InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Centre ❯ Cross-cultured Courting 101 ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 23: Cross-culture Courting 101

Inuyasha was floored. The object of his desire was practically begging for sex. The feral part of him answered her call, wanting it just as much….but reason crept in. There was something totally wrong about all of this.

"Kagome, stop," he growled, claws wrapping around her wrists as she placed kisses along his neck. Her clinging made it rather difficult to turn her around, but he pulled her to face him nonetheless.

"Why?" she moaned with a pout. A hurt look of confusion crossed her face. Oh no, he would have none of that. The last thing he wanted was for her to become embarrassed and think he didn't want her. Nothing was farther from the truth. However, this was entirely too fast. But how to explain it to her in a way she wouldn't take offense to or make rash assumptions?

Then it hit him.

"We youkai don't rush like you humans," he said with a soft growl and nipped the end of her nose. "We like to draw things out nice and slow." Kagome frowned. Would she buy it? It was true….sort of.

"How come Sesshoumaru and Rin didn't?" she demanded. Inuyasha silently cursed his brother. This would make things a bit more difficult. He was going to have to say things he did not like saying….hopefully she would not repeat them or he'd never live it down.

"Listen well bitch. First, Sesshoumaru has known Rin since she was a toddler, so that gives them more than 10 years of contact before he was captured and 70 plus years of maturity." He sighed, leaning his forehead against hers. "Second, they have a casual relationship and while it may be long term, it will never be at the level I want us at. Third, between you and me….don't you dare tell Sesshoumaru I said this, but as far as Rin is concerned, what Rin wants, Rin gets. He can deny her nothing. Never has and probably never will. And that is probably his only known weakness. Understand?"

Kagome looked thoughtful for a moment, her head still swimming in emotions she didn't fully understand.

"No," she replied. He gave an audible sigh. Patience was a virtue….which meant it was ten times harder to accomplish.

"How much do you know about youkai courting and mating?"

"Um…..less than I know about rocket science?" she offered. Inuyasha gave her a stupefied look.

"Didn't they teach you anything at that damn school?" he asked. "How can you be a miko and know nothing about youkai?"

"Well, we know how to kill them, seal them, exorcise them, and chop them up into multiple pieces." Kagome put a finger to her chin, thinking a bit. "Oh, and how to make them transform back into original form."

"Remind me to never piss you off," he said dryly. "Your school is extremely narrow-minded and stupid."

"Funny, they claim they are highly specialized."

"In stupidity. How many mikos have died because of a youkai coming after them in revenge?" he asked.

"More than we like to admit," Kagome replied with a sigh. The electricity that had been running in her veins was dieing down. Now she felt a little tired and cold. After effects? Good gods, what had made her feel so….so…. was there even a word for the wantonness she had felt? Horny? Not quite right. Desperate came to mind, but it was more of a deep, painfully strong desperation, not a weak in the knees sort of kind.

"Come here, I'll enlighten you," he said with a chuckle, pulling her back to the couch. "Then you can run to all your girlie friends and giggle over it at the lunch table."

"We do not giggle over stuff at lunch," she defended, giving him a scolding look.

"Sure, whatever…" he answered and got a punch in the shoulder for his trouble. He didn't bother to tell her that a punch from an untrained human woman such as herself was like a feather.

They settled comfortably on the couch, Kagome leaning back against his chest as his arms wrapped around her waist and held her to him.

"First, youkai have several types of relationships, just like you humans, and some vary depending on the type of youkai. Kouga, for example, will eventually take a permanent mate. Her job will be to provide endless litters of puppies and eventually an heir or two. Even though she will be his permanent mate he'll have a number of other less serious couplings with other members of the pack because the prince is the alpha male. Only alpha males are allowed to mate. However, none of those members will have pups."

"Doesn't that make them all somewhat inbred?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, but adolescent pups travel out to form their own pack or join a different, unrelated one. Kouga has an exceptionally large pack. Others tend to be around ten members. Don't interrupt too much, bitch, or I'll never get through it all." Kagome nodded her finger across her lips in a locking fashion.

"Now, inu youkai, such as my brother and me, do not pack. We do have a hierarchy system in which only alpha males mate…which is why Sesshoumaru and I get into fights all the time. He thinks I should be submissive to him and I think he should fuck off." Kagome giggled. "We can form bonds with a female only in two ways. One, like Sesshoumaru and Rin, mated but not a marked mate…at least not anymore. And second, a marked mate which is a life mate and can only be broken by a powerful miko and a whole lot of painful purification. Anything else is just casual sex and means absolutely nothing to us."

Inuyasha turned Kagome to face him, his normally cocky grin gone, replaced by an intense seriousness that almost scared her.

"I don't want what Sesshoumaru and Rin have. It isn't enough. And I really don't want ANYTHING casual with you," he growled. "But I do want you."

Kagome's mouth formed a silent o. So he was in it for the long haul. That was a tad more serious than she had thought about. Sure, she was ready for the next level….well, ten minutes ago she had been, but now… he'd lengthened the field, so to speak.

"So now what do we do?" she asked, her voice barely audible. He smiled down at her and kissed her nose.

"I court you….if you accept that is. That is what this mark is supposed to be. As long as you accept the courting it will remain." Inuyasha was greatly enjoying the faces she made as information sunk in. A bit of shock with a touch of excitement and a million tiny questions she longed, yet dreaded, to ask. Gods was she an open book.

"So what does courting entail?"

"A lot," he responded. "And depending on your response something things may be skipped while others will be drawn out."

"My response?"

"Can't tell you until we're there," he growled. "So don't ask. It'll make both our heads spin with the complexity."

"Then how do I know you know what you are doing?" she teased. That got her another growl, this one more annoyed.

"You never complained before," he whispered into her ear, sending a shiver of warmth followed by a light shocking coldness down her back.

"How come you want to do all this youkai stuff?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked, ears flattening a little as a slight hurt look crossed his face. Did she not like youkai? If she didn't accept it the courtship would never progress and he'd be one frustrated puppy. Bad enough his half human blood screamed for things to hurry. Sesshoumaru was full demon and could keep controls easily suppressed. Hanyous had the misfortune to have the human blood and with it, a decrease in the ability to keep the emotions in it from surfacing.

"You are half-youkai. Half of you is human," she said. As if he didn't know. Inuyasha curled his lip in disdain. Lucky for him she wasn't looking back. "I'm just curious why you would choose one over the other."

Oh. That was what she was thinking about. Inuyasha nearly hit himself, mentally calling himself stupid, idiot and moron in as many languages as he could remember.

"I like this way better. Anything wrong with that?" he snapped, tensing a bit as he realized the sun had set. Oh how he hated this. How would Kagome react?

"Ok…I was just curious. Do you hate being half human that much?" she asked, her voice trembling. Oh shit. Now she was going to cry. Here he'd gone and been a bastard. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. No tears. Thank goodness.

"I just….don't like to be weak," he said softly, feeling his ears reduce in size, reforming on the same plane as his eyes. The claws retracted, leaving plain human hands.

Kagome felt his arms tighten on her and relaxed against him. Inuyasha was not one to show emotion…besides anger, annoyance and stupidity (wait, was that an emotion?). Great, she was attracted to a Hanyou with a bit of an inferiority complex. How much more complicated could it get?

A strand of black hair fell across her chest and Kagome's eyes widened in surprise. That was not her hair. She reached up and tugged on it a bit.

"Ow, bitch, what the hell was that for?" Inuyasha demanded, then went rigid. She was holding his hair, examining it. She suddenly rolled over, eyes wide in shock. First her fingers dug into his hair, searching for his ears. That soothed him a little. The first thing she had noticed was a youkai feature that was missing. She frowned.

"How long does this last?" she asked, her voice slightly disappointed.

"Until sunrise. Why?"

"I want your ears back….you just aren't Inuyasha without your ears." Inuyasha chuckled, kissing her lips briefly. She was too cute sometimes. "Is this why Sesshoumaru wanted to wait?"

"Yeah….although why he didn't jump at the chance to see me killed is a mystery to me."

"Maybe deep down he really cares," Kagome said. Inuyasha gave her the most incredulous look.

"Try again babe. He loves puncturing me with poisoned claws."

"Wishful thinking," she said with a sigh, snuggling into his chest. Inuyasha ran a hand along her back, missing the way his claws would make her muscles shiver in little spasms.

There was a knock on the door.

"Who's that?" Kagome asked, turning to face the door with a disgusted look on her face. She hated being interrupted just as she was getting comfortable.

"I lose everything, bitch, including the nose so you're just going to have to answer it to find out."

Kagome sighed again, pulling herself up. Halfway to the door she turned back, leaned over him and kissed him soundly before going back to the door. Inuyasha's face had a cocky smirk plastered on it afterwards. That soon changed as Kagome opened the door.

"Kouga?" Kagome said wearily. The wolf looked fit to kill as his gaze rested on her marked shoulder. Then Kouga looked past her and saw Inuyasha on the couch. A human Inuyasha on the couch. Inuyasha cursed silently.

Now the wolf knew.

"Dammit!" Sango swore again. Try as she could that high school uniform just wasn't going to fit over her hips or chest. "Did I grow that much?" Well, so much for that idea. Miroku would have gone crazy for the school girl thing too. How she knew was a mystery….then again, not much was a mystery with Miroku. He liked anything remotely perverted.

"Hmm, what to wear?" she hummed to herself as she pulled open several drawers to her dresser. She didn't want something completely obvious….she wanted to make him squirm. Squirm so bad he'd be begging her for first base privileges…and everything else. She wanted him to rue the day he'd ever thought of making HER horny and not even finishing what he started. Sango didn't want to be pining after him. She was a woman of control.

A woman with a skimpy tank top and very short light cotton shorts. The sort of stuff most girls next door wore to bed and boys were lucky to get a glimpse of if their bedroom window was at the right angle. Oh she would watch him squirm with great delight.

Miroku finished off the last of the can of juice he had, flipping through the channels on TV. Hmm, the Learning Channel had Sexual Practices of the Egyptian Kings. Lifetime had a Daniel Steel novel made into a movie….typical man and woman passionate romance gone wrong and years later they hooked back up with lots of pain and anguish as a result of a lack of communication. And of course he'd flipped in at the love scene. Spike TV had something from Japan that had dubbed over voices….with a lot of sexual innuendos. NBC had a special on a serial rapist. Crime TV was reporting on a series of murders of hookers. Giraffes were mating on the Discover channel and monkeys were going at it on Animal Planet.

"Man! How can people call me a perv when all that's on is sex?" he asked aloud. "At least I don't deny it." He left the monkeys on, amazed that the simple act of eating bugs from the backside of the female made her more receptive.

"Even monkeys get more than me," he grumbled, looking down at the erection in his pants that had not gone down. God knows how he'd gotten the control to walk away from a beautiful, naked, wet and willing woman in the shower. He knew he was asking for it. The fire in her eyes was proof of that. Oh how he would enjoy his punishment….at least he was hoping it would be pleasurable punishment. So far all she'd done was exit the bathroom into her room and was opening and closing drawers a lot.

"You want a refill?" Sango called from the kitchen. Miroku looked over the couch back to reply and his jaw dropped.

Sango was standing on her tip toes reaching for a glass on the top shelf of the cupboard, her small tank top rising to stop just below the swell of her breasts. No bra. Oh Christ.

"Please?" he managed to choke out. Sango nodded, opening the fridge. Then she bent over, her pert little ass pulling the small cotton shorts taunt. No underwear either. Miroku gave an audible gulp, unable to do anything but watch her as she brought him a new glass, humming softly to herself as if she had no idea what she was doing to him. Instead of plopping on the couch she sat on the floor, stretching out her legs and leaning back against his. He had an excellent view down the v-neck.

"Well, when I thought you'd be watching porn on my TV I hadn't thought of this," Sango said offhandedly.

"Nothing else is on," he said, his voice cracking a bit.

"If you're going to do something," she said, picking up the remote which made her tank top stretch across her breasts. Miroku gave another gulp. How could he keep his hands off of her? Well, for now he was still in shock. "Do it right," she finished, flipping the channel. Suddenly moans and panted cries filled the room.

Porn. Dear god. Sango had switched to the porn channel and was calmly watching it like someone would watch a dinosaur documentary. Miroku thought he'd be hard before….now he was finding it hard to breathe and the once loose pants were no longer comfortable.

"HA! Did you see that? She just rolled her eyes! She's so faking that orgasm."

"Maybe she rolled them in pleasure."

"Or maybe it's because his left elbow is in her stomach," Sango pointed out. "That would be annoying. Why don't they hire people who are actually good?"

"Because those people don't have trouble finding partners?" Miroku offered. Sango laughed, parts of her jiggling in a delightful way. No way could he keep his hands off now.

Sango gave a light sigh as warm hands began rubbing her shoulders, easing tension out of them. Soon thoughts of revenge began to drift away. He was good. Damn him. Just the right amount of pressure, easing knots gently out, his warm hands heating her skin till it was on fire. She totally forgot about the porn in front of her and let her eyes drift shut.

Miroku felt her go limp after about ten minutes. Looking down he swore. Sango was fast asleep, eyes closed and lips parted slightly in the sexiest pose he'd ever seen. Pity she was totally asleep. He picked her up and she let out a small groan…or moan; he couldn't decide. Just what was the difference? Whatever she'd done, it was making him more painfully aroused. He was going to find out just how painful blue balls were. He briefly thought about grinding against her just for a release, but immediately regretted even the thought. Guess it would be quality time in the bathroom….with a bunch of towels.

Sango made a noise of protest as he set her down on the bed. One of her hands came out and grabbed his arm. For all that she looked dainty she had the strength of Inuyasha or Sesshoumaru and there was no way he could break out of her hold without breaking himself…in several places.

Miroku sighed to himself. Blue balls it was. Oh this was going to be the worst night of his life.

Sango smiled to herself as she felt him settle next to her, wrap an arm around her shoulders and lay a kiss upon her forehead. Fool fell for it. Operation: Frustrated Monk. Status: Completed.

Sesshoumaru gently set down the journal, feeling the weight of his age suddenly hit, a harsh reality. Never had he heard of such loyalty and blind devotion. Not a day had gone by that Rin had not thought of him. She had not put him on a pedestal…in fact she was just as apt to list his faults along with his high points. Never once did she gush about loving him so much it hurt…..or so much she would die. She had missed him, but she turned that energy into productivity. She had studied several martial arts, undergone as much miko training as possible and regularly risked herself in order to better herself in the hopes of finding his location and freeing him. And she had been fiercely defensive when it came to him.

It was the sort of devotion life-mates had. The type of devotion he should have gotten from a female inu youkai….if one even still existed. And yet, it was all here in this tiny human who had risked everything for him.

And he had failed her.

Rin lifted her head, blinded by the darkness that surrounded her. She could see herself, like Alice through the looking glass. Her actions were not her own. She had no control. She was totally helpless.

And yet….all she could think of was Sesshoumaru. Would he calm his anger before coming to get her? Would he even find her? Would it take as many decades to get her? Would he see her true prison or just the collar?

Would Naraku win…….

"Bankotsu," she heard Naraku call out. Looking through the glass she saw the handsome and deadly young human step forward. "I have a toy for you all to play with. Sesshoumaru's bitch." Rin watched in horror as he flung her body at the youth who caught her easily, a wicked grin upon his face.

"Much obliged. Jyakotsu will be a bit disappointed," he said with a grin. Not like he was broken up over it.

"Give him this," Naraku said, throwing him a photograph. "That should tithe him over until they arrive….if they arrive," the evil man said, smiling down at Rin. "Just keep her in one piece. If we can capture the inu youkai again I want to mate them."

"Not a problem," Bankotsu affirmed, picking up Rin's limp body.

No, Rin thought. You can't be serious! YOU FUCKING PIG! NO ONE TOUCHES ME EXCEPT SESSHOUMARU-SAMA! JUST YOU WAIT. HE'S GOING TO KICK YOU ASS AND I'M GOING TO ENJOY WATCHING ALL OF YOU BASTARDS SUFFER!!!

Naraku looked down at Kanna's mirror. So little Rin could see out and was less than happy? Interesting. Few humans were able regain conscious once their soul was trapped in Kanna's mirror. The knowledge that she would be watching made his wicked smile widen. An unexpected bonus this was.