You people and your lovely, encouraging, reviews rock my world! Sorry for the wait, I'm working on my numerous other projects and I have to multitask from time to time. If it's not this, it's either Moonbeam and Ebony or God knows what else...hopefully you can't complain about that.
Ahem! A big thanks with sugar sprinkles and lots of kisses goes for the person who nominated this story for Best One Shot. This chapter is dedicated to you, whoever you are. Come forth and I shall give you the holy gift of chocolate...also said to be woman's best friend. (Laughs) Thank you once again to the other person (or was it the same one?) who nominated Moonbeam and Ebony for Best AU fic...you guys make me feel so loved!
My disclaimer as usual - no beta reader and Sesshoumaru, Kagome and Sango (and the rest of the gang) don't belong to me). Kioshi is my snuggle bear...Lord! Oh well! (Pounces her one and only character)
Silk and Blood III
By Royal blueKitsune
1644 - House of the Moon
1 Year since the Lord had gained himself a Lady
"If this continues, those foolish humans will have eradicated Christianity in less than six years."
"I do not see how that concerns us pup," the elder sneered at his fellow council member, lifting his nose in an exaggeratedly haughty manner, "Humans are nothing more, nothing less than our prey. They're food for most youkai and useless laborers for the rest."
"It means, you fool, that political, economic and religious influence on Japan will become quite limited. It means that few to no foreigners will be allowed in and in doing so, those, indeed, incompetent mortals will inconvenience our own external politics with the Chinese and Portuguese traders." The young inu barely managed to growl out the words through gritted teeth. On the other side of the table, the neko hissed violently and threatened under his breath to rip the insolent dog into bits.
"I'd like to see you try, old one. It would be the first time a cat ever defeated me," a cocky grin, followed by a flews of sharp claws.
"Son of a..."
"That would be entirely correct."
"Silence!"
Sesshoumaru's voice cracked like a whip, in the empty air, silencing his council effectively and immediately. Words were superfluous afterwards - those who had experienced the frigid wrath of the great Daiyoukai of the West, knew that in his case silence was considerably more dangerous than anything else.
White was, after all, the color of death.
"Forgive me, my Lord. I did not mean to speak out of turn." The young inu bowed his head in a humble gesture of submission, knowing that - and despite the fact that his blood still boiled to punish the insolent feline - continuing with a barge of insults now wouldn't do him any good.
Later though. Later...
He bowed even lower, forehead touching the table, and tried not to stiffen under the scrutiny of those bright golden eyes; watching him so closely. A few hundred years old he was, a youngling by most standards, but he doubted that he would ever get used to the heat of that gaze.
"Next time you wish to speak your opinion," Sesshoumaru started icily, "do so in a civilized manner that does not belittle this meeting and those forced to listen to it."
Sesshoumaru turned to the neko demon, who had done little but lower his nose, and curled his upper lip upwards, revealing gleaming fangs that instantly had the elder bowing in fear. Here he was alpha and most certainly not a mangy cat that dared not even show him the proper respect.
"You. Next time you show such disrespect to one of your own companions, be him beneath of above you in rank and age, I shall take off your head without a regret." He watched the council member turn a sickly shade of white and smirked in response to the terror reflected in those gray eyes. "Do we have an understanding, feline?"
The natural dislike for youkai cats had been an inborn trait of his ever since he had first been aware of what such a creature was. Inu no Taisho, his father, had tried to instill some respect for them during early childhood, but had failed miserably at it.
While he did look at cats as being traitorous, saccharine animals with not sense of loyalty whatsoever, Sesshoumaru did not begrudge them all at first sight. It would either be that they were his allies, or his enemies...in which case he took great pleasure, the instinct of a dog, to kill them on the spot.
Sesshoumaru liked only one feline-like being and that was Kagome.
Having thought that, he wondered what he was still doing in this musty, old room reading useless scrolls and watching his advisors jumping at each other's throats. It was a preposterous thought really...that he was forced to prefer the presence of these idiots in favor of the mate he had found barely a year ago.
Duty requested it apparently. His lands were in perfect order, with no dark half-breed to warrant an annoyance, and his people were thriving hidden under the guise of a cleverly used spell; a compulsion created especially to keep intruders from his ancestral home and protect his legacy for eons to come. When demons would be forced into hiding due to humans multiplying and forgetting about the old myths and legends, the House of the Moon would stand tall and proud...shedding weakness and failure like an old skin.
"Yes, my Lord. Please excuse my breach of formality."
Whoever thought that youkai did not know the meaning of headaches, was sorely mistaken. The ache that pulsed in his temples was nothing more, nothing less than just that. It repulsed him to pick up the blatant disrespect and venom hidden beneath the purred words.
Did he think him, Sesshoumaru, an untrained weakling who was not acquainted with political games and whatnot of the court?
Disgusting. Such a disgrace...his father had been the weak one if he had kept this filth in his service for so many years.
"Dismissed. All of you. Next time, do not try my patience with such a trivial problem when you have not deemed to agree on the matter." Sesshoumaru kept his features carefully blank, even as he contemplated slaughtering the entire meeting in an...unpreceded outburst of fury from one of his position.
Only the smell of fear and nervousness that permeated the air soothed the ferocious beast, which was calling for the taste of blood.
The urge to see his mate was overwhelming after this fiasco. He had neglected her most of the morning due to important matters and now, after his tasks had been fulfilled in a way that he considered fit, he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the afternoon with her.
After a hundred and more years of not being able to see, smell and touch her like he would've liked, Sesshoumaru was determined to...recuperate on lost time. If it meant spending each waking moment in the inner garden, bed, study - the rooms were different but their activities were unchanging most of the times - or any of their private chambers to reaffirm his affections in the most primal of ways, the Western Lord was willing to sacrifice seeing his advisors faces daily. The thought was filled with no little sarcasm - yet another trait he had picked up from her and her human habits.
"A shame! Dishonor! He has disgraced himself more than his pathetic father by taking not one but two humans and now," the cat seethed and hissed his insults to a nearby companion, claws digging and snapping the fan in two, "he dares speak to me like I am nothing more but a servant. A slave he can order around whenever he thinks it right. It is the fault of that bitch he has taken for a mate. Filthy, lowly human..."
All youkai in close vicinity made growling sounds and jumped backwards as the green whip of glowing energy streaked through the air and ended the elder's life violently and very messy; it was a gory show of death and body parts, some cut clean, some disintegrated into ashes and dust...nothing was more eerie though than the Great Demon Lord standing in the doorway of the room, black blood staining pristine clothing and white hair.
His skin was a pale contrast against the flecks of dark staining high boned cheeks but his eyes were burnished amber and stealing the light around him in an unnatural display of power.
Everyone held their breaths collectively, as their Lord retracted the dangerous weapon back in the tips of his claws. Death and life had flashed in front of their eyes...but neither dared comment or move from their frozen positions.
Sesshoumaru curved his lips in a silent growl. "Call the servants and tell them to clean this mess and take the garbage out. No one speaks of my mate in that manner."
His eyes swept over the gathering. "Am I making myself understood clearly?"
"Do we have an understanding, feline?"
"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru."
There was a collective sigh of relief when the doors closed behind him.
Kagome sighed deeply, as Jaken proudly communicated his master's last adventure in the meeting room. The green toad was puffing up, speaking so highly of Sesshoumaru having slaughtered a cat demon that Kagome was beginning to turn green herself.
This was really not a good time to tell her about spilled guts and dismembered youkai whose blood stained the walls...and everything else.
Just trying to make a mental picture of it all...
The miko covered her mouth, curling one arm around her stomach and whimpering softly, and ran into the nearest bush - thankful that she was at least in the garden for this - where she emptied her light meal from earlier. She coughed and let out a pitiful cry of disgust, hating the bitter taste in her mouth, and panted harshly; trying to draw as many calming breaths as she could without making herself sick again.
This was precisely why the little imp shouldn't have gone into details. Pregnancy was moody enough without the occasional death or mass-murder her mate liked to engage himself in when things didn't go his way. She hadn't had the time to tell anyone else about it, seeing as she had just found out herself about the unusual...condition.
It was the only reason why she wasn't strangling the kappa demon for telling her these things. He was getting his from Sesshoumaru often enough.
Kagome used the sleeve of her kimono to wipe her mouth, making a mental note to have it washed after this, and stood up of wobbly knees. Of course, ignoring Jaken's imperious squawks that she immediately tell him what was wrong - before his beloved master blamed him for doing Kami knows what to her sensitive, human body.
"Do you really want me to tell you Jaken-san?" She arched an eyebrow when he stomped his staff on the ground and glared at her with those bulbous saucers he liked to call eyes. Frankly, to Kagome it had always seemed as though his beak was also in on the whole 'human hating thing'. Weird, wasn't it?
"Yes, woman! Stop your idle games and tell me this instant..."
"Very well," she replied with a beaming smile, "I'm pregnant."
She giggled when Jaken froze, and burst into uncontrollable laughter when his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell into a dead faint on the ground. With his tongue hanging sideways out of his mouth!
Kagome doubled over and laughed until she fairly cried (With her mood swings already coming out in full force, that didn't take too long) and then chuckled some more on her way to the hot springs, ignoring the odd looks bypassing servants set her way.
Ah...why bother? There was no use trying to explain anything to them as long as they still went by that whole 'human - food/slave/worthless - that had bewitched their master' ancient mentality that irked her every time. Kagome was willing to wait another decade or so, until they changed their minds about her.
A few years hopefully?
Allies - she had plenty of those even in the stiff world of the high demons; seeing a day where most of her mate's advisers and workers didn't give her the cold shoulder was something that the peace loving miko looked forward to though.
"Sesshoumaru?" The shoji slid open before she had a chance to touch it, revealing a flushed and sensual dog demon dressed in only a white yukata. Clinging - with an emphasis on the clingy part. With a sheen of visible water droplets sliding down the slope of his neck and the rippling muscles of his chest. His long hair wet and clinging to his back. A slightly bemused draw of his eyebrows that gave away his momentary surprise.
So what did those factors lead to? Pretty much to Kagome going instantly week on the knees.
Her mate wasn't wearing anything under that flimsy garment...probably. Most likely. Whoopee!
Initiate Pavlov's conditioned reflex with a few modifications - subject will automatically start drooling at the sight of selected treat no matter the second, minute, hour, decade and so on and so forth. Said treat has to be towering, yummy and phenomenal in bed...oh, and practically naked would be a welcomed bonus!
Purr.
"I was coming to tell you something important," she sighed like a love-struck puppy, no pun intended, and gave him her best rendition of the eyes, "but I think you're turning my into a willing nymphomaniac, because I forgot what that was."
Well, not really. She thought it better if she told him of her pregnancy during the afterglow! Much, much better.
She wanted to get to the pouncing, now if possible, but by the time his eyes had darkened to a goldenrod - no half pun intended for Kami's sake! - Kagome knew that he had gotten the point loud and clear. And was going to do something about it...hopefully. Otherwise her strange moods might determine her to do something rash.
If this was the weather broadcast - hot, steaming, fiery - for the next millennia or so (she dared actually dream for eternity), Kagome was all for having mated the Great Sesshoumaru...
"Come," he beckoned with a curled finger, voice sliding smoothly in a rumbling baritone that promised all sorts of unspeakable things if she obeyed him. Well, just this once, Kagome thought with a dreamy grin as she practically molded herself to him; squeaking when he wrapped an arm around her waist and easily lifted her off the ground - not that she expected anything else of his lordliness - pulling her inside the steamy room.
Kagome fought the urge curl around him in contentment, the warmth making her drowsy, and instead contended herself with initiating the first set of short kisses that told him how much she had missed him in between last night and this afternoon.
Some - she was still debating whether it was good to have a matching stamina - aftereffects of the mating ritual, which had...changed her a little power wise.
Sesshoumaru responded by curving his hand around her nape and kissing her firmly, with little nips and stinging, brief appearances of his razor-sharp fangs that pleased her more than she had ever thought they would. Somehow, despite her disputable humanity, this animal side of him - rough on the edges, frenzied at time - didn't make her shy away anymore as it had done once upon a time.
Kagome didn't find it too much of a surprise when he didn't even bother to take the few steps that separated them from the hot spring. She certainly didn't have much to protest when he pushed her against the wall, hands over her head, and slowly, starting from her ankle, pulled the kimono upwards and shoved a hard thigh between her legs, making her straddle him.
He could've easily ripped it into shreds to get to what was beneath, had done so numerous times actually, but there was a sort of slow sensuality, dark and languorous, that accompanied this particular coupling. She could never predict what he would do next when he craved more than simple physical intimacy; when he wanted to prove a point she would find out only after she was sweaty, limp and panting in his arms.
Sesshoumaru could tease her to exhaustion or prefer to ravish her on the spot...but the feeling would be etched in the back of her mind nonetheless.
Apparently he was getting to the point this time. His fingers had delved into the shadowed place between her thighs, earning moans and whimpers, and with the frantic pace he had set for her body - and the unbelievable pleasure she derived from it - it wouldn't be long before she would be swept over the edge.
Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned forwards, hips rolling and pressing into that well-practiced touch that never failed to drive her into a mindless state of sensation. She bit and nibbled on the pointed, elfin ear and felt him shudder lightly into her arms. Or maybe it had been her and she didn't realize it.
Didn't matter - the treatment was intensified and the growl that burst forth from his throat unmistakable in its timber. He liked that. It was always an useful tidbit to know her mate's sensitive points, those spots that could force him to express his eagerness a little more vocally than he was used to, and Kagome made a point of lavishing as much attention on them as she could.
She was in the process of soothing a particularly deep love bite, when Sesshoumaru, deciding that perhaps she needed another stimulant - another one and she might faint - lifted her knee and pressed it against his ribcage, dipping two fingers into her at once.
Tiny pinpricks of electricity danced down her spine and she came with a muffled cry, feeling herself all the more vulnerable with his hot breath dancing on her flushed skin.
Of course, nothing would ever beat sex...as in the real thing when it came to this demon. At least, this was what Kagome was sharply - in a good sort of way, because these days she tended to be a pervert and assimilate pain with pleasure - reminded a few moments later when Sesshoumaru decided to replace his hand with something...considerably more substantial.
Not that she was in any way complaining. Heavens no! She was too far-gone to utter anything that didn't resemble a garbled moan. She wasn't even aware that she had squeezed her inner muscles around him until he released a low, blissful groan only her enhanced hearing could've picked, and did something fabulous to her body.
Something that involved him going upwards, while at the same time pulling her body downwards and crashing his lips against hers in a domineering kiss. Leaving her completely boneless as he had his way with her, immobilized and all, against hard wood.
Dimly, though the haze of pleasure that clamped down on her body a second time, she concluded that this definitely ranked on the same place as that one time he had tied her - with silk ribbons mind you - to the bed.
It had all started with her craving of chocolate, had continued with him bringing the - newly discovered and invented - treat from exotic countries and then had continued some more with him teaching her that, while chocolate was indeed for eating, one didn't have to use hands to do that.
"I could die...happy now," Kagome sighed, nuzzled her face against his cheek and felt, rather than heard, his rumbling chuckle. "A happy, sex fiend...see what you're doing to me?" She questioned mock scornfully, paying more attention to the fact that Sesshoumaru had finally decided that it was time for the kimono to come down...though, why bother anymore? The fun part had been done with their clothes on - and it had classified in the 'most erotic of fantasies she had never given thought to' category.
Again. Among others of similar caliber. She didn't bother to select anymore, just saved copies of similar events for later.
"Enough, woman. Your speech is becoming garbled."
Kagome had the grace to blush prettily even as she allowed him to carry and submerge both of them into the hot water. Really...after her brain was going to surpass the 'getting fried' phase, she was going to die of sheer embarrassment at having spoken in such a wanton way.
It had been frustrating though! She was a pregnant woman with needs here...Sesshoumaru should've thanked God that she hadn't molested him on the spot. Kagome had gotten these strange thoughts in her head even before they had mated and had to put a lid on her corrupted mind whenever it decided to run away with her.
The disadvantages of having a white devil in your bed were that, eventually, your brain was bound to become warped.
"Well, it's not my fault you...ummm..." Great! What a time to get tongue-tied and start making a fool of herself.
Sesshoumaru's gaze was vastly amused and dark gold. He was mocking her and all she could think of, was how she loved that rich color! Inuyasha would have a field day if he saw her now...not that it would happen - anymore - as she was wearing only the ribbon in her hair and a sheepish smile.
The Daiyoukai might give the word torture a whole new meaning out of pure jealousy.
"Never mind." Why dig her grave deeper? He already knew what she was going to say anyway. "Sesshoumaru?"
"Yes...Kagome." He was rumbling softly against her chest and the vibrations were very, very distracting.
"Can I ask you something?" Fidget, fidget. Please let him say yes!
His lips brushed against the underside of her breasts. Eep! He was going to be the death of her.
"Is there anything impeding you?"
If she answered a pompous, arrogant, holier-than-thou Demon Lord, it would be the end of this conversation. Plus, with the grin firmly set in place, Kagome doubted that she could say that without making a complete idiot of herself.
So, there was silence. Followed by, what do you know, more silence as the miko contemplated telling her mate that he would soon be a...father. Might as well announce to the world that horses had taken to the air and had turned pink with purple polka dots.
It had happened before!
"Are you going to tell this Sesshoumaru that you are with pups, or should I break the news first?"
Putting aside the undertones of mirth or the fact that Sesshoumaru had cocked his head sideways, letting that gorgeous, pretty, whatever, hair of his cascade over one shoulder in a tumbling mass of white, it took Kagome a few moments to comprehend the meaning of those words.
"You won't tell me that you knew I was...pregnant," she glowered at him, shifting in his lap and raising herself to look him dead in the eye.
Sesshoumaru curled his lips upwards in the faintest of male-pride filled smirks she had ever seen.
"Very well. If you wish it so, I will not tell you."
"And you definitely won't tell me, scratch that, you will tell me exactly why I heard the word pups. As in plural. Meaning more than one!" Okay...don't panic! Don't go into a frenzy.
Who was she kidding?
It was an immense responsibility to have one child alone! But children - pups? What if she had herself a whole litter? How was she going to feed and take care of them all? Why hadn't she been informed that she could have more than one or two at once?
She must've been hyperventilating because Sesshoumaru's Mokomoko-sama, which he kept hidden during such rare occasions, materialized around her waist and enveloped her in soothing warmth and the flare of powerful youki that called to her basic instincts. Those that tied her to him. He even growled for her...a rare action - for advanced beings as him - in itself that, done correctly and close to her ear, had an instant calming effect.
"Do not worry yourself so. You will harm the pups."
He ignored the twitch just beneath her right eye and passed a hand through his hair, throwing it back in one smooth move that had Kagome losing her musings for a moment. Good gods...how was it possible that he was this way when he wanted to and so different in the real world?
There was no way that Sesshoumaru had ever displayed anything more than slight annoyance on the battlefield or when with Inuyasha. Yet he was such a sensual creature deep down...the Killing Perfection and an expert actor in her opinion.
"It's easy for you to be talking oh high and mighty lord. You aren't the one who's going to carry...how many did you not say I was having?"
"Four," The Demon Lord could've very well been talking about the weather with how detached his expression.
"What?" Kagome covered her flushed cheeks, more like slapped them with how quickly she had reacted, and stood stunned for a moment, before her smile was restored to its former glory and radiance. There was a certain glint in Sesshoumaru's eyes - shining brightly even in the dimmed lights - that she knew mean he was quite pleased.
"Four pups!" He was such a dog...and apparently so was she. In her era, she had believed that youkai were extinct. After being shocked to a near heart failure though, she had come to the conclusion that no way in heaven or hell that they could ever disappear with such a...stamina and success in procreation. "I don't know whether to kiss you or faint..."
Sesshoumaru cupped her chin and pulled her forward into a thorough kiss that would've made her knees shake if she hadn't been sitting. Thus, taking that decision from her hands.
His were capable enough for the both of them, she thought with a delighted giggle.
I'm having much fun with guessing where this story is going...for now I have no idea, but I've already decided that it's going to be long!