Disclaimer: Della does not own Inuyasha.
Chapter 28 – Setting the Stage
Kagome did not go directly downstairs. The minute she was out of her room she nearly doubled over in pain. Careful not to breath loudly or walk in a way that would attract Sesshoumaru's attention she made her way to Shippou's room.
'Itai,' she inwardly swore. 'Itai itai itai itai!' She chanted as she hobbled over to the bed.
Giving Kagura a heart had once again made her feel like she was on fire, and it seemed to originate from her left hand. The power itself was a wonderful feeling, but it felt like it warred with her body for some reason.
She spent the next several minutes concentrating her efforts on refreezing her body. Once she accomplished that she took a few deep breaths, fixed her appearance, and made her way back to the reception.
When she slipped back into the ballroom Kagome stood staring at a surreal, yet highly comical, sight.
"Oh holy…" she breathed. "Sesshoumaru is so not going to like this!"
A very drunken Miroku had his arm slung around an equally inebriated Sesshoumaru. Both were clutching champagne glasses, both were standing up on the stage with the band, and both seemed to be serenading a rather alarmed female kitsune.
"You know you're a sweet little heartbreaker," Sesshoumaru sang as he pointed and smirked at the shell-shocked demoness.
"Foxy!" Miroku breathed in an attempt at a sensual voice.
All around the room people were either snickering or staring in horror.
"I would not have pegged the western taiyoukai as a Jimmy Hendrix fan," a man in monk's garb said to his neighbor as he struggled not to laugh out loud.
"And you know you're a sweet little LOVEmaker," Sesshoumaru sang ever louder while doing a few pelvic thrusts.
"Foxy!" Miroku chimed again.
Kagome looked to her mother who was in silent tears of suppressed laughter. 'Oh Kami-sama!' she mentally cried. 'They're both going to be flayed for this, I just know it!'
"I've got make you mine, all mine," Sesshoumaru drunkenly slurred. Miroku joined him as they both adopted the most terrifically lewd stares and sang "Foxy lady!"
"Doomsday must be approaching," a venerable looking eagle youkai gaped in shock.
"Has Sesshoumaru-sama gone mad?" a worried looking demoness asked as she wrung her hands.
"MICHAEL JAMES PETERS AND SHIPPOU HIGURASHI HANDO YOU ARE BOTH GOING TO DIE WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" Kagome bellowed.
All eyes in the room darted back and forth between the irate miko they'd been puzzling over throughout the night and the drunken duo on stage.
"Oh shit!" Sesshoumaru hissed.
"Worse," Miroku muttered. "Deep shit."
"I say we run," the taiyoukai apparent whispered as Kagome started making her way towards them.
"Good point, move!" Miroku encouraged as he tried to make a break for it, only to trip and take the inu with him. The two managed to make it to their feet and turn before they were ensconced in a bright pink barrier.
"Freeze!" Kagome ordered.
Not having any other choice the two stopped moving and faced her.
"Why Kagome-sama," Miroku began in his most soothing voice. "Whatever seems to be the problem?"
"Yeah,hic Hando-san, what seems to be the problem?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"The problem, Micah, is that in the past half hour you seemed to have gotten both yourself and my seven year old son drunk at Kikyou's wedding reception!" she seethed.
"What is she talking about?" another miko nearby wondered aloud. "That man is Watanabe Miroku."
"True, and she looks a bit young to have a child that age. Besides which, I didn't see any children present besides Taisho-sama's ward Rin, Ikeda Kohaku, and the Higurashi's son Souta," responded and older monk.
"I don't know what you mean," Miroku said innocently. "I see neither Peters-san nor Shippou present."
"Yeah, too right!" Sesshoumaru stuttered. "And besides, I aint hic drunk Mum!"
"Care to explain this one?" Kagome asked the two in a deadly voice.
"Uhhhh," Miroku/Micah mumbled as he swayed slightly. "We were just having a bit of fun Ka-go-me," he smiled. "Nothing to get your panties in a twist over."
Shippou, intoxicated though he may have been, was still quite aware that this was not the proper way to survive his mother's wrath. Searching for any kind of escape his eyes landed gratefully upon a pair of people who'd just entered the room, looking confused as to why everyone was staring at his mother.
"Hey Mom look," Shippou spouted in an effort to divert her attention from himself. "Miroku and Sango just came back. Hey wait a second, why do they hic look all messed up? And why are their faces all hic red? And their lips puffy?"
"What the?!" Kagome gasped as she spun to observe her two friends, who till that point had also been slinking back into the reception, hoping not to be noticed.
"Heaven help us there are two Watanabes!" a beautiful young woman shrieked as she backed herself protectively against a wall.
Shippou was right, anyone who bothered to take a second glance knew what the two had been up to.
"I knew it!" Mia cheered as a smile crept over Kagome's face.
"A toast!" the fake Miroku announced as he grabbed a glass of champagne from a table in the barrier Kagome had sealed them in. "To Miroku and Sango, may she finally give in and bear him a child!"
Several women applauded, happy that this could possibly mean the end of Miroku harassing them.
"Now wait just a minute!" Sango demanded.
"Yeah!" Kohaku raged, joining the fray. "My sister is not going to be bearing anybody's kids anytime soon!"
"Yeah!" bellowed the inebriated fake Sesshoumaru. "Don't make us hic beat the crap out you hic again Miroku!" Then he looked expectantly at Micah. "Can I still drink the hic toast if I don't actually agree with the hic toast?"
"Hahahaha," Micah chuckled. "Hey Shippou, YEAH TOAST!"
The two look-a-likes in the barrier collapsed in a fit of giggles.
"Who IS that?" the real monk gasped as he noticed his mirror.
"More importantly," an icy voice sounded, "who is that?"
The room turned and saw Sesshoumaru looking between the pink bubble and Kagome, his stony features not giving the slightest thing away.
"Oh shit!" swore Micah/Miroku as he hauled himself to his feet.
"Worse," countered Shippou/Sesshoumaru. "Deep hic shit."
"Kami now there's two Sesshoumaru-samas as well!" a panicked baboon youkai shouted.
"Uh…" Kagome stuttered. "Oh! It's just Shippou and Micah playing a little joke, Taisho-sama," she tittered nervously. She put a hand on her barrier and there was a loud pop and a burst of purple smoke.
The barrier dropped and soon the audience could see the human and fox demons looking sheepish.
"Hey!" Shippou whined. "You ruined the fun!"
"Thank Kami," Sango wheezed. "There really is only one Miroku!"
"And only one Sesshoumaru-sama too!" the eagle youkai from before noted. "Armageddon isn't coming after all!"
Kagome snatched Shippou and began looking for the best way to make her escape, when suddenly she caught the taiyoukai's voice in her head.
'We must set the stage, Kagome. Do you hear me?'
She looked at him and blinked, then smiled briefly. They'd just told Kagura to report that the two of them didn't get along, and he was letting her know that here was the perfect opportunity to get that story out into the public. Many had noticed them dancing amicably beforehand, so they needed another display to give the opposite impression.
'This mind reading thing may not be such a bad thing after all,' she thought to herself.
"What happened?" Sesshoumaru asked, approaching her slowly in the manner of a predator. "Have you let your son run wild yet again, Hando?"
The room had gone silent.
Kagome took a defensive posture. "Your friend got him drunk!" she said with false exasperation. "Had I known that you would allow such questionable guests here this evening I would have kept a closer eye on him."
"Your son never needed the excuse of another's influence to misbehave before," he remarked dryly. "It seems to be a recurring theme. Tell me, is it nature, or nurture?"
Kagome let her aura flare to an alarming degree, causing the entire room to step away from her direction.
"Sesshoumaru," she replied with feigned sweetness. "However did you get to be such a stick in the mud? Your brother certainly isn't like this. Tell me, is it nature, or nurture?"
"Just because you achieved Inuyasha and Kikyou's transformations does not give you the right to address me as an equal, miko," he remarked coldly.
After the collective gasp Mia rushed forward and grabbed Kagome's elbow. Given all the recent events she doubted if this was any kind of true confrontation, but she still felt she should play the role of the peacemaker between these two.
"My dear Sesshoumaru-sama, she meant no insult I'm sure. We all know how playful Kagome can be sometimes," she smiled, giving the appearance of trying to smooth things over.
"Dear me," Kagome said with wide eyes. "Of course I was only teasing. And, as the younger sister of the bride allow me to make my toast."
Having the mysterious women identified elicited a collective 'Ah-hah!' from the crowd. She'd worn the Higurashi family garb and bore a resemblance to Kikyou, but the rumor mill had failed to precisely determine her position in the family. Now that who and what exactly she was had been determined, they watched eagerly, waiting to see what would happen next.
Kagome picked up a flute of champagne for herself, handed another to Sesshoumaru, and lifted her glass. "May the continued reign of the Western family be peaceful and prosperous, and may all your gatherings be as joyful as this one." As a final touch Kagome infused her aura with happiness and infected the spectators as well.
Now that the tension had dissipated Mia sighed in relief. She wondered what had just gone on, as there was no way that Kagome and Sesshoumaru would have revealed all that they did without meaning to. And if it wasn't enough to expose her alchemy talents, her daughter had just advertised her ability to affect other's on a large scale. Whatever the case was, she hoped that it meant that the two were now working together. Others may not have noticed that their absences corresponded with each other, but ever since the night before when she witnessed Sesshoumaru's protectiveness of Kagome she'd been keen to observe the two's interaction.
Following her toast Kagome bid her family goodbye and headed home, but not without promising to explain things to her mother, and not without a sly smile she directed at Sesshoumaru when no one was looking.
He might possibly have given the barest of smiles in return, but the fact that Micah followed right behind her stilled his reaction. When he gave her a questioning look, she merely winked saucily and strode out the door.
'Hn,' he sneered inwardly. 'He may have her company for the evening, but tomorrow he returns to his fiancé and then Kagome will be mine.'
Bolstered by this thought he engaged a fellow inu in conversation, the latter being very interested in Inuyasha's and Kikyou's transformations.
-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-
A/N: Crikey! It's been three months since the hoon updated. Bit dodgy I know, but I swear, it isn't as of she's been sittin' on her bum all day. You should be grateful I'm here to take matters in hand once again.
Yes, it is I, the ever faithful Bruce. (Don't mock me mates, you know you love me!) Della's working on something she has to hand in tomorrow and has tried to placate me by handing over her personal laptop while she remains glued to her work one. I thought she was bad in school but this 'working woman' thing she's got going now is downright scary.
So, in poking my nose, er… investigating, her files I saw this chapter and thought I'd be the very helpful friend I am and post it for her. I dunno why she's been holdin' it for so long anyways. Although, judging by how it looked before I tidied it up it's hasn't been off to her beta (sorry Angel-love, I just can't resist. Besides, I think we can all agree that this little intervention of mine is needed!). Best part is that she checks her personal e-mail so rarely now that by the time she notices I did this I will have already flown home. Ha! I'm a right sneaky little bugger I am.
Now, for spoilers it's a bit difficult. The next chapter is still in outline so she doesn't have a lot to give out. I'll just try and fish a few things out here and there, and hopefully they'll be close enough to whatever she ends up keeping. If not, remember you love me and think of it as a kind of 'deleted scene.'
-She was getting thinner again. It was difficult to tell because the refiner's fire had altered her enough that the signs of sleep deprivation and anxiety were difficult to read, but she couldn't hide them from him, no matter how hard she tried.-
-"Sesshoumaru you asshole what did you do to her?!" Inuyasha demanded as he picked his older brother up and launched him through air with enough force to snap three full grown trees in half before the latter could stop himself.
'There are definite drawbacks to him being a full demon,' Sesshoumaru thought as he felt the gashes from the branches he'd collided with begin to heal. Tempted though he was to show his little brother that he could still rip him to shreds he was too disturbed by the accusation to waste time doing so. If Inuyasha was this upset then something must being truly wrong. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.-
ONE MORE THING!!!
I totally posted this other story she wrote. It's a Harry Potter one-shot. Pretty cute if you ask me. Go check it out. I think if it's well received I've got a better chance of a quick pardon.