InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dealing with Demons ❯ Macaroni and Orange ( Chapter 2 )

Macaroni and Orange

 

She had been anxious for his approach. Four hours after his approach, she had wanted to rip his head off. A day later, she was still counting the ways she could maul him. Let it never be said that Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands did anything half way. Instead of doing as little as possible, Sesshoumaru had done everything he possibly could to kill Inu Yasha without actually killing him. Kagome wasn't sure whether she would praise him for truly listening to her, or scream at him for pushing all the limits.

 

Swallowing a large lump in her throat, Kagome figured she should praise him. Death wasn't an appealing option.

 

“And so then I told him to totally get lost!” Eri exclaimed. She, Ayumi, and Yuka burst into a fit of giggles.

 

“Serves him right,” Yuka agreed. “Men are so stupid!” She cast a sly look at Kagome. “Which reminds me… How's your stupid man?” she asked.

 

Kagome looked up, torn from her thoughts about death and Sesshoumaru. And Sesshoumaru causing her death. “What?”

 

Eri laughed. “Kagome, how's your mysterious boyfriend?”

 

“Sesshoumaru is not my boyfriend!” Kagome exclaimed, not thinking enough to realize that she was the only one in the group who knew about Sesshoumaru.

 

The group was silent for a moment, giving Kagome time to grasp the fleeting concept that the other girls were talking about Inu Yasha. Not Sesshoumaru. Her stomach did something strange and twisty, making her feel as if she was going to be violently ill.

 

Suddenly, her friends broke out in shrill giggles. Kagome felt the heat of embarrassment creeping its way across her face and wished she could vanish.

 

“Are you cheating on him with this Sesshoumaru?” Ayumi asked, completely aghast, but laughing none the less. “You're seeing this Sesshoumaru guy behind his back?”

 

Kagome let out a nervous giggle. “Not exactly,” she replied slowly, curling a lock of hair around her finger.

 

Yuka gasped. “Does he know, then?” she demanded, eyes wide.

 

“Kagome! I didn't think you were into things like that!” Eri exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth.

 

“Into what?” Kagome asked, frowning as she looked at her friends.

 

“You're with two guys at the same time and they know!” Ayumi replied.

 

A few of the people passing by slowed down to look at the group of girls. Kagome suddenly began to reevaluate the idea of pissing Sesshoumaru off. If he killed her, she wouldn't have to deal with her friends, which would be a plus. But the process through which he would kill her was unknown, which was a con. A very large con.

 

“It's not like that!” Kagome finally replied.

 

“Then what is it like?” Eri demanded, crossing her arms.

 

Kagome sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Sesshoumaru is… is Inu Yasha's older brother,” she said after a minute.

 

The three girls gasped, glancing at each other.

 

“His older brother?” Yuka asked quietly. “You're cheating on Inu Yasha with his older brother?”

 

“How much older?” Ayumi inquired, a smile on her lips.

 

“Er… Older,” Kagome replied. “But I'm not dating Sesshoumaru or anything. I was just thinking about him when you mentioned my `mysterious boyfriend' and just put those two together.” She laughed, trying to blow the whole thing off.

 

“Why were you thinking about him?” Eri asked.

 

“He wanted me to buy him some shampoo,” Kagome replied, feeling slightly less anxious. Shampoo was a safe topic. “He can't get the kind he likes where he lives. So when I saw him last, he asked me to get some.” Kagome frowned slightly. Sesshoumaru hadn't really asked. He had told her what to do. And she did it, because she really did enjoy living.

 

The three girls glanced at each other, suspicious looks on their faces. Eri gave Kagome a truly devious grin as she pulled Kagome toward one of the department stores.

 

“Well, let's you go get your guy his shampoo,” she told her friend, still grinning.

 

Kagome blinked as she was propelled, quite forcefully, and somewhat against her will, into the store.

 

 

 

Time travel was a bitch. There was no other way to put it. It was a bitch, and it bitched on Kagome. Often. After the two years she had been falling through the well, she still hadn't perfected the art of landing gently on her feet. Instead, she landed on her back. Or on her pack, which would dig into her back. If she was lucky enough to land on her feet, she often jarred her ankles. She just couldn't win.

 

Hauling her aching self out of the well, Kagome glanced around. No one was there to greet her. Perhaps a good thing, perhaps not. She had half expected Sesshoumaru to show up, proving, once again, that he did indeed know everything. The ass. And a nice one. Not that he was nice. His ass was.

 

Dropping her huge pack from her shoulders, Kagome allowed herself to half fall, half slide from the well to the ground. Sighing, she looked up at the sky, spreading her arms out to either side. She smiled, closing her eyes and basking in the serenity of the forest and the warm sun.

 

She didn't expect it to last longer than ten seconds. Just to test fate, Kagome began to count.

 

Ten.

 

Wind blew through the forest and the birds continued to twitter at each other.

 

Nine. Eight.

 

More wind puffed its way through the trees, and the birds began to quiet.

 

Seven.

 

The birds were officially silent.

 

Six. Five.

 

Yet more wind. The birds were still silent.

 

Four. Three.

 

A shadow fell across her midsection, obstructing the warmth from the sun.

 

Two.

 

The same shadow now fell across her entire body. Kagome stubbornly refused to open her eyes and acknowledge the shadow's owner.

 

One.

 

“Wench.”

 

Yes indeed, fate always lived up to Kagome's rather low expectations of it. Opening her eyes, Kagome looked up at Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru looked back down at her, expression blank.

 

“Good afternoon Sesshoumaru,” she said, doing her best to be amicable. “How are you today?”

 

“Miko. You are spread out on the forest floor next to a well,” he stated.

 

“Oh, why thank you for asking, Sesshoumaru,” Kagome said, knowing she would be pushing all of his buttons. “I am, in fact, quite well and it is, in fact, a wonderful day.”

 

Sesshoumaru looked at her as if she had lost her mind. That tended to be the look he gave people before he tried to skewer them. It was as if he was asking why the person, who was about to be maimed, even bothered to exist. “That is not what this Sesshoumaru wanted to know,” he told her.

 

Kagome sighed. “It's a long story,” she replied, sitting up and grabbing her bag. “I got your shampoo.”

 

He looked at her for a moment, then turned and began to walk. She stared after him with a blank expression. She was pretty sure he wanted her to follow him, although life would have been made a lot easier if he would actually tell her something like that. And, anyway, it wasn't fair of him to expect her to able to think properly when he walked in front of her. His silvery hair swishing over his nice ass made thinking completely impossible. It also made moving completely impossible. Sesshoumaru's quite lovely body had that kind of numbing effect on people.

 

But Sesshoumaru didn't like to be kept waiting, especially after he had issued a command, be it verbal or non-verbal. This would explain why Kagome suddenly found herself hanging over the taiyokai's shoulder, clutching desperately at her pack.

 

“You, miko, are very slow,” the yokai commented, quite idly.

 

“And you, taiyokai, are very impatient,” Kagome snapped back, a snarl in her voice.

 

“You try this Sesshoumaru's patience,” the taiyokai replied with a warning growl.

 

Kagome sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't get anywhere by snapping and snarling at Inu Yasha's older half-brother. Except, possibly, naked on her back. Blinking, she wondered where that came from and why she would ever even consider thinking such a thing. That stupid, annoying, absolutely damnable part of her mind began to whisper that she probably wouldn't really mind sexual attention from Sesshoumaru. Instead of retaliating, the sane part of her mind completely shut down. A very graphic image of her and Sesshoumaru burst from Kagome's imagination. They were naked. And moaning.

 

Pressing the hand that wasn't clutching her bag to her head, Kagome groaned. Between Sesshoumaru and her friends, Kagome wasn't sure if she would be able to survive much longer. Her friends had wheedled out every last bit of information concerning Sesshoumaru that Kagome could safely give. When she explained that she would be visiting him and Inu Yasha for a week with her grandfather, Yuki and Eri had run off together while Ayumi continued digging for information. The two girls had returned with a box of condoms. Hiding those from her mother had been an experience she wasn't too eager to repeat.

 

Suddenly, and quite unceremoniously, Kagome found herself on the ground. Her arm throbbed as she sat and rubbed her hand over it, leaning over herself to check for blood or bruises. Turning her head, she glowered darkly at Sesshoumaru. “You didn't have to drop me, you know,” she informed him.

 

Sesshoumaru arched one of his elegant eyebrows, but said nothing. Instead, he took a few steps to his right. Kagome followed his movements and noticed the hot spring. Sighing, she reached into her bag, pulling out her towel and the shampoo and conditioner that she had purchased for him.

 

Kagome stopped at the edge of the spring and looked up at him. Sesshoumaru looked back, a bored expression on his face.

 

“Turn around so that I can get in,” Kagome told him.

 

With a snort of disgust, Sesshoumaru did as she had requested, which, as it had before, stunned her. “As this Sesshoumaru informed you previously, your human body is of no temptation.”

 

“Then why are you so eager to get me into a hot spring and naked every time I see you?” Kagome groused to herself.

 

Gasping as her head slammed into a rock, Kagome clawed at the hand that was suddenly around her neck. Her dark eyes widened in shock, although she reasoned, somewhat painfully, that she shouldn't be too surprised. She had been pushing all his buttons and he had suddenly snapped.

 

“Do not assume to understand what I do,” Sesshoumaru growled, his voice rough with anger.

 

Unable to reply, Kagome nodded. At least, she hoped she did. Her mind was so foggy from pain and lack of air that she wasn't sure of what her body was doing. A moment later, air flooded her lungs, and Kagome gratefully took gulping breaths.

 

When she had finally cleared her mind of the fogginess created by oxygen deprivation, the young woman looked up at the taiyokai lord staring down at her. His expression was unforgiving and unregretful. He was a merciless bastard, she thought to herself as she stood on shaking legs. Pretty hair and a fine ass didn't change the fact that Sesshoumaru wouldn't hesitate to kill her if he thought she was damaging his pride.

 

Quietly, slowly, Sesshoumaru turned away from Kagome and the hot spring. He stood there a moment before Kagome realized her was waiting for her to strip and slip into the spring. She wanted to walk away, wanted to leave him standing there, but she knew if she tried, he would jump on her again. The violent anger simmering under her skin pushed her to the edge of the hot spring. The icy fingers of fear digging into her back convinced her to remove her clothing and slip into the warm waters.

 

Waiting for Sesshoumaru, Kagome pooled water in her hands, pouring it over her hair as she sat down on a submerged rock. The water came up to her neck, cocooning her in pleasant and reassuring warmth.

 

Soft murmurings alerted Kagome to the fact that Sesshoumaru was in the water as well. She watched the ripples under the steam as they drew nearer to her, and she took a shuddering breath. The ripples became smaller and tighter as Sesshoumaru approached her, and she watched his pale skin as he moved to stand before her. Standing, the water came up to just below his navel. Small curls trailed down the center of his abdomen, disappearing beneath the waterline. Closing her eyes, Kagome looked away.

 

A quiet splash indicated that Sesshoumaru had knelt down in the water. He reached out, and she could feel the heat from his skin. Kagome could sense his hesitation, it was almost palpable, as he brushed his fingers over her neck.

 

“Miko,” he murmured. “It was not—”

“Don't apologize,” Kagome said quickly, turning back to him. She saw Sesshoumaru's eyes narrow. She was aware of the fact that he had been about to ask for forgiveness which was something that Sesshoumaru rarely did. Offering him a weak smile, Kagome pushed the hand away, her eyes following the thin crimson streaks on his wrist. “It doesn't suit you.”

 

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow went up. Kagome gave him a bigger, more real smile, pleased to see the familiar expression.

 

“And how do you know what suits me?” Sesshoumaru asked, a slight trace of amusement in his voice.

 

Kagome stuck out her tongue briefly, grinning now. “You're too proud to have to apologize for something that I brought on myself,” she told him.

 

Sesshoumaru blinked at Kagome as she turned and grabbed the shampoo and conditioner bottles. She picked up the two violently pink containers and spun back to face him. “Dangerously Straight,” she announced, holding the bottles up for his inspection. “Perfect for your straight hair.”

 

The taiyokai stared at the twin bottles, then looked up at her, a second eyebrow rising to join the first. “They are pink,” he said.

 

Bending her arms, Kagome brought the bottles closer to her for her own inspection. “So?” she asked, looking up at him.

 

Plucking the shampoo bottle from Kagome's hands, Sesshoumaru sniffed cautiously. “Rin likes pink things,” Sesshoumaru informed her.

 

“So?” Kagome asked again.

 

Sesshoumaru stared at the bottle in his hand, and Kagome could have sworn she saw him twitch.

 

“There's nothing wrong with the color pink,” the young woman told him succinctly, scooting off the submerged stone and urging the taiyokai to sit in her place. “Pink is no different than red, except lighter.” Reaching over his shoulder, Kagome plucked the shampoo from his hand. Pouring a large amount in her hand, Kagome began to run the shampoo through his hair.

 

It was soft, his hair. Kagome smiled to herself as she lathered the soap, rubbing it into his scalp. If she could run her fingers through clouds and moonlight, she knew they wouldn't be as soft as his silken strands. Slowly, she gathered his long tresses from the water, kneading the shampoo into them. She piled his hair on top of his head, running her fingers through it until the suds reached up to her elbows.

 

Looking down at Sesshoumaru's head, Kagome's eyes widened slightly. Bubbles devoured her arms, and those same bubbles consumed his hair. She couldn't tell where in the mass she ended and he began.

 

Pulling back abruptly, Kagome sank into the warm water of the hot spring. “You can rinse your hair now,” she told him, trying to force her voice to be steady.

 

Eyes trained on him, she watched the muscles in his shoulders contract and then release as he pushed himself from the rock. His soapy hair dripped down from where she had piled it, tracing trails of bubbles in the water. Gracefully, he leaned himself back, golden eyes closed, and rinsed the shampoo from his hair.

 

Kagome's mouth went dry and she suddenly had a hard time remembering that he had attacked her earlier. Sesshoumaru was undeniably gorgeous. He moved with the graceful elegance of a cat. His skin slid across his muscles like silk sliding over steel. Surely a god had crafted him in his mother's womb.

 

Groping around in the water, Kagome found a small rock. She picked it up and held it before her, inspecting it. It was flat, small, and round. It fit easily into her hand. Braining herself with it would be easy.

 

“What are you doing?” Sesshoumaru asked, interest just managing to wiggle its way into his voice.

 

“Debating the merits of smashing my head on this rock,” Kagome replied, still staring at the stone in her hand.

 

Sesshoumaru's own hand came forward, plucking the rock from her grasp. He glanced at it before he tossed it aside. “I doubt that beating yourself with a stone would do any good,” he told her. “You would merely bleed in the hot spring and attract countless yokai who would want to feed on your corpse. This Sesshoumaru would be left to deal with them, and I would not enjoy such an experience. Moreover, if you were to damage yourself with that rock, you would not be able to use this conditioner.” That said, the taiyokai stood.

 

Kagome suddenly found herself regarding a very attractive navel nestled in a very attracted abdomen. She wondered, in a vague way, if Sesshoumaru would be offended if she were to run her tongue along the center of his stomach. Shocked by the thought, Kagome lurched to one side, slipping and falling face-first into the water. She surfaced a moment later, coughing and sputtering, her thick black hair in her face.

 

“Drowning would also inhibit your ability to finish what you started,” Sesshoumaru informed her dryly.

 

Pushing her hair from her face, Kagome scuttled about so that she could face the taiyokai. “Was that humor?” she asked him. It had to have been humor. Kagome's mind couldn't accept it as anything else. “Who would have imagined that you, Sesshoumaru-sama, actually had a sense of humor.”

 

Belatedly, Kagome realized she had spoken out loud. And that she probably shouldn't have.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow arched.

 

“I've grown to hate that facial expression,” Kagome growled, snatching the conditioner from his hand.

 

“Rin finds it troublesome as well,” Sesshoumaru told her as he settled back down. “She says that when I am not arching my eyebrow, I am snarling. She insists that my face will one day freeze in such an expression.”

 

Trying not to choke on laughter at the thought of Sesshoumaru with a permanently arched eyebrow, Kagome began to condition his hair. “It would be… odd,” she said.

 

Sesshoumaru said nothing. As he was apt to do.

 

“I guess I'll leave the shampoo and conditioner with you,” Kagome told him after a moment of silence.

 

Again, Sesshoumaru said nothing.

 

Kagome wrinkled her nose and decided that the earlier humor she thought Sesshoumaru had exhibited was only a hallucination.

 

“This Sesshoumaru wishes to compensate you for your trouble,” the yokai lord informed her abruptly. “How much did it cost to purchase those items?”

 

“Umm…” Kagome swallowed. She didn't know how much the shampoo and conditioner would have cost in the past. The value of money had changed, and it wasn't a concept she was too familiar with. With a mental sigh, Kagome realized she would have to pay a bit more attention to her history books. Speaking of history, she was pretty sure she had a test coming up. Which she would be failing.

 

“This Sesshoumaru asked you a question,” he reminded her as he pulled away to rinse his hair.

 

Kagome blinked. He asked her something? She had been too wrapped up in thinking about the possibility of an upcoming test. What had he asked her about?

 

“Right. Compensation. Um. Well, I come from very far away,” she lied, “and I'm not sure how much of my money equals yours. Maybe we could do something like a trade. You could give me something of equal value.”

 

Lifting his head from the water, Sesshoumaru turned, fixing his golden eyes on her.

 

They're like suns, Kagome thought to herself. His hair is moonlight and his eyes are twin suns.

 

“Did you hear anything I just said?” Sesshoumaru demanded in a low growl.

 

Kagome blinked, wrenching herself out of a naughty fantasy involving Sesshoumaru's hair and eyes. She hadn't thought her mind was that dirty. Clearly, she had thought wrong. Recently, Kagome realized, she had found that everything she had previously thought was wrong.

 

“Sorry,” Kagome replied with a nervous laugh.

 

Sesshoumaru gave Kagome an annoyed look. “This Sesshoumaru inquired as to what he might give you of equal value,” he told her.

 

Babies, the dirty part of Kagome's mind supplied. “Um,” she replied.

 

Sesshoumaru continued to give her the same annoyed look. It was starting to bleed into his “I promise you a painful death” look.

 

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Kagome closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against her forehead. “Something of equal value… Let me think…” she muttered. What could she ask Sesshoumaru for? What could he give her that would be of equal value to the shampoo and conditioner?

 

He could help in the battle against Naraku. Kagome brightened considerably at that thought. It was a marvelous idea, really. Sesshoumaru would help them kill Naraku, the final battle would go magnificently well, and after they were done with the slaughter, Sesshoumaru could carry her off to a hot spring. There, she would wash his hair, he would wash hers, and they would languorously make love for the rest of their lives.

 

Kagome blinked.

 

The fantasies her mind kept providing were really starting to creep her out.

 

“Have you come up with something?” Sesshoumaru asked, examining the claws on his hand.

 

“More time,” Kagome replied. She couldn't stop the words from coming. Her mouth simply detached itself from her brain and began to run away from her. “More time with you would be ample compensation.”

 

Kagome's mind was mortified. She couldn't believe what she had just asked for. More time. She had asked Sesshoumaru, her brother's hated half-brother, to spend more time with her. She was truly insane.

 

“You wish to spend more time with me?” Sesshoumaru demanded, the edge in his voice giving her the idea that he was as surprised as she was.

 

As she had nothing else to do, Kagome ran with what little she had. “Yes,” she replied. “I would like to spend more time with you. I have other things, besides shampoo and conditioner, that you might find interesting.”

 

“Such as?”

 

“Ramen,” Kagome replied.

 

“And what is ramen?” Sesshoumaru inquired.

 

“Food,” Kagome supplied weakly, running out of steam. She really was an idiot.

 

“It would appear to this Sesshoumaru that your spending time with me would only require me to compensate you more,” the taiyokai told her. “You will think of another idea.”

 

Kagome didn't stop to think. “Kiss me.”

 

Time completely halted. The world stopped its rotation, jumped a few meters to the right, and started spinning backwards. The sun rose and set at least six times, and Kagome felt like she was going to be sick. She refused to believe she had just told Sesshoumaru to kiss her. And, by the look on the taiyokai's face, he was doing the same.

 

But then he moved forward, bring his lips to hers. Their mouths just barely touching, Sesshoumaru reached up with his hand and trailed the tip of one claw from her jaw down her neck and along her collarbone.

 

“This Sesshoumaru will not kiss you,” he informed her, his voice soft and husky.

 

“Why?” Kagome asked him.

 

Dragging his lips from her mouth to her ear, Sesshoumaru whispered in reply, “You would not enjoy the passion of a taiyokai, Kagome.”

 

And then he was gone. The water didn't even ripple. He was there one moment and then he was gone as if he had never been. His clothing had vanished as well, and Kagome was left alone in the hot spring, staring blankly at the air that had, moment's before, been displaced by Sesshoumaru's body.

 

Having nothing else to do, Kagome opened her mouth, threw back her head, and screamed in frustration.

 

Fate, she decided, really hated her.

 

 

 

I was having a really hard time getting this chapter to work for me, so the beginning is kind of lame. Then I went and did my Rescue Diver training, drank way too much coffee, and stayed up past midnight writing this. It seems my mind works best under conditions most people would find detrimental.

 

There is no real reason for this chapter to be called “Macaroni and Orange.” It merely is.