IMPORTANT NOTICE: This story is going on a little hiatus. I'm going off to elsewhere for vacation. So… see you guys in a week's time :D maybe I should have started this story after I get back... oh well, too late for that, now isn't it? My humblest apologies again.
Disclaimer: I may not have ownage, but I DO have pwnage. XD
Chapter Three: Perils of the Darkness
When Kagome first entered the Den, all she could see was darkness and all she could smell was smoke. Coughing, she walked uneasily about the doorway, trying to find the wall to support her until she could see and breathe properly.
Suddenly, she mistook a step and felt herself falling when she hit something very much solid, but moving. A man.
Kagome looked up into startling blue eyes.
"Hey! Watch where you're going, bitch."
Kagome blinked. She was in his arms, gazing up into his well-defined face. Blushing, she pushed herself off him and looked around. Her eyes had adjusted to the dimness and she could see dozens of people looking at her – some laughing, some sniggering.
"Well…" spoke the young man before her with long black hair tied into a high ponytail. He had on khakis and a brown shirt that fit his muscular form quite snugly. He had a brown folded bandana tied about his forehead. "You're definitely not a usual here."
His blue eyes flicked to the side, motioning for a clerk to get her coat. Kagome gratefully let him take it, thankful to be rid of such a big coat in such a stuffy room.
Her eyes went back to his, noting how his vibrantly blue eyes were roaming across her body, taking in every curve that her "scanty" black dress allowed to show.
'I guess it's time for the Vixen's show,' she laughed to herself.
Smiling a sweet and seductive smile, she tilted her head back a bit, letting her hair fall along the curves of her neck.
"Like what you see?" she said, a smile dancing upon her lips. The young man who seemed to be in his early twenties gulped.
'What an idiot… he's practically drooling.'
The young man blinked several times, waking himself from a daydream. "Oh. Um. Lift your arms up."
Kagome blinked. Suddenly, the man before her disappeared and she felt something touching her lower thighs.
"Whoa!" Kagome exclaimed, backing up several steps. "What do you think you're doing?"
The young man glared up at her, blushing furiously.
"I-I'm supposed to frisk you."
Kagome breathed a small sigh of relief. Thank goodness, it wasn't something else. However, she still had a smaller handgun on her person and the whip in the holster. She stepped cautiously towards him again.
Just as he reached for her legs again, she gently pushed his hands away and brought them about her waist, forcing him to stand up.
"Is your 'frisking' supposed to be your way of hitting on girls?" she spoke provocatively as she used a hand to bring his head down towards hers. "Can't you get a girl into bed any other way?"
Kagome laughed quietly at her own taunt as she could feel his breathe hot on her neck.
"Think what you want, but there are plenty of other ways to get a girl into bed."
Kagome smirked, pushing him slightly away. Realizing they were still in the entranceway, she began to walk past him towards the rest of the club, her fingers tracing the muscles in his arm.
"Come on, then, big boy," she called to him as he followed her, "Let's go get a room right now."
At this, blush crept onto the young man's face again, as he grabbed her about the waist and pulled her to his side. Leaning down, he whispered into her ear while softly nuzzling her luscious hair. "I have a name you know," he almost growled, "It's Kouga."
Her eyes widened as she suddenly felt his hand reach into the space between her thighs.
"I don't think you'll be needing this toy of yours anymore," he smirked, holding her gun in his recently offending hand.
Then releasing his grip on her a bit, he noticed a figure walking a short distance away.
"Oy! You dog! Come here!"
Kagome looked, startled by his sudden distraction. Looking up, she saw the figure approach them, revealing a young man who could have been no older than one and twenty, wearing a red dress shirt and black slacks, complete with black dress shoes. His midnight black hair fell past his shoulders and matched his perfectly dark eyes as well.
Kagome had to catch her breath.
"Hey, I found the perfect girl for you," Kouga spoke, almost laughing as he pushed Kagome towards the newcomer. "She's feisty. You'll definitely like her."
The newcomer wrapped a protective arm around Kagome as he growled back at Kouga.
"Don't throw your trash at me. It's a wonder why you reject such beautiful ladies," he spoke, using a finger to tilt Kagome's chin back. "And don't push her around like that, Kouga. It's no wonder you haven't gotten laid in so long. You're probably gay for all we know."
Kouga growled as he turned and stalked back towards the front entrance.
The newcomer smiled at Kagome.
"I would like to apologize on his behalf, but I have a feeling you wouldn't even be listening."
Kagome blinked a couple of times, pulling herself out of the dark pools of his deep mahogany-colored eyes. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
The newcomer laughed as he used a hand to move several strands of hair out of Kagome's face. Kagome could feel her face heat up as blood rushed to her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," the young man spoke, "I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Inuyasha."
Kagome smiled politely.
"I'm Kagome."
Inuyasha flashed another smile at her.
"A beautiful name to fit a beautiful face," he spoke, caressing the back of his surprisingly very soft hand along the contours of her cheek. However, his eyes weren't even on her face any more.
Kagome warily followed the direction of his gaze down to her… chest. However, his attention was caught on more than just her.
"That's a pretty color for a pendant," Inuyasha softly commented. Suddenly, his dark eyes snapped back up to her face.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I've noticed that you haven't had a chance to sit down since the time you entered," Inuyasha spoke with an amazing sense of gentlemanly manners, "Please, come this way to our table."
---
As the pair walked slowly alongside the walls of the club, Kagome noted the bar on the further down their side of the room, the dance floor in the middle with flashing strobe lights, and small tables and booths littering the place. A haze seemed to float about the room, whether it was the product of fog machines or cigarettes, Kagome could not tell. And strangely, Kagome began to feel more and more at home.
'Funny… a vixen in her den… her home…'
Still images of memories passed through her mind of her first home. The home she had lived in as a little girl with another girl who looked terribly similar to her, despite her paler and more mature complexion. The other girl was standing before her, calling out to her. Kikyou. She was pointing to something behind her. Kagome blinked as she saw a little boy standing before her with long silvery-white hair. Long white hair.
'White?'
Kagome lifted her eyes to the young man walking next to her. And blinked. For some strange reason, she felt as if his hair shouldn't be black.
"It should be white."
Inuyasha turned to the girl next to him.
"What? Kagome?"
Kagome blinked as honey-colored eyes looked down upon her with concern. Kagome felt her legs loose their ability to support her as she fell into his arms.
Inuyasha carefully picked the girl up in his arms and carried her over to a booth next to the bar. Letting the girl down in a seat, he briskly walked over to the bartender and asked him for a glass of iced water and a towel.
Kagome felt herself shiver, not from a chill but from a small sense of realization.
'Inuyasha,' she thought to herself, 'I know that name… but from where?'
Inuyasha came back to the table and helped Kagome sit up, giving her the glass of water to sip and wetting the towel so he could dab her forehead with it.
"Are you all right, Kagome?" he asked with some about of worry and concern in his voice.
Kagome closed her eyes for a moment and then looked up at the man holding her practically in his lap as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms. He had his pitch-black hair and dark eyes again.
"What are you doing?" Kagome asked, motioning the action of his hands.
"You're shivering," He simply replied. Kagome could only weakly nod.
"Inuyasha," she began, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
The young man blinked.
"Oh Kami," he spoke slowly, groaning, "I haven't slept with you before, have I?"
At this, Kagome almost laughed aloud, but instead, she violently shook her head.
"No… no, you haven't," she said, leaning against the table, "I was just wondering if I knew you from somewhere else… someplace… before."
Inuyasha blinked.
"Well," he began hesitantly, "I am the son of Lord Taisho, the one they call the Hotel Business Lord of the Western district. Maybe that's how you've heard of me."
Kagome's eyes widened. "You mean, you are Taisho Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha gave a small chuckle at her disbelief. "Yes, my good lady. That is I."
Kagome pushed herself off him, and leaned against the back of the seat.
Concern overtook the young man's features. "Kagome, is there something wrong?"
Pushing away memories that threatened to cloud her mind, Kagome shook her head and smiled up at Inuyasha.
"No, I'm fine. I just needed to clear my mind a little."
The business lord's son returned her smile as he helped her up from their booth and led her rest of the way towards their original destination.
---
"Kagome-nee-chan! Kagome-nee-chan!" Kikyou cried as she ran up to her sister in their flower-filled garden.
"What is it, Kikyou-nee-chan?" Kagome called as she straightened up from picking flowers for her bouquet.
"He's come!" Kikyou happily exclaimed, "He's actually come today to play with us!"
Kagome couldn't help but giggle as she ran to her sister's side to await for his arrival.
Surely enough, a white-haired figure appeared, turning the corner at the garden's gate as he approached them.
---
It was raining again.
It never seemed to stop raining since the day the people in white came to take Otou-san and Oji-san away.
And it hadn't stopped raining today.
Everyone seemed to be wearing so much white lately, especially today.
Kagome couldn't understand why Kikyou wouldn't wake up and come down from the bed in the wooden box.
She wasn't dead.
They wouldn't listen to her.
They never listened to her.
Kikyou wasn't dead!
"I'm sorry, Kagome-chan," a soft voice spoke through the drifts of people.
Her eyes, filled with angry tears, looked up to the figure standing before her in a pure white robe, holding out a white-petal flower.
White is for death, her mother had explained.
"Kikyou isn't dead," she tried to tell him, her small voice shaking.
"Kagome-chan…"
Her tears were flowing now.
"She isn't dead! I'm telling you the truth! She just isn't!" Kagome knocked the flower out of the hand and threw herself against the figure.
"She can't be…" Kagome cried into the white robe's fabric.
Long white hair fell about the figure in the robe as arms wrapped about her small fragile body.
"Tell me, Kagome," the figure softly questioned her, the words falling upon her ears like whispers, "Do you believe in demons?"
Kagome sniffled as she sat up in order to look her comforter in the eyes.
She always liked looking deep into his eyes.
His eyes.
His eyes are different, Mommy, she had told her Mother.
They're like the golden rays of the sun, Kikyou had said.
She paused, looking into his eyes through her own tear-filled ones.
"Why should I?"
When her tears were blinked away, she no longer beheld his golden eyes. They were of deep mahogany. To her astonishment, his beautiful white hair had become pure black.
His eyes.
He looked so sad, Okaa-chan, she had told her Mother later.
As if he would cry.
---
"You have a brother, right?" she questioned her companion in the most casual of ways.
Inuyasha gave a short nod.
"The automatic heartthrob of any and all girls who have ever set an eye on him," he answered in almost a resentful tone.
Kagome raised a brow. "And this is you describing him?"
"Oh no," Inuyasha replied sardonically, "It was either the mob of girls that ran through our street screaming this or the mob of girls that wrote this in our Business Today's magazine."
Kagome stood on tiptoes, bringing her pale lips as close as she dared to his ear.
"Are you jealous?" she questioned him in her seductive tone, twirling her finger about a lock of his hair.
Inuyasha grinned at Kagome as he pulled her in, letting an arm snake about her waist.
"Should I be?"
Kagome laughed as she let him go, but he kept his arm about her waist.
It was in this fashion that they finally arrived at the table.
The table was flooded by one too many girls, several of which seemed to be permanently stuck to a familiar blue-eyed acquaintance. Another girl was busy with jaw exercises with yet another longhaired male.
Inuyasha cleared his throat loudly, motioning for the plethora of uninvited girls to leave the table. Unfortunately, one peppy-looking girl remained attached to Kouga and the other pair was too busy to notice. Inuyasha gave a ragged sigh as he turned to Kagome.
"You've already met Kouga, I know."
"Hello," piped the peppy-looking girl, "I'm Ayame. Pleased to meet you!"
Kagome bowed out of politeness.
"Pleased to meet you, too," Kagome spoke, trying to ignore the couple, "My name is Kagome."
A yelp was heard, followed shortly by a thud as everyone at the table turned to look at the previously engaged couple splayed out in strange positions and angles.
The girl was still quite breathless, a drop of blood was forming on her cherry-red lips. The man was now sitting up straight, quickly fixing his dark silver dress shirt and black tie. Kagome blinked for a second, trying to study the third man in their midst. His hair was extremely long, black, and straight and tied into a loose ponytail in the back.
'Heartthrob,' Kagome thought, breathlessly, 'doesn't even cut it.'
His extremely stern, yet handsome features demanded respect and it was duly given. His lightless dark eyes flickered from Inuyasha to Kagome by his side.
Inuyasha nodded towards the man in his mid-twenties and turned towards Kagome again.
"The lady over there in red is Kagura-san…" Kagome could sense the complete distaste Inuyasha had for the slut, "And this… is my elder brother, Sesshoumaru."
Dark brown eyes met dark eyes.
…He would cry…
Kagome blinked as Inuyasha continued.
"And we three, Kouga, Sesshoumaru, and I, Inuyasha, form the Three Blades."