InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Some Mistakes are Meant to be Made ❯ Exploration ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter Five: "Exploration"

"I-I uh…" Kagome stuttered as she swallowed hard, she couldn't believe she just had to pick the room that Sesshomaru was in; could things possibly get any worse? "You see Sesshomaru-sama I-"

"Save it," Sesshomaru said calmly as he cut her off mid-sentence. He didn't care why she had decided to go into his study, nor did he care why she was out of her room. Truly what she did didn't concern him in the slightest, yet this girl was getting on his nerves. It wasn't her presence though, it was because he still couldn't figure out what exactly to do with her. For the moment he had other things to attend to though. He brushed passed her and started down the hall as if she had never been there.

Kagome turned and watched him go down the hall. In her opinion, so far, he wasn't even half as bad as the stories say. He was really nothing like his hot-tempered half brother, he seemed to be very clam and collected, not at all what Kagome had imagined. Kagome was lost in her thoughts when she felt something grasp her arm.

"What are you doing?" Kagome turned to see that it was the kitsune woman.

"I was hungry... so I went to look for food…" Kagome answered in a small voice. She hadn't been here twenty-four-hours and she was already probably going to be punished, and who knows what punishment is like at a full youkai lord's home. Kagome shuddered slightly at the thought.

The she-kitsune sighed, "Come on. I have chores I should be doing but I guess I can't let you starve. Follow me," she walked bristly down the hallway making turns every once in a while, obviously she had long since memorized where everything was. After a few minutes of walking they came to a large airy room with a small knee-high table in the middle. There was a door on the left side of the room, which was completely open reveling a bit of the forest that surrounded the palace.

To Kagome this door looked like an open window to freedom.

"Stay here I'll get you something to eat," the kitsune woman said as her eyes darted to the door and the back to Kagome.

Kagome nodded in response and watched the kitsune leave the room. She was fairly torn on whether she should take this golden opportunity to leave or not. This place wasn't all that bad really, she was being treated much better than back at home and she didn't have to deal with Inuyasha's unpredictable abuse, but if she didn't leave she may every well get killed here or who knows what. Kagome didn't have any idea what Sesshomaru did with human women… kill them? Use them as concubines? Kagome didn't have much time to ponder on the thought before the kitsune woman came back with a bowl of something.

"This is all I could get at this time of day, and plus I'm not the cook," she said as she set down the bowl, which Kagome could now see had rice in it.

"Arigato," Kagome said as she picked up her chopsticks (which were also supplied by the she-kitsune) and began to eat quietly. After a few minutes of disturbingly still silence Kagome decided to break it with small talk, anything to make her feel even a little bit more comfortable, "You're only the second servant I've seen so far, if you don't mind me asking, why are there so few?"

"Sesshomaru-sama doesn't like a lot of people rushing about to and fro, most youkai daimyo don't, so there are only a few of us," she answered almost immediately as if she had wanted to break the silence in the room as well. She shrugged, "It really doesn't bother me all that much, there isn't too much to do anyway…"

"I see…" Kagome trailed off for a moment, a bit lost in thought. Around Inuyasha-sama's palace there were countless servants that had only one specific job, Kagome guess it would probably save money to have less servants that did more. But the servants, at either daimyo's house or at any other's for that matter, did not get paid. They "payment" was the privilege to live at the palace and get "free" food. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Higurashi Kagome."

"Oru Yume," the kitsune answered with her name. "I have to go and get back to my chores before Jaken decides to tell Sesshomaru-sama I'm taking a break. If you want you can wander around the garden or something, as long as you don't leave the palace grounds." Yume said as she stood up and walked out of the room again.

So far Kagome was surprised at how nice everyone had been, they seemed to either have great tolerance for humans or they didn't care. Kagome laughed softly, they probably thought they were too good to bother with a human… a human servant no less. She quickly finished her rice and had her mind set for the garden. Kagome really wanted a change of scenery from home, and this would be a good opportunity. She noticed that she didn't feel as hopeless of lifeless as she had before, she didn't know why either. Maybe it was purely the fact that she was away from home, or maybe that she somehow mentally convinced herself that she might have a better life here. Yet, whatever it was she was pretty glad for it, she didn't like feeling as if everyday would drag on for eternity. Kagome had also greatly contemplated on running away from here since she seemed have this new freedom. She didn't have any chores or tasks to do and she wasn't forced to stay inside unless told otherwise. For now she would stay, and it wasn't only because of the freedom, something inside seemed to tell her to and for once she listened to that something.

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Shortly after Kagome had finished her rice she set out for her destination. It didn't take her long at all to find it, which was something she didn't expect. The sheer size of the garden took her breath away; never in her life would she have imagined that a youkai would have such a marvelous display of bright, radiant flowers. Kagome began down a random pathway (there were many that intertwined through the many sections of the garden) and slowly took in everything. As a child she had always wanted to know the name of every beautiful plant she found, which gave her quite a bit of knowledge about types of flowers and such, but there where many plants she had never seen nor heard of. She figured some had to be from other parts of Japan where she had never been.

She abruptly stopped right before she came to the roses.

She saw him, Sesshomaru. He was standing among the many-colored rose bushes; he seemed to be either admiring the roses to a disturbing extent or very deep in thought. Kagome figured it her second idea of what he was doing. She stared at him. His skin was fair, flawless and seemingly perfect in everyway. His features were stunning; she believed that if he willed it he could have any woman he wished. Not that he couldn't anyway… His golden gaze suddenly turned to her, his expression totally stoical, showing no emotion whatsoever. Kagome gasped under her breath and suddenly found the ground extremely interesting as he looked at her.

"Gomen…" Kagome said, suddenly remembering her manners and the fact that his rank was MUCH higher than hers not matter where they were. She looked back up to face him only to see that he had seemed to grow bored with her and went back to his admiration/thinking. Kagome stepped forward, even though she didn't want to, it seemed her feet had a mind of their own and involuntarily moved without her saying so. She was now merely six feet away from the feared and respected youkai lord, which made her heart race and adrenalin pump through her. She had no doubt that she was just like so many others, and was afraid of him.

"You really aren't Inuyasha's wench, are you?" Sesshomaru asked Kagome without looking at her. His eyes still rested on the deep crimson and yellow roses beside him.

"N-No… I am not…" Kagome answered meekly.

"I thought as much. Rumors have it she is very undisciplined for a woman, you on the other hand, seem to be very much in your place," with the last part of his statement Sesshomaru turned to Kagome, his golden eyes piercing her like a dagger.

Kagome looked to the ground again; she couldn't bear to keep eye-contact with him any more. She knew exactly what he meant by "very undisciplined for a woman" when he referred to Kikyou. Kikyou wasn't what a woman was expected to be in a daimyo's house; instead of being quiet and obedient she was just the opposite: independent and vindictive. That was part of Kagome's near depression when she was at home.

"Tell me," Sesshomaru began, he knew he was talking far too much to this servant-woman but his rarely reveled curious side was starting to show it's self, "Why do you have no intention to leave? I expected you to attempt to flee long ago…" Kagome didn't miss his choice of words on "attempt" to flee, in her mind of thinking; he meant that she wouldn't have succeeded if she had tried. That made her a bit happier that she hadn't.

"If… I offend you by saying this I apologize in advance, but I want to be truthful so I guess I should get to the point…" Kagome finished off her "introductory" quickly from receiving a very bored look from Sesshomaru, though if she knew him better she would have thought nothing of it, "This place is much more stable and predictable, per se, than where I was before," she choose not to say Inuyasha's name in the youkai lord's presence, "I… umm…" she trailed off not really knowing what else to say.

Sesshomaru didn't respond to her answer. This woman-child was… odd… her answer was, once again, not what he expected. He didn't like the fact that she kept "surprising" him with her unpredictable antics. For a mere handmaiden, born of peasant decent, she was unusual. She also had a different aura than normal human girls; it made him wonder about her. He also didn't like that she made him concern himself with thinking about a human… this girl truly irked him. His attention suddenly snapped toward the sound of footsteps coming down one of the many paths, that toad Jaken again. He turned and started down the path without so much as another glance at Kagome.

Kagome let out a deep breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. If she did end up living here she didn't know if she'd be able to put up with being around him. It was different than with Inuyasha though, she was afraid of both of them but it was a different fear. With Inuyasha she was afraid of being scolded or slapped, but with him it was a bone-chilling fear something that made you want to shiver. Kagome couldn't exactly place it… but it gave her the creeps. This might possibly be more difficult that she thought.

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