K/S. In order to complete his revenge for Inuyasha, Sesshômaru kidnaps Kagome and does something unforgivable to her. When she is at last returned to her companions, however, Kagome is surprised to find that, rather than feeling hatred towards Sesshômaru, she now can't stop thinking about him...
Disclaimer: Does owning an Inu plushii count...? TOT;
Notes: I have updated. boom, crash, reviewers scream/pick up weapons, world ends, etc etc etc.
Rating: PG-13
BittersweetBy Pam t3h Spam (...formerly shinsetsu no kokoro/Rurouni Chaos, etc etc etc...eheh)
Chapter Six
Kagome stood stone still, heart in her throat as she stared with a mixture of fear and surprise into the calm, aloof eyes and the finely chiseled features of the familiar face before her.
"Hello," Sesshômaru said.
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A million questions, accusations, demands, all whirling about in her head for untold days, until she felt ready to explode with the need to release them—
—and now they had all disappeared, leaving her tongue-tied and stupid.
Kagome swallowed, opened her mouth to emit a strangled sort of croak, and shut it again.
"Well?" A snide half-smile crossed Sesshômaru's face; on someone less dignified than he, Kagome might have guessed that it masked a giggle. She flushed with embarrassment and a sudden hot surge of anger. The anger was a welcome wake-up call. Her head cleared of the thick fog that threatened to overwhelm her completely and leave her staring dumbly at the yôkai, and her tongue loosened once more. Kagome shot her first question out, voice thick with loathing.
Or at least that was what her brain tried do. Her mouth apparently had a mind of its own.
"Y-you knew I was—I mean, you could tell that I was—did you know?...I...I'm..." One agonizing, painfully inarticulate minute later, Kagome let her incomplete thoughts trail off into nothingness. She could feel heat pooling in her cheeks, knowing that she was twice as red now—and twice as far from getting to any sort of point.
He looked at her oddly, his expression a far cry from his normal stony mask, but still unreadable. "Come."
Sesshômaru swept off without a look back, and Kagome stumbled blindly after him. It seemed that her feet moved her forward of their own volition—certainly she wasn't controlling them, for her mind was lost somewhere in the muddle of half-thoughts and protests triggered by his presence.
It was not until they had reached his castle that she was able to reclaim the use of her body again.
"I hate you."
Ack. Ick. Open mouth, insert foot...goodbye world, I'm dead, the sensible part of her brain immediately wailed woefully. But the louder, more assertive voice that had doomed her with those three ill-advised words butted in rudely.
So WHAT? I'm sick of this, and it IS his fault. Get this ridiculous encounter over with!
Sesshômaru halted so suddenly that Kagome almost crashed into him. He whirled smoothly to face her.
Really, that view of his back wasn't so bad... Kagome pleaded feebly to whatever god or gods might deign to listen. No, I could have kept staring at it for hours... Of course, if some all-powerful being had allowed her to say such a stupid thing in the first place, that was proof enough that she was favored with no god's grace.
"You hate me? Odd, then, that you would follow someone you hate this far into his home."
Where was that assertive voice when Kagome needed it! All she could do was gape stupidly, at a complete loss for the second time in the last few minutes.
"It is rude to have guests in one's home so miserable...perhaps I could put you out of your misery?"
Kagome stared at his now very obvious, very sharp claws, and managed a squeak that was meant to be a no.
Apparently satisfied, Sesshômaru continued his march, and she once again followed.
Determined that her mouth should not be given another chance to put her life at stake, Kagome concentrated fiercely on her surroundings. Honey-colored wood gleamed with an almost holy cleanliness, and lesser yôkai, household servants, scurried about at their various tasks. They were well-trained; not a one even spared her a passing glance.
Kagome raised her eyes to the ceiling, and a startled gasp escaped her lips. Ornate carvings were raised from the wood, a huge, sprawling mural that encompassed the entire ceiling. The images were beautiful but savage: all depicted yôkai battling humans. Blood poured from stark wounds, lips and beaks alike lifted in eternally agonized cries...but, as her eyes slowly moved over the mural, she saw that, despite the damage to both sides, there was a clear victor. The very last carving portrayed a grinning dog-demon, the head of what appeared to be a human shogun clenched in its jaws. Its eyes burned with rage and fierce victory, reaching out from the lifeless wood with a whispered promise of death...
"My own dear father." Kagome blinked, bringing herself back to the present. Sesshômaru stood in front of her, also glancing up at the mural. "It portrays him at the very height of his demon power...before he went soft."
"Went soft?" Kagome glanced nervously at the all-too-lifelike carving and tried to imagine the enormous dog demon going "soft". Her imagination failed her miserably.
Sesshômaru's lip curled. "Before he wedded that worthless human woman," he said shortly. His face was dark and ominous, and Kagome bit back the questions she wanted to ask as they continued to walk down the hall.
With nothing but the soft scuffing of her own shoes against the smooth floors to distract her (Sesshômaru made no sound), she had plenty of time to ponder. If his father married Inuyasha's mother...then what happened to Sesshômaru's mother?
She felt a momentary stab of sadness for the yôkai lord—she knew well what it felt like to lose a parent. The emotion was fleeting though, and quickly replaced by the angry confusion that had been with her for the past few months. I hate him, she reminded herself again. I hate him, hate him, hate him. And I didn't come here for pleasant conversation, or tragic little sob stories—I came here to settle this.
CRASH.
It was surprising how loud of a sound one delicate china fruit bowl could make when smashed against a wooden floor. The sound echoed and boomed around the cavernous hallway, then died away to fainter tinkles as the shattered pieces jumped and then slowly settled. The bowl's golden-orange contents came to a rest with heavier, muffled thumps that died away like drumbeats in the distance.
"You." Gone were the stutters, the shaking, the confusion. It was as if some incredibly efficient janitor had visited her mind to clear all of that away, leaving her with one purpose. "You slimy bastard. You know why I came here, so stop whatever game you're playing at. Kill me now if you want to, but I'm sick of wondering. I came here for answers." Kagome's pale face was resolute. "I want to know." Tears threatened to break free, but she brushed them away impatiently. There was no time for such luxuries. "Do you know what it feels like to have this huge, gaping hole in your memory? To worry about something, anything, that might have happened while your brain was asleep? Do you know what it's like to feels so scared, so frightened...you've probably never in your life known what it means to be terrified, but I don't fucking care because you're going to explain it or kill me, so help me God. And I'm not leaving until you do."
"Then you would die right now?" Sesshômaru still hadn't turned around.
"I would." A ghost of a smile, more akin to a grimace, flitted about the girl's lips. Slowly, with hands that were sure and steady despite her trembling legs, Kagome notched an arrow to the bow she always carried. "I would, but if I die, so do you."
I'm crazy, absolutely crazy, that rational part of her mind said wonderingly. But her grip on the bow stayed strong.
Sesshômaru's only reply was to bend down in one smooth, casual motion towards the shattered bowl.
"I said don't move!" An arrow sped by, leaving in its wake a few strands of long, silver-white hair that drifted leisurely downwards. Kagome swiftly grabbed another, the blood roaring fiercely in her veins. Anger flowed up in a rich tidal wave that lent her a sudden surge of strength. Her vision misted, blurred, until only that lone figure stood out clearly. She knew that she could shoot him, that even with her eyes closed she could—would—make that shot. Her eyes, her arrow, and his heart—it was as if all three were one, instantly connected by the slightest movement of one finger... Was this what yôkai felt? This all-consuming, single-minded killing rage? Never again would Kagome wonder what it was that possessed rampaging yôkai to destroy entire villages and cities again, because now she knew the true extent of bloodlust.
But she wasn't yôkai, and even as her arrow tip pointed to Sesshômaru's beating heart, at his elegant form now frozen in an inelegant crouch, her anger slowly ebbed. What could be gained by killing him now? Were he to die, his answers would die with him, and also Kagome's only hope to reclaim whatever was left of her sanity. She desperately needed the information he held, because with it
I could really truly live again...Bit by bit, the bowstring slackened. "Get up," Kagome said more calmly. "Get up, face me, and start talking."
Instead, he reached out and grabbed one of the fruits fallen amid the broken pottery. In one fluid gesture, it was suddenly sent tumbling through the air in Kagome's direction.
The golden-orange globe sailed up in a high, graceful arc; before it had reached even half the distance, Kagome's arrow found it. The fruit plummeted to the floor, its thin skin popping open upon impact. As it rolled to a halt at Kagome's feet, an impossibly sweet scent rose from the tiny fruit, warm and inviting, invoking images of sunlight and summer and
an orderly garden, a few small trees still clung stubbornly to the rocky soil. Tiny, golden-orange fruits swayed invitingly
"No..." The bow clattered to the ground, forgotten.
"...no..." She bent, her fingertips grazing the smooth skin, exactly as she remembered.
"Impossible..." But how could you remember such vivid, silky, softness if it was only a dream?
"It can't be...?" Trembling fingers lifted the fruit, exposed flesh glimmering temptingly. Slowly, dreamily, she brought it to her mouth and bit down.
The taste seeped gradually onto Kagome's taste buds. Its alluring scent belied the true mouth-puckering flavor, a flavor all too familiar to the girl. She wanted to laugh, to cry; this was utter insanity, a dream, but oh-so-real and lifelike...
Two luminous golden eyes swam into her vision. "How does it taste, Kagome?" Clawed talons gripped her wrist and pried the fruit from unresisting fingers, unexpectedly gentle. "Tell me how it tastes."
"Bitter," she murmured incoherently, and again the gagging taste rolled over her tongue. No, not just bitter...underneath the sharp juice lay the promise of a ripe sweetness that would soon show itself.
"Bitter?" he whispered.
Kagome raised her face to him, seeing but not really seeing, caught up only in those huge, floating orbs of eyes, the taste on her tongue, the wretched thumping of her heart. "...no...bittersweet."
End Chapter Six
A/N: DundunDUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN:has no idea where this is going: Ah...this is fun...I seem to have discovered some semblance of a plot while writing this chapter! Maybe it makes up for the humongo long gap between the last chapter and this one...?
:pelted by rocks: oO; Guess not...
ROFL. Yeah, sorry about that gap. I had a stressful AP Bio class this year...but now the AP test AND the SAT II are officially over, so I think I'll be updating much faster this summer. I know this newest chapter is really crappy (my writing nonskills are all rusty...), but still, quantity over quality, ne?All reviewers left can rejoice!
...Anyone? Anyone?