InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Moving Pictures ❯ Indecent Woman ( Chapter 5 )

A/N:

 

FFnet

 

Shock1119: Rin didn't mean it in a mean or racist way, she was simply repeating what she'd heard.

 

Witch of Darkness: I like cheese :) As for cliché, well, I haven't read any Sess/OC stories and only a couple of Sess/Kag. Chances are, anything I think of will have been before. Oh well.

 

Forgotten angel: thanks for reading! This fic is fun.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 5 - Indecent Woman

 

“No, Rin, like this,” Charlotte paused braiding the flower stems as she gathered her lips into a tight circle and blew a clear, clean note.

 

Rin crossed her eyes to stare at her own pursed lips, producing nothing more then a whisper of rushing air.

 

“Don't worry, you'll get it,” Charlotte smiled at her reassuringly, selecting another long-stemmed flower and braiding it into the chain.

 

“Are you finished resting yet?” Jaken griped from underneath the giant yew. He had not been able to whistle, either.

 

Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut, imagining tearing into the imp with her claws. He'd squeal like a stuck pig…

 

“Kitty?”

 

“Yes, Rin?” her eyes popped open, her bloody fantasy cut short of the killing blow. What was it about him that annoyed her so much? His discordant voice? Perpetual bad mood? Flapping little beak?

 

“You looked strange for a minute,” the girl's brow was furrowed, wrinkling the pale skin.

 

Charlotte pinched the braid with one hand and smoothed the creases from Rin's forehead with the other. “You shouldn't frown; it'll give you wrinkles. Then you'll have to have work done.”

 

“What kind of work?”

 

“Never mind. There probably aren't any plastic surgeons around here, anyway.” Breaking short most of the stems, leaving only a few long ones, she wove the longest stems into the top of the chain. She held up the crown of flowers and eyed it speculatively, pleased with her work. She hadn't made a daisy chain in ages. These flowers weren't exactly daisies, but they braided well enough. “Here ya go, kiddo,” she set the wreath on the girl's head, who clapped her hands and giggled.

 

The jingle of a bridal and steady clomp-clomp of horse's hooves intruded on the peaceful afternoon. Charlotte climbed to her feet and dusted herself off, excitement building as she let her human features slide into place. Running her fingers through her disheveled hair, she tried to smooth the strands as best as she could. Picking her way through the field, she headed toward the road and the human she heard on it.

 

“Woman,” Sesshomaru's cold voice stopped her in her tracks.

 

“What?” she glared back, her hands on her hips.

 

“You cannot approach a soldier on the road looking like that,” his eyes roved over her derisively.

 

“Like what?” she glanced down at herself. Her clothes were clean, more or less. A hole was starting to form at the bottom edge of her camisole, but it had been there for a while.

 

“Woman.”

 

“What??” exasperation colored her voice as she raised her hands in a questioning gesture. She didn't want to miss the chance to talk to this guy; he could have seen a traveling painter or…something.

 

“You hide your youkai blood like a coward,” he sneered at her.

 

“Thanks. You really know how to make a girl feel special.” She pursed her lips a moment, feeling the need to explain. “He'll…think I'm a freak. I never let strangers see my natural form.” With a toss of her hair, she turned and stomped away. `I probably look like a freak anyway, in my jammies with my hair all messy and my toenail polish chipped and peeling. I am seriously due for a facial and a peddie when I get home.' She listed in her mind the various luxuries in which she would indulge as she avoided gopher holes and thistles, keeping an eye out for the human. `… and I'll spend an entire day at the spa, followed by a night of heavy partying; I don't care who my friends hook me up with.'

 

The human finally came into view, fully armored and riding a charger, his topknot bouncing in time with the horse's steps. His grim face was creased and weatherworn and a scar traced from his hairline, across his face, and down his chin. His hand tensed on his sword when he noticed the woman standing by the side of the road, her hand shading her eyes from the afternoon sun. `Demon or human,' he wondered as her stared at her fair hair and light eyes.

 

Charlotte waved at him and walked forward as he reigned in his steed. She stopped when the horse began to shy and toss its head. Sketching a quick bow, she used her most polite Japanese, “Excuse me, but I was wondering if I could ask you a question.”

 

He stared down at her and frowned. She seemed human but she was not properly dressed and her accent was strange and stilted. A prostitute or slave from the continent, perhaps?

 

She stared up at him, waiting for a response. `Not very friendly, is he. I wonder what that ass meant about how I looked.' The soldier didn't look like he was going to answer her, so she barreled on. “Have you seen a painter or artist come through here?”

 

He spurred his mount forward, ignoring its mincing steps and rolling eyes. He decided that it didn't matter who she was; she would make a fine diversion for the troops back at camp. She stood there stupidly, watching him canter toward her.

 

Confused, Charlotte watched the soldier ride forward. Only when he reached for her did she realize his intentions. She jumped back but too late; he had a grip on her hair and was trying to drag her onto the saddle. With a shriek of pain and anger, she grabbed his arm and pulled with one hand, swinging her other fist into his face. His face crunched sickeningly, blood spurting from his broken nose. He cursed her, losing his grip on her hair and his seat in the saddle as his horse reared and bucked. Charlotte leapt out of the way as the horse took off down the road, dragging the sputtering soldier behind it, his foot tangled in the stirrups.

 

The soldier's pack, dislodged from the saddle when the horse had spooked, lay abandoned in the middle of the road. If she remembered her history correctly, then there was a good chance that the pack contained loot stolen from conquered villages. She scrubbed a hand over her face; she didn't know what the soldier had called her, but she had a nasty suspicion.

 

She stomped back through the field, cradling her throbbing hand against her chest and dragging the pack behind her. Facing the tai-youkai, she met his amused gaze and gave him her best business face, the one she reserved for executives and pushy clients. “Sesshomaru, what's a …?” she asked sweetly, repeating the word that the soldier had hollered at her and ignoring Jaken's cackling.

 

The corner of his mouth barely quirked, “A whore.”

 

Her suspicion was confirmed. “Point taken.”

 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

 

Charlotte grimaced and tried to tug close the front the kimono she had found in the soldier's pack and had subsequently exchanged for her `Hello Kitty' pajamas. It was silk and well made: midnight blue with silver embroidery on the sleeves and hem. However, it was several inches too short and a little tight at her bust. The neckline plunged like a cocktail dress, showing a little more cleavage than she thought was necessary in a world where strange men tried to kidnap you off the side of the road. Rin had assured her that it was much more appropriate than her other clothes but she couldn't help feeling that she was about to pose for boudoir photos.

 

She'd left the circle of firelight, unable to maintain a cheerful disposition. The gravity of her situation was beginning to weigh on her, and the event with the soldier had reminded her that she was not on vacation and was probably not able to handle herself here. Digging the bottle and a couple of scrolls from the soldier's pack, she'd told Rin that she was going for a walk. She'd wandered until she found a mound of loosely stacked boulders. `A giant's cairn,' she thought and shuddered. Who knows, in this place it could be true. Giant or no giant, she'd found a comfortable nook in the pile of rocks and had settled into her seat.

 

Taking another swig from the bottle of sake, she tucked one leg underneath her and brought the other up against her chest, abandoning her fight with the kimono for propriety. Pushing her glasses up her nose, she worked loose the cord of one of the scrolls and unrolled it, holding it against the rock next to her.

 

Deciphering the archaic writing by the bright light of the almost full moon, she determined that it was a financial record. Pausing a moment for another sip, she converted the date on the scroll to the current calendar. Keiko had taught her the formula and she only half remembered it, but she was able to come up with a rough estimate. It didn't make her feel any better.

 

Sesshomaru watched the cat youkai pour over the scroll, then remove her spectacles and scrub a hand over her face. It was a masculine gesture, out of place with her obviously feminine form. A nervous habit, no doubt; he'd seen her do it after the entertaining incident with the soldier. Wrapping an arm around her raised knee, she shifted her shape from the human form she had assumed earlier to what she called her `natural form'. Raising the bottle to her lips, she drank deeply, the smell of rice wine wafting toward him on the cool evening breeze. Propping her head on her arm, she stared up at the moon and chewed on her bottom lip, ears flat against her skull.

 

He resented the curiosity, almost a compulsion, which had drawn him after her. Self-confident and silly, her energy seemed to light the space around her. Assuring himself that he would soon grow bored with her lack of proper respect and civilized manners, he stepped from the screen of trees and quietly approached. An ear cocked toward him, but she made no other motion to acknowledge his presence.

 

“You are drunk.”

 

She snorted, a very unladylike sound. “Getting there, anyway.” She offered the bottle to him, which he ignored.

 

“This Sesshomaru does not drink…wine.”

 

Shrugging, she drained the contents and tossed it against the rocks, watching as it shattered into hundreds of sharp clay fragments. `Probably shouldn't have done that,' she thought as she chewed on her lip. She had not found shoes in the pack. Sighing, she pictured the rows of trendy heels in her closet.

 

“The night is not safe for one such as you. You should return to camp.”

 

“Oh yeah? And what am I?” her ears perked up as she leaned her body against the boulder next to her and gazed at him through half-lidded eyes.

 

“An indecent woman tainted by human blood.” He refused to look at the expanse of creamy thigh exposed by kimono, which had ridden up her leg.

 

“Better than being a full youkai with a stick up his ass,” she grinned lopsidedly at him, softening the harshness of her words. “Besides, I needed some space. I'm not used to being with other people all the time.”

 

“Few speak to me like that and live,” he tried to glare at her but he wasn't really angry. She was teasing him, he realized with a small start.

 

She snickered, “Good thing I don't live here.” At this, her smile faded and ears flattened as the melancholy returned. “But I don't know how to get back. I came through a painting, you know. Five fucking hundred years in the past and five thousand miles west, give or take.” She uncurled and pushed off the boulder, staggering slightly when she landed, catching herself against him. “Oops, sorry,” she mumbled as she let go of his arm and righted herself. Stepping with exaggerated care, she managed to clear the pile of boulders without stepping on a shard of sake bottle.

 

He watched her meandering progress, then called after her, “Where are you going?”

 

She stopped and turned, covering a yawn with the back of her hand and blinking sleepily. “Back to camp.”

 

“Camp is that way,” he pointed in a direction perpendicular to her current heading.

 

“Oh yeah?” she wandered back over to him and yawned again. “I think maybe I drank too much.”

 

“Indecent woman,” he repeated and started back toward their campsite.

 

“Ha! You have no idea,” she chuckled, following him through the forest.