InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Much Needed Healing ❯ Breaking and Entering ( Chapter 25 )

Kagome narrowed her azure eyes against the bright lights of the party, almost blinding after being on the dimly lit balcony for so long a period, and let out a tiny yelp as she was suddenly hoisted off her feet. But taking in a quick, deep breath she could smell the scent of pine and fresh air and the strength of the arms that were wrapped around her waist was unmistakable.

 

“Inuyasha you scared me!” she scolded him gently with a laugh.

 

He gave her a spin before setting her down and giving her a lopsided smirk that let one small fang peek out over the edge of one full lower lip. “I was just coming to look for you Kagome. I thought the wolf had run off with you again.” He grabbed her hand and started to lead her across the dance floor.

 

“Where are we going Inuyasha?”

 

“The party is pretty much over, so I thought that you and I could go out for some drinks or something, catch up.” They reached the elevators and he stepped inside the already open and waiting doors.

 

“Oh. You know, that sounds great, but I'm really pretty tired. I was thinking that I might just go home.” She didn't look at him when she said it. She had been living with Sesshomaru for so long that she didn't even really know where home was anymore.

 

“Keh. Well, sure, Kags. I mean, if you're tired, then yeah.” He sounded disappointed, but she really was tired, and the whole evening and just been too weird. She wanted to talk to him as well, but it was all too much, too soon.

 

“We can get together tomorrow Inuyasha, or anytime you're free. I'm just really tired tonight. But I missed you. You know that don't you?” Looking straight ahead into the glass panels of the elevator walls she saw his citrine eyes soften.

 

In a flash, his arms were around her and he had pulled her flush against his body so that he could look down into her deep cerulean eyes. “Not a day went by that I didn't think about you,” he rumbled softly. And then his lips were pressed harshly against hers, one hand pressed solidly against her lower back while the other tangled itself in her locks. His lips and tongue wee forceful and passionate and she was responsive. She had missed him, had loved him, that much was true. And now here he was, with her.

 

When they parted, they were both left breathing heavily. After a moment he spoke. “When I first came back, I looked for you. I used every avenue I could think of to find you, but every trail came up cold. I was beginning to think that I had lost you, that I had done the stupidest thing ever by sending you away, by saving you all those years ago. And then, like a miracle, you showed up here tonight on the arm of Sesshomaru.” He paused to look at her and she did her best to not break the eye contact. She would not give anything away. “Someday, you'll have to explain that one to me.”

 

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on the ground floor, the lobby just as expansive and expansive as the ballroom had been. Wrapping an arm around her, he nuzzled his nose into her neck and sniffed lightly.

 

“You smell different.” He commented seriously before taking another deep sniff.

 

“Different how?”

 

“I don't know. It's not bad. Just… different than when you walked in here tonight.”

 

“Maybe it's just because I'm tired. I should be getting home.” Kagome stifled a yawn behind a small hand.

 

Inuyasha grinned and walked her to the door of the hotel where he remover his jacket and wrapped it tightly about her shoulders. “Come on, I'll have the driver drop you off at your place before he takes me home.”

 

Pressing their bodies together for warmth against the cool night's chill, they walked out into the early hours of the morning, completely unaware of the eyes that watched them from the darkened corner of the lobby.

 

 

 

 

 

It felt odd to be back at her apartment after so much time spent living with Sesshomaru, but as she bypassed the elevator and took the stairs to the third floor, Kagome began to feel the first twinges of dread pull at her heart. When she had last lived here she had been an alcoholic mess. She had spent her days and nights drowning her sorrows in the closest bottle she could find and bringing home whatever man paid her attention. The place had been a wreck, and there had been hardly any food in the fridge or the cupboards. For these reasons, she had not invited Inuyasha up. She may have looked the lady now, but that had been all Sesshomaru's doing. The reality of her former life was much more shameful.

 

With a heavy sigh she extracted the long disused key from her small clutch and placed it in the lock. Turning the knob, she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the cold shock of reality to slap her hard in the face. But when she opened them, a different shock awaited her.

 

Her apartment was sparkling clean. The floors and cabinets were spotless. The furnishings were new and luxurious. Stepping into the kitchen, she opened the fridge to see that it and the cabinets were stocked with the basic necessities and no alcohol. The walls looked freshly painted and there was no doubt in her mind that the carpet was new.

 

“Sesshomaru.” It was a whisper, and the only explanation.

 

She was filled with wonder, but she felt so oddly tired. It wasn't as though she had over exerted herself, so she couldn't really explain the reason as to this sudden feeling of fatigue, but it was over-powering nonetheless. So with a final glance around her now immaculate apartment, she slipped out of her heels and stumbled towards her bedroom.

 

This room was much the same as the others- walls painted, carpet new, and as she slipped out of the expensive dress, and pulled down the duvet she found that her plain cotton sheets had been replaced with deep blue silk ones, much like the ones she had so admired at Sesshomaru's house. Now there could certainly be no doubt as to who had done all of this for her.

 

“But why? Why would you do this for me and then leave me?” She asked the dark and empty room sleepily as she crawled in between the cool silk sheets.

 

Her head hit the pillow and she was asleep before the single tear coursing down her cheek could even dry.

 

 

 

He had broken into her apartment on many previous occasions and never once felt guilty, never once felt like he was trespassing. But this time round, things were different. As much as he had done to prevent it, as hard as he had tried to ignore it, they now shared a bond. No longer was he the stranger entering her personal space to save her from her foolish actions; now he was a scorned lover breaking in to…. What exactly was he doing here anyway?

 

Sesshomaru snorted lightly in disgust as he stood in the entranceway of Kagome's apartment. For all intents and purposes, he had spent the last few weeks grooming her for her presentation to her lost love- his hanyou brother. But when the time had come to surrender her, he had felt his beast rise unbidden from within him to fight for what it rightful saw as theirs. It was only by leaving the party that he could prevent bloodshed.

 

And so he had stayed downstairs, lurking in the shadows of the dimly lit and overtly grandiose lobby, waiting- for her. She would make the choice simple for him. Either she would show his brother that she did truly love him, in which case Sesshomaru would leave the country and leave them to enjoy their rediscovered happiness, or she would deny the boy in favour of the demon and he would return to her, crushing Inuyasha's heart in the process. It was a messy ordeal, the sort of thing he would never have allowed himself to become involved in, the situation where someone was bound to be hurt, but it had become unavoidable.

 

So he had waited for her, for her verdict and his fate, predatory and unnoticed in the gloom of the lobby. AS the evening wore on and more and more guests began to filter out at a faster and faster rate, he began to grow impatient with the little miko woman.

 

Never one to give up the chase, he continued his stalking and quick and quiet pacing until the elevator doors opened and he caught the first scent of her sweet scent wafting through the open space. Looking up with feral citrine eyes, he hissed at the sight of Inuyasha nuzzling his nose into her pulse point. The two looked flush, both breathing hard, and he could discern that both their hearts were beating at a more rapid than normal rate.

 

And then his heart, too, began to take flight for two separate reasons. For the first time in many years, Sesshomaru feared that he had lost; that the little miko who had been so lost when she had fallen haphazardly into his life only weeks before and had so completely captured him had given her love to another. The second fear was because her scent, so soothing to him in it's familiarity, had suddenly and drastically changed since she had entered the party with him only hours before.

 

Before he could dare to get closer without being spotted, the hanyou's arm was around her waist and he was leading her out the door, promising her a ride to her apartment. Sesshomaru had grinned. Perhaps all was not yet lost after all.

 

Which now left him in her foyer, clueless as to what he expected himself to do. Listening intently with his keen ears, he heard no sound of movement anywhere in the apartment. Either she was no longer here, or she was asleep. Judging by the heels left kicked off by the sofa, he was guessing that it was the latter. Moving with all the stealth he possessed so as not to wake her, he prowled quietly to her bedroom.

 

Placing one large hand against the slightly ajar door, he pushed it slowly, praying that the damned thing didn't squeak. But her apartment was lush, well taken care of, and the door opened smoothly and soundlessly. Immediately upon entering the darkened room his burnished sunset eyes adjusted to the lack of lighting and he could make out the form of the miko in her large bad, sprawled out beneath the covers. Sorely tempted to join her and see what exactly she was wearing, if anything, under the sheets, Sesshomaru used all his training as a warrior to control the urge.

 

Though her breathing was even and her face was peacefully serene, something was wrong. Tilting his nose into the air and taking a few rapid deep breaths, he noticed the same change in her scent that he had witnessed before. Though she still smelled like sakura blossoms and vanilla, there was something else now present as well, something….. powerful and new. It was a scent that had always seemed to be simmering just below the surface of the miko, barely readable as though it were attempting to hide itself from everyone, but now it had seemed to come out into the open full force. It was similar to the scent of lightening strikes in the middle of a sunny afternoon shower. On the days when it rained just enough to create rainbows in the sunshine, and then, out of nowhere lightening would begin to strike, interrupting the fragile beauty of nature as if to say “Never let your guard down, for I am here.”

 

Stalking closer to the sleeping miko, the scent of salt assaulted his nostrils. He could see the dried trail of a solitary tear on her perfect cheekbone. For a moment Sesshomaru wondered who it was she had cried for. Carefully reaching out one clawed and elegant finger, he meant to brush the flakes of offending residue away. But as his finger made contact with her soft and supple skin, there was a spark of light and he felt an instant burning sensation on the digit.

 

So his little miko, so weak when he had found her, collapsed and drunk on a public bathroom floor, had increased her spiritual power exponentially in the last few hours. Even in sleep her body would permit no demon to touch her. What had happened to her to make this rapid change occur? Searching his lengthy memories, Sesshomaru could think of no other miko in his lifetime who had possessed such strange powers in such measure, and certainly none who had come to do so in such a short amount of time.

 

He wished for nothing more than to touch her, stroke her lovely cheek, push the ebony tresses off her forehead, even climb into the bed with her and just old her to him, but at this point her body was protecting herself from…. him. Standing above her, looking down at the milky white skin and the petal pink lips and long sooty lashes that stroked her cheeks, Sesshomaru, the great Lord of the West, longed for nothing so much as a simple touch.

 

“Inuyasha” Kagome muttered quietly in her sleep.

 

And with that, the Western Lord turned on his heel and strode quickly from the apartment, vowing never to return.