And We're Back! Is it just me or do commercial breaks seem to be getting longer and longer? heehee, whatever.

Hanako makes an appearance in this chapter and Tama gets to torment Sesshoumaru a little bit, though he kind of brought it on himself. Fred learns that being a ghost doesn't mean that nothing can stop him from going where he wants to. Even so, he gets in a lot of words to annoy and confuse dear fluffy. Which isn't that hard considering Sesshoumaru doesn't talk a lot, in my book that means he thinks instead. Therefore we get a lot of what Sesshoumaru is thinking about.

Morning afters are a lot of fun to write, despite me not having ever had one myself. They're even more fun when the parties involved didn't exactly think a great deal about what they were getting themselves into, but then, who ever does.

In any case, the characters of Rumiko Takahashi aren't particularly known for thinking ahead as demonstrated by Inuyasha's inability to plan for the future.

Let's Complicate Things

Aki was lost. She was awake, though she kept her eyes tightly closed. Her skin was cool where the air could reach it. Which was just about everywhere that wasn't covered by the possessive arm sprawled across her front and the tangle of blankets around her knees. She was cold, though the chill wasn't produced by a fever and it wasn't the cold the blasted spell had left behind. In all actuality, the room wasn't that cold either. She was merely feeling the chill of exposure, the kind of emotional and mental exposure left after all her careful walls constructed between her tender heart and the world she dared not love were torn down to leave her defenseless.

Perhaps it wasn't her that was left defenseless really. She had always been a particularly affectionate person; full of love for almost anyone she met and spent time with. It was probably why all of her friends had met the same eventual end as her family had. If she wasn't so prone to loving her friends the same as she loved her family, they might have been spared. But since Aki had no real control of her tendency to care too much about the people she knew, she erected her walls to shield everyone she didn't know from becoming someone she did know and cared about.

It was a terrible sacrifice on her part. She had never lived without caring deeply about someone before. It was an integral part of her and to deny it was kin to severing a limb. Not unlike the trapped fox gnawing off a limb to break free, Aki had locked herself away to escape the possibility and guilt of allowing anyone else to fall to her curse. A promise made becomes a promise painfully kept.

Now she lay exposed, her heart no longer squeezed inside the confines of her self-made prison and the terrible fear ran rampant in her mind. And having Sesshoumaru's arm cuddling her closer in response to some unconscious sense of her unease wasn't helping her any, despite his intention.

What Aki needed to do was rebuild her reinforced partitions, closing her off from the people around her. She currently held no greater need. Still, she glanced up at the big reason for her silently fearful ponderings. She knew that blocking him out after their shared intimacy would be near impossible now.

Aki had never shared such intimacy with anyone else in her life and she had still loved greatly and painfully all in her acquaintance. How could she not then develop feelings (if she hadn't already) for the person with whom she had shared such an experience? She couldn't block him out. Her gaze turned sad, so she would simply have to avoid him and any further contact would not take place. She would not allow another to fall to her curse least of all someone connected and relied upon by so many others.

In order to follow through with her decision she would need to heal quickly and most likely avoid further conversation with her host and his people. Aki sighed, that was easier said than done. She couldn't be rude to anyone, though as an American in Japan it was almost expected by the Natives through either misunderstanding or a slight ignorance of the local custom. And Very likely Sesshoumaru was not going to allow her to escape just like that, she'd had enough experience with him to know that much, even if he didn't recognize her from their previous encounters.

With a sigh, Aki released her troubling thoughts into the void as unconsciousness claimed her once again.

Directly on the heels of Aki's descent into dreamland, Sesshoumaru cracked open his brilliant eyes to the morning sun that was sliding sneakily into the room. He drew the warm body beside him closer to his chest allowing a small curvature of his lips to tease his mouth. Amazingly he was feeling perfectly content with his actions of the previous night, and not yet ready to move past them.

It was wonderful to awaken with a warm body beside him, one that had offered him nothing but companionship and pleasure in the time they'd spent together. He didn't need to be wary of the unconscious female by his side; she could not harm him. Aki had to have been greatly weakened by her bought of illness and lack of nourishment over the past few days. Not that she would have wanted to cause him harm even if she could. It was not her way.

There was something overwhelmingly joyous about knowing he could be with her and never have to worry about her ulterior motives. Aki had none. AS Sesshoumaru understood it, she did not desire wealth or power the way that most others did. As evinced by her handing over her collection of Shikon shards to the hanyou's wench without so much as an argument. Neither did she particularly desire companionship, as her technical innocence would suggest. Likewise her insistence on traveling and fighting alone bespoke her desire to maintain a solitary existence.

HE was pretty sure that she had not particularly desired his company as she had quite plainly tried to avoid it so there was no real chance that she had planned to seduce her way into his life. She was impossibly honest in a contradictory sort of way. Meaning she never lied about anything but her own health, which was quite enough to lie about in his opinion. She did not truly lie but merely mangled the truth just enough to make it nearly impossible to detect. And for all her honesty, she didn't always tell the whole truth especially when no one had asked for it in the first place. Sesshoumaru could never be quite sure if she was truly all right or not unless she collapsed and proved herself to be very ill.

Aki was an enigma beyond the ability of even his elevated levels of comprehension. Her mystifying ability to disguise or block her scent from even his superior sense of smell made her even more difficult to understand. A most intriguing puzzle, and all his for the time being. Even if he never did learn all her secrets, there were other things he could do with their time.

Sesshoumaru pulled her even closer with his arm and Aki rolled away from him in her sleep. Her unconscious action gave him pause. Perhaps he would not have as much time as he thought. Youkai did have one-night stands upon occasion, but it was very rare. Youkai have long memories and they live for a long time. One never knew just who could mean the difference between life and death in the far distant future, so one was very careful about offending one's lovers.

Mating contracts were serious business. Both parties involved had to know the rules and there were contracts of varying degrees. Sesshoumaru had initiated a contract of the lowest degree. A rather low-class description would be that they had decided to "practice" the act that would eventually aid in procreation. Neither party would conduct affairs outside of the pair if there was mutual respect and honor. Either one of them could end it at any time, which would be followed by a grace period in which neither party pursued a sexual liaison with anyone else.

That was how it was done to avoid hurt feelings or injured pride. It was why single night romps seldom occur. He certainly hoped this wasn't one of them.

Sesshoumaru's eyes briefly burned over with a bestial red. No, this wouldn't be like that; he wouldn't allow it.

Subconsciously the inu youkai had grown far too attached to allow Aki to just slip away after such a brief taste of her life's cup. She healed him and inspired him to deep contemplation over things that had nothing to do with his dull life. She made him question himself about insignificant things and instinctually he knew that he needed that in his life. Besides, he didn't really need the pain a separation and contract severance would cause right now and he didn't think Aki did either.

Then again…

Aki was constantly in a great deal of emotional pain already if her pet ghost was to be believed. Could she handle that added pain a separation would cause? Would she even notice it with all the other pain she continually endured?

A sharp pain seized his heart, somehow he could see that fear of pain is not something that could hold her in place with anyone. She could decide to leave and that would be the end of it. What would he do if she did decide to leave? The unnamed fear in his heart resolved into concrete decision. If she tried to leave, he would simply hunt her down. End of story.

Sesshoumaru sighed. It wasn't good to contemplate such serious and depressing things upon first awakening. He sat up as Aki rolled further away from him restlessly. He lifted his arm to draw the blankets up and paused to watch the goose flesh creep over the newly exposed flesh. It was a fascinating thing to watch as, to his knowledge, no demon ever got goose bumps like that. Strange.

Sesshoumaru pulled the covers up to preserve the rest of her warmth before slipping out of the futon. He pulled on some clothing and crossed over to the sheltered balcony/porch that looked over the view. His rooms were built so that they drew even with the cliff face underneath him. The drop off afforded a stunning view bathed in sunlight only slightly blocked by the mostly transparent Fred who was barely kept from frothing at the mouth. The only thing keeping the ghost from it was his being dead.

"Do you have any idea of the ramifications of your actions?" The dead human exploded. "You bastard! You'd better have a damn good reason for this buster. She deserves better. A lot better!"

Sesshoumaru was quite honestly taken by surprise. He couldn't remember the last time some human had taken to scolding him about anything, let alone actions they hadn't been present for. At least he hoped Fred hadn't been present for them, it was hard to tell with ghosts. Which was part of why he was so surprised, Fred wasn't just a human; he was a dead human.

Sesshoumaru's wayward thoughts about the oddity of being scolded by a dead human allowed him to miss some of Fred's tirade. "-bastard. That girl in there voluntarily walled off the world to protect it from her and there you go all wrecking it. And for what? Do you even have a reason for what you did? It better be something more substantial than 'she was there'!" Fred continued nonstop. He didn't have to stop for anything because he didn't have to breath. "Because if Aki can't shut everybody out again she'll wind up breaking her promise and allowing somebody to die by her curse again. Then she'll really die!" the ghost moaned horrifically. Apparently being dead did not mean you lost your sense of drama. "She can't take anymore death like that."

Sesshoumaru mentally snorted before cutting into the tide of Fred's words. "I am no mere human to be taken down so easily by some mysterious curse!" he declared with feeling.

The ghost glared at his interruption. "Oh really?" Fred growled. "Do you remember what I told you about Aki's nightmares? About how she found her family, all dead? Do you? Aki may have been raised human, she may even be part human, but she's the only one who survived. The human family died and she found them. Her friends all died, and she was unable to say good-bye. Did you think that through all that her birth family would have left her to suffer alone if they had survived?" Fred harrumphed at the thought. "I've met her blood relations. They're all dead, killed by that same curse you think you'll be able to live through. Aki's birth mother was a full-blooded demoness and quite powerful. Her grandmother was even more powerful and she succumbed as well. It doesn't speak well for your curse resistant powers now does it!"

Sesshoumaru blinked, stunned. A curse had wiped out an entire youkai family? It was unheard of! Impossible, he would've heard something about it, and yet… He'd never known the dead to lie about death. The again, he'd never had a ghost chew him out before either.

Everything about Aki was strange. The company she keeps could not be matched for their uniqueness. The strange things that occurred around her were unimaginable. But nothing was more odd than the girl herself. That reminded him.

"Just how human is she?" Sesshoumaru asked, completely derailing Fred's train of thought.

"Huh?" the ghost articulated in the most unsophisticated manner.

"Aki, how human is she?" he reiterated. He hated to repeat himself. "She seems completely youkai at times, and then she proves to have some subtle human behavior that no youkai could fabricate."

Fred blinked at the taiyoukai. "It depends. What type of answer do you want? Physically, there's not really enough human in her to shake a stick at. She could even have a true demonic form like we've heard you do. We're not sure. All her demon attributes have yet to manifest themselves. It may take years to figure everything out." Fred paused before continuing, "Psychologically and emotionally, she's very human. Up until just a few months ago when we had a run in with a rather sadistic witch we thought she was human. So that's how she thinks and acts, like a human. It's rather difficult to change that part of yourself, and I really don't see Aki ever doing so. Being raised human does leave an indelible mark on a personality." Fred grinned, "Even as a human she defied classification. She's not good or evil, human or youkai, she simply is."

Sesshoumaru sighed as it slowly sank in that Aki most likely didn't know a thing about youkai society and customs. Oh was his future ever looking messed up right now! He winced internally as the ghost returned to his previous train of thought rather loudly. The worst thing about it was that he couldn't just kill the little annoyance like the inu youkai normally could.

Sesshoumaru retreated into the room where he had slept only to find it terrifyingly empty. Aki was not where he had left her.

No Aki had awakened almost the moment after he had stepped into Fred's raging storm of scolding words. Aki didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to know what they were talking about, even if it was about her. So she forced herself out of the very inviting blankets and into the not-so-warm clothing that had been left for her. Then she retreated back into the room that had been home to her bath the night before.

Sesshoumaru didn't know this, all he knew was that the room was now empty and he couldn't find a scent to follow or any indication as to where she might have gone.

Fred still hadn't missed a beat in his continued angry diatribe on his friend's behalf. He knew where Aki was. He always knew, she was his anchor, his link to the living world. It would take more than the worst Naraku could come up with to remove the knowledge from Fred. It just didn't occur to him that Sesshoumaru might be fretting about where she was. After all, he was very into his vituperation of the prior evening's last events. He simply hadn't noticed the inu youkai's strange behavior, not that it was particularly pronounced.

Luckily for Sesshoumaru, his eyes were drawn to the partially opened entryway of the chamber alongside of his usual dressing room. He had almost forgotten about the room hidden behind that screen door.

Aki had apparently disappeared into the inner sanctum reserved for the dressing and/or resting of ladies. Sesshoumaru had never been allowed into one of these special rooms when there was any reason to want to before. The ladies then had been his father's and he; a child in the eyes of society had no right to enter them. Not that it kept him from trying; he was a taiyoukai's son after all. Nobody told Sesshoumaru what he couldn't do. At least that's what he had thought at the time. Apparently, he was wrong, as Tama had proven both proficient in keeping him out and strangely omniscient in her ability to do so.

Now He sought entrance to that mysterious room. Now he had a reason and a right. All this passed through Sesshoumaru's mind as he strode to slide into the sun drenched alcove in search of his guest.

There was Aki, apparently unconscious on a pile of cushions. A half eaten tray of cold meats and other light fare sat next to her on a low table. Sesshoumaru couldn't help but offer up thanks to whatever might hear. Aki had eaten, she had been hungry and that could only be a good sign in his mind. He slowly approached her lounging body craving to touch her without disturbing her slumber. Besides, he argued childishly with himself, Aki was improperly dressed and obviously needed somebody to raise the cloth from its precarious position of nearly exposing part of her chest. He just wanted to ensure nobody saw more than they should, peaking wasn't part of his agenda, really.

"Leave her alone, Sesshoumaru-sama," Tama's soft voice came from behind him shocking the still ranting Fred into silence as well. "You'll disturb her."

Sesshoumaru tensed up from a thousand remembered encounters in this very room when he was young. He forced himself to relax. He was no longer a boy; he was lord here and Aki was his lady now. He had a right to be in this room like his father had before him. Besides none of his other run ins with Tama had included her talking to him before removing him bodily from his trespassing.

Tama's eyes flashed at the ghost before glancing back to Sesshoumaru's. She was asking if he desired the ghost's removal. Internally he grinned at the thought of Fred's eviction but he knew batter than to actually do it. He had to tread carefully around Aki until he knew just how much work he had to do to keep her. It wouldn't do to immediately alienate her simply because he didn't like her pet ghost.

Fred ignored their exchange. He was too busy wondering why Aki was faking sleep. The ghost knew there had to be a reason and whatever it was couldn't be good.

Aki for her part was debating whether or not she should notify the people in the room with her of the holy terror coming there way. She groaned internally. At this very moment she was annoyed with every one of them and couldn't care less one way or the other, but it would be rather bad to greet the incoming problem on her back.

With a bone weary sigh Aki hauled herself to her feet. She pointedly stared at the outer door where the oncoming footsteps tripped over Rin as the little girl was coming to visit her Sesshoumaru-sama. The former English tutor winced for the little girl but could spare her no more thought as the erstwhile imposition entered the room.

Fred's groan was lost under the new comer's outburst. "Aki-sama, I heard how badly you'd been injured," the long eared chibi overwhelmed all the available space left in the room. "When I found out they'd left you, I had to come. If only I had been there! You wouldn't have been hurt at all! Kagome's mother sent these," and the rabbit demon promptly changed Aki's clothes so fast it was like they simply manifested on her frame. "She was worried, as was I. And Kaede sent you this," a package thumped solidly against Aki's constricted chest as Hanako continued in her self-important worried rant.

Kagome's mother, as dear as she was, didn't exactly get Aki's size right. Mrs. H. hadn't really seen Aki since her run in with the Urasei and so the wardrobe she'd chosen to send was sized to match the frame Aki no longer had. A frame that was a great deal shorter, less muscular and not quite so busty. Aki was being forced to look like a badly dressed Barbie doll and couldn't breathe. The only thing good about this situation was that only Fred knew what a Barbie doll was.

The ever-watchful Tama silently noted Aki's problem with her new attire and instantly moved to fix the problem. Of course everybody else's attention was chained to the particularly obnoxious Hanako.

"I knew you'd be here when I heard who you'd been left with," Hanako still hadn't stopped talking yet. "It's indecent I say, but I wasn't there and Fred is less than helpful and everyone else was more likely to increase your danger I suppose It's not to be help. At least I knew where you'd end up which I wouldn't if they'd left you with Kikyou. No knowing where she would've gone…"

Just as Aki was about to pass out from lack of Oxygen Tama reentered the room and briskly hauled Aki out of the suffocating shirt. Then, after everybody had gotten an eyeful, she garbed the female in one of Sesshoumaru's spares.

Aki was so incredibly mortified that her oxygen-starved body couldn't support further conscious thought and she fainted into Tama's arms.

Hanako had instantly stopped talking with her mouth hanging open and a chilling gleam in her eye. Sesshoumaru had a similar gleam in his eye and poor Fred had the ghost's equivalent of a bloody nose. Exposing Aki probably wasn't the greatest thing Tama could've done.

"Give her here you old goat!" Hanako demanded, wary of allowing her favorite person to remain in the hands of someone that had caused her to faint. It was amazing just how much Hanako could see and yet not understand.

"Why? So you can suffocate her some more?" Tama refused.

"No," Hanako replied grandly. "So that the fragile invalid can feel the warmth and security of my true and passionate love."

"Hanako," Fred groaned, he'd hoped the demon bunny might have toned it down a bit over time. Sesshoumaru and Tama, who had not previously been exposed to Hanako's special insanity, openly stared at the ridiculous creature they now found themselves meeting.

Sesshoumaru recovered himself first. "The only person who has any right to make claims of that sort upon Aki, is me," he stated smoothly. And Hanako went ballistic.

It was too loud in the small space and Aki began to stir. Tama shifted her burden slightly and silently huffed with exasperation. This Aki person, so new to her care, needed rest and quiet. Something she obviously wasn't going to get in here with everyone making demands of her.

Truly Tama Hadn't thought Sesshoumaru would be as bad as he was demonstrating and she certainly hadn't known anything about Hanako. Still, the girl was her responsibility and as such the matron would ensure a full recovery, even if she had to piss off her lord to do it. He had ordered her to look after the female after all.

Tama clenched her jaw in firm resolution and lifted Aki completely into her arms. Then the chatelaine headed directly for the outer door.

"Hey you old goat!" Hanako challenged the elder female. "Where are you taking my Aki!" Sesshoumaru likewise demanded an answer of his servant, albeit a bit more quietly.

"Aki needs rest and quiet," Tama began darkly. "I'm going to make sure she gets it even if I have to protect her from you!" she glared at Sesshoumaru. "I am determined to follow my orders the way I always have."

Sesshoumaru blinked in confusion. He couldn't remember the exact orders he had issued upon his arrival, nor could he remember the order in which they'd been given, but he was beginning to wish he could because he could see pain in his near future because of them.

"Tama." He said quietly. Only someone who'd raised him would detect the barest hint of desperate fear in his tone, begging her not to take Aki from him.

Tama looked at him before turning swiftly and quickly sweeping out the door into the hallway. On her way down the hall she collected Rin, it wouldn't do to leave a small defenseless child in the path of an enraged demon lord. A few doors down Tama stopped and entered the room there marked before swiftly erecting on of her legendary barriers.

Sesshoumaru lost control the second Aki vanished from his sight. With a roar he threw himself into the hall after the servant bearing his mate. Unfortunately Tama proved to be just as fast now as she always had been when he was a child. There was no sign of where they had gone.

He could not track them by scent. Tama's scent was thick within his estate from her constant movement within it and Aki's scent, if he had actually known it, would've been easily buried in the thoroughfare of the hallway. He had to calm down slightly to attempt other methods of tracking.

Hanako's hysteria had demolished any trace of air current that might have been left by Tama's swift passage. Her constant motion and incessant noise grated on the inu youkai's frayed nerves until he finally clobbered the hyper bunny. While knocking her unconscious didn't repair the obliterated clues or make Aki's scent easier to find, it did make him feel slightly better.

"Effective stress reliever isn't it?" Fred commented quietly. He'd wanted to clobber Hanako for ages. Being a ghost made it impossible for him to do.

"You just wish you could do the same," Sesshoumaru replied absently.

"You're damn right I do!" Fred sighed. "And Aki won't lay a hand on anyone who doesn't offer violence first."

Sesshoumaru felt a bit self-conscious at that. He wasn't one to wait for an attack to come. What would Aki think about that? Best not to think of it and keep his mind on the task before him.

He'd eliminated scent and air movement, what else could he use to find Aki? He glanced over at the still unconscious Hanako. No way would he ask her for help, she'd probably leave him behind as a rival for Aki's attention. That left Fred. Like Fred would be helpful.

However, at this point Sesshoumaru was willing to try almost anything, anything being Fred. "Can you find her?" he asked the ghost.

"Can I find her?" Fred asked mockingly. "How could I not? She's my frigging anchor. She's what holds me to the living world. Can I find her?" he scoffed. Fred vanished. He expected to go POOF right where Aki was, but there was something in the way. "What the hell is this?" the ghost demanded as he reappeared right outside of a door, drawing Sesshoumaru's attention. "I can't get through."

Sesshoumaru studied the door carefully. Tama's barriers had always been known for their strength and resilience. Now she'd proven able to block out ghosts. Not that it helped his cause any. He wanted to be where Aki was, and Aki was on the wrong side of this barrier.

Sesshoumaru's control slipped again and he proceeded to test the resilience of this particular barrier.

Tama was rather annoyed by the racket. Aki needed quiet and that constant banging wasn't helping. Impulsively she sent a surge of power across the surface of her barrier and zapped the youkai banding so inconsiderately against the door.

Aki was still unconscious, tucked safe and warm in the rather large futon this particular room sported. Rin had taken one look at Aki's pale face and crawled right in to snuggle next to the larger female. The two were snuggled together at the moment and wholly unaware of just what insanity was going on in the hall.

Tama gazed down at them and chuckled. "Sesshoumaru-sama," she whispered to the somewhat stale air, "you're a strange one. You pick out your children before you pick out your mate."

Tama tucked the girls in a bit more securely before clucking to herself. This room wasn't quite as well cared for as the lord's and it could use a little work before either girl awoke. Sesshoumaru would have her head if he knew the state of this room. Normally he might not care, but she suspected he would want to give Aki the best impression of his home and nothing less. The old housekeeper sighed and set to work.