InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bishies Without Shirts ❯ Finally! ( Chapter 28 )

Chapter 28: Finally!

Sesshoumaru opened the bathroom door and stepped out into the hallway, closely followed by a thick, white cloud of steam and the wegome's little brother. As strange and harrowing as this entire experience had been, and as much as he was anxious to return home, he had to admit that he was going to miss the warmth and convenience of the mechanical bath. He had never felt so clean before in his life as he had in the last 48 hours.

"Hey Sessho-kun!" Souta exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down in one place. "You want to learn how to play a video game? Inuyasha picked it up really quickly, so I bet you could, too!"

"Thank you, but no." He said quietly, shaking his long, silvery mane, which now smelled remarkably like strawberries, thanks to Higurashi-san's soaps. "I'm beginning to feel very weary from lack of sleep. I think I'll turn in for the night."

"Aw, come on! It's only 8:30!" Souta whined, tugging on the youkai's arm. "Just stay up for another half hour, then it'll be my bedtime anyway!" While Sesshoumaru tried his best to think up a diplomatic way out of having to play with Souta yet again, the sound of the downstairs door opening reached his ears, signifying the return of Higurashi-san and Jii-chan from the shrine.

"Souta! Kagome!" Higurashi-san called up the stairs as she passed by, "I want you to brush your teeth now. After what happened last night, I want everyone in bed early!"

"Aw, Mama!" Souta protested loudly. "I got plenty of sleep last night! It's not fair!"

"Well, I'm sorry dear, but your sister did not and she'll be sleeping in your room again, so I'm afraid you'll just have to go to bed now like everyone else. Now get moving! I'm going to be up there in five minutes, and I expect you to be in bed by the time I get there!"

"Oh man…" he grumbled under his breath. "Yes Mama! Excuse me, Sessho-kun. I have to go brush my teeth…" Souta walked back into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, as hard as he could without making too much noise. He was angry, but he wasn't stupid. Sesshoumaru, meanwhile, was breathing a small sigh of relief at his good fortune. Unlike his small human friend, he was not in the least disappointed by Higurashi-san's edict. He was looking forward to sleep, and perhaps tonight he could "convince" Inuyasha that it was his turn for the bed… But as he was about to walk into the wench's bedroom, he collided with the wegome herself, who was coming out at the exact same time that he was going in.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed, looking up timidly at the youkai. "Excuse me, Sesshoumaru." Was it his imagination, or was she blushing? If not, there was definitely something different about the girl…what could it be?

"Ah, Goodnight!" the wegome said hastily, moving around him to dart down the hallway to her brother's room.

"Odd…" Sesshoumaru whispered to himself. What was going on? He had just turned his back on the girl in favor of sleep, when he realized what had been different. She hadn't been wearing the same clothing that she'd had on at dinner. She had been wearing a long red shirt with a white stripe across it, that fell just above her knees. True, it was her bedroom, and she may have changed into her bed clothing…but if he was not mistaken, he had seen that shirt before. Sesshoumaru whipped his head around in time to see Kagome step into Souta's room and close the door behind her. Was that not the very shirt that his brother had worn to dinner that evening? And speaking of the whelp, where was he? He hadn't seen Inuyasha stray more than a few feet from the wench's side all night, so where was he hiding now? Well, he supposed it didn't really matter, as long as the girl was where she was supposed to be for the night. That decided, he tried to put Inuyasha out of his mind and finally entered the bedroom. Upon entering, however, he was hit full in the face with the thick, unmistakable smell of lust, sweat and a hanyou and his wench who hadn't been sitting idle while their chaperone had been occupied with the mechanical bath. Breathing shallowly through his mouth, he continued into the room and discovered where his brother had been hiding. Inuyasha was laying in the wegome's bed, a blanket pulled up to his waist, revealing a bare torso that hinted of a similarly bare lower half beneath the sheets. His hands were clasped beneath his head and his eyes were closed, but what caught Sesshoumaru's eye was the enormous, self-satisfied smile on the whelp's face.

"It smells in here." Sesshoumaru sneered as he carefully picked his way across the room, trying to avoid stepping on the seeming multitudes of clothing that were strewn about the bedroom floor. Without opening his eyes or losing the smile, Inuyasha breathed in deeply through his nose, his chest rising as his lungs filled to their capacity, then slowly released the breath with a happy groan.

"Mmmm…smells fine in here to me…"

"Congratulations, oto-chan. I think I'm going to be ill." Sesshoumaru began to kick disgustedly at the clothes on the ground, pushing them away from the center of the room and toward the walls. If he was to sleep on the ground, it wouldn't be on a pile of rags that reeked mockingly of his failure to keep his idiot brother off of Higurashi-san's daughter.

"That's a shame…" Inuyasha sighed happily. "You know, I feel so relaxed… I think I could sleep for another fifty years."

"Wonderful." Sesshoumaru said flatly as he circled a few times before curling up in the spot he'd cleared on the ground. "Now that you've managed to ruin the daughter of our hostess, do you think we could go home?"

"Don't worry." Inuyasha said, rolling onto his side and propping himself up on his elbow to look down at his brother. "I'm just as anxious as you are to end this family reunion. We'll head back first thing tomorrow morning. We could have left tonight, but for some reason I'm so tired…" he yawned, his mouth becoming a cavernous smile for a few seconds, then tilting his head to one side, he cracked his neck with a tiny grunt. "I think I'm actually sore."

"Enough." Sesshoumaru grumbled wearily. "It's bad enough that I have to smell it, I don't want to have to hear about it as well."

"Really?" Inuyasha yawned again, returning to his back. "That's very interesting, seeing as how you've been so involved with all of my previous attempts at this. Actually, I must confess that I'm a little surprised that you haven't heard already, even from down the hall with the water running…" Inuyasha's voice slowed to a halt, and both youkai paused to listen. Someone was approaching the bedroom. A second later, Higurashi-san appeared at the top of the stairs. She knocked lightly on the doorframe, and Sesshoumaru softly called "Come in." before Inuyasha could stop him. She entered the room, and Inuyasha said a silent prayer of thanks that she was human, and therefore couldn't smell the lingering mating scent that he and Sesshoumaru were both all too aware of.

"Inuyasha," she said quietly. "I'm ready to speak to you now." The room was dark, so he had trouble reading her face, but there was something in her voice that he found unsettling. Of course, he might have just been nervous about the fact that beneath the thin pink sheets, he wasn't wearing any pants.

"But Higurashi-san, I thought we already spoke this morning!"

"This morning we discussed your relationship with your brother." she said, nodding her head slightly to Sesshoumaru. "But if you'll recall, when you returned to the house this morning, I promised that we would be discussing everything before the day was out. Now follow me, please." She stood in the doorway, waiting expectantly for him to throw back the covers and hop out of the bed. Instead, the boy squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze and turned slightly red, refusing to look her in the eye. Unless she was imagining things, he was feeling guilty about something.

"Hai, Higurashi-san…. Do you think I could meet you in the hall in a few seconds?"

"Alright, Inuyasha." she said, casting him a suspicious, side-long glance as she turned to leave the room. "Hurry up."

Inuyasha scrambled out of the bed as soon as he was sure that she wasn't going to come back in, revealing what his brother had suspected all along. Sesshoumaru turned his head away from his brother's naked body, pretending that he was disgusted, but actually trying to hide the evil smile that had leapt, unbidden, onto his lips. While Inuyasha fumbled hurriedly with his hakama in a desperate attempt to dress himself from the waist down, Sesshoumaru bit his tongue to keep his amusement from escaping those same upturned lips. Inuyasha glared at his brother, angry that Sesshoumaru hadn't given him the opportunity to put something on before inviting the mother of his mate into the bedroom, before stepping out into the hallway to meet whatever destiny Higurashi-san had in store for him.

"This way, please, Inuyasha." she said without looking at him as she started down the hallway. "I don't think the entire household needs to hear what I have to say to you." He followed her without question, until they reached the door to Souta's room and he noticed that someone had pasted a demon ward over the door knob. Curious to see if it was real, he reached his hand out to touch it, and amazingly began to feel a prickly heat sensation in his fingertips. As his hand inched closer, the prickles exploded into tiny bolts of electricity. He cursed under his breath, trying to shake the jolt of pain from his hand.

"Higurashi-jiji made these?" he asked, both confused and startled at the same time. He'd never known the old man to be capable of successfully performing even the most rudimentary of spells, especially demon wards.

"I insisted that Souta be 'allowed to help, so that he could learn'." Higurashi-san explained a little proudly. Inuyasha's eyes widened and his jaw went slack as he stared more closely at the ward. He was familiar with crayons, Kagome had brought some back to his side of the well for Shippou one time, and if he was not mistaken, it was with a black crayon that the words 'demon begone' had been written on the wards.

"Souta…" Inuyasha breathed, unable to disguise the awe and wonder in his voice.

"Don't be too surprised." Higurashi-san warned. "You already know that Kagome has amazing gifts and talents for a such a young girl…it's in their blood." Inuyasha nodded, but then his face changed to one of confusion and mild humor.

"What happened to Higurashi-jiji?"

"Well, I suppose that every now and then it skips a generation or two…" she said with a sigh. "Oh, you should know, there are wards on the bedroom window, too. I'm sorry, but you haven't given me a lot of reason to trust you in the last few days. I wasn't taking any more chances."

From down the hall in Kagome's bedroom, Inuyasha could hear the soft sound of laughter, though he couldn't be sure what Sesshoumaru found funny, the fact that Kagome had been locked away from him, the fact that her little brother had more spiritual power than her grandfather, or the fact that Higurashi-san was taking precautions against her daughter's virtue about half an hour too late.

"Higurashi-san…" Inuyasha began. She silenced him with a hard look.

"In a second, Inuyasha. Here." she said, stopping before the door of her own bedroom. "Come inside and we'll begin our discussion in earnest." She opened the door and stood to one side in the hallway, waiting for him to enter. He looked into the room, then back at her face, then back into the room again, before resigning himself and entering. Higurashi-san followed close behind, closing the door behind them with a soft 'click'.

"Now," Higurashi-san began, folding her arms over her chest. "I understand that you and my daughter have been friends for quite some time now, and that it's only natural at your…well, at least, her age that you've begun to develop very strong feelings for one another, feelings that a man and woman-"

"Higurashi-san-" he interrupted, his face flushed.

"Now wait a second! You'll get your chance. I realize that I can't control what happens once you leave here, and I won't stop Kagome from leaving with you, but I need your assurance that your intentions toward my daughter are honorable. You're a good boy, Inuyasha, and if you give me your word, I'll trust you to keep it." As she stared at him intently, Inuyasha began to feel about a hair lower than slime. He could hear the trust in her voice, and he found himself unable to raise his eyes to meet her gaze. He was going to have to explain things to her. She deserved that much, and it was his responsibility as Kagome's mate to work out such negotiations with her family.

"Higurashi-san…" he began slowly. "I promise that from this moment on, I will respect your wishes… in this house. I also promise that when Kagome is with me in my world, that I will protect her with my life, until the day I die. But, Higurashi-san… as far as- I mean, between Kagome and me, that is…we've…" Higurashi-san's eyes narrowed as he stammered idiotically, so he took one last deep breath and let it all out in a rush.

"I've already claimed your daughter as my mate!"

Higurashi-san put her hand to her forehead, her elbow propped up on the other arm that still rested across her chest.

"Inuyasha, tell me you're talking about a verbal agreement…" she said without looking at him.

"No, I'm afraid not."

"In my own home, Inuyasha?" She said sadly, finally looking up at him. He nodded, trying not to feel ashamed of himself, but finding it difficult.

"But I didn't force her, no matter what Sesshoumaru said." Higurashi-san favored him with a tight, pained smile and nodded in return.

"So I was right… you weren't wearing anything when I went in to get you just now, were you?" He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "No, no, no, never mind! I don't want to know…" She lamented, closing her eyes and shaking her head fast and repeatedly. With a morose sigh, she sat down heavily on the bed.

"Did you at least…use any…protection?" she asked, searching his young face for the truth, but getting only a blank stare in return.

"We didn't need any." he said, confused but trying to be reassuring. "I can smell when danger's coming." In fact, at that very moment, he could smell it. He wasn't at all happy with the way Higurashi-san's scent and heartbeat kept fluctuating rapidly.

"No, no, dear…oh no…though I suppose that answers my question…" she groaned, burying her face in her hands. Inuyasha sat down on the bed beside her, staring at his new mother uncertainly. Slowly and carefully, he brought his hand to the center of her back and rubbed up and down in the same comforting gesture that his own mother had used on him, when he was little more than a baby.

"Okaasan?" he whispered, hoping to pull her out of her melancholy. "Maybe you're not seeing this in quite the same way that I do. It's really better this way." She shot him a dirty look, one he'd seen countless times on Kagome's face, but never her mother's.

"Don't presume to tell me what's better for my child, Inuyasha. Maybe in your tradition, she is already your wife to do with as you please, but in THIS HOUSE, all you have done is further complicate an already absurdly complicated situation! How can I let her run off with you, knowing what I know now? Knowing what you'll be doing once you reach the other side of the well? How can I trust you now?"

At the base of his spine, Inuyasha felt a cold stab of panic that raced up to heart. She wouldn't stop Kagome from going back with him, would she? That couldn't be allowed!

"Higurashi-san," he said, reverting back to formality in an attempt to appease her, "you don't understand! In my time, there are all kinds of male youkai who are after Kagome!" He had hoped that this would appeal to her maternal instincts, but when her eyes began to widen, he realized that he had probably said the wrong thing again. Quickly trying to recover lost ground, he added,

"But now that she's mated to me, they'll have to leave her alone. …if they know what's good for them…" he continued under his breath. Higurashi-san was silent for a moment, and she looked him up and down, as if sizing him up and considering his words. When she finally spoke, however, she asked,

"Are you really that insecure?" Inuyasha blinked at her. Her accusation had hit a little closer to home than he liked to admit, even to himself. Higurashi-san sighed regretfully and continued. "She loves you, anyone can see that. She never would have run off and left you, not for that boy Houjo, and certainly not for any youkai. Why do you have so little faith? Why couldn't you have waited? She's still such a child. And what about you? Despite what you say about your age, you hardly seem mature enough for the responsibilities of being a husband."

"That's not true at all!" he said angrily, his hackles raising up. "I can feed her, I can protect her, and I can make her happy! What more to it is there?"

"Inuyasha, you can only do those things in your time. What about here?" As she asked the question out loud, a tiny spark of realization went off in her mind like a firecracker. "Wait, that's it… you don't plan on letting her stay here, do you?" she asked softly, searching his face. When he ignored the question, she yelled at him, her voice now harsh and edged with fear, "Do you? Tell me!"

"We'll come back to visit…" he said lamely.

"What about Kagome's education?!" she demanded hotly, rising to her feet.

"Does she really need it?" he asked. "She won't living with me." Higurashi-san listened to his words, without really hearing, for at that moment, another realization flared in the back of her mind.

"You haven't even discussed this with Kagome yet, have you?!" she asked in disbelief.

"Well, not exactly…" he admitted, frowning at her stubbornly.

"I don't know what you've been lead to believe, but you can't just plan the rest of her life without giving her a say in the matter! I know my own daughter, and she's going to want to continue her education, no matter how useless you may consider it to be! And furthermore, how do you even know that she wants to live in your time? What if she prefers to stay here?"

"She can't stay here! We have to find the rest of the Shikon no tama!" Inuyasha sputtered, losing all semblance of composure.

"But do you see now why this isn't so simple?" Higurashi-san insisted. "Kagome is not ready for this sort of thing!"

"Maybe it's you who isn't ready for this sort of thing." Inuyasha said in a low voice. "But it's not for you to decide. Sesshoumaru and I are leaving first thing in the morning, and as she is my mate, Kagome will be coming with me."

"No, Inuyasha." Higurashi-san warned, her voice firm. "I am still her mother, and she will listen to me, you know that as well as I do. And I say that you will not leave this house with my daughter until we have discussed this further! If I have to, so help me, I'll have Souta write 'demon begone' in permanent marker on her forehead!! Now please return to your room. I need some time alone to think."

"Hai." he said curtly, opening the door. "Goodnight, Higurashi-san." Closing the door behind him, he returned to Kagome's bedroom to find that Sesshoumaru was now lying on the bed, facing the wall. He had stripped the bed of all it's blankets, which he had then rolled into a large ball and shoved into the far corner of the room; as far from the youkai's sensitive nose as possible, without being in the hallway. Inuyasha entered the room as silently as he could, but Sesshoumaru had lain awake, anticipating his return.

"That Higurashi woman is fascinating, ne?" he whispered bemusedly. "She never ceases to amaze me. I wouldn't be surprised if I actually missed her after tomorrow morning." he sighed softly to himself.

"About that…" Inuyasha said as he sat down on the floor beside the bed. "We may not be able to leave tomorrow morning as planned."

Sesshoumaru gradually rolled over to face the hanyou, his eyes glowing red in the darkness.

"Say that again?"