.

Then it came to him.

He actually sat up in bed, revealing his bare chest. 'I'll ditch Kikyou tomorrow and go find that girl. I can always say I was "checking on my future subjects"...yeah, that sounded noble enough...besides I've been way to well-behaved lately.'

He was so caught up in his thoughts, that he hadn't noticed the obivious presense outside of his room, peeking at him. He grabbed a pillow, and flung it at the intruder, without even glancing in their general direction to aim. The intruder giggled, a horrific sound, and hurried away.