((A/N: First order of business: KasperLassie and f.e.e.l in t.e.a.r.s got the Problem right. Next: If anyone complains about the ending of this chapter I will be really annoyed. I might even decide to delete the review if I'm feeling pissed enough- which means banning you from reviewing, if you're logged in. Guys, I leave stuff to your imagination. You decide what happens! I will obviously update eventually and you'll get some big hints, but if I choose not to write something, that's totally my beeswax, and not yours. Next: I feel it is my duty to inform you that I am going on week's vacation to New Orleans next week. It probably won't make a difference to my updating, but we'll see. If you want some vampire stuff in the meantime outside the fanfiction world, I've become an Anne Rice fan this year, and particularly reccomend The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. Just read anything with M. de Lioncourt in it! You will be satisfied, I promise you. Check my profile for a little taste of Rice's style, which continually inspires me. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is great if you want something lighter page-wise and more romantic.))
From the journal of Inuyasha no Chimamire
You know, there's something about high society people. Everyone who has money troubles, or is just reasonably well off goes to maybe- I don't know, four parties a year? And less than that are fancy occasions.
On the other hand, this is the second gala this week held in the honor of Kajishi Sango-san, and I don't know about garden parties and that sort of thing, which they probably have as well. It's ridiculous.
But come to think of it, who am I to complain? The more fancy parties where they don't check the guest lists, the more chances to successfully enchant Kagome.
Oh, hell, I don't like that sentence. It makes it sound as if I have some sort of hold over her. Honestly and truly, I don't have any control over her stronger than any other man. Perhaps I have the slight advantage of being able to talk to her in her head...but she could expel me if she really wanted to. Which, I might add, she doesn't.
I didn't bother to find a change of clothes. It isn't as if I can accumulate sweat, or any other kind of negative odor (except, perhaps, the smell of death, if there really is such a thing).
To my personal delight, Sesshoumaru decided to find a fresh victim tonight, instead of accompanying me. He claims he prefers not to mix with filthy mortals.
Ha. As if. I know he liked all those women staring at him. He's an ego maniac, and there's nothing an ego maniac likes better than living (or undead) proof that they're better than everyone else.
Indeed, it takes one to know one. I won't deny that I am another ego maniac. I just don't feel the need to flaunt it at every possible moment, which, admittedly, is a bit of a contradiction. I know I'm better than him, and about 90 of the human race, but I don't make a hobby out of rubbing it in their face.
Mostly because, after a rough 200 years living with someone, you learn that it gets exhausting even for the undead to carry on eternal war when you could just as easily just make nasty faces at them behind their backs.
Yet another reason why making Kagome mine will be bliss. I won't have to deal with that bastard anymore!
I followed Kagome's scent to the particular gala of tonight- not awfully hard, considering that half of Kyoto was attending it, and, even better, she tends to move towards the side of the room, away from everyone else, making it that much easier to find her.
Well, all right, usually this is the case. To my annoyance, once I got inside the ballroom, there she was having a conversation with three other women! Of all the bloody nights for her friends to show up, it had to be tonight, didn't it?
"Oooh, Kagome-chan, doesn't Moriyama-san look handsome tonight?"
I let out an involuntary snarl towards one of Kagome's friends. No one should be directing her attention towards another male!
"I don't know. I suppose. He's Sango-chan's fiancé, anyway, Ayumi, so you had better restrict yourself to looking," Kagome replied to my intense relief.
"You haven't got any taste whatsoever, Kagome-chan," her other friend teased. "I still can't believe you thought Satoshi-kun was ugly!"
"That was two years ago!" Kagome protested. "And he was, too! Worse yet, he had an awful personality. How can you possibly be attracted to someone like that?"
"Don't ask us- try the tingling feeling in the pits of our stomachs whenever he flipped his hair!" the last woman giggled. I winced at her shrill voice.
In fact, I was seriously contemplating breaking my vow not to kill when a man with red hair entered the room.
"Oooh, Nagita-san!" All three women chorused, and hurried over to pester him, leaving my Kagome alone at the side of the room.
I quietly stepped behind her and watched her lower her head and fiddle with the sleeve of her kimono.
"You weren't talking to those women the other night," I said.
She started, and then turned around. "Ah, Inuyasha-san! You startled me," she said meekly. "I don't really have that much in common with them, but we talk sometimes. They're nice enough girls, once you get to know them."
"I doubt the effort would be worth it."
Kagome let out a short laugh. "Well, they would treat you differently then they treat me, obviously."
I stepped closer to her, quirking an eyebrow. "Explain."
It was amusing to watch her unconsciously raise her hand to her mouth so she could nervously bite at a fingernail. "Well, they are rather preoccupied with ogling men- which is probably what they would do to you."
"Are you saying I am ogle-worthy?"
She turned nearly as dark as fresh blood. "That...that was not precisely what I was implying..."
I feigned hurt. "You were implying that they had no taste, and therefore they would descend on me?"
Kagome was horrified. "No, no! Not at all!"
"Then I must admit complete puzzlement as to what the implied message was," I retorted. "Either you find me attractive, or you don't, there is no middle ground here, Miss Higurashi."
Ah, now I'd run her into a corner. She'd have to admit what I had already guessed- or, there was a slight chance that she would snap, and tell me that she was simply trying to spare my feelings in the matter.
As the silence stretched on, my paranoia increased. Despite the way I talk to Kagome, I do not have very much confidence regarding females.
After all, why else would I approach her first in her mind? I wanted to make sure she was at least partially familiar with me before she saw me. Once I saw her with my own eyes, rather than through telepathy, I gained the confidence to approach her with something akin to charm.
Perhaps she was not ready...perhaps I would have to let some feeble mortal drag a piece of my soul to the grave after all.
"I...must admit that I am far less than adverse to you physically, Kokoro-san," Kagome spoke up shyly. "But I hope you will not think less of me for it."
My undead heart leaped.
"It has been a long time since I encountered a woman of modesty, Kagome-san. I only hope you will not think me too forward in pressing the issue."
She blushed again.
"Ugh, how disgusting!" A woman's piercing voice cut in. I could hear her, but didn't know if Kagome could. "Higurashi-san has been coquetting around Kokoro-sama at every function possible."
There was a pause while her partner replied that she had only noticed us together at the first gala and this one.
"Didn't you notice, Chigusa? They've been together at all of the galas, not to mention at the opera yesterday. The only time Higurashi-san socializes with anyone else is at the garden parties!"
I wanted to wring that stupid woman's neck at the mortified expression on Kagome's face. She could clearly hear what the other woman was saying.
"They quite clearly do not think I am a woman of modesty," she whispered.
"You are," I said harshly. "The truth is what matters, not what anyone says about it."
She turned her face to the floor. "People will not say that..."
I boldly grabbed her shoulder and tilted her chin up. "But why would you care?" I echoed the same in her head, to emphasize my point.
Kagome's eyes flashed with a rebellious streak. Her features widened into a smile. "To hell with them!" she whispered. "If they're going to talk about us, why walk with care around socially acceptable behavior?"
I was thrilled at what she was implying- if I was reading her right.
"Shall we leave the ballroom?" I asked, offering her my arm.
She accepted it, the smirk still present on her face. "I believe we shall."