Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha
Beta and co-author: Tokahlia
A White Rose _ A Kiss of Desire
Chapter 4
It was quite amazing, he remarked, on the amount of sheer ignorance his half-brother possessed. He had been close-by for at least an hour now and InuYasha had yet to acknowledge his presence. The gall. Sesshoumaru huffed, a sound he allowed himself since Jaken and Rin were not around, then continued on with his experiment.
This had not started as an amusement, he remarked. He did have a genuine reason for continuing on like this, he told himself.
It had started when he had tried to draw InuYasha out, away from the pesky demon slayer and cursed monk, using his youki as a lure. He had prodded softly and subtly; surely, he had thought, a hanyou used to his youki would react right away. But, InuYasha seemed to defy all of his beliefs. He had remained, unperturbed by the demon energy as he stood watch over his pack. Intrigued, Sesshoumaru had travelled closer, yet unnoticed by the Inutaichi.
With his superior eyes, Sesshoumaru had scoped out the group from a safe distance. All of his half-brother's pack seemed to be there except the miko. InuYasha sat hunched over on the ground, facing a direction where, Sesshoumaru deemed by circling around for a closer look, the miko's scent lead towards.
'Idiotic hanyou; why do you simply wait for her?'
And so, there was Sesshoumaru, gently meditating in a tree only 100 feet from Inuyasha (downwind of course), jabbing and poking his half-brother with increasingly stronger amounts of youki. He shifted in his seat as he continued, waiting to see when someone, for the monk might wake up before InuYasha got a clue, would recognise his presence.
A White Rose_A Kiss of Desire
Kagome was not sure what she was feeling. She felt flattered; truly, who in their right mind would not feel grateful when desired by a god. She was quite certain that she had read his eyes correctly. He made her feel so feminine and wanted. He looked like he would be more than happy to kiss her again. Speaking of kisses, she could still feel the pleasant tingling sensation on her lips from their first kiss. It caused butterflies to flutter within her and her heart to act up. It was the sweetest thing that had ever happen to her; go figure that it was caused by a god.
"Um..." She began but turned bashful at his piercing gaze. she gulped. The River God smiled, loving the beautiful blush on her cheeks and greatly enjoying the bashful look on her face.
"Your blush is addorable," he said as he caressed her cheeks and cause Kagome to squeal within her mind.
"Don't say something like that with a straight face!" she hid her face with her hands and ended up cupping his hands as well. He laughed and Kagome squealed for real this time only for it to be muffled by her hands. The deep tenor of his silky voice made her knees grew weak. 'That voice should be illegal!' she thought, then blinked mentally. 'Maybe it is; it's not like human rulesshould apply to him anyway.'
She peeked between her fingers and had to seal her hands again at the blindingly bright smile that she saw. A yip escaped her when his larger hand that had cupped her cheeks pulled away from her own grasp, only to circle around her waist moments later. It took her a moment but she realised that she was being pulled gently closer to a certain toned, masculine body. Her first instinct was to breakaway, she didn't know him! How could she trust a guy, even a breathtakingly gorgeous male as he, that she had just met?
"My bride is beautiful." he whispered softly and she melted in his embrace. 'Warm...' he thought, smiling into her hair.
"Tell me, what is your name?" He asked, making Kagome momentarily startle. That was right, she didn't know him, at all! As she spoke she tried to subtly pulled away.
"Kagome. Higurashi Kagome. Charmed, Kami-sama"
He chuckled at her tone. "It certainly is, Kagome"
She was startled when he spoke her name. Due to her past experiences, his acknowledgement of her name meant so much to her. He, a god, had said her name; giving her the respect that she had always had to commandfrom numerous males that claimed her as one thing or another, deforming her given title at birth, her name.
'Such a strange creature she is; her emotions are so quick to change.' he was quite pleased with himself as he felt her bubbling happiness at his simple use of her name. 'And what a beautiful name it is.'
"You have not told me your name, Kami-sama"
"Ha, I apologize, my dear. You may call me ****"
"I'm sorry? I do not understand what you just said" she told him, confused as she leaned back from his embrace. She caught his sad smile before he hid away the sadness and smiled softly down at her.
"It saddens me that you cannot yet hear my name, dearest." she blushed at his warm endearment and told him it was not his fault. "You warm me with your kind words, my dear. I will allow you to call me Haku for now. Does this pleases you?"
She nodded. "Hai." her eyes bashfully darted away from his handsome face. It was only then that she noticed how late it had gotten. The sun was in it's quarter position in the eastern sky, an indication of 9 hour mark. A sense of panic rose within her chest followed closely by reluctance. Kagome did not want to leave but her sense of duty beckoned her to return to her quest. She returned her gaze to his face, taking in everything quickly and finally met his eyes. His eyes held no judgement only curiosity shined through at the moment.
"I must return to my quest, Haku-dono..." her voice trailed off, only confirmed his suspicion of her reluctance to leave. It was odd how easily he could read her, but then again he was not surprised; she had unknowingly revealed all of herself when she bathe within his spring, a spring that held half of him.
"You will return to my side." he commanded her softly and embraced her once more as he wished to memorize her scents and the unique essence that was hers.
Kagome was surprise when he did not protest. 'Maybe I got too used to InuYasha's reactions.' She was even more surprised when she did not react negatively to his command. It made her happy, she realized; because the tone of his command was loving. then she felt guilty because she was not sure she could return such adoration.
"I will wait for you." he whispered, smoothing her hair with one of his large, pristine hand.
'How did he know what I was thinking? Does he know?'
"I can read your aura, my dear. I apologize if my skill make you feel violated, it was not my intention." His green eyes glittered in truth.
She gave him a small smile, an indication that she forgave him, and he tugged back the hair behind her ear in affection.
"Why are you treating me so affectionately? You've only just met me, I don't understand..." She asked even as she leaned into his touch.
He did not answer her immediately, but took his time to study her. "You are my bride, Kagome. This spring you bathe in hold half of my soul."
"W...what?" she said, the volume of her voice could not proceed pass a whisper. 'I don't understand. What does that mean? Did I... expose myself?'Her cheeks, already quite red, darkened in response to this thought.
"You have exposed yourself to me in the most intimate way. Can you not feel the strings between us that connect our thoughts?"
"Haku-dono," she began, her eyes looked down in shame as she continued to speak. "I'm not trained enough to see for myself what it is that you just told me." Her voice was low as she admitted her shortcoming. Kagome was startled when she felt him gently lifted her chin. She blushed again at the soft look in his eyes.
"You're inexperience is not a fault of your own. You have no reason to be ashamed. If you are willing, I would teach you in the arts, if it is what you desire to learn."
"Really?" she smiled when he nodded only to have her elation be defiled when a thought hit her. "My quest, Haku-dono. How will we meet?"
"I will come to you"
"How...?" 'Will you find me?'
He cut her off, "I have my ways" he gave her a reassuring smile. "Now go, before I change my mind."
A White Rose_A Kiss of Desire
By the time she was near the camp again, the sun was almost in the 10 o'clock position in the sky. 'Please have waited, please have waited...' She chanted in her head, tripping over roots of trees in her distress.
She knew that being happily wedded to Haku wasn't what anyone would consider 'normal', not in her time or in this earlier era. But, she reasoned with herself, she was sick of them all. She was sick of Kouga, who said one thing in one breath then was bounding away in another. She was sick of InuYasha, who she loved with all her heart but he was too busy being stubborn and mourning his first love to notice. And she was certainly sick of a certain daiyoukai, who she found... beautiful and handsome and hot, but who would never lower himself to her level.
It was serendipitous then, that she happened to run into one older brother, sitting, legs crossed, in a low-lying branch.
Unbidden a word she had just allowed her mind to think and without her knowledge she mumbled a word;
"Hot..."
Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow as his magenta-striped eyelids opened to reveal the amber underneath. "It is early morning miko, the day will get much hotter than this."
Kagome stood, dumbfounded as she tried to figure out what could have elicited such a sentence from him. She frantically back peddled until she figured out why her cheeks were burning brighter than they had when Haku had found her naked.
She had called Sesshoumaru, the bad-boy that he was Hot. 'Seriously, why do I always go for the bad-boys and this time an untouchable one at that!'
"Well, Good morn to you too; Sesshoumaru of the West" She spoke in an almost courteous tone but could not fully manage to keep the sarcastic tone out of her voice causing his eyes to narrow. "I find that the temperature had reached an uncomfortable degree for me due to my active exercise of limbs." Kagome had no idea where all of her words were coming from and why she was speaking in such a snobbish arrangement of words. There she went again! 'Uh, and just where am I going with provoking an experience killer? I must have a death wish or something!'
"Watch your words, Miko."
'Hate to break it to ya, but I can't see invisible words when I speak.' was what she wanted to say and it was so tempting to see how far she could push his control until he snapped. She instead cleared her throat softly but still unable to find the words to reply.
Sesshoumaru carefully hid his surprise under his typical look of boredom at seeing his brother's miko. She looked her age, Sesshoumaru caught himself wondering what her actual age was; she always seemed younger when she wore those strange clothes and was around the hanyou but here, she looked older, more mature. He hypothesised it had to do with her change in clothing. It was jarring to see her in an oriental dress from Chuka. Though the clothes she had previously donned had been completely lacking in modesty and practicality she had seemed at home in them. Wearing this... hanfu was the word, she looked like a stranger, it seemed to swamp her. He briefly pondered where she could have gotten such fine clothing when the winds changed.
In the briefest of moments her scent blew to him, and sub-consciously he noted that InuYasha, who, he deemed, was probably tuned out to his surroundings, would more than likely to intrude. But, that was not what caused his brows to furrow minutely. It was her scent. It had changed. But, before he could interrogate her, 'Subtly of course, she will not even realise what information she has given this Sesshoumaru.' the miko gasped and Sesshoumaru only just had time, though of course no one would be able to see that this was not what he had planned to do all along, to dodge out of the way of a certain half-breed's claws.
Kagome's first instinct was to stop the fight; she was certain that it would turn ugly really fast, but held back when she noticed that both of them need to burn out some steam. She saw Sesshoumaru ignore an obvious opening and saw InuYasha slow his punch down as it came closer to his older brother. 'They need to get another hobby.'she sighed in exasperation as she moved away from the siblings, to a safe, yet observable distance.
"What the h*ll are you doing here, b*stard?"
"Hn, it was not I who was born out of wedlock, Half-breed."
"Why you..."
Kagome toned out the rest of their 'conversation' and carefully watched the fight in silence. Sesshoumaru graceful movements left her body yearning and reminiscing of her childhood hobby. At the age of nine 'till about when she had been twelve she had dreamed of becoming a professional figure gymnast. The wonderful memories only sadden her because she realized that the dream couldn't be made a reality because she had duty to the Shikon no tama. She clenched her fists as she continued to watch the battle, hissing in sympathy as InuYasha got a particularly painful right hook from Sesshoumaru. 'I wonder if I could use my skills with ribbons in battle...'
"Kagome!" The first voice made Kagome start.
"Kagome-sama." The second she registered
"Oka-san!" By the third Kagome had forced herself to move away from the fight and turn in the direction of the voices. She scooped down to catch Shippou with practised ease and stood upright with his small form in her arms.
"Hi, sweety. Hey, guy!"
"Mama, where were you? I was so worried;" Shippou buried his head into her shoulder as she petted his bushy hair in reassurance. "and Inuyasha was being a butt-head again."
"Gomene, Shippou. I found a hidden clearing and fell asleep there. I guess I got caught up bathing this morning." Kagome smiled in apology at her two friends, close enough to be brother and sister.
"Well, I'm glade you're alright, Kagome-chan; though, what are you wearing?" Sango moved closer to Kagome, expressively gesturing at her assemble.
"Yes, where did you acquire such luxurious garments Kagome-sama? I do not believe that you wore that when you left. I did not see you bring anything like that with you."
Kagome furrowed her brows, then looked down to see what they were talking about. She gasped. "Wow. Pretty..." She honestly thought that this was the most beautiful outfit she had ever worn. The red hakafu seemed to be made of silk, or at least a silk like material; it was no surprise she did not notice her change in garment until now.
"Oh, this? It was just something i threw on when I noticed how late it was. As for your question in me not having anything on me; did you forget about my storage seals, Miroku?" Kagome bluffed her way trepidatiously through the story. Though Miroku and Sango sensed something was off Kagome had never been a liar, so why would she start now?
"Ah," He nodded even though he was not quite content with her answer. "I must say, you look beautiful in that garment, Kagome-sama."
"You think so?" Kagome blushed. She knew it was Miroku, who, if his tongue was anymore gilded it would be solid gold, but it was the first time he had ever complimented her.
"Hai, you're really pretty, Mama." Shippou nodded feverishly while Sango gave a small nod in agreement. Miroku's honest smile started to twist into his lecherous look but before he had a chance to do anything, he was quickly banged on the head by Sango.
"Oh, no you don't. Better keep that hand to yourself, Monk!"
"Itai..." he soothed his head. "But Sango dear, it's the curse I tell you!"
Kagome and Shippou rolled their eyes in synchornised exasperation before Kagome turned her attention back to the 'battle.' It was more of a spar really, though she wouldn't say it to their face. Then they might actually try and kill each other to prove their point.
Suddenly, amber eyes flicked her way and Sesshoumaru suddenly left an opening. 'Wait, did Sesshoumaru just look at me?' Kagome heart lurched in shock when her eyes caught a small smirk on his face. 'No way...I must be hallucinating.'
"Oi! Pay attention to me, you b*stard!" he was answered with a harsh blow to the neck rendering him unconscious. Sesshoumaru calmly watched as his brother dropped like a rock to the ground. He watched with, what Kagome would have called on anyone else, mild amusement as the Inutaichi called out to their fallen comrade.
"InuYasha!" Miroku and Sango called out in unison. They rushed forward to make sure he was all right.
"InuYasha! Mama, do something!" Kagome's throat had closed up when she had tried calling to the hanyou, she switched her gaze from his body to the imposing Daiyoukai. She silently studied his form before speaking as his piercing golden eyes connected with her arctic silver-blue. 'He's taunting me.' Somehow she knew he was playing with her, interested in seeing her response like a cat blocking a mouse's escape route.
"I'm sure that Sesshoumaru will not take InuYasha's life today." She managed to get out, never taking her eyes from his.
"This Sesshoumaru wonders what makes you so sure, miko?" he spoke in his usual monotone, his dokkaso (poison) starting to drip from his fingers. He would never tell her but her confident tone ticked him off, only slightly, he added.
'Your eyes gave you away.' Was what the light chuckle in the back of her mind wanted to say but, for once she didn't say what she wanted to. "You and I both know that if you desired to kill him the fight would have been much different."
His ego swelled at her backhanded compliment, though he did not show it. If Jaken or Rin had been with him, they would have gasped at the way his shoulder's pulled back slightly, the way his chin tipped up minutely; that was how much he allowed his body to be affected by her praise. Then her scent came to him again and he allowed his curiosity to be piqued. "Hn...Tell this Sesshoumaru, miko; what had caused this change?"
Kagome's brows furrowed slightly, confused. "Your question is too broad, what are you asking me?"
Sesshoumaru flicked his eyes to InuYasha still unconsious but now surrounded by the monk and the demon slayer before turning them back to her.
"I saw no reason to interfere with your spar. It seemed to me like you both need to blow off some steam." She shrugged, guessing the reason for his question. 'Like I'd ever tell you that I love watching you fight.'
Sesshoumaru arched a brow, surprised at her answer. 'This Onna is truly unpredictable. How... interesting.'He would never have guessed that she would have been able to read them so clearly. On their own accord his eyes wandered down her body, trying to take in this sudden change of attire.
'Is he checking me out?'She gulped, desperate to keep her blush at bay. Her resolve faltered when he returned his gaze to her eyes. She blushed and the blush deepened when he smirked. Her saving grace came abruptly when a flash of the beautiful, blindingly-bright smile that Haku bestowed on her made her heart calm but then sped up again when she remembered his heartwarming affection for her.
'Gosh, make it stop. I don't think my heart can take this.' She really didn't understand why, all of a sudden, she has the attention of two seemingly unreachable males.
"It was a gift." she heard herself say. The confused look that Shippou wore, was not noticed by she. It seemed like a strange thing to blurt out, but, even he could see the slight question in Sesshoumaru's eyes.
"Mama, what was a gift? Who gave it to you?"
Kagome jumped slightly; she'd forgotten that Shippou was still in her arms while she went into a slight panic trying to search for a reply that would not give anything away.
Sesshoumaru was grateful to the kit for his interruption; he was not about to stoop so low as to ask her questions such as that.
"My outfit, Shippou. It's called a Hanfu; originated from the Han dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Um, a.. special friend gave it to me, I guess." Her knowledge once again astounded Sesshoumaru. 'It would appear that she has been educated. But, why then does she normally wear clothes fit for a whore?' Knowledge concerning the empire across the sea was hard to obtain; know he found himself curious to find out where she had come from to be privy to such information.
"Who's your special friend?" The kit asked.
"If I told you, you wouldn't know them anyway. So do still want to know?"
"I guess not." Shippou figured it must have been from someone in her time. Still curious, he was about to go into his ten-questions phrase when a voice interrupted him.
"Miko." His voice was a rumble, not yet a growl, but low enough to send a warning. Sesshoumaru was not sure why he wanted to have her attention back and what he wanted to say to her; though he basted in the satisfaction he felt when she yielded her attention back to him immediately.
Kagome was confused. 'What does he want?' Then she saw it, the knowing look in his eyes. She blinked, her heart beat erratically in her chest, and he was suddenly a breath away from her. She stood frozen as he leaned in and whispered in her ear.
"What were you doing, Miko? You are covered in a scent of an Alpha Male and it does not belong to the half-breed, though he is hardly alpha material."
A barrier flared into existence, her barrier she realized belatedly, and blasted Sesshoumaru away. Kagome was thankful for the instinctual reaction but could not stop the shiver that ran down her spine at how close the Daiyoukai had been; she could still feel his warm breath on her ear. The sight of his landing and the glare he gave her brought back some clarity to her mind, pushing the fear back.
"Since when have you start caring about my business, Sesshoumaru? Last time I checked I wasn't within your notice." She sniffed, trying to sound confident, important. It failed.
A sadistic smirk, one she had often seen just before he delivered a fatal blow crept onto his face. "... Humans are such fickle creatures." the small sentence was spoken softly but it sounded like thunder to Kagome. He made it sound like some curse. She could do nothing as she watched him turned and walk away.
A White Rose_A Kiss of Desire
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