InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Much Needed Healing ❯ A Taiyoukai and Miko Meet ( Chapter 5 )

She was going crazy. That was the only conclusion she could come to. Night after night, for the past week, she had been seeing Sesshomaru. Or imagining him as the case may be. She would go to the bar, get drunk, and inevitably the taiyoukai from her past would make an appearance. Of all the people for her alcohol addled brain to conjure up, why would it choose him?

Of course, this was a bad sign. Hallucinations were definitely a bad indication as to her excessive drinking. But she was doing her best to ignore it, as sobriety was not a viable option. So, she continued to frequent the lackluster bar and drink away her memories of the boy with the koinu ears. She tried to pick up men to take home, but when she left them alone for mere moments, they were always mysteriously gone upon her return. This was also worrisome. Had she really become so revolting that now even other drunks could not find her attractive?

And where the hell were her panties? As if disappearing men and taiyoukai mirages weren't enough, now she had to deal with the vanishing act of her favorite lace thong! Rummaging around her underware drawer, she finally settled on a different pair and headed towards the door.

She could only hope that all her demons, inner and imaginary, would take a night off so she could get drunk in peace.

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He knew that he had almost been caught. That damned ookami had known that he was up to something. Of course, of all the creatures to breach his inner sanctum while he was indulging in the scent of the miko, it would have to be the wolf. The one other in Japan who would know her scent immediately. Sesshomaru cringed at the thought.

Things had begun to move at their own pace, and although he was not particularly prepared for what he was about to do, he was helpless to postpone it. The wolf knew something, the man from America was about to return, and he himself was becoming tangled in something. There was no reason for him to have stopped her midnight trysts, no reason to abscond with a certain article of her clothing. And there was certainly no excuse for the way that he had been indulging in her scent this afternoon.

His thoughts ran free as he walked to the now familiar bar hidden away in a dark and mostly unused Tokyo street. As he sauntered up to the door, he realized that this would be the first time he would actually speak with the miko. He cringed again before composing himself and pushing his way inside.

The place was dark and smoke filled as always. But now that he had become accustomed to it, he caught the miko's scent immediately. Following it, he walked up to her place at the bar. She had her back turned to him as she sipped her drink slowly, and she never noticed his approach.

Reaching out one large hand, he grasped her shoulder. She immediately turned in her seat and as ocean blue crashed into molten honey, he prepared himself for a reaction that did not come.

He had expected her to scream, show shock, anything. Yet she only stared back at him with a blank expression on her face.

The silence stretched out to epic proportions.

Finally she lowered her eyes and muttered “Shit. I knew I shouldn't have had that drink before I left the house.”

It should not have been humorous, but for some reason, it was. Sesshomaru tipped his head back and laughed. Of all the things he would have expected from her, this was quite far down on the list. He caught her eye as his mirth ceased, and noticed with a bit of pleasure that she was indeed quite sober. As sober as he had ever seen her before in any case.

“See, now I know I'm going crazy. The Sesshomaru that I knew would never have laughed.” And here she grabbed her glass and threw back the drink in one swallow.

None of this was going as planned, but then again, he hadn't really had the time to formulate a course of action. Releasing her shoulder, he took a seat beside her at the bar and held up two fingers at the bartender. When the drinks arrived, she gripped hers tightly and once again decimated the beverage. Taking a sip, he was shocked to discover that she had been belting back pure and unadulterated vodka. He frowned at the taste, vodka never having been his drink of choice, and pushed the second glass over to her.

“This drink is vile miko.” he told her coolly.

She looked at him for a moment, seemingly utterly bewildered, then with a shrug of her shoulders, she moved to down his glass as well.

Oh yes, she was most assuredly a practiced hand at this, but he didn't want her too drunk this soon. He grasped her wrist before the glass could touch her lips and forced her hand back to the bar. She gave him another odd look before focusing her attentions on the very real hand that held her own.

“So you're real then?” She asked him, never looking away from the hand that bore the tell-tale magenta streaks upon it. “You've actually been coming here for the past week?”

“Indeed.” He said gently, confirming her assertions.

“Why?” She now looked into his eyes, and the amount of sadness he saw in hers was torturous.

“I came here one night to forget about my own problems. As I sat here, dwelling on the past, you came through the door. It was as though time had stood still. I doubted that you were in fact Inuyasha's wench, but then I heard you mutter a comment about knowing someone from 500 years ago. I could no longer deny what my nose told me, and so, out of curiosity, I returned here.”

“Hn.” That was all she said, a phrase he was well acquainted with. She moved to resume her drinking and he tightened his hold on her.

“I told you that the drink is vile woman.” he informed her.

Eyes ablaze, she raised her face to look at him. “It may be vile to you, but it serves its purpose for me.” she spat out.

If nothing else, he had caught a glimpse of the old spark of life that had once filled her. He was pleased to know that despite her broken appearance, at least some ember of her fire still burned within her soul. He gently turned her loose and watched as she consumed her drink with the usual haste. “And what purpose is that woman?” He asked when she literally slammed the glass down.

“What do you care Sesshomaru? Why are you here, questioning me? What gives you any right to do so? In case you've forgotten, we were never friends. In fact we tried to kill each other on more than one occasion. The only connection I have to you is that I loved your brother.” Her voice broke and she turned away from him.

So that was it then. She was drinking in an attempt to drown the love she had for Inuyasha. But if that was indeed the case, why had she disappeared so long ago? Why had she not remained and mated the hanyou? Casting a questioning gaze in her direction, he saw that the bartender had set another drink before her. He was startled to find that there was also a glass of whisky now in front of him.

“He made me leave in case you wondering.” she said softly while staring at the pitted surface of the bar. “I didn't want to.”

How was it that she seemed to know exactly what he was thinking? She had always been odd, but this.... this was more than strange. No creature had ever shared any sort of bond with him, and certainly, there had never before been a time where he felt so intimately connected to another. Was it simply a matter of sharing history? But the ookami had never been able to understand him so completely. And he hardly knew this woman after all. Not liking the direction in which his thoughts were headed, he followed her example and downed his drink.

Feeling the burn as the whisky coursed through him, he focused his attentions back on the woman beside him. With a soft sigh, he realized that she was, once again, inebriated. She had laid her head on her arm and appeared to have dozed off at the bar.

Withdrawing his credit card from his wallet, he paid their tabs and picked her up. Carrying her out of the bar, he flagged down a cab and settled them both into it. He gave the driver his address and they headed out into the night.