A/N: Thank you for the reviews!!
Wooo after this one, only five more chappies to go and four until Naima makes her big decision. (And five days before I start college, so you see that I have alterior motives XD)
Warning: There will be a piece of fruit in this. Not a basket, but a very small fruit. So who's is it? Sesshoumaru's? Naraku's? The answer in the chapter below...
It wasn't long before the end of April came. Time just seemed to steadily tick away and the semester would be ending shortly. I had promised both Naraku and Sesshoumaru that I would give them my decision by the time the semester ends, if not sooner. Little by little, I was beginning to decide who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and one man had gained a slight edge over the other. Still, the edge was very miniscule and my decision was by no means final.
"Naraku is coming over today?!" my little sister squealed at me as we sat in my old bedroom, fixing her hair. I smiled at her enthusiasm that she always seemed to have whenever she heard that my best friend was stopping by.
"Yes. He's going to help me finish my sorcery project before I have to turn it in on Monday," I informed, pointing over to my saimyoushou who was buzzing happily in the jar on my bookshelf.
"I thought that you said that he told you to ask Kagura for help," Tarei said.
"Yeah, but she didn't know how to either. So I had to ask the one who knows what he's doing."
"You sure did because your sorcery skills are horrible." I thumped her in her head for saying that. "Ow, I was just kidding jerk."
"Your mama."
"Your daddy."
"He was your daddy too idiot." She sighed deeply. "Yeah...well...your mama then." I giggled as I continued to comb her beautiful brown hair.
"I wish my hair was soft like this," I said with awe, "your hair is so pretty and rich. You should take better care of it. You have too many split ends."
"I know. I had just..." She was cut off by a knock on the door.
"Come in," I instructed the person. The door opened and Naraku walked in. I smiled really wide for he had Lelia in his arms. "Hey Naraku," I greeted him.
"Hey Naraku," my sister repeated.
"Hello ladies," he replied as he sat down ontop of my bed, gently rocking my sweet niece. I couldn't help but smile as I watched how he interacted with her. Lelia just seemed so calm and relaxed in his arms. Her big, light brown eyes were fixed on him. Her small mittened hands grasping one of his fingers. One would think that she was his daughter and not Li and Katsu's. It was almost like he was a natural father. I then turned my head to Tarei.
"I'll finish your hair later on. Naraku and I need privacy," I whispered into her ear. She nodded and a huge grin spread across her face, obviously misinterpreting why I wanted privacy with my best friend. She got off of the floor beside my dresser and walked out of the room and closed the door. I then got out of the chair I was sitting in and went over to sit by the two.
"She is just so adorable," Naraku said with a smile as he continued to play with the baby, now three weeks old. "Aren't you? Aren't you?" Lelia smiled as he tickled her stomach. I giggled a little. "I'm suprised that Li let me take her."
"I told you that she's softened up a bit. Lelia has had a positive effect on her."
"I can see. But anybody can soften up when they see you pretty girl. Can't they?" He laid back on my bed and held Lelia above him in the air. He then brought her down to kiss her forehead, before lifting her back up again.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned him, "because if she spits up its going right into your face." He obviously took heed of my warning and quickly sat back up, laying her on his shoulder, and rubbing her back.
"Oh yeah, I forgot. Babies do that, don't they?" I smiled and shook my head. Naraku smiled too as he slid back against my headboard and continued to rub the baby's back. Lelia buried her face into his neck and cooed softly.
"Wow, you sure do have a way with women," I joked. He chuckled a bit.
"Yeah I guess I do. I mean, you all seem to make noise whenever I hold you." I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "But enough joking. Are you having problems extracting poison from your saimyoushou or are you having trouble making the spell work?"
"No, I've gotten Oji's poison," I said as I got up to walk over to where my Insect of Hell was. His poison coating the bottom of the jar. "I'm just stuck on the spell. That's all."
"Okay did you read the guide on page 3...384? I think?"
"Yeah, I read it."
"And did you channel your demonic energy like I taught you to?"
"Mmmhmm."
"And Oji still didn't transform?"
"Nope. I think I just have a busted saimyoushou."
"Or busted skills." I gasped at his diss which caused him to laugh. "I'm sorry, but what kind of exuse is that? Is that what you're going to tell Urasue-sensei on Monday? 'Umm, I'm sorry but my saimyoushou broke. Can I get a new one?'."
"No. That's why I asked you to come over. You're supposed to be helping me, not picking on me."
"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry my dear." He got off of the bed, pulled the covers back a little, and laid Lelia in between them. She had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He then scooted closer to me and looked at the page that I had the textbook open to. "Okay, first of all did you get at least an ounce of poison from him?"
"Yes."
"Has he continued to eat?"
"Yeah, I fed him."
"Okay...well...is the stinger still intact?" I lifted up the jar to inspect Oji.
"Yes, it looks okay."
"That's the problem. You were supposed to remove the stinger before performing the spell. That's why he's still a saimyoushou."
"Ah. I see." I got off of the bed and walked over to the small desk in my room. I looked in the top drawer and pulled out the tweezers that Urasue-sensei gave us. I opened the jar and quickly caught the saimyoushou before he got loose. "Ow." I winced a little as Oji's stinger stuck me, but since I had an immunity to poison, I would be okay. I held Oji between my index finger and thumb with one hand and held the tweezers with the other. Oji buzzed loudly as I slowly pulled the stinger out of his rear. "Aww, I'm sorry pumpkin," I apologized for I knew that it had to hurt. Naraku, however was greatly amused.
"Ha! He can't cry Naima."
"Oh shut up. You are so insensitive," I said to my friend. He still continued to laugh. After the stinger was completely removed, I tossed it into the trash and placed Oji back in his jar. His wild buzzing tapered off and he began to eat some grass.
"Alright now recite the spell and Oji should be able to transform into a centipede."
"I don't see how come I couldn't just get a regular centipede and passed him off as Oji."
"Because Urasue-sensei can do a reversal spell to see if it really was originally a saimyoushou." I nodded my head and took the jar into my hands. I turned my sorcery text book to the right page and chanted the spell. Slowly but surely, the poison that lined the bottom of the jar began to react to the spell. It formed a miasma like cloud around Oji. When it disapated, all that remained was a centipede. I gasped and smiled.
"I did it!" I squealed. "Yay! No 'F' for me."
"Yeah. I see you did," Naraku replied with a gentle smile. "Well then, I must be off." I gave him a confused look.
"What? Don't you want to stay around for a while." He shook his head.
"Sorry...but I have things to take care of. I'll catch you at school Monday." I felt a little disappointed.
"Oh. Okay then," I said. Naraku got off of the bed and leaned over to give Lelia a gentle kiss on her head.
"Sweet dreams princess," he softly whispered to her before exiting the room. After he closed my door again, I went over to the bed and laid down beside my niece. My mind puzzled as to why Naraku was becoming more and more distant to me. I had asked him if it was because of my indecisiveness and he had told me that it wasn't. He told me not to worry and to just continue to be myself. Still...I couldn't help but wonder if I was slowly beginning to lose my best friend.
Later on that day, I went to go see Sesshoumaru. I had wanted to talk to him somemore about us and where we stood with each other. He was currently at his job at the orphanage in Queens. I was excited to see not only him, but the children again. It had been almost a month and a half now since we had split and I hadn't seen any of the orphaned children since then. I wondered how Rin, Shippo, and the others were doing and if they were okay or not.
It was around two when I pulled up to the parking lot. Like always, the Shippo had spotted me before I had spotted him. "Naima!" I heard him wave and yell at me before I even had the chance to get off of my motorcycle well. I giggled and waved back as I saw him hanging off the monkey bars on the small playground of the orphanage.
"Hey Shippo," I said as I walked across the parking lot and over to the playground. I pulled him off of the monkey bars and held him in my arms.
"Where have you been? You haven't been here in over a month. I thought that you had stopped liking us."
"Oh no baby. I could never stop liking you. I've...I've just been having...some things that I've had to worry about. That's all. I still love you as much as I did before."
"Really?" I giggled as I set him back down on his feet.
"Yes, really. Now tell me. Where is Sesshoumaru? Is he inside or is he out right now?"
"Umm, I think Sesshoumaru is inside right now. Amaya might know were he is."
"Okay, thank you sweetie." I bent over and gave him a firm kiss on the cheek. He blushed a little.
"Ewww, Naima. Girls have cooties." I giggled at the innocent boy and wiped the kiss away.
"I'm sorry. I won't infect you." I stood back up and patted him on his head before going inside of the building.
When I asked her, Amaya had told me that Sesshoumaru was currently on the third floor in Rin's room. It didn't suprise me when she told me that. In fact, that's where I expected him to be for she was his favorite. After giving Amaya my thanks, I went over to the elevator and went to the correct floor. When I began walking down the hallway to her room, I could already hear Rin's sqeuals of joy. I smiled to myself, for she was probably playing a game with Sesshoumaru and more than likely beating him at it. My assumptions were correct for when I made it to the doorway, I saw that they were playing Monopoly. "How are you loosing to a little girl, Sesshoumaru?" I said with a smirk as I leaned against the doorway. Both Sesshoumaru and Rin's eyes turned from the game and looked up at me.
"Naima!" Rin gasped as she got off of the floor and went over to hug me. I smiled as I bent down to hug her back.
"Hello pumpkin. I've missed you very much."
"I've missed you too." I looked over her shoulder and at Sesshoumaru. His face was cool as it normally was, although I could have sworn that I saw a small smile on his face. Huh...maybe I'm just imagining things. I then pulled away from Rin and smiled at her.
"So how bad are you beating the big bad demon?"
"I have almost all of his money and houses." I giggled as I looked at Sesshoumaru again.
"You lost almost all of your money?" I asked
"And houses," he replied. I shook my head, kind of ashamed that the man I loved lost at Monopoly to a child. Sesshoumaru put the rest of his money aside and got off of the floor too. "Rin. I need to speak to Naima for a while, so I hope that you don't mind if we finish our game later." Rin grinned and shook her head.
"Nope. I don't mind," she sweetly said. Sesshoumaru nodded and walked pass both of us and outside of the room. I gave Rin one last hug before following him.
"I'm suprised. I didn't expect for you to come see me today," Sesshoumaru said as we began to walk down the hallway.
"Are you mad?"
"No. I'm actually glad to see you."
"I'm happy to see you too." Silence then fell upon us for a few moments.
"Umm...I'm about to go on break in a few minutes. You want to go get something to eat?" he asked after a while. I looked up at him and smiled.
"Now you know that I never turn down food." He smirked a little.
"I know. That's why I asked." I giggled.
"Alright then. I'd love to go with you."
Sesshoumaru decided to take me to a very good ice cream stand near Lanier Park. Like always the sweets were excellent, but I wasn't really focused on the food though. I was just happy that Sesshoumaru and I had a chance to spend time together. "So how are things going with the NFL scouts?" I asked as I licked my strawberry cone. Sesshoumaru shrugged his shoulders as he licked his vanilla one.
"Good I guess. We all went to a training exibition last weekend that they held in Staten Island. We got to learn a little bit more about the NFL and things and meet some of the coaches. Father was hyped up, but it was a little boring to me." I smiled to myself a little. Sesshoumaru was probably as excited as Taisho-sensei, but was just too cool to admit it. Typical.
"Did you meet any Raiders?"
"Yes, the Raiders' coach was there. I got his autograph." My face then lit up.
"Ooo, ooo! Did you get to meet Eric Mangini?" Sesshoumaru smirked at me and shook his head.
"No Naima. The Jets head coach wasn't there." I sighed deeply.
"Oh bummer. Well...would you have gotten me an autograph if he was?"
"Of course I would have."
"Aww thank you."
"Now I know that you didn't come to see me today because of football. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about?" I became quiet for a moment and nervously licked some ice cream.
"Yeah. I do. I just wanted to know...if you are still hurt because of what I did to you? I mean, you seem to be softening up a little since the kiss with Naraku...but I want to know if you are doing it for my sake or if you are truly still hurt by all the things that I've done to you." He became quiet too.
"The pain isn't as bad at it was but yes, I am still a little hurt. But we won't be able to make things between us if we don't take a risk. I know that there is a possibility that you might choose Naraku over me. I have accpeted it, but I hope that you don't. But...in the meantime, lets lighten up the mood and talk about something else. Okay?" I smiled and nodded my head.
"Alright."
After we finished our ice cream cones, Sesshoumaru and I decided to walk around Lanier Park for a while. He still had about forty five minutes left of his hour long break. "So have you decided to play any other sports since you can't run track anymore?" Sesshoumaru asked as we walked down a trail that was under some apple trees.
"Mmm. Maybe volleyball or basketball, but I don't know how good I'll be at any of those. Track was my thing."
"Try softball." I laughed a little.
"No way. I'll get hit with a fly ball and look like a fool. I can't hit something that fast. I know that for sure." He smirked a little.
"That's right. You used to have a hard time hitting a tee ball when we played it one time in gym class during tenth grade." I grimaced and covered my face with my hand, remembering how embarrassed I was.
"I...I'm just not good with bats. That's all."
"Boy did Inuyasha and Koga let you have it that day. I think Bankotsu even got a few jokes in."
"Alright, alright. Enough laughing at my expense. I know that I can be a little slow sometimes."
"Sometimes?" I playfully smacked him on his arm. He smirked again and rubbed his arm where I hit him.
"Such a weak punch. I thought that panther demons were supposed to be fierce." I smirked a little and cocked an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah? You wanna challenge me in a competition of skill?" He stopped walking and turned to face me.
"Yeah. Actually I would."
"Alright then. What?" He had a thoughtful look on his face for a few moments.
"Hmm...what do I know for sure that I can beat you in..."
"Besides fighting!"
"...okay...besides fighting...let me think. Oh, I know. Speed." I smiked again.
"You are not faster than me."
"Is that what you think? Well I guess we'll just have to play Tag and find out." I turned my head a little and gave him a weirded out expression. "You? Play Tag?" He shrugged his shoulders.
"Why not? We should have fun, no?" I nodded.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Excellent...so...Tag! You're 'It'!" he declared before running away from me. I growled at him.
"No fair! You know how I hate being 'It'!"
"Then catch me and make me 'It'!" Sesshoumaru called back at me. I sighed and smiled before running after him.
We continued to childishly play Tag for about fifteen more minutes and somehow managed to wind up in a very secluded area of the park. During the game I learned two things. One, Sesshoumaru probably is even faster than Koga and two...I really missed doing spontaneous and juvenile things with him. We never really did them often in the first place but when we did it was always a lot of fun.
Sesshoumaru continued to run as I tried my best to catch up with him. I couldn't believe it, but Sesshoumaru was actually making me look like the slow one and I used to put up some of the top times on the track team. Sess's demonic speed was off the charts, but I refused to give up. I put a bit more hustle into my steps and eventually ended up right behind him. I jumped at him to tag him and ended up tackling him to the ground. He smirked as he stared up at me as I sat on his stomach. "You deserve a penalty for that. Unecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct." I giggled as I looked down at him.
"Well, you should have slowed down then." He smirked again.
"Maybe I should have. But then again...we wouldn't be like this if I had...now would we?" We he said the last part of his statement, his voice had a seductive undertone to it. I cocked an eyebrow a little, but shook it off thinking that I was just imagining things again.
"You're so silly," I smiled at him as I attempted to get off of his stomach, but he held me firmly by my hips. I gave him a confused look. He only smirked. He reached up and ran a few fingers from the middle of my forehead, along my nose, pass my lips, and finally down my neck and chest. He remained quiet during the course of his actions, but his eyes told what was on his mind. Those beautiful golden pools held something that I thought I'd never be able to get from him at the moment. Pure and provocative passion. "Se-Sesshoumaru?" I softly whispered his name. His eyes then moved from my body and then to my own eyes. We stared at each other in a heated battle for a while, until he began to speak.
"I don't know if its this green sundress you're wearing, the way you smell, the way you laugh, the fact that I miss you, or the fact that I haven't been with you physically in quite some time. Maybe its a combination of all of those factors. Or maybe its simply because I still love you." He reached up and pulled the straps of my sundress down. He began to massage the sensitive spot on my neck with his fingers. I closed my eyes, my head falling to the other side. "All I do know...is that right now...I must have you." He sat up out of the grass, his long, silver hair falling over his shoulder. He then removed his fingers from my neck and replaced them with his lips. He slipped his hands around my back and pulled me flush against him. My chest hitting his and causing me to gasp.
"Sesshoumaru," I moaned as I allowed my fingers to start wandering in his gorgeous and soft fair hair. He slowly slid a hand up my back and lowered the zipper at an even slower pace. The hunter green dress falling loosely off of my body. Seeing the baby blue, lace bra, a smirk turned the corners of his lips.
"I see that you're even wearing my favorite pair of lingerie," he said before seductively licking his lips. I giggled a little and nodded my head. He slowly pushed me backward into the grass. He crawled between my legs and began to slowly kiss my exposed stomach, making his way up to my lips. Even though his kisses felt good, as I watched the blue sky above me I began to get a little nevous. Sure I missed Sesshoumaru and I really wanted to make love to him...but...we were in the park for Kami sake!
"Sess," I said as he was now working the exposed flesh above my bra, "should we really do it here? What if we get caught? Li will knock me out if I get in trouble for this."
"Then we will just leave most of our clothes on. So if we do hear something, we can hurry and redress. Besides...I've already gotten you wet. I'm already aroused, so I have no intentions of stopping just yet." I tilted my head back and moaned when he made it back to my neck. I soon felt his hands disappear underneath the skirt of my dress and slide up my thighs until they reached the matching baby blue, lace underwear. My ex intensified his kisses as he slid the panties off and tossed them to the side. He then pulled away from me in order to unzip his jeans and lower both them and his boxers until he himself was exposed. He didn't waste any more time with foreplay as we rejoined bodies for the first time in a long while. I instantly threw my head back and pulled roughly at the grass as I felt every single inch plunge deeper and deeper inside of my wetness. My vocals didn't hide my pleasure as I called and shrieked his name over and over. All other vocabulary seemed to be lost. Like always, he took me to a place of such ecstacy and bliss. I don't think any other man could be as tantalizing as he could be. So skillful and so seductive. I missed having that side of him with me. His hidden, passionate, firery side. A side that nobody saw but me.
He had to reduce the hour, sometimes two or three, long time that we usually spent making love greatly so he would be able to make it back to work before his break was over. I didn't mind at all, because in the shortened time that we made love, I still managed to come as hard as I usually did. I was still just as satisfied and my face didn't hide that fact at all. A seemingly permanent smile harbored my lips as we redressed and began to walk out of the park and back to his car. Nothing between us had changed during that intimate act. He still handled me with care, passion, and love. He still gave me that same heat as he used to. He had told me as we redressed that he sincerely hoped that I would decide to remain with him so our burning candle of passion and desire would never have to be put out. And to be honest, I hoped it wouldn't be either. Not just the intimacy part, but the whole day with Sesshoumaru had been spectacular and it made me realize how much Sesshoumaru and I could have fun. How much he could make me laugh and how we could be silly with each other. Still, even though this last day of April had been a wonderful one, it only helped in aiding in my confusion of who I wanted to be with. For the slight edge that Naraku had gained before had now been reduced and I was right back where I started. Only a month left before I have to decide and I know already that the decision is not going to make for a very happy ending.
A/N: Who will be unhappy? Sesshoumaru? Naraku? Place your bets now! lol, I'm just joking
