It was different. New. And unwanted.

Sesshomaru growled internally at the turn of events. Managing her when she was around did not pose a problem. But keeping watch on her when she was away from him would be difficult, and something he most certainly did not want to deal with.

The scent burned his nostrils. He had not smelled it since he'd lived at his castle, and females were trying to entice him into their beds. It never worked unless his inner youkai was particularly rowdy, and that was rare. As the autumn leaves fell, he knew that this was not untimely. He would have to part from Kagome for a while.

He supposed it was for the best. Sesshomaru needed to go back to the castle and alert the other lords about his new mate. If he did not tell them of her within a certain amount of time, it might lead to complications later. He could separate from the group and go to the castle ahead, inform the lords of the other lands about the situation, and introduce them to Kagome when she arrived. Knowing them, they would all like to meet her, being friendlier than himself. And if they took a liking to her, they would feel that much sorrier for Sesshomaru when she inevitably left. He did not want pity, but it was preferable to the contempt they would view him with if they thought he had tossed her to the side himself.

Kagome had cooked for the group, feeling better than she had yesterday. Inuyasha's face crept into her head, how guilty he looked, but she tried to push it away. Sesshomaru wouldn't stand to have Inuyasha around, and she wouldn't be able to go looking for him herself. She had to focus on the better aspects of her life for the moment.

She surprised herself when talking to Inuyasha, about how she wanted to get to know Sesshomaru. Maybe deep within herself she'd known that was what she wanted, but her conscious mind hadn't registered it. She didn't want to hate him, that was for sure. Hating people took energy she wouldn't want to waste. But she highly doubted Sesshomaru would be willing to be friendly.

Sesshomaru was staying away from her this morning, which was not unusual, but his nose wrinkled every so often. She wondered what it was. She couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary.

When Kagome looked up, the kids happily munching on breakfast and Jaken still asleep on Ah-Un's back, Sesshomaru was a few steps farther back, gesturing with a claw for her to come closer. Confused, but willing, Kagome obeyed and followed him a fair distance away from camp.

"Sesshomaru? What's this about?"

He faced her, the scent assaulting him again. Ignoring it, he went to the point. "Miko, you are now a female inu youkai. As such, your body goes into heat twice a year to attract a male inu youkai mate. I am more than capable of resisting, but it would be best for you not to be around myself or other male inu for some time."

The entirety of the news was thrown at her, and it took some time before Kagome fully understood. She scrunched her eyebrows. "Female inu attract a mate twice a year?"

"Attempt to, yes. You give off a powerful scent that lets males know that you are ready for breeding. The scent is detectable, and affects, almost any male youkai, but the effects work most potently on inu males."

Kagome tried to wrap her head around the new idea. "So you want me to go away, or else my scent will bother you?"

"On the contrary," Sesshomaru said, annoyed that she hadn't fully understood the concept yet, "I will be leaving you in the hands of Jaken and Ah-Un. While your scent would not affect me significantly, it is bothersome enough to warrant staying away from you."

Oh, that's how he's playing it, Kagome thought. Say you don't want me even when my youkai body is begging yours to come take a whiff. I bet if I tried hard enough, it would 'affect' him. But while Kagome was competitive, she wasn't about to lower herself to that level just to laugh at Sesshomaru. He was a stubborn jerk who asserted his superiority over others, but she wasn't about to let him know that his attitude irritated her.

"Fine, then," she said, sighing. "This is as good a reason as any to stay away from me, I guess."

She hadn't realized she'd said that out loud.

"Shit," she muttered a second later.

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that a problem?"

Squirming, Kagome cursed herself and her big mouth. But she also knew that it might be time to talk about this, since it had been bugging her for a couple days. If she didn't talk about it now, she might not be able to later.

"Yes, it does, actually." She stood firm, ready to take anything Sesshomaru might dish out. "I've been taken away from my friends, changed into a youkai, and thrust into a Mating Dance that I never wanted." She took a deep breath. "I was hoping that, at least, you might be willing to try and get to know each other, since we'll be bound for the rest of eternity!"

Sesshomaru took her words in, choosing his response carefully. "Miko-"

"Please call me Kagome," she said, exasperated. "I'm tired of not being called by my name. Can I get that dignity, if nothing else?"

He internally sighed. "Kagome," he corrected, "You must know me better than to expect me to become friendly with my brother's former wench." Kagome looked like she would object, but shook her head and motioned for him to continue.

"I was taught by my father that weakness is inexcusable. Seeing as he was killed after falling in love with a human, by the man who also loved her, I am not kind in my views toward showing affection. If you think that the fact that we are bound by fate will change my mind, you are wrong."

Struck down, Kagome paused, and leaned against a tree. "Damn it." She sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. "And you're only doing this so your honor isn't smirched with the other lords of the land, right?"

Sesshomaru nodded. "Keep no illusions, I would not do this if it did not reflect badly on me to ignore it." The truth was hard, but the quicker Kagome understood, the faster she would get fed up with him and leave, and the sooner he could explain to the other lords that his prospective mate had fled. Even if Kagome's leaving looked bad for him, it was better than him being the one to break it off, or, worse, going through with the mating.

"Fine. You can leave during my heat, or whatever."

"Good." Sesshomaru faced the camp, ready to go back and inform the others of the situation. "There is some business for me to take care of at my home. I will be going there, and Jaken will lead you there some distance behind my trail."

"Sure, sure. Have fun." Kagome slumped under her tree. Sesshomaru only looked for a moment, before going to the camp to break the news to the others.

Kagome sat, more annoyed than ever with Sesshomaru. It was hard enough that her whole life had been flipped upside down, did he have to be a jerk about the fact that he didn't like her?

No use moping about it, she thought. It'll only make me madder. She stood, returning to camp.

Sesshomaru was already gone. Jaken had packed up camp. Rin and Shippo were waiting, and Ah-Un snorted. Kagome smiled, and they set out without the youkai lord for the first time in a week.

()

Sesshomaru peered above him, the Japanese-style building casting a shadow over the land. His sphere of light had transported him here within minutes, while it would take several days of walking for his comrades to arrive. Enough time for Kagome's heat to pass and alert the other youkai lords of his initiated Mating Dance. He hoped Kagome would give up on him shortly after.

After considering his options, Sesshomaru determined that the best way to be rid of Kagome was to make her want to leave. He'd known before that a broken Mating Dance would reflect badly on him either way, because it was generally the male who asked for it in the first place, but it would affect him less if Kagome left of her own volition. The lords of the land would ask him about it, and he would simply say that Kagome wasn't ready for the responsibility that came with being his mate. The youkai lords would be disappointed, possibly berate him for not finding a mate and insist that he needed one soon, and leave the matter alone until a few decades from now when one of them would ask about a mate again.

The plan would work smoothly enough, hurting as few feelings as possible. Kagome might be offended that he would not keep her around, even for the honor of his family, but that honor was easily redeemed, and the feelings of a former human miko were of no concern to him.

And the Hana no Shukumei. The flower that determined their fate. Sesshomaru assured himself that whatever their mating was supposed to lead to, whatever made the Hana pair them together, the world could survive without it.

He entered the castle, the guards bowing to him. Servants bustled to keep order with the nobles residing at his home. Nobles were always there, having meetings and using it as a vacation home. Sesshomaru did not mind. It helped to have people indebted to you.

Every servant he passed bowed to him before continuing their work. Each one was a youkai, not a human or hanyou. He would never allow them to pass into his home, Rin being the only exception. She had a lavish bedroom and many toys to keep her occupied. And as his ward, she was also the closest thing he had to an heir. Young youkai boys, despite their age of only eleven or twelve, would propose to her in hopes of gaining favor with the Lord of the West. Rin turned them all down. A girl who had not even entered womanhood had no interest in them.

She took to Shippo immediately, though, perhaps because he, like her, was only interested in games and fun. Rin would be sad to see him go after Kagome left, but perhaps Sesshomaru could find another playmate like him.

He found his bedroom, exactly the way it had been when he left. None of the servants dared touch it while he was gone. The regal, Western style bed rose on four elegantly carved posts, the blood red sheets and curtains sweeping over the mattress. A large rug with an embroidery of his true form sat in the center of the floor, a walk in closet and reading desk on either side of it. Across from his bed was the door to a balcony, the waist high railing above the garden in the courtyard.

It had been his father's room. Sesshomaru inherited it along with his position, moving the personalized rug from his old room. It took some time, but his father's scent was removed, along with all of his belongings, which were stored in an old room on a lower floor, where Sesshomaru would not see them. Any reminders of his family were promptly removed and stored away.

Except for the tapestry in the front hall. The other youkai lords insisted that it stay visible, probably because it was commissioned from a famous artist, and reminded them of the time when his father still had honor. He had still been trying to complete the Mating Dance with his mother, even though Sesshomaru was born long before that. The tapestry showed his young, smiling face. The only time he smiled, because his parents looked happy.

Soon after the tapestry was done, his mother told the Inu no Taishou that she refused to complete the last step of the Mating Dance, and walked out of their lives forever. Thereafter, his father taught him that love was a weakness, and he was never to show his feelings. Sesshomaru never smiled again.

But he was not here to relive memories. He went to a small bookshelf next to his desk, pulling out the book he wanted. He thumbed through it absentmindedly. The book was a journal his father had kept long ago. He took it out from time to time, and read about his father's battle strategies, for that was the majority of what was written. His father had taken to writing down his methods of training after Sesshomaru's mother left. He supposed that the writing made him feel better about not having anyone to talk to. And battle training was what Sesshomaru saw him do whenever he wasn't dealing with political issues. It was the only thing he had to write about.

He never had much time to read the book, and never went far into it after finding a useful battle tactic that he decided to try. Several had been revealed since he began looking at the journal, and while he had not needed to use them yet, he enjoyed knowing there was something other than his standard attacks to pull out during a fight.

Sesshomaru found nothing useful in the beginning pages of the book. He flipped to the back, to a section he had never read before. The pages smelled of dust and his father. Sesshomaru read the lines quickly, searching for anything of interest, when an unusual entry caught his eyes.

Ah, it is a good day. For I have met an intriguing woman, who is not even a youkai. I was out observing the west, on my daily rounds to keep the peace of the land, when I saw her. She was by a river, gazing at herself in the water. Normally, I would not be interested in such a weak creature, but she held a beauty matched only by my former mate.

I descended from my youkai cloud to speak with her, and she was not frightened by me as a normal human would have been. I am not sure what possessed me to strike a conversation, but perhaps it was the oddly colored lily that she held in her hands. She claimed to have found it the day before, and that it was a danger to those who held it. I, however, felt nothing when I took it from her. I think she made the claim just to try and fool me. But a human brave enough to do that is one that amuses me.

Sesshomaru closed the book and put it back on its shelf. He knew what that flower was. There was a portrait of Izayoi holding a blue lily stored with everything else that reminded him of his father. And as Myoga had told him, it was the Hana no Shukumei, binding his father to a human and resulting in the birth of his hanyou brother.

He would not be looking at that journal again anytime soon.

A knock sounded on the door. Sesshomaru turned, glad for the distraction. "Enter."

A servant woman, old, with gray streaks in her hair, bowed before him. She was one of the weaker youkai that aged at about the same rate as a human. Sesshomaru might have had her disposed of if she did not prove to be useful in instructing the younger servants. "My lord," she said, bowing again, "There is a young boy at the gate. A hanyou. And he refuses to leave unless he speaks with you."

Sesshomaru sneered mentally, but showed nothing to the woman. "Have the guards dispose of him," he said, as if it were obvious, which it should have been.

"We tried, sire, but he is a hanyou of the variety that can appear in any location he wishes. He continues to transport himself to the front gate."

Wondering why the hanyou didn't simply bring himself into the castle with this ability, Sesshomaru pushed past the servant to deal with the issue.

He was young indeed, no more than a few years older than the fox kit. His feline ears twitched on the top of his head, green as the summer grass hair he had tied into a ponytail. His indignant face was pointed at the youkai guard who would not let him in.

"I have to see Lord Sesshomaru!" he whined.

"Kid, quit showing up at the gate and leave," the guard warned.

"State the nature of your problem."

Sesshomaru shoved the guard aside, glowering at the tiny hanyou. He brightened upon seeing him, bowing respectfully. "My lord," he said, "I have been seeking you out."

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow. "And?"

The hanyou stood as tall as he could manage. "I have searched for you for days, until finally arriving at your extravagant castle. The guards could not thwart me," he looked smugly at the guard, "for I have the ability to transport myself to any place I have seen with my own eyes. I continued to take myself to your gate because my mission is more important to me than anything." He puffed his chest out, the picture of a proud youth.

Sesshomaru was not impressed. "Tell me what it is so I may dismiss you and continue my work." As the hanyou could apparently take himself back to the gate as many times as he wanted, it would be easier to listen to him.

He flattened out. "Oh." His eyes fell, and raised again. "I was actually looking for you because I had heard the rumor that you are the new mate of the Lady Kagome."

The guard stared at him. Sesshomaru bent back the urge to bare his teeth. He'd wanted to keep that under wraps until Kagome arrived, otherwise the servants would have a field day of theories about where she came from and why they were in a Mating Dance.

"I am not her mate," he answered, "we are simply in the early stages of the Mating Dance." There was no point in hiding it now that a guard knew. The news would spread like wildfire. "She is not here. What do you want from her?"

The hanyou looked proud again. "My mother sent me here. She said that only the Lady Kagome could help her with what she needed. I did not know how to find her troupe of friends that were said to travel the land and help those in need, and I would have given up, had I not heard about you being her mate."

"We are not mated," Sesshomaru said again. "And as I said before, she is not here."

He frowned. "When will she get here?"

Sesshomaru wanted to toss him out. I wouldn't do that if I were you.

Fantastic, his inner youkai had something to say about it. And why not? Out loud, he said, "I will be back in a moment." The hanyou was about to protest, but Sesshomaru turned to deliberate with himself outside the views of others.

If you throw that hanyou out, Kagome will inevitably find out about it. She'll hate you for it.

I do not care if she hates me, Sesshomaru snarled, My goal was to make her hate me in order for her to leave.

If Kagome leaves, the other lords will blame you.

They will pity me under the belief that I suffered the same fate as my father. I would rather have pity than contempt.

But it would be so much easier to make her your mate! And who knows, you might, I don't know, actually start liking somebody other than yourself and Rin? You can't stay in a closed shell forever.

I can damn well try.

He ended it there, unwilling to listen to the arguments his inner youkai tried to present. None of it would convince him to keep a hanyou around rather than kick him out. He went back to the front gate, the hanyou waiting patiently.

"Kagome will not be here for several days," Sesshomaru said, narrowing his eyes. "If you wish to see her, come back then and cease your attempts to get into my castle."

The hanyou grinned. "If I really wanted to get in the castle, I could transport myself to the inside of the gate. I can see it, after all. But that would be rude, wouldn't it?" He laughed. "I'll wait until Lady Kagome arrives, and come back to seek what I want. Goodbye, my lord, it was an honor talking to you."

The hanyou blinked, and was gone.

()

Chapter thirteen! The unlucky one, if superstition is to be believed. And it is indeed unlucky that Sesshomaru has decided he would rather take crap from the other lords about failing the Mating Dance than actually go through with it. Oh, Sesshy, when will you realize what a fool you're being?

This chapter was more about Sesshomaru, so the next one will probably focus on Kagome.

And how many people remember Hatori? The young cat hanyou that showed up last time. I wanted to give him the ability to teleport to certain places, without actually using the word teleport, because I highly doubt it's the kind of word Sesshomaru, or anyone in the feudal era, would know.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you guys continue to read it, 'cuz I really appreciate it. Please review! I love reviews! Thanks again, and ja ne!