Seven: No Sooner Looked Than...
The village was full of memories, all of them comforting, even the negative ones. It was simpler than the Inu court, and she was a simple girl. Sango breathed in deeply of the pure mountain air. No stench of schemes or politics or adultery. Only honest nature, sweet and pure. Given only the smallest of leaves, she would barely have a few hours to spend with her people. It would have to be enough to last her until the next time.
For perhaps the first time in her life, Sango dreaded going back to serve as a shadow.
Inuyasha was consumed with a need to satisfy all his darkest fantasies with his newest acquisitions. It was all he ever talked about. Before, when they were always out in the field conquering this kingdom or that city-state, he had interest in all sorts of things. Weapons, fighting techniques, battle tactics, armor improvements, warfare technology... And when they returned to the palace for a few weeks here and there, he'd spend some time in the harem and with her and with his family. He would read up on Inu current events and fight with his brother and get drunk and say terrible things about his father. Never before had she seen him so very single-minded, and single-minded was one of the first things that came to mind when Inuyasha was mentioned.
It made sense, she supposed. Now that his marriage was looming over his head (and hers, she lamented), there was a time limit to his freedom. Doubtless, he'd be forced to accept some dull and plain princess whose domineering family would ensure that his lifestyle of wandering, warfare, and women would be cut off as soon as the wedding date was set. It broke her heart to think he would be forced to suffer such a fate, that someone as free and wild as the very mountain forest itself would sit on a throne hearing petitions and giving orders until everything that made him a man that others followed disappeared.
When last she saw him, her prince had been seated at his desk in his rooms, scribbling furiously. When she had leaned over his shoulder to see what he was so concentrated on, he didn't even notice. Sango wasn't even entirely sure he realized that she had entered the room.
"Is that...?"
"It's a swing," he explained, continuing to draw.
"I can see that. But why is the woman holding balloons?"
He snorted. "Those are what tits look like, Sango."
Gods, she was so close on smacking him on the back of his head. "I haven't seen anyone endowed quite that well," was all she said.
"I'm going to have a craftsman build me one in the harem. When the bitch finally stops throwing her tantrums and acting all crazy, I'm going to put it in her new room. Then she'll start earning her keep."
Knowing Inuyasha like she did, she almost felt sorry for the girl. "Your father gave me approval to visit my family today. I'll be gone for a few hours."
He didn't answer, already sucked back in to his poorly drawn erotic fantasy.
Just recalling it gave Sango a headache. Patting Kirara on the nose, she watched her transform into her smaller form, already bounding off to play in the little patch of flowering meadow she loved the most. Squaring her shoulders, she faced the small hut she had grown up in.
When her mother had lived, there had been all kinds of flowers blooming around, vines climbing up the walls and curling around the windows. Hummingbirds and butterflies and honeybees had been frequent visitors and the sun shone even in the darkest corners. That was the home of her memories. The hollow and gray place that was before her could have belonged to a stranger.
Going to her knees, she waited in the doorway, bowing until her forehead touched the dirt floor.
"Father, my heart gladdens at our reunion. May the gods grant you a hundred years."
As always, her father waited a few moments longer than customary to tap her shoulder, giving her the signal to rise. He did so love to feel like a king. Not even the Inu no Taisho himself affected an air of such conscious nobility (with good reason, she privately thought).
"I wish I could welcome you with a light heart, daughter." Going into the home, he sat on the floor in front of the table, waiting for her to follow on her knees and pour the tea, which she promptly did.
"What do you mean, Father?" Even though she was no longer a child, she could feel panic brimming within her at her remaining parent's disapproval. The agony of waiting and not knowing made it all so much worse. And he knew it. He knew everything.
Accepting the chipped cup of warm tea, he sipped it carefully, brow creased as if mentally going over the phrasing of the words he wanted to say.
"Your brother is not making progress with his training in the way a young warrior of our clan should be."
Immediately, she relaxed, now able to pour herself tea since her hands had stopped trembling. "Kohaku excels at a great many things, Father. Have you seen him treat and dress the wounds of the injured? And woodworking, too." She glowed with pride and continued with her favorite subject. "He made a chair so fine the second Prince himself purchased it, and you know he doesn't do things like that just to be nice."
The chief waved his hand dismissively, setting down his cup. "Those are not occupations fitting for the firstborn son, let alone a taijiya." His expression hardened. "But for once, daughter, your brother is not my most pressing concern."
The plummeting of her stomach gave her an idea of where the conversation was headed.
"There have been more rumors concerning your conduct with the prince."
Sango felt her spine become rigid. "I am his shadow, as I have been for twelve years. We are comrades and nothing more."
"That's good to hear. I know how the prince is, and it would not do for you to become inappropriately close to him."
"I have not and I never will." It used to hurt when she denied her love for her prince, but she'd had to do it so many times that she no longer felt anything. Routine. Lying about her feelings had become routine, just like the rest of her duties.
"A woman must keep herself pure and not allow any man to take her power," he continued as though she had not spoken. His face took on a kind of energy that almost frightened her. "You have powers we men could never have. Your purity, your very virginity, is the source of your strength. If you give that away to a man, you give away that which sets you above the rest of us, above every man and every used woman."
"I know all this, Father." Honestly, had any other woman of her tribe made it to twenty-eight and stayed a virgin? Did he honestly believe she was so innocent?
"You've realized all my hopes for you by being not just a virgin warrior, ranking among the goddesses themselves, but the shadow to a member of the immediate royal family as well. You must continue to fight, continue to scorn men, and you shall never fail in standing above even the best of our male warriors."
To be honest, Sango was not entirely sure she had discarded the beliefs of her people in her time as both shadow and bed partner to her prince. While she still felt physically just as strong as she had always been, it was true her love for Inuyasha had made her weak in other ways. Every time he got a new slave, she suffered from horrible jealousy, cutting into her with such depth and inflicting pain she hadn't even known existed. The emotional turmoil distracted her from her duties, and, horror of horrors, what if while dwelling upon the prince's attentions to women who weren't her caused her to slip up and let him be injured, or worse, killed? Her love was so strong, but it was a hopeless love that could never be realized. When she thought about it for extended periods of time, she sometimes considered suicide, either to make recompense for the shame she'd brought upon her family or just to get away from a world where she could never be happy.
And something about how he was reacting to the new slaves made her feel so much worse than before. It frightened her. He wasn't acting like himself. It was like he was a whole new person, too merciful and too brutal all at once in his treatment of them.
"Daughter," his voice was low and affectionate, but also gravely serious. "I will not hesitate to mete out justice if it is ever discovered you have broken your solemn vow."
The law stated that he himself would cut off her head if she had broken her oath.
"I love him," she choked out. She had to do it. After all the years of lying, of waiting for him to love only her, she needed someone else to know. Even if it cost her the very head on her shoulders.
He seemed unsurprised. Who else hadn't they fooled? "Do you love him more than you love your duty?"
It took a moment, but she nodded, not able to verbally confirm it, her voice having fled far away from her painfully tight throat. If she loved him enough to risk losing her head every time she showed her love for him, she must love him more than being a warrior, right? More than her people and the life she had dedicated herself to ever since she could remember. Right?
"It can never be, child. Your stations are too far removed."
The unforgivably beautiful faces of his newest slaves flashed in her head. "I'm aware."
Inuyasha would marry a princess, or maybe even a queen with how the Inu empire was gaining power. While being the daughter of the chief was similar to being a princess in her tribe, among them merit counted far more than birth did. And if it came to merit, she was ranked above every princess in the world.
But the Inu didn't do things that way, and the Inu didn't change.
"If you wish to marry, you would certainly have your pick among any of the tribesman."
"Not a one of them interests me." Her heart had been captured forever by a dashing and thoroughly unobtainable half-demon. Not a man alive could match him for anything.
The chief seemed happier. Clapping her on the back like he would one of his subordinates, he said, "So stay alive and be a virgin warrior. One day, leadership of the tribe will pass to you. You have more than earned it."
She couldn't seem to meet his eyes. "I do want children. One day." Though it was what she had aspired to be as a young girl, she was not strong enough emotionally to be a virgin warrior, to rank among those sainted battle maidens.
"After a year or more of leadership, pick any man and retire. If your children are strong, and they will be, then they could lead the tribe one day."
She sighed. It seemed like Inuyasha wasn't the only one who was going to be forced to marry. "I will think on it."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"We just got some new trainees for guard positions. Would you like to give the welcoming speech?"
Sango perked up a little. "Eunuchs?"
He smiled. "Yes. They're out there cowering right now."
"I suppose I could give a little talk. Just to let them know there won't be any slacking..."
"You can use the Hiraikotsu on them."
"I bet they'll scream like little girls!"
O\o/O
Miroku stumbled out of the carriage, the last of the passengers to do so. The eunuchs he had traveled with had never said a word to him. They'd hardly said a word to one another, but it was enough to make their snub more than obvious. He sighed, stumbling when the ground was closer than he had thought, almost falling on his face. Looking around, he was gratified that no one had noticed, then disheartened by how very alone and invisible he was in this new chapter of his life. Just a few years, he told himself. A few years of his life and he could go back and finish his education, where he'd have an assured spot for the rest of his life as a master tutor.
Corralling the eunuchs like dogs with sheep were men dressed in leather armor, masks tied around their faces, obscuring their features, but not enough to hide their expressions that told anyone who knew how to read them that they were the most dangerous people they would ever meet. Miroku could feel his palms sweating. Never before was he more acutely aware of his fair skin and thin arms, features that seemed more than normal coming from a noble scholarly background as he did. Perhaps he had acted somewhat out of character and made a mistake. Would they be very angry if he confessed that he was not a eunuch or would they show mercy and let him go? Or would they see to it that the trip was not wasted and neuter him where he stood?
It was the most inappropriate thought to have in his head when he first met the love of his life, but that was how things seemed to be working for him these days.
The woman, no, the goddess strolling through the ranks of hunched over doughy eunuchs was something beyond imagination. She stood there in the flesh shining brighter than even his most vivid daydreams. Every toned muscle was outlined and accentuated by the tight, thin leather of her armor. A pink sash hung suggestively draped around her wide hips and the delectable curve of her perky breasts left his mouth dry. Hair the color of the richest leather that bound his favorite book back in his university's library hung down her back, tied high on her noble head. It was a good thing half her face was covered with a mask like the rest of her peers, for to see such shining perfection all at once would have struck him dead. Her impossible regal beauty made time stop around her and he could see the air vibrate around her, pulsing with the beating of his heart.
Miroku fell in love. Somewhat literally.
When next he opened his eyes, he was looking up at her leather boot on his chest. Seeing her above him like that just felt so right that at first he did not even question how he'd wound up on the ground.
"Weak," she sneered down at him. Pressing down with her boot hard enough to bruise, she turned around and left without another look at him.
Miroku fell in lust.
Her ass. The leather woman's ass was something that caused men to leave their homes and fight for glory (but mostly that ass). It was something that would drive the most skilled of poets to drink for lack of ability to accurately describe its beauty, the most eloquent of wordings insultingly inefficient. The leather stretched across her incomparable rear, showcasing the firm bounty, tight enough that it seemed poured on.
There was no time for him to continue musing on the earthshaking things that had just occurred. The eunuchs were crowding around him, walking past him, and he realized that he was invisible again. Staggering to his feet, he hoped that it was just stress that had caused his faint. Something like that would normally embarrass him, but not this time. Not when it had earned him the attention and a word from his goddess. Smiling, he gingerly touched the dirty footprint on the front of his robes, wincing at how tender he was there. A love tap. He'd cherish it always.
At the front of the crowd stood his goddess. She was glaring, her fiercely beautiful mahogany eyes taking them all in, measuring them. The others cowered in groups and he didn't blame them. She was every inch justice personified.
"Eunuchs." Her clear voice was filled with contempt. "Useless scum. What led to your manhood being bloodily taken from you? Rape." She looked a man in the face and he flinched away. "Debt. Violence. Sexual perversions. But none of that defines you here." She smiled and the crowd almost relaxed. "You are all trash. None of you can rise above trash. But if you work hard, trash, and you survive your training with my fellow taijiya, then maybe, just maybe, you can be comfortable trash. And one day, you will be giving orders to the new trash."
"How noble," he sighed to anyone who would listen.
The eunuchs paid no attention to him, but he was different from they and observed them closely. To his immense shock, none of their faces radiated the emotions he was experiencing. Not even close. Some were afraid, some were bitter and angry, and some displayed nothing but a hollow emptiness that chilled him. Miroku suppressed a shudder. Though he had never truly fit in anywhere, not even the academy, for just a moment he'd felt connected to the eunuchs. They were all there due to desperate circumstances. For who would undergo the famously excruciating training to become an Inu palace guard unless they had no other options? For just that moment, he had forgotten that they were not exactly comrades. He wasn't a eunuch, and he had never been a hardened criminal. Compared to them, he had lived an easy life.
To add to that, they were now competitors.
Miroku knew enough of the way the Inu did things to feel a shadow of regret at his impulsive decision to become a guard. But the thought of having access to the prince's famous harem of beauties coupled with the alcohol and his patron's abandonment had made him stupid. Usually, he thought things out thoroughly before taking any kind of action, man of learning that he was. Sighing again, he focused his gaze back on his statuesque love. If it wasn't for that old asshole Mushin cutting him off, he never would have had the chance to spy such superbly exalted beauty. Even if he did die during his training and never got to taste the sweet nectar of a maiden's favor, it would be worth it.
Not all of the men gathered on the mountain today would still be there at the end of training. Most wouldn't be there by the end of the week, either having fled or died in training. Fire entered his blue eyes for the first time in years as he stared at the posterior that had so lately laid claim to his very soul. No matter what, he would make it. Miroku would claw his way to survival and then eventually to a place high enough where he would be able to reach out and grab that perfect leather-ensconced ass.
Blinking in confusion at the eunuchs moving and breaking up into larger groups, he felt as though his spirit had been traveling and suddenly jerked back into his body. Perhaps he should have been paying attention to what his love had been saying instead of how her hips rolled seemingly without her conscious intention. The woman in leather stood in a power stance in front of the crowds, eyes lighting up with glee when she spied a tear here and there. It only made her seem more like the personification of justice, and Miroku could no longer contain himself. Elbowing past those who were once men, he made his way to where the lady who ruled his heart was stationed.
"Marvelous," he said, cringing when his voice came out both too loud and too high. Coughing in what he hoped was a manly way, he applauded. "Simply fantastic."
His goddess didn't even look at him. "Kohaku," she called, "I'll leave the rest to you and the others."
Was she leaving? Already? When their love had only just begun to blossom? Heart full of agony at the thought of such a brutally sudden parting, Miroku grabbed her hand, feeling somewhat ridiculous when he realized his hands were small and soft while hers were large and callused. She was capable. He was…not. But why should that stop them?
"My lady," he purred in his best imitation of the troubadours and minstrels he'd seen employing their natural skills of seduction on the maids in his favorite bars. "Seeing you today has left me entirely speechless. Your eyes are like a sacred cow's and your scent is of ambergris."
Her brow raised. "What the hell is ambergris?"
For a second, he didn't respond, too stunned that she had spoken directly to him to realize that the words she'd given him required a response which she was now impatiently awaiting.
"Whale vomit."
Withdrawing her hand as swiftly as a striking snake, she slapped him across the face so hard he fell to his knees.
"Keep an eye on this one. He tried to get out of training earlier by faking a fainting spell and then came up and insulted me." Glaring down at him, she shook her head in disgust. "Whale vomit." And then she stomped off, returning to a place where he could not follow.
Miroku stared at her ass as long as he could, until it was just an arousing speck in the distance. Putting his hand to where her red handprint blessed his face, he felt his uninjured cheek heat in a blush. That woman, that leather goddess, was the one. No woman would ever compare to her.
"Who was that?" he murmured to the indistinct form next to him he hadn't bothered to look at, as insignificant to him as he himself was to his love.
"Sango. Sorry about that, she doesn't like to take it easy with the new recruits. Just so you don't embarrass yourself again, I'm telling you my sister is very off limits. The only women who are more dangerous to touch than she is are the prince's women, the queen, and the empress."
Miroku blinked rapidly, a multitude of feelings, mostly negative, running through him. The young boy, his lady's brother, spoke sympathetically even though his eyes held a wealth of mirth.
"Who is she? The prince's intended?"
The boy's mouth twisted in a frown. "No." The word was harsh, but then his voice softened again. "She's his shadow. The prince will probably release her sooner than later, but I still don't think you have a chance."
"Can you ask her to assign me to the prince's harem?"
He laughed, no doubt at the suddenly lascivious look on the pretend eunuch's face. "That's the fastest I've ever seen anyone fall out of infatuation."
The boy extended a hand to him and Miroku stumbled to his feet without its aid, embarrassed that he was still kneeling. What had he meant? Infatuation? Ridiculous! This was the purest love in the history of the world. But the harem was the harem.
"I'm Kohaku." The boy removed his mask and smiled, revealing freckles and a single dimple. It was a sweet face, a gentle face. Not a thing like his harshly beautiful sister's. "You're in my training squad. Welcome to hell."
O\o/O
There was one thing Kagome was grateful for in her hated imprisonment. The glowing orb that floated near the ceiling radiated enough light that shadows did not have the opportunity to exist in any corner. She supposed it was intended to do the opposite of comfort. Many people couldn't sleep with a light on and a continually bright windowless room must be maddening to some, but it was quite the opposite for her.
Nothing terrified her like the dark. Not even the thought of the terrible torture her captor would soon inflict on her was as scary as being alone in a dark room. She shivered just thinking about it and stared at the light until it temporarily blinded her, not wanting even the darkness behind her eyes to bring back that sick feeling of lonely, abandoned horror that always plagued her in the dark. Unless Kikyo was with her, as she had been on their escape, darkness would drive her to tears within seconds and the air was choking her but she gasped for it anyway and she'd scream and scream and scream and no one would come—
That dog didn't know it, but if he had left her without the light, he would have gotten what he wanted immediately.
She forced herself to stop thinking about it. Was this glowing orb magic? Some of her nurses had told her stories about magic. In Higurashi, the closest thing to magic that existed was the group of priestesses, that elite army of women with power in every bit of their being that, according to Kikyo, had been wiped out entirely.
A strange mix of emotions filled Kagome whenever she thought about it.
Priestesses weren't quite magic, at least not according to Kikyo and Kaede, who had attempted to educate her about them just enough so that she knew what the average person did and no more. Priestesses were gifted with the power of the great goddesses because they themselves were demi-goddesses, descended from the gods. Unless a girl of a priestess line proved herself unworthy, her powers would manifest by the time of her first moon flow, and even that was late.
But she was different, they said.
Her aura was weak. She had no power. It was a deformation so strikingly obvious to those able to sense it that from the time she was born it was known she would never manifest any power. When she was young, it hadn't bothered her at all. Kikyo's training was harsh and she had to go away all the time and do things she didn't want to do. Kagome would much rather be catered to like she had been as a princess. Sure, she wanted to get away and see the world and do things, but not at the price of the horrific scars that covered her sister's body. But for all her sister's and Kaede's kindnesses, there were a hundred whispers meant for her to overhear, a thousand barbs to her heart.
It's because she killed Queen, her own mother, while still in the shelter of her womb…
…just like the demons, awful, horrible, should have been killed…
The Queen is too kind for allowing her to live.
Kind? Nonsense. Weak. It's because of that demon calling herself a princess that this kingdom will fall, mark my words.
And so it was.
Kagome tried her best to hide what happened when Kikyo left the palace from her sister, but it had begun to wear on her. By and large, the perpetrators were priestesses. Arrogant. Mean. That's what came to mind when she thought of those women who wielded such fearsome power. Only Kikyo and Kaede were different. She knew it was wrong, knew she was awful, but there was a tiny part of her that felt gratified at the slaughter of those cruel women. They'd never fought to protect the kingdom, to protect the innocent people of Higurashi whom they looked down on almost as much as they looked down on Kagome, but fought to compete with one another, to see who was the strongest. In her mind, they were nearly as bad as the Inu.
Sighing, she stared at the globe again. She missed Kikyo. For a while, she'd tried screaming messages to her sister, hoping she would hear and they would rouse her and awaken the part of her that had been damaged by their capture. She'd said she was sorry. She'd said she loved her.
There was never even a whisper back.
The fact that everything from the murder of her own mother to the fall of their kingdom to their capture and enslavement was done by her hands left her angry, so angry at herself that she did little but cry now. It had been days since the dog had last visited her and she longed for him to come so that she would not have to face herself any longer. Would he kill her, she wondered, if she was very rebellious? Kagome didn't even know whether that would be a bad thing anymore.
"Kikyo," she whimpered, the tears starting anew. "No matter what, we'll see each other again. No matter what I have to do, we'll be together."
O\o/O
The three people gathered in the dungeon observation room stared at the girl with varying emotions. The guard in pity, the prince in confusion, and the shadow in boredom.
"She's just staring at the fucking observation orb. Do you think she's trying to blind herself?"
Sango sighed. "You left her alone for a long time. Maybe she lost it."
"It's not like she was all there before."
"Are you going in today, Prince?"
Inuyasha stared at the girl who was huddled in a corner, her head bowed on her knees and obscuring her face, but not before he noticed the tears that had started. Quickly, he turned away.
"Not today."
Sango wanted to roll her eyes but refrained from doing so in the presence of the guard. There was a certain image to maintain, after all. Fearless warriors devoted to their royal charges to the point of death had to show them a modicum of respect. At least in front of others. But the prince was wearing on her nerves. Every day, they came down to the dungeon and watched the girl. Every damn day. At first, she had been glad that Inuyasha didn't go in to see her. Good. Let the bitch suffer. The Higurashi scum had dared to raise a hand (foot, actually) to her prince time and again and showed no signs of learning her lesson. Weak in body and weak of mind yet she didn't even know it.
But gods above, if she had to come down here one more fucking time and watch her prince watch the girl cry into her overflowing chamber pot, she was going to lose it.
It was boring. It was depressing. But most of all, it was infuriating.
Every day. He stared at her every day, sometimes distractedly commenting, like they were watching a theater show, but most of the time staying silent. What was it about the girl that so fascinated her prince, her love? She was just some maid from Higurashi. And she wasn't even his type!
The limbo of his voyeurism was worse than the hell of jealousy she felt when watching him with his other women.
"My prince, it's been far too long. Perhaps the slave has forgotten why she resisted you and is ready to join the harem."
Barely glancing at her, he frowned and watched the orb again. "All she does is curl up and cry. I thought she had more fight in her."
Was that what he wanted? It was hard to keep from frowning. "Then go in there and remind the bitch who took her freedom. Prod at her enough and she'll be clawing at you again in no time." In a way, the girl reminded her of the prince, though it pained her to say it. The two of them were so stubborn to the point of being almost stupid. A word or even just his appearance would probably have the girl screaming and biting and generally being a nuisance again.
His golden eyes flickered like candlelight but she knew the will behind them burned much greater. "Let's go." He gave the order that the guard turn off the observation orb. No need for him to see things that would only cause trouble.
This time when they opened the door, she didn't come flying at them like a bat out of hell. She stayed curled in the corner, her naked form shivering in the cold under the thin blanket that did precious little but make her itchy. She had broken her cot during one of her many frightening tantrums and so had to sleep on the freezing stone floor. It was a miracle that she wasn't deathly ill. Yet.
Inuyasha stood in the center of the room, surveying it like he hadn't been watching her closely every single day for hours upon hours. Finally, his gaze flicked back to her.
"Hey."
Kagome hid her face behind her hands, drying her eyes with the heels of her palms. "What do you want?" Her voice was full of tears like a child just getting over scraping their knee.
"To see your face. Show it to me."
Surprisingly, she obeyed, curling her hands into fists at her side and glaring at him, the irritated redness surrounding her eyes emphasizing how very blue her irises were. For a minute, Inuyasha just looked at her, absorbing the hatred in her gaze, taking that energy and feeding off of it.
"Do you like it down here?"
She snorted and lowered her head to her knees again, but not before they caught a glimpse of her renewed tears.
"What sane person would? I hate it! The only thing I hate more is you."
Before Sango could even blink, he had her dangling in the air by her hair. The girl was too shocked to cry out, too shocked to move. She only stared, her brilliant eyes wide and almost awed, meeting his own for the first time that day. His grip tightened slightly and she whimpered, and that was what brought him back to himself. As quickly as he had grabbed her, he threw her down again, and she landed on the hard floor with nothing to break her fall. Sango winced in automatic sympathy.
Before she could right herself, Inuyasha grabbed her hand and put her palm against the crotch of his gleaming white trousers that only made the room seem that much more dingy and impoverished.
"Take it out," he whispered. There was something in his eyes she had never seen before. A wildness, a desperation, a darkness. His impending forced marriage was taking such a toll on him.
As though under a spell, Kagome became an obedient slave. With an almost touching gentleness, she popped open his buttons and slipped through the seams of his underclothes until she removed his manhood from its hiding place and brought it out into the light. Sango didn't know whether the pink in the girl's cheeks was from a maidenly modesty, humiliation, lust, or fever. Maybe all together.
"Do you know what I want to do with this?" His cock twitched in her small hand, stimulated even though she wasn't even gripping him, wasn't even holding or caressing him, just allowing him to lie there in her palm.
For the space of a few heartbeats, she didn't say a word. Then her eyes, again filling with tears, turned up to meet his. "Hurt me." Her voice was so small, so soft, so close to suffocated.
Inuyasha slapped her hand away and sneered. "Idiot. You have no idea how good you could have it if only you'd cooperate."
"Oh, so I'm an idiot for not wanting you to torture me for your own pleasure!?"
She tried to get to her feet, but that was when Inuyasha shot back with, "Just listen to me for once, you stupid bitch!"
Immediately, Kagome went to her knees and opened her mouth. With Inuyasha displayed the way he was, it was obvious that the girl was frightened ten times over.
"Fuck, I shoulda picked a different word," he muttered. Quickly putting himself away, he crossed his arms and glared down at Kagome until the spell wore off and she scurried away from him as far as she could get in the tiny room, wrinkling her nose in disgust when as far as she could get turned out to be right next to the chamber pot.
"What?" she hissed at him. "Haven't you had enough fun humiliating me today?"
"I don't get you." Strolling over to where she was huddled, he towered above her, looking every inch the empire's hero in his shining white tunic and breeches threaded with gold and his scarlet fire rat cape. The songs didn't do him justice. "All of this would go away if you just sucked me off. Then you'd get a nice room in the harem. I'd come see you again and relieve you of your virginity and then we can really start having fun together. I know you'd like it. I can always tell when a bitch—" resentfully, she rose to her knees again, "—is dying for a good fuck."
When the spell wore off, she stayed in that position for a second, and even Sango thought she might actually be considering it, but that same glint that was present in Inuyasha's eyes manifested in hers to a more innocent degree, and she smiled, blinding the both of them with how pretty she could be when she tried, and promptly knocked the chamber pot onto the hero prince's leather boots.
As full of unmentionable things as it was, the chamber pot didn't just empty onto the boots and the floor. No, that would have been too easy. As it was, the slave and her master were both at the perfect position to turn the tables on humiliation. The pot's contents sloshed inside the top of his boots, soaking his trousers and his feet, irreparably staining the clothes worth more than the entirety of her kingdom. Sango gaped at the girl. Fuck, but she was going to be in big trouble.
Inuyasha swayed on his feet. The smell of it reminded him of that terrible day in Higurashi, the day that was supposed to be full of glory, the day that was supposed to be added on to one of the many ballads that sung his praises throughout every corner of the Inu empire on which the sun never set. His hands clenched into fists, claws piercing his own skin and drawing blood. Not even the thick-headed slave girl was oblivious to the tension, to how her very life depended on the whim of the man she had just insulted in the highest degree.
Inuyasha laughed.
The shadow winced. While she loved her prince, there were some things about him that she would have changed if she only could. Like his laugh. He never laughed in happiness like others. Honestly, sometimes she doubted he ever even felt joy. There was only working at victory and then moving on to the next one, hardly ever resting unless on the point of exhaustion or wounded nearly to death. When he laughed, if it wasn't one of his false court laughs, it was mean. It was mocking. It meant danger.
"Sango, hit her. Open palm. This one's not used to it, remember."
Kagome scrambled to her feet, trying to get away, but there was no way someone like her with no training could even think to get past Sango. Grabbing the struggling slave by the hair to keep her still, she threw her to the ground. Sango hit her just hard enough that her pretty face would bruise, leaving her with a lasting reminder of the prince's mercy.
"Again. Just as hard."
She obeyed, trying to keep her face like a stone even as she felt the girl's hot tears scald the skin of her hand. Somehow, this was different from the other times. The other girls had fallen in line much sooner with much less persuasion. They were still at the first step, not even the first step, the prologue to Inuyasha's game. Usually, it never lasted longer than a few days. The other women knew how to play, but this one didn't even see it was a game. She was in fear for her life, though she tried to be brave.
"Now tie her up and sit her down while I wash this shit offa me." Inuyasha didn't look at the slave, didn't look at anything but his dirty boots and pant legs as he left the room.
The rope from one of her many hidden pockets was usually used to scale walls and miscellaneous other tasks. It wasn't silk, like the prince normally used in his bedroom games. It would rasp against the girl's skin and cut through it when she would undoubtedly try to struggle and get away even when she knew it was hopeless. Sighing, she made a quick job of it, helped by the slave's limp compliance as she cried like she was the only person in the world who had ever suffered.
"Stop that," Sango barked once she was finished. "He hasn't even done anything to you and you're acting like it's the end of the world."
The girl glared at her through her disheveled black hair. "Hasn't done anything? What hasn't he done!?" She was working herself up again and her temper was back to an inferno. "He killed my people without provocation, stole me, stole my sister, and keeps us locked in the dungeon while he tries to make whores of us!"
Sango raised a brow. Without provocation? Really, this one must not have paid attention to politics at all if she missed something as big as the reason why the Inu bothered attacking the isolated barbarians. The real reason was kept hush-hush, but rumors still abounded. However, that didn't matter now. The war was over and soon the pockets of resistance would be put down as well. It would have gone faster had the prince been allowed to stay at the front, but apparently marrying him off to some random bimbo was more important than the honor of the empire— And now she was angry, too. Great.
"Inuyasha is a good master. The sooner you play along, the sooner you can get out of this godforsaken hole and see your sister again."
"I would never obey in the first place, and aside from that, I wouldn't come back down here just to be used as a tool to get my sister to submit. Never!"
It was hard to keep from smiling. "Your sister has been comfortable in the harem for a long time now."
The horror on the girl's face was something Sango had previously only witnessed during battle, when she'd cut a man's guts out and he looked down and realized that it was over, that he would be dead before he hit the ground. That split second of realization was drawn out in the girl's case. Her skin paled like it had been completely drained of blood, even her lips lost their rosiness. Sweat broke out on her forehead and her hands shook, every part of her was shaking.
Kagome couldn't think. It had to be a lie. Of course it was a lie. It was one of the dog's dreadful lies to get her to be his whore. Maybe he suspected who they were. Maybe they were torturing Kikyo somewhere far away and decided to mess with her head to get her to talk. But the dog didn't seem like a liar. He was too stupid for that. If he'd had any inkling of who they were, he would have used his or his shadow's fists to force it out of her. Which meant that maybe his guard was telling the truth. Kikyo was in the harem. She had obeyed.
But why?
It made her sick when she thought of how Kikyo had looked when they were captured. There had been something wrong with her, something different ever since they had run, but it wasn't until they awoke to the darkness of the slaver basement that she had seemed truly broken. Sometimes that happened to warriors. A part of their soul fled and they were no longer who they once were. To her knowledge it had never happened to a priestess. Kikyo was stronger than some mere soldier, than even a mere priestess. She was Queen, she was all the Queens, and would be until her daughter consumed her ashes after her death.
There was no way she would just give up.
Color came back to her cheeks and she nearly laughed aloud. It was stupid of her to worry. Kikyo was so much smarter than her, so much better at everything. The guard had said it was a game, right? Then Kikyo was just playing along. Strategizing. Kikyo was going to get them out of here. All Kagome had to do was be patient and her sister would rescue her soon enough. The dogs didn't stand a chance. Everything that Kagome had done to get them into this nightmare, Kikyo would undo.
The dog returned, shirtless and with a new pair of trousers. He grimaced down at where she sat far too close for anyone's liking to the spilled mess. Courage rekindled, Kagome smiled innocently up at him, stuffing her mischief away for the day. Assured that Kikyo had a plan and was one step closer to winning their freedom and therefore their kingdom back, she was in too good a mood to fight more than was absolutely necessary.
"Ready the room at the end of the hall, Sango."
The shadow looked at him askance. At the end of the hall was the best room in the dungeon, better even than her sister, who had been nothing but obedient, had been given. Whatever he was up to, she was sure it would only make things worse, and she felt relieved as she left the cell.
Inuyasha stared down at Kagome, face full of a slightly resentful curiosity, head cocked to the side. The slave shifted uncomfortably and refused to look at him. For the first time, he reminded her of a puppy and not the rabid slavering dog of war her nurses had painted nightmare pictures of.
"I don't get you," he repeated. "Free women would give all they have to be where you are now. I've had queens and princesses and wealthy merchant's wives and daughters beg me to take them and make them my slaves. But I never do and I never will." He crouched down. "Rich girls aren't fun. There's not enough inside them to break or even tame."
Kagome just kept smiling. If he only knew. But then again, the dungeons of this place were like the finest rooms back in the castle. Perhaps she wasn't a rich girl. Not like she had thought. And the gods knew she had never been a proper princess. The whole world was different from Higurashi. She was different.
"This room is probably a palace to you, though, coming from Higurashi. Shit and all." He stood up. The meanness was back, the puppy was gone. It made it worse that it was almost true. "I know that you hate me, and that's fine. I hate you and all your kind, too." His eyes glared down like noonday suns and she believed it. "But look at everything I've given you. I've never really hurt you, never really punished you even though I want to. Would you rather have been sold to a brothel than the generous prince of Inu?"
"Yes!" Kagome blurted out, sick of his arrogance. "At least there I'd be better than a whore. Even if I did have to make soup all day and sleep in the kitchens."
Inuyasha gaped at her. Kagome looked back up at him, lips fixed stubbornly. Finally, he began to laugh. It was loud and ridiculous, almost like shouting, rough and even a little musical. It was a kind of laugh she had never heard before, one that made her want to join in, but since she knew he was laughing at her she would fight that urge.
"Fucking unbelievable," he whispered to himself, wiping a stray tear from his eye and snorting a laugh again. "A whore and a jester in one. What a bargain." Inuyasha was sure he would never be able to hand her off to some disgusting old courtier like he had planned before. The bitch had just given him a glimpse inside a kind of innocence that could never exist in the whole of Inu. Everything would be so perfect. All he had to do was take a different approach.
"What are you laughing at?" she almost whined, never sounding more like a little sister. Poor Kikyo, the things she must have had to deal with. "What's the joke?"
"You, you idiot." His words were harsh but the way he said them was soft, and his face was lit from within. There was something there. Delight. He was delighting in her.
While she lost herself staring at—studying, she told herself—the dog, he took advantage of the moment to grab her by the wrists and ankles and heave her over his shoulders, like a shepherd carrying a lost lamb. It was skin on skin and for the first time in so long, Kagome was warm.
"How do you think babies are made?" he asked, taking her to a room finer than her own back in Higurashi, bigger, too. There was a giant fireplace, but to her disappointment, it was unlit and empty. At least there was another magic orb. As long as she had that friendly light and her faith in Kikyo, she could endure. He lowered her down to the floor and she realized he expected an answer to his embarrassing question. Both he and his guard were looking at her, him in amusement, and she in poorly disguised boredom.
She blushed. Kikyo had explained marital duties to her before, but recounting them in front of strangers, especially these, was torture in itself. Kagome reminded herself that her sister had a plan and she was going to get them out of this, but she had to be an asset to her and not make any trouble, no matter how much she wanted to. Eyes focused on her feet, she touched her tongue to her lower lip, missing completely the way her master's eyes tracked the movement with animal focus.
"Um, when a man and a woman are married, they, um, go to bed without their—no clothes. And he takes her in his arms," she had imagined this part countless times with Hojo and still wasn't yet desensitized enough to the image to make it bearable, "and they kiss each other and say their prayers and then if the gods are pleased they will have babies growing in the garden."
The guard and the dog shared a look, him in amusement and her in what looked like shock.
"The duty and burden of the Inu is to educate the ignorant, isn't it, Sango?"
She nodded, but glanced at Kagome, looking a little apprehensive, unsure. "Has she agreed, then?"
He shot the dirty slave on the ground a disgusted look. "Like I'd even try it when she looks like that."
"Hey, it's your fault I look like this at all!" She wanted him not to touch her, but not for something like him finding her disgusting. That was just hurtful.
The prince of dogs continued like her obvious offense had never been voiced. "Nah, we're gonna give her a different kind of lesson. So she sees and begins to understand. Some of that innocence is going to have to go."
"What do you—"
Inuyasha interrupted Sango with a hard kiss to the mouth. His hands expertly undressed her, peeling the tight leather from her body as they had thousands of times before. Through slitted eyes, he watched the reaction of the slave on the ground. Kagome stared at the two of them, absolutely and completely stunned. To his gratification, she stared openly and didn't even look away once, too astonished to remember her prissy little bitch attempts at clinging to propriety.
Swift action of the two of them pushed away his shadow's underclothes. Inuyasha decided to make this extra good for her. Maybe then the bitch would have a slight comprehension of just what it was she was missing out on. Lowering Sango to the ground next to Kagome, he bent her over on hands and knees right in front of his slave's face.
"This," he began, spreading Sango's thighs apart, "is a pussy. It's what you are to use to please me. If you're good, I know how to make it sing for you." To demonstrate, he ran his claws gently over Sango's outer lips before dipping his fingers in, first shallow and then deeper, a steady pumping, occasionally brushing over her clit with the pad of his thumb. She moaned, if a little theatrically, understanding the objective wasn't just getting her or him off but getting the slave curious about the erotic dance they were about to perform.
"Tell Kagome how it feels, Sango."
Her legs were trembling and there was no acting there. "I-it's like an ocean of warmth is spreading throughout my every part. Everything feels good, so good, better than anything. I can't... I can't control my—" She cried out and collapsed onto her elbows, face pressed into the rug as she rode out her orgasm.
While Sango continued to twitch and whimper on the floor, Inuyasha hovered over Kagome. He made it very obvious he was taking his time removing his pants, wanting her to look at him, to make the sight of him familiar to her very virginal eyes. What made it all that much more awful for her was that for some strange reason she wanted to look at him. Never had she seen a man's body before. There were a few times she'd tried with Hojo, naturally being curious about that sort of thing, but he possessed a kind of maidenly modesty that made her wonder if the rumors of his family being so thoroughly inbred that he had a twin embedded in his torso were true.
The dog should have disgusted her. Those sculpted muscles and that golden skin should have made her want to retch in panic, in fear. Instead, her fingers itched to touch him like they had always itched to touch every beautiful thing she had ever seen, every work of art or nature that had made her nurses say over and over again, "Look with your eyes, not your hands, princess". Kagome tried to force herself to feel hatred when she looked at him, but all she felt inside was a vague feeling that she'd experienced a few times in dreams, that misty little tickling sensation in the pit of her stomach, in the core of her, that evaporated with the sun. That feeling was something she had been rather fond of and had looked forward to eagerly, sensing something beyond it that would answer some question she hadn't even known she'd been asking. And now he had ruined it. Not realizing she was pouting, she stared determinedly at the wall, missing completely the way he smirked at the back of her head.
Inuyasha could feel that everything was about to get much easier. Her eyes, those summer skies free of clouds, had been drinking him in, too innocent to know of the invitation she was sending him. His nose was almost as good as one of the most powerful full demon's, but even a regular dog couldn't have missed the tantalizing aroma she began to produce when he'd given her a look at what she didn't even know she wanted.
"You'll be more familiar with this soon enough," Inuyasha said, drawing her attention back to him. His thick length twitched when her gaze fell on it and he stroked himself to the sight of her flaming face. "Pay attention. This is a cock." Sango was still on the ground in the same position in which he had left her, recovered now but waiting for him to take the next step. Kneeling behind her, the prince made sure his pupil would see everything. "Your sister is a liar. This is how babies are made, Ka-Go-Me." With each syllable of her name, he thrust himself a little further inside Sango.
Kagome's wide eyes were stuck on the place where the half-demon and human were joined together. He was stabbing her, his ally, with that thing, with his cock. It was invasive and she shuddered in phantom pain, unable to keep herself from imagining it. But his guard didn't scream in pain or even grunt in discomfort. Instead, she moaned like before, long and low, and moved back against him, bringing a hand up to her breast and pulling at her hard nipple. The former princess suddenly had a strong desire to do that same thing to herself. Never before had she touched there, not even when alone, and whenever a servant bathed her they avoided the area. What would it feel like? Good, like how Sango made it look?
"You see, Kagome," Inuyasha continued, pleasure evident in his voice. "It doesn't hurt. I wouldn't hurt you with this. Any pain I inflict on my women is pleasure disguised." His hips began to move faster, settling into a hypnotic rhythm that Kagome couldn't help but to follow. There was something about the way he moved that denoted skill, even to her novice gaze. In the place between her thighs the dream feeling intensified to a state she hadn't even known it could ascend to, and soon she felt threads of fire wind their way through her veins, all coming from that very spot.
The prince brought his shadow up against his chest, one hand on her hip and the other at her breast, the claws puckering her skin. Sango's face was a bright pink and there was a mad kind of light in his eyes. For the first time, Kagome fully comprehended that this was an experience she had no idea of. It was the first true mystery she had ever come close to. What they were doing, what they were feeling, was so completely foreign and alien to her that it seemed almost unreal.
Always curious, she wanted to know.
"When I come," Inuyasha said, his voice low and gravelly, "my seed shoots up to her insides and could take root in her stomach. That is how life begins. That's why I make you drink the tea."
Now that she knew what was involved, the idea of having his child, of him violently planting it inside her, made her cringe in fear. If she hadn't been tied up, she liked to think she would have tried to run away, but the truth was their act of coupling had so captivated her that she had even forgotten she was a slave.
Close, so close to his climax, Inuyasha looked at the concentrated expression on Kagome's face. What an eager student. A naked, eager student. Knowing what he needed to push him over the edge, he grabbed for her and brought her face to his, his hand behind her neck. Before she knew what was happening, he pressed his lips to hers, thrusting his tongue into her gasping mouth. With a moan, it was suddenly over, and he spilled himself inside Sango, keeping his mouth on his slave's the entire time, the kiss going from frenzied to exploring, sucking on her pink candy lips.
With a small scream, Kagome finally pulled herself away, flinging herself as far as she could from the still attached couple. Her heart was beating faster than it had even on the run from Higurashi, and her lips were pulsing along with it.
Her first kiss.
Such a man had given her her very first kiss.
And while doing such a thing!
She wanted to cover her mouth, to rub away the shame, the brand of his saliva, the warmth that still radiated, but her hands were still tied behind her, bending her body in a way that displayed her, that thrust her breasts with her suddenly aching hard nipples out in front.
Inuyasha laughed and disengaged himself from Sango, sitting back on his heels. A kiss had unsettled her to that degree. She almost looked concussed. How had something as small as that shaken her up and not when he had been fooling around with her pussy and spanking her on the carriage ride over? He supposed the adrenaline was a factor. And she probably hadn't even known what was happening before. But now she knew. He'd seen to that.
"Come here, bitch."
To her horror and astonishment, the body that she'd thought to be almost thoroughly immobile found a way to humiliate her further. Like a worm, she inched along the ground, dragging herself using muscles she didn't even know she had until she was kneeling in front of her captor, mouth wide open like an eager dog waiting for a treat.
Kagome expected it to end there. She expected him to be satisfied with embarrassing her.
Inuyasha stared at her for a second, as though considering, and without even a change in his expression to warn her, forced his cock inside her mouth.
She wanted to scream, wanted to run, but she couldn't. Her body wouldn't. Practically vibrating with the force of his command and her lingering arousal and her desperate need to get away, she felt like she would pass out or explode or both.
"Clean my cock, bitch."
Kagome wouldn't cry. It would only make him laugh at her and torture her worse. And there was Kikyo's plan. She couldn't ruin Kikyo's plan after she'd already unknowingly performed the greatest betrayal and gotten them both into this awful situation. There was only one thing she could do.
Obey.
So she tried to distract herself, to fill her head with words so she wouldn't hear the taunting ones he would undoubtedly throw at her. His slimy thing was hot in her mouth, burning hot, and it moved inside her. Salty and foul. She tried to think of cotton candy, to think of Hojo, who would never have done this to her. But the reality was too frightening and therefore strong, her mind was too present to fly away somewhere nice and comforting.
Completely oblivious to the panic of the girl sucking his dick, Inuyasha was enjoying the sight of her humbling herself and performing what would soon become a regular duty of hers. By the end of the night, she'd be cleaning her own virgin blood and juices off his cock. The triumph was exhilarating. It was like winning the war all over again.
"No teeth, bitch. Just put that big mouth of yours to good use for once."
Something snapped in Kagome at that. There was no need for him to use the word on her again. Wasn't she already obeying? Hadn't she already lowered herself enough? Against her will, she looked up and met his eyes, saw his smirking contentment.
Kagome bit down until her canines touched.
The world was chaos after that. Someone, she supposed it was Sango since she didn't think Inuyasha would have been so gentle as to merely throw her hard against the wall insteasd of through it, removed her from her prey. There was screaming, she thought she heard Sango crying. Maybe a guard tried to come into the room, maybe not, but there were footsteps and someone knocked on the door, yelling for the prince.
"You fucking—" he roared, cutting himself off. It was obvious what he was going to say, what he had not been able to say.
Kagome just smiled, licking his blood from her lips. That she would swallow willingly.
Already, the blood had stopped flowing and he was almost entirely well again. It had been a brief victory, but she knew she would have done it a thousand times over given the chance. Inuyasha was glaring at her, murder in his eyes as his devoted shadow tried to wipe his cock clean of blood and slave spit.
"You—" His eye twitched and she could see his fingers flexing. He lied. He did want to hurt her. Badly. "You fucking cunt."
The slave just stayed tied on the ground, more comfortable there than she had been submitting to him. Inuyasha was beyond mad. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and to have a fucking slave, a fucking Higurashi slave, inflict harm on him not once, not twice, but how many times now? Fuck, he'd have trouble admitting to one, but he'd lost track of how many times she'd drawn blood. Bitterly, he recounted how the first time she'd wounded him had been before he'd even bought her. It was what made him sure he would buy her no matter the price.
Inuyasha had bought her in order to punish her.
It was important to keep that in mind. While he wanted—desperately—to have the two sisters become his willing whores, that was obviously going to take some more time, at least with the younger one. Soon, he'd pay a visit to the older one, see how she was faring, if she'd decided to stop being an ice queen yet. Maybe tell her about her sister's rebellions. Perhaps that would bring some life to her eyes.
"Hit her, Sango. With a fist."
"Yes, my prince." It was obvious from her voice that she would have done so even if he had not commanded it.
Even though Kagome had braced herself for it, had expected it, she still couldn't hold back the cry of pain that left her when the slayer's knuckles met her face. But she wouldn't cry, she promised herself, promised the image of Kikyo she held in her mind. She was done crying. The dog grabbed her by the collar and she was so spent from everything that she couldn't even muster the energy to spit in his stupid face.
And he untied her.
That was the most confusing thing he could have done. Kagome didn't know how to respond. Should she thank him? Was he expecting her to try and run again? What was going on? But before her mind could settle on any of the options that went running through her brain, he encircled her neck with a single hand, putting pressure on her throat, cutting her air off. A wave of some sort of power ran through her and she shuddered not altogether unpleasantly.
"Time for you to listen, bitch."
At the hated word, she assumed the position, and it was so, so hard to keep her promise and not cry.
Inuyasha crossed his arms and glared at her, forcing a smirk on his face when all he wanted to do was what he always promised himself he wouldn't and make her beg for him to stop, to be merciful.
"I've tweaked your collar a little. From now on, you can't leave the position until I decide you can. So you won't be moving from that spot until I have a break in my very busy schedule and I remember that you're down here rotting away, longing to apologize."
A groan of distress was the only thing she could communicate.
"Good," he murmured. "You finally understand. Unlike your last cell, here you will be surrounded by luxury, or at least what would pass for luxury in a shithole like Higurashi, but you won't be able to enjoy any of it. Not until you make it up to me, and it's gonna have to be something really good for me to forgive your previous actions."
The slave looked at him pleadingly, but that stubbornness still lurked within the blue flame of her iris. What a brat, he thought, ignoring the unintelligible sounds she made as he left the room with Sango. She thought she could get anything she wanted just by fluttering her eyelashes and saying please. The bitch must have been the worst fucking maid in the world.
"We'll come back tomorrow," he said as soon as they were on the steps leading them out of the dungeon. "A night like that should put her in a more agreeable mood."
"Whatever you say." Sango thought they should just abandon the girl in a brothel. Then she'd see what was truly to be feared.
"Don't be like that. You know the difficult ones are always the best in the end."
What did that make her, Sango wondered, she who had given in to him practically the first time they were alone together.
O\o/O
As always, she was picking flowers. It wasn't that it was her favorite pastime or anything (she much preferred reading fairy stories and embroidery), it was just that it was one of the only places in the entirety of the palace that she was allowed to be alone and free, largely unobserved by anyone but her lord.
Just as the thought of her lord occurred to her, she felt a presence behind her. Was he visiting her so early? What a rare treat!
Instead of her lord standing there, it was the empress.
There was a new face among her ladies in waiting, and the empress was chatting with her, giving her a tour. Many people liked to view the gardens, but they could only fully enter them at the express invitation of the crown prince.
"This is perhaps the most beautiful thing in the entirety of Inu," InuKimi said, fangs glinting in her smile. "Other than the queen, of course."
The new lady in waiting was soaking up the scenery eagerly. "Just seeing this beauty soothes my soul."
"Indeed. After all, it is the work of my son. Sesshomaru is poised to be the greatest emperor in Inu history. There is nothing he can't accomplish."
Rin nodded enthusiastically, not caring she wasn't part of the conversation. Anything to do with her lord was important to her, and if someone was praising him, she could only join in. Unfortunately, the movement brought her to their attention.
InuKimi glanced at her sharply and she immediately cringed as though struck. Rin didn't remember much of her old life before her lord had given her a new one, but what stuck with her from those times was what it was like to be hurt. That animal look in the empress' eyes was a familiar one, one that spoke loudly of wanting to cause harm. Inukimi wasn't quick enough to hide that look from someone who knew it as well as Rin did. The girl fixed a smile on her face anyway. It was made easier by the realization that the empress had never looked more like a dog than right at that moment, though a guard dog about to turn on its owner's favorite pet rabbit.
Rising to her feet as gracefully as she could, Rin bowed at the waist to the empress and her companions, a form of respect she had never even shown her lord. InuKimi whipped her fan out from her sleeve and fluttered it rapidly, tittering.
"Just like a real lady. Isn't it marvelous?"
The new girl smiled kindly at Rin. "What is your family name, my lady? I thought I did my research and knew everyone; I apologize."
The bold smile stayed fixed on her face and she was proud that it didn't even tremble at the corners. "I have none."
The lady in waiting was very obviously confused, for who didn't have a family name and yet dressed in such finery, freely walking and lingering about one of the most exclusive parts of the emperor's own palace?
"My dear, you mustn't address her as 'lady' anything. She is just called Rin. My son is very cruel, I fear. He finds it amusing to dress a common-born orphan like a princess and parade her in front of the court." The mocking gleam never left her eye, but now it mingled with pride. "This form of brutality demonstrates he will be a most fearsome emperor, and so I allow it. Now come along, my lovely daughter-in-law is waiting with tea."
Now that the lady in waiting, most likely some princess from a conquered kingdom given in tribute, herself little more than a pampered hostage, knew she was no one worth knowing, she didn't spare her another look, trotting along and chatting merrily with the empress and the other ladies.
Rin was furniture.
Worse than furniture, she was the dirt in the garden. Surrounded by beautiful things and continually trampled on by them, flowers sticking their raping roots inside her and sucking out everything beautiful that lived within herself, everything she had worth giving, everything she wanted to give to—
"How can there be this level of gloom in such a paradise?"
Shocked, Rin turned around. She hadn't sensed anyone's presence, and she was always very attuned to that sort of thing. She had to be to survive. You could take the orphan out of the woods, but you couldn't take the woods out of the orphan.
Turning pale as she realized who it was that had addressed her, she bowed to Naraku, her lord's father-in-law, Kagura's powerful father.
Rin didn't know much about the man, only that he annoyed her lord and had risen to a very powerful position in an appallingly short time. And his daughter hated him more than anyone, even more than her. The orphan girl had never spoken to him, she had only seen him from afar, and still he frightened her.
He continued, "InuKimi is so horrible to you, my dear."
Too shocked to respond at first, she just gaped at him. He had dared to use the empress' given name! Calming herself internally, she supposed that since she was ignorant of court matters, perhaps he was of a station even higher than she had thought and had somehow earned that privilege. After all, he would be the grandfather of the next king. That is, if Sesshomaru and Kagura's union bore fruit one of these days.
"The glorious empress has been more than generous with one such as I, my lord," she said quaveringly. "Only her son is more magnanimous than she."
Naraku picked one of the flowers she had been toying with before her humiliation. "Is it generosity to give a life to one whose natural life they ruined? You are not the debtor, my dear. They are."
Outrage finally enabled her to look him straight in his bloodless, narrow face. "My lord saved me. Someone of his stature deigned to worry about a feral starving orphan girl whose people defied him when he himself was dying. I am proud to serve him."
The emperor's most trusted advisor merely smirked. "You would not have been orphaned at all had the Inu not been so concentrated on their needless expansion."
Rin paused. She had never thought of it like that, and therefore had nothing to say in response. Her father and seven brothers had all died in the wars, every one of them, even Haruto, who had been only two years her senior. It had never occurred to her to resent the Inu for it. Like Sesshomaru told her, the Inu did not conquer simply to conquer. They expanded their borders to bring knowledge and equality to the rest of the world. Tribute and glory in war had nothing to do with it.
"You're thinking it would be better for other kingdoms to be under Inu rule than their own, aren't you?" He laughed, and the sound made the sun feel far away, even as high as they were in the clouds. "A pity. You've been thoroughly brainwashed. But would it really be better for your mother to be dead under Inu rule than alive under your own king's?"
"My lord is waiting. I must go. It is time to dress for dinner." Her words came out stilted, hollow. Like she was in a dream.
That smirk again. "If you ever get tired of being between worlds, commoner princess, then tell my daughter you wish to pay me a greeting. I know well how you two are...close."
And he vanished. Just like that. Dark tendrils of smoke that smelled like a crypt flew past her and back into the palace.
Rin continued to stand there in the garden. The flowers looked harsh now, no longer her familiar happy friends. She dropped the few she had secreted away in a pocket of her dress. She had intended to use them for her lord's table tonight, something she always did.
The garden had been violated.
The last pure place she could go to had been defiled.
All she could do was stare at the fallen flowers.
"Why are you lingering here, Rin? You have made me wait altogether too long already."
Rin blinked for what felt like the first time in hours. Had it been hours? It must be, since her lord was here now. How had she not felt his arrival? It was a great source of pride for her that she always knew when her lord was nearby. It occurred to her that she had been violated, too, in a new and different way.
Somehow, she found a smile. "I'm sorry, my lord. The flowers are so... They were so beautiful today."
He saw through her attempt at hiding her anguish immediately. Golden eyes boring into her own, he cupped her face with his only hand, his precious hand. She shivered, trying to force away the feelings that had been assaulting her more often at late. Sometimes, the way he looked at her made her... Well, it was distracting.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, my lord! I am sorry to have kept you waiting. You must be starving." There was no helping it. Her voice was too cheerful, even for her.
His brow furrowed. "It was Mother, wasn't it? What did she say to you this time?"
Rin couldn't hide from him, not her wonderful lord. Putting her hand over his, she smiled, showing him a glimpse of her sorrow. "No matter what, my lord, I am grateful to be here. Please, I don't think I can eat too much, but I am hungry to hear about your day."
Sesshomaru gave her one last thorough look before he wiped the worry off his face. Taking her by the arm, just like he would a real lady, just like he never did with his wife, he led her to his private dining room. Warmth reentered her soul little by little and she leaned into him, her head on his arm, knowing she would have to wait until later to cry since his gaze was still sharp on her face, though this time in bits of glances. He spoke normally to her even though he knew something was very, very wrong.
Note: HOLY CRAP I AM SO DAMN SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. I honestly intended to update in October, but that just didn't work, and then I was like "surely by Christmas! And with a special Christmas one shot too!" But NOPE (I'm saving it for this year, 2018). And then I was like "before I go back to school, I'll definitely update", but you guessed it, NOPE. And then I arrived here in lovely Österreich and I was like finally, I can breathe again and I don't have my family demanding every second of my time and I have a few days before the semester starts and I can finish up that chapter and I FORGOT MY FUCKING LAPTOP CHARGER. I am so mad at me. But here we are. Updates will be probably nonexistent until summer because I'm still working on my thesis; I just wanted to assure you all that I'm still alive and there's still so much left to this story and it will be awesome and I'm so glad you're on this journey with me. That said, if this sounds rushed, that's because it is.
And if any of you are Austrian (I do get a few readers from there occasionally, or maybe it's just people traveling or using their VPN), I love you and I'm grateful to be hosted here in this beautiful fairytale country of yours and I promise I won't overstay my visa and be all sneaky and live here even though I kinda wanna (and I would if you guys didn't put corn on pizza like wtf).
Also, Strictly Taboo has passed 100k views. HUZZAH! I didn't even notice, fam, and now we're on our way to 150k. STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM AND NOW WE'RE KINDA STILL AT THE BOTTOM BUT IT'S OKAY 'CAUSE WE'RE TOGETHER HERE!