InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Sacred Treasure and a Hanyou ❯ The Things That We Hide ( Chapter 13 )

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

Chapter 12
The Things That We Hide

“You fucked him, didn't you?”

Kagome had tried to sneak past the living room so that Sango wouldn't jump on her. She sighed when she heard her friend's voice, turned around and leaned against the frame of the door.

Perhaps she could play innocent. “What are you talking about?”

Sango looked away from the television and gave her a chiding look. “Please, Kagome. You walk out of Eden with him last night and then show up today in a guy's shirt, sans bra, your hair undone, and smiling like a fool.” Sango stood up and crossed the room. “Not to mention this.” She reached up and pulled the collar away from Kagome's neck, running her finger along the side of it. Kagome, marveling at how good Sango's eyesight was, winced when she hit a particularly tender part. ”Gods, Kagome. Was he trying to eat you?”

“He did that first.”

Sango's eyes widened and Kagome suspected that she, herself, wore a similar expression of surprise at her words. She watched as Sango's lips twitched, and then the girl started giggling as she followed Kagome to the bathroom.

Kagome frowned at her reflection in the mirror, pulling the collar away and inspecting the bruise on her neck.

“I've never understood why guys do that,” Sango said, from the door.

Kagome shrugged. “I suppose it's like marking their territory. But, instead of peeing on you, they give you a hickey.” She met Sango's eyes in the mirror and both girls started laughing.

“So? Details? Is he an animal in bed?”

Kagome rolled her eyes, pushing past her friend to make her way to her bedroom. ”He's part dog demon,” she said, over her shoulder as she rummaged around in her dresser for a fresh shirt and jeans. ”That should tell you enough.” Kagome walked back to the bathroom. “I'm taking a shower,” she said. “And, no I'm not telling you anything else,” she added, when Sango opened her mouth.

Kagome shut the door firmly on Sango's pout.


Kagome sat on the kitchen counter, sorted through her mail from yesterday as Sango made dinner. She put all the envelopes to one side and flipped through a magazine.

“Okay, I won't ask for any more details about the sex,” Sango said, finally relenting to Kagome's silence. ”So, are you guy's dating? Is it official?”

Whatever she had just dumped into the bubbling sauce started to cook and made the kitchen smell wonderful. Kagome didn't have the faintest idea what she was making, but her stomach started to rumble, making her realize that she hadn't eaten anything yet that day.

“I don't know. Maybe,” Kagome said, shrugging.

Sango stopped what she was doing and stared at her friend. ”You don't know?” she asked, incredulous.

Kagome shrugged again and, finding nothing particularly interesting in the magazine she was looking at, jumped off the counter to throw it away. ”Well, he had to wait nearly three months before he even saw my face, and then another two before he got my phone number.” Kagome started studying the rest of the pile of mail. She held up one that looked like it might be interesting and started to open it. ”Besides, he's Inuyasha Takahashi. I'm sure that he goes through women like you go through tissues when you watch romantic movies.”

“You really like him, don't you?”

Kagome, distracted by what the letter she was holding was saying, shook her head slightly. ”What makes you say that?” she asked.

“Kagome Higurashi, don't play with me,” Sango said, sharply. Kagome looked up, startled by her friend's tone. ”You have gone on, I don't know how many dates, since we've known each other, and I don't remember the last time you let down enough walls to actually sleep with a guy.” Sango paused and started stirring the sauce again. ”This one's really gotten to you, hasn't he?” When Kagome didn't say anything, Sango held up her spoon threateningly. ”Well?”

Kagome stared at her friend, looked back at the letter in her hand. Holding it out, she smiled. ”I've been invited to audition for the city ballet.”


“You marked her?”

The emotion in the voice was enough to make Inuyasha look up in surprise. The only emotion on his half-brother's face was a slight widening of his eyes.

“No, not exactly.” Suddenly feeling like an errant child, Inuyasha had the urge to cross his arms over his chest and scowl. ”I just made it so everyone with a good enough nose would know she is mine.”

He had been close, though, so close. Even now, through the full bodied flavor of the wine, he could taste the salty sweetness of her on his lips, could still feel her skin under his teeth. He had almost lost control, had pulled himself back from the edge of unreasonable lust just before he broke the skin, just before her blood welled to the surface to rush into his mouth.

“Does she know you did this?” Sesshomaru asked.

Inuyasha sighed and leaned back in his chair. A light breeze blew through the opened front of the small bistro where they were eating dinner. A group of young women walked by, their conversation punctuated with a gasp of ”oooh, the Takahashi brothers!” and then giggles when they saw the two white haired men sitting at a table close to the sidewalk. Inuyasha didn't even glance at them.

Sesshomaru raised a thin eyebrow. “You didn't even look,” he said, referring to the women that had walked by.

“So?”

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed slightly. “Who is this woman?”

“I already told you. Her name is Kagome Higurashi. She is attending the dance academy here in the city and works at Onadoru.” Inuyasha went back to contemplating his glass of wine, not mentioning that she was also an expert at using various whips against his flesh.

“What is her background like?”

Inuyasha frowned. ”Why does it matter?” he asked, almost growling.

Sesshomaru looked faintly amused at his half-brother's defensive tone. “I do not really need to remind you of Yura, do I?” he asked. ”The girl that wormed her way into your bed and then almost wormed her way into the family?”

“I still claim that she drugged me,” Inuyasha said.

The edges of Sesshomaru's lips twitched. ”So, am I to assume that your weekend will be filled with assignations with Miss Higurashi?” he asked, letting the subject of Yura drop, much to Inuyasha's relief.

“I don't think so.” Inuyasha paused, twirled the stem of his wine glass between his fingers before downing the rest of its contents. ”Tomorrow is the new moon.”

“Ah.” Sesshomaru looked away, glancing over the rest of the patrons of the bistro. This topic was still not a comfortable one between the brothers. ”You have not told her of this?”

“I don't see why I should,” Inuyasha said, once again on the defensive.

Sesshomaru sighed. ”Inuyasha, the way you act around this woman, she may as well already be your mate.” Sesshomaru paused as the waitress came over to their table to give them their check. ”Purring, Inuyasha? Close enough to loosing control that you nearly mark her?” Sesshomaru leaned forward in his seat. ”She has changed you, this reincarnated miko. Probably for the better,” and a small smirk touched Sesshomaru's lips at his half-brother's mock snarl. ”But if you hide this from her, what else will you hide from her? And where do you draw the line? Today it is okay to not tell her about this dual nature of yours tomorrow it will be just fine to not tell her that you are leaving for Paris in two months for business -which used to entail you drinking too much and fucking any girl you could take home with you. What do you think she will do if she finds out on accident? Stay with you?” Sesshomaru leaned back and shook his head, the last rays of the evening sun giving him spectacular orangey-yellow highlights that shifted and glinted as his silvery-white hair moved. ”If she is as smart and wonderful as you have made her out to be, she will, more than likely, feed you your balls before leaving you.”

Inuyasha grimaced at the image his half-brother gave him. Contemplating his empty glass of wine, he started to slowly nod his head. “Fine, he finally conceded. “But not this month. We are too new,” he said, looking up at Sesshomaru. ”I don't want to mess this one up.”

As they left the bistro and climbed into the waiting sedan, Sesshomaru looked at his half-brother and couldn't help the small smile. ”This one has really gotten to you, hasn't she?” he asked, softly.

Inuyasha stared out of a tinted window for a long moment before turning to face Sesshomaru. ”More than you can even imagine,” he said. “Don't look so amused. One day it will happen to you,” Inuyasha warned.


Kagome refused to stare at her phone and will it to ring. She refused to sit around her apartment all day, carrying the phone with her just in case it did ring. She refused to pick it up and call, because he had said he would call. He had called, yesterday. Twice. But Kagome wasn't sure if she counted the one she had received immediately after she had left his house; he had called to make sure she had given him her real number.

"You're being stupid," Sango said. "If you want to talk to him, just call him."

Kagome gave her friend a pained look. "But-"

"Gods, Kagome. Put some clothes on and let's go do something." Sango threw the magazine she was reading on the couch and stood, jerking Kagome up with her. "I refuse to let you sit around the house all day and stare at the phone."

"I wasn't staring!"

"I know. You were trying so hard not to look at the phone that it was driving me crazy." Sango shoved her friend into her room. "Now, put something on that doesn't require too much effort and let's go see a movie or something."

The movie idea was quickly vetoed by Kagome. "What if he calls while we're in there?!" Sango rolled her eyes and they decided to shop instead.

"I can't believe you are acting like this," Sango said, watching as her friend held up a light green, lacy camisole that would look stunning on her.

Kagome, perhaps brought back to herself by the mundane act of trying on clothes, looked up at Sango. "Me either, really," she admitted.

"Was the sex really so good that it made you turn into a simpering version of yourself?" Sango asked, wide eyed. "Jeez, it brings a whole new meaning to 'fucking your brains out'."

The lady at the counter gave them a strange look, and Kagome laughed as she paid for her clothes. "I need some new dance stuff for my auditions," Kagome said, as they walked out of the store and into the bright afternoon light.

"When do you leave for London?" Sango asked.

"Five weeks." A huge grin appeared on Kagome's face. "I'm so excited."

"Do you know how many people get asked to audition for the Royal Ballet? Like, none. I wonder why they asked you."

"Sango, that's not nice," Kagome said, giving her friend a mock pout.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that, and you know it," Sango said. She paused outside of a window, peering through the reflections to see inside. Grabbing Kagome by the hand, she pulled her friend inside the store. "Have you told Inuyasha that you're leaving yet?"

Kagome suddenly became very interested in her surroundings. Sango had pulled them into a small lingerie shop. When Kagome didn't answer, Sango frowned at her. "You haven't told him you're leaving the country and possibly never coming back?"

"It's not that easy, Sango. And besides, who said I was never coming back? I have an audition with the city ballet here," Kagome protested. "I could very well decide that Europe is not my thing and decided to live here the rest of my life."

"I'll bet you haven't even called your mother to tell her," Sango said, narrowing her eyes.

Kagome looked somewhat indignant. "I was going to call her tomorrow and tell her," she said. "Here, what do you think about this?" She held up a pink teddy that had furry trim around it.

Sango sighed. "Okay, I'll go with the subject change. But, you have to tell Inuyasha," she said. "And, I think if you are going to buy that to wear for him, you should get it in white. That way your fur matches." She paused and smiled wickedly. "Their bondage clothing is upstairs. Perhaps you can find something more appropriate up there."

Sango laughed as Kagome turned away from her, her cheeks a bright shade of pink even as she made her way, unhurriedly, to the stairs.


They had come to an understanding. Inuyasha would not patronize Onadoru on the nights that Kagome worked, and she would not be hired for private dances by anyone. This agreement came after the hanyou had nearly castrated a customer when he had requested Kagome sit with him.

"That is my job," she told him, trying to keep her temper under control. "If you don't like it, then don't go there."

Inuyasha glowered at her. "And you are mine," he retorted. "I don't want you coming home to me smelling like another man." His eyes narrowed even further. "In fact, I'm not sure that I want you working there at all. I have enough money that I could pay off your loans and you could move in here, so you wouldn't have to worry about rent or bills."

Kagome had taken a deep breath. "No," was all she said.

"No?"

"First of all, I am not quitting my job for you," she told him. "Let's get one thing straight -if you can't accept what I do, then let me know now. Because I don't feel like going through the emotional turmoil of finding out in three weeks, or three months, that you resent me because of my job. I already went through that once, and I'll be damned if I go through it again. Second, I'm not even going to be here for most of this summer, so I won't be working at Onadoru for much longer and there won't be any bills or rent for me to pay. And third, since when did I become yours?"

"Fine. I won't go to Onadoru on the nights that you work. But I will not be able to tolerate you coming to me with the scent of some pervert all over you," he growled.

"As I recall, you were once the same as all the rest of my clients," Kagome pointed out. "But you aren't a pervert?"

Inuyasha scowled. "No. And besides, everything is different now. Ever since you-" he suddenly broke off, and the scowl turned into a look of confusion. "You're leaving?! When?"

A deep breath was taken in. It had been a week since her conversation with Sango in the lingerie store, and she still hadn't told him. "In a month," she said, softly.

"To where?"

"London. They're flying me there to audition for the Royal Ballet."

The silence was deafening. "When did you find this out?" Inuyasha asked, his voice low.

"The night I was at Eden." Kagome glanced away from his slightly betrayed look. "I didn't know that things between us would go so far. And every time I thought to tell you, something would come up, or it just didn't feel like the right time."

"When were you going to tell me? The night before you left? Was I going to get a phone call from you while you were in the air, or were you going to wait until you landed, thousands of miles away from me, to tell me?"

The angry, pained tone of his voice made her wince slightly. "I don't know," Kagome whispered. "I just wanted to make sure..." she trailed off, staring down at her hands.

"Make sure of what?" Inuyasha's tone softened somewhat when he stopped his pacing and turned to look at her.

Kagome looked up at him, felt something prick sharply at the edges of her eyes, felt her heart constrict slightly at the look on his face.

"Make sure that this was real," she said, her voice low enough that she saw his ears twitch forward to catch what she was saying. "Make sure that I wasn't just another fleeting attraction for you, another notch in the bedpost." She paused and looked away again. "I refuse to let you do that to me," she finally said.

Inuyasha stood, rooted to the floor, staring at her as though she had suddenly told him that she was, in fact, male and had somehow managed to hide it from him. His silence lasted so long that Kagome felt it as a palpable thing, reaching out unseen fingers and forcing her to look at him again. She was sitting on the edge of his bed, hands clasped together, looking for the entire world like a student about to be reprimanded by a teacher.

Inuyasha took two steps toward her, gathered her in his arms, and buried his face in her neck. "This is real," he whispered in her ear. "I'm not going to use you and then leave you. I could never do that to you. You are more special to me than you could ever imagine, my little dancer."

Whether it was his reassurances or the use of his endearment for her, Kagome felt the tension, which had slowly been building in her, loosen. She relaxed in his arms, pressed her head into his chest.

"The only pain that should be in this relationship should be from the end of that whip you wield so well," he murmured, causing Kagome to giggle softly. Inuyasha sighed, held her tighter, and rubbed his cheek against silky raven tresses. "I'm going to miss you while we're gone," he said.

Kagome nodded, her ears filled with the sound of his slow, steady heartbeat. "I'm going to miss you too," she said.

Something whispered through her mind that what he had just said was wrong, that his words didn't quite make sense. But, his fingers had cleverly found their way under her shirt, and his claws were tracing invisible, distracting patterns on her skin. Too content to do anything but yield beneath his persistent fingers and mouth, Kagome shoved the nagging thought away as she felt a fang graze her lower lip, forcing her to open her mouth to his insistent tongue.


"I have something I need to tell you. I'll send the car over to pick you up."

"Tonight?! You have to do this tonight? Inuyasha, I'm running around my apartment like crazy, trying to get everything packed and you all of the sudden need to tell me something?" Kagome shoved her bangs out of her eyes, trying to cradle the phone between her head and her shoulder, while folding her clothes. "You can't tell me over the phone?"

"I think I should tell you in person," he said, his softly urgent.

Cold fingers of dread started to work their way through Kagome.

"Inuyasha, I don't have time for this. Can it wait until I get back?"

"I won't be here when you get back."

Icy fingers suddenly clenched painfully around her heart. "What?" she whispered, so quietly that she wasn't sure he had heard her.

"I have to go to the office in Paris for a few months," he said, after a short silence. "I'm leaving the week before you return."

The shirt she had been folding fell from her fingers and she sat slowly down on the bed. "When did you find this out?" she asked.

"I go there every year around this time. My half-brother likes to have me over there to make sure everything is running smoothly."

Kagome stared at the blank wall of her bedroom, letting his words sink in.

"You knew?" Fire suddenly raced through her, replacing the cold dread with red-hot anger. If he had been in front of her, she would have strangled him. "I can't believe you. You get angry at me for not telling you I'm leaving, and now, what? I'm just supposed to be okay with the fact that you know that you leave the country every year and that you're just now telling me? And all of the sudden you have something so important to tell me that I'm supposed to drop everything and rush over there to you?" She paused, not to let him defend himself, but to take a breath.

"Kagome-"

"No, I'm not done yet. Whatever it is, it's just going to have to wait. I have too much to worry about right now without having the added burden of you suddenly needing to reveal your deep, dark secrets to me." She found she was pacing and forced herself to stop. "What is it, Inuyasha? You want to break this off after telling me how special I am to you, after telling me that I wasn't just another fuck for you? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I knew from the beginning that I was setting myself up to be hurt by you." She paused to take another breath.

"Kagome, listen to me," he said, talking over her when she started ranting again. "I'm not breaking up with you, far from it. I just..." he trailed off, and Kagome could practically see him shaking his head and running his hands through his hair; the way he did when he was frustrated. "There are some things about me that I really think you should know. It's very hard for me to tell this to people, hard for me to trust anyone enough to share this side of myself with them," he said, and his voice had become a low, pained whisper. "Only my brother knows."

Kagome sighed and sank down onto the edge of her bed. "Inuyasha, I'm sorry, but I just don't have time for this," she told him. "We couldn't have talked about this yesterday?"

"It has to be tonight," he said, sounding very adamant about it.

“What's so special about tonight?”

“It's the new moon,” he said, matter-of-factly, as if it explained everything.

Kagome paused, her brow and her nose scrunching up to prevent a headache she just knew was about to come. “If that what you need to tell me?” she asked. “That you have an obsession with astrology? That's fine, Inuyasha, I don't mind. I love to read my horoscope too.”

“Kagome-”

“Inuyasha, I'm really sorry but I have so much to do. The taxi will be here very early tomorrow to take me to the airport. We agreed to meet up in Europe, can you tell me then?”

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and it lasted so long that Kagome started to wonder if he had hung up. “Yes,” he finally said, his tone slightly depressed.

“I'm going to miss you,” Kagome said, softly.

“I'll miss you too, little dancer.”

Kagome bit her lip and willed herself not to cry. “I'll see you in three weeks?”

“Twenty-nine days,” and this time he sounded more like himself.

As they said their goodbyes, as Kagome hung up, her mind started reeling with all the possible things he could want to tell her. When Sango walked in and Kagome told her friend about the odd conversation, chocolate brown eyes widened.

“He's going to propose to you!” Sango squealed.

Kagome frowned, trying to remember if she had packed her toothbrush. “That's ridiculous, Sango,” she said. “Why would it being the new moon have anything to do with him proposing to me? Not to mention, why would he propose anyway?”

Sango made a rude noise in the back of her throat. “I don't know. Maybe it's a weird tradition in his family. Maybe it has some crazy youkai significance. Hasn't he told you he loves you yet?”

Kagome turned her frown on her friend. “No,” she said.

“And how long have you two been together?”

“What exactly is your definition of 'together'?”

Sango sighed and sank down onto the bed. “Never mind. Do you have everything packed?” she asked, apparently deciding that a change of subject was the best course of action. When Kagome nodded, Sango jumped up and pulled her friend into the kitchen. “One last drink before you leave,” Sango said, putting a full glass in Kagome's hand.

She cautiously took a sip. Sango was one of those people who just loved to experiment in the kitchen. With everything. When the fruity taste washed over her tongue, she looked at Sango in surprise. “This is actually pretty good,” she said, laughing at her friend's mock scowl. “What is it?”

Sango grinned and shook her head. “You don't want to know,” she said.

The two friends sat on the kitchen counters, enjoying their last night together. And when Kagome finally crawled into bed, she prayed that the drinks and the conversation would be enough to calm her nerves so that she could sleep.

Images of a white-haired man kneeling before her haunted her dreams.