InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blood Bond ❯ Chapter 4

 

It wasn't a school day for Kagome, so she had all day to work on her magic, and on understanding modern youkai culture - well apart from the time she'd need to spend on her homework, and catching up on the things she'd missed. She'd been surprised to see Sess curled up on the futon, watching her sleep, but she quickly remembered that she'd given him permission to sleep there. Once he saw she was awake he'd dropped his gaze to the futon, carefully not meeting her eyes in a blatant display of submission.

 

“Good morning Sess.” She finally greeted him when it became obvious he wasn't going to speak first.

 

“Good morning Kagome-sama.” He bowed his head to her, making it all too obvious that he considered her his better.

 

“Did you sleep well?”

 

“Better than I have for a long time Kagome-sama, it was easier before you were born, knowing that you were there, but I could not see you, it was hard for me to handle. And our bond felt wrong after you were born. Before it just felt as if you were a long way away from me, or blocking me, as is your right, but once you were born, if I got within sensing range of you it was as if there was some sort of void on the other end, worse than not being able to feel your emotions.” There was a sense of pain running through his words, and Kagome reached out to Sess in an effort to comfort him. The inu youkai immediately pushed against her hand with his head, asking her to pet him without words the way Buyo sometimes did. It surprised her, but she began stroking his hair and scratching behind his ears, the way she had last night, and she soon had him purring again.

 

“We need to get some breakfast, what do you want?” Sess had always been awake and finished breakfast by the time she woke up on the two days she'd spent here on her last visit back in her time.

 

“Whatever pleases you best.” That was a totally unexpected reaction. Kagome couldn't understand it at first, but then it occurred to her that perhaps he wasn't supposed to express a preference.

 

“Is there some youkai tradition that I'm missing here?”

 

“No, but…very few of those who have claimed youkai give them any choice in what they eat. It surprised me that you permitted me to eat with your family, and sit at the table with you at meals.”

 

“What did you expect?”

 

“It is covered in the CD, but we're usually treated as pets more or less. And you wouldn't invite a pet to sit at the table with you.” The acceptance in Sesshomaru's voice was heartbreaking, at least to Kagome.

 

“I don't care about that. If we have to we'll follow those rules in public, but not here, not when we're just with family.”

 

“Eventually you will be high ranked enough to disregard the social conventions, but not yet.” She couldn't believe it - Sesshomaru was the one who'd lost so many rights, but he was trying to comfort her!

 

“You don't need to comfort me. Let's get downstairs.”

 

“What do you wish to eat Kagome-sama?” Sess was obviously ready to serve her breakfast to Kagome, much to her family's shock and amusement.

 

“I'll get it myself. Just get what you want, sit down and eat.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sess got a bowl of muesli and sat at the table, looking at his master from beneath lowered lashes, waiting for her to start eating.

 

“You know all this submissive stuff is just making my mother worry about you more. She's going to be asking me about how I treat you and why you're acting like this whenever she gets the chance - and I don't even know the answers!” Kagome had needed to order Sess to stay out of her bedroom while she was dressing; he'd assumed that he would help her dress or something. She'd let him back in once she'd finished dressing - and he'd changed into fresh clothes.

 

“You are incredibly generous with me Kagome-sama, it's just I spent a lot of time training to satisfy you between the time you left and now, and I suppose I want to show you what I've learned. Some of the answers are on the CD I prepared for you, I don't have the words to explain it.”

 

“In that case I better see just what is on this mysterious CD of yours.” Kagome started up her laptop and loaded the CD. She hadn't actually given Sess permission to stay with her, but she hadn't told him to do something else either, and she'd learned that unless she gave him other instructions he would stay as close to her as he could. When the window opened up for the CD she saw a rich text file titled “`The Care and Training of Inu Youkai'? It makes you sound like animals!” And considering that the folder labelled `Youkai Culture' had a matching text file, which had to be the key to its password Kagome would have to read it first.

 

“The Miko who wrote it thinks of us as animals, but for that reason it has a very good and objective analysis of our instinctive behaviours, and how they are affected when we are claimed.” Sess was uncomfortable with the title, but he seemed to truly believe it was the best basic guide she could have, so Kagome plunged into it.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Sess had persuaded Kagome to let him brush out her hair while she worked on her magic, and on getting familiar with youkai culture. She'd managed to work her way through `The Care and Training of Inu Youkai' in two weeks, and she'd even started using some of the non-verbal communication that was so much a part of youkai culture. The first time she'd hit him on the nose when he'd been trailing too close behind her had scared him a bit, he dropped straight to the ground and crawled over to nuzzle at her foot in wordless apology, but he'd become a bit more used to it since then.

 

“Enough of that.” Kagome shut the laptop down and pushed away from her desk. “Sess, I need some information on the healing power of youkai blood. And I think I need it fast. Are you up to answering a few questions about it?”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” It was the first time she'd asked anything of him since she'd first returned to this time, even if he hadn't been comfortable there was no way Sess would have refused. They moved over to her bed and Sess knelt with his head in her lap, knowing that she'd pet him while they were talking if he gave her even a slight hint that he needed it.

 

“I know that hanyou and youkai blood can both be used to improve a youkai's healing ability if the donor heals faster than the recipient, but how do you know if that's the case?”

 

“All hanyous heal faster than all youkai, even the slowest healing of hanyous heals faster than the fastest healing of youkai. But, it's too dangerous for a hanyou to give a youkai his blood, we'd never take it willingly, because hanyous scare us too much, because they can control us too easily. There are a lot of factors determining how fast a youkai heals. But the two main things are bloodline, the more powerful bloodlines tend to heal faster than the weaker ones, and how often a youkai has had to use his healing abilities - that's one reason Inuyasha's healing abilities are phenomenal even for a hanyou. It's also one reason I am one of the fastest youkai to heal from injuries and so on - and it would have taken me about twenty-five years to regenerate a lost eye the way Inuyasha did after I tore his out to get to our father's grave. The other reason we both heal fast is that we come from one of the most powerful bloodlines there is, and it is the bloodline that is best known for healing abilities.”

 

“So you heal faster than Kouga would without his Shikon shards?”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama. And faster now than I did back then.” Sess suddenly realised where this was going, but he refused to be so presumptive as to bring another aspect up without Kagome's explicit permission or instructions.

 

“You said something about clearing the family influence, before giving your blood to most youkai, or Inuyasha did. What does that mean?”

 

“Normally it is only safe to give blood to a close family member, a pup or a mate, rarely a sibling, to heal them. Otherwise the magic in the blood can do more damage than healing. But there's a spell we can use to prevent the magic from reacting violently with unrecognised youkai, and it cleanses the family influence from the blood so to speak. It also preserves it perfectly.” He could hear some girls at the door, asking to see Kagome, and her mother told them to just go on up to her room. “Kagome-sama, your friends are here to see you.”

 

“Right.” Kagome sighed, but she kept on petting him, stroking his hair and scratching behind his ears. “We'll have to finish this later then.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sess expected his master to let go of him and permit him to sit up before her friends arrived but that didn't seem to occur to her, and he was still kneeling at her feet, head in his lap when they got there. It hurt his ears when they squealed in surprise, and he buried his head deeper into his master's lap for protection.

 

“Kagome-chan, who's that? And what's he doing with his head in your lap?”

 

“Yuka!” His master was surprised, despite the warning he'd given, he could feel it through their bond. “This is Sess. He's my…” Kagome trailed off, obviously uncertain how to put it. “He's mine, let's just leave it at that. He had a headache, and I was trying to help him.” She gave one last stroke to his hair, and then pushed his head out of her lap. “Why don't you go and see if my mother needs any help Sess - I'm sure our gossip would just bore you.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” The response was automatic - after his master had formally claimed him she'd spent twenty years with him before she left, and he'd always addressed her with the appropriate respect, and learned to obey her without question. He could hear the girls asking questions about him, and why he was so obedient - as well as how `cute' he was, but that was his master's concern, not his.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Kagome carried a small bottle of Sess' blood with her, cleansed of the family influence, when she went back to the Sengoku Jidai and a pot of cream mixed with just enough of his venom to kill pain if it was necessary, besides all of the other things she normally took with her. She'd had to scramble to explain why he'd addressed her as Kagome-sama and obeyed her so readily, and eventually she fell back on a half-truth, that he'd been abused while he was younger and as a result he tended towards submissive behaviour. She'd also claimed that she was the first person who showed any caring towards him, so he'd decided he was in love with her. They'd responded by teasing her about having another boyfriend, besides the two-timing jerk she'd talked about. The idea had made her uncomfortable, she knew that Sess was expecting her to command him to have sex with her, but she still thought of it as something akin to rape.

 

“Hi guys. How've you been doing?” The rest of her pack, and thanks to the reading she'd been doing she recognised them as her pack, were all waiting for her at Kaede's village.

 

“We only managed to get two Shikon shards.” Miroku sounded disappointed and dispirited. “I know you said there were more in that area, but these were all we managed to find.” And he handed the two shards to her for purification.

 

“I'll check the area out again, depending how many shards I can detect there we could go and search that area again.” Kagome reached for her maps, and the rest of her scrying gear, but then Inuyasha stopped her as she began sorting through them.

 

“Feh! They're probably scattered by now. Do the big map first, then work from there.”

 

“You have a point Inuyasha.” Kagome repeated her scrying, finding the closest concentration of shards and then finding those shards in more detail on a larger scale map, and then they set off to the north.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Sesshomaru shivered at Karritarous' touch. He didn't really like some of the things his cousin enjoyed; they made him feel dirty, especially if he found himself enjoying them as he had a time or two. Karritarous seemed to be disappointed by his reaction, but he didn't say anything about that.

 

“Undress me if you would.” Sesshomaru moved to obey; it had been an easy enough lesson to learn, and one which might be of use to him if he needed to serve Kagome-sama closely. His cousin caught him by the hair as he finished and pulled him up to kiss him. Sesshomaru never responded to those kisses in any way, he just opened his mouth and let his cousin take it.

 

“Why do you never respond when I kiss you? Kami! You never respond at all if you can help it.”

 

“You said you wanted me submissive. That means I don't respond unless you drive me to the point where I can't help it, or you command me to.” Sesshomaru stated what seemed obvious to him, although he'd also picked that particular stance because he thought it might annoy the other youkai at least a bit.

 

“Who taught you that?” Karritarous seemed confused at the answer.

 

“No one, it is obvious.”

 

“Someone must have taught you this; no one is this perfectly submissive naturally.” It was a cry of frustration.

 

“I decided that if I was going to be submissive in bed with you I would be perfectly so, it would be beneath me to do otherwise. So the week you took to get your clothes, and toys, I spent working out exactly what responding submissively meant.” Sesshomaru kept his eyes fixed to the ground, and he didn't mention the experience he had of hiding himself from his father, and most adults, and how if you were quiet and unobtrusive enough nobody noticed you. He'd also focused on the fact that he was doing this at Kagome-sama's bidding, that bearing pups would please his master, to help him get through having to let someone touch him, and use his body.

 

“I prefer a bit more in the way of response than that. I like to see if I've pleased my lover or not. Do you think you can manage that?” Karritarous stroked Sesshomaru's hair and the side of his face, smiling at him with deliberate gentleness.

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

“Good. Now you can undress for me.” Sesshomaru obeyed, imbuing his actions with all the sensuality he'd learned in the past few weeks, noticing his effect on his cousin and smiling at it.

 

“Come here and sit beside me.” When Sesshomaru obeyed his cousin pushed him down onto the mattress, face down and began to bind his wrists to the headboard. “Does this bother you, being tied up like this?” Before Sesshomaru could speak he slid a finger between his legs, to feel the wetness spreading from his cunt. “Or do you like it, does it arouse you?”

 

“Both. It bothers me because it arouses me. But we both know the only thing really holding me here is my consent.”

 

“Yes, you could use your venom to free yourself easy enough.” Karritarous patted him on the ass. “Get up to your knees.” Once Sesshomaru had obeyed he took a bar about three feet long and tied the Taiyoukai's ankles to either end of it, and pushed him back down so his forehead was touching his pillow. He'd prepared him a few hours earlier, and put a metal plug into him to keep him stretched out, now he removed it and pushed his way into the younger youkai. Karritarous had been careful that way, it never hurt Sesshomaru, but he felt humiliated by the fact that being restrained, dominated and used aroused him, satisfied him sexually in a way he'd never experienced before - he'd mostly avoided sexual thoughts and feelings except when he was in heat. And then he'd used one of a handful of fantasies he'd developed over the years. Admittedly when he thought about it they'd involved his imagined lover taking the initiative, and taking charge, but Sayaro was one of the few females who was dominant to her mate, and she'd been a teacher to him. The idea of her acting submissively in anything, at least with him seemed entirely alien - she was one of the few who didn't change her treatment of him once he became Taiyoukai, in name, or in fact.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Kagome got into a routine over the next four months, generally she spent two weeks back in the Sengoku Jidai, and then between two and three weeks at home depending on how many shards she gathered. The others usually managed to get one or two shards without her while she was working on her magic, and even though Inuyasha grumbled about how much time she spent there, he never really put up much of a fight about it. Sess had been more persistent in spending time with, or around her, unless she gave him orders to do something else, and after a while she realised that he was trying to push her into giving him orders of one sort or another. She was growing used to having him hovering around her, waiting for orders, and it came to seem normal for him to serve her family at meals, and then join them with his own meal, and for him to sleep in her bedroom, on the futon they'd pulled in, unless he'd annoyed her.

 

One day, just before she went back to the Sengoku Jidai Kagome realised that the Taiyoukai would probably be in heat in that time - and that ordering him to sleep with someone to get pregnant was as much rape as ordering him to sleep with her would be, just by proxy, rather than directly. But he needed to have an heir, and she didn't want him to take a mate who he'd have to leave when she made her claim formal. Reluctantly she decided that she would only visit him *after* his heat would be over, and she told her family that she might be staying for a month or more this time. She'd been reading about sensing magic through scent, rather than through vision, and she wanted to try that out, as well as try some magical tests for pregnancy. She'd talked with Sess about how his body changed when he was pregnant, so she'd have an excuse to visit him in the Sengoku Jidai; she could pretend to be as much of an expert as existed on hermaphrodite physiology.

 

Inuyasha had been delighted that she'd decided to stay for a month, less so when he learned that she intended to visit Sesshomaru towards the end of her time there. For all that he now knew Sesshomaru was the one who had raised him his mother had taught him to believe that his brother had hated him, and it had been his father who took care of him, and he was finding it hard to forget that, or the number of times Sesshomaru had tried to take Tetsusaiga from him. Kagome had had to remind him quite pointedly of who had really raised him, and that Sesshomaru might like to see him without fighting. If she had to she would have used their link to force him to obey, but she managed to persuade him with simple reason. And she used a new technique to scry for him, in a fire she had lit in her silver bowl, then on the night he was alone she spoke to him, through a nearby flame.

 

“Sesshomaru, I wish to visit you, with your brother and our people. If you need an excuse you can claim that I am as much of an expert on hermaphrodites as exists. Now tell me, just say the words, I will hear you - have you started your heat yet?”

 

“I just entered heat yesterday.” Sesshomaru was even wearing a woman's kimono and he'd painted his face to match it, although his hair was still loose - fortunately Kagome was the only person who could see it. “It usually lasts two weeks in total for me, and then, two weeks later I bleed, for a week.”

 

“I see. We should be there in fifteen to seventeen days.” Kagome let the communication linkage break and killed the flames in her bowl, washing it out before going to sleep.

 

~~~***0***~~~

 

Sesshomaru woke slowly the next day. His healing abilities meant that he didn't have any physical aches from the night before, but his memories disturbed him. Karritarous had introduced the idea of hurting him as part of sex during the third month they lay together, but he'd kept it to bites, scratches and bruises - things that Sesshomaru half thought would occur during normal sex too, although not in as one-sided a way as they happened here. Last night his cousin had told Sesshomaru to dress as a woman, and then, after he'd overpowered Sesshomaru, he'd used a knife to first cut the kimono off his body, and then to carve designs on him. But it wouldn't prevent Sesshomaru conceiving, and that was all he had thought to bargain for.

 

He shivered and got up, dressing and seeing to his duties as Lord of the Western Lands, duties which were being fulfilled better than they ever had before since he contacted Karritarous about his heir. Sesshomaru just hoped that he would get pregnant this time, so he would only have to put up with his cousin's touch for another year. He'd made sure that standing orders were for Kagome and her people to be permitted entry and given quarters should they choose to visit, so there wasn't anything to do in preparation for his master's visit. He half wished there was, it would take his mind off his position for a moment.

 

“Sesshomaru-sama!” Of course there was something else that would distract him equally effectively. Sesshomaru lifted Rin into his arms when she ran to him.

 

“Rin. Have you been enjoying yourself?” There were only a couple of children Rin's age in the castle, and Sesshomaru knew they'd been happy to have another playmate. And at least one of the maids was pregnant, heavily so, he hadn't caught scent of any others but he knew that if he conceived this time his child would have a companion close in age.

 

“Yes Sesshomaru-sama. Akiko says she's going to have a little baby brother or sister. Where do babies come from?”

 

“An adult female bleeds from between her legs on a regular basis - once a month for humans, twice a year for youkai. It doesn't hurt too much, and it isn't a sign of damage. If she lies with a male between one and two weeks before she starts bleeding, and they touch in certain ways then the male can plant his seed in her. The baby grows inside her, and comes out from the place between her legs.” Sesshomaru bit his lip, hoping that he hadn't confused Rin or gone into detail she wasn't ready for. “Do you understand me?”

 

“Rin understands Sesshomaru-sama. But how does Sesshomaru-sama know it doesn't hurt when we bleed?”

 

“There is actually a third gender, much rarer than male or female. I am of this gender, but I think of myself, and I'm legally, male because it is more convenient. The third gender is hermaphrodite, which means I am male and female. I bleed from between my legs twice a year just like a female would, and babies can grow inside me. Would you like a little brother or sister?”

 

“Yes, Rin will be a good older sister. Is Sesshomaru-sama carrying a baby now?”

 

“I don't know. I hope so.” He let Rin go as he spoke, sitting down on a nearby chair. “Kagome-sama is coming to visit; she might be able to tell if I'm with child. I'll know in a month or so anyway, and that's when a female's scent changes, a month into pregnancy.”

 

“Oh, who put the baby into Sesshomaru-sama then?”

 

“My cousin Karritarous. He won't be able to take our child from me, because he isn't my mate. But if I can't be Taiyoukai and my child isn't an adult then Karritarous will protect him and act in his name.” Sesshomaru quickly changed the subject and happily listened to his daughter babbling about her day before he started her on her lessons.

 

 

~~~***0***~~~

--> [Author:J R]

 

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