InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Invitations to Trouble ❯ Loyalties ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter Seven

The world was a boiling and hissing ball of infinite and delicious ecstasy. Simply moving one leg over the other sparked a dizzying eruption of pleasure. Cooing, she lifted curiously heavy lids to gaze around her.

It was dark, but the crystalline-pure light of the half-moon provided ample enough light to behold a tantalizing sight. Mithril hair spilled across the darkness, seemingly lit from within. It beckoned her with its cool fire, calling strongly that here lay the key to her salvation.

Slithering across the grass caused the cool blades to caress her heated flesh like the feather-light fingers of a hundred lovers. She whimpered at the contact. The banked fire that was pooled within her blazed forth again, brought back to life by the sensations.

"Ahh, ahh."

Chest heaving with breathless pants, she curled forward to press her fevered brow against the night-chilled grass.

So close.

The one who could stop this was so close. Trembling fingers reached across the vast expanse standing between her and her goal. As her hair brushed over her shoulders and neck, the strands tickled the healing mark there. Merely burning before, the heat within her turned volcanic.

So close.

'Please, make it stop…' Raw and painful, her throat refused to make any sound beyond the raspy pants.

Her hand closed weakly upon the shoulder before her. Exhausted from the laborious effort of traveling less than a foot, she collapsed gratefully against the hard body that had been the focus of her endeavors.

'Make…it…' Unconsciousness took her, but not before she felt strong arms wrap around her body and lift her up.

Only later would she learn that she had mistakenly gone to the shape swathed in scarlet and not white.

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Kagome had the table set for dinner and then headed into the kitchen to get some seasonings. She paused when she heard a litany of foul curses strung together with the skill and finesse of one who was intimately acquainted with the colorful words.

'Inuyasha?'

Going back into the main room, she barely had time to register and catch the small, limp body flung her way. It mewled and trembled in her arms. "Shippo!" Hugging the sleeping kitsune to her chest, she noticed a telling lump on his head. She gritted her teeth as her anger flared up. "Inuyasha! How could you hit him you big dummy!?"

"I ain't Inu-koro woman!"

Filling the doorway and nursing a badly burned arm, stood Kouga. He was wearing a decidedly unhappy look.

Surprised, Kagome blinked at him. "Kouga? You did this?"

Raising his arm to display the inflamed skin, he scowled at the bundle she held. "Brat burned me when I found him. Now I understand why the mutt's always chasing that damned fox!"

Bowing in apology, Kagome gestured for him to take a seat. He glanced at the table before looking back at her. "The funny thing is, the brat had some interesting information about that human girl I saw here earlier." A knowing look passed over his face.

Kagome wondered why the room seemed to suddenly shrink, making the short span between her and the ookami even smaller. "Kouga?"

All traces of humor were gone from his face, and his eyes looked as bottomless as the floor of the ocean. "I don't want to have a seat Kagome." Looming as he padded silently towards her, he looked down his nose at her upturned face, "I want to know why you lied to me woman."

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Have you ever woken up and found that the world had suddenly stopped making sense overnight? That the things you believed were unquestionable and indelible facts of the universe had decided to go "find themselves" and forgot to leave you the fucking memo?

Muttering some choice words, Inuyasha cradled his throbbing head and wondered why the hell the word 'memo' had sprung up in his mind.

'Got to be Kagome and more of her shit from the future. One of these days I'm going to force that wench to bring me a dictionary or something.' While contemplating that thought, something in the general vicinity of his groin protested mightily to cruel and unusual conditions. Heeding the warning from his crotch, he shot to his feet and went in search of a place to relieve himself.

Yawning as he emptied his far too full bladder, Inuyasha groggily wondered where he was. Nothing in the sparse woods around him felt threatening, so he knew he was in no danger. But that didn't explain why was he in the woods in the first place.

Dismissing the question from his mind, he shook off the excess and turned to go back to where he had been laying. 'Wherever this is, it'll have to do. I'm too tired to get back.'

Which was something his strangely aching limbs were agreeing with. 'Why do I feel like I just went ten rounds with Kagura?' His calves soon joined the litany of complaints being lodged against him by his body the longer he stood there. Snorting, he made up his mind to figure it out in the morning.

Still not fully awake, he flopped back down with the lofty goal of going right back to sleep. 'I'm too damned tired to care or try and figure out anything right now.' Muttering softly, he paused and smirked when he saw that he was not alone. He puffed up a bit when he detected the lingering smell of heavy musk hanging in the air.

'I knew she'd come around.'

The smug thought didn't help his exhaustion, so he automatically scooted closer to the warm body before him, wrapping his arms around it and snuggling close. Within the thick layers of semi-awareness clouding his mind, he let his hands absently stroke across the expanse of his partner's stomach.

The tips of his fingers tingled as sleep warred with the consciousness that was niggling at his mind annoyingly. 'Fuck it, I just want to go to sleep. I want to hold my wife and touch the pups, now stop thinking so much you stupid brain!' Having defeated logic, he pressed his nose into the soft curve of the neck in front of him, smiling lazily as a sigh met the contact. Yeah, Kagome and the pups were all he needed.

Amber eyes flew open in shock.

'Where are the pups?'

Splayed fingers confirmed that the stomach his hand was lightly resting upon was as flat and hard as a board. The past few hours of imposed lust and bitter-sweet, aching desires came rushing back as he caught a whiff of his brother's scent.

'Oh dear god. If I kill myself right now, no one will ever have to know.'

With a silent gasp, he shot away from the body as if it could burn him alive on the spot, all previous minor bodily complaints disappearing into thin air. Vainly trying to suppress the shudder threatening to shake his skin off, Inuyasha tucked his hands under his arms to keep them warm. That was when another interesting fact presented itself.

A cool breeze blew by and tickled something that it shouldn't have been able to reach. The color drained from his face as he cursed himself for not paying closer attention and switched his hands to a much more important position.

'Where in the fuck are my clothes?!!?'

Oh the gods had to be having a party right about now. Though a terrible habit that he knew he should curb before the pups were born, he cursed long and fluently again. Scanning the small area he was in, he felt a little gratitude for small miracles. 'At least I'm in a cave.' He noticed the presence of his sword with a snort of disgust, but didn't see his clothes.

'You are such a genius. What other moron keeps his sword but forgets the pants he needs to wear it? I hope the kids get Kagome's brains.' Recalling her numerous complaints about her schoolwork, he amended the thought. 'Fuck that. They'd be better off if something skips a generation.' Thoughts of family brought the situation at hand back to the forefront.

'Fuck…'

Moving aside a bit allowed the wan beams of the moon in to shine in through the mouth of the cave and illuminate the slumbering person before him. If Inuyasha thought he'd been ill before, it was nothing compared to what he felt at that moment.

It wasn't his brother. It was Kuroi laying there.

Once again, the heavy musk of spent passion wafted into his brain. The rough stone cut into his spine as he slid down the wall, but he was too numb to acknowledge it. Staring vacantly at the relaxed body of his friend, he felt something inside of him wither and die.

'What have I done to her?'

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The wolves were restless.

Laying a meaty hand on the head of the largest one, a huge black beast he'd named Yami, Gorotsuki looked out upon his tribe. Cold, dark eyes touched fleetingly upon each one there, noticing a telling absence. He snarled to himself. That boy was starting become a problem. His insolence had been indulged in the past, after all, he had still been a whelp. However, in the lord's opinion, his son was now becoming a man. A feral look flashed across his broad face.

A real man had to face his obligations and the consequences of failing them.

Sensitive hearing picked up whispered snatches of conversation from one or two pack members. They were questioning the young prince's absence as well. A twisted rage threatened to explode in his burgeoning gut, but Gorotsuki savored the control he'd come to enjoy over holding it in check. He stroked it down in his mind, honing it to an even and focused point to be used later when he would punish the boy for his actions tonight.

A wide smile that failed to warm is eyes pulled at his mouth. The pack saw it and thought that he was ready to speak. He was, but their expectant faces brought a touch of pride to his old eyes.

Yes, they were his pack, not the whelp's. Even those two pathetic runts Kouga seemed to favor as companions, Hakkaku and Ginta, had sworn loyalty to him and not their prince. If the smile held a trace of arrogance, no one noticed. Holding aloft thick arms, he called out to his brethren.

"Who here has chafed against the restrictions of the Dog?" A surprised murmur met the question. There was no need to explain who he meant. Everyone there knew of Lord Yamatsu.

"Who here has seen fat and succulent game escape because it crossed into the land of the Dog?" The murmurs turned nasty in a few places, bringing an honest smile from him this time. "What about your friends, the wolves?" Rubbing the triangular head beside him, he bared a fang, "What of them? How many bodies have we brought back because someone who serves the Dog killed our beloved beasts?"

More than a few hands strayed out to touch a warm, furry body nearby. Gorotsuki knew he had them now. There were pack members who would leave their own pups rather then see harm come to a wolf. It was upon that faction that he placed his largest gamble.

Stepping away from the dais, he moved into the thick of them, delighting in the feeling of all those eyes watching him. While he did not possess Kouga's good looks, he knew he more than made up for it with sheer presence. Stocky and compact, he moved with a limberness that belied his bulk. That speed and strength were only part of what had made him the leader. Gauging the anticipation written on the faces around him, he knew that his cunning mind had been the largest factor in keeping him in that lofty place.

In the center of the den, he stopped and held aloft the scroll that had arrived a week ago. "You know what this is, don't you? You know what it says!"

Of course they did. Since it's arrival, everyone had seen it. Those who could read had told those that couldn't what it contained. The message within the tightly rolled cylinder had ignited their blood, making them restless and excitable. One or two of the pack had been injured in a scuffle carried too far, but it hadn't dampened the expectation that hung in the air.

The old lord had counted on that barely contained exhuberance.

Turning in a slow circle, he looked intently into each eye he met, "So I ask you all, what would you like to do about it?"

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Jaken swore that some day, he would just kill himself and be done with it.

'I serve and I try to please, but is that ever good enough? No! First, I have been forcefully ripped from the side of my master by that wench and now I have been cast off by my lord!!' A heartbroken cry issued from him. 'Why do the gods hate me so?'

Technically, it had been Lord Sesshomaru himself who had told Jaken to stay behind at the mansion, but the retainer still felt that it was Lady Kuroi's fault somehow. 'What if she doesn't know how to attend to my lord's needs? What if he requires something vital and I'm not there to provide it?'

Jaken wailed in his mind as a vision of his lord laying somewhere dirty, starving and helpless arose to torment him. 'She'll kill him, I know it! He should never have married that accursed woman. I know she's trouble.'

Musing sourly, he made a complicated gesture at the north corner of the thick stone wall and moved on.

'After she got him shot by the miko I had hoped he would realize this, but he proceeded with the wedding! He even smiled when she turned into that hideous, tailed thing afterwards.' Shaking his bald head ruefully, the servant marveled at his young lord's acceptance of things.

'I thought the hanyou was bad enough, but Lady Kuroi is too much trouble for words! Actually accepting the invitation to live with the very miko who almost slew Lord Sesshomaru. She will get him killed, I know it!'

Going as quickly as his short legs would take him, Jaken raced to finish the ward around the mansion that Yamatsu had ordered him to erect.

'Protect Lady Shinaki and the children. As if they need it. Who would want some old crow and her brood?' Muttering an incantation, he frowned heavily. 'Well, Tama-chan is cute enough I suppose, but the rest are just hellions. Besides, she has that lumbering beast of a son here, isn't that enough?'

Truthfully, he felt that Kiso was a small army on his own. An army he was heartily glad was on their side. When the young man had arrived in the middle of the night, he'd sent the entire place into a small panic.

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A lookout shouted that something big was coming. Racing to the wall to lend magical assistance, Jaken had almost fallen off of it.

The light of the half-moon was diffused by the encroaching fog that had sprung up from nowhere. Trying vainly to pierce it with his bug-eyes, Jaken saw a glimmer in the distance.

A glimmer that was rapidly growing in size.

Coming towards them in a billowing cloud of mist, was an armored god. Pale yellow eyes glowed fiercely from beneath a sweeping helmet, accented further by the vapor drifting menacingly before them. There was no need for the ceremonial demon's mask one usually wore to frighten a foe, the expression on the face of the approaching figure would have been enough to make more than a few hearts quail.

In the silence of the fog-covered forest, the hollow clicking of the thick, lacquered plates against one another sounded like the patter of rain on distant leaves. It was the only sound the apparition made as it drew closer. Even the large crossbow and numerous arrows in the quiver slung across his shoulders made no sounds. The pommel of a sword flashed momentarily, but it too remained silent.

But that had only been a small part of what left everyone there gaping. The towering mass of leather and metal death was rising directly from a stream that spontaneously followed him and flowed forward to end just outside the front gate.

Jaken readied the Staff of Heads in hopes of obliterating the aqueous menace. He stopped as a familiar voice reached his tiny ears.

"Hello everyone! I brought cakes!"

The tension in the bodies around him vanished immediately. It was mistress Midori. One of the guards actually called out happily to inquire if it was bean or rice. The man was promptly smacked unconscious by the retainer.

Hopping down from behind the massive shoulder pads that had hidden her, the green girl went directly to the gate and walked blithely through as they opened for her. Since Midori was here, that meant that the hulking giant had to be her husband Kiso. The young man was fortunate that his wife had called out before the archers could fully draw their bowstrings taut.

If mistress Midori had not vouched from him, Kiso might have been killed on the spot. As it was, the guards still gave him a wide berth as he followed her inside.

Jaken made a mental note to have that guard killed. 'She could be sorceress and that thing could be her servant. We are right on the verge of a border war and these idiots want to know if it's bean or rice?!'

Privately, he hoped it was bean.

Making his waddling way down to the entrance, the retainer started to verbally berate the girl for stirring up such a fuss. A yellow gaze hardened as it fell on him, but he didn't care. With Yamatsu and Sesshomaru gone, he was the head of the forces here!

"Are you insane girl?! We don't have time to waste on your idiocies. Why did you not come here in a normal fashion?" Accepting a cake with curt thanks, he crowed inside when a bite revealed that it was bean. His tone softened a bit, but still held a chastising quality. "You should be more careful young woman. The roads are not safe anymore for people traveling alone."

Bowing slightly, Midori glanced over at her husband, "But master Jaken. I firmly believe that I had ample protection the entire time." Handing him another cake, she flashed a dazzling smile. "Besides sir, we had to get here tonight. That's what the orders said to do."

Munching happily, Jaken queried, "What orders?"

Removing his helmet, Kiso presented him with some serving papers. His voice was as deep as the little youkai thought it would be. "I apologize for the way we arrived, but it's the fastest way I can manage." He said nothing when Jaken rudely snatched the parchment from his leather-clad fingers, but the corners of his mouth tightened.

Scanning the script that was easily recognizable as Lord Yamatsu's, the retainer tossed it back. Pointing to the barracks nestled near a wall, he said tersely around another cake that Midori somehow slipped into his hand, "There is where you are to put your things young man. I don't know where you got that armor, but you'll have to give it to the quartermaster and wear the prescribed uniform." Turning away with the assured air of someone who expects an order to be followed, he stilled at the quiet response.

"No."

Jaken faced the youkai once more, trying to seem intimidating in the face of someone whose ankle was taller than his chest. 'I am in charge, he is a grunt. He should follow my orders!'

To say that the taste of power he'd been experiencing in the absence of his two lords had been a little heady would be an understatement. Jaken was full blown drunk on it!

"Now you listen to me young man! You are here to serve your lord and there should be no other purpose for your pitiful existence as of this moment! You are a soldier and a soldier wears the armor his Lord provides." Sniffing derisively at the old, but obviously cared for suit the other wore, he asked pointedly, "What makes you think that your armor is better than what you will be provided with anyway?"

Kiso looked down at the helmet in his hands and stated, "It's the suit of armor Lord Yamatsu himself bestowed upon my late father."

If the courtyard had been quiet before, it was as silent as the dead now. Clearing his throat in an effort to hide his embarrassment, Jaken only succeeded it making it more noticeable. When he saw more than a few amused looks pass over the faces of the handful of guards who had witnessed his little tirade, he felt himself flush angrily.

"Well, if the Lord felt it was adequate, I suppose you may keep it." Tapping the end of the staff sharply on the ground, he snapped out, "But get it cleaned and properly attended to! Remember, you represent the name of our Lord, I won't have you disgracing it by looking slovenly." Turning away, he waddled back into the mansion with his non-existent chin lifted high.

Kiso looked down at his wife and smiled. She swatted his arm with a frown. "Leave him be, he's a very nice…kind…um, good retainer!" Her failure to find something complimentary to say about the little man only made the grin widen.

Blushing, she swatted him again.

"Oh hush up."

}

Setting the final ward, Jaken allowed himself a small nod of pride as the seal glowed faintly blue and white before becoming invisible. Now no one disloyal to the Lord or not a part of the family could enter. There was a tingle as he himself passed through on the way inside the gate.

'I am a true servant of my Lords.' His eyes fell on the barracks, 'As for everyone else, I'll let the ward speak for them.'

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A/N: Hmm, this is going in a different direction than I originally planned. Now I'm wondering where the hell the story will wind up? This is what happens when you let the characters control you. They get snippety and you lose all creative decisions.

Wait until the next chapter. Sessy's on the hunt for his mate, and he finds….what? I'm not telling you!