InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strike a Pose ❯ In the Rafters ( Chapter 22 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Kagome stumbled down the stairs early that Saturday morning; her hair tussled from sleep and her eyes half shut, all because she could hear something moving.

It was a shuffling disorienting noise that made Kagome kind of edgy and had roused her from her comfortable bed to investigate what on earth was making such a noise.

Her feet scuffed against the wooden floor in her Hello Kitty slippers as she entered the hallway and pushed her hair from her eyes blearily.

There was a large parcel in the middle of the hallway, she realised belatedly, with a note attached.

Kagome perused the note leisurely, frowning at the box when she'd finished. It was something that Sesshoumaru's father's lawyer had been holding onto until now?

Cautiously approaching the box, she nearly fell over backwards when it shuffled towards her. Was there something alive in there?

Retreating to behind the counter in the kitchen, she grabbed a mop and brandished it at the moving box warningly, before issuing it with a sharp poke when it didn't stop shuffling towards her like it was possessed.

“Miko, what are you doing?”

She whirled at the sound of Sesshoumaru's voice and accidentally slapped him in the face with her mop turned weapon.

Golden eyes glowered at her as she lowered the mop sheepishly and shrugged. “At least it wasn't wet.”

The expression on his face hinted that he wasn't in the least amused.

“What is the matter with you?” he asked, regaining his composure somewhat as he calmly proceeded to detangle the birds nest that was her hair with long deft fingers. She submitted grumpily to being fussed over, whilst keeping suspicious eyes on the box.

“It's the box,” she muttered, “before you got here it was moving.”

He snorted, warm breath ghosting across her neck. “Maybe I scared it into being stationary.”

Rolling her eyes she tried to dig him in the ribs with her elbow, but being the nimble Yokai that he was, he dodged effortlessly.

The box rumbled again and Kagome squeaked at the unexpected movement, causing Sesshoumaru to pet her head and stalk forward curiously towards the box.

“Don't!” she barked out, “this is the part in all those horror movies where the people at home yell `don't open the box' and you just know some scary creature-type thing is going to jump out of the box and smother you!”

Sesshoumaru was marginally impressed; she'd managed to say all of that in one breath. “Kagome,” he reassured, “we aren't in a horror movie.”

“But you don't know that Moon Man!”

“Kagome, I think I'd know if I was an underpaid actor in a second rate horror movie.”

“Nu-uh!”

“Hn, you make little sense when you get into this state,” he acknowledged, slowly touching a hand to the box.

The weird vibrations stopped instantly and Kagome let out a huff of distrust.

“Now it's trying to lull you into a false sense of security,” she warned picking up the mop once more.

“Ridiculous,” he muttered, his claws tearing the top of the box off easily.

Golden eyes grew wide as he stared into the box and Kagome's curiosity grew until it was palpable and she was at his size, peering into the box with him.

She blinked a few times at the sight of a... furry snake?

Because it certainly looked like one.

“What is it?”

“Mokomoko-sama,” he muttered, a slightly awed expression on his face.

“What's a mokomoko-sama?”

“It is a pelt that every Taiyokai receives when their power is mature,” he informed her, “I must have matured so I get one.”

“Why was the box moving?” she asked, “Isn't it just a pelt?”

As if affronted by being referred to as `just a pelt' it rose up out of the box like a snake being charmed and wound its way around Sesshoumaru's arm, slithering around his neck and then his chest.

“It's alive!” Kagome crowed, like a bad extra from a horror movie as she backed away from Sesshoumaru. The pelt seemed to be getting familiar with its new master... a little too familiar.

“Is it groping you?” Kagome asked wide eyed as the pelt worked its way down him chest and slithered between his thighs in a suggestive manner.

Sesshoumaru huffed impatiently as he allowed the pelt to do what it wanted. He knew, from what his father had imparted onto him, that the pelt was familiarizing itself with him as its new master. He just had to put up with it, not that he didn't want to rip the intruding thing from his body and punt it across the apartment...

Suddenly, it calmed and moved to drape itself over one shoulder.

“What, it's had its fun?” Kagome asked tentatively, reaching out as if to swat at it, but drawing her hand back apprehensively.

“Apparently it likes me,” he deadpanned, petting the white furry thing absentmindedly.

“It's creepy.” No one could accuse her of mincing her words.

“It is a sign of achievement,” he corrected imperiously.

“Nope, I'd say it's just creepy,” she disagreed.

“Hn.” Golden eyes narrowed speculatively as he watched her clench and unclench her hands at her sides. “You want to pet it,” he guessed shrewdly.

She firmly placed her hands behind her back and shook her head vehemently. “No I don't,” she insisted, chin tilting stubbornly.

“Lying only works if the person you are lying to can't read you like a book,” he countered cannily, stepping forward and petting his pelt enticingly.

“You are a meany,” she pouted, eyes shifty as she gazed at the pelt.

“Meany? Is that even a word?” he mocked.

She poked her tongue out at him and, giving in to fluffy temptation, she reached out a hand and entwined her fingers into the silky fur.

Sesshoumaru quirked a brow as she stepped closer to him and rubbed her cheek against his pelt.

“Can I have one?” she mumbled into the fur.

“I thought it was creepy,” he countered.

She elbowed him in the kidneys. “Only at first,” she corrected.

As if it could understand the conversation, mokomoko-sama unwound from Sesshoumaru's shoulders and moulded itself around Kagome in a giant fluffy hug.

Startled, Kagome stepped away from Sesshoumaru and the pelt wrapped itself around her more firmly, cutting off her movement as it bound her knees together.

“I think it likes me,” Kagome admitted as Sesshoumaru growled at the pelt.

“What on earth are you two doing?” Kikyo demanded, appearing at the top of the stairs with a rumpled Inuyasha in tow.

“Mokomoko-sama likes me!” Kagome cheered.

But, as most giant furry pelts get attached to people for life, Kagome soon became slightly irritated with the giant ball of fluff.

It clung to her incessantly, refusing to let her move, butting people that came too close, it really seemed to detest Inuyasha and spent a lot of time tripping him up and throwing things at him, it made it impossible for her to shower, or to design for her next photo shoot.

Yes, mokomoko-sama was beginning to wear out its welcome.

Sesshoumaru was not coping; in fact he had retreated to his room and refused to talk, not that being reticent wasn't the norm for Sesshoumaru.

But he was... sulking.

“He's jealous!” Kikyo declared, causing Kagome and mokomoko-sama to jump in their seat.

“Huh?” Kagome queried, freeing an arm with much effort to grab her book from the coffee table.

“Sesshoumaru-san doesn't like the fact that mokomoko-sama is all over you all the time, so much so that he can't even be near you without it trying to knock him out,” Kikyo suggested, stabbing her sheet music with her fountain pen for emphasis.

Kagome growled as the constricting mokomoko-sama caused her to drop her book and began wriggling all over the sofa like she was trying to rid herself of a fluffy straight jacket, which she was, albeit a clingy fluffy straightjacket.

“Stop it!” Kagome exclaimed as the fluffy critter manoeuvred itself inside her t-shirt.

Kagome glanced up from her fluffy tormentor in time to see Sesshoumaru shoot it a glare of malice before he stormed from the apartment.

“Moon Man!” Kagome caterwauled mournfully, “come back and get the stupid thing off of me!”

***

Glowering the asphalt into submission, Sesshoumaru growled under his breath as he ran through his options. Getting rid of the furry demon would be good, but getting it away from Kagome would not be an easy option.

The stupid parasite was bound so tightly to the little Miko that he resembled a boa constrictor. It irked Sesshoumaru that mokomoko, that was for all intents and purposes, supposed to be an intrinsic part of him, could touch Kagome and he could not.

Glad he'd had the foresight to grab his phone, he flipped it open and called his grandmother, if anyone knew how to deal with a demonic fur-ball, it was his cantankerous grandmother.

“Grandmother?” he asked when the phone was answered.

“Master Sesshoumaru?” a timid sounding voice - definitely not his grandmother - that he vaguely recalled as belonging to a member of his grandmother's staff.

“Where is my grandmother?” he demanded.

“Right now?” the servant's voice trembled, “she's chasing the Kitsune door-to-door salesman across the garden. She said something about `the best exercise she's had in centuries'.”

A silver brow quirked and Sesshoumaru shrugged; his grandmother had always hated loathed and detested foxes. This was relatively normal.

“Tell her I am in need of her counsel,” he ordered, unsurprised when the servants timid holler resulted in Hide's abrupt return.

“You need my help, grandson?” she asked in her haughty way, her tone self-satisfied, she did enjoy making him humbly ask for her advice.

“I have my mokomoko-sama,” Sesshoumaru cut to the chase, too weary to deal with his eccentric grandmother.

“Then congratulations are in order,” she mused, “but that isn't why you called.”

“I called because the thing has become somewhat attached to Kagome.”

“Somewhat attached,” Hide allowed herself a vindictive chuckle, “let me guess, it's holding on and won't let go?”

“Precisely,” he muttered resignedly, a little chagrined that she'd guessed so quickly, had she somehow seen this coming?

“I thought as much, it is all your fault you know!” she scolded, causing Sesshoumaru to roll his eyes - there was no one there to see it after all.

“Don't you roll your eyes at me!” she sniffed haughtily, “now, the reason mokomoko is doing that is because Kagome is coated in your youki and your scent, he is protecting her.”

“From me? Because it will not let me near her either,” he muttered. If this was some defensive trait it was probably not that bad. But why would it protect the person with his youki and scent on them from him?

“Let you? Let you! It is a hyped up feather boa! Make it submit! You are still a whelp,” she sighed dramatically, “good luck and good bye.”

Now Sesshoumaru knew why he didn't call his grandmother very often. It left him wanting to melt something.

But, the hag's advice was probably not as sour as she. Yes, it was time to teach mokomoko-sama a lesson.

***

Kagome jumped when the apartment door burst open and Inuyasha, who had been sitting nearby, retreated to a safe distance upon seeing his half-brother's intent expression. Such a look generally meant a lot of pain was imminent for Inuyasha.

But this time, mokomoko-sama was the object of Sesshoumaru's derision.

Sensing trouble, mokomoko-sama lifted it's `head' and shivered at the inhospitable youki that was pouring off of Sesshoumaru in waves.

Kagome screeched as the head shot towards the ceiling and wrapped around a support beam.

“What's it doing?” she demanded uneasily, seconds before it began winching her towards the ceiling. In no time at all she was ensconced in a furry nest in the corner of the room.

“Shit,” Inuyasha commented, earning himself a growl from Sesshoumaru .

“You guys!” Kagome yelped, “I could do with a little help here!”

Sesshoumaru glowered at mokomoko. “The retreat to higher grounds was a good idea,” he uttered, stepping forward until he was directly underneath Kagome, “but you underestimate me.”

There was a subtle flaring in his youki and Kagome and Inuyasha watched in interest as a cloud of youki formed beneath Sesshoumaru's feet and he levitated from the floor.

“You can fly!” Kagome and Inuyasha exclaimed as one.

Kagome crooked a brow at Inuyasha. “You didn't know? Isn't he supposed to be your brother?”

“Half-brother,” Inuyasha corrected.

Ignoring their little conversation, Sesshoumaru wrenched mokomoko away and caught Kagome in a rather intricate movement that was too fast for Kagome to catch. Mokomoko was thrown to the ground with a rather painful sounding crack and Sesshoumaru descended elegantly, Kagome thrown over one shoulder in a casual fireman's lift.

Wriggling profusely from her position over Sesshoumaru's shoulder, Kagome was not expecting him to swat her sharply on the bottom. “Desist,” he ordered callously.

For an easy life, Kagome went along with it and found herself suddenly back on her feet, but still being held close to Sesshoumaru's chest.

Bending his head to Kagome's neck, he grazed the column of her throat with his fangs and in a deep timbre that vibrated through the room, proclaimed. “Mine.”

The pelt shifted, wriggled for a moment and then drooped, as if the life had been sucked out of it.

“What did you do to it?” Inuyasha demanded, prodding at mokomoko absently with an outstretched toe that poked through a hole in his sock.

“It has submitted to me,” Sesshoumaru's pride leaked through his tone as he removed his teeth from Kagome's neck. The Miko rubbed her neck absently, flicking an annoyed glance at her demon friend.

“Can we get rid of it now?” Kagome asked, shooting her previous kidnapper a reproachful glare.

“Leave it to me!” Rin sang happily as she skipped down the stairs.

A bemused trio watched as Rin scooped up mokomoko, dropped him into a cabinet and, with a flourish that would have done a magician proud, slapped a sutra on the top.

“No more mokomoko!” she cheered.

“Who taught you that?” Kagome asked, tone bewildered as she looked at her cousin.

“Kikyo.”

“That explains it then.”

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Totals up to 2,373 words.