InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stealing Heaven ❯ More to This ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve

More to This

Kagome sighed and gave a long, weary stretch as she stepped out of the doctor's miserably crumbly and dilapidated office and onto a sun-parched pavement that was full of wide, ragged cracks and fine little fractures. At least she'd made it this far without much trouble from Lyka and had gotten her check up over with, now all that was left was to pile back into that awful truck with Miroku and the professor- that had to be marginally better than their previous trips, since Miroku had taken the truck into the lone local garage to have seat belts installed . . . finally. That she was found to mostly be in good health was another plus; other than mild vitamin deficiency, she'd appeared to have no medical problems. She counted her blessings on that one in particular, having secretly held the hope all this time that her dealings with the demon hadn't left any sort of detectable trace in her system somehow.

She couldn't begin to think how she would have explained some unexpected abnormality.

"Kagome, wait up!" the sudden voice behind her had her whirling on her heel, long black locks slapping Miroku as they fanned out with the motion.

"Sorry," she offered quickly with a small laugh as he batted at the strands. "Truck ready yet?"

"Uhhh, no," he gave a sheepish grin as he reached back to scratch at the scalp beneath his short ponytail. "I'm going to go baby-sit that rickety monstrosity 'til they're done with her. It seems like we're looking at maybe . . . another hour before we can get back on the road-"

"What?" Kagome barely refrained from whining. Miroku held up his hands in a placating gesture as he gave a slow shake of his head. "I know, I know- but to put it in perspective . . . they said we're lucky to be getting it done today . . . ."

Blue eyes rolled around a bit as she pondered having to spend a night in some rundown hovel of a hotel while combating mosquitoes the size of bull frogs with Miroku and Professor Taisho. He'd had no more outbursts like the one with Bruckner at the site several days ago, but oddly she kept feeling like he was . . . holding himself in check in some way. Especially when she was speaking to a male. She still couldn't understand what was causing him to act to this way, but she also couldn't deny that on a darker, inner level she liked the angry spark that lit his eyes for a fraction of a second in those moments.

Instantly she found herself having to push away the naughty thoughts that came attached to the idea of spending a night with her suddenly possessive-seeming professor, anywhere. "Yeah, okay," she piped up before the notion could settle in her brain enough to cause a blush, "an hour it is."

"Could you do me a favor and let the professor know?"

She blinked a few times- she thought Miroku had somehow secreted a GPS chip onto Professor Taisho's person by now. "Uh . . .okay. Do you know where he is?"

Things were continuing to run smoothly between the professor and her and she felt sure that it was because she was diligently ignoring his inexplicable slips in behavior and he was ignoring that he was behaving in any way that required the feigning of ignorance.

"He's in the school, went to set things for the next sit-down, I think."

"Ah, okay." She frowned just a little, considering the idea that he could still have put a chip on the man and just didn't want to be the one to go get him.

He waved and was off, strolling down the barely-there sidewalk toward the garage. For a strange moment, Kagome found herself turning her head to watch him walk away. It was only after she did it that she realized what she was doing- she was actually taking note of the way his worn blue jeans fit him. Even more self-surprising was that she caught herself thinking Way to go, Sango! Turning her head forward again, she soundly slapped herself on the forehead. First it was flirting with Bruckner, now it was covertly checking out Miroku? She'd barely even glanced at a man that way before arriving in the tropical hell hole!

She gave a light grimace at her misplaced negativity- she didn't think of this place as a hell hole. The dealings she'd had with Nah Rah Ku clearly had left a trace on her, she thought ruefully, it just wasn't anything detectable by anyone but herself.

Holding in another sigh, Kagome took a second to orient herself and began walking in the direction of the school. The small town was quiet- and stereotypically resembled just about every portrayal she'd ever seen on television of rural Latin American, jungle-bordering villages. But it was oddly serene and, as she paused to draw in a deep lungful of air through her nostrils, smelled of leafy vegetation, dry soil, old wood and fresh air. You couldn't find that combination of scents much anymore.

It was as she reached the school that she nearly stopped in her tracks, realizing why Miroku had asked her to do this. Lifting her gaze to take in the edifice of the sadly ancient-looking building with its chipped and decrepit-seeming brick work she remembered that the children were off due to some sort of local holiday festivity, which was also why the streets were currently so quiet, as most- parents and children alike- were in their homes making preparations for a long evening celebration. When the small building was active and full of the sounds of children shifting and shuffling papers and teachers giving lecture it was fine, but empty as it was now with the few lifeless, darkened windows bearing down on her like hollow eye sockets the place was just . . . . She forced a small gulp down her throat, finding it hard to believe that after everything she'd been through recently she would still be able to think of something so simple and mundane as . . . .

Well, creepy.

Groaning inwardly, she shook off the feeling- really, she'd uncovered a demon, watched her professor get possessed, had landed on a skeleton, came within a hair's breadth of being possessed herself, and her most recent discovery . . . . Oh, she wasn't even going to think on that, it would only increase the icy itching threatening to start in the pit of her stomach. Kagome drew in another deep breath and let it out slowly. She was surprised that anything could make her feel spooked, anymore. Giving herself a reassuring nod, she stepped up to the building finally and grasped a heavily tarnished brass knob, half-expecting the creaking of aged wood and rusted hinges that met her ears as she pulled the door open.

Despite her inner-ramblings to the contrary, she still couldn't push away how much she felt like she had suddenly fallen into a Silent Hill game as she ventured down the hallway. The dull, thudding echo of her own footfalls made her feel as though she was waiting to hear radio static, about to see the shadowy edge of something lurking just around the bend of the corridor before some hideously twisted thing burst out from another area entirely, intent on eating her face clean off of her skull!

Kagome couldn't help halting at that thought, her head cocking to one side. Okay . . . even with all that had occurred in her little world as of late, that scenario was still beyond far-fetched and only good for scaring herself silly. Eyes rolling at her own ridiculous imaginings, she stamped a small, hiking boot-encased foot and determinedly started down the hall again.

Reaching the classroom- having limited space to begin with, they'd been stuck in one of the rooms that had only one window, facing a vacant alleyway, no less- she knocked and then clasped her hands behind her back, waiting patiently. A few seconds of silence passed. Could it be that he was in the bathroom? Gently creaking the door open, she poked her head in and peered around, finding him resting his head on his desk.

"Awww," she murmured quietly to herself, slipping as soundlessly as she could into the room and easing the door closed behind her.

Bearing her previous branding as less than super-stealthy in mind, she crept delicately to the front of the classroom. Maybe he was just resting, she considered, as she stared at the long silver hair draping loosely down his back.

"Professor?" she said gently in an attempt to wake him, but he didn't stir.

Frowning, she reached to grasp his shoulder and stopped, her hand so close to touching him that she could just feel the fabric of his shirt brushing beneath the pads of her fingertips. It wasn't exactly that she thought Professor Taisho would snap at her or anything of that sort, but perhaps waking him in such a way with how he'd been acting recently wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. Her eyes rolled yet again- it wasn't as though she'd been having even-marginally-okay ideas lately, at all.

Nodding decisively to the empty room, she reached awkwardly around him to snatch up a pen and sheet of memo paper. She would have left the message on the chalk board behind him, but there was the chance he wouldn't turn to see it before leaving the room and a hell of a lot of good it would do for him when they returned later in the week. Pausing as she was about to set pen to paper, Kagome gave a tiny, miffed frown- why was she delivering someone else's message again?

"I am just too damned nice, that's why," she grumbled to herself as she at last scribbled down the message- checking her watch so she could note the time for him in case he napped for a while longer- and carefully wedged the sheet beneath the professor's folded arm.

She turned away- denying that seeing his hair loose made her want to touch the gleaming, pale strands so badly her fingertips positively itched with it- and started back across the room. It was something in that thought alone that made her still her movement. Her gaze dropped to the floor as she tried to put her finger on it. Even when the professor had traversed through jungle half-asleep to drag her out of the site at nearly three in the morning, his hair had been tied back, sloppily, but still an obvious attempt had been made.

She felt her spine pull straight as she realized it. Professor Taisho never wore his hair loose, the only time she'd ever seen it down was when he was-

"Hello, little priestess," she heard the silky, even murmur behind her.

For a long moment, Kagome couldn't bring herself to budge, still ashamed of how she'd responded to their last encounter. Oh, and why had she even thought that she would be safe from him during the day time? There had been a logical reason for thinking that way, she was sure, but now she simply couldn't grasp it. Distantly she felt Lyka twitch, but after a near week of beating the wisp of foreign consciousness into submission at the slightest provocation the spirit was reluctant to put up much more of a fuss than that, even with Kagome's clear recognition of the being behind her.

And as she didn't know how The Thief would respond to her new guest, she was going to do everything in her power to keep him from finding out about it for as long as she could. Maybe he'd help Kagome for his own reasons, maybe he'd decide he wanted to complete what he'd started centuries ago and help Lyka somehow gain control over Kagome to make that possible.

"Are you choosing to not face me even when I give you the opportunity?" Nah Rah Ku quipped, a hint of amusement just barely coloring his level cadence.

Squeezing her eyes tightly shut in agitation, she refrained from stamping her foot before slowly pivoting on a heel to look at him. He stood beside the desk, causing her to note that she'd not even heard the chair scrape against the floor when he'd first gotten up, arms folded casually across his chest and a hip leaned against it. Gods, he was even starting to stand with Professor Taisho's posture!

She forced a small squeak of a gulp down her throat as it occurred to her- if the demon was picking up things from the professor, than maybe the demon's cohabitation was the thing triggering the professor's unusually possessive behavior. "We . . . we can't do this here, you have to know that, right?"

"Oh?" A tiny smirk curled one corner of his lips. "And why is that, precisely?"

"Be- because," without moving her gaze, she did her best to take stock of the desk top with her peripheral vision, "Miroku's expecting us at the garage."

His smirk widened almost imperceptibly. "Hmph, as I am aware," he reached an arm down, swiping up her note between two fingers and holding it for her to see, "we yet have 'at least' an hour to ourselves."

Kagome allowed a miserable groan to escape her as he let the paper drift back to the desk top and crooked a finger, beckoning her closer. Head falling back, she stared daggers at the ceiling as she dragged her feet to move toward him with heavy, plodding footsteps. She couldn't help herself from stopping just out of arm's reach of him.

The amusement in his expression faded as he took a step back and rounded the desk to kick the professor's chair out of the way. Kagome jumped a little- as much at the minute flaring of his temper as at the noise created by the chair ricocheting off the wall, the impact sounding so harsh and jarring that it was a wonder the wood hadn't splintered on contact.

Squaring his jaw, Nah Rah Ku pointed to a spot directly between himself and the desk. "I want you here," he said slowly, his voice not betraying that flicker of wrath.

She realized then that she'd been forgetting some very important points about her situation . . . that he was in control, that he was an ancient creature of myth and that he had a long history of getting his way. There was precious little chance that she could stop him from taking what he wanted from her by force if she caused him decide such a thing was necessary. The display hadn't been meant to frighten her- though she expected that to be a side effect he didn't mind in the slightest- it had been intended as a reminder of these things.

Forcing a herself to give a small nod, Kagome continued forward, lowering her eyes as she edged around the desk and turned to face him. In the back of her mind, she was acknowledging something very numbing that threatened to blot out this moment and its stark realizations entirely.

He allowed her a moment, once more folding his arms across his chest as he stared down at her. She seemed . . . strangely off today. He expected an argument, some snippy and brash comment as she'd drawn closer to him, but there was no such fire behind her eyes now. In a bizarre way, her lack of response . . . bothered him. The Thief brushed this bit of ridiculousness aside- it was only a hindrance as it might prove to delay his receipt of her offering.

"Tell me," he murmured levelly, stepping toward her so that she was completely trapped between his body and the desk. "Just what it is that has you so very . . ." dropping his arms he crooked a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face, leaning down close to her, "uncharacteristically subdued?"

Kagome held herself on the very cusp of trembling, the feel of his breath whispering over her lips as he'd spoken making the delicate skin tingle pleasantly. "You don't really care, so please don't insult me by pretending you do."

He offered a lazy shrug as he pushed her long hair back off of her shoulders and began unbuttoning her shirt. "Indulge me."

Her eyelids drooped nearly against her will as his hands slid over her breasts, fingertips dragging over her delicately as though he was examining the fabric of her bra. "Funny, I th-" she drew in a halting gasp at the feel of his claws raking lightly across her nipples. "I thought I already was."

A silver brow quirked incrementally. "It would seem you enjoy testing my patience, little priestess."

She curled a lip in a girly version of a snarl, forcing her eyes open to meet his gaze even as he continued stroking her skin. "Okay, you want to know what's wrong? I'm angry 'cause I don't like how you're changing the professor."

Surprisingly, he lifted both brows at this, his ministrations stilling for a moment. "Of what in all the bloody planes of existence do you speak?"

Kagome could only stare back at him in obvious disbelief- how could he not know what he was doing to the man? "He's acting . . . weird because of you!"

"Weird in what such way?"

Blue eyes rolled. "Oh my go- . . . you have access to his thoughts and you expect me to buy that you don't know what I'm talking about?"

In response inhuman gold eyes narrowed to mere slits. "I only have his perspective from which to view things, therefore if he is not noticing an oddness to his behavior it would not stand out in my mind, either."

Her expression soured- she didn't really believe that he was innocent in this . . . or in anything . . . that had ever happened . . . ever! "So you don't know that he's been acting all possessive when I deal with other guys?"

The faint hinting of humor leaked back into the demon's face as his fingers began moving over her again. "I am not capable of directly influencing his actions or behavior. The only thing my presence would do to a host is enhance that which already exists."

Kagome blinked rapidly a few times, trying to process that. After forcing herself to accept The Thief as the reason behind the change in Professor Taisho it was nearly impossible for her to grasp that there was no such influence taking place; he had to be lying.

"Whatever," she muttered, bracing her palms on either side of her against the desk and turning her face away from him- if he wanted his stupid offering, he could just take it and be done with it, whatever it would take to get this jerk to settle back into dormancy for another week. "I don't like you using his body to do things he would never do."

Nah Rah Ku uttered a sound that made her think he had just restrained himself from bursting out in laughter. A long, quiet moment passed and she finally dragged her eyes to him, but kept her face turned away. He looked like he was waiting for her to say more . . . and as though he suddenly thought her to be the most adorably naïve creature in all of existence.

When she spoke no further, he shook his head minutely. "You truly have no idea, do you?"

She didn't like the spark lighting in those golden depths, didn't like that she had to concentrate so very hard to keep her body from responding to him. Forcibly she tore her gaze from his. He leaned closer, still, bringing his lips close enough to brush over her throat just below her ear as he elaborated in a velvety whisper. "I am surprised at just how little you know this Sesshomaru. You do not know that he wishes so very much that he could have you in the way I do?"

Kagome felt her heart flutter at that, but pushed it away- she had no reason to believe him. "You're lying and you don't have me, you're just using me until you can find some other way to survive and we both know it."

"Hmph, how little you understand things." He eased her bra out of the way, sliding his palms over her breasts and she couldn't stop herself from trembling at the skin-to-skin contact. "This Sesshomaru thinks of you . . . as you are in this moment." His warm breath ghosted over her throat as he continued, "He imagines fucking your brains out, little priestess." Her body began disobeying her then and she felt that sweet, moistening warmth starting between her legs. "He wonders what you taste like. You do not know . . . that he thinks about how it would feel to slide himself inside of you. It makes this Sesshomaru so painfully hard to imagine you beneath him, writhing and crying out for him."

Kagome shuddered, unable to stop her mind from picturing those very things. She was snapped, tragically, back into the moment by the feel of his hands trailing down from her breasts and low over her abdomen to begin opening her pants.

"I still don't believe you," she muttered weakly, knowing he'd successfully whittled down her defenses with just a few sentences.

"Yes, you do," he murmured, slowly drawing her zipper downward. "It carries in your scent, your arousal curls off of you in great, winding ribbons. I will tell you something else . . . I let him see you as you are in these moments. I show these images to him as pleasant dreams. If you only knew how often he has awakened to find his bed clothes in need of a good cleaning because of you . . . ."

"So it is you making him act like this," she reasoned aloud with a tremor in her voice, feeling as though her entire body was blushing as he began pushing her pants and underwear down over her hips.

"As previously stated, I only enhance such things, even as I . . . share with this Sesshomaru he had such thoughts before I came to possess him."

Kagome felt oddly detached as she watched him pull her just a little away from the desk and yanked her pants down to bunch around her ankles. The little voice in her head seemed to be running in frantic circles, worrying aloud over whether he could actually be telling the truth- with each circle, it seemed to pause for a moment, giving Lyka a sound slap for good measure to be certain she remained subdued. In more immediate lines of thought, she became concerned suddenly that her current state of awkward, near-undress meant he was going to simply spin her around, bend her over the desk and-

"Hold up a sec," she managed to say, as she forcefully stopped that notion in its tracks. "What are you doing?"

One corner of his mouth curled upward in what could almost be considered an affectionate half-grin. "Rabid concern for your maidenly state rearing again?"

Nodding numbly- she was dazed and aroused and still miffed at him all at the same time- she shrugged. "Look at what you just did. What do you expect me to think?"

Giving a responding nod, he gently cupped a hand between her legs, rubbing the tip of a finger between already dampened folds of delicate feminine flesh. "We have yet to reach that stage, I believe, little priestess. It is my intention," he murmured, withdrawing his hand and slipping his moistened finger into his mouth, clearly savoring it just as he'd done that first night in the temple, "to taste you coming against my tongue."

She didn't know if it was the heat of the moment, the naughty- Naughty, NAUGHTY!- mental pictures he'd put into her head of Professor Taisho, The Thief's own manipulative power or what, but his words alone sent a delicious little shiver of desire quaking through her. Instantly she found herself seated on the desk, remembering in a bizarre, in-the-moment type of hindsight how he'd clamped his hands over her hips, lifted her as though she weighed nothing at all and set her here.

As had happened before- she recalled somewhat dully- she was trying to grasp at things outside of this moment, but the look in his eyes as said, "Lay back, little priestess," sent any semblance of logic scampering away from her.

She did as instructed, watching him with what was almost fascination as he took her ankles in his hands and raised them up, allowing himself room the kneel before the desk. Kagome half-expected him to lower her legs again, to drape them over his shoulders, but he held them there, only slipping one hand away- using the bunched up fabric of her pants to easily keep her ankles pinned together with the other- and delicately parted her.

He managed a half-smile that was just a bit savage, then, lifting his gaze to hers for only a moment as he spoke. "I believe I should tell you this Sesshomaru's darkest wants more often. I have but barely touched you and yet you have already ripened so very sweetly here."

Kagome gasped sharply as he lapped his tongue over that sensitive little bead, automatically bringing her hands to cup the back of his head, fingers curling into his hair. Inwardly he gave a triumphant grin at this before uttering a small, almost content-sounding sigh and sealing his lips around it.

His tongue flicked over her in fast, swirling motions and she found her hips beginning to rock against the desk, beneath his mouth. She couldn't help crying out every time he withdrew the tip of his expertly working tongue to nibble and delicately scrape his teeth against her. Dimly she registered one of his hands wandering over her thighs now and the one holding her ankles was no longer there, but where- oh, she couldn't think with his mouth drawing on her in quick, suckling pulls . . . .

A loud, shocked moan escaped her as he slowly, delicately entered her with two fingers. It stung a little, but beyond that . . . as he withdrew and pushed into her again and again, faster and perhaps just a little deeper each time, Kagome forgot that first mildly painful sensation, her body moving not just in rhythm with the working of his mouth, but raising to meet his delving hand.

Her fingers gripped tightly into his hair, her own voice sounding distant and alien to her ears as she heard herself begging him for more in a breathy, heated whisper. The demon's response was a low, purring growl as the hand on her thigh held tightly to her now, the tips of his claws burning as they unintentionally broke her skin. She was finding it a little difficult to make her body go taut curled up as she was, but she pushed herself, lifting her hips off the desk entirely and pressing herself against the sweet pressure of his teeth and tongue more firmly, halting her movements to allow him to take over completely.

He complied instantly with her need, thrusting his fingers into her faster, swirling his tongue over that precious little bead of flesh he so adored in rapid, steady motions. He could feel it the moment the orgasm began to wash over her, bright, glimmering and so deliciously intense. She loathed him, but oh how she wanted what he gave to her. His little priestess was so innocent still . . . as he plunged his fingers inside of her, every withdrawal, every moment of sliding inside of her again reminded him of this . . . she was so warm and wet and tight. When the time came, he would be the one to fill her, he was suddenly and inexplicably determined on this.

Kagome wanted to clamp her hands over her mouth, to stifle her own dimly echoing moans, but she couldn't move- she was afraid that if she even tried the dizzying spirals of ecstasy dancing through her would end. She could hear the demon's growls changing the longer his mouth suckled at her- the content, purr-like sound replaced by something that reminded her of a starved beast feasting on its prey.

All too soon it was slipping away from her, but she forced her hips into motion, beneath his mouth, against his hand, trying desperately to cling to the sensation just a little longer. He swirling strokes of his tongue and rapid plunging of his fingers slowed steadily, helping her through the brilliant, thunderous aftershocks of her orgasm until she nearly collapsed beneath him.

For a long moment he let her simply lay there, resting and collecting herself. Surely the following minutes would play out exactly as they had after her last two offerings. She was going to gather herself up and begin acting as though he was simply some burden she was putting up with at any second and the little spit fire likely needed her strength for that. He merely knelt there as he waited patiently for this to happen, his head still between her thighs and pillowed against one of them as he painstakingly licked every drop of her from his fingers. In truth, he found her little outbursts both mildly amusing and utterly harmless.

When her breathing had finally calmed she looked down at him, for once finding the fading glow in his eyes fascinating somehow. "Can I put my legs down, now?"

The Thief raised his head, almost comically peering at her from between her still-upraised legs as though he'd never seen her before. "Of course."

Nodding, she waited for him to push away from the desk and stand, instead, he pulled the professor's now beaten-up chair over and threw himself into it. Lowering her legs, she immediately bounced up to step away from the desk . . . tried to immediately bounce up, which- with her pants around her ankles and her knees still wobbly post-orgasm- proved to be more of a stumbling-off-of-the-desk episode.

Silver eyebrows crept upward, putting a thin crinkles into the blue waxing crescent gracing his forehead as he watched the spectacle. It was shamefully amusing to see the petite female attempt to look dignified as she wrenched her pants up from around her ankles after almost breaking her neck because she had tripped over her own two feet.

As she zipped up her pants, fixed her skewed bra and began buttoning her shirt, she remembered the near-heart attack she'd had in the temple the last time The Thief had tasted her. "Oh . . . oh, no. This was really bad . . . ."

Nah Rah Ku tapped his chin as he tried to sort through her nonsense, but gave up almost instantly and offered a light shrug as he folded his arms across his chest, waiting for her to elaborate. Modern females were such strange creatures. He dearly hoped when they got to a more civilized and information-rich place he would find text that would aid him in deciphering women.

"Okay, okay," she began straightening her shirt almost compulsively as she explained, "your first um . . . 'offering' from me- Professor Taisho started to ask me what happened because you tasted me! Oh my gods, how could you- what am I going to say when he 'wakes up' and he tastes . . . well, a girl in his mouth?"

"Ah," nodding slowly, he gestured for her to step away from the desk- at the moment, confusing his host would only only cause himself undue problems- and scooted the chair forward. Opening a side drawer, he produced a pack of overpowering mint gum and held it up for her to see. "As I understand it, this will cover the taste of anything, yes?"

Kagome quirked a brow. The Thief really did think matters through. This could prove to be a huge problem for her in the future, she just knew it could. "That's the general idea of it."

With another nod, he unwrapped a piece and popped it into his mouth determinedly chewing and using his tongue to scrub it over his teeth. She thought she might fall down laughing at the mixture of shock and disgust that passed over the demon's face as he neatly tied his hair back.

Folding his arms over the desk, he gave an angry frown- it was the most expressive thing she'd ever seen from him. "It is revolting. I do not understand why one would subject themselves to such torment."

Blue eyes darted around the room as she processed this, finding it difficult to reconcile The Thief from legend- the same beast that had nearly shattered a chair without even trying over a moment of being made to wait just earlier with the almost whiny, spoiled creature she was glimpsing now. Maybe demons were as complex as humans? No, little voice had stopped its rampaging circles a little while ago and was now shaking a metaphorical finger at her, don't start thinking that this thing is anything like a human!

Nodding to herself, she turned away and started out of the room again. "The next time I see that form, I expect the professor to be the one at the helm."

Nah Rah Ku's expression darkened as he lowered his head toward his folded arms. "Do you know every time you speak such rubbish I am forced to access this Sesshomaru's memories to understand your meaning?"

"No, and I don't care," she murmured nearly to herself, pausing at the door for a long moment.

When no more self-important rambling came from behind her, she chanced a peek over her shoulder. He's laid his head down and she thought she saw his markings fading away. Drawing in a silent, weary sigh, she hung her head. She knew it was stupid to believe anything The Thief had told her, but . . . she couldn't help wishing that those things about Professor Taisho were true.

Shaking her head at herself in a mix of hopelessness and agitation- really, even if it was true, it wouldn't matter, he'd never act on it, there was simply too much at stake for both of them- she reached for the door and quietly let herself out into the corridor. Her lids drifted down, cooling a sudden burning in her eyes. How were so many things in her life such a mess because of the intrusion of this one being the fates had decided to throw at her?

She turned to start down the corridor and distinctly heard footfalls behind her.

Whirling on her heel, she was immediately met with a pair of chocolate brown eyes staring down at her. "Mi- Miroku!" Kagome managed with as much feigned brightness as she could muster. "Are they done with the truck already?"

He gave a half-nod, something in his expression setting a thin sheen of ice over her stomach. "Almost, actually. I came by about five, maybe ten minutes ago to tell the professor we didn't have to wait so long . . . ."

She knew he'd deliberately let his words trail off, but she fell into it anyway. "F- five or ten minutes ago?"

Once more he nodded, leaning a palm on the wall behind her and tipping his head to one side. "I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing. I took a walk around the building, came back here and see you sneaking out of the room." He cracked a lecherous grin, "Never would have thought you could sound like that. Wow, you and the professor, huh?"

Kagome was stunned into silence, her eyes slowly growing wider and wider as she gaped up at him, unprepared for his next question, entirely.

"What's it worth to you to keep that quiet?"

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