InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Much Needed Healing ❯ An Empty Seat at the Table ( Chapter 23 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Kagome sat at the middle of the long table, her deep blue eyes blank as she stared openly at the only empty seat along its great length. The ballroom was filled to capacity with people that were unknown to her, and two men that she held very dear to her heart. Her heart should have felt full at the knowledge that one of her closest friends was alive, not to mention the fact that her long lost love was here with her again after 500 years. Yet the deepest region of her soul, although overjoyed at this newfound information, was also hollow, and it seemed to all come back to the empty chair beside her.

A warm and solid hand closed over her own, making her jump slightly in her seat as she turned her head to meet the burnished eyes of the hanyou to her left. He smiled widely at her before squeezing her petite hand gently.

“Looks like you spaced out there Kagome” Inuyasha told her with a happy little smirk.

“Oh…. Yeah. I didn't mean to. I just…” She couldn't think of what to tell him. She didn't want to admit to him or to herself that she had been wondering what had happened to Sesshomaru.

Noticing her sheepish look, Inuyasha shrugged before standing and offering his hand to her. “Don't worry about it. That wolf has always been boring. I'm surprised the whole place isn't snoring.” He shot her a lopsided grin, one of the expressions that she had missed the most, as she clutched his hand and rose to her feet.

“That speech was for you, you mangy, ungrateful mutt! If you had been paying attention to it, you would have noticed that it was all about how we're glad to have the `honorable' Inuyasha back!”

She may have been in a beautiful ballroom, dressed in a gown that cost more than she would dare to ever imagine, surrounded by Japan's business elite, but with that statement, ground out by an only slightly perturbed ookami, Kagome felt she could have been back in the Feudal Era.

“Yeah, I did really like all the `honorable' Inuyasha stuff you were spouting, Kouga.” Inuyasha's face split into a wicked smile and his eyes almost glazed over in happiness at the memories of the wolf being forced to say all those nice things about him in public.

“Honorable my ass” Kouga muttered.

“I highly doubt your ass is honorable Kouga.”

It was out of her mouth before she had even thought about it. As the hundreds of people continued to mill about the floor, the two most important people in the room as far as Kagome was concerned stopped dead in their tracks and stared at her. Inuyasha's citrine eyes seemed to narrow with suspicion for the smallest fraction of a second while Kouga's pale azure orbs were alight with something else entirely.

“You sounded just like Sesshomaru just then” the wolf told her in a tone of voice that seemed oddly curious.

“Yeah. That was fucking scary” Inuyasha concurred. Casting her one last inquisitive glance, he turned his attention back to the wolf. “So how come you were giving that speech anyway? Shouldn't Mr. Frosty Pants have been giving it himself? It IS his company, and I AM his brother. Or were you just looking for a chance to let your true feelings about me be known?” The hanyou snickered.

“Hardly dog breath. Sesshomaru would have given the speech himself, but some important business came up, and he had to attend to it personally. And I still feel that you're as much of a pain in my ass as you were the first day you came barging up the mountain to hassle my pack.”

“I was coming to rescue Kagome!”

“She didn't need to be rescued! She was safe with me!”

“Keh! Whatever. It's not like it matters anyway. She STILL thinks I'm the best, obviously.” To emphasize the point, Inuyasha wrapped an arm tightly about Kagome's waist and pulled her to his side, laying a soft kiss on the side of her head.

Kagome giggled. It really was just like being back in the Feudal Era, if one discounted everyone and everything else around the three of them. She had missed this; even the good-natured bickering. All of it had been taken from her so abruptly, and now it had all been given back to her. Wrapping her arm around Inuyasha's waist, she let him lead her to the dance floor and away from the long table and the ookami as she thought about how all of this had come to be.

Kouga watched the pair stroll off towards the polished wooden dance floor in the center of the large room. He watched the small woman in the deep blue dress with the dancing eyes to match as she turned her back to him and wrapped an arm about her companion's waist. They were, without a doubt, the most attractive couple in the room. The hanyou was gruffly handsome, and the petite woman was striking. Everything about them seemed to compliment the other. He was tall, broad, muscular, and boisterous. She was shorter, petite, lithe, and softly well spoken. Even the colour of their thick locks portrayed their polar opposite natures; black as the sweetest sin and white as the first flake of winter snow. All eyes were drawn to them, and not simply because of the fact of who the hanyou was in name. There was just something about the two of them together.

The crowd shifted and parted like the waves of the sea as the duo passed among them and made their way to the center of the floor. Inuyasha said something to Kagome that made her face light up in a radiant smile and she laughed. Kouga thought that perhaps he had heard a collective sigh go up from the crowd, but that really seemed far too dramatic. The orchestra began to play a waltz and the hanyou took up the little woman in a strong hold. As he confidently spun her around the floor with a grace that none of his Feudal Era friends would have ever imagined he possessed, only Kouga noticed the fixated way Kagome seemed to stare at him.

It took a moment, and only just, for the ookami to realize that those pretty cerulean eyes weren't actually looking at him, but rather, beyond him. With a hint of remorse, he turned his head to see what had so captured her attentions.

He would have laughed if it weren't so heartbreaking.

His priestess, the little miko he had loved unconditionally for over 500 years, was staring absently at an empty seat at the center of a vast table at the head of the room.

Quick note from the author's desk: Chapters will now be coming out slower, so make sure that if you're into this story, you get yourself added to the update notification list. I'm pulling two jobs, starting a blog, working on 4 new fics as well as some various one shots, and dealing with a back injury, on top of planning a trip to New Orleans. Things are starting to get a little hectic. And let's not forget the fact that I still have to keep up the updates on The Telling. Yeah, I know, I'm biting off a little more than I can chew huh? But hey, keep showing me the love! Nothing makes me want to push on through it all like some nice little reviews. Seriously, those little words of encouragement really do make my day. Thank you for that, all of you.

Humbly yours,

omizumaru

Return to Top