He wasn't the kind of knight told of in tales. The holy hero who would fight for the right and his lady and his lord and his Lord. No, Inuyasha was of the sort who fought and earned and came to collect.

And she owed him big time.

The walk to her tower room was lonely and unhurried. His steps echoed in the stone stairwell, and maybe he emphasized it by not removing his spurs. It was delicious to imagine her heart beating rapidly in her breast as her ears strained to hear him. How she'd count his steps in a panic. Pray for help to come.

But help would not arrive. She should know that; asking for help was how she got herself into this damn mess in the first place.

Inuyasha knocked on the rickety wooden door to announce his presence rather than ask permission to enter. The fact that it was still intact wiped away any hesitance that could have possibly still remained in him. She could have fought. Tried to break out. Likely succeeded. But instead she had waited. For him.

"Come in," she called.

The door hadn't even been locked. Those treacherous servants, he surmised. She sat there, dark head bowed as though praying over a circlet of embroidery. All in an attempt to appear calm, cool, and unaffected. But anyone could see she had just stabbed the needle into the cloth over and over and there was no pattern to be found.

"Kagome," he said, leaving out her title. He didn't even bother to remove his helmet, let alone kneel. "I've returned successful. Time to collect my due."

Those big dark eyes remained on the hoop even as she set it aside. Avoiding him, avoiding this. Typical. His lip curled somewhere between a sneer and a smirk.

"I was thinking," she said, just a little too quickly. "What need have you of me? Now that the deed is done, you are free to rule as you wish. The military is yours. The people are far fonder of their champion than they are of a disgraced royal house. If you were to have anything to do with me, you would only jeopardize your future."

"Don't care," he said shortly, tired of the games. They were no longer children. "Give me what you promised."

"A compromise then!" she said, clapping her hands and springing to her feet. Kagome paced, putting the chair she had been sitting in between them. "What if you just told everyone about it instead of actually doing it?"

At that, he had to snort. The sheer ridiculousness of her. The audacity. Some would find it charming. "No. Give it. Now."

In one movement, he lunged at her, grabbing her by both wrists. Kagome gasped and at last her eyes met his. Whatever she saw there had her trembling.

"M-maybe," she stuttered, "a kiss, then? Just a kiss." Hope shone in those dark, dark eyes. She licked her lower lip, whether out of nervous habit or to entice him, he neither knew nor cared.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Kisses aplenty I've had. I want what you promised."

When he drew her against him, making her crash into his armor, she began to cry. Tears rushed down her flushed cheeks and raced to the green velvet at her low bodice. Had she not thought to tempt him by dressing to show off what she damn well knew were some of her best assets?

"But what about Kikyo?" she cried out as a last-ditch effort. Going for the jugular, huh?

That stilled him, but only for a moment. "Your sister is dead. It's just us now."

Kagome sobbed as he pressed his mouth to hers hard enough to bruise. Her eyes were screwed shut tight and he tasted salt, hers and his.

In his opinion, she shouldn't be crying. He was just following through on their bargain. It was all her fault. And he told her as much, whispering it against her lips like a lover would an endearment. His tongue licked against her plush mouth and plunged inside. Again, she did not fight him, did not even appear to consider it. She made a tiny sound, either of alarm or arousal, he could not tell.

Earlier today, he had bloodied his hands for the last time for the house of Higurashi. While he did, he thought of this exact moment. How he would start, how he would finish. What he would do to drive home his point. The words he'd use to taunt her.

Nowhere in his imaginings had he pictured her swaying against him and participating in his pained lechery. It took him so by surprise that he stumbled backwards, saving face by sitting down hard in the chair she had vacated. He hoped she thought he'd meant to do that. Judging by how she was grinding in his lap, however, she wasn't thinking at all.

"And here I was thinking princesses and whores were built different," he muttered.

Kagome gasped in offense and then in pleasure when he kissed her throat. She was so silky soft beneath his touch. His warrior's hands had never felt anything so fine as her. Not even in dreams.

"You've become so cruel," she said as he nipped at what small cleavage her dress revealed. "Or were you always like this? Have I been blind?"

They were all blind before. It was the blood that washed the scales from his eyes. Anger renewed at the memory, he tore at the golden ties of her bodice with his teeth, ripping them apart. Her breasts were revealed quickly, hard nipples peeking out between shredded bits of fabric that cost more than a peasant made in a lifetime.

"You always had the best tits," he said almost reverently, realizing only as he said it that it was true. Before, he would have killed any man who had dared to even think of her in a lustful way. Not when he himself was banned from it. Sure, he'd noticed things, but the thoughts that flew into his head never stayed to roost. That would have been unchivalrous. But chivalry was dead now.

Whatever smart reply she had been on the verge of formulating—fuck, he knew her so well. How did they end up here?—was knocked out of her head when he sucked a nipple into his mouth, leaving her capable of nothing more than a garbled curse. Inuyasha smirked against her breast. She'd learned that word from him. She'd learned all her bad habits from him, and now he was going to teach her once again.

He took his blessed time with her breasts. Untouched as she was, Kagome was remarkably sensitive, arching her back into his mouth and holding his head to keep him there. His tongue ran over her nipple again and again and he realized he was spelling his name, marking her, owning her this time. She was already shaking by the time he got to the other breast and gave it the same treatment, tugging on her nipple with his lips and kissing it, running his teeth against it. Not until his neck ached and lips hurt did he release her nipple with a pop.

"I play with you anymore and you're gonna cum," he said derisively, conveniently not mentioning how having her hot pussy move against him had him on the verge as well.

Kagome pouted at him like she was still a lady and he was a foolish servant. He knew that look. Whining was on the way. To remind her—and him—of their change in stations, he ran his hands over her thighs, lifting her skirts as he did. Bit by bit he revealed her, pale and smooth and unblemished. Had she actually been a whore, he would have paid a king's ransom to have her. In a way, he had.

Finally, he revealed her sweet pussy. Tiny and trim, just like the rest of her. Her pink-tinted lips were bedewed with the proof of her pleasure and his mouth fell open at the shiver that ran through him.

"No underskirts," he said, trying to mask the enormity of his feelings.

The smirk she wore was another thing she had picked up from him. "I never really believed you would settle for a kiss."

Fury at what they had both been reduced to mixed with the lust, burning him inside like the acidic flames of hell that would eventually char his soul. Because no matter how much he told himself he hated her and everything she represented, that she was the enemy, that Kagome's very existence was a blight upon the earth, none of that even came close to how much he wanted to touch what for so long he could only subconsciously covet.

"Lift yourself up," he commanded. Kagome did so, hovering above him with her knees on either side of his legs. "Hands on my shoulders." That placed her breasts nicely in his face again. He gave one sweet tit a distracted, sucking kiss as he undid his codpiece and freed his aching cock.

Kagome's dark eyes had never seemed so large as when they looked down and saw him revealed for the first time. He felt another tremor twist through him as he watched her cheeks pinken and then her eyes met his, looking to him for reassurance even after everything he'd done. Inuyasha didn't know whether it was her who moved or him, but suddenly they were kissing again and it wasn't like that first time. There was nothing about power and the past and the future or what was going on outside. It was just want.

"Ride me," he said, or begged, or whatever.

His hands were on her hips and he brought her down on him. Slowly, at first, they worked together to split her maidenhead asunder the same way he had split her father's head from his shoulders. Unlike the murder, he showed some restraint, though it cost him dearly. Wet as she was, it was almost easy. Kagome's eyes flashed between his own and looking at where they were joined, her pupils blown wide in what he suddenly earnestly hoped was the same fire that blazed through him. Her mouth seemed frozen in a constant gasp and he caught her lips with his own, moaning at the taste of her muted cry in his mouth when he was finally fully sheathed inside her.

A new trickle of something warm spilled between them. Her virgin blood.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, wondering where he found the strength to breathe the words.

She shook her head, glossy waves tossed around her shoulders. "Not there."

For that, he lifted his hips up and pulled her down hard, making her cry out and cling to him.

"Then fucking ride."

Kagome glared at him but her hips moved and his head went back to hit the hard wooden back of the chair. Inuyasha didn't give a fuck; everything felt good right now. He fought the urge to shut his eyes and watched her through slits. Looking at her like that left her with a hazy glow about her, like she was a haloed angel. An angel whose wings he had clipped, an angel whom he had bound to earth with ropes of thorned roses.

She moved back and forth on him, attempting to find a rhythm that would work for her while hitting the right spots. Her grip tightened on his shoulders and he couldn't help but to bring her closer. Kagome began to move in circles before switching to shallow thrusts up and down. She was being too careful; he needed to ignite her spark.

"You're ruined now," he said, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice. "No one will ever have you. Is that how you wanted it?"

She snarled at him and if she hadn't been bred better, he knew she would have lashed out and bitten him.

"The blood of my fiancé stains your hands at my behest." A feral grin overtook her face and he answered with one of his own. Her hands moved from his shoulders to his neck. "And you? You know you never would have let anyone else have me even had I not begged such a boon."

It was true. Inuyasha hadn't known what he would have done if she hadn't begged him to kill the bastard, but he knew they would have ended up like this regardless. He scowled at her and she began to squeeze—both her hands at his throat and her pussy around his cock.

"Fuck," he hissed, the word caught between them.

Her hips, full and curved like a lute, rode him faster and harder. Her pleasure seemed to increase as she watched him, absorbing his lost control and taking it for herself. But that wasn't the deal. The realm no longer belonged to her, but she to it.

One of his hands stopped gripping her ass hard enough to leave a mark and came to her breast. Kagome's breath hitched as he pulled at her pebbled nipple and her rhythm stuttered. She began to move in earnest now and he struggled to keep his grip on her due to the sweat that pearled along her skin, making her sparkle yet more. Kagome was silk inside and out, her pussy holding him with a kind of heat that made its way into his veins and turned his very blood to magma.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said, her tongue darting out and licking her lip. "Inuyasha, did you say it? Did you tell him?"

He nodded, holding back a whine. "He knew. He knew it was you."

"Good boy," she purred, pressing her lips to his.

Right at that moment, she tightened around him, and he sprayed her insides with an almost shocking amount of his seed. Her cunt continued to squeeze him in her own orgasm and he swallowed each of her moans down like he would die without them. Inuyasha brought his arms around her, holding her close while her hips wound down their movements and her pussy wrung him of the last drops of his cum. In a moment, it was over, and then they were just there together in an embrace.

"I'm not your dog any longer," he grumbled, glaring at her.

Kagome smiled and patted him on the head. "We can't change who we are," she said through lips that were distractedly bee-stung from their shared kisses. "Like I can't change that I love you. And you? Did you ever think of me before?"

It was obvious what "before" referred to.

Inuyasha shoved her away and fixed his clothes. "I never thought of you in that way at all." He smirked at her. "Think of the truth as a tip for your adequate service today."

Her face turned so red he thought she was going to do to him what she asked him to do to her princeling fiancé. Inuyasha didn't stick around to find out. He was done with her for today.

"You bastard!" she said, voice shaking. "I'll—I'm going to—"

"Consider this a stay of execution," he said. "Your trial is in a few days, but we all know how that's going to go."

Kagome scoffed and glared up at him. She didn't even attempt to cover up her still exposed chest and he tried to keep his eyes from focusing on her perfect tits.

"You'd never let anyone do anything to me. Not when there is still so much you want to do to me."

She had him there. Somehow, this virgin was obscenely confident in her sexual allure. Or maybe just confident in the stupid blind devotion that had been drilled into him his entire life. Her assessment was dead on. He was going to keep her alive until the wanting stopped.

Inuyasha left her there and made sure to lock the door properly this time. A princess in a tower. Had this happened a month ago, he would have died to save her from such a fate. Now, he was her captor.

O\o/O

One month ago, they had lived entirely different lives.

"Make way for His Majesty's returning armies! Our men have fought and vanquished, and our champion is triumphant among them!"

Peasants, merchants, and nobles alike crowded in the mud of new spring just to watch him ride a horse to the palace. It was starting to drizzle, making the mess worse, and he groaned aloud.

"Would it kill you to wave at them, Captain? I know a smile is too much to ask," his lieutenant said from his left.

Inuyasha glared at Miroku. He was eating up the attention like a prized pig going to market. Did he not realize that they cheered their potential deaths as eagerly as their return? Whose blood was shed no longer mattered as long as their thirst for conquest was quenched. It always renewed and that was the problem. Whether in days, weeks, or months, the king was sure to dispatch them to yet another land to pillage.

At first, he hadn't minded. Fighting was fun. Killing meant he would live. Gold meant honors for him and his eventual descendants. But the reasons for the wars became flimsier and flimsier.

Hakurei he had understood; they had started it with their "religious cleansing", which was just genocide. That one he had felt good about. Then there was Musashi. Fine, they were in chaos and all fighting one another over the throne and forcing peasants who had never held anything deadlier than a plow into battle. Involving Higurashi in that was questionable, but he could excuse it.

But Hōrai? They had been decimated by famine already, followed by a wasting sickness that seemed to strike only adults. No one was safe from the king on down. It had been a kingdom of snot-nosed orphans crying for their mothers.

It had changed him.

"Sir Inuyasha," the king greeted, eyes alight when he spied the wagons full of cold, blood-bought treasure. "We delight at your return."

Inuyasha dismounted and knelt in the mud. The king had planned this. They could have met inside the palace as was customary, but no. His victories had put his name on the tongue of every citizen and the king craved to see him humbled.

"My king," he said, striking his chest in salute.

He waited a beat. "You may rise."

Inuyasha did so, trying not to wince at the feel of mud squishing around in his boots and staining his leathers.

"Princess," he greeted with a nod.

"Sir Inuyasha." Kikyo, the eldest princess and future queen, nodded at him once. Her expression was pleasantly neutral like one of the ancient statues that lined the temple yet her beauty was still unmatched.

"Inuyasha!"

He opened up his arms in reflex to catch the younger princess. Kagome wrapped her arms around him, tears evident in her shaky breaths. Inuyasha kept his arms still at either side, giving the king a look to assure him that he did nothing to encourage this. The king rolled his eyes, by now used to his fool daughter's behavior. Kagome held him tighter and he fought off a shiver.

"I was so worried," she said, the words muffled as she spoke them into his chest where her face was pressed. "Did you wear the charm I made you?"

Inuyasha smiled and pulled it from around his neck, dropping it over her head. A necklace poorly braided from yarn she swore had special properties and was blessed by seven holy men. It smelled like piss. Someone had swindled her good. But he had worn it for the entirety of the campaign. Sometimes it was nice to look down and remember that someone would care if he died.

Kagome continued to hang onto him as the king catalogued the goods that would be stuffed into the ever-bloating treasury. His eyes flicked to Kikyo. She watched them though her face remained impassive. He gave her a quick smile before he let Kagome drag him off to wherever it was she was taking him.

"—and Father said he didn't give a damn either way, so I got the creepy new majordomo Goshinki to build me my own garden retreat!" she chattered excitedly. "Only I can go there. And whoever I let go. You're always welcome, but you already know that, I bet," Kagome added, smiling up at him.

She had led him to her new gardens. Multiple fountains carved from marble and studded with jewels in patterned mosaics dotted the lush landscape. Trees bordered flower-lined paths cultivated so carefully that they seemed to have come about organically and not by tearing through the earth and seeking to improve upon nature. Colorful birds not native to their land sang songs to one another.

This was what he had killed for.

"And what will happen when you are sent away next year?" he said, hardly feeling himself speak. His lips were numb and he was so, so tired.

Kagome pouted up at him. "Don't talk about that. I'm in denial. Oh, to be ugly and have no hope of ever being married off," she sighed. "Beauty is a curse."

Inuyasha snorted and rolled his eyes, a smile twitching the corners of his lips. Kikyo was to be queen as King Naraku seemed to have no intention of marrying again after his wife had died birthing a stillborn long-awaited male heir. Kagome had been engaged twice already—once to a prince who had died of an illness and once to a price who had died in battle—but it seemed like the third time was the charm for her marriage.

Kikyo's marriage had yet to be announced but many in their kingdom and abroad vied for her hand. She was elegant, intelligent, and accomplished, not to mention quite the beauty. Whoever won her would be the luckiest man in the world. Somehow, as the younger sister, Kagome had as many or even more suitors and would end up a queen herself. Word had spread of not only her beauty but her vivaciousness and good heart. The kingdom's wealth that hinted at the size of her dowry didn't hurt, either.

Inuyasha pitied whatever bastard got saddled with the younger princess. She was a handful on the best of days.

"Sir Inuyasha," a servant called. "The king awaits you in the throne room."

"Fuck," he grumbled, mostly to himself. "Can't even wait for me to wash up."

"You can go bathe and have something hot to eat," Kagome said. "I'll handle Father."

He opened his mouth to protest but she was already running off and tugging the servant along with her. Whatever inane thing she was going on about was sure to keep everyone in the palace occupied long enough for him to take a small break at least. Sometimes, she did come in handy.

Inuyasha entered the quarters he kept in the palace and was immediately accosted by soft hands and sweet perfume.

"Kikyo," he breathed, accepting her kiss. It was just one chaste press of the lips, but so warm and held so much passion that he was surprised he could remain standing.

"Inuyasha," she answered, a gentle smile on her face. "I nearly feared Kagome had finally eloped with you."

If he rolled his eyes again he might just lose function of them. Instead, he groaned, stripping off the worst of his armor but not daring to undress. They hadn't gotten there yet. Not until…

"Speaking of elopements, have you spoken to the king?"

Kikyo bit her lip. "I have."

He waited a moment, but she did not elaborate. "And?"

"And there is to be an announcement tonight."

His heart soared and all at once his body felt light. All the sprains and bruises and cuts faded away to nothing and he would have gladly suffered them all a hundred times over. The king was to announce their marriage. At last, he would be united to Kikyo. For so long he had thought it an impossible dream, but now all he had done, all he had been made to do, would be worth it. The screams he heard at night would be silenced as long as he could lie in her embrace.

"That's wonderful," he said, grabbing a towel and dunking it into the basin of warm water that stood on the nightstand.

"Inuyasha…" she said hesitantly. He glanced at her in the mirror and saw her reaching one hand out to him, but she drew back. "Inuyasha, at the feast tonight, no matter what, please continue to believe in me."

He finished washing his face and smiled at her. "I have never believed in anything more."

Her smile was tremulous, but that it existed was enough. "Thank you, love. That's all I ask."

Before she could leave, he grabbed her by the hand and brought her to him, kissing her with all the longing he had felt while they were separated, all the fear that he would die without seeing her face again, all the agony that fighting his way through the rest of humanity to make himself indispensable wasn't enough to make her his. Kikyo gasped against his lips and he stopped. She was looking at him like he was a question, like he was a stranger.

"Sorry," he apologized even though she had said nothing. "War makes a man hungry in more ways than one."

She nodded at him though the hesitance remained. "I'll see you at the celebration tonight."

Inuyasha got himself looking as presentable as possible. There was nothing to be done for the mostly faded black eye and the still-healing cut in his lip, but he'd had worse. Some of the nobles would no doubt jeer at the proof of his physical labor, but he had never cared about those contemptuous bastards anyway. Only Kikyo mattered, and soon they would belong to one another even more than they already did.

"Just the escort I was waiting for!"

It was hard to scowl at her, but somehow he managed it. Kagome was smiling so happily and was admittedly stunning in a gown that shone like the stars. Her waves that were the color of the night sky were pinned back, revealing the lovely heart shape of her face. Mischief sparkled in her dark, dark eyes.

A low whistle sounded in the hall. "Princess Kagome, you are looking more delicious than—"

"If you finish that sentence, I'll finish you," he growled, grabbing Miroku by the tail of his hair hard, just short of scalping him.

Kagome somehow finagled things so they were entering the dining hall arm-in-arm. Miroku was close behind them. A herald announced them and they took their seat, making the long walk all the way down to the seats nearest the king.

King Naraku was already deep in his cups judging by how he sat missing the rigid posture that seemed as a part of him as his narrowed eyes and frowning face. How a man such as this had managed to produce two such beautiful daughters was a mystery, but he supposed the late queen had played more a role in that than he had.

"Sir Inuyasha," he slurred. "Bold of you to join us this late."

Inuyasha finished helping Kagome to her seat and glanced around. Half the chairs were yet empty.

"My apologies, sire. I thought myself unfashionably early."

"Did I not summon you prior?"

He glanced at Kagome, who was giving him her most innocently angelic look. So she hadn't managed to take care of it.

"Forgive me, sire, I was detained by my wish not to appear in your illustrious presence stinking of the battlefield." That was overdoing it; surely he would get punished for that.

But the king did not appear to pick up on his obvious sarcasm, instead nodding and taking a deep pull from his chalice, holding it out to a servant for more. Kikyo was seated at the king's right hand and she shone like the moon in a white dress of silk. Sooner than later, she would wear something like that for their wedding. Inuyasha tried to catch her eye but failed. She seemed determined to stare at her folded hands in her lap.

The night wore on in that vein. The king was drinking heavily, Kagome was pretending to be clumsy so he would do things for her, Miroku was also pretending to be clumsy so he could search for a missing utensil under the table and peek under skirts, and Inuyasha attempted to silently force Kikyo to look at him. So much of their relationship had been the most serious of secrets that for him to be so close to having their love revealed was agony.

Finally, the king stood, supported by a page boy. Inuyasha flinched, knowing the poor servants would get the worst of the king's temper the following morning when he remembered how much of a fool he had acted.

"Friends, how gladdened our heart is to have you all assembled here tonight," he said in a loud voice. "For quite some time now, questions on our eldest daughter's marriage have been posed. Who shall rule after we are gone? Who shall inherit the throne and our vast dominion?" His smile widened, seeming to show all his teeth. "And it came to me: a son. We shall have a son."

Inuyasha quirked a brow. Was the king really going to marry again? At his advanced age, any son would surely be a child when crowned. And who was to be the next queen?

"Kikyo, the jewel of this kingdom, shall be our wife and bear our heir at long last."

Where the king had seemed to expect murmurs, there was only silence. He looked down at them all as though challenging them. But if no one had challenged him in his quest to slaughter innocents for gold, who would challenge him over something as small as taking his daughter to bed?

Inuyasha moved to stand, opened his mouth to say something. But two things happened. Kagome put her hand on his thigh and pressed down, wordlessly telling him to stay put. And Kikyo finally looked at him, her eyes warning him, begging him to stay out of it.

So he bit his tongue until he tasted blood and forced himself to remember what failure tasted like.

It was almost like the king was disappointed no one had protested. He would have probably liked to have dealt out some punishment, the old fuck.

"Our youngest, Princess Kagome, will be sent to Hitomi to marry their crown prince, Musō , in a month's time. This tender father's heart did not wish to separate the sisters until she had seen Kikyo married, which will be in three days."

A small smattering of congratulatory applause this time. It seemed as though the court was catching on to the insanity fast.

"And lastly, none of this would be possible without the gallant actions of Sir Inuyasha." At this, Naraku himself clapped, and Inuyasha had not known that applause could sound sarcastic. "Sir Inuyasha has been raised to the title of Lord, and accordingly will have additional lands and taxes granted to him. But our kingdom's champion is obviously chomping at the bit to get back out to battle and bring our nation yet greater glories, so tomorrow he will be undertaking a mission with only a core team of our bravest knights and ridding the continent of Edo's despotic ruler."

It all became clear. Inuyasha was never meant to return from any of the wars to which he had been dispatched. All this time, the king had been trying to have him killed. To remove him from the equation so the people—so Kikyo—would have no champion.

Additional announcements were made, fortunes were granted, lands bestowed, the usual thing. But his mind kept whirring with the ugliness of the evening. He looked around at faces he had known all his life and saw them smiling like nothing was wrong. Gloating. Fat pigs wallowing in the mud. Veal. And here he was, a butcher.

When the noise finally stopped and the king was leaving, Inuyasha stormed out. It was against custom to do so before the king had made a full retreat, but he was beyond all that. Kagome tried to cling to him but he shook her off. That didn't stop her, though, and he heard the clicking of her heels and her corseted breaths as she tried to catch up with him.

"Inuyasha, wait!" she called. "Please, don't leave. You can't!"

He stopped, but only because he didn't know where to go. Kagome bumped into him and he turned around to steady her. As always, he could rely on his need to make sure she was safe. That was a thread that could lead him back to the rest of himself.

"I'm done with this," he said, hating how tight his voice was. How much the words hurt. "I'm leaving tonight. You would too if you had any brains."

Her big eyes looked up at him as though the words hurt her. Like they hadn't said them back and forth a million times before.

"Please, Inuyasha. Go to my garden at midnight." She squeezed his shaking hand between both her own. "Please. If you still want to run after all that, I will do everything in my power to help you."

"We should all go," he said. "All three of us."

Kagome smiled at him and a tear shimmered in her eye. "Yes. We should."

Inuyasha went back to his rooms. A quick look around showed that he was rarely ever there. A lack of personal possessions and everything was far too clean to belong to a man. His country estate, where he had been raised, had more of his imprint upon it even though he had not been there in a year and some months. For the first time, he felt homesick. He'd had dreams, stupid dreams, of taking Kikyo back there and showing her the woods, climbing trees together, walking under the moonlight.

It seemed her own father had similar dreams.

Despite his exhaustion, sleep did not find him. He sat sharpening his blade until the bells rang midnight.

It was time.

Kagome's gardens were fragrant with night-blooming flowers and lanterns lit the paths. He wandered along for a few minutes, his anxiety and irritation growing as he did so. Was this one of her irritating little jokes?

"Kagome!" he hissed. "This isn't funny."

"And here I thought you'd rather elope with me."

Kikyo stepped out from behind a tree, still dressed in the gown that made her as beautiful as the moon. It was like witnessing a goddess descend to earth. His feet flew to her.

"Kikyo," he said, her name a prayer. "Do you mean it? Are we escaping?"

She nodded. "Yes, love. But not yet."

He raised a brow. "Why not? The king is sending me off to die tomorrow."

"You'll travel slowly," she said, pulling him closer by his collar. A kiss was laid on his cheek. "And stay at an inn. You'll know the one as it will have white roses in the window. Stay there and wait for me."

"Why not now?" he could not stop himself from asking.

She turned away from him to lean against the tree, seeking its wooden support rather than his warm embrace.

"The only way to stop him is to kill him."

"We could hide. There are plenty other places to go, a whole world to explore together!"

"His pride means more to him than even riches," she said, her long waterfall of hair revealing just enough of her face that he saw her eyes burning with disgust. "There is no way Father would ever let us be at peace. No, he needs to die."

He took a breath. Regicide. Even after everything, it was too much to contemplate. The king had taken him in after he was orphaned, given him a home and made sure his titles and lands would not be lost to squabbling nobles.

But had he done that out of the goodness of his heart, or as a way to create the perfect slave? Blindly devoted. A dog.

"I'll do it," he said with a nod. "If it must be done, I will do it."

"No!" Kikyo cried. The birds went silent. She lowered her voice and came back to him, stopping just short of falling into his arms ready to catch her. "No, Inuyasha. I will."

"You can't!" he said, grabbing her lily-white hand and pressing kisses to it. "No, Kikyo. While it is in my power, I will be your blade and shield. If I can no longer be the king's knight, I will be yours."

"It has to be me," she said, her smile mournful. Her dark eyes studied him like she was painting a portrait on her heart to keep with her forever. "The king is always surrounded by multiple guards. The only time he would be alone would be in the bedchamber."

With understanding came nausea. "Kikyo, you don't mean… You can't!"

"I'll try not to let it go all the way," she said, corners of her mouth turning down. "But I will do as I must. For you. And for the kingdom." Her eyes sparkled with the beginnings of tears. "Just promise me something again, Inuyasha. That you won't think differently of me. That you'll still… You will still care for me, won't you? After."

He pressed her against him and put all his love in his lips as he kissed her. "Forever, Kikyo. I will love you forever. Nothing will ever change that."

The princess saw the truth of it in his face and she smiled as much as she could in her plight. They parted with whispered promises.

But Inuyasha had lied.

Not about loving her, no, he would always love her. But there was no way in hell he could remain a man and allow the woman he loved to sacrifice something so precious. Kikyo wasn't going to have a wedding night with anyone but him, and there would be no wedding to anyone else, either.

The next morning, Inuyasha met Miroku at his room door. His lieutenant had several pageboys loaded down with all manner of things to take on their next mission.

"You're packing light, even for you," Miroku remarked. "Did you already load your bags on the horses?"

Inuyasha smiled at him tightly. "I have another mission in mind first. Watch my back, won't you?"

He nodded and his expression changed entirely from one of charming aloofness to hyper-focus with a brutal edge. That was what he liked about Miroku. The man had dual natures, just like him. One that loved, and one that hated. One that cared, and one that killed.

It just so happened that his two natures were in agreement about this one task.

The king was at his breakfast table, head in his hands as he groaned quietly over a bowl of watery oatmeal. It seemed the old man was regretting one thing of the night before. Pity it had to be the wine and not his atrocious actions. Several guards were in the room and he nodded at them to leave. They didn't question it, accustomed to following his orders, and Naraku didn't even notice.

"Sir Inuyasha," he said, glaring up at him and the sunlight he let in when he opened the door. "Do you really need me to send you off? Have we not done this countless times?"

"Hi, Inuyasha!" Kagome said, waving at him like nothing was wrong. He spared a moment to wonder why she still wore some makeup from the night before and had her hair in a mess. What the hell had she been up to? Was she trying for a tryst before she was married off? They'd have to have a talk about that later.

"It's Lord Inuyasha now, don't you remember?"

Naraku rolled his eyes then winced. "Yes, you were promoted. You earned it. Now get your ass out there and earn some more for both of us."

Inuyasha slammed both fists down on the table, barely hearing Miroku discreetly close the door.

"Why the fuck did you do it!?" he yelled, making Naraku jump. "You fucking know Kikyo and I are in love. It's been obvious for years and we were only fooling each other that it was a secret. Now you decide to take her? Your own fucking daughter!"

Naraku grinned slowly, his yellowed and bloodshot eyes gaining some light for the first time in a long time. "Yes, my lovely daughter. And here I thought you'd only make a fuss if I chose Kagome. The two of you are always together, after all."

"Father," Kagome said, putting a hand on the king's. "Please. We all overindulged last night. Let us just go back to our rooms and—"

Naraku swatted her away. "Shut up for once, you insipid little fool," he said, not even bothering to look at her.

Inuyasha growled at him and hit his bowl of oats so it splattered all over his face and satin pajamas. Naraku and Kagome both looked at him in stunned surprise.

"Don't touch her. Don't touch either of them!" he roared. "Fuck it, fuck you. I won't give you the fucking chance."

Inuyasha unleashed the blade he had spent the entire night sharpening and held it between them. Kagome screeched and Miroku helped her to her feet and to the other side of the room. The lieutenant asked no questions, simply drew his own weapon, a studded club that he wielded with deadly force.

"Really, Inuyasha, this is quite the surprise," Naraku drawled like nothing was out of the ordinary. But he could see him shaking. He pretended to look thoughtful. "Would you rather me take Kagome to bed then? She is younger. Fresher. Perhaps I was wrong to choose Kikyo. And Kagome does have such a gorgeous body. Making an heir with her would even be fun. I'd give my heir the best wet nurse and have those big tits all to myself."

Inuyasha saw red and lashed out with a battle cry, slicing at the king he had once served. Naraku blocked him with a platter he picked up from the table. Inuyasha was so angry he hadn't even seen him grab for it.

"But going back to Kikyo," Naraku said, having dodged several attacks and managing to land a kick to Inuyasha's knee even though he had not trained in years. "All that ice princess shit has got to be covering up something hot, you know? Of course you know. That's why you meet with her. All you want is to crack her open and finally get her screaming your name. And then you'll get bored and you'll move on." His eyes tracked to Kagome and looked at her lasciviously. "Maybe I'll keep them both. I'm the king, after all. I can fuck who I want."

The knife to Inuyasha's abdomen came as a shock to everyone but Naraku. Kagome cried out and tried to go to him, but Miroku held her back. Instinctively, Inuyasha knew that if he were truly to falter, Miroku would step in, but his lieutenant knew he had to resolve this for himself. For his honor. For the virtue of the ones he loved.

He plunged his sword into Naraku's gut, maintaining eye contact all the while. Inuyasha didn't know what he was hoping for. Remorse? Pleading? But no. There was only laughter. When he withdrew his sword, he cut off Naraku's head so he wouldn't have to see that damned smile anywhere other than his nightmares.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome sobbed, running over to him. "You're hurt."

"We have bigger problems," he grunted, taking the knife out. It had been a shallow stab wound anyway and he'd run leagues with far worse. "What are we gonna tell people?"

Miroku jumped in. "An assassin. Who would question you? You're the king's champion."

He nodded. "There are men enough who want him dead."

"Musō is a horrible man and would make a great target," Miroku said, glancing at Kagome. "Maybe he wanted the kingdom for himself."

"The blood won't stop," Kagome whimpered, pressing a long sleeve to his abdomen.

"Don't care," he said. "Go to your rooms, Kagome. If anyone asks, you slept in today."

"He's really dead," she said, peeking at the headless corpse. Her face paled and she swooned. Inuyasha caught her with a grunt before she could do much more than sway. "He wouldn't have really done all that to me, r-right?"

Inuyasha wanted to tell her that her father had gone mad. That he was possessed. That he was an imposter. But he just shook his head.

"He won't," he said, his thumbs wiping the tears from underneath her eyes but his palms spreading blood on her face. "Don't cry. He won't do anything to you."

Kagome started to sob and he held her close. In the back of his mind, he knew this shouldn't be his priority. There were things to do, to cover up. But she was trembling and he had never heard her cry like this, not even in her earliest childhood.

"What have you done?"

At first, he thought the accusation came from Kagome, and he wanted to shake her and remind her it had been for her. But Miroku moved to cover the corpse and he looked up to see Kikyo.

"He wouldn't have stopped at you," was what he said. "Look at your sister, Kikyo. I did what had to be done."

"I was going to take care of it!" she hissed, barely heard over Kagome's increasingly loud sobs. "For once, Inuyasha, you should have let someone else be the hero. This is going to be a disaster."

"It's just one king," Miroku said. "We've toppled enough of them."

"Yet you have never witnessed the aftermath," she said, seething. Kikyo began to pace. "After Naraku's announcement last night, the manner in which he was killed, and the not insignificant fact that Inuyasha and I were not as discreet as we thought in our affair, this will all fall apart in a matter of moments."

"I don't see why we can't just be honest and say he was a shitty king and now we're going to get a great queen," Inuyasha said.

Kagome sniffled and turned in his arms to face her sister. "I-it'll be fine, Kikyo. I can tell whoever asks that it was an assassin from a foreign land."

"And plunge us into yet another war?" Kikyo closed her eyes and seemed to be attempting to search for patience in the well that usually ran deep within her. "They will want blood. The people will always want blood."

Her prophecy came true.

In a manner of days, there was chaos in the streets, illustrating the tenuous grasp they had always had over law and order. A foreign assassin had murdered the king. The king was dead. There was naught but a queen to rule, and she young and unmarried. They were practically defenseless from the evils that lurked in every dark corner.

First, it was petty crime. People in the towns rushed shops and began to loot in small groups and then en masse. At the same time, people began to hoard food and supplies and were unwilling to even sell to their neighbor, unsure of whether they were foreign agents. Perhaps they just didn't want them to have anything they did not. Bit by bit their kingdom crumbled around them.

Inuyasha could not understand how the one act that should have made everything better, the removal of the evil that began all evils, had made everything so much worse.

Then the mob turned up on the steps of the palace. The outer guards had abandoned their posts. Some were in the group that demanded gold and jewels and food, despite having been paid most handsomely by the new queen.

"The ancients had a way of guaranteeing peace," Kikyo said, overlooking the violent crowd from her balcony.

"Come away from the open air," Inuyasha said, tugging on her hand to draw her back inside where he could keep her safe.

Kikyo shook him off and continued as though he had not said anything. "Before we took over with our civilized ways—balls, war, theft—the original people of this land lived in harmony with the earth," she said. Her eyes glowed ruddy with the fire from the torches that the mass (he would not call it a mob) of peasants congregated outside had. "They welcomed every season with a celebratory rite. They understood that you needed to give in order to receive."

She paced back and forth for a moment, reminding him of something between a dancer and a caged animal, before going yet further out on the balcony. The wind blew her hair away from her face and made her eyes water. Or was she crying?

"We have not given in ages. We only take. So it is only right that nature begins to take back. The balance must be restored." She glanced at him, a small smile on her face so fleeting he thought he may have imagined it. "They want blood."

It happened so fast that Inuyasha did not have time to react. Nothing of his battle sense had been tipped off. No danger seemed near. The crowd at the gates would leave. Kikyo would come inside. They would fix things. He would fix things.

Kikyo leaned over the balcony railing and kept leaning until she had toppled to the ground.

The same wind that had played with his beloved's hair carried the whispered wordless sound of loss he made down to her. He could see her. Gods, he could see all of her. Split open and staining the earth. Things that should have never seen the light spilled and mixing with the dirt.

Nothing in his life, not the deaths of his parents or the horrors of war, could have prepared him to see what he was seeing. His eyes perceived but his brain refused to acknowledge what they told him. His body reacted viscerally and he dry-heaved. Nothing came up since he had not eaten since that last feast. Inuyasha's fingers clenched the banister and the wood splintered, catching under his nails.

"Inuyasha!" a voice came as though from far away. "Someone help me, he's going over."

Hands drew him back from the balcony and suddenly he was inside. There was not enough air in the room for him. His breaths came quicker and quicker, so fast he choked on them.

Kagome was there, holding his hands between her own. Her dark, dark eyes bore into his, looking for something. Looking for him.

"Hold that breath," she instructed, her voice the only thing he could hear in the chaos that had sprung up around them. "Hold it for five seconds, Inuyasha. Then you can try another."

As though she herself had been instructed in it, she coached him on how to regulate his breathing. Kagome brought him back from the emotional precipice he had been perched on and ready to throw himself off of.

Miroku entered his line of sight. "The mob seems to have calmed down after—after they saw it happen. Goshinki and Mukotsu are handling them."

Even through the haze that fogged his mind, he knew it was a bad idea. But Miroku wasn't talking to him. He was talking to Kagome.

She sighed, temporarily looking away from him. "They'll know what to do, of course. Make sure Kikyo's death is announced country-wide. Usher in the new reign." Her eyes went back to him. "I suppose Musō will be visiting us soon."

Miroku bowed to her. "I will check with the advisors for updates."

There was bustling of servants, crying and weeping in the hall outside the door, screaming and celebrating outside. But in the room there was only silence. There was only him and Kagome and the night.

"I'm sorry," she said.

It was the first thing either of them had said in hours. Inuyasha wondered if he had been dozing. The two of them were on the bed and holding hands. Her father would have had his head if he hadn't had his first.

"You didn't do anything," he said, voice a ghost. Inuyasha wanted to ask if Kikyo was dead, if it was really her. But he knew it was, he had seen it. Now he just had to make himself believe it.

Kagome sat up. Her lower lip trembled and she bit it until it turned white to make it stop. Tears shimmered like stars in the dark night of her eyes.

"I did, though. I did," she said in a whisper. "It's all my fault, Inuyasha. It was supposed to be me."

He understood the words she was saying but they weren't making sense. "What are you talking about?" he asked, suddenly angry. Inuyasha sensed that she was going to say something that would change things, that would take away the one spot of solace he had left in the world.

Kagome confirmed it by not being able to look at him. Her hand left his and he was cold. "I was the one who told Kikyo about sacrifice. I was scared; I didn't know what I was saying. But I thought… I thought if they could see someone who represented everything they hated die, that they would be satisfied," she rambled. Her hands clenched the blanket beneath her. "I told her I would do it. Throw myself off a tower and then they could drag my body through the streets and that would distract everyone and give Kikyo time to make peace happen again."

Inuyasha didn't say anything. For a moment, he wanted to hit her. To knock the stupid out of her. "Why the fuck would you think that would solve anything?"

She took a shuddering breath and he realized she was crying. "I didn't," she said in a small voice. "Not really. Maybe a little. But at least then I wouldn't have to get married."

He put a hand to his forehead and wiped it down his face as though that would wipe away all the rot in his brain. His palm came away wet. He made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan.

"You put that fucking shit in her head. All 'cause you didn't want to be a fucking queen in another castle." The corners of his mouth turned down and he couldn't stop them. His eyes burned from holding back more tears. "Get the fuck out, Kagome. And don't let me see you again."

Guards that were normally invisible to him came forward. One put a hand on Kagome's shoulder and forcibly turned her around.

"Do not touch me!" Kagome said, gasping in offense.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Inuyasha yelled.

"You wanted her out," one of the guards explained. "We were following orders."

"Kagome's the princess. If you're following orders, they should be hers."

There was still enough respect for her blood that the guard did not outright sneer, but it was present in his tone.

"The princess has no experience with political matters. At this time, we look to you, Lord Inuyasha. You and the council."

"The council?" he and Kagome asked as one.

A nod. "The advisors of the late king have convened to solve the growing unrest."

"Fuck," he said under his breath. While he had been locked away with Kikyo, there had been a coup launching. All he had done was look away for a handful of days. Had he known they would have been his last days with Kikyo, he would have cherished them more.

"Take the princess to her rooms," Inuyasha continued. "Make sure she stays there."

"Inuyasha?" she said in confusion as the guard put his hands on her once again. She tried to elbow him away unsuccessfully. "Inuyasha, what's going on? Why can't I stay here?" When yelling didn't work, she resorted to tears. "Please, Inuyasha. I didn't know she would… If you blame me, let me stay and punish me yourself. Don't shut me away, please, it's not good for either of us, please—"

"Go," he told the guards. "Now."

For the first time, he turned his back on her.

However angry he was at her, he knew his job was to continue to keep her safe. Kikyo would have wanted it that way. Kagome was the key to restoring order, too. With her marriage to Musō , they would have peace once again. That was his job. Peace. Order in the realm.

There would be time to grieve when his job was done.

Inuyasha marched to the old king's war room. It was the one in which he had spent the most time and where he met with his advisors. If the "council" was gathering anywhere to appear official, it would be there.

He was right. Without knocking, he opened the doors wide. His entrance was powerful and he didn't even need an entourage of sycophantic military followers to make his intent understood. The old men who made up the council cowered in their seats, their trembling directly contrasting with their welcoming smiles.

"What the fuck do you think you're all doing?" he barked.

"We merely seek to keep the peace during this turbulent time," Mukotsu said, following with an insincere, "my lord."

"This is the opposite of peace. It's a goddamn coup and you know it."

The smiles turned condescending. "Have a seat, Lord Inuyasha," Manten said. "You are, of course, a member of the council. The highest-ranking and most beloved of us, too."

He kept standing. This was a kind of battlefield he was unfamiliar with and he would not let his guard down.

"The people love you," Mukotsu said. "The military worships you. No one knows that it was by your hand the old king died, but if they did, they would cheer you. Even if the king had been kind, they would cheer you. That is the kind of power you have."

"Go ahead and announce I killed the bastard, I don't give a fuck. I'm proud of it."

Taigokumaru waved his hand dismissively. "That's not our focus. No, our focus is on order. A new order."

"A what?" he asked, brow raised. "Have you fuckers gone senile already?"

"The time of kings is over," Manten declared. "Rule should be by a group of educated and respected successful individuals with the peoples' best interest in mind."

"So that would be you," he said flatly. "A group of old men who know no common folk and don't even permit servants to be seen in their chambers, pretending their baths are drawn and meals are served by invisible hands."

"We are aware of the possible issues in keeping power," Taigokumaru said. "Which is why you are a member. No one will see past such a shining star as yourself."

"Would there be elections to decide your successors?" he asked.

"We would nominate and vote on them as a group."

"Then you have merely crowned yourselves kings," he scoffed. "And will soon consume your own tail in your hunger for power."

"If you're worried about the princess, your fears are unfounded," Mukotsu said. "Her future spouse will arrive in mere days to take her back to his kingdom. We are prepared to cede lands to him and gold to avoid a war for succession."

"Once he marries her, it is his right to sit on the throne," Inuyasha said. "He knows that and won't give up power he is entitled to for a fraction of it offered by liver-spotted hands."

A shrug. "Then we go to war. That will be your job."

"You're all insane," he said. "Just a bunch of fuckers sitting around in a room by themselves. It will never work. You have no real power."

"On the contrary," Taigokumaru smirked. "We have all the power. The nobles? All ours. The military? Useless without direction. The people? Their attention could easily be redirected from the castle as a whole to the princess herself."

"All manner of things could be said about her," Manten said with an eager kind of pleasure that made his stomach turn. "Her first two betrothals ended in the death of the men. Either she is cursed or there is something yet more malicious going on."

"And the way she struts about laughing and dancing and carrying on as though she's too good for any man," Mukotsu butt in, genuine anger showing through the veneer of courtly manners. "We should send her to a work camp just for that whoreishness."

His fists clenched. Sure, he could kill them all. And he wanted to. It would be easy. It was the way he solved most of his problems. It was all he knew. But what would Kikyo have done? She had thrown herself off the fucking balcony to prevent more bloodshed. She would want him to use his brain. But she had always been the smart one between them. He didn't know how to go on in this new world without her.

"Fine," he said, kicking a chair and spinning it around so he could sit in it. "I'll join your fuckin' council. But you stay the fuck away from Kagome. And run all your lawmaking shit by me first."

"Of course," Manten said soothingly. "You're the face of the council, after all. Everything we put out will have your seal of approval."

Inuyasha had long wished to leave the battlefield. But now that he was caught up in an endless series of political meetings and dinners that disguised political meetings, he longed for the days when he knew his work was done when there was no one left to kill.

Especially when he met with Prince Musō .

The council had moved operations from the war room to the throne room. Despite their repeated protests that they did not wish to be kings, each old man had commissioned a unique throne for themselves. The level of bejeweled and garish handiwork depended on the individual. Inuyasha sat among them, though on a plain wooden chair without even a cushion. That statement left him pissed off most days, but that was good considering who he was dealing with.

"My lords of the council," Musō said without bothering to bow. "I came to pay my respects and take my bride."

Inuyasha shifted in his seat. It was more uncomfortable than usual. The bastard was good-looking and rich. Kagome would be happy. Though he wasn't the kind for flowery language and flattery, it still rankled him that this asshole didn't even try. What had he done? Inherited a title? Inuyasha had done that and more, earned it a thousand times over. Who the fuck did he think he was not to show him respect?

"Your bride is the last remaining royal of this country," Inuyasha said, cutting off the other council members before they could even speak. "Taking her from us is not advisable. She belongs here."

The prince smiled but there was irritation in his eyes. "Forgive me, council, I am but an eager groom. I do not wish to upset the delicate peace in your kingdom and, considering the current climate, merely wish to bring my wife to safety in what will be her homeland."

So the asshole was going to make sure he had Kagome under his control and on his home turf before making a play for the kingdom. Smart. No way he came up with that himself.

Inuyasha opened his mouth to decree a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit that would prevent him from going anywhere with Kagome for at least a decade. But then the double doors opened once again and admitted someone none of them had seen in too long.

"Kagome," he said, instantly annoyed at her abrupt appearance. "I thought you were resting."

"Princess Kagome," Mukotsu said, stepping down from his throne on the dais and coming to take her hands in his own. "You brighten the room like the sun. My eternal gratitude for gracing us with your presence."

Her hair was up, waves pinned to show off her elegant neck and the pink shells of her ears. Kagome didn't look at him once, smiling at everyone but him before curtseying to her betrothed, showing off her cleavage in the process.

"Prince Musō," she said breathlessly. "You honor me with your visit."

The prince did not answer her, instead looking at her with an impassive face like he was studying something that only just barely just held his attention. But there was a gleam in his eyes as he looked at her. It was similar to the one in Mukotsu's and the one that had been in Naraku's. Inuyasha's fingers dug into the arms of his chair. He wanted to smash it apart over the bastard prince's head.

"Your portrait did not do you justice," Musō said. "Truly, you are without equal on the continent."

Her smile broadened. "I have done nothing to deserve such praise, my prince, but I will hold close your words tonight so that they may give me the sweetest of dreams."

Inuyasha wanted to retch.

He nodded in approval. "My father is expecting us back at our palace in one week's time, so we must leave tomorrow if we are to be punctual."

"If only I knew you were to arrive, I would have packed my things and happily gone with you," Kagome said, putting a hand on her bridegroom's. "Mightn't we delay a few days so I can get my possessions in order?"

Musō rolled his eyes. "Anything you have can be replaced a thousandfold in my kingdom. Pack a bag so we might be off."

Her eyes went big and her lips pouted. "My prince, I only wish to please you. A bride needs her trousseau. I do not wish to delay our union waiting for seamstresses to fashion new garments."

His nostrils flared and he looked like he was about to refuse, but his eyes drifted over her face and form, lingering on her breasts, and he nodded once. "Three days. No more will I give you."

Miroku appeared out of nowhere. "Prince Musō, allow me to see you to your rooms." He gave Inuyasha a meaningful look before leading the prince and his entourage out of the room. The bastard didn't even bother giving his respects before leaving.

"What the fuck was that?" Inuyasha asked once their visitor had departed.

"Indeed," Taigokumaru chimed in. "You did not at all adhere to what we discussed."

Inuyasha waved him away, his voice no more significant than the buzzing of a fly. Getting out of his seat, he marched over to Kagome, who stared at him defiantly with arms crossed.

"You are not supposed to be out of your rooms," was all he said when he finally reached her.

"And you are not supposed to sit on a throne."

He didn't bother pointing out how it was just a fucking chair and nothing like the other council members' attempts at compensating. They hadn't spoken since he had dismissed her from the room where Kikyo… The room that was now boarded up and shut off from the rest of the palace.

"You were laying it on pretty thick," he said. "Flirting with him like you couldn't fucking wait to get out of here."

"Sorry, I thought you all wanted me gone."

"We want you happily married in your husband's home, Princess," Mukotsu said. "As is best for a woman."

"But it's not what's best for the country," Inuyasha snapped. "We can have a council and a monarch. Even now, there are uprisings in the street. The people are confused and law has been abandoned. This is not the time for a change in government. We need order. We need a king."

Manten narrowed his eyes at him. "It is the opinion of the council that a monarchy inevitably leads to injustice. The people need what the council will bring about. In time, they will see it."

"Regime changes are always bumpy in the beginning," Taigokumaru said. "Do not fret so over it."

The description of him "fretting" like an old woman made Inuyasha grind his teeth. He wanted to tell the council to eat shit, but Kagome was on her way out.

"And where the fuck do you think you're going?" he asked.

"I have a trousseau to prepare," she said, glaring at him like he was doing something other than trying to keep her safe.

The idea of Kagome leaving the kingdom was unacceptable. It was so disturbing a thought that nothing else could take up space in his brain for the rest of the day. Complaints were brought before the council, always stupid things like land disputes between entitled non-laboring nobles, and his attention remained focused solely on the real problem at hand: Kagome.

If she left, things would get irrevocably worse. For the kingdom. War would happen and he would have to lead it. The council would not give up their power without a fight that would spill everyone's blood but their own. But if Kagome stayed and took the throne with that shithead prince, sending out announcements to allied kingdoms, then it would be easier to rule first alongside the council and then back to the old way of things. Then he could go back to his country estate and finally grieve.

Tonight. He would talk to Musō tonight. Do anything he could to make him see reason. And if he had to force him to stay, then he wasn't against that, either.

The nights had been hard ever since Kikyo had done what she did. Inuyasha had just managed to drift off when he was woken by a touch to his cheek. Instantly, his hand shot out and he grabbed the intruder by the throat. He could feel the gasp travel underneath soft skin and even before his eyes adjusted to the candlelight he knew it was her.

"Kagome," he growled. "What the fuck are you doing in my room? Who keeps letting you out?"

She smiled at him with twinkling eyes and he realized he was still holding her throat, which felt more intimate than it did threatening. His grip released like she had burned him and he even wiped his hand on the blanket like that could remove the act.

"I need your help," she whispered.

He barely heard her. All he could see was her black hair, blacker than anything, waving down her pale shoulders and coming to rest down her back covered in the maidenly lace of her nightgown. She smelled like the flowers of her garden and he was suddenly suspicious. Had she gone to meet her fiancé there? Who had dared defied his orders to keep her shut away where she was safe?

"Go back to your chambers," he said. "Everything can be dealt with in the morning."

"But it can't!" Her voice raised the slightest bit. "Please. One last time, be my knight."

That had him fully alert. He sat up. "What's happened? Is it Mukotsu? Did he touch you?"

She looked confused. "No. No, it's not him." Kagome bit her lip and turned away.

He studied her profile, and was struck in that moment by how much she looked like Kikyo. She didn't have the regal confidence her older sister had always exuded, but the soft curve of her jaw and the tilt of her nose was the same. Kagome's lips, though, her lips had always been fuller. He had always teased her about having a big mouth…

Inuyasha cleared his throat. "Who, then?"

Her big eyes turned back to him and they were darker than the night sky. If he stared too long, he knew he'd feel that falling sensation he sometimes did when drifting off to sleep, though he didn't know if he would catch himself this time.

"Musō. I need him gone. I need you to kill him."

His first reaction was to laugh. This was the same girl who had cried when she found out her kitten would never learn to talk and begged him to teach it. Kagome never wished evil on anyone.

"Go back to bed. You had a nightmare or something."

"No, I'm living the nightmare!" she insisted. Her hand somehow found its way into his. "It was his eyes, Inuyasha. They were wrong. Like… Like Father's were that morning."

He shook his head. "No, Kagome. You're scared, I get that, but Musō is important. You have to marry him. It's the only way this kingdom can go back to how it was."

Tears shone in her eyes, twinkling like stars. "I don't care. I don't care if Father's advisors rule forever, I can't marry him. I'll die if I have to, Inuyasha, I will."

"It's not just about you!" he argued. "Kagome, if you don't marry him, there will be war. Innocent people will die. I could die."

"So I don't matter, then?" she asked, and the hard shell that had grown around his heart cracked a bit. "If my life is ruined, as long as everyone else is happy, that's okay?"

His jaw set. "That's a woman's lot. But I have a plan, Kagome. You marry him here. I'll make it happen. You stay here and rule alongside him. Maybe you won't be happy, but you'll be safe. I'll make sure of it."

"I don't care about your plans!" she said, tugging her hand away from his. "And I'll ruin them, I swear I will if you make me marry that monster. I'd rather die like I planned than live a life with him."

"Stop being dramatic," he said dismissively to cover up how his heart rate increased with anxiety to hear her say that. "You'll do as you're told."

"Not ever again," she vowed. "Please, Inuyasha, I'll do anything. I just need him dead."

"And you don't care that his father will retaliate and bring war to us?" he asked. "It won't be like before where I'm shipped off somewhere. We will have war here at home. People you know will die. We will either be destroyed or it will give the council even more power than they already have."

She was resolute. "I don't care."

"You don't care that this means everything they say about you will be made true? How you cause the deaths of your intended."

"I don't care."

"And you want me to kill a man who has done nothing, not considering how that might affect me."

A pause this time, but then again, "I don't care. It's not like you haven't done this before." That much was true. "Please, Inuyasha. You killed for my father and you would have done it for Kikyo. Why not for me?"

"They could afford to pay me," he said drily. "And last I checked, all you have are a bunch of dresses and jewelry."

"I'll do whatever you say!" she said, and he could see the sincerity of it in her eyes, hear it in the desperation of her tone. "Just please liberate me."

"You'll stay in your room when I tell you to?"

She nodded.

"Fine. Then give me your maidenhead."

He expected Kagome to be shocked at his vile suggestion. To scream and shout and curse at him. Hit him and tell him she wished she never knew him. To hate him so much her future husband would seem like the prince he should have been more than the prince he was in comparison.

But instead, her eyes went wide and she paled before her cheeks turned pink. "A-Alright."

The fact that she agreed with it at all made him want to throw her out on her ass. To trade sex for a murder. Who the fuck did she think he was?

Who the fuck had he thought she was?

With one word, Kagome had killed herself just like Kikyo had. For the Kagome he knew was dead now, or even worse, had never existed. The back of his throat burned with bile and his eyes stung with what he hoped were not tears.

"I'll do it," he said. "But this won't be like when I was your family's dog before." Something in his face must have scared Kagome, let her know the darkness that was overtaking his mind and soul, for her lips parted in a gasp and she looked at him with eyes devoid of any of her customary coyness. "You're gonna owe me and I will collect," he said. "And everyone will know it was you who ordered his death."

"I don't care," she said one last time, chin raised in her defiance. "This is the only way I can continue to live."

"And of course your life is more important than the rest of ours put together," he said. "By the power of the council, you, Kagome Higurashi, are going to be held imprisoned in a tower room until my return."

By the look on her face, he could tell she thought he wasn't serious. That this was just like all the other times she had worn someone down and gotten her way. That there would never be any consequences for her.

But the world was different now, and so was he.

He summoned the guards outside his door and they took Kagome away without question. To his surprise, she walked alongside them obediently in her bare feet. He hardened his heart when she kept looking back at him as though waiting for him to say it was all a joke.

Alone now in the darkness, he could be honest with himself.

Inuyasha had never intended to let Kagome live any differently than she ever had. A husband? Maybe they would have had a wedding, but that was where their acquaintance would end. He had been willing to hold Musō hostage in the palace, imprison him in a fine room, confine him away from everyone else and have the prince sign his name to false correspondence to his father just to keep Kagome there. He had lost order, lost Kikyo, lost a vital part of himself. All that was left was Kagome.

Maybe war was inevitable.

The next morning found him taking a ride with Miroku to make sure the troops were organized and obedient. Uprisings had fallen but there were still rowdy patches and outer villages attempting to secede to this kingdom or that.

Musō had invited himself along for the outing.

"I needed to get out of that hovel of a room," he sniffed, looking at the mud on the ground as though it were a personal insult they had come up with just for his arrival. "Are you quite sure there is no carriage available for us?"

"As a kingdom, we are attempting to move away from vestiges of the old regime," Miroku said with a smile. "Riding in a carriage is viewed by many common folk as blatantly flaunting wealth. Going forward, we reserve carriages for private parties, or we use a plain carriage and travel in a larger group."

"One would think you had never ridden a horse before," Inuyasha said.

"It has been an age since my childhood lessons," Musō said, waving his fan at a fly that had come too close. "In my kingdom, the roads are paved and anyone who dared object to a prince in his carriage would have his head on a pike."

"Our roads are paved when they aren't an army training ground," Inuyasha said.

"Is the mud part of the uniform?"

He was so ready to fucking kill this guy.

"What does military training look like in your kingdom, Your Highness?" Miroku broke in.

He waved his fan in an elegant swoop that he supposed meant he had no fucking clue.

"The princess, is she nearly ready to depart?" he asked. "I would not have come myself, but Father insisted I make the trip personally to show our sincerity in continuing the engagement."

Inuyasha snorted. King Onigumo must be eager to get his hands on Higurashi and had sent his pretty-faced son to woo Kagome away.

"You know how ladies are," Miroku said jovially. "Much like a rare fruit in a preciously guarded orchard, she will be all the sweeter for waiting."

"Sweet indeed," Musō mused. "Most of these princesses look nothing like their portraits. I must admit I was quite pleasantly surprised with her. I was instructed not to take a mistress until she falls pregnant, but now that I've seen her to be a beauty it will not be such a hardship."

"Whoops!" Inuyasha said before using his crop on Musō's calf instead of on his horse. "My hand slipped. Apologies, Your Highness."

Musō glared at him and he knew had this been any other situation, he would have sicced his guards on him. But instead he just sneered and rode ahead.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Miroku asked in a low voice.

"Nothing," he said shortly.

"You look like you haven't slept in days and you're treating the most important guest of this regime like he's a criminal."

Musō wasn't the criminal, he knew that. Inuyasha was. But that didn't stop him from feeling the way he felt.

"He's an asshole," is all he said.

Miroku sighed. "This is about Kagome, isn't it?"

Inuyasha froze. Did he know? "Why do you say that?" he asked carefully.

His lieutenant looked uncomfortable, which was unusual for the abnormally confident man.

"I know you loved Kikyo and were going to marry her, and her passing is still so fresh, but… Well, you were always with Kagome."

"What the fuck does that matter?"

"Even though the moment Kikyo entered a room your attention was on her, you barely ever left Kagome. And you always look so happy whenever you're with her," Miroku said, unaware of the grave he was digging. "Honestly, a lot of us thought you'd somehow end up with Kagome instead. And this seems like somehow."

"Are you accusing me of wanting to fuck her?" Inuyasha asked, anxiety spiking. All those thoughts and feelings he'd been having over the years, since they were just kids, that he had never allowed himself to pay attention to. Had they been obvious to everyone else?

Miroku gave him a look. "Of course you want to fuck her. Anything possibly platonic between you two ended when she grew tits. No, I'm accusing you of being in love with her."

That was a worse betrayal to Kikyo than letting her kingdom go to ruin would be. "That's not possible."

"I am willing to speak to the council about the two of you," Miroku said, thinking he was helpful. "You're the leader of the military and the hero of the people. Kagome's the rightful heir to the throne. It could work."

His throat closed up. Marriage. Miroku was making sense politically. If Kagome was forced into marriage with him, who would she get to kill him?

Inuyasha rode ahead and gave Miroku the finger as he did so.

Prince Musō had ridden past the training army entirely and was sitting fanning himself while one of his guards watered his horse.

"This pathetic attempt at intimidation has only succeeded in making me pity you," he said flatly. "I will take my bride back to my home tomorrow, trousseau or no."

"Why would I want to intimidate you?" Inuyasha asked with a raised brow. "King Onigumo's might comes not from a military but from mercenaries. Mercenaries like your guards, who are loyal to no one but their own pockets."

At this, his two guards turned their swords on him and restrained him, wrestling him to the ground. It took only a moment and Musō did not resist.

"So," he said, as condescending as ever even when facing death, "you paid my own guards to kill me. Smart."

Inuyasha grinned and dismounted his horse, stepping close to him and forcing the prince to crane his neck and look up.

"I didn't hire them to kill you. I hired them to fuck you up a little first. I'm going to kill you."

The first punch took the prince by surprise even with that warning. Inuyasha watched him bleed. He had thought it would ease his pain and hatred somewhat to watch, but it only increased it. Inuyasha wanted to tear into Musō at his leisure, the way he hadn't had the chance to with Naraku. His feelings of rage and pleasure were disturbing in their volume and the thought flitted through his head that he might have done this at some point even if Kagome had not begged a boon of him.

Pearly white teeth littered the ground and the prince choked on his own blood. There was a stain on the front of his trousers. Blood and piss. Inuyasha held up a hand and the mercenaries stopped. Kneeling down, he grabbed the prince by the hair, tugging hard until he let out a sound unformed by his swollen and bitten tongue.

"This is for Kagome," Inuyasha said, taking a dagger out of his boot. He pressed it to the prince's throat. The man was barely conscious, his one eye that wasn't too swollen to blink looking up at him without recognition. "Kagome doesn't want you." Telling him that felt good. Too good. "I'm gonna send you to hell a spoiled, waste of space boy. Then I'm gonna be a man and make a woman out of your bride."

Something that was almost recognizable as a laugh. Like Musō did not want to trade places with him. Then he said something that wasn't quite a sentence. Garbled words that he turned over and over in his brain until he came up with: A bitch and her collared dog. I die free.

Inuyasha slit his throat.

Musō was unworthy to have his blood spilled on the same land Kikyo's still stained, but his temper had overcome him.

"The prince never arrived in Higurashi," Inuyasha instructed the mercenaries. "He was overtaken by bandits on the way." He looked them both in the eye and handed them a bag of gold coins from countries other than his own. "Your silence prevents war."

One of them smirked at him. "No, your payment does. Thank you for your generosity, my lord. Contact us should the princess find herself engaged again."

They stopped smiling when they saw the look on his face, nodding their obeisance and absconding with the body. He didn't give a fuck what they did with it. If they took him right back swollen with rot to King Onigumo, that was just as well as dumping him by the side of the road. But Musō would never step foot back in their kingdom again. Kagome was safe.

Kagome was his.

O\o/O

After he left Kagome, he nearly collapsed on his way down the stairs. The only thing that kept him going was the taste in his mouth.

Kagome. He had fucked Kagome. And he was going to fuck her again. As soon as he possibly could.

Yes, he had lied to her about there being a trial and shit, but she needed to learn her lesson. He was still angry with her for what she had asked of him. She should have never made that request in the first place. But fuck, was he glad she did.

Inuyasha briefly stopped by his own room to change out of his blood-stained clothes. A glance at the mirror showed a light bruising on his throat. The sight made his breath catch in his chest and his cock twitched. Kagome. It had always been Kagome. Now he knew that even if he had married Kikyo, he and Kagome still would have ended up tangled together somehow. It had only ever been a matter of time.

And now it was time for him to put his mask back on and protect her.

He went to the throne room where he was met with an abrupt silence that let him know the council had just been talking about him.

"Welcome," Mukotsu said, all false smiles.

"Lord Inuyasha," nodded Manten.

Taigokumaru merely glared.

"I take it you've heard that Princess Kagome's betrothed never arrived in Higurashi after all," Inuyasha drawled, taking his seat beside them. "And anyone who says any differently will meet a similar end."

"You overstepped, my lord," Mukotsu said. "And now we must enact damage control."

"A married princess would have gotten rid of her easily. Nicely. Bloodlessly," Taigokumaru said. "We were thinking mercifully. But now she's simply unneeded."

"There is only space here for those who contribute in the new regime," Manten said. "If one is not of use, then they will be discarded."

He snorted. "So much for your utopia. The only thing that separates us from the beasts is empathy."

"Where was your empathy when you slayed an innocent man and created untold problems for the rest of us?" Mukotsu asked harshly. "No, you weren't thinking with your heart. You were thinking with your cock."

"If we had the princess inspected, she would not be intact, would she?" Manten sounded disappointed. "Therefore, she has lost her use."

"You all are a bunch of fucking bastards," he said, getting up from his chair so quickly it almost toppled over. "None of you are gonna touch her so long as I live."

They looked at him with impassive faces. "We shall meet again at the full moon to discuss the princess. Everyone shall come up with a suggestion as to how to deal with her and debate will occur followed by a vote."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Have fun jerking each other off or whatever it is you do."

Inuyasha did not visit Kagome in her tower. Partly because he wanted to give her time to recover and partly because if he admitted his need for her, she would win. And he wasn't used to losing.

Even though losing to her would be rather sweet moreso than bitter.

It was after supervising military drills one day that Kagome found him. Inuyasha was walking through the palace halls, mind on any number of things that had nothing to do with his predicament, that he saw her practically skipping along as though she wasn't supposed to be locked up and safe in a tower.

"What the fuck?" he growled, grabbing her by the wrist and tugging her down a hallway out of sight. "Who the fuck keeps letting you out?"

She fluttered her eyelashes at him with all the innocence she no longer possessed. "I do have friends other than you. Don't be jealous."

His face heated. "I'm not!"

"I was looking for you, anyway," she said. Somehow, he had gone from a manacled hold on her wrist to holding hands with her. Kagome led him down the hall to a room he didn't recognize. Some unused guest suite, probably. What was important was that they were alone and there was a bed. "I missed you," she said almost shyly, closing the door behind her.

Then they were kissing. Inuyasha wasn't sure who broke first—who "lost"—but he didn't exactly care, either. However much she had missed him, he had missed her twice over. It had been torture not to go and see her, to hear people talk about her when they knew nothing of who she really was or what happened. To know she was alone and not be able to take advantage of it.

He pressed Kagome's back to the door and kissed her like it was the first and last time. Heat curled deep in his stomach and his tongue stabbed inside her mouth, seeking out more of her. Kagome shuddered against him and wound her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer. Her teeth nibbled on his lower lip before she pulled away. Inuyasha grabbed for her but she merely laughed, playfully batting his hands off. With one last hard kiss to his mouth, Kagome knelt before him.

"Fuck," he said, eyes going wide as she untied his trousers.

Her dark eyes glanced up at him alight with a mischievous glimmer. "We did that already."

Her small hands, so warm and soft, freed his cock and she smiled with an open mouth, her tongue swiping across her lower lip in a way that made his heart skip a beat. Then she looked back up at him and he stopped breathing entirely. Her eyes held him, arresting him with her gaze so luminous and deep, familiar and new, as she widened her mouth and took him between her lips. Inuyasha let out a shuddering breath.

Kagome let the head of his cock rest on her flat tongue before sucking and then licking around the corona. When she drew back and kissed down the length of his cock with little sucks of her mouth and swirls of her tongue, he could have died. Then she took it further when she approached his sac, her lips mouthing at one of his balls as she massaged with her tongue. When his balls were thoroughly wet with her saliva, she moved back up his cock, licking her way from the base back to the tip.

When she arrived at the head again, she sucked him down, working her way along his shaft with concaved cheeks. Kagome could only manage to take him about halfway, and thank God for that, since if she could deepthroat he'd have a lot of questions he wasn't sure he'd want answered. One of her hands gripped the base of him and twisted while moving up and down. Still, it wasn't until she looked up at him again with hooded eyes that he lost it.

The amount of cum he coated her throat with was almost embarrassing. That a seasoned military man like him, a lord of the realm, a member of whatever the fuck this fucking council was, was so easily undone by an almost-virgin would have to remain an eternal secret.

"Who fucking told you about sucking cock?" he gasped as she continued to suck the seed from his balls using his shaft like a straw.

Kagome licked a white gush of his cum from her lips. "Eri and Yuka are my favorite ladies-in-waiting for a reason, and the reason is they like to gossip about their trysts."

His brows and mouth made a frown but something in his eyes made her giggle. "Are they the ones who keep letting you out?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she said saucily, getting back to her feet. Her nimble fingers started at the laces on her gown and he was forever grateful she preferred front-laced dresses—the better to show off her gorgeous tits, he guessed.

Impatient as he always was, Inuyasha ripped her bodice like a knave in one of those novels girls like her loved. Kagome gasped in delight and he tugged her dress off her shoulders, baring her naked chest. Her nipples were hard and ruddy, the perfect sucking size, and he ducked down to take one in his mouth. Kagome's head fell back and he put a hand in her hair, fiddling about until he had rid the silky mass of all the combs she wore. Finally, her mane was free, and he used it to keep a hold of her.

Inuyasha moaned into her chest and switched to her other breast, nibbling at the tip of her generous peak. It made Kagome cry out and arch her back into his mouth. With her dress restraining her arms and him keeping a grip on her hair, she was perfectly bound. Like this, she would never get far from him. He would keep her like this forever.

"I've dreamed about this for years," she admitted softly.

"Me too," he whispered, pressing kisses to the fullness of her breasts and alternating between nipples. Of course, his dreams had been actual dreams and not fantasies, the kind that came with nocturnal emissions and shame that he tried to wash away in the morning light.

"At night, and sometimes even in the day if I faked a headache, I'd touch myself," she said, whimpering when he pulled her dress down lower and began to kiss his way down her ribs. "Imagining your hands. Your lips. Your eyes, yes, those eyes looking at me, watching as I lost my mind at your touch."

Inuyasha freed her from her clothing as though he found it personally offensive and pushed her down on the bed. Finally, he saw her completely bare. Kagome was beautiful, her naked skin pale and glowing like a pearl. Her nipples were red and bruised from his attentions, still shining with his saliva, and he felt his cock harden anew at this sign of ownership over the princess. The urge to feel her bare skin against his was suddenly overwhelming, and he undressed, tossing his clothes without a care as to where they would land.

He balanced above her, leaning on his elbow and one knee between her legs. Kagome's face was flushed and her pupils were enlarged like she had taken the poppy. Her lips were parted and he swooped down, pressing his own to hers. Kagome's arms wrapped around him and she moaned. She was so soft and warm against him, so small and special and perfect a fit. Inuyasha felt as horrible a man as her father. He once could have called her sister, and here he was between her spread thighs thanking the lord for at last giving him his due.

"I'm gonna fuck you," he said in a hoarse whisper, holding her chin between thumb and forefinger. "Whenever I want. Once wasn't enough." He knelt between her legs and held them apart at the ankle. He watched the goosebumps roll over her skin in a wave. "I took a life for you. You owe me for the rest of your life."

"A price I will gladly pay," she said, voice wretchedly hoarse and so sexy since he knew it was caused by his cock hitting up against her tonsils.

This was the best deal anyone had ever made, he was sure of it. Killing one asshole for a lifetime of fucking the most beautiful woman he knew? The forbidden fruit that he had longed for longer than even he knew? Merchants should take lessons from him.

Kagome's body was warm and he was going to make her sweat, he promised himself. Since she had taken him in her mouth, he thought to return the favor, and truthfully he had been dying to taste her. To stick both fingers and tongue inside her like a trained bear in a circus did with a honey pot, like it was his only purpose. To make her shriek and cling to him and say it, tell him over and over again…

At first, he was gentle. The sight of her pussy so close nearly made him audibly gasp, but he withheld it in time. All dusky pink and glistening with a tiny puff of dark bush at the top to crown her clit. He parted her dewy lips and looked inside at all the folds in her, watching her quiver in anticipation. Without planning, his tongue slipped out and took a lick inside, right up the middle. Kagome's entire body shivered and she made a helpless, needy little sound that made his mouth water.

His fingers were next, curiously probing her before touching all over. Inuyasha was suddenly reminded of priests. Even they were not permitted to directly touch idols of the mother goddess and used ceremonial cloths to avoid offending Her. Suddenly he understood the practice. But he touched her anyway, his fingertips running up one lip and down the other, passing over the hood of her clit before delving inside her cunt once again.

Before he drooled on her like a damn hound, he got his tongue back to work. Kagome's hips were jerking as she tried to stimulate herself using him and he placed a hand over her navel, pushing her back down on the bed and keeping her still like he wanted her.

As surreptitiously as he could, he breathed in the scent of her pussy and its desire for him. His mouth sucked one pussy lip in, nibbling at it delicately and then running his tongue over it. He repeated the process on the other one. Kagome squirmed, fighting to top him from the bottom as she tugged on his hair to direct him.

"Quit it." He scowled at her, stopping his work to peer up at her.

"Inuyasha," she whined, begged, pleaded, and fuck it almost worked.

"This is my time," he declared. "And I will do as I please. And right now it would please me to eat your pussy out without you seizing all over the damn bed."

"Ughhh," she whined sulkily, her arms spreading out on either side of her.

"Should've tied you up," he grumbled.

"That's a thought for next time."

The idea of her bound and ready for him like a doe at the end of a hunt had his cock hardening and mouth watering anew and he attacked her pussy with the kind of deadly enthusiasm he was known for more on the battlefield than in the bedroom. Kagome's back arched and he glanced up to see her breasts raised in the air like beautiful mountains. Her body was a feast he could enjoy for days without going hungry. His tongue swirled against her hooded clit and the tip peeked under to wiggle against her directly and that was when she lost it, shrieking his name.

Inuyasha kept going, sucking and licking and fingering her until her heels kicked at his shoulders in her attempt to get him off of her. It was as fruitless an endeavor as trying to will a leech off a limb. This wasn't just for her, this was for him, and he had not yet gotten all he wanted.

"Tell me," he said, not begged, never begged. "Say it again."

"What?" she asked, frenzied eyes looking down on him. Kagome was sitting up now and moaning as often as she breathed. Her orgasms came one after another and she sobbed, crying and smiling and sweating. "W-what is it?"

"You know," he said, almost sullen. "Tell me. Like before."

Understanding suddenly lit her eyes and she realized a way out of her torment. "I love you!" she cried, and even though it was under duress it was still the most beautiful thing in the world—other than her, other than her being his.

Inuyasha took her clit between his lips and gave one final suck before releasing her. Kagome fell back to the bed and shuddered with her last orgasm. Tears wet her face and he kissed them, mixing the salty flavor with her juicy sweetness and then sharing the flavor with her as he kissed her mouth. Her lips trembled and he ran his hands down her arms and then up her stomach and ribs until he was fondling her breasts. The muscles just beneath her soft skin were jumping and twitching like he had electrified her.

His animal brain figured he could not let her off so easily for continuing to defy him and escape her room. Still holding her and accepting her grateful and passionate kisses, before he could talk himself out of it he slapped her ass as hard as he dared. Kagome yelped and bit his lip.

"What was that for?" she asked, big eyes looking at him almost apologetically.

"You know exactly what you did," he said, turning them over so she was pinned beneath him again, right where he wanted her, right where she belonged. His long dark hair was down for once, freed from his warrior's tie only with her. "You're fucking testing me. Teasing me."

"You're the tease," she said breathlessly, her tongue coming out to wet her plush lower lip. "I'm just getting you back for years of you flaunting yourself in front of me. It's about time we both burned instead of me being consumed by myself."

She arched her hips and rubbed her pussy against his straining cock as her eyes dared him to take her.

Ever her obedient dog, he did.

Her eyes were darker than he had ever seen as they rolled back in her head, her jaw clenching along with her muscles as he fought his way inside her. There was no maidenhead to be found this time but it still felt so new. Her hot pussy enveloped him with fluttering kisses and he could have died a happy slave.

"Tell me," he grunted. "How does it feel, Kagome?"

Dark waves tossed on the satin-covered pillow as she looked up at him through slitted eyes. "Better than the first time," she whimpered. "Like—Like—Like a pagan worshiping a volcano god that longs to erupt inside her."

Inuyasha could have said she was like a goddess to him, that all the prayers that remained in him were to do with her, that she was everything. But words had never been his forte, and that was especially the case when he was inside her. All he could do was cover her mouth with his own and promise with his body what he could not with his words.

The way her fingers trailed down his neck, his shoulders, his spine, gave him more than the shivers. Her legs wrapped around his hips as she rocked against him. The hot, slick feel of her lit his stomach with a fiery ache. All his breaths came in sudden gasps and it only took a few minutes of burying his thrusts inside her hard enough to shake the bed for him to cum.

"Stay inside me," she said in a quavering voice. Her face was pressed against his shoulder and she was crying again.

It wasn't a request but rather a command, and even though he was still angry at her, he couldn't help but to obey. Inuyasha's fingers found their way to her clit and he rubbed her. Her hips snapped to his in shock and she let out a little cry. He could feel her pulse around his cock as she clung to him helplessly moving against him for more. It left him feeling two things that should have been contradictory: powerful and powerless. Because this wasn't a miller's wife or a farmer's daughter or a tavern wench.

This was Kagome and she was his now and would be forever. Like the idiot he was, though, he had gotten caught in his own trap and now he was hers.

"We would have done this anyway," Kagome murmured sleepily as he disengaged some time later.

"Huh?" he asked, already drifting off.

"I know you and Kikyo were in love," Kagome said, and that name made him fully awake. "But I loved you. And my plan was to beg you to take my virginity before my husband could." Her dark eyes were smiling at him in the waning sunlight. "You would have done it, too."

Now he knew he would have. All it had taken was for one of them to say what had been too long unsaid. What he had been forcing himself not to think about or feel.

Inuyasha snorted. "I wouldn't have been that easy."

"You wouldn't have been able to help yourself," she said, sleepily sultry.

His arms closed around her as if to confirm what she was saying. He made himself ruin the moment. "And you would have been okay with it? Hurting Kikyo?"

She stilled. "She knew how we both felt. One night would have been more than fair when she thought you'd be together forever."

Inuyasha did not know what to say to that, if he could even vocalize the horror and disgust he felt at himself. Now that Kikyo was gone, he had hardly wasted any time before moving on to Kagome. There had been many times Kikyo had joked that he loved Kagome and would leave her for her sister. Now he was realizing she wasn't actually joking but voicing fears and suspicions that he had just rolled his eyes at.

Falling in love with Kikyo had been sudden. He had been part of her personal guard for a time. Then one day she had taken him aside and kissed him. It had shocked him to the point that he had not reciprocated, just stood as though at attention. Kikyo had just smiled, as though knowing how thoroughly blank his mind had been wiped by true love's first kiss.

"She was always so quiet and alone," he said aloud before even realizing it. "And you were always laughing and surrounded by people that love you. She needed me more and I needed to be needed."

"I know," she said quietly. "I miss her. If she were here, she'd make everything okay."

"Don't worry," he soothed. "I'll make sure that it all works out."

Maybe that jinxed it. Maybe the fact that he knew he cared now made it so he wasn't making decisions with his brain but rather another organ. Or maybe he just was never meant to be happy.

Whatever the case, the next time he walked into the throne room for a meeting, he did it with an optimism he wasn't used to feeling. He was going to protect Kagome. They would work everything out together. This time, he would save the woman in his life and never watch one suffer again.

"Lord Inuyasha," Mukotsu greeted with his typically slimy smile. "We did not expect you to actually make an appearance today. What fun."

"Let's make it quick," Inuyasha said, baring his teeth in an answering smile that was more a promise of pain should he not get his way. "Kagome will be exiled from the capital, disinherited, and will lose her titles and whatever holdings that rightfully belong to the people. She will live her life in remote obscurity. But no one will force her out of the country or force her to be married to another power in order to strengthen relations with them."

In reality, he would take Kagome back to his country estate. His home. And she would live out the rest of her days with him in peace and quiet. They would walk the grounds together, she would run the house, and he would retire from the military. They would be happy.

The other council members looked at him expressionlessly.

"That's the entirety of your submission?" Manten asked.

"That is what will happen or you will regret it." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Case closed.

"While you were off skipping sessions and shirking your duties," Taigokumaru said, "we discussed the situation at length. It is our decision that the best thing for the people and the future of the nation is for the so-called princess to be made an example of."

"Death by burning," Mukotsu said with no small amount of satisfaction. "This will prevent any dictatorial monarchy from rising again."

"It will also show the people that our commitment to them is true and we will punish all who go against the good of the whole."

"No," Inuyasha said. What they suggested was such utter insanity that he couldn't even envision it, and he was no stranger to mulling over his worst fears made reality. "No. That's not happening."

"There has already been a vote," Taigokumaru said. "It has been decided."

"Kagome is innocent!"

"Her blood is a risk we cannot allow," Manten said. "What if some should seek to restore the crown to her line? It would result in chaos. No, she needs to go."

"I won't allow it," was all he said. "The military are mine. Guards, mine. No one will carry out your orders." He spoke quicker, as though he could make the words come true if he could just get them all out. "I can take her far away and she would never return. We could even tell everyone she was executed, get a convicted criminal from the dungeons and kill them in her stead. Kagome would never seek to reclaim her titles or anything else."

A sneer from Taigokumaru. "Look at you. The nation's champion reduced to a begging, blithering fool. Do you truly believe the troops you once commanded have not noticed your recent distraction?"

"The men talk," Mukotsu said. "They see you clinging most unmanfully to the princess' skirts. There is enough doubt there to create division. Some would follow you, yes, but they would be fighting against the rest who would not."

Manten broke in, "It really is a most merciful decision. The princess will be drugged and remain unconscious during her execution. She won't feel a thing."

"Of course, we could always make it so that she feels everything," Mukotsu said. "We could keep her alive. Cage her in a public square naked for the public to jeer at her and torture for untold days. If you insist on defying our orders, then things can certainly get worse."

Inuyasha sneered and his hand went to his sword. The guards instantly approached, the faces of the men he had trained and encouraged blank as though he were nothing but a bug to squash. He paused. Tried to think. What would Kikyo have done?

She never would have allowed herself to get to this point.

"Fine," he said. "But there's a price."

They glanced at each other. Obviously, they had expected him to fight. He had also expected himself to fight. But he wasn't the Inuyasha from before who was a tool, a dog, to be used against others. This was a new world.

"Name your price and we will consider it."

"Gold," he said easily. "Give me my pick of the treasury."

"The treasury belongs to the people—"

"I know you fuckers have been using it like your own personal bank to entice mistresses and pay off debts," he said. "I'm not a fucking idiot. Now it's my turn." When they said nothing, he continued, "You were right when you said that the men hold doubt in their hearts when it comes to my leadership. But that won't last. I've put in more hours with them than you have, and most will choose the devil they know over the alternative."

"Fine," Manten said at last. "Take what you want—within reason."

Reason was dead now that the whole world had gone mad. The instinct running through him was part familiar warrior and part something that felt a little too close to Kikyo's guidance. Yes, for her sake, too, he had to make sure that Kagome stayed safe.

There was no time to do much of anything in the treasury. All manner of precious goods and materials were there along with coin of every metal and denomination and kingdom. Inuyasha did not let himself become distracted; after all, he knew most of this was stained with blood and more cursed than anything else.

To his left was a silk bag embroidered with a tapestry of the kingdom's founding mythology, something that was old and precious and never meant to actually be used. He stuffed it with handfuls of gold and silver coins with a few copper thrown in for ease of use. A ring that sparkled with sapphires and diamonds, hair combs to match, and a tiny golden dagger studded with jewels. So as not to be suspicious, he draped as many gold chains around his neck as he could stand and swaggered out of the treasury with the stuffed bag like a merchant coming back from market.

Inuyasha made sure to stop and talk to every guard he recognized so they could see him looking like a gold-lusting fool. If the council was right, that would meet more with their approval than lusting after a beautiful and formerly untouchable woman. He was too preoccupied to examine their reactions to him with his usual focus, but the guards seemed wary and a little jumpy.

Good. Their shifting loyalties had made them feel guilty. They would be distracted. Their purpose was no longer clear.

Miroku's rooms were a short trip away. Without even bothering to knock, he opened the door, interrupting his lieutenant from talking yet another chambermaid out of her skirts.

"My lord," Miroku said, saluting lazily. "What brings you here?"

"I'm rich," he said, opening the flap of the bag and showing off his small hoard. "Dismiss the company so we might go over the next steps for our nation."

With a wave, the chambermaid scurried off, eyes wide and glancing at the treasure he held. The treasure that was worth less than nothing when compared to the most precious life.

"Wow," Miroku said, following it up with a lost whistle. "The council really gets a bigger paycheck than a captain."

"Shut up and take this," he hissed in a whisper, shoving the bag into Miroku's arms. "They're going to kill Kagome. I need you to take her to my country house."

He blinked at him. "Okay, this is a lot."

"Are you loyal or not!?"

"Oh, I definitely am. The council can go to hell. They've raised taxes on the common people to keep their sway over the nobles. People aren't only scared, they're starving and scared." He shook his head. "This is the end."

"And those bastards think burning Kagome alive in front of peasants will fix that."

Miroku grabbed the bag and looked a soldier once again. "What are the logistics of the plan? How will I get her out of the palace undetected? How will we be traveling?"

Shit, he hadn't thought of that. "Servants," he blurted out. "They're still loyal to her. There are some that are always breaking her out. Ask your chambermaid."

He nodded, considering. "There is considerable unrest among the working class. The old king was a monster but he at least was smart enough to make sure his people were well taken care of. Now they're being told they serve the new nation, but the new nation hasn't paid them consistently."

"Take your carriage. Brag to anyone who listens that you're spiriting off a maid you got in the family way."

Miroku raised a brow. "I'd ask if anyone would believe that, but you and I both know my courtly reputation."

"That's what you get for asking every decent-looking girl if you can get her pregnant."

"Yet I tried and tried to broach the subject with our fair princess, but every time you threatened to disembowel me."

He scowled at him. "And another thing. When you're on the run, keep your fucking hands off her. I'll know if you dare breach my trust."

Miroku held his hands up as though he were innocent and had not tried to touch the princess—and any fair lady—inappropriately multiple times.

"Calm yourself, my lord. The princess may be carrying the child of another man; what would it serve me to try to impregnate her with my own seed? Though I do confess I would delight in trying."

At first, he was blindly enraged at the information that another man had possibly impregnated Kagome. But then he realized that Miroku was talking about him. Yes, he and Kagome could have possibly conceived together. Why had he not ever bothered to think of that? Their affair had arisen out of mad circumstances so he had not been operating using all his mental faculties.

The heir to the kingdom could be inside her. The next king. The one who would save them all and restore order by his very existence.

"Just…take care of her," Inuyasha said. "I will come and collect her when things have calmed down here."

"And where will you go after that?"

He shrugged. "Anywhere."

At that moment, he realized his devotion to Kagome was greater than his loyalty to the kingdom he had always served. Instead of fighting to restore her line to the throne, he would spirit her away somewhere safe. They could live out the rest of their days together in a cottage by the sea. Happy.

Miroku seemed to want to say something but then thought better of it. He nodded. "I will take her tonight. We will be at your estate in three days' time."

"You'll be rewarded," he said, "with anything and everything I can give you."

He clapped him on the back and laughed. "Days spent alone with the princess is payment enough, my friend."

Inuyasha scowled at him. If he could be the one to take her away, he would. Damn it all, how he wanted to.

"I'll stay here and make sure the council has no idea about what's going on. They were talking about some granary taxes or whatever, so maybe a debate on that will help things."

"Almost makes you miss the old days, huh?"

Inuyasha would have died to get them back. Who knew that destroying what he thought was the greatest evil would bring an even worse one?

He returned to his rooms with an aching heart. The sun was setting now and soon Kagome would be taken away to safety. It would be months before he saw her again. He had never been on the other side of this before. Usually he was the one being sent away into the unknown. But the battlefield had morphed into something else entirely and he had to learn how to protect her all over again.

A quiet knock on his door some hours later interrupted his dreamless dozing. His hand instantly went to the dagger he kept under his pillow. Anything was possible now and he needed to be prepared for that. Slowly, he went to the door, opening it a crack only to have it flung open wide and be tackled nearly to the ground.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome sobbed. "Why can't you come with me?"

He held her tight, a curious mixture of anger and gratitude swirling through him as he glared at Miroku over her cloaked head. Miroku shrugged and smiled like he hadn't had a choice in the matter. He knew what that was like.

"It's for the best," he murmured, wiping the tears from under her eyes with his thumbs.

Kagome looked up at him and he would have laid his sword at her feet and sworn everlasting fealty to her and her alone had they met on a battlefield. Her lower lip trembled and new tears replaced the ones he had done away with. Frantic and out of options to soothe her, he did what he had wanted to do ever since they had last parted and kissed her. Her mouth opened with a tiny cry and his tongue met hers.

"I love you," she sobbed. "I love you more than ever. Please come with us, Inuyasha. I need you."

"We'll be together soon," he promised. "My job is to keep you safe, and right now that means staying here and making sure no one knows where you are and no one ever finds out. Once I feel confident things are okay, I'll come and get you."

"You swear it?" she asked just as she had when he had first gone away to war and promised to bring her back the prettiest present he could find in a foreign land. It ended up being a kitten she had cherished and overfed until its dying day.

He nodded, unable to help the smile that crossed his lips. Then he kissed her again, this time more for himself than to calm her down. Kagome pressed closer to him and he swore internally that he would never forget the feel of her in his arms and that he would fight ceaselessly until they were able to touch one another again.

"Behave for Miroku," was all he said.

Kagome frowned up at him but it was more like a pout. Was she trying to tempt him into shutting the door on Miroku and delaying her departure by an hour?

"You should tell him to keep his hands to himself."

Inuyasha glared at Miroku and reached for the knife he had stuck in his belt. "One word from her that you were anything but the perfect chaperone and I will unman you."

He visibly gulped but laughed it off. "Understood. Come, princess. Your carriage awaits."

Kagome looked at him with solemn dark eyes. "I'll be waiting, Inuyasha. I always am."

There was a lump in his throat but he managed the smallest of smiles for her. Her hand briefly met his and then she was rushing down the hall with Miroku. He stared at her back until they turned a corner. Only then did he look down and see the cheap protection amulet she had given him what felt like so long ago. With a feeling beyond duty, he placed it over his head and tucked it into his shirt, the last piece needed to outfit him for the battle to come.

For six days, Inuyasha met with the council and gave the bare minimum of participation in debates regarding the most miniscule of things—taxes on wheat, taxes on rice, fines for those who failed to pay their taxes. It was discussed how the nobility and land-owners were supportive of all the increased rates, which the other council members celebrated as a victory, but no one ever brought up how a suffering people would manage to nearly double their contribution. Inuyasha didn't even bother. He knew his voice would go unheard as did all things of sense these days.

"Last item on the agenda," Manten announced, squinting at the paper through his tiny round spectacles. "Princess Kagome has been located."

Inuyasha sat straight up, a sight that wasn't missed by anyone in the room. "Uh, I wasn't aware she had gone missing."

Mukotsu smiled at him, baring horrifically yellowed teeth that were trending towards orange. "We did not wish to bother you with the news that she had escaped. It seems Lieutenant Miroku and she were carrying on an affair and he absconded with her in the night some days ago."

"The fugitives were located on the road to the group of villages that make up Whispering Leaves," Manten continued.

Inuyasha held back a wince. That was right by his estate.

"A group of guards tasked with tracking the fugitives found them. Lieutenant Miroku refused to come peacefully, so they were forced to fight. The lieutenant was severely wounded and awaits trial now. The princess was killed at the scene."

If there was anything said after that, Inuyasha did not hear it. Ridiculously, all he could think was that if she had kept the amulet then she would have been protected. Instead, she had left it with him, prioritizing his unworthy self as she always had. As she never would again.

Never again would he hear her sweet laugh. Never again would all his skin prickle in awareness when he knew without looking that she was nearby. Never again would he kiss her. Never again would their eyes meet across a crowded room and he realized that he had been looking for her the whole time.

Inuyasha kicked the table they sat at, knocking over the council members. Mukotsu was the easiest one to catch and so he was the one he focused his rage on. He punched the cowering little man with fists that could not have struck harder even had they been gauntleted. There was yelling and he heard the clash of metals. Strong arms pulled him back from his victim and Inuyasha pushed them away. Mukotsu wasn't breathing, but he wasn't done yet. He had killed a king before and he would kill anyone who crossed him and defile their corpses in the name of his princess.

Kagome was the only thing that had kept him human. Now he was as they referred to him in war, the Devil Dog of Higurashi.

"My lord, please, we don't wish to hurt you!"

Inuyasha swung a punch at the voice and kicked out at someone else. It took five men to bring him down, but they eventually did. Even then, it was because the rage had burned off into something else. His throat burned and he was drowning in sorrow. All the grief he had repressed, the grief Kagome had been healing, was back a hundredfold.

The guards dragged him from the room and threw him out. Inuyasha sneered at them.

"She was innocent," he said, his voice quavering at the worst time. "If you had any loyalty, you would kill the damn council."

"We serve the nation, not the personalities in charge," one guard said. "Go now. We won't take you to the dungeon. We owe you more than that."

"Lieutenant Miroku has regained consciousness in the infirmary," one of them added. "You should speak with him."

Inuyasha ignored them. There would be time for that later. His brain was buzzing with the horror and outrage and guilt that would drive him mad if he intended on living longer than the rest of today. All he could think was that in the name of order they had driven out all order. Everything was chaos. He had sought to bring about justice and all that followed was greater and greater injustice. It was all his fault and he needed to make it right. Then he would at last be worthy of standing beside Kagome when they would meet again in the beyond.

He left the palace. There were no guards at the front gates, all of the guards who had not yet quit having been called to the throne room by his outburst. He left the gates open and emptied a bag of gold coins out on the ground in front of a crowd that was increasingly growing in size. They all looked like beggars but he knew mere weeks ago they had been regular people with regular livelihoods. It was his fault things had changed.

The crowd scrambled to grab the coins and he laughed, which made at least some of them look up.

"What good will it do you?" Inuyasha asked. "You can sell and sell and sell and will always be behind. Everything goes to the council. And when they can't take money from you, they'll take more important things. They took the only one I cared about and they'll do it to you, too." He held up his bloodied hands. "As of this moment, I am no longer Lord Inuyasha, member of the council. I am the sworn enemy of all who support the council, as they are the sworn enemy of the people."

There were murmurs in the crowd.

"My daughter went to work at Lord Manten's estate three years ago and we haven't seen her since."

"Lord Taigokomaru killed his own son for defying him."

"Lord Mukotsu has a new young bride every other year and they all pass before long."

Inuyasha spoke again. "They sit and think up new ways to harm others for their benefit. By this time tomorrow, laws will be put in place that will make it impossible for anyone but the landed gentry and above to prosper. But I am done fighting. They took the only thing I had left to fight for. If you object, make your voice heard." He pointed to the castle gates which had been closed since he had murdered the old king.

A fervent light lit their faces one by one, and had he still held any loyalty to the building he had left behind, he knew he would have died defending it that day. But his heart was in the grave twice over now.

The infirmary was his last stop. He cared nothing for anything else but would not leave behind his one loyal friend to the disaster that was sure to come. Miroku sat there, removed from the comforts he was used to as a low-ranking noble but high-ranking military commander, yet he did not seem too different from how he normally was other than the bandages. Inuyasha supposed that just because his world had ended did not mean it had stopped turning for everyone else.

"Let's go," Inuyasha said, grabbing him by the arm and helping him to his feet.

"But the nurse is quite fetching—" One glare shut him up and the cheesy grin left his face along with the rest of the comic act, revealing the real regret. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha."

His throat burned along with his eyes. "We're getting out of here before they burn the place down."

"What's happened?" he asked, walking as quickly as he was able to the stables.

"I let the mob in."

Miroku gaped at him. "The peasants… You let the peasants into the palace?"

He shrugged and saddled a horse himself as there was no stablehand to be found. Smart lads. "A bunch of guards abandoned their posts. Serves 'em right."

As Miroku was still injured, Inuyasha helped him onto the horse they would share, swinging behind him and taking off at a gallop. He heard the odd grunt here and there when they hit the ground hard, but other than that, Miroku was silent. Good. His lieutenant knew him well. They were making good time, too. If they kept it up, they would be at his estate by nightfall tomorrow.

A nudge to his ribs brought him out of the monotonous gray fog of his thoughts.

"Inuyasha, the horse is tiring. We should make camp."

He blinked. Yes, they should all rest. They had traveled along the river which was now little more than a stream and he tied the horse to a tree nearby enough so he could water himself. Inuyasha had not thought to bring any provisions, no canteens or food or a tent or anything. He gave Miroku the saddle for a pillow and his cloak for warmth. It was not yet cold enough in the year for them to need a fire. And even if he had brought food, he couldn't have stomached anything.

"I don't want to know," Inuyasha said as Miroku started to doze off. "Don't tell me how it happened."

Miroku grimaced. "I'll say this. I fought. They chased her into the forest. She screamed. The guards said she…that it was quick."

There was pain in his heart. "At least that," he said, voice sounding like an old man's even to his own ears.

It looked like he wanted to say more, but Inuyasha turned on his side and went to sleep. It occurred to him that he could try to find her body, and suddenly he wanted to so badly that he almost leapt to his feet, but then he thought about actually seeing her like that and if the animals had already gotten to her. There would be no way he would be able to escort Miroku to his estate after such a scene and it wasn't like he was well enough to get there by himself. No, Kagome would have wanted him to at least make sure the lieutenant was safe before he joined her.

That was the other part of his plan. He wasn't sure if Miroku could tell, but Inuyasha knew there was no way he could live in this world without her. Inuyasha could not and would not find love a third time. It was either putter around his house like a mad ghost for the rest of his days or fall on his sword, and he knew that the latter would let him see his love again sooner.

His love. He had never told her. And she had always been so earnest and forthcoming with her own affection.

A thousand different images of Kagome assaulted him that night. He could almost hear her voice.

Remember when…

He had been nine years old and an orphan of only a couple weeks. The king had summoned him to the palace and he was sulking in his new and unfamiliar environment. It was a small mercy that he had his own chambers to brood in, but the quiet was beginning to disturb him. Back home, it had never been quiet.

There was a knock on the door, loud and erratic in its pattern. That was new. He usually summoned a servant with a bell and then they came to get him with a gentle tap to announce themselves.

Inuyasha slid off the bed and gave the mirror a quick glance to make sure he was presentable. He was the last remaining member of his noble house and was a man now, no longer a boy.

He opened the door to find Kagome, who was maybe six and in a pink dress.

"Hi!" she said, walking inside like they were old friends when in reality he had met her exactly once at his welcome dinner for approximately five minutes before she was escorted to her bedtime by her nurse.

"Uh, what are you doing here?" he asked, cringing when he realized he had been rude to the princess. Well, she had been rude first.

Kagome was the type of kid who looked with her hands and not with her eyes. She was going through the stuff he had carelessly tossed on his nightstand—an old toy horse of carved wood his father had made himself, a stray button, a rock he had thought contained a crystal at first. She marveled at each of them like they were dipped in gold.

"I came to play," she said simply. "Kikyo is at lessons and her instructors won't let me sit in anymore."

He could only imagine why. "You're too little to play with me," he said. Back home, he had spent most of his time with his parents and was used to being the little one.

"Nuh-uh!" she protested, rounding on him with outrage on her face. "Look! I'm going to lose my first tooth soon."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "That's nothing. I've lost a ton of 'em."

Her eyes got even larger and shone with admiration. "Wow! So you can help me take mine out."

The automatic decline was almost past his lips before he took a second to think about it. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. And so he found himself grabbing a loose thread from an old shirt and tying it to his wardrobe door.

"What is this?" Kagome asked, words awkwardly shaped around the thread wrapped over her loose tooth.

"This was how my father took my teeth out," he said simply.

And maybe it was the memory of what he had lost and the anger at that injustice, but he slammed the door a mite too hard without counting down from ten like he'd told her he would.

There was blood everywhere, all over her hands and her pink dress and the string which now lay on the floor attached to a jagged and bloody baby tooth.

"I'm so sorry!" he said in a high voice. "Fuck," he said for the first time out loud since it was the worst word he knew and the only one that seemed appropriate given the situation. "I'll turn myself into the castle guards and go straight to the dungeon. Punish me however you want. I am prepared to die."

Kagome's face was pale and for a moment he thought she was dying and he freaked out all over again. But she simply smiled at him, mouth still dripping blood.

"Thanks! I'm gonna go show Kikyo and Father that I am too old enough to ride a horse."

She gave him a quick hug and then with a wave she was gone.

And that time

Inuyasha had been a new fifteen, the age every man in the kingdom earned the title of their trade. Though there were many paths open to him, the king had encouraged his natural physical prowess and he had chosen to become a warrior. He believed in their kingdom and wanted to protect the people from possible invasions. The oldest among them still remembered when barbarians had swarmed their shores, and he figured it was a noble's obligation to the rest of the kingdom to put his life on the line for all they did for them.

The training camp where he was posted wasn't too far from the palace and he had promised a hundred times he'd come back every other weekend for a visit. But obviously that was not enough for Kagome, which became evident one regular morning when suddenly all the guys around him started talking about a girl who had come to camp.

That confused him initially. There were no girls by the camp. There were whores and there were women who prepared their food and nursed them.

And then Kagome came running right up to him, her cloak which she must have thought concealed her identity made of velvet lined with ermine and studded with seed pearls. Any idiot could have figured out who she was.

"Inuyasha!" she cried out, throwing her arms around his neck. The act caused her hood to fall and exposed her dark head of hair, which had the tendency to frizz back then.

Inuyasha cringed and pushed her away. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

She bit her lip and he glanced at it, suddenly feeling hot. It made him angry and he crossed his arms as though to ward her off.

"Father said you chose to come here, but I don't think he ever gave you another option," she said, looking at him with those eyes that saw too much. "So I ran away from home. We can go together. To the edge of the world!"

There were snickers from some of the other guys and he flushed. "As if I'd want to go anywhere with a girl like you! Just go back home already."

She didn't react at first. But then she just smiled and he knew she understood. "My offer stands. Let me know whenever you wish to be rescued, my valiant knight," she said theatrically, blowing him a kiss goodbye.

There was a twist in his gut.

And then…

It was after his first really bad war. Inuyasha had been away from courtly life for so long that he had almost forgotten how to conduct himself. Every passing server made him flinch and reach for his sword, every attempt at conversation was shut down by his one-word answers, every noise was too loud.

But then she was in the room and everything was so, so much worse.

"Princess Kagome of Higurashi, making her debut."

Kagome was on the arm of her father, King Naraku, who looked bored. Gracious and elegant, she was like a completely different person. A fairy. An angel. A goddess. The neckline of her red dress was distractingly low and the bodice form-fitting, the diamonds and rubies that wrapped around her throat doing nothing to distract from those breasts that had come from out of fucking nowhere. There was a lump in his throat and a strange feeling in his gut.

And then they came to him. The king murmured some words of greeting to him and was off to fill his chalice with spirits, obviously unloading Kagome on someone he trusted not to manhandle her. Every other man was looking at her like they knew exactly what they wanted to do to her, but Inuyasha's mind was frightfully blank. Suddenly, he didn't know how to act around her, where to look that was not inappropriate, or what to do with his hands.

Kagome looked up at him and smiled. The corners of his lips quirked up automatically but then she flicked his forehead with a giggle.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered. "They told me you wouldn't return for a fortnight."

He scowled at her. The flick had jumpstarted his brain and brought back their dynamic. "I won," he said simply.

Kagome hugged his arm as he toured her around the ballroom. "No, I won."

Everything was right again.

But now nothing would ever be right again.

The night was spent cold and sleepless for him, though the chill mostly came from inside. His fault. It was all his fault. He should have run away with her himself, should have died alongside her, died protecting her. That was his mantra as he shook Miroku awake and saddled their horse. It was all he thought about now. Kikyo had made her choice and that was bad enough, but he had taken the choice from Kagome and it was all his fucking fault.

Inuyasha pushed the horse until Miroku started chiding him for his treatment of the beast. But he couldn't stop, not now. Not when they were so near his home, so near to where she had perished… Because what if he did find her? Happened upon a sign of her? He would never leave her. Dig a hole and bury them both in it. Slit his throat with what remained of her in his arms. Send Miroku away and possibly to his death with a flagging horse.

When he at last caught sight of his estate, he was able to feel something close to peace. His final mission accomplished. It would all be over soon. He had killed for her before and would do so one final time.

There was no activity on the vast grounds. The house was far smaller than some of what belonged to his peers, but it was ancient and had been in his father's family since the first stone was laid. It was where his father had brought his mother after their wedding, leaving behind his city house. It was where he had been raised until his parents died and where he returned whenever he could.

Miroku slumped against him, clammy. He sped up the last bit of the journey and dragged him off the horse. The doors were never locked this far out here but he pounded on the giant, solid oak surface anyway to announce his arrival. It was quite early yet and his few staff members were likely still abed.

The inside of the house was still mostly dark, no lingering lamps left to welcome them since no one had known of his arrival.

"Kaede!" he called out, knowing the old housekeeper was a light sleeper and her room was but a few doors down on this floor. "I need your help at once!"

Only now did Inuyasha regret pushing both his horse and his friend in his mad ride to get to safety. Miroku was unconscious and trembling, muttering something. The bandages on his head showed new bloodstains. The jostling during the trip must have caused friction that reopened his worst wound.

Shuffling steps alerted him to the presence of his most faithful employee. "Lord Inuyasha, why did you not send word of your arrival? Have I not told you that—"

The sight of him helpless stopped her. "Help him. Please."

She didn't even give him any of her usual grumbling. Kaede hurried off back to her room where he knew she kept her supplies. In addition to keeping house for him and his father before him, she was also something of a healer, though the village folk called her a witch—never to her face, and never when they needed her. Inuyasha had never been more grateful that he did not listen to the superstitious among his people.

"Here," she said, returning with things in tiny bottles and things wrapped in cloths. "Lay him down on the cushioned bench for now."

Inuyasha did as she said. Kaede busied herself unwrapping Miroku's bandages and began to dab at the wound, treating it with this and that. She uncorked one of the vials and parted Miroku's lips, pouring it in his mouth and massaging his throat to make sure he swallowed. After a few minutes, he seemed to ease, and when Kaede wiped the sweat away, the beads did not reappear. Only then did she begin to check his other, less serious wounds.

He finally felt the exhaustion that had been creeping up on him ever since that last council meeting. Inuyasha collapsed in his favorite armchair, the one he had played at the foot of as a child while his father read and his mother sang and told stories. Even the familiar feel brought him no comfort. He was cold, so cold.

And then.

"Inuyasha?"

At first, he thought he was hearing things. Then he thought he was seeing things.

Kagome was coming down the grand staircase, one small hand on the unpolished banister and the other rubbing the sleep from her eye. Her nightgown was diaphanous and white. Like an angel. Had he done it already, then?

"You and your surprises," Kaede said, eyeing him with a knowing smile. "At first, I thought the girl was lying, but she did seem like a noble lady. The look on your face tells me everything. You really did take a wife without sending word back home."

Inuyasha no longer cared if this was real, a dream, or some kind of heaven his dying brain had fashioned for himself. By the time Kagome reached the foot of the stairs, his legs were working again and he ran to her, holding her tight enough that she gasped at the force of it. Then his muscles gave out again and they were sinking to the ground. The burning in his eyes got worse and then better and he realized he was crying. He had not cried since his mother told him he was now the man of the house and had passed shortly after, following his father into the afterlife.

"Inuyasha, are you—?" Kagome wisely did not say anything further, instead held him just as fiercely until he could hear and feel the beating of her heart. His face was pressed against the side of her neck and his tears wet her hair as his body racked with sobs he refused to vocalize.

She was here. He had not caused her death.

When he was able to compose himself, they went hand in hand to his chair. Kagome situated herself in his lap without asking, smiling at him with an amused glint in her eye. Inuyasha was still too grateful to care that she was going to be hell to deal with now that she knew what she meant to him.

"Did you think I was dead?" she asked, somewhat unnecessarily, in his view of things. What, did she think he would collapse to the ground with her and cry just because he missed her?

Yes. Maybe.

"They told me," he said, throat tightening at the mere memory. "And Miroku confirmed it. I thought… I thought I had sent you to your death."

Her dark and starry eyes shimmered with tears of her own. "Oh, Inuyasha," she murmured, putting her arms around his neck and holding him close. His ear was pressed against her chest and again he delighted in hearing her heart beat, in feeling the warmth that told of blood rushing through her veins.

"What happened?" he asked, taking the cup of tea Kaede offered him and giving it to Kagome instead, who took a sip and thanked the housekeeper.

"A group of guards must have been following us. We were attacked by men in palace dress uniform and they read me a list of my supposed crimes before pronouncing my death sentence." She frowned just remembering. "Miroku fought hard and I was able to run away. I didn't get far before Hojo found me."

"Who?" he asked.

"You know Hojo," she said like he was famous or something. "Lord Manten's youngest. He was in your regiment."

A faint memory of a pale-faced, mousy-haired boy with too-big eyes was made more vivid by the kid peeking out of the doorway that led to the kitchen.

"I did not want to intrude, my lord," he said, voice just a little too faint without trying to be. "I just wanted to assure you that my father knows nothing."

Inuyasha beckoned him closer and shifted, covering Kagome with his cloak and ignoring her eyeroll.

"You saved her?" he asked, jealousy and gratitude and awe wrapped all in one.

He nodded, obviously proud of himself, and beamed a curiously winsome smile at Kagome.

"Of course! No matter what anyone said, she's the princess. The council was supposed to be a temporary measure until a new ruler was crowned. Just because she wears no crown does not mean she isn't who she is."

The wording was dumb and made dumber by the look of swinish longing on the boy's face as he glanced at her. Inuyasha wondered if Kagome would have survived if she were not beautiful, but supposed such thoughts were uncharitable and would have earned him a reprimand from her if she knew what he was thinking. As if she did, she put her hand in his and directed his attention back to her.

"Hojo was so gallant and escorted me all the way here," she said cheerfully, flashing him a bright smile. "I told Kaede that you and I were married since I was sure all the real truth of it was too crazy."

He snorted. "She would have sooner believed you were a runaway princess than that I had taken a wife."

Kagome snuggled closer to him and pressed a kiss to his brow. "I don't have to be a princess," she whispered. "I could just be your wife."

Inuyasha's heart skipped a beat. "W-what do you want?"

"What you want," she answered instantly, face perfectly sincere. "I want to be with you, Inuyasha. Whether we live here always or go back to the palace and take the throne."

"Long live the king," Miroku croaked, smirking at him from his place on the bench.

"How long have you been awake?" Inuyasha asked, wondering how long before he could safely hit him upside the head.

"Since your touching reunion, but as a gentleman I kept my silence."

"There's breakfast in the kitchen," Kaede announced, helpful as always. "Hojo, be a dear and let's help our invalid into a clean guest room."

He could have kissed her but instead kissed Kagome once they were finally given some privacy.

"You know, don't you?" he murmured in between the push of lips and the slide of their tongues. "That you're it for me. That I cannot, will not, live without you."

Kagome nodded and made a needy little noise, her body pressed against his so close he felt the pebbling of her nipples. His own body shook free from its tiredness to respond to hers. Only Kagome could pull him from the darkest reaches of hell itself back to the light.

"What will you choose?" she asked.

"You," he said, the only possibility that even made any sense. Inuyasha thought of their first time and how he had taken her—or had she taken him?—in a chair. They were close to a repeat. "The rest of it we can think about another day."

Kagome's eyes flashed like an obsidian blade, like polished onyx, like the evening heavens, and he was as lost in her and in finding himself inside her as he was supposed to be.