InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 71

Pride (In the Name of Love) 71 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Het, Rape, Lemon, Violence, Language, Torture, Angst, Incest, Dark (at times). It's a massive story, folks, it's got a little bit of everything.
Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Sidestories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
Archived at - inu.adultfanfiction.net, fanfiction.net, and mediaminer.org ::: Anywhere else, ask!
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// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - Gods, I'm mean. I'm sorry. I had to. XD No one saw that one coming. I just... wanted to give y'all a..."WAIT...WHAT?!?!?" moment... Teehehehehe... I literally cackled with evil glee every time my email lit up with a new review notification...I'm such a bad person. XD I'll make it up to you all though... hehe... man. I better start being nicer or someone will take away my writing license, then where would we be? XD...got SO many reviews yesterday, though...I enjoyed it. XD XD XD XD

Sesshoumaru - ... *sighs* *cracks Jessi over the head with a board and watches her hit the dirt, eyes spinning* -_- *smirks and does it again just because he can* Hmph. *glances at her computer* Bah. *grabs the chapter and thrusts it in Kagome's face* Make it go, miko. At least the READERS don't have to be tormented...
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Sairex twisted out of the way as the arrow blazed past him, yellow eyes widening. It impacted with the glass door leading out to the balcony with a tremendous sound and a crystalline shower of glittering shards. Sairex scrambled backwards even as Miroku came flying into the room. "Ack, you vere ZERIOUS?!"

Kagome nocked another arrow with a glare and made to fire it. Sairex wasn't about to dodge a second shot - one quick motion of his fingers froze the priestess in place before she could release it.

Miroku gawked for a moment before managing to speak. "What in the name of all that is holy is going on?!"

"Your priestess friend zeems to have gotten da vrong idea about me, love. And I rather...er...misjudged exactly how zerious zhe vas."

Miroku looked at Kagome with a faint frown. "So I see..."Sairex huffed at his bangs. "And I zuppose I provoked her a bit. I didn't tink she'd actually zhoot at me. I'm not exactly da get-in-your-face-and-claw-you-up zort of demon, vhen it comes to combat...but you do have a very loyal and devoted friend, Miroku. If a bit...quick to fire." Sairex sighed heavily and walked over to stand before Kagome. "I vill release you zo you can move...but please...put down da bow and listen to vhat I have to zay. Vill you do dat?"

Kagome found she could nod the tiniest bit. With some trepidation, Sairex released his hold on her. The bow continued its earlier motion and sent the arrow whizzing forward, nearly hitting Miroku. Kagome yelped and hurried to apologize before pointing an accusing finger at Sairex. "Miroku, he's a liar and is playing you! Can't you feel the evil in him?!"

Sairex sighed. "Dere is much evil in me, my dear priestess. Very much. But it is not MY evil."

Kagome's rage and conviction faltered. "What?""I have taken da zouls of many, many vicked demons. I have bound dem zo dey can never escape, and hold dem vithin me. It is deir malice and hatred you feel, Lady Priestess. I myzelf...am no zaint, for zure, but I'm not EVIL. Look again, more closely."

Kagome stared distrustfully at the raven but slowly reexamined him. She found the immediate core of malice but, in looking at it more closely, she discovered it WAS tightly bound and separate. Sairex's soul was much like the youkai she had befriended and traveled with...not clean and pure, tarnished by his share of dark deeds, but neither was it wicked or cruel.

"Do you REALLY tink Toga vould let me run around vith important tasks and live in da zame castle as his zons if I vere a monster? He'd have chopped me off at da knees a long time ago."

"Toga?"

Sairex blinked, then flushed a bit. "Er..."

Miroku was happy to interject. "That is the given name of Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father. The two of them are quite familiar with each other."

"Yes...vait..." Sairex's eyes widened a bit and he turned to peer at Miroku. "Exactly...vhat is it dat you know, monk?""Oh, everything. He and I had a long chat. You were lovers."

Kagome stared. "You were--""Kaaa, ve vere just kids, it happens..." Sairex was blushing deeply and very studiously not looking at Miroku. Miroku was smirking - he didn't mind what had went on in the past. It was, after all, the past. The very distant past.

"If you were BOTH kids that makes you pretty old...last I heard, the Inu no Taisho had been around forever. Thousands of years."

Sairex mumbled. "He's two years my zenior....anyvay, dis is HARDLY da point. Da point is, I'm not evil, but I'm caging evil zpirits. Dat is vhat you zense."

"Oh..."

Sairex smiled as the look of understanding dawned on her face. "Dere. Now can ve perhaps refrain from pointing arrows at me in da future?""I...Oh, I'm so sorry! I just thought...and I didn't want to see Miroku hurt....its just so hard for me to believe you're REALLY together and...I...I let myself jump to conclusions..."

"Why is it so hard to accept that we're together?" Miroku raised an eyebrow.

"Well, he's a demon...and...well...you're a lech but you always aimed for women....and...you ARE? Really? Seriously?"Miroku chuckled. "Yes, Kagome, really and truly."

"But how? I know you're a sucker for a pretty face and all that, but how in the hell did he seduce you?"

Sairex rolled his eyes and Miroku let out a long-suffering sigh. "I already tried to explain dis."

"He didn't, Kagome. I went after him...and I rather was smitten before I'd ever seen his face."

A curious expression appeared on Kagome's face. Miroku chuckled, knowing full well what question was coming.

"We were sharing a body at the time. No perverted connotations intended. He rescued my soul from being snagged by the same beast that had held Sesshoumaru captive. So I was with him and got to know him rather intimately before we ever met each other face to face."

Sairex blushed and mumbled something about some of their sharing being a bit too intimate at some points and not to let lecherous monks claim they needed to stretch out and relax and take control, but Kagome didn't catch it.

"I just...wow. If you're happy, I'm really happy for you. I'm just surprised. I didn't think you'd ever even kissed a guy..."

"There was that game with the questions and the...dares...that you made Inuyasha and myself play."

"Well, that didn't count. Besides, it took you a good half hour to come to after he clobbered you for making good on that dare." Kagome giggled at the memory. Inuyasha really hadn't been expecting Miroku to ACTUALLY kiss him despite the dare.

"You have a strange perception of what does and does not count, my friend. It was still a kiss despite its...pains. He bit me, too."

Kagome suddenly squinted suspiciously at Miroku, then Sairex. "Hey, wait a minute...I thought all you...you demon types marked your mates. I don't see anything on him."

"Kaa, I'm a bird. Vhat do you vant me to do, peck a hole in 'im?"

"I'm rather content not to have any more holes in me than I already have, thank you...."

"It's da beast youkai dat do da whole...bite-claiming ting. Dogs, dragons, cats, wolves...us raven zorts are far more refined dan dat."

Miroku rolled his eyes. "Refined. Indeed. My dear Kagome, allow me to allay your suspicions and set your mind to rest." Before Sairex could react, Miroku snagged him around the waist and yanked him close, capturing his lips in a wild and hungry kiss.

Kagome's eyes could not possibly have gotten any wider and her jaw hit the floor as she stared. Sairex's reaction was relatively similar, although his cheeks flushed as his eyes fluttered shut, his mind shuddering to a halt and leaving him in somewhat of a daze.

Miroku released him and then smiled benignly, dusting some invisible particles off his robes. "There." Noting that he was getting two slack-jawed stares for entirely different reasons, the monk snickered. "What's the matter with you two?"

"You...you..."

"My dear Kagome, I think you're blushing. Perhaps you're something of a voyeur yourself, is that it?"

"Wh-what?! No way! Miroku, you're such a lech!" She immediately whirled to hide the fact that she was beet red, well aware that yes, she HAD been staring.

"You say that like it's a bad thing..."

Sairex was blushing at least as hard as Kagome. "How about ve focus on vhy ve came here in da first place, yes? Zezzhoumaru's not getting any better vith us just ztanding 'ere..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sesshoumaru barely restrained himself from huffing in annoyance. He was SESSHOUMARU, he did not HUFF. The rather annoyed puff of air that came from him was quite obviously something else. Over the course of the past day, he had done everything he could come up with to attempt to make the living world notice him in some fashion. However, both Sairex AND Miroku had left early in the morning and he had felt they were his best chance.

So he had went to Inuyasha. He had tried yelling. He had tried placing a hand on his brother's shoulder and discovered it went through. He had even tried kicking him in the face and light-whipping through him. Then he tried kicking him in the face again. It didn't work any better than it had the first time, but it made him feel slightly better. // Hmph, serves him right for being too spiritually dense to see me. //

The raven demoness had appeared a few times, but he had angered her and driven her away every time. So it was with some surprise that he felt a different presence in this realm he was prisoner of. It was distantly familiar. He turned slowly.

Naraku.

A snarl twitched just behind Sesshoumaru's lips as he eyed the smirking, crimson-eyed demon. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"By which you mean to ask how I am standing before you or what I am up to this time?"Sesshoumaru's glare was as icy as eternal winter. "Both."

"It seems the nearly extinct tribe of raven demons have a plethora of tricks involving death and the dead. As you can see for yourself. It is a shame she enacted the spell a bit too early. We all assumed you were going to die...and yet you tenaciously cling to life. Had you died as planned, the shadow-beast I am sure you can sense following you would have been free to grab you and subdue you, bring your soul to us."

"And because I yet live, the beast cannot touch me.""No, not while you have a connection with your corporeal frame."

Sesshoumaru smirked - all the more reason to live. Naraku was quick to dash that smirk, however.

"You know as well as we do that your body is dying. Your wounds may have stopped bleeding, but your life force weakens by the moment. Your injuries were too great. It is merely willpower that has held you together this long."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. He hated knowing that this hateful creature was right, but...he could not deny it. He had seen the decline his body was taking - how his breathing had grown more shallow and raspy, taking on a nasty liquidy sound. His skin had taken on an ashen, gray color. He could tell by the way his hair looked drenched and how sweaty and flushed he was that his fever must have been tremendous.

And he knew, too, that his father expected him to die soon and that was why he had not left his side. Had he thought Sesshoumaru would recover, he would not have felt the need to remain with him at ALL times - he would have let the boy rest some and attended other important manners. He had attempted with trembling fingers to use a damp cloth to bring down his fever, had made the attempt to get at least some water down his throat, had done a huge number of small things that had ultimately failed. His despair hurt Sesshoumaru worse than anything else that had gone on or was yet going on. Ultimately, Toga spent most of his time curled up against Sesshoumaru's broken body, lost in his anguish.

Sesshoumaru leveled his gaze back on Naraku. "I will be no more forthcoming with you than I was your associates. This Sesshoumaru will not play your games and I will live as long as I am able to thwart you."

Naraku's voice was a low, pleased murmur. "Oh, I certainly hope so..."

Sesshoumaru slowly lifted one ice-silver eyebrow. "Explain."

"So imperious, even like this. Sesshoumaru, I wish to make you a deal."

"I do not trust you."

"Nor should my ... associates... as you put it. They do not know I am here."

"This Sesshoumaru will hear your offer but makes no promise to heed it."

"I am a prisoner, albeit in a different fashion than you. The raven demoness has power over me. I wish to be free."

Sesshoumaru smirked. "I see... and you wish for me to help in some fashion, which means you fully expect me to be able to escape.""Yes. I will aid you in your escape and assure your body lives.""And you believe I would truly turn you loose on my world again? Voluntarily? And I am to expect you to play nice?""I said nothing about playing nice. This deal extends only as far as our continued captivity."

"Thank you for revealing the knowledge to me that you are under their sway...but this Sesshoumaru will make no pact with you. I will escape on my own and live on my own."

Naraku's eyes narrowed and he bared fangs at Sesshoumaru. "You do not want to invoke my wrath, Sesshoumaru."

"Oh? I do not?" The taiyoukai sighed in exasperation. "Or what, exactly? You'll kill me? Too late, try again. Hurt me and mine? They already suffer and there is nothing you can do to me that has not already been done to me. I find this whole business of constant evil and suffering caused to me and my family to be utterly exhausting and it grows annoying."

Naraku scowled, not having a good answer or a sufficient threat. Sesshoumaru was right - pretty well anything he could come up with immediately would have no major effect on the taiyoukai, and trapped as he was, he could not effect much damage out in the living world.

"Be gone. I am done with you." Before Naraku could react, Sesshoumaru's whip sizzled out and impacted with his side. A faint line of crimson opened along his arm and the kumo glared daggers.

"I will not forget this, Sesshoumaru..." Naraku ground out and vanished.

Sesshoumaru kept his expression flat for a moment before allowing a grin to twitch his lips. He had injured Naraku, seen the blood...and that meant he was learning to make physical contact with others in the realm.

// When I am sure I am fully able to do as I wish... the raven demon has a surprise for her when she comes to call. //