A/N: Wow. Three chapters so close together... I'm feeling the motivation! Ha ha. Thank you Lady Izumi 101 for reviewing! Yeah, I've read a lot of Kagome/Sessho stories too. I just can't write them that well. The least I can change the original storyline the easier it is. But I totally understand, I read them all the time. So cute. Also, I checked out your fanfics! Totally random and hilarious! As always, thanks PumpkinPi for the encouragement! Also, I was wondering... do you like pumpkin pie? Thanks WaterGoddessKasey for the niceness! And NekomataHanyou, I added the horrified Inuyasha just for you. I hadn't really been thinking about his reaction at all, but once you mentioned it, I realized they needed to meet up with the gang again anyway, and of course Inuyasha would smell it. After all, that was the point. He he. It had nothing to do with my perverse desire to get them into bed. I swear. Nonetheless, here is the next chapter. It's even pretty long, relatively speaking.
Ayame had become extremely boring overnight. Not that I was mourning the flirting, manhandling demon who had entertained us last night, but the reason for the sudden change was awkward. He hadn't made eye contact with me all morning. It was worse then if he had pointed and shouted that I smelled like dog. His clothes were no longer loose and casual either but, high necked and tied tightly closed. His hands were visible now, that is, he didn't keep them in his sleeves, but they were completely wrapped in bandages. He had even been mostly silent all during the simple breakfast of rice and sliced fruit. What with Sesshomaru's usual reticence and my uncommon silence, I was happy to see the meal end.
"Ahem, Sesshomaru-sama, now that the meal has ended, why don't we discuss what I've learned of your cur- er, mating?" the snake smiled hesitantly. "And then you will be free to be on your way."
A small smile slipped through at that. He was certainly eager for us to be off!
"Hnn."
"Ah… yes. Well, I can't break your mating bond," he said cheerfully. He hurried to explain when Sesshomaru growled.
"That is, I can't break it. Your youkai is much too intertwined with the girls'. It is a testemant to the strength of your youkai how solid the bond is. So I cannot break it. The only one able to break your mating is the girl."
"What!?" I yelped, jerked to attention by that bit of ridiculousness.
"Explain," Sesshomaru ordered.
"Yes… usually, when a couple wishes to form a mating bond, the male will instigate and the female will respond with either an acceptance or rejection. The spell binding you together is rock solid save for that breach of formality. If the girl rejects the bond it will be broken."
Sesshomaru turned his head and looked at me. I gaped at him. He raised a brow.
"Uh, I reject you?"
Ayame stared, "You have to mean it."
"I do mean it! Sesshomaru, I reject the mating. I reject this bond. I reject your… er, you!"
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, "It is not working."
Ayame blanched, "No really! That's the only way to break it! Maybe, um, Kodi-san, you must reject him completely, not just the words but with your thought, your entire body. When a female demon rejects a bond she rejects it with her youkai."
I glared at him. He flinched.
"I have no youkai." You stupid snake. Ayame seemed to shrink.
"Well, with you spirit. Your, er, aura?"
Sesshomaru just stared at him balefully.
"Well! Thank you for visiting!" Ayame jumped to his feet. "The maids will show you out! Excuse me." He scurried out of the room. I blinked after him. Before turning and looking at Sesshomaru
"I reject you?"
As we walked out the gate:
"I reject you."
While we walked through the woods:
"You are rejected."
When I came out from the bushes I had just used for a restroom, pointing my finger at him:
"I don't want you."
While Sesshomaru skinned a rabbit because when he asked me to do it I gagged:
"No thanks. Your offer of a mating bond is unwanted."
His claws slipped and crunched through the skull. Good thing the rabbit was already dead.
As I amused myself by trying to kick a rock under his heel while we walked:
"Yuck! Like I'd mate with you! Not in a million years. Not my type at all. Completely uncute. No thank you. No bond. Rejected, rejected, rejected! Get your yucky youkai aura off of my pretty, pure, nice smelling human self."
Sessho growled.
While I was yawning and (finally) staggering into the clearing where Rin was already sleeping and everybody else was preparing to join her:
"I find your offer of an eternal mating bond singularly unattractive. Due to the repugnance I feel at the idea I hereby reject, with every thought, particle, belly button lint and anything else that could be considered me, you and your youkai and everything that is you… including your hair."
"Will you quit!" Sesshomaru snarled.
"What? You want the bond broken don't you?"
"It is obviously not working."
"Well if its not working its not my fault. How hard is it to get your big fat youkai tentacles off of me? I think its your fault."
"Believe me girl, at this moment, this Sesshomaru would like nothing better than to not be mated to you," he replied through gritted teeth, before stalking away.
"I definitely reject you," I muttered, quickly looking away with as innocent an expression as I could muster, when he whipped around to glare at me. He growled and marched away. I stuck out my tongue at his back and sauntered over to Kagome and the gang, who were laying out sleeping bags and blankets around a fire. Kagome looked up as I sat and poked a stick into the flames.
"Um, are you guys fighting?" Kagome asked hesitantly, handing me a bag of marshmallows. I blinked at her as I stabbed five of them onto my stick.
"Of course."
"Oh. How was your trip? It looks like you guys are still mated."
"Through no fault of mine!" I asserted firmly, shoving the marshmallows into the flame, where they immediately caught fire.
"… Ok."
"That's right," I nodded t emphasize my point and imagined the blackening lumps of sugar to all be tiny Sesshomaru heads.
Inuyasha had been inching up to me while I had commited multiple homicides in my mind. I frowned at him until I noticed his nostrils flaring. Then I flushed and groaned.
Oh. No. Inuyasha jerked in surprise.
"You! And him! You've, I mean, he, holy fucking kami!"
"What is the matter Inuyasha?" Miroku asked calmly. Sango and Kagome both looked at him expectantly. Inuyasha just stared at me in horror.
Shippou cocked his head and scurried over to me, wriggled his way onto my lap. Then he sniffed me.
He wrinkled his nose in distaste, "You smell like Sesshomaru really bad!"
"They, they, they!" Inuyasha babbled inconherently.
"They? They what?" Kagome asked curiously.
"Oh, I think I see," Sango murmured.
"Yes, I see as well," the houshi grinned.
"Well, I don't," Kagome stated impatiently.
"I believe, what Inuyasha is trying to say, is that Kodi and Sesshomaru-sama, may have had some intimacies recently.
I snorted, "We just slept together."
"Er, yes. That's what we're saying."
"No! I mean we slept together!"
"We know."
"No you don't know! We only-"
"Hnn. I believe that is quite enough," Sesshomaru said coldly, emerging into the ring of light cast by the flames.
"But they don't understand!"
"Enough, we will sleep now, as I believe they were preparing for and everything will be explained in the morning."
"Hmmph," I chomped down on my burnt marshmallow, relishing the burst of melt goo as I stood and follow the inuyoukai back to the side of the camp his pack had claimed. He settled crosslegged against his usual tree while I muttered. I sat my usual distance from him.
He looked at me.
"What?" I snapped.
"My scent will have worn off by tomorrow. If we had done thing in the usual way of things, my scent would stay on you for much longer."
I grimaced as I imagined why that would be so, but reluctantly moved to sit closer. He frowned at me, "We do actually have to be touching."
"Well I'm not touching you first!" the sentence was out before I could stop it and I immediately flushed. Could I possible sound more like a petulant child? I sighed and lay down, delicately resting my head on his lap.
"There, is that acceptable?"
"Hnn. You may use the mokomoko as a covering."
"How kind," I muttered grumpily, but took the pelt anyway. "Are you going to sleep?"
"Youkai do not need-"
"As much sleep as humans. Yes, I know. Forget I asked. Good night."
"Hnn."
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Rin crouched before the pair as the birds fluttered and sang in the branches above. Early morning sunlight filtered through the leaves. She cocked her head and studied them.
Kodi-san was curled up in the lap of Sesshomaru-sama. Her head rest on his shoulder so her dark curls draped and mingled with his own silvery strands. His arm wrapped around her waist. Her legs were bent over one of his knees. The pelt was drape over both of them. Rin sighed. They were really pretty like that, but the image made her sad.
Sesshomaru had been around even less often than usual. And he hadn't spoken to her hardly at all. Rin like Kodi-san, but was it her fault Sesshomaru hadn't been paying any attention to her?
Before, when it was just them, Sesshomaru-sama had sometimes patted her on the head, and he would listen and smile when she talked to him. Now she hardly saw him, and when she did see him he was always with Kodi-san. And he even talked to her! Rin didn't like it at all. She missed him, even if she could play with Shippou and Kagome onee-san and tease Inuyasha now. She was glad she knew them now. But still…
Rin sighed and sat back on her heels. No, Rin didn't like this at all.
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Sesshomaru woke in a disturbingly familiar position. The girl was draped all over him and he had his arm around her. Absolutely not. He was not somewhere relatively safe, like Ayame's residence , nor was he somewhere private. His idiotic brother and his pack could awaken and spot him any moment.
It was that last thought that prompted him to act more than anything else. Sesshomaru firmly shoved the girl off of himself. She rolled with a yelp onto the grass.
"Aagh! Earthquake!" the girl looked around in a panic. Sesshomaru quirked a brow at her.
"Did you push me!?"
"You were heavy," Sesshomaru replied calmly, anticipating the girls reaction to that insult.
"Heavy! You no good, stupid-"
"Also," he interrupted smoothly, " I believe that is appropriate recompense for you shoving me yesterday morning."
"You," the girl flushed, which Sesshomaru watch curiously, before clearing her throat and standing to her feet.
"Whatever. I guess I'll go get something to eat, since I'm awake and all," she turned and began to walk away. Looking over her shoulder she asked, "Are you coming?"
Sesshomaru shifted slightly, then froze. Surely not… he shifted again and couldn't stop his face from twitching. He was highly aware of the girl watching him with interest.
"… No, I will remain here."
"Really? That's unusual. Why? Oh, do you need to, er, water a bush or something?"
"No!" Sesshomaru barked without thinking. Kami. He should have said yes! Nevermind the indignity of such a response, it would have been an excellent excuse. Now the girls interest was peeked. She turned to face him fully.
"Ok, well, why then? You usually…" her eyes lowered to his legs as an unholy gleam entered her eyes. "Are your legs asleep Sesshomaru."
He couldn't stop the snarling growl from escaping his throat. The wench giggled and he stiffened. She walked back and crouched before him raising her hands and wriggling her fingers menacingly.
"Hmm, how did you help me yesterday when my legs were numb? Lets see, I believe you did something like this," she reached down and made a grab for his foot and Sesshomaru whipped his own hand out to grab hers.
"You will not!" he growled at her.
"But I really want to," she replied pertly.
"No. Go and join the others for breakfast. I will join you shortly."
She smiled at him, "Are you sure? What if I tell them you aren't joining us because you're back here writhing in pins and needles because your legs went numb?"
Sesshomaru blinked in the face of her grin before answering, "If you do any such thing I will not inform them that you and I merely slept together and allow them to believe we have mated."
Her smile promptly transformed into a scowl, "That's not fair. You got to torture me." She stood up anyway and turned to walk away. She paused at the edge of the circle of branches and spoke without looking back.
"Um, sorry for climbing on you. I didn't mean to." She quickly hurried away. Sesshomaru watched her go. A small curl appeared at the corner of his lips as he thought of how red that apology had probably made her.
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Inuyasha was almost comically relieved when everything was explained to him. Miroku had merely sported an annoyingly considering look the entire time. When Kagome and Sango learned that I had to reject the bond to break it, they decided that if I could 'see' the bond it might be easier.
"Ok, so just look at the space around Sesshomaru. That's where you'll be able to see it," Kagome ordered helpfully.
I looked, "Nothing."
"Um, well you sort of have to look really hard."
"Pfft. Your advice sucks wench," Inuyasha snorted.
I ignored the quiet "sit" and the subsequenting squawk and thud and squinted at the youkai. Sesshomaru merely raised an eyebrow.
Sango tilted her head thoughtfully, "It's a little like looking at someones aura. I was taught that you look at the subject and see the area around them with your peripheral vision. You can't look directly at an aura. Same with a mating bond."
I squinted harder.
"Anything?" Sango asked.
"No, except my eyes are starting to water."
"Well, it takes practice," Kagome said encouragingly, patting my arm consolingly.
"So, just simply rejecting the bond hasn't worked at all?" Miroku asked curiously.
"Not at all. Watch; Sesshomaru, I reject-"
"I believe they understand adequately when you say it doesn't work," Sesshomaru growled, his voice rife with irritation. I smothered a grin; it had to get annoying being told that you're rejected repeatedly. I had been enjoying it immensely for just that reason. I cast him an innocent look, "But Sessho, I shouldn't waste an opportunity to say it. What if it works this time?"
"Do not call me Sessho human."
"Hnn," I hummed, mimicking his customary bored inflection. Sesshomaru glowered at me. His scowl cut into Kagome when she giggled. She quickly covered it with a cough.
"What are you going to do now?" Miroku inserted.
"The girl will continue to reject the bond until it works. This Sesshomaru will also look for any other avenues open to us."
"You can travel with us!" Kagome clapped her hands.
"What?!" Inuyasha yelped.
"No, really! We can help Kodi learn how to see the bond."
"I might be able to teach her some tricks that might help as well," Miroku added.
"We will not travel with you. Instead this Sesshomaru will make allowances in my own usual routes to meet with your pack a few times a week. That should be enough for the girl to learn, and will also allow me to inspect the western lands."
"Oh," Kagome frowned. "I guess that's ok."
Sesshomaru curled his lips contemptuously, "I'm glad this Sesshomaru's plans meet with your approval Miko."
I frowned at him, my face growing darker when he proceeded to ignore us. Just then Rin walked into the circle, quietly accepting the bowl Sango handed her. I smiled at her, expecting her to smile in return and sit with me as she usually did. The smile faltered on my lips when she lowered her eyes from mine and sat away from us.
Had I done something to make her mad? I hadn't even been around to do anything… Ah. I thought I understood. We hadn't been around. She had been left alone quite a lot recently. It couldn't be because she missed me too much. After all, although I genuinely liked her, she hadn't known me long enough to really miss me. But Sesshomaru? I had seen the way her eyes followed him in blatant hero worship. And she always gave him the biggest brightest flowers, when she found a new patch to demolish. Maybe she was lonely.
"Rin? Why don't you come sit between me and Sesshomaru. I think he wants to hear how you've been," I smiled engagingly at her. She hesitated, her eyes shooting to Sesshomaru before she nodded. Although she wasn't feeling happy at the moment, I knew she wouldn't miss a chance to sit next to her idol. She didn't talk as much as she usually did however, no matter what I tried. I didn't doubt for a second that if Sesshomaru had taken upon his glorified self to show the least little interest, the girl would have been happy in a moment. The conversation of the group carried on throughout breakfast. We learned that while Sesshomaru and I had been gone the others had found two more shard pieces. Combined with what they already had, the jewel was near whole, save for the pieces Naraku possessed. I congratulated Kagome as she proudly showed me the shiny pink hued gem, and oohed appreciatively when Sango showed me the gash on her arm from fighting the demon who had, had the shard. I had offered her some magical Sesshomaru spit, but Sango didn't even give Sesshomaru time to negate the idea. She had firmly declined the offer with all the horror of being offered to be bathed in acid, which, in a way, was what I was offering. After breakfast, Kagome's group began packing up, claiming another possible shard sighting in the east.
"So we'll meet you at Kaede's village three days from now," Kagome said.
"Uh-huh. Hey Kagome? Can I talk to you for a minute?" I pulled the girl aside, acutely aware of the multiple demon eyes that snapped to attention when I requested privacy. I scowled at the two most cowed by my glares until they reluctantly slunk away. Then I used my best pleading eyes on Sesshomaru. He merely raised an eyebrow and didn't even make the effort to move away. I rolled my eyes, and determined to ask Kagome my questions regardless.
"When are you going back to the modern era?" I whispered.
"I was planning on going back when we meet up in Kaede's village," she replied.
"Hmm, three days… I should be fine that long. Listen, can you bring me back some things?"
"What do you need?"
"You know… girl stuff."
Kagome flushed, "Oh! I didn't think of that. Do you need it now?"
"No, I think I'll be fine until we meet again, but I'll need it by then or the day after. Oh, and I need really strong pain pills."
She nodded sympathetically, "OK. Pads or tampons?"
"Tampons, definitely."
"No problem. I'll even throw in some chocolate since you'll probably be craving it."
"Thanks!" I hugged her happily. I shot Sesshomaru a glance as I walked back, happy to see him appropriately bewildered. He probably hadn't been able to decipher all the modern lingo.
She'd be fine for the next few days. After that however… God! What would she have done without Kagome? Rags? Leaves? What did they use in this era? Rags probably, that seem to be the norm for past civilizations. Although she remembered reading somewhere that coastal women were known to use sea sponges. That still would have been messy however and would probably have itched like hell. Besides, how would she have asked for them. She didn't think she would have been able to bring herself to ask Sesshomaru. That would have been traumatic. Not to mention would probably have ended with him declaring humans disgusting. Did demon females have periods? Surely they must have. They reproduced after all. Unless they laid eggs… Maybe it depended on what species the demon was. Dogs had puppies. Mammals. Did dogs have periods? Females went into heat…
My thoughts were quickly cut off when I was halted by the appearance of Ah-Un a foot in front of me. I blinked at the head that was level with me. Then I wrinkled my nose.
"Yech. You have really bad breath," I muttered in distaste. Rin giggled from her place on his back, but she quickly choked it off and looked away when I grinned at her. I sighed, and trudged along as we set out to 'inspect the western lands.'
What the hell was there to inspect? It was just a bunch of trees and villages and more trees. I hummed a song as we hiked. What with Rin's chilly silence and Sesshomarus… really chilly silence, well, it was going to be a long and cold three days.
A/N take two: P.S. I almost forgot! If anybody is confused or has any questions/suggestions/nonsensical remarks about the plot send them to me! I will answer! As best I can without giving everything away, and you know, as long as I know the answer.