Inutori: I'm back...finally...it's been forever since I've updated and I apologize.
Sagi: Inutori does not own Inuyasha, but she does own this story...so go ahead and read it!

Recap:
KIkyou's dead, Inuyasha dragged Kagome to the bridge where Kikyou was murdered, his elder sister shows up. Inutora takes Inuyasha and Kagome into outerspace where Inutora tells Kagome that she's engaged to Inuyasha. (Too bad I couldn't have just written that for the first 8 chapters instead of actually story, aye?

Chapter 9
Marriage?

I haven't been able to find the motivation to get out of bed yet this morning. You wouldn't either if your whole life had been turned upside down like mine has been. Last night Inutora told me I am engaged to jerk-face Inuyasha. My life is ending. Can I kill something before I die? Namely an insensitive butthead known by many as a silver-haired, doggy-eared prince?

A knock on the door pulls me from thinking about my woes. Who could it be this time? Inutora stopped by half an hour ago to invite me to breakfast. She wouldn't be bothering me again, would she?

Before I have the chance to answer my own question Inuyasha comes through the threshold carrying a large tray. Why me?

I slump back down in bed, pulling the quilt up to my ears and hoping that he'll just disappear. Like that'll happen? Maybe I should quit dreaming and get back to reality? Ha! I should have done that before I got in a spaceship and was taken to who-knows-where. Maybe mom shouldn't have let me read all of those sci-fi novels when I was little. All of that craziness has found its way into my reality.

Inuyasha carelessly dumps the tray on the bed over me, and I realize that it was my breakfast he was carrying. Wait a minute. I can't eat this much! This is enough for at least three people! My "fiancé" climbs up on the bed and straddles my calves, sitting down to face me on the other side of the breakfast tray.

I just can't help but glare at him. I hope he shrivels and dies before my next birthday. Wasn't that when Inutora said I'd marry this bozo? A month after my sixteenth birthday? I'm beginning to hate whoever invented birthdays.

Inuyasha coughs. "Inutora said you needed to eat, wench."

"I'm not hungry." So maybe I am fibbing, but who really cares? This bozo doesn't, and no one else witnessed my lie.

Unfortunately, Inuyasha doesn't seem to take the hint. He hasn't budged. There's actually a boyish cuteness to his face when he's not glaring. Gah! What am I thinking? I can't start liking this freak!

"Do you really want me to shove this stuff down your throat?" Inuyasha's expression just turned more threatening. Maybe I should tell him I'll eat after he leaves? Would it work?

There's no harm in trying, I always say. "I'll eat when you leave."

Inuyasha's face only hardens more with my comment. "Inutora won't let me eat unless I'm in here."

That'd explain the excess amounts of food. Drat. I guess there is nothing I can do to weasel my way out of eating with Inuyasha.

I sigh in resignation, accepting my fate for the moment. At least the food doesn't look half bad. There are scrambled eggs and rice along with a fruit bowl.

I pick up the spoon and dish up some rice into one of the bowls. Glancing at Inuyasha out of the corner of my eye, I realize the proper thing to do is to serve him first and then get some for myself.

So that's what I do. Inuyasha's surprised expression puts a smirk on my face when I hand him the rice bowl. I quickly dish myself up some rice and pick up my chopsticks to begin eating.

The silence dragging on between Inuyasha and me is tiresome. But I don't know what kind of conversation we should have over breakfast. Silence it is, I guess.

I can't stop myself from looking up at him as he inhales his food. It's quite amusing to think that a prince has these sorts of manners. Hopefully he behaves better in front of his mother.

When I look up at him, he does the same, and I find my eyes glued in place. I am staring right into his eyes, and he is staring into mine. Kind of unnerving, but I'll live if he can.

The expression on his face makes me think that perhaps he is as curious about me and marriage as I am about him and this engagement. I don't know how long we have stared at each other, but I think the food is getting cold.

My leg twitches under his weight and whatever magic held us bound is broken. The heat in my face is unbearable and I desperately want to hide under the covers again.

Inuyasha's bowl is empty, so I use it as a distraction from having to look directly at him. I fill the bowl with more rice and pat it down into a neat mound, trying to suppress the emotions twirling in my gut.

It feels as if I have just gotten off of a roller coaster and no one let me sit down for a breather. Silence continues to surround us as we finish up our meal. It surprises me how much Inuyasha is able to eat. I'm jealous that he can eat so much and yet stay so thin.

I lay back in my bed and stretch my arms above my head, glad that I have fully recovered from my illness. Or maybe I haven't…after all, if I am lucky, this whole plot is just some concoction of my bizarre imagination.

The thought makes me grin, despite how down I've been feeling since last night. Thanks to Inutora's story I was barely able to get any sleep at all.

Inuyasha picks up the tray and leans over to set it on the floor. I can't place the feeling running up and down my spine as he shifts his weight on my legs.

"Oi. Wench. Your stomach is showing."

I wrench my arms back down to my sides to pull down my shirt and pick my head up to glare at Inuyasha, who is once again perched on my legs. Very effective at pinning me to my bed; I'd give him a standing ovation…that is…if I COULD stand.

"So sorry, your mighty-stupidness. Did I offend your eye sockets?" I mock him with glee, basking in the anger that plays across his face with each passing second.

"Look here, woman," Inuyasha lunges forward and pins my arms at my sides, kneeling above me, "I take no pleasure in being in your company. You would do well to remember this and the fact that the only reason you're alive right now is because of your father."

The heat once again rises in my face as Inuyasha's head hovers inches above mine and I'm left completely defenseless. Despite his threats, I still don't want to submit my will to this bozo. He'll have to kill me before that happens. "Then kill me."

Okay. So no one ever rewarded me for being the brightest crayon in the box. Telling him to commit homicide is definitely one of the stupider things I've done with my life. But seeing his sharp, long claws inch toward my neck in response is a bit much even for me.

I scream and hope someone, somewhere will hear me.

Inuyasha's body collides with my own as he covers his ears to protect them from my wailing. Not what I had intended, but this works too. He curses me and turns his head into the crook of my neck where I can feel his breath fuming against my exposed skin.

His weight is crushing me. Forget that he's skinny; I wish he were light to boot. That would make sustaining his weight that much easier. Instead I have to endure his bone-crushing mass until he decides to get off of me. Now I know why I was having trouble freeing my legs from underneath him during breakfast. He must be made of steel.

"Stupid woman. Your voice is going to make my ears bleed."

The day I hear an actual compliment come out of his mouth I'll know I've had too much to drink…that or he has. "Excuse me for reacting like any normal person when threatened with death."

Inuyasha hasn't yet moved from his position of burying his face in my neck. "Keh. Most people don't tell someone to kill them."

Much to my annoyance he is right; what makes it worse is that I know it. I've always hated admitting defeat and right now it is taking every ounce of will power I possess to keep from continuing with a pointless fight.

"Can you at least get off of me?" I sigh with annoyance, forcing air into my lungs and feeling it rush out again under Inuyasha's dead-weight.

"No."

"Excuse me?" Why can't he get off of me, exactly? Surely he doesn't expect me to allow him to…

His snoring breaks through my train of thought and I groan. This guy is the rudest living thing I have ever met. How can he fall asleep just like that? I just don't get it. With a start, I realize that this was the second time he has fallen asleep laying on me since we had met.

Accepting my fate for the moment, I look up at the dull ceiling, eyeing the metal plates and bolts that held them in place. Once again I find myself thinking that my life is one big, low-budget Star Wars remake. Why can't I just live a normal life like everybody else in the world?

But NO; I have to be carted off by an idiot into outer space for who-knows-what. I close my eyes and let the darkness engulf me.

I look to the side, seeing a large boomerang fly through the air beside me. Looking behind where I stand, I see a young woman in a black full-body leotard. She catches the boomerang and slides back slightly across the ground from the weapon's momentum.

She yells something, but I can't understand her. The boomerang is thrown again and I follow its path to a horde of giant wasps. Ugh, I hate regular wasps; being the size of my torso makes it a hundred times worse.

I watch as the woman jumps onto something that looks like a surf board and flies off. The bugs chase her, but I don't follow, instead looking back at the cave the bees had been protecting.. Just inside there's a man crouched down, covered by a baboon pelt and holding something shiny in his palm.

I must have fallen asleep, because my eyes jerk open when I feel something pinch my neck. It is painful, on top of catching me off-guard.

Inuyasha's dead-weight is still on top of me, but in my surprise I shove him off and jump off of the bed. I grab my neck, pulling my hand away again to see blood on my palm.

I run quickly to the bathroom to look in a mirror and find teeth marks in my neck.

"You bit me!" I jerk around and step out of the small side room to glare at Inuyasha, who is slowly sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. I think I shoved him into the wall in my rush to get out of the bed.

"What was that for, wench?"

"You bit me!" I repeat myself while holding a hand to my neck, feeling angrier as the seconds pass. For the first time since I met him, to my surprise, Inuyasha turns red.

"Yeah right!" He snaps at me, folding his arms and legs while remaining on the bed.

He is so going to get it; I'll kill him one day. "Then explain the teeth marks in my neck!" I march towards him, pulling the hand away from my neck and pointing at the lovely circular formation of puncture wounds.

Inuyasha leans forward slightly, glaring at my neck as if willing the marks to go away. I wish. It does sting, after all.

"Keh."

He turns away from me, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes. I glare at his profile. He is so stuck up. "You jerk. You could at least go find me a band-aid or something."

It would help to know my way around this stupid place. Inuyasha probably has a lot better idea of where everything is, much to my misfortune.

The door behind me opens suddenly and I jump around and let out a yelp of surprise. One of the crew stands in the doorway, looking disheveled.

"Mikotu Inuyasha, Captain Inutora wants you on the bridge right now." The girl had orange and black hair pooling around her face, her eyes displaying some sort of fear.

Inuyasha jumps up off my bed at a speed that surprises me and he runs to the door, sparing me one last glance before leaving the room with the tiger-looking girl.

"Alone once again." With a sigh I go into the bathroom again and look at the marks on my neck a little more closely. Is it just me, or does the bruise forming look like some sort of unfamiliar symbol instead of normal blood pooling under the skin?

What did that stupid prince do to me? I find myself sighing again as I wet a hand towel and wipe it over the side of my neck to wash off the blood. Life just hasn't been on my side lately.

With curiosity I make my way out of Inutora's quarters. No one told me to stay there, after all. The bridge is up ahead of me, if I remember correctly from yesterday.

I reach the bridge and freeze in the doorway. On a large screen of some sort there is a picture of a man whose face is mostly covered by a baboon pelt. When I glance at Inutora I see Inuyasha standing next to her, both of them looking extremely tense.

"Give up this little escapade. You'll never win against me, inu-hime." The baboon-man looks smug despite the covering over his face. That annoys me: what does he have to be smug about?

"Shut up, Naraku. You severely underestimate the Inu Taishou and what we're capable of." I can almost feel the contempt pouring off of Inutora in waves. She doesn't seem to be aware of anything but that man on the screen.

"You're capable of nothing but becoming a semi-decent throw-rug before my hearth." I bristle with the man's evil undertones, stepping forward angrily.

Words leave my mouth before I can stop them, "Listen here, scumbag, I am sick and tired of you putting yourself on a pedestal and acting like you rule the universe. Murdering and manipulating for your own gain is a sick game that will be stopped. Better settle your affairs, Naraku, because you're not going to be alive much longer."

The mouth left exposed under the baboon pelt frowns darkly at me before the screen suddenly goes black. With the communication obviously terminated, I can visibly see the air thin as the tension dissipates.

"Kagome-chan!" I look up at Inutora and Inuyasha as the former comes rushing towards me. She appears to have a look of smug glee mixed with concern.

I smile warmly, feeling better after letting loose my frustration at Naraku. He isn't my only problem, but he seems to have been a good way to relieve stress. If I had known I would feel this much better, I would have asked to speak with Naraku sooner. "That felt good."

A grin overcomes Inutora's face and she pulls me into a tight hug. After a moment she jumps away from me as if electrocuted. The confusion in her expression is clear.

"I don't bite, Inutora-sama." I cock my head to the side slightly, wondering what merits her sudden repulsion to being in physical contact with me.

As quickly as she had jumped away, Inutora is in my face again, this time holding my chin and tilting it to the side as well as slightly upwards. "Maybe not, but you've been bitten."

Her comment makes my stomach drop as I remember that I had been bitten; and by Inuyasha, no less. "It'll heal in a few days," I find myself saying, not wanting to make a bigger deal out of what is already a fairly embarrassing situation.

"Not this bite, Kagome-chan." Inutora turns away from me to look behind her, and it seems she's glaring at Inuyasha. "Inuyasha, to my quarters now." Her voice is fierce and demanding, not leaving room for debate.

I nearly snicker as Inuyasha's eyes widen like a deer caught in headlights before he bolts off of the bridge so quickly that all I catch is a blur of red and silver.

"Kagome-chan, follow me." Inutora turns a kind eye to me, but I can see a hidden irritation underneath the caring expression.

I nod, not wanting that anger turned on me. If she's mad at Inuyasha, that's hilarious; being mad at me though, that's no laughing matter at all.

She turns on her heel, walking quickly away from the bridge, and I find myself having to jog slightly to keep up. If I remember correctly, we're heading back to Inutora's room.

Wait, isn't that where she just sent Inuyasha? Great. I do not want to have to face that moronic baboon right now. But at the same time I really don't feel like incurring the wrath of Inutora, seeing as how she is being a bit testy this morning…or is it already afternoon?…who knows.

I catch sight of her door up ahead and look to Inutora strangely as she drastically slows her steps.

"Before we get there, Kagome-chan, I need to explain something to you."

My eyes scan her profile, her focus up ahead. "What?" I prompt her to continue, really wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Since you have been sheltered from the Galactic Empires, you wouldn't know this, but Inu youkai customs are much different from the things I've heard about that happen on Earth."

"Customs? In regards to what?" What is my problem? All I'm doing is asking questions! Each second I feel myself shrinking as I get dumber and dumber.

"Mating."

I feel heat build up in my cheeks. "Eh?" Someone give me an award here for highest IQ or something!

We stop outside Inutora's bedroom door, and the golden-eyed woman looks straight at me, looking more mature than I had ever thought possible. After all, think about how I met her, honestly!

"What, on Earth, you call marriage, we refer to as mating. It is different for us though. There does not need to be a ceremony, no witnesses, no leader overseeing the affairs."

I do not like where this is going.

"Becoming mates is begun by either the male or female of the couple biting their partner at the junction where the neck meets the shoulder. This bite is not ordinary, and actually punctures the person's soul."

"M-my soul? You mean Inuyasha's trying to eat my soul! Gross!" I yell out, not realizing just how ridiculous I sound until after the words have already poured from my mouth.

Inutora's stoic mask washes away as she begins laughing. "No! Nothing like that, Kagome-chan! The bite in the soul is to create an opening for the couple's souls to be joined."

Oh. Now I feel even more stupid.

"Problem is, once the ritual has been started, lack of completion will result in the death of one or both of the pair, depending on what stage of the ritual things were left at."

Great, so if I don't "mate" with Inuyasha now, I'm going to die. That's a comforting thought. And here I was thinking I had almost a year to brood over my miserable fate. The entire cosmos must be against me or something.

"Now, let's go talk with Inuyasha." Inutora turned to open the door and I panic.

"W-wait! I don't know anything about this ritual yet! I'd rather know what's going to happen than to go in blind."

Inutora nods but continues to the pad beside the door, punching in her room's unlock code. "Yeah, but Inuyasha doesn't know much more about the ritual than what I've just told you."

"Then how do you know?"

She turns to look at me, pausing before pressing the "unlock" button. A hand trails up to her neck and she pulls at her uniform slightly after moving her hair out of the way. "Because I've already mated."

My eyes narrow as I study the mark on her neck. There are creamy colored imprints in an oval shape around an unrecognizable symbol that looks like a tattoo. Something clicks and I snap my fingers mentally: the border of dots are the scars from someone biting her neck.

Just…like…mine…

The door opens beside me, causing me to jump and turn to look into the captain's quarters. Inuyasha is sitting on the bed across the room, his legs and arms folded and a pout adorning his features.

In all honesty, he looks really cute like that. Gah! What am I thinking? I do NOT like him like that!

I must have stood in the hallway for awhile, because I'm now being forcefully yanked into the room by the arm. Inutora is responsible for this action.

Once the door is shut behind us, I go and sit on the bed next to Inuyasha, figuring that's where Inutora wanted me judging by her look of impatience.

"Okay, my pretties." Inutora grins at me and then throws a glare at Inuyasha. I try to hold in my chuckle. "The mating ritual must be completed within 24 hours from when it was initiated. May I assume that Inuyasha's bite took place after breakfast?"

I speak up, "Only a few minutes before Inuyasha was called to the bridge, actually."

The black-haired woman nods. "Good, that gives us several more hours. Anyways, I'll try to make this as succinct as possible:

"The next step is for Kagome-chan to bite Inuyasha's neck on the right side, since he bit you on the right." I opened my mouth to speak when Inutora continued, "Don't interrupt me or this will only take longer. It doesn't matter if you puncture the skin; you'll feel when you've bit his soul.

"After you are both bitten, you need to press the two marks together until you are connected in heart. Once this comes, you can either separate or go further in the physical contact department, as is the common thing to do during the mating ritual.

"And that's about it for now. Oh! And Kagome-chan, you're going to have to move to Inuyasha's room. Mates are to be together whenever possible, especially when the bond has not been consummated by rutting."

"E-excuse me?" Too much info, I think. I am going to have to be married by this time tomorrow thanks to the jerk next to me. But rutting? Can I say crude on the wording?

"Another Inu term that is equivalent to what you know as sexual intercourse."

How can she say this all so calmly and with a straight face? She's talking about the most precious act for any person as if she were mentioning what she ate for breakfast. A bit uncomfortable to listen to in my book.

She is looking between both Inuyasha and I as if considering what to say next. After a moment, sure enough, she opens her mouth and continues, "I just assume that you two are not in the stage of your relationship to participate in such an intimate act. Because of this, you two must have skin contact almost constantly to keep your souls stable. Understood?"

I nod, and I can see Inuyasha nodding as well out of the corner of my eye.

Inutora claps. "Good, good! Now, Inuyasha, take Kagome to your room and finish the mating ritual. It's no good to procrastinate. And I am going to hail the palace and fill mother in on recent events."

"No! Inutora, don't!" Inuyasha's outburst makes me jump and I turn to look at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Inuyasha, she's going to find out sooner or later, and if we wait, she'll be even more upset because no one told her before." Inutora's voice is once again stern, leaving no room for dodging the facts.

"Keh." Inuyasha stands up and starts walking to the door. I wait only a matter of seconds before I too jump to my feet and leave Inutora's room.

When I'm just outside the door, I turn around and smile at the Inu royal, bowing slightly to say, "Thank you, Inutora-sama." That out of my system, I jog to catch up with the fast walking Inuyasha.

"Oh, and Kagome?" I turn around to look back down the hall to where Inutora is standing just outside of her room. "I'm going to be contacting your father as well."

I
Do
Not
Sleep

Inutori: Chapter done! I'm actually quite a bit into the next chap as well, so hopefully I'll have it up fairly soon. Happy Valentines Day!