InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth Hurts...in a good sorta way. ❯ A happy ending. ( Chapter 22 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"He wants me back...He wants me back...He wants me back...He wants ME back!" Kagome's mind sang; her mouth moving a mile a minute as each and every bubbly thought that dared crossed her mind easily tumbled free of her lips. She was practically skipping as she sang this gleeful little ditty.

She should be mad, Kagome noted, both internally and externally.

After all, he tricked her. She understood at least, after the fact, why he had insisted she not open her present until she was able to visit Rin, but was it too much to ask that he just fucking say it?

A "don't go Kagome" would have worked wonders in thier situation.

Hell, a "nice shoes ...wanna fuck?" probably would have done the trick too.

Not that Sesshoumaru would ever BE that crass of course, but it was an interesting scenario to ponder.

Unfortunately for Kagome, the words the Taiyoukai chose were a little more then cryptic and hinting on sneaky.

What did she get for his stupid choice of words?

A whole month of aching mouth muscles?

Coupled with a long trek through the dense forest?

Oh...he had better REALLY miss her when she got back.

Of course, in a perfect world, Kagome could say she met the Taiyoukai hours later (just as the sun began to set against the horizon) right where she left him. She could say that she climbed a gentle embankment and found him, chopping wood, shirtless, glistening with sweat...when their eyes met. He'd inevitably would stand rigid as his eyes brightened at the realization she had returned and extend his arm(s) so that she could drop her pack so she could run carelessly into his arm(s).

Why he'd be chopping wood she didn't know.

Wasn't that how things always worked though?

The girl left ...and while she wasn't looking the man ran off and did something ...manly....and when she returned he was half naked and glistening.

Kagome sighed as she allowed the mental image, obviously brought about by one to many romance novels, warm her lower body.

She was SO going to give it to him when she got back. (In every sense of the phrase)


Unfortunately for Kagome, the world is an imperfect place.

Fortunately for Kagome, she could most definitely confirm that Sesshoumaru did bathe, and surprisingly enough, he could prove ill observant if one was lucky enough to sneak up on him while remaining downwind.

Kagome faltered slightly as she stepped into the clearing, thankful that the image of Sesshoumaru sitting, with his eyes closed, in a steamy pool of water, effectively killed each and every thought in her mind.

That was of course, until she realized he was naked.

"Holy hell ....You're naked." Kagome mumbled in a tone of appreciative wonder.

The Taiyoukai's eyes immediately shot open as he noted her presence, but he remained seated in the hot spring, staring at her as if she might be carried away with the breeze, while he let his eyes roam over her body.

'What is she doing here without the half-breed?' Sesshoumaru's startled mind wondered. He was more then happy to see her, of course, but what was she doing here?

Hadn't he let her go only this morning?

Had the half-breed rejected her after realizing there was no way he could compare with a Youkai such as himself?

The barrage of questions that plagued his ancient mind only seemed to fill him with mixed feelings of anger and elation.

If Sesshoumaru's brother was foolish enough to touch Kagome he would surely parish, but if such things meant she would seek out the demon lord's protection...

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow shot up into his hairline as the young miko's words finally registered to his ears.

Why would his nudity be cause for such an outburst?

They had been naked together.......numerous time, Sesshoumaru noted as the exact figure seemed to escape him, so why now would she.........

Kagome flinched as the Taiyoukai seemed to give her a quizzical look.

"Kami..." She groaned as she realized just how stupid she probably sounded. "Not that I thought you would bathe in your clothes...or pictured you bathing..."

Kagome's face grew a deep shade of red as she continued.

"Okay...maybe just a little..." She admitted while holding her thumb and forefinger exactly an inch apart. "but...I couldn't help it...you know...cause...you're..so...Kami...

Both Sesshoumaru's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as the girl before him seemed to babble incoherently in a very familiar way. He had seen her babble like this before. More specifically...he had seen her babble like this a month ago.

"Do you need any help?" Kagome questioned as she cast her gaze into the water, obviously attempting to catch of glimpse of his lower body, and hiding the deliberate action horribly.

"You opened your present." Sesshoumaru drawled; fighting the familiar twitch in his cheek muscle as the girl before him squirmed uncomfortably.

"I did." Kagome admitted as she lowered her head in defeat. "I didn't want to.." She attempted to explain. "..but Inu Yasha said I was a prostitute...and then I had to know..........and then I wondered how much I would ...make...if you know...NOT that I thought you were that kind of man..er..demon..or whatever..I just...You'd think I would have recognized it...The Shinjistu flower I mean....I saw them a month ago..when this all started ..but so much has happened...

"Get in." Sesshoumaru ordered while allowing the corner of his lip to curl in the slightest of smiles. It was all he could take. He had to put the poor thing out of her misery. If he just let her stand there, there was a good possibility her lower lip would simply fall off.........and he had plans for those lips.

"In the water?" Kagome questioned dimly.

Sesshoumaru arched a curious eyebrow at her. His eyes lazily scanned the trees around them as he silently questioned WHERE she came up with such questions.

"Yes." He finally answered smoothly.

"Without clothes?" Kagome questioned again, this time earning a full on smirk from the Taiyoukai.

"I believe that is the general idea." Sesshoumaru cooed. "Do you typically bathe fully clothed?"

The question of course was rhetorical; more a question to agitate then to be answered. He had seen THIS particular miko bathe on more then one occasion, and each time, she was blissfully, gloriously, and beautifully nude.

An arrogant snort escaped the reclining demon lord's throat as the young woman approached the bank and slowly began to remove her clothing while mumbling curses at him under her breath.

Sesshoumaru understood, from their month traveling together, that her curses were not necessarily directed toward him, but toward the fact that he had bested her again. It was ironic really; if anyone else dared call him such names he would have had their head in a second.

From Kagome, however, the words only proved to fuel his desire.

An anticipatory twitch to the Taiyoukai's groin, hidden by the steamy waters of the spring, was the only sign that he acknowledged the now naked miko descending into the water with him.

He was attempting to remain casual; after all, he had gone from losing her to possibly regaining her in a matter of hours.

Now was not the time to blow the deal with an overly exaggerated show of feeling.

"HEY!" Kagome barked as she lightly punched him in the bicep from her place a good arm's length away.

Her breasts were obscured by the water, something Sesshoumaru felt was a grave injustice, as he again allowed his eyes to focus on hers while he braced himself for yet another bout of, what he expected would be, random ramblings.

"Why the flower?"

Sesshoumaru blinked softly.

She was going to have to elaborate on that one.

Fortunately, the power of said flower never left him wanting.

"Why didn't you just ASK me to stay? Or hell I don't know...tie me to the bed?" Kagome stuttered slightly as the second thought tumbled from her lips.

Somehow ~oopsie~ just didn't cover it.

"You wished to be tethered to my bed?" The Taiyoukai questioned, obviously more then a little pleased with her line of thinking.

"That's...ugh..." Kagome groaned. "That's not what I meant...I mean...I thought...You didn't want me to stay..so I left...if you would have asked me...I would have stayed."

"Are you suggesting you wish to stay with me?" Sesshoumaru questioned with interest. This question, of course, he'd asked a million times, at least in his mind.

All though usually, he noted, the word "forever" tended to punctuate the thought.

"Yes!...DUH!" Kagome answered; the influence of the flower making it impossible to hold such a powerful thought back...even for a second.

"Would you..." Sesshoumaru paused as he pondered the words internally once more.

They sounded weak to him somehow and he hated weakness.

That was the rub wasn't it?

To be weak ....or...a coward?

A miserable coward at that.

A miserable horny coward...

"Would you become my mate?" Sesshoumaru finally spat out as his thoughts because a little darker.

He had all ready lost her once today; he wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

"Uh...." Kagome faltered honestly; damning the flowers for not letting her be a little more eloquent at this pivotal moment.

"Is that like being married?" She questioned.

Sesshoumaru pondered her question momentarily as he thought of most of the human "married" couples he had spied upon in his long life.

From what he understood...married humans...rutted at insane intervals, and then abruptly stopped to instead scream at each other over burnt meals and women one met while under the influence of saki, until finally, they began sleeping in entirely separate rooms while grumbling over each other's poor hygiene.

Why did she think he would subject her to THAT?

"No." Sesshoumaru finally answered, a bit confused as relief didn't blanket her features.

He might never understand humans.

"Simply put." The Taiyoukai explained as he silently drank in her features in an attempt to understand what she was thinking.

He supposed he could have just remained quiet and waited for a random thought to tumble past her lips, but he decided it would prove better to keep them on subject.

"When a youkai takes a mate, that mate is bound to him. That means she can not offer herself to another, must obey her lord in all matters (this, of course, was HIS interpretation), and will eventually become mother to his pups."

Kagome's eyes grew wide with understanding, excitement, but thankfully not terror; much to the demon lord's relief.

"Sounds like marriage to me." Kagome pointed out blandly; obviously missing her none so subtle queue to answer the aforementioned question.

Sesshoumaru snorted in a very ~whatever~ sort of way as he stared at the girl before him and waited for her answer.

Why was she being so ...randomly quiet?

"What?" Kagome blinked as she suddenly realized Sesshoumaru was looking at her expectantly.

"You are not saying anything." He pointed out.

"I can't help it...you're naked." She replied dimly, her eyes trailing down his form as the shallow water offered her the slightest of peeks.

Of all the things that Kagome had tried over the last month to clear her mind, having the demon of her dreams (having replaced a certain hanyou several weeks ago) propose marriage in a very ...naked sort of way.

Well, it certainly seemed to do the trick.

"I am awaiting your answer." The Taiyoukai pointed out gruffly; his tone slightly agitated as he realized her mind was more then likely as blank as a sheet of unused parchment.

'Quiet later, talk now.' His inner mind growled out.

'Correction.' Sesshoumaru's inner voice quipped again.

'Scream later, talk now, quiet ....afterward.' A lecherous smirk threatened to break his serious expression and he stifled it as he eagerly awaited some sort of response.

"Well...yes of course!" Kagome answered suddenly.

Did he honestly think she might say no?

After all the I-am-Kami's-gift-to-woman crap he'd been laying down all month you'd think he wouldn't bother asking.

"What do I...erm..." Kagome nibbled her lower lip. She figured there had to be something they had to do to become mates. Considering what they had done all ready, she was a little worried what 'becoming a mate' entailed.

For all she knew they had to have sex while standing on their heads.

Which of course was absurd...but it was the only position they hadn't tried yet.

So she'd do it if she had too...but...

Sesshoumaru's clawed hand reached out and covered the mumbling woman's lips as he stared down with a light chuckle. Her thoughts on how they would become mates, all though interesting and slightly strange, were again getting them off topic.

"I must mark you." The demon lord explained.

"Here." He added as he removed his hand from her face and lightly pressed the pad of his thumb against the sensitive skin of her neck.

"ACK!" Kagome winced as she practically held his thumb in place while her neck painfully wrenched against the tickling intruder.

"But...it tickles." She whined.

"I am aware." Sesshoumaru answered as he raised an amused eyebrow into his hairline and locked his lustful golden eyes with hers.

"I will just have to distract you." He cooed as he leaned in to place a kiss against the struggling young miko's lips.

"NO!" Kagome exclaimed as she raised her hands in a halting gesture.

The Taiyoukai flinched visibly.

Perhaps he had not explained what it meant to be mates appropriately.

"If this..." Kagome faltered as she attempted to explain her actions through broken thoughts.

"If this binds us.... If this means we are together forever." She explained. "Then I don't want to be distracted. This is important...and...I want to remember every moment of it."

Sesshoumaru could not stop the expression of surprise that momentarily twisted against his features.

"It will hurt." He offered in a completely non consoling way. If she really wanted to experience such things, especially considering how sensitive her neck was, she needed to understand unequivocally just what she was asking for.

"I know." Kagome nodded as she nibbled her lower lip nervously again.

"Just...I guess..erm...hold me so...so I can't move." She added shyly while raising her arms in a way she hoped would be helpful in such a task.

"And uh..." Kagome offered as she resisted the urge to flinch away from the Taiyoukai that approached her.

"If I scream...ignore me." She finished with a half-chuckle, feeling a bit silly as he nodded once to her request and moved her back against a stone in the hot spring while he pinned her there with his body.

Now, many romance novels end with the couple walking off into the sunset.

Some even end with a wedding or perhaps the birth of their first child.

Still others end as the couple grows old together only to be buried under the same conveniently placed willow tree as they spend the rest of their afterlife together in bliss.

This love story, however, the story of Kagome, Sesshoumaru, and a mystical flower that brought them together ends in a hot spring.

A high pitched "EEEEeeeeeeee" echoing through the forest, accompanied by a very low and masculine muffled chuckle as two beings pledged their lives to each other under the cover of the dense forest.

Later the sound of panting and splashing would successfully communicate the bliss the union evoked, only to be followed by the sound of silence.

The bite, Kagome would note later, didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, and that her ....reaction...was possibly the teeniest bit overdone.

Perhaps it was the fact that the bite symbolized his love for her that eased the pain?

It still hurt of course, but that didn't make the sentiment any less true.

He loved her, and that was an indisputable truth.

Apparently, the truth hurt sometimes, Kagome would note nostalgically sometime later in their lives, but sometimes...in a good sorta way.