Not only did Kagome wake to an unfamiliar room, but she woke to an unfamiliar sight. Her eyesight seemed more acute. Rather than seeing just the large black dots on the ceiling, she now also saw each and every divot in the paneling that was the ceiling.
She could smell coffee and donuts, bagels and muffins, orange juice and milk; all the scents reached her nose stronger than she'd ever smelled it. But along with those delicious smells, she also scented the toxic smells of blood, urine, waste, and medication.
The walls around her were white and near the ceiling there were gold leaves painted as a border. Where am I? She wondered, looking around. She could hear the clocks ticking as though it were a loud snare drum right next to her ear, and the footsteps of the passing people out beyond the white metal double hinged door sounded like a cannon ball being shot from cannon.
The thought repeated itself more and more as time passed.
Then someone with their hair in a tight bun appeared in her face. Their mouths were in a set line of worry, their blazing flame colored eyes furious. "Why didn't you tell me you were a demon?" Kagura scowled.
She'd been in the dark. Of course, not only that, but apparently Kagome was also a priestess, which was the cause of the violent seizure. The doctor had explained that mixing priestess blood as powerful as the priestess blood Kagome had with the blood of a powerful demon or half-breed had its consequences, and Kagome was suffering those consequences.
But even though Kagura had whispered the words, it didn't matter. It felt like she was screaming the words into Kagome's ears and she felt tears press out of her eyes as she tried to block out all the loud sounds. The sounds of even Kagura and Hiei's wristwatches pained her ears.
She tried to move her hands to cover her ears but found them to be restricted by leather bindings. She couldn't understand why she was tied down, and she felt like a young child again.
Hiei's face then appeared beside Kagura's, and he talked much quieter. Yet, still it sounded like he was screaming. "Your father is on his way. He called."
That confused Kagome. Her father was in jail. He wasn't supposed to be 'on his way'. Kagome wasn't supposed to have contact with family either. Did the courts approve of his coming, or did he break out of jail? She couldn't figure it out, and her head was pounding.
"It's so loud..." Kagome whispered, tears of pain shooting out of her eyes and down the sides of her face towards her temples. There were more footsteps sounds and then Kagome felt something cool rush over her, putting her to sleep. It was bliss. She slept and the pain left her body.
She saw her father in her dreams. He was back to the same man she knew once when she was a child. He was the kind father who took the family out to ice cream and movies, not the horrible man who stole away to the bar to get drunk, then came home with a whore, beat his wife and children, and retreated with the whore to his room.
Behind him was the honest moon that kept only one secret: its dark side.
Kagome ran to her father, only to find him further and further away with every step she took. She wanted the comfort he used to offer her when she was mad at Souta, or at her mother. He smiled at her and opened his arms to her, but still with every step she took, he got further away.
She broke out into a blind run, racing as fast as her legs would carry her, but she still got no closer.
"Kagome." She heard her mother's voice behind her. "Kagome, come to me. It is much easier to be a priestess like me."
Kagome looked back. Her mother was only a few feet away. Kagome hadn't seen her mother in so long, and yet she was torn. She wanted her father back the way he was. Maybe if she could catch him, she could bring with him his sanity?
Her mother spoke again. "Your father is a shape shifter. He is a demon. Being a demon is not easy. Take the easy way, Kagome."
That was not like her mother. Her mother had traveled the hard roads all her life, and if there was a hard way to do something she always did it. She believed she got more from a hard life than the easy life. Kagome shrunk away from her mother.
"Go away!" She cried, to find her voice was that of a child and not the alto-soprano voice that was her as a woman. She looked down at her body and found she was a child again. She was herself as a five year old.
She clenched one tiny fist in this dreamscape. She wouldn't let her dream trick her. She was going to catch her father, five year old body or not. If it was her dream, she could do whatever she wanted. And she wanted to catch him.
To do so, though, she was going to have to go faster than she could run. Her father was a shape shifter. She was his descendant. She could do whatever he could do! She knew she could.
She just had to try it. She concentrated on her back and tried to sprout wings.
Kagura watched the man before her. He held Kagome's hand with a glazed over look to his eyes and he spoke nothing. The hand that he held was the one with the lump in it. Kagura had been rather repulsed to see the pulsing lump, but the man acted as though it were natural. He acted as though it weren't even there.
Kagome started screaming. Her eyes shot open, but they were glazed just as the man's were. Her eyes were completely silver, no longer had blue speckled with silver. The speckles had taken over everything, the whites, the irises, and the pupils.
Her back arched up and the skin on her body started to crack like a vase that had been dropped on the floor. It was disgusting to say the least.
The skin just fell away, to reveal perfectly tanned skin underneath that looked exactly like the skin that had fallen away. Her hands cracked and the lump on her right hand cracked. The only part of her body that bled was that lump.
Kagome could recall her father once telling her about how to shape shift. She'd been fascinated, asking thousands of questions, all of which he answered patiently. She did exactly what he said he did when he shape shifted. But he never said it hurt so much! She screamed and fell to her knees on the black floor of the dreamscape. "Papa!" She cried out, wanting relief from the pain. He got further away when she called for him. Her mother got closer.
"Go away mama! I want my papa!" She got up and tore after her father as the dragonfly-like wings lay limp on her back. She remembered about them as her mother got ever closer. She flapped them and as she lifted up, she felt like a fairy in the child books that her father read to her as she would fall asleep.
She flapped and flapped, but she only got higher. She began to get tired, and found she was very high above ground. She panicked. And then she fell. She knew she would never forgive herself for the failure, even if it was a dream. She tried again to flap her wings but she was uncoordinated.
She shut her eyes tight and accepted her fate. At least she wouldn't have to be a priestess. She never wanted to be one anyway. Her grandmother had died because of it. It just wasn't the fate she was looking for. She wanted to be just like her father, and at least now she had her small chance.
Strong arms caught her, just like when she would jump from the swings. She cracked open one eye and peered through it, finding her father smiling at her. She was in his arms.
Tears pressed out of her eyes and she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, cuddling into his arms like a child wanting to feel safe. "It will not be easy, Kagome." Her father said quietly in her ear. It was not a mocking tone. It was not a vengeful tone. It was just her father in that shell.
Her mother snarled, and it frightened Kagome. She'd never seen her mother looking so angry. "Mama is scaring me," she sobbed into her father's chest.
"Demon, be banished!" her mother cried out. Blue light shot from her mother's body and straight towards the two. Kagome shrunk further into her father's arms, her wings pinching painfully against her back, but she wouldn't release her father.
She loved her mother, but that woman was not her mother. It was someone else; something else. It was not her mother. The blue light never reached her. It hit a black and silver barrier that did not come from her father. The barrier came from her. She didn't know how she knew it but she did.
"It is alright, Kagome. You've chosen. There will be no more pain." Her father assured her. He pulled Kagome away from him slightly and placed his palm on the center of her chest, right above her heart.
"I'll always be with you. I give you my power." He whispered, and Kagome felt something enter her heart. Then everything was gone. There was no mother. There was no father. There was not even her childish body. All that remained was her and the moon.
She flapped the wings on the body she did have now. She was back to being the eighteen year old, almost nineteen year old, who was tough and needed no protection from anyone. But she still missed her father.
"Papa..." She sobbed and fell to her knees in the dreamscape. Slowly everything went black, and she felt real sleep take her over.
Kagome was in the hospital for three weeks after that. She slept the whole time. She felt no pain. Her father, Naraku Onigumo, sat by her side every day, leaving it only to eat or use the rest room. He slept in the chair by her bed.
He worried that Kagome would not wake. He knew the only reason he was out of jail now was because Kali had bailed him out. They had gotten divorced, and finally he knew Kali would be able to live out her life. He was happy for her. But he knew he would regret being unable to repay her for all she'd ever done for him.
He'd gotten the court's approval to be able to go see his child after he'd explained what conflict she would be going through. It had taken three days of convincing, but finally he was allowed to come. Now he was glad he had.
He'd seen what his daughter missed. She would never have told him that she loved the way he used to be, before the beatings. He would never have believed it without seeing it with his own eyes.
She really had turned out well. He smiled and looked at her bandaged hand. The lump had, as expected, absorbed into her body once more. The doctors came to check on her condition constantly.
She wasn't improving yet, but she wasn't getting worse either. It was up to her now to heal. Before, it had always been her priestess powers moving on their own to do the healing for her. Now she had to tell her body to heal.
She knew all about herself as a demon. He knew she knew. Because he told her himself when she was a little child. "She'll be alright." The nurse told him on one of her frequent trips to check Kagome's condition. "Why don't you go home?"
"There is no home to go to." He whispered his eyes on Kagome's placid face. He couldn't go back to the shrine, because that was part of the agreement on bail. He would not return to the shrine. Besides that, he had no money.
Kali had flown him to Snowsville so he could help Kagome survive the battle between her demon side and her priestess side, but from there he had nothing.
The nurse misunderstood him, but she left anyway. Naraku looked at his little half-breed daughter. To him, she would always be a little girl. He wondered if she would ever forgive him for the pain she'd caused him. Souta had. Kali had. But it mattered most that his little girl forgave him.
The disease he could feel worming its way through him constantly eating him inside out. He knew how long he had left, and it wasn't long. He doubted he would get to see Kagome graduate from school. That was how long he had left.
He threw himself back to the present when he saw Kagome trying to sit up. "Here, let me help you." He said and moved to help her sit up. She gave him a wary look, but allowed his help anyway. As he fluffed her pillows and helped her relax against them, she noticed he looked nervous.
"Papa?" She asked, not really believing he was there in front of her. He didn't look like the thing that beat her for all those years anymore. He looked like the man who braided her hair, and wiped her nose when she had a cold, and read books to her when she was trying to fall asleep.
"Yes, Kagome." He smiled, relieved. "I'm sorry; I was never a good enough father for you or Souta."
Kagome growled at his words. She knew why it angered her to hear those words. Did he not know that 'once upon a time' he was a good father, until he lost his sanity? Obviously he didn't know it.
"Really, papa, you were a good father. You made mistakes." She sighed. Making excuses for bad behavior wasn't something she normally did, but she knew he had the ability to better himself; and he was her father. Who wouldn't want their father to better themselves?
"No. I'm dying, Kagome. You and Souta will graduate soon; but I will most likely be six feet under before then." Kagome gasped. She knew he was ill but she hadn't realized how long he'd had the illness.
He nodded. "My own father passed on three months ago. He left me his inheritance. It's not much, considering I can't claim it anyway. It's something that can only be claimed on your twenty first birthday. I'm going to leave it to you. You can do with it what you want."
Again Kagome gasped. Her grandfather had been a billionaire. Not to mention he had all those sellable items that were worth millions on their own. He'd been robbed multiple times. But he also had the best dog-hounds bred and he had several homes throughout the world. Throughout the world he had to have still at least five mansions, including one near Sunset. "You can't do that! Give it to mama!"
Naraku shook his head. "It has to be claimed on your twenty first birthday. I'll be dead before then, so you make sure to claim it. Pay off my debt, repay your mother for me, and that's hardly any of the money. It's not much, but it's the least I can do."
"You can't do this!" Kagome cried. "You have to find a way to live!"
"You ever hear of incurable diseases, Kagome?" He waved to the wheelchair beside his seat. "I'm already a paraplegic. Life suddenly lost its meaning. I just want to be sure you are happy."
"And what of Souta?" She demanded. "Don't you care about him?"
Naraku laughed, but it was without humor. "Yes, I care about him. But the catch to the inheritance is that only a half-breed can claim it. He's not a half-breed like you and I. He is human through and through."
Kagome smiled at her father and reached out, placing a hand on his. "I'll be sure him and mama are taken care of." She whispered, seeing in his eyes something she never would have imagined to be there. He just wanted the best for his family. "So how are you out of jail?"
He winced as though slapped with something hard. "Your mother is an angel from heaven. I only wish I had never destroyed her life."
"You didn't. Believe me. Nothing you did could have destroyed her life. It just worked to make each of us stronger."
A ray of hope shone in his crimson eyes and it made Kagome smile.
Kagome visited with her father for a long time and he told her all she had missed in Sunset. He told her about how her mother was trying to get back into the dating swing of things, but that's only because Souta kept pushing her, setting her on dates with people. He also told her about how Kali seemed to find interest in Sango and Kohaku's father.
"You're not serious are you?" Kagome laughed. It was a pleasure to be able to find out about her family after so long being without knowing. It was almost her nineteenth birthday. She'd almost been gone for eight months. "What else is happening?"
"Well, Nekura Nokugami overdosed herself on drugs and booze. She died. Haru Nokugami had another stroke. Talk around the town is that one more stroke is going to leave him a vegetable, and his sons will have to take over the company."
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "The elder son seems a lot different now. I don't know why, but just seems a lot less stiff around girls."
"How can you tell? You never knew him before." Kagome pointed out gently.
Naraku shrugged. "I had to get a job. Before she died, Nekura hired me to keep an eye on the two boys. Apparently one of them had a girlfriend who really made a fool of Nekura." He laughed, his eyes twinkling with mischief as he looked at her.
So he knows... Kagome thought, smiling ever brighter.
"The boys meet up with this fellow from public school every day and since then they've started to act much less...stiff." He couldn't think of any other way to explain it.
"More confident?" Kagome asked. He nodded.
Soon Kagome was released from the hospital and able to go back to the temple. Kagome was sad that her father would be heading to Tokyoagain, this time to stay there, but she had hopes now. Her father promised not to give up looking for a cure, even an experimental one.
But then it was back to school, and Kagome had missed almost a month of school. Missing a month of school was no easy task to catch up with. She had so much to catch up on, she was unable to go with her friends to Raspuit, but she did like the new her.
She looked exactly the same as the old her, except her eyes. Her eyes were different. They were the same midnight blue color, only with little speckles of silver in it, making her feel like she was looking at the endless night sky when she watched her own eyes too long.
She was rusty in her practice with her violin, but she quickly got the hang of it again. It was much easier now that the lump was gone from her hand. Practicing with the lump had been hard. Now though, she felt more fluid in her playing.
She felt happier knowing all the knowledge of her father. After that dream, she knew what he knew. It was a strange concept, but it was true. Her father would always be with her. She would always have his power.
Knowing what her father knew made school a lot easier. Her grades skyrocketed. She understood math and science. She surpassed all the expectations she'd placed for herself. Time no longer crawled, it zoomed by.
Her nineteenth birthday came and went and Kagome was bumped into College. She didn't know what she wanted to take, so she just went to be a private investigator. Kagura kept taking classes instead of graduating like she could and Hiei graduated and began a small alchemy shop.
Kagome rarely stopped studying. Kagura stopped studying even less than Kagome did. The only rest they gave themselves was to go see Kanna. Otherwise they kept harsh study habits, both wanting to grasp as much knowledge as they could.
At school, Kagome and Kagura would flirt with boys, but at home they were so serious that Genkai often had to remind them to eat or they would forget.
Finally though, there were only three months left before she could go home, and Kagome found herself wondering aloud to Hiei and Kagura about whether or not she wanted to go home. She sat in her room, while for the first time Hiei and Kagura were also in her room.
The two had never been in there, not for the whole time she'd lived there, and now were exploring the mediocre room that was identical pretty much to both of theirs.
"I don't know." She admitted when Kagura asked why she wouldn't want to go home. She ran a hand through her hair, which was now once more as long as her thighs. She needed another haircut. But, hopefully not as short as the last time.
"It's just that... I like it here. I like to be able to just sit here and talk to you guys at night. I like going to see Kanna on Mondays and Thursdays. And well... I had been hoping to open up a private investigation office right here in Snowsville."
"Why?" Hiei asked. "There is nothing here. Snowsville is as dull now as it was when I first came here when I was a tyke, if not duller. Nothing ever changes." He picked up the picture of Kagome and Kohaku. "Is he the reason you won't ever be with me?" He showed her the picture, his eyes questioning.
Kagome shrugged. "He was part of it, but seriously, Hiei, I only see you as I see my brother."
"Oh my god!" Kagura yelped, bouncing on her feet and pointing to the picture next to Kagome's bed. She rushed over to it and picked it up. "If this is who I think it is..." Her eyes were beady and feverish with her excitement as she looked at the picture.
Kagome laughed. "Yes. My mom is your idol, Kali Onigumo."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Kagome shrugged. "People think I'm special, just because of who my mom is, so I didn't bother."
Kagura fell onto Kagome's bed, a giggle bubbling from her throat. "Amazing!" She exclaimed. "I can't believe I never realized it this whole time! You always would talk about her like you knew her personally, and I just never realized it..."
Kagome crawled over to the bed and rested her elbows on it, looking down at Kagura, who lay on it. "And here I thought you were smarter." She said. "I guess I was misled." She grinned.
Kagura grabbed her by her braid and growled, pulling on it. "Now, is that nice Higurashi?" She asked.
Kagome yelped. "Hey, hey, be gentle..." She dipped her head, trying to pry Kagura's fingers away, but her lips collided with something and she heard the snap of a Polaroid camera. Kagome and Kagura stared at each other wide eyed. They were kissing.
It was purely accidental of course, but they were still kissing, and Hiei had Kagome's camera and was snapping shots of it all over the place. The kiss lasted a whole ten seconds before the two shot apart.
Both began to cough and hack, wiping their mouths as though they touched something dirty. Hiei was cackling with mirth as he ran from the room. It was a moment before Kagome or Kagura realized what he'd done. Both clenched their fists. "Hiei?" Kagome called, her voice sickeningly sweet.
Kagura grabbed her fan from where it had dropped on the floor when she saw the picture and stood. Kagome stood. Both were not going to let Hiei hide those pictures. He'd be able to blackmail them with those later on, so it was best to get rid of them now. Burn them before they reached the public. "I can't believe that jerk." Kagome scowled.
"No kidding. Its bad enough it happened. I'm going to be haunted for the rest of my life." Kagura agreed. Together they entered Hiei's room and saw him sitting the bed reading a naughty magazine. "Where are they?" Both knew more than one picture had been taken.
"Where are what?" Hiei asked innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about?"
Kagura shook with anger, but Kagome placed a calming hand on the other girls' shoulder. When she spoke, she was seductive, and she knew it. It was an act she knew how to play even better now than before because of all the practice she did at school.
Since learning all her father's knowledge, she'd practiced at it all, including the shape shifting. She didn't want to be left in the dirt on the knowledge that was available to her.
"Hiei..." She whispered as she stalked over to the bed, straddling his waist. "What do you want in return for those pictures?"
She didn't flinch when she felt his pants begin to bulge. Kagura smirked, having seen this at school while with Hiei graduated he never knew what he was in for. Kagome reached to the collar of his work shirt and began unbuttoning it, sending a discrete glance towards Kagura. Kagura understood in a heartbeat.
It didn't take long to get the pictures, and Hiei felt cheated. More cheated than he'd ever felt in his life. He hid one in his mattress, though. So he had a backup plan. They had four of the five pictures.
Sesshoumaru listened to the music and let it smooth his discontent. It was hard to live with his father harping at him all the time, cursing him for "getting his wife pregnant and making her kill herself". Well, it wasn't Sesshoumaru who did the work that was for sure.
The evening that Nekura came to his room, he locked it and snuck out of the house. Nekura had died quite some time ago, so why was Haru bringing it up again? Nekura was cheating on him for years, molesting children... the very thought haunted Sesshoumaru. He loathed her for it.
He would never get over it. That was not a question, it was the truth. Whoever had gotten his stepmother pregnant before she killed herself, well; her death was on their conscience, not his. He'd been investigated, of course, but he had several eyewitnesses who said he'd been at the Rave, which was a delightful little bar where delightful drunk women fell for his delightful little charming tricks.
Of course, he never did anything with the women. He was just practicing on them. Sangofully they wouldn't be too mad at him if they ever found out he was just using them. Of course, he knew now that his plan was useless. He would never charm Kagome. She was out of his reach. Beyond his grasp. He'd seen her recently and he knew he still loved her. She was as sleek and sexy as ever, but she was also taken! That had been hard to stomach.
"Yo, supper's done." Inuyasha entered the room and stopped when he saw Sesshoumaru lying on his bed with his arms folded behind his head and his eyes closed.
After Nekura's death, Haru had brought back the servants, so now it wasn't Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru cooking food. It wasn't that either of them minded, really. It just wasn't what either of them wanted to do.
"You can't pretend you're asleep, Sess." Inuyasha told him. "I'm not an idiot."
"You are too an idiot; a well taught idiot, but an idiot nonetheless." Sesshoumaru objected. Now twenty two years old, it was the year Thirty o'Seven and Sesshoumaru was in his second year of college. Exciting though it was not, he was going to be a doctor. He figured, since his father was not dead yet, he could do whatever he wanted.
His father refused to die. It was amusing, watching his father trying to lead his business out of the inevitable ruin from a hospital bed. Well, amusing, but in a rather twisted way. Sesshoumaru thought it was about time their father dropped off the face of the earth so he wouldn't have to visit him pointlessly every day when he made his rounds to give out specifically directed medicine, while watched by the head doctor of the floor.
Inuyasha was going to go to college as soon as he graduated high school, which was this year. That, too, was a humorous idea. Sesshoumaru could somehow not picture Inuyasha in the role of their father; of course he knew better. Inuyasha would probably not make it to the top.
So, it was that Sesshoumaru just stood from his divan in his bedroom and sauntered over to where his year younger brother stood. Yuri, Sesshoumaru's twin sister, and he had never really gotten close since for ten years she was in captivity of an insane woman who had yet to be found, and after that had never forgiven Sesshoumaru for letting her be taken. He'd been nine years old! How could he have known she was going to be kidnapped by a crazy woman?
"I resent that." Inuyasha hummed as he turned heel and stalked back out of the bedroom. "And besides, supper is done."
Sesshoumaru chuckled. Truly a one track mind! He thought comically and followed Inuyasha to the kitchen where two servants, Shining -which was pronounced Shinneen- and Tyronica –which no one could pronounce properly so everyone who met her shortened it to "Ty" instead, were laying supper for two on the table.
Apparently, Shining and Ty had been too busy decorating for Christmas and buying and wrapping presents for ungrateful family members back home (wherever that was) that they'd not wanted to cook supper. Sesshoumaru could smell the take-out food scents wafting towards them as they watched the two women work their magic.
Shining and Ty were honest at least, so Haru gave the two leave to a checking account that they could withdraw money from to buy what they needed. He paid them well, since he had plenty of money.
"You can have a seat any day now!" Shining said nervously, worried that she'd done something wrong. So Sesshoumaru made her nervous...so what? So she liked him, hell, she loved him! She was always very self-conscious when it came to him, but he seemed so reserved, and rarely smiled and...Her thoughts were running away without her. She had to calm down.
He was a demon, a gorgeous one, and she was a human. She doubted any self righteous demon would marry a human. Of course, this was the year Thirty o'Seven! It wasn't Twenty-Six Twelve, a time when demons killed humans for fun.
Ty giggled and whispered in Shining's ear something about liking someone; Sesshoumaru let his mind wander again as he sat down. He had to eat, and then get ready for work. Work was a place where he could relax. At night, things were slightly less bustling than during the day, but then again that was always subject to change. After all, he worked at a hospital as a student learner.
He didn't eat very much of his meal before heading to his room and grabbing his things so he could shower. Inuyasha worked afternoons and went to school in the day, Sesshoumaru worked nights and went to college in the day.
That was the way it was in that these days, and it worked rather well because they didn't have to worry about conflicting with each other's schedules too much unless either one worked overtime.
Soon as he had showered, he dressed in his work suit and threw on his coat. It had recently snowed (yet again; seriously, he wanted to know when it would stop! He had to walk to work everyday since parking anywhere near the hospital was nearly impossible) and that meant that Christmas seriously was thinking about paying the world a visit. Today he was leaving early since it had snowed.
Sesshoumaru walked through the small park on his way to work. It chopped two blocks of walking off his time, plus it was right in between where he worked and lived. He sighed when he got there, thoughts plaguing his mind, and then headed for the break room. And then he heard it. Her voice. The voice he had never managed to forget.
"Stop! I said get your hands off!" The voice sounded peeved. "I won't hesitate to kick your—"
She was cut off by another voice; one many years her senior and he knew who it belonged to as well. "Eh, please. In your state, you could do nothing of the sort. Now would you please just stop moving around and let me check the bandages?!"
"You ain't doin' nothin' you old bat!" Sesshoumaru heard her say as he walked towards the source. He heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh, hard, and heard a yelp. "I know that was no accident! I've got four boyfriends who are all habit lechers, so don't bother to stumble excu—what are you doing? I just told you not to touch me!"
Sesshoumaru stepped into the room just in time to see his supervisor 'slip' and his hand 'fall' onto Kagome's breast. She reflexively slapped him. "Mr. Pilaf, I think you should not do that." Sesshoumaru said in his quiet tone.
Even his superiors thought twice about disobeying him, but not because he was just rich. It was because of who his father was, and who that made him. Sesshoumaru was a prince, and no one wanted to irritate a prince.
Sometimes, that was the only way to deal with people, was to instate your command above them. So no matter how many years senior they were to Sesshoumaru, he would always be above them. Hell, he would live longer than most of these block-heads.
"Ah Sesshoumaru my boy! You're a little early today; I don't have your rounds list ready yet."
Sesshoumaru's attention was not on the old man. His eyes had connected with Kagome's and they were locked there. Silent words passed between them, but it was in some indecipherable code that he could not understand. He heard himself saying, "Well, make it then. I'll see to Higurashi."
The old man scrambled off, unsurprisingly, and Sesshoumaru walked casually to the bed, picking up the chart to look it over. Unfortunately, he couldn't remove his eyes from her, so reading the chart was quite difficult, considering he wasn't looking at the thing in his hands.
He felt his icy confidence shell, the one Medallion had forced him to learn, find its place once more and smirked at her, looking down at the chart finally.
"It says you were stabbed, shot, and...start on fire? What enemies have you made this time?" He was appalled, to put it lightly. He set the chart back in the cubby by the bed, shaking his head leisurely.
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest but winced as wounds pained her. "Oh that. It's nothing I can't live with."
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, sure." Upon reading the chart, he found the wounds were on her chest mostly. That sucked. Well, no it didn't. For her maybe, but he wasn't so sure how bad that was, if you get my drift.
Oh man, now even Medallion's attitude had reached his thoughts? What next, a party that consisted of screwing ten girls at once?
"It says you're due for a change in bandages," he told her monotonously, surprised that he did not still get the feeling he used to around her. He used to feel like if he didn't control himself, he'd begin to shake with nerves and his voice would get squeaky.
Now, he just felt a cool rush over him, like everything was perfectly normal in his world. It was different; and come to think of it, the other day he really hadn't felt like he loved her either. Was it all a high school infatuation?
He still had the 'picture album' they had made together with the help of Inuyasha and all for the purpose of making their parents upset. Strange.
"Tell me something I don't know." Kagome drawled. She ran a hand through her disheveled hair, trying to make some order of it, but it wouldn't be ordered around.
Sesshoumaru walked over to the curtain around her bed and closed it, not really in a hurry. He'd gotten to work very early, so he had plenty of time to work. "Peculiar that it claims you were shot in the heart. How are you alive?" He kept all emotion from his face easily, because he felt no emotion at all around her. Again, he couldn't help but wonder what happened in the past few years to make him that way.
She laughed. "I have no heart." She told him, sounding sincere but he knew that it was impossible to be heartless. It was a necessary organ needed to live; not even demons could not survive without it.
He quirked an eyebrow at her as he made his way over to the bed. "Intriguing. Now, shall we stop the idle chit chat?" He knew he had initiated the conversation in the first place, but he refused to admit it. So what? He refused to admit a lot of things; it wasn't like this was the first time ever.
"Stiff as ever, I see." Kagome grumbled. "And here I thought Medallion would do his job."
Ah yes, Medallion had told him about that. How Kagome had asked Medallion to teach Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha to be more lucid in the way they dealt with girls. How Kagome had paid him to do it. "He did his job. There are some people in this world that I do not wish to speak to unless on professional terms."
He reached out and opened her hospital robe slightly, peering at her chest cavity above where her heart would be. He didn't let his hands wander, or his eyes either as he knew she would be watching him warily ready to smack him the moment he was unprofessional.
He refused to give her that satisfaction.
Assured that the bandages did indeed need to be changed, he released her and the robe fell back into place. The blood had soaked through the bandages. He politely excused himself from her presence and made his way to the break room.
Hanging up his coat, he then went to the wash up room and washed his hands, tying his hair back with the usual piece of leather thong, and putting on latex gloves before making his way back to Kagome's little encampment.
She was not alone when he got there. She was speaking quietly with three others in what seemed to be a heated conversation, yet they never raised their voices. They immediately hushed when Sesshoumaru came through the curtain.
"You're not to be in here." Sesshoumaru told them quietly. He kept his own voice down because usually when he was in the hospital he knew almost everyone would be sleeping (of the patients anyway) and he preferred not to disturb them unless absolutely necessary.
"Yes, well; shame I don't care." The woman said leisurely, waving her fan to cool herself even though the room was already quite chilly. She looked as though she had run a marathon, and so did the other two.
The two men, who stood behind the woman in the chair, rolled their eyes at the woman's tone of voice, yet said nothing and an eerie silence stretched in the room as Sesshoumaru moved to Kagome's side.
Once the top was off on the robe, lying behind Kagome, Sesshoumaru saw further the extent of how much blood she'd lost. No human could replace so much blood to live.
He frowned; he hadn't noticed if she smelled demon before, and now there were two other demons in the little space, not to mention several others throughout the room whose scents could intermingle with Kagome's and make it impossible to tell if she was human or not. She used to be human, he was sure of that much anyway.
The only sounds heard were spontaneous coughs from patients around the room, or the unwrapping of bandages as Sesshoumaru took the old ones off and discarded them safely, washing the wound gently, rubbing Sunset Hospital's famous healing salve on her chest and then rewrapping the bandages.
He kept his movements crisp and meticulous; there was nothing romantic at all about bandaging someone's wounds, though he did wonder how she got them in the first place.
As he took off the bloodied latex gloves from his hands, turning them inside out before discarding them in the safe waste bin, he reached for the chart and took his pen from the left breast pocket of his lab coat; writing down the date and exact time Kagome's bandages had been changed.
He switched to the commentary box and wrote "compliant" and then signed his signature in the small box beside the commentary. He took note of the time Kagome got checked into the hospital. She'd been there since about ten minutes after he had left work the previous night.
"You want to know, don't you?" Kagome provoked him with a challenging tone, willing him to accept. He knew what she was doing, and he would have none of it.
He shrugged and flipped to the next page of the chart, looking for anything else he had to do. Since there was nothing, he just closed the flip board and replaced it in the holder.
He felt the eyes of all four people on him as he turned towards the crack in the curtain. "Whatever you did," he began, "is between you, your doctor, and whatever God you worship. Were I to involve myself in the complication that is you, I would probably go mad with the effort to understand." He left the enclosure and headed to find his supervisor, Mr. Pilaf.
Kagome couldn't believe it. The prince was still as cold as ever. She scowled. Medallion obviously hadn't done a good enough job, or things wouldn't be that way. She swore he would never find a wife with that attitude.
"Kagome, about Tyrana... the family who wants to employ our services? What do I tell them?" Yusuke asked. It had only been a few months since they'd started their business and Kagome was 'The Boss'.
It was a protection agency and they took care of people but not just rich people. They hired themselves to the protection of anyone who needed it, and somehow they made ends meet even though they didn't make much from most of the jobs they did.
None of them had lasted much more than a week, but this next one promised to last at least a month. Still, Kagome was "The Boss" and had to be the one to make the decision on whether or not they took a job.
Kagome turned her head and looked at her three friends who knew about her business. Kagome wasn't going to bring her old friends into it, as it was their choice. If they wanted to join, they could and Kagome would pay them a wage as well. "Do you want to do it?" She asked them. She wouldn't do it without their opinions either.
Yusuke scratched the back of his neck. "Well, considering I have no family that I would be leaving or anything, I have nothing to lose." He said. Kagome smiled at Yusuke.
He had come into the group when it had barely started and they were doing protection work in Raspuit. He was charming and Kagome adored him but he was also gay which she regretted very much. Still, he was the perfect person to play the roll as her "husband" if she did any serious work that required her to have a match and already she'd needed to use him for such things.
For him, he believed he had no family because his boyfriend had been betraying him with his own mother, which was quite the slap in the face. Rather than slicking his hair back from his face as he normally did, he kept it loose and it was disheveled, his left eye slightly red and blue from where he'd gotten nailed with a fist in a fight.
Other than that, he was completely unchanged from his dirt brown eyes to his ragged clothes. He had money to get better clothes, but preferred comfort over class.
"You can count me in." Kagura said. She had been with Kagome since the start, and had been Kagome's first friend when she moved to Snowsville. At the moment, she was currently "with" Hiei, and the two shared a bed at night.
What they did in that bed, Kagome didn't want to know but she had a good enough idea that she would never sleep in a bed they had used previously.
Kagura had finished up College quickly and got three diplomas in three different areas, which was quite bizarre. One in Psychiatry, one in Forestry, and one in Mechanical Engineering, and yet she had not gone into a field of work where she could actually use them.
Well, she was quite good at using mind tricks on people, which was a good thing Hiei was with her because he knew them all and could avoid being played like a toy.
She also liked to play with people, but that was irrelevant information. Her looks were exactly the same, with no change to them, as when Kagome had first met her, including the same hair style she liked so much.
The tight hair bun gave her a much colder look (especially when paired with her crimson eyes) than she really was. Most people backed off immediately if she even hinted that she was peeved.
Hiei scowled, pretending to be irritated, though Kagome knew him to be the exact opposite. He was worried about Kagome because she'd been stabbed, shot, and burned by the woman who they last had gone up against. The woman had gotten away but Kagome knew she would find the woman eventually.
After all, Kagome remembered the gold skinned woman who had shot Rin, and Kagome knew that woman could only be the gold skinned woman. She was still trying to find out information on the woman to make finding her at least slightly easier but it was difficult. She wished above all that she had Sango's inane ability to hack into things and find things out but she knew that was a far cry. Very far.
Hiei grumbled, "I suppose I have no choice. Someone's got to baby sit you three." It was the usual excuse. He wanted to go, but expressing that was not easy for him. Expressing feelings had been so much easier before Kagome had turned him down. But either way, he had Kagura now, and she understood him better than anyone.
She and he had grown up together and though they had once felt like brother and sister, the bond had grown steadily deeper since Hiei had closed his failing alchemy shop.
No one in Snowsville wanted to buy anything, so there was no point in trying was there? Besides; Kagome paid him to create medicines, and supplied him with the things he needed. What more could he ask for?
"Good, we'll leave as soon as we can, though I probably should visit my family."
"Avoiding us, are you Princess?" A quiet masculine voice came from nearby. Kagome turned her head and saw her father in a wheelchair, being pushed by her brother. Her mother walked beside the two. Naraku was looking very ill. "I noticed you collected your inheritance."
"Papa?" Kagome was shocked. She hadn't expected them to find out she was in the hospital. Sesshoumaru walked into the ever larger enclosure after them. "Sesshoumaru, you rat!" She scowled. "I should have known you'd do something like this."
Sesshoumaru shrugged. "I saw they had not been informed, so I gave Kali a call. Really, Higurashi, you shouldn't be so cold." Kagome watched him with narrowed eyes. His tone was mocking and somehow still his face was bland as though she were beneath him.
Technically, she was beneath him because she was a normal person and he was a demon prince, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that he got punished, oh and she could think of plenty of delightful little places she could send him (the seventh level of hell being the nicest of them all).
Kagura stood immediately, her eyes near popping out of their sockets. "Doctor Onigumo!" she breathed reverently. Nothing compared to her obsession in following Kali's work.
Kali waved Kagura off, smiling as she walked over to the younger Psychiatrist. "Kagura, please. We are women of the same profession. Do not act as though you are not my equal!" She chuckled. "Besides, I knew your mother.
I am surprised you do not remember me from when you were little. But all is well." She turned to Sesshoumaru. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru. I appreciate the call, and we will be quiet." That last comment seemed to be directed more at Souta than anyone. He looked ready to murder Kagome.
"'Gome, do you know I nearly died when the call came?" he hissed at his sister. "I could have keeled over and you wouldn't care!" He pushed Naraku up to the side of the bed and began pacing in the small area.
Sesshoumaru picked up the chart once more and scratched an 'x' in the box asking whether or not family had been notified. "Yes, I see that quiet settling in already." He drawled. Only Kagome heard him.
Souta was still ranting. He continued to look over the chart, making sure he missed nothing. It wouldn't do to say he would take care of "Higurashi" if he didn't make sure there was nothing else she needed.
Kagura and Kali both whapped a fan on Souta's head to shut him up. Not an electric fan of course, though that would be funny. Just little paper fans. "There are people sleeping here!"
Kagome groaned but no one seemed to hear her exasperation. She wanted them all gone. Every last one of them. Sesshoumaru should not have called her family. She knew things would be like this. She just knew it would be!
Sesshoumaru cleared his throat and as he had expected, the attention was on him. "I'm afraid you'll have to leave now." He pulled the curtain open and it appeared no one had yet woken up. Thankfully, the room was mostly filled with elderly men and women whose hearing had gone and snores shook mountains.
"Thank you for calling us, Sesshoumaru." Kali said as she grabbed Souta's arm and began dragging him out. Naraku followed after turning on the electric to his wheelchair, but he didn't leave without smiling at Kagome encouragingly.
Once they were gone, Sesshoumaru looked towards Kagome's three friends. "You are not exempt from this. Visiting hours ended many hours ago."
Kagura scowled standing and walking towards Sesshoumaru, tapping his chest with her fan. "Who are you to order me about?" Again she tapped his chest with the fan. "You're nobody. Absolutely nobody."
He grabbed the fan before it could tap his chest again, leaning slightly closer to her, leering over her. "I am the doctor in charge, this night. Leave." It was not a question. It was a demand. It was an order that would have to be followed. He knew this, she knew this.
Of course, everyone knew she wouldn't want to just back down. So, Yusuke and Hiei just walked over to her and forced her to back down. "Hey!" Kagura yelped. "You listen here, we're not done with this conversation!" she called to Sesshoumaru as they left the room.
Sesshoumaru looked towards Kagome, who looked to be fighting laughter. He wondered briefly what was so funny, but set it aside. He couldn't understand why before she had looked so angelic to him no matter how many times he saw her beating up her friends.
Now, she just looked like an ordinary woman, like all those other women in the Rave who wanted him for his title, money, and body but not heart, spirit, or personality.
"Don't you have work to do?" she asked him. He didn't respond, but just left, wondering. Thoughts plagued him even more than before. He sighed once he'd made it out of the room. Was it just infatuation? Probably...
And now he felt empty, as though that infatuation had kept him going, and it probably had. Every time he tried to commit suicide when Nekura would abuse him, the thought of Kagome made him remove the knife from his wrist. She had saved his life so many times and she didn't even know it.
That was sad. Now that he no longer felt the need to end his life and was content, he suddenly dropped an infatuation he'd had since he was so very young; since in fact he had first seen her.
He filled that emptiness with what he knew best: cold indifference. He didn't care. It didn't matter. It was irrelevant, just as love was. He did have work to do. He tried to and did blot out the question that most wanted to introduce itself to him. "Am I lonely?" Because the answer...was yes.
It had been a month since the incident at the hospital where Kagome had seen Sesshoumaru and he had pretty much ignored her. She'd thought he'd liked her, but time changed things as she knew all too well, and understandably he'd probably just been infatuated.
Rather than dwelling too much on Sesshoumaru, she'd engrossed herself in her work with Kagura, Hiei, and Yusuke; taking them to Ireland to help a family out of a tight spot who requested the help. That had taken about two weeks, but they'd decided just to hang out in Kagome's mansion in the hills and had been there since.
Now, though, Kagome had to go home because her mother was getting married and requested Kagome's presence. Yusuke, Kagura, and Hiei were coming along so they could laugh at Kagome in a dress, never having seen her in one before.
Shortly after take-off, Kagome found herself taking Valium to ease her nerves. She would have kept popping the pills one after another if Yusuke hadn't wrestled the bottle from her.
She couldn't sleep this time on the plane, because the ride wasn't going to be long enough, but her body was tense and a headache was forming in the back of her mind as she recalled her first plane trip –the cause of all the anxiety.
She'd been unconscious the first time, so it might be wondered how she could remember it, but it wasn't the actual plane ride she remembered that made her nervous. It was the memory of the battle that had ensued in her mind between the two halves of her, and just the memory of that pain made her want to vomit up her meager lunch.
She knew this would come back to haunt her later –things like that always did. But for now, she clenched one armrest in one hand while the other hand's nails dug into Yusuke's arm painfully. He winced and tried to pry her hand off but to no avail. Soon, he felt the trickle of blood running down his arm and knew she'd broken the skin.
It was going to be a long forty-five minutes.
Trying to take his mind off the pain in his arm, he looked around the cabin. The plane was small. There were three seats to each side of the cabin, then the isle in the middle that shot straight up to the first class seating and straight back to the lavatories and flight attendant seating.
The plane was dark mostly; just a few isle lights for the flight attendants to see by when they walked through, and some of the overhead reading lights were on.
Outside the window that Kagome sat next to it was dark. The only light was from the bright light on the wing that shone in his eyes making him ill if he looked too long at it.
Finally, Kagome passed out from all the nerves and her grip on his arm loosened. He took a deep breath and looked at the wounds. Since transforming, her nails were sharper than a Surgical Stainless Steel knife.
They'd bitten deep, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. He reached over and, to the shock of the person sitting next to them, started digging in her pocket even though it was rather hard.
He pulled out her handkerchief and wrapped it around the wounds. Just like many times before, he wished his priest powers were not just destructive.
"How very indecent of you!" the old woman gasped. "Stealing from the young lady! How dare you?" She pulled her tote bag closer to her body, as though afraid he might do it to her too. Her eyes were as wide as saucers.
Yusuke sneered at her, in no mood to put up with senile old women. "Listen, old hag. If you know what's good for you, you'll shut your trap." His voice was an angry snarl that made her shake in her seat. She was the type who would be too frightened to do anything about it. "She's my girlfriend, so I'll do what I well please to her!" Of course, it wasn't quite true.
Kagome wasn't his girlfriend, but he would like to ravish her skin and...Wait, where did that thought come from? He was gay! That meant he found only the same sex attractive... hmm... could Kagome be a guy in disguise? No, he'd seen her naked, she was quite clearly a girl.
That had been purely accidental. Nothing purposeful about that... it was just that... well he hadn't known she took baths completely naked! That was the lamest excuse he'd ever thought up...
But it hadn't struck him at that particular time when she said "I'm bathing" that she would be naked, so he'd entered the room. Seeing her naked in full glory made his jaw drop, and at the time, he'd been brushing his teeth so his mouth was full of toothpaste.
Imagine opening his mouth with a large gulp of liquid in it, and the picture of what happened should be clear as glass. His mouthful of toothpaste slipped past the barriers that were his lips and drenched both him and the floor beneath him.
And she'd been standing to get out, so her body was dripping with water, sleek and sexy as ever if not more so. If she knew his thoughts, she would probably have beat him up for even seeing her naked, so he didn't dare to admit –not even to himself— the dangerous thoughts he had.
It was so much easier to pretend he was not finding the opposite sex attractive; so much easier to pretend that everything in his world was as normal as it used to be, before Kagome entered the parlor that day what seemed like so long ago but was really only a few years.
As the plane began its descent towards Earth, it began to shake and rattle, and Yusuke was grateful that Kagome was asleep. He had no idea why she was freaked out every time she got on a plane, but he didn't need any more 'reminders' of her fear.
Next time, Kagura or Hiei would fly with her, and he would stay back in Ireland waiting for the next flight out rather than taking three different flights with Kagome on their way to Sunset, Japan. It had only been a month since they'd been there, and that was because Kagome needed hospital care that seemingly only Sunset Hospital could provide, out of all the hospitals in the world.
And the funny thing was, Yusuke found that he really didn't mind Kagome gouging holes in his arms with her extremely knife-sharp nails, for all his complaining thoughts. It reminded him there were other things to think about than Eyndi.
Strangely enough though, every time he thought of being with a man these days, any man even Eyndi, he felt thoroughly disgusted like the thought was wrong. But when the thought about doing some of the things he did with Eyndi with Kagome?
He forced his thoughts away from that line of direction as he woke Kagome up. They were taxiing along and would be for about ten more minutes, but that was not really much of a problem he was sure.
As soon as the docking bay was pulled up to the plane and the doors were opened, the lights came on in the cabin and people began standing, grabbing their carry-on bags from the overhead bins and waiting their turn to leave.
Yusuke couldn't wake her, and all the Valium she'd taken had relaxed her so much that she wouldn't wake for quite some time. He hesitated, but then unbuckled her and groaned as he struggled to pick her up, one arm under knees, the other bracing her back and head.
When he got into the isle, a flight attendant approached him. Everyone else had gone by then, the elderly lady had left at a quick walk, managing to snake her way to the front of the line to get away from Yusuke, and only now did Yusuke remember their carry-on bags (still tucked safely in an overhead bin).
"Sir, is something the matter?" The flight attendant said quite politely; it seemed to be one of the first things you would learn in flight school would be the usage of 'sir' and 'ma'am'. Quite frankly, being called 'sir' bothered Yusuke, though he would not mention it.
"Yeah; I forgot our carry-on bags." He grumbled, but hadn't meant for the woman to hear him. He set Kagome back in a seat and reached up to grab their bags from the overhead bin, only to find his hand had hit the door to the bin.
Had he been paying attention, he would have realized that only his and Kagome's bags were in the overhead bin and so it would not have been opened yet.
Asking himself when this day would come to an end (in his head of course, he didn't want anyone to think he was crazy), he opened the bin and threw the straps of the two bags over his shoulder. Picking up Kagome was not any easier the second time.
"What have you been eating?" He asked the unconscious girl. "Damn, you need to lose some weight." Finally he was standing, but he could go nowhere with the flight attendant in his way.
"Is she ill?"
"No, she decided to pop off to LaLa land, what do you think?" He snapped. "Of course she's ill!" The day was wearing on him, and Kagura's attitude towards idiots really had caught him tightly. "Now move so I can get home! I've still got to drive four hours!"
It was two in the morning, and he'd not slept much in the past twenty-four hours, so reasonably he'd be a bit snippy, but at the look on the flight attendants face, he felt guilty at taking it all out on her.
"I'm sorry." He told her, in a much less angry tone. "I'm not mad at you, just irritated that my whole life is askew." He left it at that and she moved aside. He made his way off the plane and through the airport to the baggage terminal, finding his flight number and waiting for it to unload their bags.
He wondered how he would manage carrying both their luggage (four bags including their carry-ons) and Kagome at the same time. The answer came when their luggage did not.
That unfortunately served to only make him more ticked off and he was already attracting much attention because he was carrying Kagome.
The fuming Yusuke struggled to carry Kagome to the rental car counter and thanked any god that would listen that there was no line.
As the man went through a list of questions, asking to see his driver's license (he struggled to get that out of his pocket without dropping Kagome) for a form of identification, he answered them all curtly.
Finally he had the paperwork for a car and, considering his hands were busy, had to carry the papers in his mouth to the shuttle bus that would take him to the rental home. He was able to relax on the bus finally, and he massaged his sore shoulders and neck for the bare five minutes the ride lasted.
He was so irritated he didn't bother to tip the shuttle driver. He didn't think it mattered much; considering he was giving the company over six hundred dollars just to rent the car for three days.
Finally he was on his way to Sunset, only he didn't have the map. That was safely stowed away in Kagome's luggage, which had not come out of the baggage terminal. Kagome had assured him that their luggage wouldn't get lost.
So he had to pay now for a new map. But it was three in the morning; he just wanted sleep! Kagome showed no signs of waking, the roads were slippery with rain slick and patches of snow drifts, and there was nothing to say he wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel.
He decided that stopping at a motel would be smarter than trying to drive in his angry, tired condition. With the luck he'd been having lately, he would probably run them off the road into a ditch somewhere and kill them both. Peachy keen.
The next morning dawned a blizzard, and Yusuke regretted stopping at the hotel. For one, the hotel service wasn't all that great; the bathroom was falling apart, there were dead roaches under the bed, and the mattresses were lumpy and wide enough for about a half-person, but at least Kagome was awake.
She was used to driving in this sort of weather; he hoped anyway. She was dressed in the spare clothes from her carry-on, but didn't have a coat considering that too was in her bag. She didn't have to ask why their bags were not with them. She could guess.
"Ready to go?" Kagome asked him, grinning openly at him. She acted as though she had not spent eight hours in unconsciousness. But then again, perhaps that was for the best?
Seeing her standing there, at the foot of his meager bed, her hair loose rather than the normal braid and cascading down her shoulders like a wavy waterfall, made him want to smile. Every bad thing from the day before seemed strangely far back in time. She was a good thing to wake up to, he thought.
Now was the time to admit to his self that somehow, someway, he had fallen out of love with men, into a straight path, and in love with her. A warm feeling built in his chest at the sight of her and he had to gulp down the lump in his throat.
"Of course." He said, throwing back the covers and standing up.
She waved to the boxers and tee-shirt that he'd worn for bed. "Going to go out there like that?" She joked. "You're supposed to save that look for me alone."
To her surprise, he blushed and grabbed his pants, pulling them on and tucking down his boxers so they wouldn't get caught in the zipper. It had happened before, and it had been a devil trying to get the zipper open again, leaving a hole in his boxers that wasn't supposed to be there.
"If you want me so bad, just take me." It was his usual response, but said with much less confidence than usual. Quickly he regained his composure and threw her one of his 'I'm sexy and you want me' looks that he knew set her skin on fire.
He could turn any woman into mush, he knew. He wasn't bragging, but he knew he could do it.
He walked over to her and slipped one hand to the small of her back and pulled her close, burying his nose in her hair. She hadn't washed it for two days, but that was hardly bad. Taking a deep breath of the aroma that was her, he let his other hand trail her tight stomach lightly.
Though he usually did this to her as a daily ritual, just to unsettle her, this time was different. He never really tried to steal a kiss from her when he did this, but this time he let his mouth capture hers and he knew right away that she would give in.
They all did; no woman could resist him. It was impossible, because Gay Guys Were Irresistible! He'd never found one yet who could resist him and soon the two were fumbling at each other's clothing hurriedly.
A knock at the door brought them back to their senses before they could do much more than get their shirts removed. They dressed quickly and before they left the room to hand in the key, Yusuke grabbed her around the waist once more and swept her to the moon on a kiss that she'd never experienced before.
Still, she preferred to ride the avalanche-kiss that Sesshoumaru gave her than fly to the moon in a rocket of emotion. She wasn't left as breathless by Yusuke as she was by Sesshoumaru, though why he was coming to mind was beyond her.
Neither talked about what had almost happened in that dumpy motel, but that didn't mean the ride to Sunset was completely silent as they drove through the heavy snowfall. Likely, this would be the last snowfall before everything went dry again.
They talked of weather, work, and technology, all while ignoring what had happened. Yusuke didn't understand what had compelled him to touch her like that, but he knew why she didn't fight against him. He knew exactly how to get a woman to respond the way he wanted them to, and unlike some people who might use their priest powers against a woman, he didn't need to.
When they entered Sunset, Kagome pulled out her cell phone at a stoplight and dialed the Shrine. It rang a few times before it was picked up by a breathless person, and a voice that seemed recorded spoke. "Hello, Sunset Shrine Psychiatry, Yuri speaking, how may I direct your call?"
"Hi, Yuri." Kagome said pleasantly, pressing gently on the gas as the light turned green. "It's Kagome; is my mama there?"
Again the recorded voice spoke at the same time that Kagome heard footsteps walking away from the other end of the phone in a hurried pace. "Please wait one moment while I transfer you to or find the person or persons of your inquiry."
Kagome guessed that Yuri was not speaking still. It was a few moments before Kagome heard her mother's voice on the phone, and by this time she was stuck in the noon rush hour. "Hello, this is Doctor Onigumo."
"Oh, mama, you really need to change your falsely severe voice." She joked. The reason they were headed for Sunset was because her mother was getting married. Kagome was slightly upset that she had not been a part of this decision, but the man was a good one at least.
Kohaku and Sango would be Kagome's brother and sister soon. That sort of bit Kagome in the rear upon hearing that because she knew she still had something for Kohaku; even though it had been Kagome and Kohaku's plan to begin with to set their parents up.
"Kagome!" her mother's voice was a jumble of excitement and Kagome laughed. "Oh Kagome, I'm so glad you can make it! You'll be my maid of honor, right?"
"Mama, I told you two days ago I would be." She scolded gently as she parked in front of the shrine. It was a Wednesday so there were available parking spaces. "Settle down or you might piss your pants, you'll be so happy."
"Language!"
"Mama, who's the billionaire here?" Kagome said in a tone of mock-hurt. She noticed there were a couple other vehicles parked in the parking spaces, but not many and so she ignored them.
"This mama does not care if you're a billionaire or a poverty-stricken monkey; you'll watch your language."
Kagome couldn't help it. She burst out laughing at the image in her mind of her mother scolding a ragged looking monkey who held out a cup asking for change. It was just too funny to her. "See you in a bit, mama." Kagome said and after her mother had hung up, she did too.
"Well, that was thoroughly pointless." Yusuke drawled. He ran a hand through his thick black hair but stopped and looked at his hand. Only hours before he had run that self-same hand through Kagome's hair as though it was supposed to do that.
Finally, he reached a decision that would change his life. He didn't want to forget, or ignore, what had gone on between them, or almost gone on that is.
He didn't want her to forget or ignore it either. He reached across the distance and grasped her chin lightly, feeling her shudder under his touch. It was amusing to watch her turn to mush by a simple touch. But she was different than anyone he had ever met.
Somehow...
Turning her face, he pulled her gently to a kiss that he would make sure she remembered. Their tongues fought, their fingers entwined, and he pressed her slightly into the door of the tiny car, knowing with every ounce of his life that he would never look at a man the same way he'd done before.
Slowly, since he'd met her, he should have realized what would happen. It was obvious then that he wouldn't be able to stay like that. She brought a change to his world just by introducing himself to her.
Surprising him was a rare thing to happen, but she did it at every turn, especially when she pushed him regretfully away. "Not here." She told him. "It's neither the time, nor the place." To him it was clear she had at least some affection towards him, but something else held her back. A past love?
Yusuke nodded and reached into the back seat, grabbing their carry-on bags. Together, they climbed the steps to the place that Kagome used to call home. Exactly three years before, this was her home. She had barely seen it since, mostly because regular visits were illegal for her at the time.
She felt joy well up in her chest as she walked through the snowy gates of the shrine and into the courtyard that was filling with snow quickly. Three rather bundled and stooped figures were trying to shovel the snow to the side of the courtyard.
Kagome was so happy to be back that instead of feeling cold from the deadly winds dragging at her shirt and pants and the snow that swirled around her, she felt warm and tears brimmed in her eyes. The greatest feeling she'd ever felt, she now knew it was coming home to the place of her birth.
Truly this place was where she was born. Her mother had gone into labor in the middle of a strange September snowstorm that should never have occurred, and she and Naraku had to birth a baby who was two months premature. The doctors had said it was a miracle Kagome had even survived the birth; Naraku told Kagome that her survival was fate. Naraku was a firm believer in God and "everything was meant to be".
Kagome veered from her path, heading for the stairs that led to the top of the wall surrounding the Shrine property. Yusuke waited where he was at the entrance, knowing very well he was not needed at the moment and feeling left out slightly.
He spoke nothing of this feeling, knowing it probably tied into all those other silly feelings he'd felt recently including those towards Kagome.
Standing up on the wall, she let the wind caress her body, kiss her face, and trail on her hair. One of the tears stinging in her eyes trailed down her cheek leaving a pleasant burning sensation when the liquid mixed with the air.
She stood in two feet of snow up here, but didn't care. She knew if she slipped, she could sprout wings before she landed on the ground fifty feet below. From this vantage point, she could see pretty near the entire shrine, including Madison's Labyrinth beyond the forest, and the well just past the large swimming pond that was covered in ice.
She could recall getting lost in Madison's Labyrinth with Souta when she was younger. When Kagome and Souta had quarreled while lost, they'd split up and instead got lost alone. Somehow she'd found her way to the center of the labyrinth and as it got darker, the stone statue of her many greats grandmother glowed with iridescent light.
She'd curled up at her grandmother's feet, not really frightened by the three demons that were set stone around her grandmother; more afraid of the dark than anything and being alone.
When she'd woken up, she was in her bed at home. No one had come to get her; because apparently she'd never really gone into the labyrinth. Souta couldn't remember it either. That led her to believe it was a dream, but it had felt so real.
She could recall the feel of the strange stone that her grandmother and the three demons were seemingly carved into; she could recall the feel of the moist ground and the feeling of comfort and safety after her grandmother had begun to glow... but was that all silly dreams as everyone said?
Even the well and swimming pond gave Kagome memories. At age eight, she fell into the dry well and spent a month in the hospital because she'd cracked her skull open. She'd fallen into the swimming pond once during the winter because she'd tried skating on thin ice. That meant two weeks of miserable days in bed for both Kagome and Souta.
Souta had been the one who saved her from the pond; she'd been foolish for a fourteen year old, he'd been smart for a thirteen year old. Of course, she could swim, but she'd swum the wrong way and ended up with solid ice over her head and couldn't find the hole out.
Sango, Souta, Kohaku, and Miroku had all chipped away at the ice as fast as they could with their skates and finally made a hole large enough to reach their hands inside and start digging away at the ice. It had been a frantic scramble, but all four of them had showed level heads in a panic; something Kagome found difficult every so often.
Kagome had fallen unconscious from lack of air before they could get at her and her skates began to drag her down and away from them. When they had a hole large enough, Souta stripped to his boxers and went after her.
The water was icy cold, but he didn't care. His sister was much more important than his health. When he found her, he took off the heavy clothing as fast as he could from her body, letting the skates sink to the bottom of the pond, running short on air, and calling upon his priest powers to melt a hole in the ice that was above him when he came up.
Later on, he had said he didn't know why he didn't just do that in the first place, but it just hadn't occurred to him.
This place was home to thousands of her memories, each she cherished. She knew she couldn't let herself forget where her home really was, even if she traveled the globe trying to sort out other people's affairs.
"Kagome!" she heard a very recognizable voice holler. She looked down and saw her mother looking terribly frightened up at her. "Get down before you fall down!"
Her mother's fear was reasonable. Clumsy Kagome had also fallen off this wall when she was little and from fifty feet up she was lucky she hadn't died. She'd landed on her feet, but the weight of her body had crushed her legs.
Healing after that was no simple matter and she required much attention from her mother's priestess power so the bones in her leg which looked like the pieces of candy after a hammer had a go at it would heal clean.
"Mama, I'm fine!" Kagome yelled down to her mother and got a wicked idea in her mind. Like sharp knives, she grew wings that pierced her shirt to be free and let her footing slide. Her mother wouldn't see the wings until she was close up because of their dragonfly-like transparency, and as she fell she kept the wings coming.
Her mother screamed and began rushing over the snowy courtyard, petrified that her daughter was about to be crushed like a cat being thrown off a silo with a eight pound brick tied to its legs.
"Kagome!" that was Souta's voice. He of course didn't know about how she was half-demon yet, so what a surprise he would get. Just five feet before she smashed into the ground, she unfurled her wings and grew feathers on them.
It took less than a millisecond and anyone who saw it would have thought they just appeared out of nowhere, but Kagome had grown them, and now she glided to a soft landing at her mother's feet in a crouch.
Her mother looked at the large gray feathered wings on Kagome's back, her eyes wide, her mouth a tight line of disappointment. "You don't galumph around here making me so scared! You'll give me a heart attack!!"
Kagome threw her arms around her mother, grinning at her brother who was just ten feet away. He'd discarded his shovel and his eyes were more than angry.
His midnight blue eyes roamed her face, as though looking for a sign that she was some crazy person pretending to be his sister. Finally, from the look on his face, it seemed he had come to a decision. She was a crazy person, but she wasn't pretending to be his sister. That really was her.
Her mother hugged her back and began giggling. "Kagome, its good you're back." She said honestly. "Kohaku has been asking when you would arrive every five minutes."
Kagome laughed and searched the few faces in the courtyard for the said eager boy. Her mother took off her jacket as Kagome comfortably folded her wings against her back. When she felt a weight on her shoulders, she looked at her mother's coat. "I'm going inside." Kali told her. "There's a surprise waiting for you in the Counseling room."
Kagome pecked her mother on the cheek and walked over to Souta. Kohaku and Sango were the other two shovel-ers. For now, though, she wanted family. Instead, Souta crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her, his blue eyes furious. "Bitch!" He said as Yusuke, Sango, and Kohaku came to join them.
"Don't swear." Kagome quipped.
Suddenly, before Kagome could say anything more, or do anything else, she was swept up in the air and twirled around by Kohaku and then found him pressing a firm kiss to her lips.
"Love transcends time," Kali recalled she'd written in an article quite some time before as she watched her daughter and Kohaku. She'd had no doubt that her marriage would not stop the two from loving each other.
It was actually quite possible they would end up together in the end. They had always been serious about each other when they were together.
Of course, Kali knew Kagome flirted and kissed other boys, but she was different. Kohaku knew that even if Kagome flirted and kissed other boys, he would always be the one who she came to. He loved her, and she loved him.
Neither of them doubted their love for the other, or the other's love for them. It was mutual understanding; the kinds of thing real relationships were created from.
Smiling, Kali closed the door and let her daughter visit. She didn't notice the hurt look Yusuke had; no one noticed. It was only a brief look, before he stowed it away. She walked to her office where Rin was fitting Yuri for the dress she'd wear for the wedding. Time was going so quickly these days!