InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Taisho's Darling ❯ A Hectic Morning ( Chapter 3 )

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Disclaimer: I don't own these marvelous characters; they are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I merely torture them at will and put them in uncomfortable situations whenever possible.

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Chapter 3

A Hectic Morning

"Sesshomaru! Where in the seven hells have you put my desk?" Inu-Yasha yelled as he stormed into the office.

"Two steps to your left," Sesshomaru pointed as he continued to sort through the papers stacked in his inbox. "You and Higurashi are sharing an office with me." His brother glared at him, not comprehending. "Inu-Yasha, I realize you are only a half-demon," Sesshomaru emphasized, "but even your lesser hearing should be able to detect the sound of walls being removed in the other half of the building. Father offered to share our company's office space until the renovations are complete. Everyone is doubled up, so quit acting like this is a personal affront."

"Why didn't he tell us in advance?" Inu-Yasha complained.

"He did. Why don't you try reading your inter-office memos for a change?"

Any further arguments between the two were suspended by the arrival of a very pissed-off Higurashi Kagome. "Sesshomaru! What the hell's going on in here? There's no way I'm sharing working space with him!" she screeched as she pointed an angry finger at Inu-Yasha.

Sesshomaru winced. The day was just beginning, and his ears were already hurting. "Do you think you could lower your voice to a dull roar?" he hissed at the human. "If you have any problems with the office arrangements, take them up with my personal secretary." He opened the adjoining door and gestured to the lumpy green demon sitting in the outer office. "But I doubt Jaken will care, as he has to share space with no less than three others."

Kagome harrumphed and marched to her desk. "I knew I should have paid more attention to that stupid memo," she grumbled as she removed a bottle of antacid tablets from her top drawer.

"At least you read the memo," Sesshomaru sighed. He checked his watch. Ten minutes down, an eternity to go before this day was over. "I realize you and Inu-Yasha aren't thrilled with this situation, but I'm asking the pair of you to act like adults about this."

"I will if she promises to quit destroying my ties," Inu-Yasha replied angrily. He held out the tie he was wearing. "I had to borrow one of Father's, because all of mine have either been hole-punched, or cut off with a pair of scissors, or run through the shredder, or whacked with the paper-cutter…"

"Speaking of ties," Kagome interrupted the litany, "I was actually headed back to your office to apologize to you yesterday, Inu-Yasha. That is," she continued, "until I ran into our purchasing agents from Egypt while I was in the elevator."

Inu-Yasha's eyes narrowed. "What's this got to do with anything?" he asked.

"One of the members of the delegation was kind enough to point out that my blouse was unbuttoned, and I realized it probably had been that way since I left my office. You see, this stupid desk tends to catch that third button as I stand," she demonstrated. "Which means," she frowned at Inu-Yasha, "that you let me walk out of here yesterday flashing my breasts to the entire world and didn't say a damn thing! Thanks a lot, pervert! I'm sorry I hole-punched your tie yesterday - I should have hole-punched your ears!"

"No wonder those purchasing agents looked so happy," Sesshomaru said without thinking, earning a disgusted look from Kagome. He clutched a protective hand to his shirt front. "Higurashi, remind me to keep all sharp objects out of your reach. I happen to be rather attached to this particular tie."

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Miroku sniffled as daylight pierced through the shades into his darkened room. He hadn't been this sick in…he tried to remember. It had to have been at least two hundred years since he'd been laid up for reasons other than a hangover. That was a pleasant side-effect to the slave bite. The blood bond seemed to ward off most human illnesses; a fortunate blessing during the years before antibiotics and immunizations.

He wrested himself from the bed and once again staggered to his computer. Taisho-sama had paid a visit to his rooms last night and installed a new piece of software before leaving. He'd also handed Miroku a particularly loathsome assignment. Spying on my co-workers - same stuff, new century, he realized. Not much different from the old days when my other master had me listening in on the guards' conversations. Until last night, Miroku hadn't realized the email and instant messaging systems at Taisho International were monitored. Come to think of it, I'm sure I read the disclaimer when I signed the employment paperwork, but I never thought he'd actually do it. I suppose Taisho-sama thinks it's necessary.

Pressing his hand to his forehead to ease the sledgehammer pounding in his sinuses, Miroku opened the program and began to read. Ugh, this sucks. Could these people get any more boring? He wondered as he scrolled through yesterday's entries. Don't care…don't care…get a life…hmmm, never knew he swung in that direction, maybe I ought to introduce him to Jakotsu…blah…blah…what? He stopped at an email sent to Taisho-sama's office account.

His hands shook as he read through the missive. Pure malice dripped from every word, and the sender was anonymous. It came from an outside computer network, and Miroku was positive tracing the account would lead to a dead end. He'd trace it anyway, of course, but Taisho-sama would have already taken the same action. Miroku knew without asking that this wasn't the first poisonous email his master had received.

If this email was just one of many, Taisho-sama had good reasons for wanting to lay low for awhile. Miroku knew his master was attempting to transfer the company's leadership to Sesshomaru's control, but he couldn't help but wonder at the timing. Did Taisho-sama really think that by removing himself from the company, the anonymous author of the letter would quit? Someone with that kind of hatred didn't stop just because the target had moved.

And what was Taisho-sama thinking, handing control to Sesshomaru right in front of Inu-Yasha? Miroku had never met his master's eldest son, but it was no secret that the youkai and his younger half-brother didn't get along. Miroku had expected Taisho-sama to find an assignment on the other side of the world for Inu-Yasha, not keep the brothers together in the same building. Inu-Yasha was bound to be jealous.

Miroku's thoughts came to a screeching halt. Surely Taisho-sama didn't suspect his own son of sending that threatening email? While Miroku didn't know Inu-Yasha all that well, he couldn't imagine the half-demon hiding behind an anonymous email. Inu-Yasha would scream, rant, rave and break things, but the feelings behind the letter suggested an icy hatred more in keeping with the reputation of Sesshomaru.

No wonder Taisho-sama had passed this surveillance job to him. It made Miroku's head spin just pondering all of this. After scanning the rest of the communications and finding them harmless, Miroku closed the program and decided to leave his rooms in search of Sango's cooking. Kagome had promised to leave him something in the fridge in exchange for keeping his germs away from the rest of the household.

As he pulled on his robe and tightened the sash, Miroku's thoughts once again turned to finding a demon mate. If Taisho-sama's life was in danger, the slaves' lives were also at risk. It was time to get serious about removing the blood bonds in case his master reached an untimely end. Taisho-sama's matchmaking attempts were beginning to look attractive. All I need is to find a wench as lively as Kagome, as intelligent as Nazuna, as good at healing as Kaede, as sweet as Koharu and as talented in the kitchen as Sango. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt if she possessed Yura's beauty.

And what would such perfection want with a former monk carrying the taint of human slavery?Miroku sighed. He'd better stop being so picky. In his situation, he ought to be grateful if he found someone as lively as Koharu, as intelligent as Yura, as good at healing as Sango, as sweet as Kagome and as talented in the kitchen as Nazuna. And she'd probably look like Kaede.

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"Sesshomaru, I have a great favor to ask you," Taisho spoke into the mirror, practicing his speech to Sesshomaru. No, that was too pompous sounding. He'd better beg a little if he wanted his son to cooperate.

"My boy, things are a little difficult for me these days." Yes, that would do for a start. Maybe he should ply his son with drinks first. Get a little alcohol in him and loosen him up at a bit.

"I need you to help me find demon mates for my Darlings." That was certainly the direct approach. That would be the tactic to use with Inu-Yasha, but Sesshomaru was a different story. Using the direct approach with Sesshomaru would likely result in a direct 'No.'

"I'm not getting any younger, Sesshomaru. If something happens to me, my Darlings will die. And Miroku will die, too. Do you have any idea how much training and inside knowledge that man possesses? It would be a crime to let his knowledge fall victim to the grave."

Taisho adjusted his tie in the mirror's reflection. I should be getting to my meetings, not practicing my lines for tonight. Sesshomaru is just going to have to be persuaded to help me, whether he wants to or not. I'm still his Father, and my word is law.

Feh, who am I fooling? My son is grown, he's not about to listen to some half-baked idea from his old dad. Oh well, I have until tonight to figure out how to handle this problem. No point in ruining my day thinking about it.

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"Higurashi, are you going to be okay?" Yura asked through the door of the bathroom stall. "This is your third trip this morning. We're kind of worried."

"Yeah," Kagome gasped before another spasm shook her body. She needed the bite renewed. I should have let Taisho-sama do this last night. I thought I could wait. A violent shudder racked her small frame and she heaved into the toilet again. The pain was getting more intense by the moment. She dug in her purse for the mild narcotic Taisho-sama had given her for emergency use. The pill wasn't enough to dull her senses, but it would take the edge off the worst of the symptoms.

Yura handed her a damp rag and a toothbrush as Kagome left the stall. "Maybe you should go home," the pert assistant suggested. "You might have caught the flu like Miroku." She helped the sagging Kagome to the sink. "You aren't running a fever, though."

"No, I just ate something that didn't agree with me," Kagome lied. Like I'm going to tell her what's wrong. Oh Yura, it's okay. My master just needs to renew my slave bite so I don't die because the blood bond was administered improperly by some whacked in the head evil human slime.

"Oh, I found that book of my sister's that you said you wanted to borrow," Yura told her. She reached into her purse and drew out a battered copy of a book about pregnancy. "It's for your roommate Sango, right? How far along is she?"

"Four months," said Kagome. The medication was slowly starting to kick in, the nausea receding to the back of her consciousness. "I think she's over the trauma of the surprise and starting to look forward to having the baby."

"Until her mood changes again, that is," Yura smiled. "My sister really went back and forth with her mood swings. She'd be crying one second and laughing the next. I hope Sango isn't that bad."

"Me too," Kagome said fervently. "I'm the one that has to put up with her, after all. I'm just selfish enough to be grateful she still feels like cooking. We all thought we were going to starve while she was in Australia. And what was worse, Nazuna kept offering to help cook." She pulled a face, remembering the inedible meals.

"Thanks, Yura," Kagome added sincerely as they parted ways outside her office. I shouldn't be so hard on her; the girl can be really nice when you get to know her, Kagome thought with a pang of guilt. So she can't do bid proposals; maybe I can train her to do the real estate deals. She's friendly enough for the work. Taisho-sama's always telling me to give people a chance instead of looking at the surface.

"Why don't you just have them move your desk to the bathroom?" Inu-Yasha's snide voice interrupted Kagome's thoughts as she tossed the borrowed book into her desk drawer. "It would save time for all of us. You'll grab any excuse to get out of work, won't you?"

Taisho-sama, when you told me to give people a chance, surely you didn't include your own stupid, fat-headed, ignorant son in that category, did you? "Inu-Yasha," Kagome gave him an evil smile as she grabbed his wheeled office chair, "Sit!" She rammed the chair into the back of his legs and shoved the chair down the hallway. She could hear his yells as he sped past the outer offices and slammed into the elevator banks.

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He watched her as she left the restroom, half-supporting herself on Yura's arm. So pretty; little Kagome was a radiant woman. She'd grown up beautifully after leaving his master. It was okay that she left. He'd have her back soon; he'd always known he would have her back.

Damn Taisho to hell for taking her away from his master! He'd watched her carefully over the years, waiting for the inu youkai to relax his guard around the young woman. He'd known the demon eventually would let her slip away from his watchful care, but he hadn't thought it would take this long. Soon, though, soon enough with the distraction of the youkai's upcoming wedding and the problems besetting the company, Taisho would make a mistake. And he'd be waiting to take advantage of that error, waiting for his beautiful girl.

Exercising patience had proved difficult, but he would win in the end. Higurashi Kagome would be his. His master would reward him with her beautiful body in exchange for his years of loyal service. The destruction of Taisho International would be sweet for his master, but Higurashi would be even sweeter for him.

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"Is she all right?" Inu-Yasha asked in such a quiet voice only Sesshomaru's youkai hearing could detect the sound. He was watching Kagome. The young woman's skin had an unhealthy pallor, and she had left her desk several times that morning.

"Doesn't look too good; does she?" Sesshomaru answered back in the same quiet voice. As he spoke, Kagome lurched from her chair and ran out of the room once again. She returned a few minutes later, shaking. Her eyes looked dull and lifeless.

"Higurashi," Sesshomaru spoke. The woman looked at him with glazed eyes. "Perhaps you should consider leaving work before you infect the rest of the humans in this office with your illness." His tone commanded obedience. Surely the wench wouldn't argue with him.

Apparently, he didn't know Higurashi Kagome. "I'm not contagious," Kagome argued as she fell trembling into her chair. "I just have a…condition. I'll be all right and you don't need to worry about me spreading some disease and costing the company precious money."

"Yeah, well you're wearing a path between our office and the bathroom," Inu-Yasha snapped. "Take your condition somewhere else so we can get some work done. You were in a big enough hurry to leave early yesterday; what's so important you can't leave early today?"

"We're closing first thing in the morning on the land purchase for the new factory in Singapore," Kagome answered with less heat than usual. She looked as if she wanted nothing more than a place where she could curl up and die. "Taisho-sama and I are the only ones familiar with the details. You don't want us to get reamed on this deal, do you?"

"First it was Miroku's proposal, now this," Sesshomaru pointed out. "Why is no one cross-trained to do another's job in this place? At the present time, if someone drops dead in the next five minutes the company would be completely derailed."

"It's not that bad," Inu-Yasha said defensively. "We had other people trained, but Naraku Enterprises keeps stealing our employees. As soon as they're trained they take off."

"Or Inu-Yasha runs them off with his temper," Kagome added.

"You're one to talk, wench! What about that secretary Father hired last week? She lasted ten whole minutes before she locked herself in the bathroom and started bawling!" Inu-Yasha responded.

"I can't help it if the woman had deep personal issues!" Kagome snorted. "She was completely inept, anyway! She jammed the copier, deleted three incoming calls and broke the coffeepot, all within those first ten minutes!"

"Miss? Excuse me, human, but the vice-presidents cannot be disturbed if you don't have an appointment!" Jaken's high, reedy voice could be heard from the outer office. "I said you can't go in there, wretched woman! Ormhp! Sesshomaru-sama, your loyal servant needs your assistance! Ouch! Stop that, human scum!"

An expensively dressed dark-haired woman with cold gray eyes casually entered the room carrying a small bundle of fur. "I believe this is yours," she announced, dropping a sleeping kitsune into the arms of a surprised Kagome. "Don't you ever answer your phone? The daycare called me when they couldn't get in touch with you and said if Shippo wasn't picked up within the next half hour they were putting him on the street. What did you do this time, little sister?"

"I didn't do anything!" Kagome exclaimed. "I swear, Kikyo, I dropped him off this morning just like I always do! What's going on? Is Shippo hurt?" She anxiously began checking the small demon for injuries.

"He's just fine, although he fell asleep exhausted from crying. The daycare didn't offer any explanation; they just said that he was no longer welcome. And no, Shippo didn't do anything wrong. I asked." Kikyo plucked a piece of fox hair from her shoulder with a delicate finger. "The director seems to have taken an intense dislike to you, Kagome. She refused to refer to you as anything other than 'that demon's whore'. You might want to reconsider the company you keep." She gave Inu-Yasha and Sesshomaru a sweeping glance.

Kagome stiffened. "Funny, she never had a problem accepting money from 'that demon's whore' up until now! How dare she say something like that in front of my child?" She cuddled Shippo to her protectively.

"Judging by your appearance, you must be Taisho's sons," Kikyo commented as she surveyed the flabbergasted pair. "Sorry for the interruption, but I can't keep the boy. My husband doesn't approve of Kagome's choice of companions." She drew herself upright with a sniff. "By the way, tell that toad-thing out there if he so much as dares to touch me again, I will purify him so fast there will be nothing left but his stupid little hat." With those parting words, she walked regally from the room.

"Kikyo would do it, too," whispered Kagome. "My sister is the reincarnation of a great miko." She shifted the sleeping kitsune to one side of her lap and gathered up the papers she was reviewing. "I'm so sorry about this," she apologized to the demon brothers. "I've never had something like this happen before today. Let me see if I can find someone to watch him for the rest of the day."

"He's sound asleep, he's not disturbing anyone," Sesshomaru surprised himself by saying. What had just come over him, telling Higurashi it was all right to keep her brat at the office? Although he had to admit the tiny fox demon was a cute little fuzz-ball. "When did you adopt him?" Sesshomaru asked curiously.

"How did you know? Oh, that's stupid, he's full demon and I'm human, of course you'd know he was adopted," she babbled, clearly rattled by the morning's events. "His parents were hit during a lightning storm a year ago. Taisho-sama was the one who found him. He was soaked to the skin and crying for his father, the poor little thing." She dropped a kiss on the child's red hair.

Sesshomaru returned to his work, keeping one eye on the human girl. With the arrival of her elder sister and the child, Kagome seemed to have forgotten her heaving stomach. She was still very pale, though, and he wondered if she had the physical strength to last the day. Her hands shook as she turned the pages of the documents she was reviewing, causing the papers to rattle loudly.

Common sense dictated sending her and the child home, but he found himself reluctant to do so. Sesshomaru hated deception, both in others and himself. Having this trait, he was forced to admit that the human fascinated him. He actually wanted to watch her every move, something completely out of character for him. Every time he thought he had her categorized, pegged into one description, she turned his label inside out. Who was this Higurashi Kagome?

Annoyed with his growing curiosity, Sesshomaru vented at the source of his frustration. "Dammit, go home and lay down before you fall down, Higurashi. You're no good to your son if you're in the hospital." She began to protest and he cut her off. "I'll review the factory paperwork; it's not the first time I've looked at real estate closing documents."

She surrendered and gathered up her purse and the child. "Will you call me if you have any questions?" Kagome asked the youkai. Sesshomaru nodded in agreement. "Oh," Kagome added as she paused in the doorway, "if Taisho-sama comes into the office, will you please tell him to call me? It's important." She departed, closing the door behind her. Through the closed panel, Sesshomaru could hear Jaken begin to lecture Kagome about Kikyo's breach of office protocol.

Thumping noises drew his attention to Inu-Yasha. His brother was stabbing the protective mat on his desk repeatedly with an exact-o knife. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! What the hell is Father thinking? At his age, you'd think he wouldn't get himself involved in things like this!"

"Choices made between two adults are none of our business, Inu-Yasha," Sesshomaru reminded his brother. He couldn't blame the hanyou. The entire situation was absurd, and it could only get worse if Sakura found out about Higurashi. "What's bothering you about this, Inu-Yasha? I don't think you're concerned about Higurashi's welfare."

"No innocent kit should have to hear his mother referred to as 'that demon's whore' by some bigoted daycare director!" Inu-Yasha spat. "What the hell is wrong with humans, anyway? They act like it's a crime if a human and a demon have any kind of relationship at all!"

"Bothers you, does it?" Sesshomaru asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. "The situation does parallel that of your mother's. Only in her case, the demons were the prejudiced ones."

"Demons, humans, it doesn't matter," claimed Inu-Yasha. "Nothing's changed. When youkai and humans get together, no one wants them. Or their children," he added angrily. "I can't believe Father's doing this at his age. Does he have no sense of dignity whatsoever?"

"What in particular are you talking about?" Sesshomaru asked. His brother was annoyed as hell about something specific, not just the general situation of their father and his human plaything. "You know something, Inu-Yasha. Spill it."

"She isn't contagious. She has a 'condition'," Inu-Yasha quoted. He rummaged around Kagome's desk, fishing a book from the side drawer. "You have plenty of money, Sesshomaru. Why don't you buy a clue?" He flung the book at his brother.

Sesshomaru deftly caught the book mid-air. "I don't think Higurashi would appreciate you going through her desk," he reminded Inu-Yasha as the hanyou stomped out. Flipping the book over, he read the title. "What to Expect When You're Expecting a Demon Child: A Pregnancy Guide for Youkai and Hanyou Babies."

So Higurashi Kagome was expecting a pup. The knowledge strangely disappointed him. He already had one half-sibling, what difference did it make if he gained another? His father and Higurashi were two consenting adults. What they did was their business, not his. He, Sesshomaru, had a company to run.

Dishonesty was a low trait, one not carried by a proud youkai like Sesshomaru. He was completely incapable of lying to himself. And because he didn't want to lie to himself, he refused to answer the question in his mind. Why does Father's relationship with Higurashi Kagome bother me so much?

He sniffed the air around him, picking up the remnants of her scent. It was that summer breeze again, teasing his nostrils and offering a strange sort of comfort. It was the same scent his father had tried to mask when he arrived at the apartment last night. Without thinking about it, Sesshomaru wandered over to her desk where the aroma was strongest and closed his eyes in order to concentrate on the delicious smell.

There was something about her scent that nagged at him, but he couldn't pinpoint what the problem was. It tickled the back of his mind like a long-forgotten memory. He shook his head to clear it. The smell was enticing, nothing more. He'd best remove himself from her desk before his brother came back to the office and found him with his nose buried in the sweater draped over the back of Higurashi's chair.

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A/N: Ah, confusion and misunderstandings abound…I love doing this to the bishies. Just wait until the brothers meet Sango! Fluff is on its way, but I'm taking my time on the pacing of the story.

Just a quick note - there is one original character in this fic, and that is Sakura, Taisho's fiancée. I normally use only canon characters with Alternate Universe fics, but I couldn't seem to find one to fit the description. Her daughters (you'll meet them soon) will be canon characters, though. And yes, the villain of this piece will be a canon character, though perhaps not the one you expect.

Lavender