InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blood Bond ❯ Chapter 5

 

“Hello, I am the Miko Kagome, this is Inuyasha, brother to your lord, and these are our companions. I believe your lord has left instructions regarding us.” Kagome had just walked up to the youkai guarding the entrance to Sesshomaru's castle, and coolly introduced herself.

 

“Yeah, we're supposed to show you in to see him, and announce your presence.” The guard sounded a little nervous, perhaps because she was wearing her power like a cloak.

 

“Then do so.” Kagome knew she sounded even colder, and she was taking a perverse pleasure in scaring him.

 

“Y-yes Miko-sama.” The guard led them to an audience hall, and glanced inside, to check that Sesshomaru was there, an unnecessary precaution since Kagome knew that he was there, settling some sort of dispute between two of his followers.

 

“Miko-sama, Sesshomaru-sama is busy at the moment, do you mind waiting until he's finished with the lords he's dealing with at the moment?”

 

Inuyasha seemed about to make some sort of objection, but Kagome sent a quelling thought down their link and he settled back, remembering her orders to let him do any talking that was necessary.

 

“Of course not. But announce us as soon as he's finished dealing with those lords.”

 

“Yes Miko-sama.” They didn't have long to wait, Kagome had the feeling that was partly because Sesshomaru knew they were waiting, but he finished with the two lords and seemed to satisfy them in a few minutes.

 

“The Miko Kagome-sama, your brother Inuyasha-san and their companions are here to see you Sesshomaru-sama.”

 

“Thank you Jaro.” Sesshomaru stood and walked over to pull Kagome into an embrace, burying his nose in her neck, and she reciprocated. As she drew in his scent she focused on correlating what she could sense, with what she knew about Sesshomaru's magic, trying to see if she could pull off using what was the most minor of senses for a human to totally analyse his magic. She could hear some of their audience muttering, they were surprised that the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands would greet a human as an equal.

 

Then the muttering changed in tone, and Kagome turned to see Inuyasha wandering towards a box set on a pillar for some reason. She didn't know why it was important, but it obviously had some special meaning. Looking closer she realised there was a shield over it. Just as she was about to tell the hanyou to leave it he broke the shield and opened the box, looking curiously inside.

 

“Feh! It's empty. Why make all this fuss about an empty box?” Inuyasha sounded totally mystified, but all the youkai present - except Shippo and Kirara - looked shocked.

 

“My Lord! You cannot take this…*hanyou* as your mate!” It was a youkai with dark brown hair protesting, from the looks of him one of Sesshomaru's court functionaries.

 

“What is he talking about Sesshomaru-sama? Why would you take your *brother* as your mate? Isn't there some sort of law against incest?” Kagome knew that as a Miko, and one whose main contact with youkai was killing them, she could probably get away with some show of ignorance, so long as she was polite about it. Inuyasha wouldn't be polite, and his ignorance would be less excusable.

 

“Nearly sixty years ago I set up a shield around that box, and I said that I would only consider accepting a mate who could open it despite the shield. I thought that there would be someone capable of getting through the shield, either through pure magical strength, or through skill. And I agreed to consider anyone who could as a potential mate.”

 

“Just consider?” Kagome made sure she sounded curious, and she sent reassurance down her link to Sesshomaru, and encourage Inuyasha to stay calm using her link to him.

 

“Yes, just consider. My choice of mates is a political decision as much as anything else. I've got enough of my council here. Inuyasha, you don't want to be my mate, do you?”

 

“No! You're my brother - and I like females, *not* males, or anything else.”

 

“Good. Record this separately, note that my half-brother passed the initial screening for candidates to be my mate, unintentionally, and this is consideration of his merits and lack thereof for the position. You, argue in support of him becoming my mate, and you, argue against it.” Sesshomaru seemed to pick the two youkai at random, but they settled into their rolls quickly enough.

 

“He's probably the best fighter currently living. He outclasses most youkai, and routinely fights Naraku.” The youkai ordered to support Inuyasha's position spoke first. He had black hair and dark blue stars on each cheek.

 

“Yes, but that means he has duties that he could not discharge if he became Sesshomaru-sama's mate.” The other youkai had amber hair, and four stripes that matched it in shade on each cheek. “And as a hanyou he would be the dominant mate. A Taiyoukai cannot take a mate knowing that the mate would be dominant.” Kagome swiftly stifled any words Inuyasha wanted to voice at that little tidbit.

 

“So he isn't eligible. And further discussion is pointless.” Sesshomaru walked over to the box, shut it, and recreated the exact same shield over it. “Kagome-san,” there was a flicker of fear along their link as he used the lesser honorific, and Kagome swiftly sent him reassurance in return, “Inuyasha, my steward can show you and your people to your rooms.”

 

“Thank you. I'll need to talk with you privately when you have time. You can just send for me, but until then, with your permission I'd like to speak with your healer.”

 

“Granted.” Sesshomaru responded casually, effectively dismissing them and one youkai moved forward to escort them from the room. Once Kagome had dumped her bag in her room, the best of the ones they were given, she had him lead her to the healer, the only person who knew about Sesshomaru's condition when he was a child other than Inuyasha's parents. She spent almost three hours discussing medicines, and herbs with the older woman, mostly learning what Sayaro had to teach, although she did mention the herbs that could prevent a human woman conceiving, and Sayaro told her she would try them out on some youkai females who were reluctant to have children, but whose mates wanted offspring. Kagome also mentioned that there was a faint possibility those herbs would actually prevent a woman going into heat, or showing the signs of it anyway, because they might fool the body into thinking she was pregnant, or nursing.

 

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

 

Sesshomaru ordered one of his servants to bring Kagome to his bedroom once he'd finished holding court. He didn't really like the implications of that, but it was the room he had the most, and best privacy spells on, and he half wanted to make Karritarous jealous, in the hope it would make him gentler.

 

The Taiyoukai sat on his bed brushing out his hair as he waited for his master to arrive. It was a surprise when his brother arrived first.

 

“Was that true? Is a hanyou the dominant partner when a hanyou and a youkai mate?”

 

“Yes.” Sesshomaru put his brush aside to answer Inuyasha's question. “And a Miko is dominant if she mates a hanyou. That is why Father mated my mother, but only married yours.”

 

“You mean that for youkai a marriage is a lesser commitment than a mating?”

 

“A marriage is purely legal, and used mainly if one partner is human, or a Miko, a mating is a mystical bond that compels certain behaviour from both parties. One a Miko would dominate, and a human could not sustain.”

 

“Oh. What behaviour does it compel?”

 

“Very little from the dominant partner, only that he protects his mate from others. The submissive partner must obey her mate - it is usually the female who is submissive - and remain faithful. Our father did not remain faithful to my mother, although he might have to yours.” Sesshomaru shrugged, and then Kagome arrived, effectively ending the conversation.

 

“Inuyasha, I need some privacy with Sesshomaru for this, you can talk with him later.” The hanyou obeyed reluctantly, but he did obey.

 

“Kagome-sama, what did you want to discuss with me?”

 

“I wanted to check if you were pregnant, and I thought you'd like to know a little about how you're going to change during your pregnancy.”

 

“Oh, please if you know. How do you want me?”

 

“Lie down on your back; that will make it easier for me to check. And there's another way, to use as a cross-check.” His master pulled a box out her belt pouch and tossed it down beside him. “Use this the next time you need to piss - if you have problems reading the instructions because of the type of writing then tell me beforehand.”

 

“This Sesshomaru is perfectly capable of reading!” The Taiyoukai answered indignantly, and then blushed, lowering his eyes in shame. “Forgive my insolence Kagome-sama.”

 

“I'm not angry Sess.” Kagome gently caressed his face and let her hand wander down to his abdomen. “I can feel a new aura here, you are with child, just one and I think it's a son. But I still want you to use that,” and she nodded at the box beside him, “just to satisfy my curiosity.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sesshomaru paused, hoping that his next words wouldn't anger her, and unnerved by her casual shortening of his name, something she didn't seem to realise she'd done. “Might I sit up? This position is somewhat…unnerving.”

 

“Go ahead. Do you want to know what to expect during your pregnancy, besides the usual symptoms a woman gets?”

 

“Please.” Sesshomaru lounged on his bed, rather than sitting upright and kept his eyes cast down submissively.

 

“Your body is going to change. You'll grow breasts, which will naturally remain until you stop breastfeeding. And your hips will become wider, to let your child come out of you more easily, they'll revert to normal after you've given birth.”

 

“Oh!” Sesshomaru spoke softly, glancing up through his eyelashes and licking his lips uncertainly. “Might I ask how you know this Kagome-sama?”

 

“Just how private will our conversation here be?”

 

“My privacy spells are unmatched by any other youkai - my magic is unmatched by any other youkai for that matter. This room has had my privacy spells cast upon it from when I first became Taiyoukai, layered and renewed every year since then. No one will overhear us.”

 

“Then I will tell you that I travel between this time and one five hundred years into the future. In my time you have presented yourself to me and I learned of how pregnancy affects you then.”

 

“Oh. Does this mean I will be known to be claimed for five hundred years and you will not be there for me?” Sesshomaru knew the desolation he felt was flowing through his link to Kagome, but he did not care, anything to make sure she would protect him, not hurt him or his.

 

“I gave you orders to hide the fact that you were claimed as much as you could before I left you, or at least that's what your future self told me.” Sesshomaru didn't respond, but he doubted it would have made any difference, after all the few youkai who had been claimed tended to have short life spans - they were often murdered by other youkai as soon as their masters died. “He hasn't told me too much about that, or what he had to do to survive then, but I got the impression he didn't have any trouble for at least fifty years after I formally claimed him.”

 

“Truly? And yet, you say you will leave me on my own.” Sesshomaru knew he sounded pathetic, he intended to.

 

“I'm not entirely certain of that. I could have died in this time, and your future self could be coming to me for a reminder of some sort for all I know. I am mortal remember.”

 

“Yes Kagome-sama.” Sesshomaru resigned himself to being abandoned eventually, praying his master would make sure he could still take care of himself when that day came, that he wouldn't become totally dependent on her as most claimed youkai did.

 

“I should go. I'm sure your lover will be wondering what I'm doing in here for so long.”

 

“Karritarous is my lover only because that was the price he demanded for impregnating me.” Sesshomaru wasn't sure why he felt the need to clarify that, but he did - and realised *why* he had when he felt his master's shock.

 

“I'm sorry Sess. I wasn't really thinking of that when I gave you those orders.” And Kagome let him feel how very sorry she was.

 

“It is your right to require me to lie with anyone you choose. At least you let me decide who should sire my child. And your decision was the one I would have made if I'd been thinking properly.” Sesshomaru shrugged, to him it was Kagome's right to gift his virginity as she pleased, and he only wished she had chosen to take it herself. “With that vow I made there was no way I would have been able to find a female qualified as my mate in the timescale you gave, I was beginning to think I never could.”

 

“Still I am sorry. Is he at least a skilled lover?”

 

“Yes, I was surprised how well he makes me respond to him.” There seemed nothing more to say, and Kagome left then.

 

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

 

Sess smiled at the human at the door of the Velvet Collar, glancing up from beneath carefully lowered lashes. He'd started to frequent new clubs since he'd stopped pretending to be female, but he still kept to the human only clubs when he indulged the tastes his cousin had discovered and his master had developed in him. He couldn't risk letting a youkai or a hanyou see the claim mark on his chest, not with the orders Kagome had given him. And Mikos, as a rule, frequented youkai and hanyou clubs for this sort of thing, unless they were submissive - which meant he'd never end up in bed with one, as he only looked for tops for a night.

 

“Hello Silver. Do you want to reserve a room?” Sess had always been careful about how he indulged his taste for being dominated, at least for the last three centuries. He'd got into trouble nearly four hundred years ago, and been raped and badly hurt because he hadn't been careful enough about his choice of sex partners. It had been enough to frighten him off that type of sex for a century, and thereafter he'd insisted on a lot of safeguards, such as having the place he had sex under his control. It had also meant that he wanted a true Master, someone he could trust to protect him, even as she controlled him more than ever - and he fully expected Kagome to be that Master, because she'd been so good at it before.

 

“Please. And I need to change.” He lifted the bag he was carrying with his choice of gear for the night, although it didn't include a collar. The policy of this club was for all subs without a Master to wear a plain leather collar provided by the club. Masters were required to put a more ornate and noticeably different collar on their slaves, and if a top was just here on a date with a sub, before they'd decided to make any true commitment the top was required to put a tag on the collar. That way it was easy for a top to tell whether or not a sub they wanted was free on that night, or might be free on another night.

 

“Of course. I take it you want a standard room?” The bouncer led him into a small private chamber where Sess began unselfconsciously stripping after handing money to the human.

 

“Yes. And could you get me a collar as close to this shade of blue as you can.” He'd pulled out two leather wrist-bands, both in royal blue and handed them over to be matched. While the human was occupied Sess pulled on velvet trousers in blue-green along with leather ankle-bands matching the wrist-bands and a leather belt in the same colour, finally fastening a purse to his belt containing some money and a name tag in case he found a top. The human handed the wrist-bands back to Sess, and fastened - and locked - the collar he'd found around his neck as the youkai put them on his wrists.

 

“You've got room fifteen. Here's the key.” Sess took it and put it in his purse for the contingency that he needed it. One of the things he liked about this club was that it was monitored very well, and the rules were enforced. He didn't like the fact that he had to keep up an illusion to hide the fact that he was anything but full male with his lovers, but it was something he had grown used to and accepted.

 

“Thank you.” Sess slipped past the human into the club, carefully not looking directly at the semi-displayed sex scenes. He made sure that none of his body language showed the self-confidence, almost arrogance, he'd needed to display among youkai before his master had claimed him and immediately after she'd left him, or in business, instead his every movement spoke of his submission to the will of another.

 

As always, doms and dommes flocked to him, drawn by his beauty and delicate features. Sess assessed them from beneath lowered lashes, responding quietly to their advances, and flirting without making any promises, or even appearing to promise anything. When he'd made his decision of who he wanted he stepped just a little closer to him.

 

“This one has arranged for a room to be available, should you find that pleasing.”

 

“Very much so. But not just yet, we have things to decide first.” The human casually stroked Sess' long hair back. “Do you have a tag for that collar so everyone will back off?”

 

“Yes sir.” Sess offered it to him, and lifted his head just enough for him to fasten it onto the leather band.

 

“`Silver' eh. A fitting name. You will address me as sir, or Tendo-san.”

 

“Yes sir.” It didn't surprise Sess when the human wanted to show him off, having him kneel by his seat while they made the arrangements. Sess got what he wanted, the human would not break any bones, or do anything that might scar him in any way, other than that he was happy to find out just what the human preferred as it happened. Although he did reserve the right to use a safe word of course - not that he would have that right with his real master.

 

Three hours later he left the club with a satisfied smile on his face.

 

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

 

Kagome noticed the way Sesshomaru's cousin watched her, resentment in his eyes, every time she was anywhere near the Taiyoukai. She quickly realised that he was jealous, and that Sesshomaru was deliberately using her to provoke that jealousy. He kept on spending time with her alone, and made sure that he looked happy afterwards, and she was the only person he was ready to touch casually. She didn't particularly like it, but she still felt guilty for forcing Sesshomaru into a relationship he didn't want, so she let him use her - until she sensed him in pain, for no apparent reason, or at least no good reason.

 

She found it easy enough to get into Sesshomaru's bedroom, cloaking her presence from everyone with her magic. Sesshomaru was curled on the bed, naked, cradling a broken left arm to his chest and watching his cousin nervously. It hardly looked as if they'd been doing anything too unusual, but there were restraints lying about, obviously recently used, and even in one case still fastened to Sesshomaru's ankle.

 

His cousin was standing only a few paces away, and had a shocked look on his face. He seemed to be stammering apologies, or something.

 

“Why did you do that? I thought you knew it's too dangerous to do anything that won't heal before anyone sees me?” Sesshomaru sounded mystified - and his only concern was that his injury couldn't be hidden, not that he'd been hurt. Kagome masked her growing anger swiftly.

 

“I'm sorry, it's just you spend so much time with that Miko. Don't I satisfy you?” There was a note of jealousy in the other youkai's voice, and Kagome realised that Sesshomaru's ploy had backfired badly.

 

“She doesn't hurt me. And you didn't negotiate for exclusive.”

 

“I didn't think I'd need to with a virgin.” He stepped forward laying one hand along the side of Sesshomaru's face. “Do you really find what I do with you that unpleasant? You seemed to enjoy it well enough. And what is that Miko to you?”

 

Kagome could see that Sesshomaru was getting nervous now for some reason and some things that had puzzled her about the CD he'd prepared for her in the future, the references to the D/s scene, fitted into place for her. If he was uncomfortable with his sexual tastes at the moment she wasn't going to let anyone force him to confront them, and she dropped her illusion.

 

“The only healer who knows anything about how pregnancy will affect his body.”

 

“And the one who suggested I carry a child myself, rather than wait for a mate to come up to my standards.” Sesshomaru shifted, pulling away from the hand on his face and leaning slightly towards Kagome.

 

“You aren't having sex with him?”

 

“When a Miko has sex with a youkai it is rape. The party doing the raping varies, but it *is* rape.” Kagome knew that she sounded a bit moralistic, to say the least, but that was how she felt even if she was increasingly tempted by Sess in her time, and Sesshomaru in this. “Here, this should help your arm.” And she offered Sesshomaru some of the blood he'd donated in the future. Sesshomaru reached for it hesitantly, looking at her with a question in his eyes, but trusting her totally. It was his cousin who moved to grab the bottle from Kagome's hand.

 

“What is this? Are you trying to get control of him in some way?”

 

“No, I'm not. It's blood from a youkai I know who heals even faster than your Taiyoukai, cleansed of the family influence. I did intend it for Kouga, when we take those Shikon shards from his legs, but Sesshomaru-sama can use it instead. I can get more.”

 

“Here then.” The youkai opened the bottle himself, and solicitously helped Sesshomaru to drink it. He immediately smiled with relief.

 

“I should be healed enough to be able to hide it by tomorrow. Kagome, was there something in particular you wanted to talk to me about?”

 

“Not really. But we have to leave tomorrow, and I wanted to check if there was anything you needed to know before we set out.”

 

“Will I see you again before I give birth?”

 

“Certainly. But if wearing male attire becomes uncomfortable you should consider switching to female attire. It is more suited to how your body changes during pregnancy.”

 

“How will his body change?” Kagome noted that Sesshomaru didn't seem to mind when they talked over him, but she wasn't sure exactly why that was.

 

“At the moment he is a hermaphrodite who looks mostly male, with the addition of female genitilia. When he gives birth he'll be a hermaphrodite who looks mostly female with the addition of male genitilia. The rate of change varies, so I'm not sure when his body will be more female than male.”

 

“But his face won't change?”

 

“No, actually your face is rather androgynous Sesshomaru-sama. But even if it wasn't only your body would change.”

 

“I see. But as long as I exercise I won't get too out of condition?”

 

“You'll need to gain at least seven pounds in total, but you'll return to your pre-pregnancy state as soon as you stop breast-feeding your son.”

 

“I see. Thank you for the information. But you can go now.” Kagome smiled and obeyed the implicit command.

 

 

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

--> [Author:J R]

 

Begin Part 6 3881