(October 30, 2005) Lol... I got my first bad review on this story. Apparently I'm"desecrating" Yoshihiro Togashi's characters... -shrug- I "should be ashamed", apparently, and I should stop writing. Hahaha. 'Kay, well, thanks for reading. I appreciate the review.

Now, for everyone who likes what horrible things I've done to the characters I decided to twist around, warnings for this chapter: The chapter title is 'Punishment'. If you don't like Karasu, you probably won't like part of this chapter. In fact, I can guarantee it. If you don't like shounen-- uh, interaction... there's no 'ai' about it... then you won't like part of this chapter. If you don't like seeing Sesshoumaru humiliated, you might not like part of this chapter...

CHAPTER GO
Punishment

Hiei was tired of waiting after only two days. Koenma was certainly taking his sweet time...

The fire demon had been entertaining himself with sword practice and video games in his free time, and was living on a strictly rice, ramen, and whatever-there-is-to-drink-in-the-fridge diet, purely because there wasn't any obvious point in fixing some sort of elaborate dinner for just himself. Kurama had gone home shortly after returning from Reikai.

On the third day of waiting, he took an alternate route of distraction. Of course, we all know Hiei is not and never would be an alcoholic, and he does not drown his troubles in alcohol, but he made a very interesting discovery on the third day.

While nosing around in the basement to try to find Shadow's endless supply of dog food and ramen, with a hungry Kokuei on his heels, he opened a door he'd never noticed in existence previous to the moment he grabbed the doorknob. Of course, he didn't bother thinking about where the door may have come from until a few days later, but that's not important. What's important is that he opened an unlabeled, unknown door that had never existed before. And to his amazement, he found a wine cellar.

A very large wine cellar. With very large amounts of wine. But as he wandered in awe through the isles looking at the occasional label, he discovered that there were also multiple kinds of whiskey and highly alcoholic beverages. Kokuei barked from the doorway, flatly refusing to enter the room, but Hiei waved her off silently and pulled out a bottle at random. Opening it, he sniffed at it, shrugged, and took a drink.

"HIEI! If you're gonna get drunk off your ass, at least feed me first!" Kokuei complained.

"I'll get to it," the fire demon muttered.

A few minutes later, said demon was sitting on the couch with several bottles of alcoholic beverages arranged on the coffee table in front of him while Kokuei happily ate some raw meat he'd dug out of the fridge.

And about an hour later, the phone rang.

And rang.

And rang some more.

Kokuei pulled it off the hook with her teeth and barked at it.

"Kokuei!" Kurama's voice said from the other end. "Where's Hiei?"

Bark, bark.

"Never mind... Hang up the phone, I'll just come over."

Kokuei obeyed, and then walked to where Hiei was lying on the couch with a bottle in his hand and several empty ones on the floor.

"Hiei, you are so drunk..."

"I am not!" he replied defensively. "I'm just tasting it."

"You're wasted. Kurama's coming over by the way."

"Who?"

"...You're wasted." She turned and wandered off. Hiei shrugged and took another swallow of his chosen alcohol. Not too very much longer after, Kurama appeared behind the couch and looked down at Hiei.

"...Hiei, are you drunk?"

"Noooo!" the fire demon shot defensively.

Kurama looked at the bottles on the floor and in Hiei's hands. The air smelled strongly of alcohol, and Hiei was clearly drunk.

"Yes, you are." He walked around the couch and picked up one of the unopened bottles, looking at the label. "Hiei, this is very expensive! Where did you get this!"

The half-Koorime pushed himself into a sitting position, chuckling and weaving slightly from side to side. "See," he said, voice slightly slurred, "that's the funny thing." He laughed, like it was really funny. "I found it."

"You found it?"

He nodded, a childish smile on his face. "Downstairs. In the room that never existed before."

"Never existed before?" He sat on the couch next to Hiei, setting the bottle down on the coffee table. "Maybe Shadow was saving it for a special occasion."

"There's more." The smile faded off his face and he looked terribly upset. "I miss Shadow."

"It's only been a few days, Hiei. You--"

"But I miss her!"

"You've been away from her for longer than a few days before."

"But she's not here!"

"You've gone to Makai to do things for Mukuro and been separated from Shadow for weeks."

He whimpered.

"You've gone into the forest to train extensively for a week, and been separated from Shadow then, too," the fox continued. Hiei whimpered again. "Surely you can deal with--AHH!"

Hiei flung his arms around his friend and clung so tight he nearly suffocated the fox. "But I miss her!" he complained childishly. "Make her come back!"

This is so cute, the fox thought to himself.

'You could jump him,' Youko suggested. 'He's drunk off his ass, he wouldn't notice.'

'I can't believe you'd suggest that. You're disgusting.'

'I was just saying...'

'Well don't.'

Hiei pulled himself onto Kurama's lap and nuzzled against his friend's shirt, whimpering.

"Hiei... This is... awkward."

"You're comfy," he stated with a smile in his voice. He dragged Kurama down to the couch and lay there against him.

"Hiei, please. You're drunk. Why don't I just take you up to bed and you can rest?"

No response. Hiei was clinging to the redhead's shirt with his face against his chest, the bottle of wine long since forgotten. His breath was calm and even. He was asleep, just like that.

"Oh, Hiei..."

While Hiei was getting drunk, the bishounen and the two misplaced girls were busy doing nothing in the brightly lit white room. After their bath the previous day, they'd all been permitted to dress in relative privacy, then all but Karasu, the poor abused crow, had been ZAPPED back into the holding room.

Shadow and Eclipse had slept against Sesshoumaru, using him as a pillow. The following day had come uneventfully. Some manner of breakfast had been ZAPPED into the room after a short audio-only announcement:

"Your breakfast is going to be given to you in your holding area. We decided this would be for the best in light of recent events. Yesterday's actions will be dealt with as we see is appropriate later in the day."

Sesshoumaru had kindly donated his breakfast to the two hungry girls who had received no food, figuring that if the food was drugged up with some kind of love potion ('Pah, such things are only fairy tales,' he'd reminded himself) and the two girls ate it, the worst that could happen would be that they'd fall in love with him... But really, he didn't see how his relationship with the two nutjobs could really get worse, considering how they were all touchy-feely with him already, and worshipped him as a Sex God, and constantly petted his hair. He supposed that they would find a way, though.

Luckily, though, there was no love potion in his food, and no sedatives or tranquilizers of any manner, so there were no terrible side results from the girls' consumption of said food products.

Yesterday's actions being dealt with accordingly seemed to be a big decision, considering how nothing at all happened for the next six hours or so. No lunch was delivered, which was a major disappointment to all the people who could tell time with their stomachs. About halfway between lunchtime and dinnertime, the screen flickered on and a girl appeared.

"At this time, we will transport yesterday's offenders to the discipline room to be reprimanded." The screen turned off. Shadow and Eclipse simultaneously lunged into Sesshoumaru's sleeves.

"We'll protect you!" they promised cheerfully.

"Great," he replied sarcastically.

ZAP!

Sesshoumaru vanished from the room, as did the few guys who had been involved in the food fight. They all appeared in the same room, side by side in a line.

"I assume you all know why you are here," Sesshoumaru's fanatic said. The room wasn't brightly lit, and was probably supposed to have a threatening quality. However, that was impossible considering that the walls were painted with a floral design, and that their 'punisher' was dressed in pink.

"No. Why?" Yusuke asked. The fanatic glared.

"The six of you were involved in the food fight that took place at dinner!"

Seven people blinked simultaneously and glanced around at each other.

"There's seven of us here," Inuyasha pointed out.

"Yeah. And Fluffy there didn't have anything do with the food fight," Yusuke added. Sesshoumaru growled low in his throat and Yusuke quickly amended, "I meant Lord Sesshoumaru! Not Fluffy."

"Sesshoumaru was involved in a far worse offense."

Inside the demon lord's sleeves, two girls rolled their eyes.

"He tried to kill a fellow bishounen," the fanatic continued, unaware of the sleeve-dwellers (though it should have been obvious that the normally flowy sleeves had a few extra pounds in them and were oddly misshapen, but fanatics are typically very unaware).

"And I would have succeeded, too," the demon growled, "if it weren't for those meddling brats."

"So what are you gonna do to us?" Inuyasha challenged. He crossed his arms and frowned at them.

An unfortunate turn of events had ended with all the bishounens unarmed (as in, they'd been poofed out of their clothes in the last chapter, and when their clothes were returned, their swords... weren't. Most likely as a safety precaution to keep Karasu alive), but we all know that any one of these bishounen could take on every single fanatic at once and come out with no more than emotional scars from all the gropage that would surely ensue.

"That is up to you."

"Up to us?" Sanosuke echoed. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well, the six of you have a choice. Sesshoumaru does not."

The look on Sesshy's face said "Typical."

"Yeahyeahyeah," Inuyasha said, not caring about his brother. "What are the choices?"

"First, this one is not a choice: You must formally apologize to the entire assemblage of women."

An odd noise came from inside Sesshoumaru's sleeve that sounded oddly like a scoffed "Women." The guys nearest Sesshoumaru noticed, but followed his example of feigned ignorance.

"Second, here are your choices: Go one week without dinner."

Inuyasha, Sanosuke, and Yusuke looked most horrified by this.

"Eat all your meals quietly and romantically with your wife or wife-to-be."

Another odd snort from Sesshy's general direction sounded like "Skanks." Again, it was ignored.

"Do not bathe for a week."

"Oh, gross!" Yusuke complained. Roy and Ed looked to have a similar sentiment.

"That's the best choice so far," Sesshoumaru pointed out. Everyone looked at him like he was insane, but he felt his sleeves nod. Nobody seemed to see what he meant. He, being one to always find a way to have people leave him alone, saw things differently than people who were trying to find the easiest, most harmless punishment. So what if you stink? When you stink, people leave you alone.

Of course, we all know Sesshoumaru does not stink, but rather smells of flowers. His glare is all he needs to get people to leave him alone. Except the occasional idiot, like Inuyasha.

"Your final choice is to be put into solitary confinement for a week, only being let out to bathe."

Koga stared. "Isn't that a little drastic? All we did was fling some food."

"You followed the example set by two skanky nincompoop girls who want nothing more than to poison your minds against us!"

Sesshoumaru felt his sleeves go rigid with anger.

"I will give you time to think this over while I talk to Sesshoumaru," the fanatic said. She looked to the demon. "Sesshoumaru, come with me."

Yes, go with her... Let us be alone so I can disembowel her... Shadow thought angrily.

The demon walked without even giving the slightest indication in his body language that he was lugging around a couple hundred pounds in his sleeves. He followed the fanatic through a door into an equally dimly lit room with a different floral design on the walls. She shut the door behind him, locked it, and turned to face him, arms crossed.

"Well?"

Sesshoumaru blinked. "Well what?"

"Don't you think you owe me an apology?"

"I apologize to no one. And why would you care if I killed him?"

"Because his wife-to-be is a very close friend of mine!"

"Wife-to-be? He's gay. He doesn't want a wife."

"He is not!"

"He was stroking my thigh."

"Maybe he mistook you for a girl!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened, then narrowed. "I strongly doubt it."

"Whatever his reason, he's not gay."

Sesshoumaru half expected to hear Shadow retort with "No, he's bisexual!" But amazingly, the normally talkative girl said nothing.

"Whatever," the inuyoukai muttered. "So what do you want?"

"I want an apology, first."

"Tough."

"Sesshoumaru!"

He knew crossing his arms was out of the question, so he merely did what he's very good at: glared.

"One of us has to cave first, and it's not going to be me," the girl promised. Sesshoumaru's glare turned into more of a mildly disbelieving "And you think it'll be me?" look. A few minutes passed, and the girl's frown turned into a pout of sorts, and she uncrossed her arms and paced across the room. Sesshoumaru turned his head to keep an eye on her, even though his ears and nose would have warned him of any threat anyways. Not that this girl could possibly pose any threat to a centuries-old demon such as himself.

"We'll talk more about this later," she said finally, from the other side of the room. "Moving along... Your punishment."

"Yes?"

"We're having trouble thinking..."

"What else is new?"

She shot him a glare. "We don't know what to do with you, to be honest. Karasu himself had a few ideas, but they were dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"He suggested you be locked in a room with him until you learn to tolerate him."

"I like that one," the demon told her.

"Really?"

"Yes. That way, I can kill him in peace without being interrupted."

The fangirl glared angrily. "That's what I thought. So he suggested we tie you up."

"Hn. A stupid idea, from a stupid person."

There was a knock at the door. The fanatic strode across the room to answer it, and let in another fanatic a moment later. Sesshoumaru stayed where he was as they shut and locked the door behind them, then walked up to him.

"Sesshoumaru," his fanatic said, "this is Karasu's wife-to-be. Most of all, you should apologize to her."

"I. Don't. Apologize. Want me to spell it?"

The girl crossed her arms, but Karasu's fanatic smiled. "It's okay, Yuri. I talked to Karasu. He doesn't want an apology. He says that he understands Sesshoumaru isn't the apologizing type, and he doesn't want to humiliate him."

Sesshoumaru snorted. "I'm sure that's why he was touching me like that, too."

"But he still needs to be punished, Ayame," Sesshoumaru's fanatic, Yuri, said.

"Of course, I agree. Letting such a crime go unpunished would set a terrible example for the other men."

"It would. So what should we do?"

"Well, from what Karasu said, physical punishments wouldn't effect him."

"Physical? Like what?"

"He said things like spanking him."

Inside the demon's sleeves, Shadow and Eclipse twitched.

"I wouldn't have thought that was a good idea anyways," Yuri said matter-of-factly, as if the thought would never have crossed her mind. "It has to be a worse punishment than any of the options we gave the others."

With a sigh, Sesshoumaru wandered over to a wall and sat down with his back against it. This would take a while.

And indeed it did. Ayame and Yuri debated for EVER, all the options getting increasingly stupid and infuriating. Shadow and Eclipse couldn't handle it anymore, and exploded out of Sesshy's sleeves, fingers pointing threats at the fangirls.

"I can't believe how stupid you are!" Eclipse cried.

"You would dare humiliate Sesshoumaru with even SUGGESTIONS of such stupid things?" Shadow added angrily.

"He deserves no punishment at all! Karasu isn't worth it!"

Ayame nearly screamed. Yuri was busy gawking.

"You expect them to just kiss and make up!" Shadow snapped. "But--"

"DID YOU JUST COME OUT OF HIS SLEEVES!" Yuri screamed finally.

"YES!" two angry voices retorted. Rage-filled fanatic eyes fell on Sesshoumaru, and he got to his feet to prepare for any onslaught of frightening fangirly attempts at... whatever they were planning on attempting here.

"Ses-SHOUMARU!" Yuri screamed. "How could you! They were there this whole time!"

"Yes," he said.

"This deserves MORE punishment!" She spun and stalked out of the room, coming back a few minutes later and pressing something against Sesshoumaru's chest. "CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES!"

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Change into these. I was just waiting for a perfect opportunity to get you into this outfit, and that opportunity just presented itself," Yuri stated. She pushed the clothes against his chest again, to remind him she was holding them there. He reached up and grabbed the bundle, annoyed, and unfolded it. There were a few moments of silence, then he growled.

"No."

"PUT IT ON," the fangirl snapped. His glare could have melted glass or frozen fire.

"No."

There was a pause. "Either you put it on voluntarily, or we will put it onto you by force."

He flung the outfit to the floor. "I dare you."

Yuri grabbed a little box off her belt and pushed a few buttons.

ZAP!

Sesshoumaru's clothes and the new outfit traded places without even an instant of nudity.

And there he stood, in leather pants that clung to him like a second skin, and a white silk shirt that was conveniently missing a few of the top buttons. Boots buckled up to his knees, and a silvery-blue silk belt was tied around his waist, through the belt loops on his pants.

His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked. He'd just been made a fool of, and he wasn't amused. His eyes closed as he tried to block out the surroundings and gain composure.

Shadow and Eclipse were too busy drooling to stop him from going on an insane rampage, but insane rampages weren't his style. Luckily.

"Uh... Y-yeah..." Yuri muttered, gawking at the demon lord. "Oh my GOD are you hot."

"SHUT UP!" he snarled. "Just Shut. Up."

"YAAH!" Ayame screamed suddenly. "I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open and he glared. She was too stupid to cringe.

"A brilliant punishment," she continued.

Totally randomly, Sesshy's hand lashed out and his claw came within a centimeter of Shadow's eye. "Stop looking at me like that."

She carefully looked at anything but Sesshoumaru until he was distracted again, by Ayame continuing to tell them about her brilliant punishment.

"You, stupid whore, gave me the idea."

Shadow's eyes snapped up from their previous focus on Sesshoumaru's ass. "What'd I do?"

"You said 'kiss and make up'. That's the punishment. Karasu will love it."

"No," the demon lord stated. He strode straight up to the door and melted it, as well as half the wall, with his dokkasou, and without saying another word, left the room.

Luckily (or maybe not), the other six bishounens were in the next room when he entered it. Yuri snapped out of her Sesshoumaru-induced trance and screamed "DON'T LET HIM LEAVE!"

The other six were in shock. Inuyasha was the first one to snap out of his trance.

"You have got to be kidding me," he muttered. Then he snorted, and cracked up into hysterics. Sesshoumaru stopped on his straight path for the door and turned slowly to glare at his brother. His hand glowed.

Shadow and Eclipse finally regained control of themselves and took in the situation in the blink of an eye. And in another blink of the eye, they were running towards Sesshoumaru.

"Wait, Fluffy!" they screeched. He moved his eyes but was statue-still otherwise.

"Sesshoumaru," Shadow said, then quickly amended, "Lord Sesshoumaru." He gave her a minute amount of his attention. "Please don't be too angry."

He growled. She tried another approach.

"Don't take out your anger on your brother. Please?"

He showed no signs of changing his mind. She continued.

"Inuyasha's just a halfwit. It's not his fault he's laughing."

"Hey!" the hanyou snapped, suddenly done laughing. They ignored him.

"I don't think it's funny at all that they did this... atrocious thing to you."

Yusuke snorted. Everyone knew Shadow didn't think it was funny, or atrocious. She thought it was amazingly wonderful and wanted to fall to her knees and worship him in many ways. But no one said a word.

"In fact, I think it's terrible, and you should be forbidden from wearing something so se-- so sick, unless you wanted to. If I had any say, I would command them to return you to your poofy, baggy, and unrevealing white outfit and armour. But I have no say."

He didn't seem to be calming down too much. Shadow finally gave up and just screeched "PLEASE DON'T BE ANGRY!" and flung her arms around him, burying her face against his silk-clad chest. Eclipse blinked, then also flung her arms around him.

"YES! PLEASE BE HAPPY!"

Now, there's not much a guy can do when he has suddenly found himself put into restricting clothing and has two lunatics latched onto him and holding on like they had no intention of ever letting go. Not unless you kill the lunatics, which he knew would either result in lots of bad things, or would not succeed, which was more likely. Slowly, his initial rage simmered away and he relaxed slightly. Shadow leaned back a bit and looked up at him.

"Are you calm?"

He snorted disdainfully through his nose. She planted a kiss on the bare skin of his chest that was exposed through the opening of the shirt. "I thought so."

Yuri stalked over. "Sesshoumaru--"

Shadow spun and clamped her hand over the other girl's mouth. "Do not speak. He's on the brink of murder. Give him time to recoop. Go talk to them." She gestured towards the other six. Yuri smacked Shadow's hand away.

"I will not take orders from you! You do not know what is good for my husband!"

A low growl bubbled up from Sesshoumaru's throat. Eclipse turned away from him and matched Shadow's evil glare towards the fanatic. Yuri returned a glare, but some pansy fangirl could never hope to match up to the glaring capacity of two psychos and a demon lord whose favorite facial expression is a glare.

"Very well," Yuri said. "For you, Sesshoumaru, I will give you some time to relax before we continue." She turned away, and Ayame followed her. Sesshoumaru made his way to the corner of the room, with Shadow and Eclipse on his heels.

While they hung around in the corner, Yuri and Ayame went to the six others.

"Have you chosen your punishments?"

"Yes, we have," Yusuke stated. "I choose the not eating dinner for a week option."

"Really? Are you sure?" Yuri asked. "You'll sit there and watch everyone else around you eat dinner while you don't get any?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons." Most of them having to do with those two psycho girls and Karasu...

"Very well." Yuri took note on a palm-pilot sort of deal. "You may stand off to the side while I deal with the rest, Yusuke."

He wandered off. Yuri looked to Roy.

"I choose to eat all my meals quietly and romantically with whichever girl it is that is infatuated with me."

The rest of them chose the 'no dinner' option, too, surprisingly. Their reasoning was that at least they wouldn't be in any way separated from the group, and that was really the best. Stick together. If the fanatics have you alone, they'll do all sorts of unmentionable things to you. That was their reasoning. Of course they didn't tell the fanatics this.

"Very well," Yuri muttered. "Let me finish with Sesshoumaru, then you will be taken to a formal room to apologize to all of us for your activities." She turned and headed for Sesshoumaru, who was leaning in the corner of the room with two hanyou girls leaning against him.

The second they noticed her nearing, all three stood up straighter and got ready to bolt or attack or defend if necessary. Yuri and Ayame stopped a few feet in front of Sesshoumaru.

"Well? Are you ready to follow through with your punishment?"

"That depends on what it is."

"We already told you," Yuri said, crossing her arms. Sesshoumaru glared.

"I will not apologize, and there is no way in Hell I would ever kiss that freak of nature."

Both fanatics put their hands on their hips and gave him The Look. Sesshoumaru returned his version of The Look, which was probably more creepy than The Look. They all glared for a few moments, then Yuri crossed her arms.

"Fine. If you don't kiss him voluntarily, we will chain your hands behind your back and put you two in a room together, to stand nose to nose until you cave and kiss him."

"I will not kiss him."

"It's nothing to be scared of," Yuri coaxed.

"I am not afraid."

"Then why won't you do it?" Ayame challenged.

"Because I hate him, and I hate you."

"That's harsh," Shadow commented uncaringly, examining her nails.

"You will do it," Yuri said coldly. "You will do it if we have to chain you to a wall and ward you and let him kiss you."

There was a short pause.

"You," Sesshoumaru stated calmly, "are retarded."

"Hey, here's an idea!" Shadow said. "Since I have total and complete confidence in Sesshoumaru's power, why don't we settle this by letting him fight Karasu?"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Yuri cried.

"If Sesshoumaru loses, he kisses Karasu. If he wins, Karasu leaves him alone for the rest of our stay here."

"That's out of the question!" Ayame retorted. "He will obey us without making some stupid deal!"

"I have no obligation to obey you," Sesshoumaru said. "And I personally think that's a good idea."

"WOOHOO!" Shadow cheered.

"Because I will kill Karasu," the demon lord continued. Ayame screeched.

"NO! YOU WILL OBEY!"

This, of course, was attracting the attention of the other six guys in the room. Inuyasha walked over.

"What's this I hear about kissing someone?"

"Nothing," Sesshoumaru snapped.

"Inuyasha, you're his brother! Make him do it!"

"Do what?"

"Kiss and make up with Karasu!" Ayame whined. "All I'm asking for is one little kiss!"

"You want my brother to kiss another man?"

"YES! IS THAT SUCH A DIFFICULT CONCEPT?"

"...It's funny."

Sesshoumaru glared. "If you laugh, I will kill you."

"Right," Inuyasha agreed. He bit his lip and looked at them from the corner of his eye. "So... Why won't you do it?"

His brother just growled. Inuyasha snickered slightly, then grabbed their captors' arms and pulled them aside. Shadow and Eclipse glared in their direction.

"He's conspiring with them," Shadow muttered after a moment of watching them. "I just know it. He's conspiring."

"I will kill him if he--"

Inuyasha lunged in their direction very quickly. Shadow and Eclipse screeched and flung themselves out of the way (loyal protectors, there). Sesshoumaru quickly discovered firsthand precisely why he and every other person in their right mind wore loose clothes. Leather pants severely hindered his normal fluidity, and he was barely able to dodge his brother.

It took a maximum of 90 seconds for Inuyasha to thoroughly pin his handicapped older brother to the floor. Sesshoumaru snarled like an angry dog, fangs shining, but his brother just smirked.

"C'mon, Sesshy! Lighten up! It's just a little kiss."

The snarling grew worse, and his golden eyes became tinged with a distinct red.

"Hey!" Inuyasha snapped at the fangirls. "Whatever you're gonna do with him, do it! I don't want him transforming and making me his lunch!"

Sesshoumaru suddenly thrashed violently and sent his brother flying off him. He leapt to his feet and was totally on the defensive. Everyone carefully avoided him and his brother as they circled, ready to attack or defend at any moment.

"They're letting me off the hook if I can get you to cooperate," Inuyasha told his brother. "I'm not going to give in."

Saying this was a very stupid thing to do. If possible, Sesshoumaru looked angrier. However, since outbursts weren't his thing, Shadow filled in for him.

"YOU SELFISH SON OF A BITCH! YOU'D FORCE YOUR OLDER BROTHER TO BE EVEN MORE HUMILIATED JUST SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO UNDERGO SOME LITTLE PANSY PUNISHMENT! YOUR BROTHER IS GOING TO BE FORCED TO KISS A MAN! YOU'RE GOING TO FORCE SUCH A TERRIBLE FATE ON A DIGNIFIED DEMON LORD WHO HAS ALREADY BEEN HUMILIATED ONCE BY HAVING SUCH TIGHT, CONSTRICTING, EXPOSING GARMENTS PUT ON HIM!"

"They are exposing," Eclipse muttered.

"I don't CARE!" On the last word, Inuyasha lunged at his elder brother. Sesshoumaru dodged, but after a few minutes of persistant attempts, Inuyasha again pinned him, and this time he managed to keep him down, arms above his head and hips pinned down by a knee. Hesitantly, Shadow approached the brothers. Sesshoumaru's chest was heaving and his eyes were red with rage.

"I think he flipped his lid," Inuyasha said. Cautiously, Yusuke and Koga approached, but stayed a safe distance from the panting, snarling inuyoukai.

"I would flip my lid, too, if my brother had me pinned to the ground like that and was going to force me to kiss someone like Karasu," Yusuke pointed out. Shadow bravely knelt next to Sesshoumaru, who was extremely intimidating at the moment, having lost his normal cool and lying on his back growling and foaming at the mouth like an angry rabid dog.

"What, uh... What am I supposed to do with him?" Inuyasha asked anyone who could answer. His brother's snarling was starting to lessen, so Shadow reached out and started gently petting his hair and whispering sweet, comforting nothings.

"Move," she said, and shoved Inuyasha off his brother. She straddled him and lay down on his chest, putting her mouth next to his ear and continuing to pet his hair. God knows what she said, but after only about fifteen seconds, he'd relaxed. His eyes drifted closed, then he blinked a few times and looked at her.

"What'd she do?" Koga asked Yusuke quietly. He shrugged, equally confused.

"Whatever it was, it worked."

"I bet she hypnotized him," Sanosuke guessed. They looked up at him and he shrugged. "What?"

"She may have," Yusuke muttered. He tilted his head slightly. "Maybe that's why Hiei's so docile now. Maybe she's really an evil witch."

Shadow shot him a glare, then looked to Sesshoumaru and smiled. "You calm now?"

He sighed. "Yeah." He didn't sound happy.

"You gonna keep your cool?"

He nodded.

"Are you going to go through with your punishment? It's not that bad, really. It's not like they're asking for you to use your tongue."

"Oh, shut up and get off me," he snapped half-heartedly. She got up and thrust her fist into the air.

"Shadow triumphs yet again!" The girl grabbed Sesshoumaru's hand and pulled him to his feet. He quickly pulled away. She chuckled and put her arm around his middle, resting her head on his chest.

"Well?" Yuri prompted finally, arms crossed. Sesshoumaru gave her no response. She glared. "Sesshoumaru! Would you answer me? Are you going to cooperate!"

Again, no response. Ayame changed their approach. "Shall we bring Karasu here, or take you to him?"

"Assuming I were to go through with this," he said, with a voice that oozed hatred and was so cold it nearly froze his lips as it left them, "I would not want to do it with all them," he gestured to the rest of the bishounen in the room, "watching."

Shadow rubbed his side comfortingly, as if congratulating him.

"Ew," Yusuke said, startled, "he's actually gonna go through with it!"

"What did that girl do?" Roy asked.

"Very well," Yuri said, trying to hide her excitement. "Karasu is in Ayame's room. This way." She headed towards the door.

"What about us!" Ed snapped.

"You can wait a little longer," Ayame said, failing in her attempt to sound assertive. She reached for Sesshoumaru's hand as she passed him, and he deftly pulled away, eyes cold enough to freeze Hell.

"Touch me and die."

"Right," she squeaked.

Nobody said anything when Shadow and Eclipse accompanied him from the room. The door was shut and locked behind them to keep the other six inside. For the first time since they'd arrived, they saw something other than the inside of a room from having been zapped into it. They were walking in a hallway.

After a few twists and turns, they arrived in a straight stretch of hall with doors lining either side and one at the end. Ayame led them to the third door on their right and opened it. Inside was something creepy (I mean other than Karasu).

It was a total Karasu shrine. Pictures of him lined the walls, the surfaces of everything that could hold them, there was even Karasu border and a big painting of Karasu on one wall. Sesshoumaru and the two hanyou girls nearly choked.

"This is sick," Sesshoumaru muttered under his breath.

The sickest thing of all was lying on the bed when they entered. It was Karasu himself, wearing black leather pants and a black muscle tee-shirt, which, of course, contrasted beautifully with his chalk-white skin. He let out an obscene moan when he saw Sesshoumaru.

Ayame ran to the crow and hugged him. "Guess what Sesshoumaru agreed to do?"

The demon lord made eye contact with Karasu when Ayame next spoke, conveying his hatred with only his golden orbs.

"He's agreed to kiss you!"

"What?" the crow gasped, disbelieving. "He agreed to that?"

"It took a little convincing," Shadow stated dryly.

"That'll be a good enough apology, won't it?" Ayame continued, sounding worried, and having thoroughly ignored Shadow. "I mean, I thought of it all on my own, I thought you'd like it, but--"

Karasu grinned. "It's fine, Ayame-san. It's perfect." He got up and walked across the room towards Sesshoumaru, his hips swaying seductively.

Ayame and Yuri caught the backs of Shadow and Eclipse's shirts and yanked them backwards away from Sesshoumaru. The two hanyou girls hissed like angry cats, but stayed out of the way.

The demon lord stood still as a statue as Karasu approached, walked around him with his fingers trailing across his chest and arms, circled around to stand in front of him, arm wrapped around his waist. Sesshoumaru's eyes fixed on the crow, who was approximately the same height as him. Karasu was looking at him, all lust in his eyes, a smirk placed arrogantly on his pale lips. Those pale lips drew closer and gently pressed against Sesshoumaru's throat. A growl rumbled under them and Karasu pulled back.

"What?"

"I did not agree to letting you have your way with me."

"Oh, very well," the crow resigned with a sigh. His lips pressed against Sesshoumaru's tenderly, but, getting no response, increased in pressure. He pulled back. "It doesn't count until you kiss me back."

"I hate you," he growled, then quickly leaned in and kissed the crow. Karasu happily returned it, his hands drawing his victim closer, deepening the kiss against his will.

Shadow wrung her hands anxiously. "He's being kiss-raped!" she whimpered to Eclipse. "I told him no tongue!"

When breath became necessary and Sesshoumaru made it clear he would bite off Karasu's tongue if it was in his mouth for another half a second, they parted. Shadow and Eclipse rushed over to the lord. Karasu smirked. "You're quite the kisser, Sesshoumaru."

"Gag me with a spoon," Shadow muttered. Sesshoumaru cast one last glare at Karasu before he turned away and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, looking pointedly at Shadow as he did so. She held up her hands. "I'm sorry! I swear to you, I'm sorry."

He snorted and headed for the door. Yuri blocked his path.

"We'll return you both to the holding room after you have dinner."

"After we what?" Sesshoumaru stated with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"You two. After you have dinner together."

Without a word, Sesshoumaru brushed past Yuri and grabbed the doorknob. She let out an angry exclamation. "Well I--!"

"I'm not eating dinner with him. I would rather starve." He opened the door.

"FINE!" she snapped. He vanished with the mere push of a button. Shadow screamed and lunged through a portal that appeared out of nowhere. Eclipse followed.

Told you that half of you would be displeased with this... Just to tell you, that wasn't my idea! Nope! Not at all! But I wrote it, so I'm just as guilty as the one who gave me the idea. :P Oh, but the leather and silk was my idea... Cuz that's just hot.

Happy Halloween.

-SJ