Chapter 12
The next day while Kagome and Sesshoumaru were enjoying lunch together, Kikyou barged into the room. "Kagome, where did you run off to yesterday? I missed you so." She said, never once taking her eyes off Sesshoumaru.
"Well Kikyou," Kagome started coolly "After your little comment yesterday in the garden, I had to leave before my cheeks caught fire from embarrassment for you."
"Dearest Kagome," Kikyou said sweetly, shaking her head with her eyes still glued on Sesshoumaru "I was merely giving the good man some advice that should be taken into account."
"Are you speaking with Sesshoumaru or myself, because it looks as though you are speaking with him." Kagome commented.
"Well of course I am speaking to you silly, for you have not yet introduced me to your friend." Kikyou said smiling sweetly.
"Like that's ever stopped you before." Kagome grumbled under her breath.
"I am Sesshoumaru, first prince of the Western Lands, and possible husband to be of Kagome." Sesshoumaru said, sealing the introduction with a deep, respectful bow.
Kikyou glared at Kagome before saying; "I am Kikyou, first princess of the Northern Lands." Sounding falsely sweet.
"Kagome, are you still mad at me?" Inuyasha yelled, bursting into the room. Then he wished he hadn't come at all, for Kikyou was on him in seconds.
"Well hello, I'm Kikyou. Kagome's older sister. Princess of the Northern lands." She flirted, batting her eyelashes at him.
Inuyasha glanced at Sesshoumaru desperately, but when Sesshoumaru only gave him a smug look Inuyasha began his introduction. "I'm Inuyasha, Prince of the Western Lands and possible husband to Kagome." He recited sounding extremely bored.
"Kagome! You have two husbands?" Kikyou gasped.
"No!" Kagome defended.
"But both these fine young men just said that they were your husband to be."
"POSSIBLE!" Kagome said, very slowly, very loudly and very clearly. "Since father never made arrangements as to which of these 'fine young men' I'm to marry, Lord Inutashio, Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha and I have decided that it would be my choice to choose which one I am to marry." She explained.
"That's awfully selfish of you." Kikyou huffed, crossing her arms under her chest making her breasts rise and squish together. "What if they don't want to marry you? You must be awfully confidant that they both love you enough to marry you if you are able to choose. What if one of them, or even neither of them wish to marry you?"
"Why wouldn't we want to marry her?" Inuyasha questioned. Kagome beamed at him and Kikyou glared at Kagome.
"What about you Prince Sesshoumaru? Do you actually want to marry Kagome?" Kikyou asked, inching closer to Sesshoumaru and batting her eyelashes in a way that she clearly thought was attractive.
"It would be an honour." He replied, his eyes never once glancing at Kikyou, for he and Inuyasha were both gazing intently at Kagome.
"Oh, I see." Kikyou mumbled. "So Kagome, do they know about Hojo?" She asked falsely sweet, yet again.
"Certainly, why would I hide that from them?" Kagome answered, rather confused.
"What about Koga?" She asked, her desperation to make Kagome look bad was clearly showing as her eye twitched slightly.
"Yes, why?" Kagome asked.
Kikyou twitched yet again before slapping on a bright smile. "That's wonderful." She exclaimed.
"Ummm, ok." Kagome said turning back to Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. "Let's go to the garden." She suggested. Both men held out their arm for Kagome to accept, but she was roughly pushed out of the way as Kikyou rushed to accept their arms to be led away.
Kagome stood there wide eyed and speechless as Kikyou dragged the two men to the garden as they both had their heads turned to watch Kagome, who just shook her head and laughed. How desperate could Kikyou get? Then she began to look for Sango, she has some stories that needed to be told.
"Have you seen Sango anywhere?" Kagome asked a servant that she had met in the hallway.
"No ma'am, I'm very sorry. Would you like me to tell her you are looking for her if she passes by?" The servant asked. "I will be here for a while, all of these pictures need to be dusted and spotless for the ball tomorrow night.
"No that's fine. But thank you just the same." Kagome answered before saying goodbye and continuing her search. She had just rounded the corner when she nearly tripped over an extremely short person.
"Kagome!" A childlike voice yelled out. Kagome looked down and saw someone she was very much looking forward to seeing.
"Shippou!" She squealed happily, scooping the young demon child up into her arms and giving him a hug. His big green eyes studied her face as thought trying to remember everything about it, his red hair bouncing lightly on top of his head as he laughed in the excitement of seeing Kagome.
"Kagome it's been forever. When are you coming back?" Shippou asked.
"Oh I'm sorry Shippou, I'm afraid I'm not." Kagome said sadly, unable to meet the young demons eyes.
"What! Why aren't you coming back? I'll beat up whoever is the reason for that!" He said sounding very tough for such a small boy.
"It's all right, really. You're going to be fine without me hanging around all the time." Kagome said with a guilty laugh.
"But you have to be around! What will I do without you?" Shippou's eyes began to tear up. "Kikyou is so mean to me. She said that if I ever talked to her that she would feed me to the guard dogs!" Shippou trembled as the memory came flooding back, as clear as if it were happening at that very moment.
Kagome softly soothed him by rubbing his back softly and comfortingly. She whispered soothing words of encouragement to him in hopes of making him happy once again.
When he finally stopped trembling she asked him if we was hungry, then brought him to go get some food before it was taken off the tables.
"Oh look Shippou, its Sango!" Kagome cried, seeing the person that she had originally been looking for. But she had now forgotten why she was looking for her.
"Yay! Sango!" Shippou cried in excitement.
"Shippou!" Sango yelled, half with shock and half with excitement.
"Why do you sound so surprised? Were you not expecting to see me?" Shippou asked. He looked closely at Sango as though he were trying to prove that if she lied, he would know.
"I am surprised. I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow."Sango admitted.
"Why would I come tomorrow? Then I'd miss the ball!" Shippou shouted as thought it were the most obvious thing in the world. Sango looked around, obviously confused. She had thought the ball was tomorrow night!
"Sango," Kagome began "The ball is tomorrow night. Shippou just takes hours to get ready fir anything." She explained.
"Oh," Sango cried as realization hit her. "Right, I knew that. How could I forget that?" She asked herself, lightly hitting herself in the forehead as thought trying to knock some sense back into her.
"Gees Sango, are you feeling all right?" Shippou asked. Both of the girls were acting strangely today, and he was determined to find out why.
"Why is there going to be a ball anyways? Aren't balls for special occasions? Like that Cinderella story that Kagome told me, or the one about Sleeping Beauty when they had a ball when she woke up. Or is it a more private ball like the one in Beauty and the Beast? And talking about storied, have you learned any new ones yet Kagome? I haven't heard a story in so long; I was hoping that you would have a really good one ready for me." Shippou said sounding excited once again; looking at both Sango and Kagome, hoping that either one of them had learned a new story that they would be able to tell him.
Kagome and Sango laughed at Shippou's enthusiasm. "No, I'm sorry Shippou; I haven't learned any new stories." Sango admitted.
"Neither have I. But I'll ask someone for some good ones alright?" Kagome offered.
"Ok." Shippou agreed "But you're still going to have to tell me a story tonight, aren't you Kagome?" he asked looking worried for a moment.
"Of course." Kagome agreed with a smile. She had never noticed how much she had missed Shippou until he was right there in front of her, reminding her how much she loved him.
"Ohhh! Did you see what Kikyou did to your dresses?" Shippou gasped, remembering the big news that he had to tell Kagome. "She ruined them! How did you get more?"
"Yes, I saw, they look absolutely terrible now." Kagome agreed. "But Sango was kind enough to go and buy me some new ones.
'Yay Sango!" Shippou cheered. Sango blushed and laughed a little.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha's furious voice made it's way to the group only moments before the owner of the voice entered the room.
"Hello Inuyasha." Kagome said pleasantly.
"Don't you 'Hello Inuyasha' me! You just ditched Sesshoumaru and me with KIKYOU! I think that her favourite words are; I, me and myself. And there might be something about moi." He glared as Sesshoumaru walked into the room, followed by a still talking Kikyou.
"Kagome is there an off button of some sort?" he asked desperately.
"I wouldn't know, she never talks to me for more then 10 minutes at a time. She hates me." Kagome giggled. "Sorry boys." She gave an innocent but apologetic smile.
"Yeah, yeah." Inuyasha grumbled as he plopped down on the seat beside Kagome.
"Kagome, who's he?" Shippou asked, lightly tugging on Kagome's hair with one hand, and pointing at Inuyasha with the other.
"That's Prince Inuyasha, Inuyasha this is my dear friend Shippou." Kagome introduced.
Inuyasha nodded his greeting.
"Hi, so Kagome, who's that?" Shippou continued his gentle abuse on Kagome's hair, but this time pointing at Sesshoumaru.
"That is Prince Sesshoumaru." Kagome answered, but Sesshoumaru was too far away to make a proper introduction, so she left it at that.
"Oh ok, I'm hungry." Shippou announced as he looked around.
Kagome giggled "Well then let's find you something to eat shall we?" She said "Does any one else want something while we're there?" she offered.
"Yeah, but I don't know what I want yet. So I guess I'll come with you." Inuyasha said after everyone else said no.
"Alright." Kagome said as she turned with Shippou on her shoulder and headed for the kitchen, for they had come too late and all the food had been cleared from the tables. And Inuyasha, as Kagome has anticipated, followed.
"So Shippou, what do you want to have for lunch?" Kagome asked when they entered the kitchen.
"Anything...but vegetables." He said while scrunching his nose in distaste at the thought of eating such a disgusting food.
"Why? You never used to hate vegetables. Why do you hate them now?" Kagome asked curiously.
"Since you left all I've gotten to eat has been water, bread and soggy vegetables." Shippou whined.
"You can't be serious!" Kagome gasped as Inuyasha's jaw dropped in surprise.
"It was all Kikyou's fault. No more ice cream, no more cookies, or cares or chocolate or even meat!"
"Damn, poor kid. Give him a piece of cake and a brownie or something...or give him the whole cake or something." Inuyasha said to the chef.
"YAY!" Shippou cheered. "Kagome I like him!" He said pointing at Inuyasha, who just blushed and pretended not to hear.