InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Battle royale ❯ Battle royale ( Chapter 1 )
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BATTLE ROYALE
Summary: They say love is a battlefield, but the fight can be sometimes unexpected. Sesshoumaru/Kagura one shot for Valentine's Day.
A/N: This is a little something for the annual celebration of love. I hope you enjoy.
“Talking”
`Thoughts'
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot… what a pity.
The dog demon observed the woman seated across from him, his golden eyes staring deep into her crimson ones. Their standoff had been going on for some time now, and he could finally feel the taste of victory.
`As it should be.' He thought to himself. He had never been defeated by her, and had no intention to start now. He was the almighty and feared dog demon Sesshoumaru, and would not let himself be beat by a mere wind demoness.
“Will you finally admit defeat? The victory of this Sesshoumaru is assured.” It was only his renowned cold disposition that prevented him from outwardly grinning. Of course since only the two of them were in presence he certainly would be able to get away with it, but he would rather take no chances.
Sweat beaded at her brows as fear and anguish rose inside her. This was it. She knew she would not get another chance to escape unless she managed to overcome him. Sesshoumaru was a strong demon physically and intellectually, but she was not Naraku's offspring for nothing; she could be as cunning and smart as he was.
`I have one shot to best him, and I won't ruin it.' The wind sorceress thought her crimson eyes thinning.
“I'll never give up.” She informed him through gritted teeth. Just like him she too had her pride, and giving up and surrendering were not words part of her vocabulary.
She sounded confident, but was not. She needed to think of a plan fast, or she would once again lose; an alternative she did not even want to face. She thought of baiting him, hoping to waste time to think of a viable strategy. She cursed under her breath. Had she had her trusty fan with her, she at least would have been able to mask her face offering herself some sort of protection against the dog demon's piercing gaze. She knew that when she played coy with the help of her fan, he was both attracted and irritated at the same time, a state she liked having him in. Drawing out his weaknesses was fast becoming one of her many talents.
“Hum I wonder why you seem so sure of yourself Sesshoumaru-sama. Our little match here is far from being over. No one knows better than you that appearances can be deceiving… The fact that you can only use one arm could for example make people think less of you.” She commented, her crimson eyes looking down to his remaining able arm, faking bravado she did not have.
She knew only she could get away with disrespecting him in such a way. Others, like his younger half sibling Inuyasha, would have been on the ground trying to stop blood from flowing out of their torn stomach. In fact the dog demon had promised severe bodily harm to whoever dared speak of his arm. He had not actually said it, but his cold glares were warning enough.
A growl escaped his throat at the mention of his unusable limb. It was a sore topic that everyone except Kagura tried to stay away from when conversing with him. Even Inuyasha, the source of the injury did his best never to speak of it, or look at it.
“Make your move wind sorceress or accept your defeat.” He sighed exasperated. She pouted. The fact that she had not been able to get to him annoyed her. She had hoped that mentioning his arm would have been sure to bring him to switch the topic, enabling her to have more time to think.
“Get ready then.” She said a smile replacing her somber expression. All of a sudden she had seen a golden opportunity and intended to seize it. Taking a deep breath Kagura took a few small white squares and placed them on the grid where other ones had been placed earlier by the two of them.
Sesshoumaru's eyes followed her movement with much interest. When she leaned away from the board, he felt victory swell into him.
“It seems my victory is complete.” He once again had a hard time preventing a grin from appearing on his lips. Something about Kagura always prevented him from masking his emotions.
“What do you mean? Placing the letters there gives me super points, or whatever it's called. All I know is that I win anyways.” She shrugged a smile spreading on her painted red lips.
“Nihilarian?!” He repeated the word she had just placed on the board. “My dear the rules of scrabble stipulate that the word must exist in order to win points. I am afraid you did not mark any points.” He chastised her. He uselessly tried sneaking a claw inside the heavy cast set on his broken arm. Had his limb not been broken in three places, a cast would not have been needed at all, but in this case even the great demon that he was was in need of a little help to heal.
`Had Inuyasha not dumbly tried impressing his girlfriend…' Sesshoumaru thought to himself, his cheeks turning slightly red in irritation. He pushed away the thoughts of his sparring accident with his younger half sibling to focus back on the wind sorceress seated on the comfortable carpet in front of him, across from the coffee table of their living room. She was now looking up at him with big round crimson eyes.
“Sesshy. Honey. Sorry to disappoint, but the word does exist. I know it!” She said as gently as possible not willing to say that he doubting her intellectual abilities angered her beyond words.
“The word exists, the spelling is just wrong.” He remarked in a fakely casual way.
“No I know…” She started, not able to keep her anger bottled in longer.
“Kagura.” He interrupted her. “The word is spelled with an `e,' after the first n, not an `i.' I am sorry for your mistake, but I have won.” He corrected her.
“Really?! I was sure there was all `i's' in it… Now why don't we check?”
“You wish to look up the word in the dictionary?” He asked mockingly, already taking to his feet. At her nod he went towards their bookcase and struggling to do so with one hand did his best to find the word in the dictionary.
“Did you find it Sesshoumaru? Read the definition aloud.” She instructed reaching up to idly trace the feather plucked inside her bun. It was a nervous gesture the dog demon had long ago learned to identify.
“Fine. I found it…” He trailed off.
“So what does it say?” She asked him again, eager to find out who had won. The tight look on his face made her think that she was soon to get a victory of her own. Not wanting to uselessly get her hopes up she added “Just read the whole damn definition aloud.”
“Fine. This is what it says. A noun. It is said of a person dealing with things of little or no importance.” He let out through gritted teeth. “It seems that the word is spelled with `i's', there is not an `e' in it…”
“Ah so I was right. And you were wrong.” She said happily. “I won! I finally beat you Mr. Know it all. You should see your face it's priceless. After years of trying I finally beat you.” She had to actually refrain herself from getting to her feet and dancing around in glee.
He closed the dictionary with unnecessary force and placed it back in its place on the bookcase behind him. Instead of answering her baiting and mocking words, he expressed his anger and frustration in an unexpected manner. He walked towards the coffee table and reclaimed his place across from Kagura. After kneeling, with a grand gesture he swept the board off the table with his able arm, ruining their game of scrabble.
“What a sore loser you are.” She snickered. It was rare of her beloved Sesshoumaru to lose his countenance, but when he did, she enjoyed seeing it. And being the cause of it? It was priceless.
“What do you want?” He asked her trying to prevent his anger from shinning through even more. He was already berating himself for losing control as he had just done. He knew that Kagura would not let him hear the end of it now.
“Oh I had almost forgotten about our little wager honey.” Her words only caused him to glare. They both knew she had not forgotten one bit.
“Do not make this Sesshoumaru repeat himself.” He gently scolded his wife and life mate.
“I'd love a foot rub.” She sighed happily only thinking about it.
“This is all you desire?” He asked in surprise. He was sure she would have asked him something a little more time consuming or degrading to him, then again she did have a full twenty four hours to think about it.
“What you refuse? You used to massage my feet all the time when I was pregnant with Rin and then the twins…” She said slightly disappointed. Ever since the start of the New Year her work had been stressing her a lot, and she would have enjoyed a nice massage to help relax. “Besides it's Valentine's Day and you have to be nice to me… not to mention that I'm sure you wouldn't want Inuyasha to know about what just happened.” She added slyly.
“I have no need to worry about this. The idiot would not even know the meaning of nihilarian.” He retorted. He was about to abide to his wife's request, but her last words had gotten his interest. He therefore decided not to tell her of his initial intention.
“I would have to agree Sesshy, but what I meant was that he would definitely mock you if he knew that you did not uphold your word. We did promise that whoever won would be able to have the other one do whatever the winner wanted. You are to be my slave for a full day…” She reminded him of the rules of their game.
“You would stoop as low as blackmail?” He asked her, an eyebrow raised in surprise.
“Honey you know me enough to answer that one. Besides we didn't become successful lawyers because we have golden hearts, did we? Now get to work. As you know I've been in court all day long, and I'm exhausted. I really could use a relaxing massage…” With these words she reached down to remove her socks and extended her feet towards her husband, wiggling her painted toes.
Instead of speaking a word, Sesshoumaru stood up then bent over his wife and to her surprise easily swept her off the floor. Despite the present disability of his arm, he effortlessly placed her on their expensive brown leather couch. Only letting a small grunt escape his lips he placed her two feet in his lap then used his uninjured hand to gently massage her left foot.
“It's too bad we had to cancel our Valentine's date at the last minute.” Kagura said whimsically.
“Had you not smothered her with recommendation and warnings, our sitter would not have run away.” Sesshoumaru pointed out, observing his wife from the corner of his eyes.
“I know she was highly recommended by your mother, but that babysitter did not seem competent enough to me.” `Maybe I shouldn't have threatened her with my fan, I may have overdone it…' She mused to herself.
After seeing his better half menace the young dog demoness sent by his mother to babysit their three children, so that Kagura and he could have some well deserved time together, Sesshoumaru had taken away, despite her strong protest, Kagura's fan and hidden it.
“It had taken this Sesshoumaru months to get a reservation…” He said repressing the urge to roll his eyes. The restaurant he had wanted to take her to had been booked on Valentine's Day, but after a lot of trouble he had managed to get a table, but now due to his wife all his efforts had been for naught.
“Honey I don't need a fancy restaurant to have a nice time. All I need is you.” She smiled to him, her eyes full of love. Even though he did not say anything, she could tell by the shinning hue in his amber eyes that her words had pleased him. She usually did not go around professing her love for him, but neither did he.
“Besides things aren't so bad.” She added slyly. “The kids are in bed. We're enjoying good wine, and having fun… isn't that the best way to spend our Valentine's Day? Just the two of us.” Kagura asked her husband who was dutifully rubbing her feet. After all he was the almighty and powerful Sesshoumaru and he never went back on his word. Despite his reluctance to do it, according to the terms of their wager, he was to his horror to be his wife's slave for the next twenty four hours.
`She was just lucky she received good letters, I on the other hand… In any case I will defeat her next time.' He thought to himself, as his only able hand gently worked her feet.
“A little more to the left honey.” She instructed ignoring the look of deep annoyance burning in his amber eyes, which had replaced the contented look he had earlier.
“There there it's okay. No need to be such a sore loser, we are having a great time, at least I am.” She cooed gently as if she was addressing one of their twins who were still toddlers. Her words only increased the anger burning in her husband's eyes.
“Ah yes I believe this year we had a great Valentine's indeed.” She remarked. She could not help herself from baiting him. Every time she managed to get a reaction out of the frigid dog demon she felt extremely powerful.
“No need to pout honey. Next time I'll let you win.” She said rolling her eyes just before removing her feet from his lap.
“This Sesshoumaru does not pout, nor do I need you to lose to beat you.” He remarked truly exasperated. Kagura only chuckled at his words before leaning forward to place a kiss on his stripped cheek. Her kisses quickly traveled from his cheek to his lips, where they were very welcomed. Even if he had wanted not to, his body could not help but respond to his mate's display of affection.
“Oh come on no more arguing.” Kagura said breathlessly when they broke apart from their deep kiss. “If you want we can have a rematch.” She interrupted herself to give him one more open mouth kiss. “Or we could go and try some other sort of wrestling… the type that's not as intellectual, but brings so much more pleasure…” The words were barely out of her mouth that he had wordlessly picked her up and placed her over his shoulder before heading up the stairs towards their bedroom. Her laughter was heard throughout the house as she let herself be carried.
Defeating her husband at a game of scrabble was fun, and so was being the one in power for a change. She may have beaten him today, but she knew that it was not that big of a victory. Falling in love with Sesshoumaru had been one thing, but making him love her back, now that had been a real battle. One she was glad she had won… and so was he.
THE END
A/N: Surprised? If you were I'm glad. I wanted to write something for Valentine's, but I only had time for a one shot like last year. I do hope you enjoyed it. I'll try to update Special Delivery this week, if I can't there'll be an update for sure next week.
Saphira404