InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Sesshoumaru Needs Not A Mate - ON HOLD ❯ PART TWO ( Chapter 2 )

DISCLAIMER - The ownership and general brilliance that is the original Feudal Fairy Tale remains the property of its honored and rightfully revered creator Rumiko Takahashi without whose brilliance, we would not have fodder.

 

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Edited By The Inimitable WiccanMethusulah of Boundless Energy

 

EP

 

Part Two -This Sesshoumaru Needs Not A Mate

 

Another day, another Shikon shard...

 

...so thought the Shikon-No-Miko of the Sengoku Jidai.

 

She refused to open her eyes, choosing instead to take in the new day through her other senses. How odd, something was definitely different… but what?

 

She felt as though an electric current was passing below her skin's surface. All her senses were on alert. Perhaps it was because, in a matter of one day, she, Higurashi Kagome, would be 18 years old.

 

Then again, it might just have something to do with her most recent encounter with Inuyasha's older brother Sesshoumaru, Lord of The Western Lands. Or, maybe the news that Kouga was to be mated.

 

Her unexpected adventure had begun nearly three years ago.

 

In those few short years, Kagome had evolved from a wide-eyed, carefree school-girl, unfamiliar with ways of war and true evil, to an accomplished warrior-priestess who never lost her empathy and love for life. She had grown in more ways than one - for the better, unbeknownst to her.

 

She could hear breakfast being prepared this morning by Inuyasha - a novelty in itself. There was Sango, lecturing the Houshi Miroku on some lecherous infraction, imagined or otherwise; no surprise. Then Shippo and Rin, demanding the return something or other from Inuyasha, who kept ignoring them, answering with barely a grunt.

 

Kagome sighed. `Here we go again' she thought inwardly. She really was tired of his constant childish baiting of her kit, Shippou.

 

Giving up on finding any peace, she extricated her aching limbs from her sleeping bag and prepared her bathing items with another, audible, sigh. There were times when Kagome seriously wanted to go home, but felt honor-bound to make right what had been, inadvertently, her fault.

 

Kagome's sense of honor precluded running away from her responsibilities to her friends, despite the dangers inherent in shard hunting and dealing with the malevolent hanyou, Naraku.

 

Subconsciously, she felt for the tiny vial with its prized shards, nestled in her cleavage.

 

`Iie,' she thought stroking the vial. Until Naraku was no more, and the jewel restored and purified, she would remain.

 

She could scent the ocean off in the distance and she smiled sleepily. How she longed for the feel of sand beneath her toes! On second thought, no. If truth be told, she would kill for a REAL bathtub full of scented bubbles, followed by a long, leisurely snooze in the comfort of her bed - without having to remove multi-legged life forms who wished to join her in relative peaceful slumber on the forest floor.

 

“ No. Not today, ” she whispered to no one in particular.

 

The miko shrugged off the wistful thoughts of the creature comforts of her own era beyond the well, continuing to search her gigantic, discolored backpack for fresh clothes and bathing supplies.

 

Kagome had finally given up wearing her sera fuku. She had graduated - barely - and, instead, had taken to wearing tank tops and jeans, weather permitting. Having spent sufficient time in this era, Kagome had come to recognize the less-than-favorable view its people held towards her previous attire.

 

The Priestess smiled. There was another upside to the change, maybe two. No more leering as she attempted to sit properly while their friendly neighborhood lech, Miroku, ogled her legs and backside. Not to mention, it was a hell of a lot easier to fight in casual wear.

 

She blushed as she remembered her encounter with Lord Sesshoumaru when she had changed her gear for the first time.

 

FLASHBACK

 

He just happened to enter Inuyasha's Forest on his way to Kami-knows-where, with his ward, Rin, on Ah-Un's back, but sans Jaken and his staff of two heads bringing up the rear.

 

Kagome was just returning from her morning bath, her still-damp hair in a high ponytail, when she saw his merry little band about to descend the hill towards her. As always, his handsome visage remained emotionless as he stared right through her.

 

With every subsequent encounter over the years, she had ceased to fear his presence, instead adopting her own air of cheery indifference upon each coincidental meeting. After all, he had not pinned her to any unsuspecting trees, promising imminent death, for close to a year now.

 

Kagome took great delight in annoying the crap out of the mighty Lord of Ice and Gore.

 

She smirked devilishly. Thanks to Kami's grace, here was another fabulous opportunity to piss him off royally.

 

So, on that pleasant morning, she decided to test his mettle - completely unadvisedly, of course.

 

“Sesshy, how's it hangin'?” she asked in her most casual voice, and saw his nostrils flare and his pale soft lips form an angry line.

 

`Bingo! Kagome one, Frigid Puppy… zero,' she thought smugly.

 

Seemingly oblivious to the impending verbal duel between her two favorite beings, Rin leapt off Ah-Un with a singularly graceful movement and came to rest beside her lord. She smiled shyly up at Kagome, with one little hand secreted behind her back and the other hugging the silk-clad leg of her Master.

 

Ignoring his predictable response, she bent, kissing Rin tenderly atop her shiny onyx locks, and was presented with a gap-toothed grin and a bent, partially-denuded flower for her efforts. `She really wis such a darling little thing.' Kagome's heart warmed as she smiled and, not for the first time, wondered at the relationship between this stoic Taiyoukai and the ward who worshipped him.

 

`Something was entirely off here, was Sesshoumaru-sama truly who he appeared?' She furrowed her brow in thought. `How can a human child show such devotion and... dare she think it … love, for such a dangerous, cold- blooded entity?'

 

With the querulous movement of an autocratic silver brow, Kagome suddenly became conscious that she had been staring - rather rudely - into his amber depths without the Mighty Icicle Prince's expressed permission. His annoyance at her intrusive gaze and flippant greeting was apparent by his response.

 

“You will address this Sesshoumaru with the appropriate honorific, or you will address him not at all, Miko,” he said indignantly, pulling himself up to his full height as he glared down at her, his amber eyes now icy, unreadable slits. Never once letting on, he was unclear as to what constituted this hanging appendage she spoke of so derisively.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” she said dismissively with a wave of her hand, regaining her feigned composure. “So, whatchya doin' in these parts?”

 

`This is rather fun,' she thought, pulling herself up to her full height and looking at him with challenge evident in her rich, honey-flecked brown eyes. Two could play at this game. `No amount of staring at me down your blasted, perfect, patrician nose is going to make me flinch,' she thought, narrowing her own eyes.

 

He continued to stare at her, completely infuriated.

 

Rin's sudden movement caught his attention. His ward - never one to stand still - had run off down the hill, laughing happily. Rin had found something far more interesting than bearing witness to the frigid glares the two adults were giving one another. Butterflies were in the meadow and she intended to `fly' with them.

 

“Rin, do not venture far. We have business elsewhere,” the Taiyoukai said, attempting to sound stern and authoritative.

 

Off in the distant a little voice answered, “Yes, my lord,” although, obviously, remaining undeterred on her current mission.

 

As though suddenly remembering her presence, Sesshoumaru did something entirely uncharacteristic. He began a slow perusal of the miko's person, reminiscent of the hentai monk.

 

He began at her sandaled feet with her French manicured toes - courtesy Ayumi. `Fascinating...' He continued onward, up her denim-clad legs that seemed to go on forever, he noted absently, then stopped meaningfully at the juncture between her legs with a quirked brow and a suddenly lecherous glint to his now pink-rimmed gaze.

 

Kagome blushed to the roots of her hair, feeling a surge of defensive power gathering in her clenched fists. She refused to budge despite the sudden heat and coiled tension she felt emanating from her core. No way in hell was she going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her discomfort under his intentionally lewd scrutiny.

 

His maroon lids fluttered upward as he stole a surreptitious glance at her now furious tomato-red face, noting with satisfaction her heightened color and delectably feminine scent - along, of course, with the penetrating death glare she gave him.

 

Languorously passing the tip of his tongue over his lips, he returned to her curvaceous hips. `Definitely suitable for bearing hanyou pups...' Why did he have this unbidden thought?

 

Sesshoumaru almost recoiled with the sudden realization of how his little game of `get even with the miko' was turning on him. `That damned beast! This Sesshoumaru wishes, by all the Kami, that he could throttle him!'

 

Never having found a ningen worthy of his attention, most being ill-formed in his opinion, this was truly remarkable. Her tapered waistline accentuated her hips gracefully. `Excellent breeding stock for some ningen male.' His beast snarled in protest, causing Kagome to step back in surprise and some trepidation.

 

`He looks downright feral,' she thought and released the breath she did not know she had been holding. Her heart pounded so loud she was sure he could hear the damned traitorous organ!

 

Sesshoumaru smirked, allowing the tips of his fangs to be revealed. His beast had always taken far too great an interest in Inuyasha's bitch for the lord's liking.

 

The youkai, whose hakama was now unbearably restrictive, continued his own slow torture up the miko's torso taking in her oddly designed, yet snug-fitting, white haori.

 

`Indecent!' he observed, attempting to regain some level of control of both his beast and his burgeoning erection.

 

The haori accentuated the curves of her full firm breasts and something more. To Kagome's growing mortification, she noted his sudden fixed, glazed expression. She did not have to wait long for his acknowledgement of the obvious.

 

`Oh why… why would the earth not open and swallow me now?!' she thought, thoroughly mortified.

 

“Are you cold Miko? Or, are you, perhaps, aroused by this Sesshoumaru's masculine perfection?”

 

`Enough is enough,' she thought and began to sputter as she struggled to catch her breath. `HE WAS DOING THIS INTENTIONALLY! THE BAKA!' And damn her body to hell for responding to him.' She wanted desperately, in that moment, to sit him to hell and back!

 

“You PERVERT! What in the hell are you looking at Mr. Happy?” she hissed, as she pointed to his crotch.

 

At least her body wasn't alone in its betrayal.

 

He continued to leer, muttering under his breath, “Many uses,” as he took note of the shape of her lips.

 

Apparently, someone was pre-occupied.

 

“I'm talking to you! My eyes are up here!” she bellowed, while systematically prodding his chest with her slender finger. Not the brightest move but, damn it, she was angry, hot, and in need of another dip - this time in a cool spring!

 

Kagome had raised her voice with the express intent of hurting his delicately - `rather sexy... No, I did not just think that!' pointed ears. Suddenly, she wondered what they would be like to nibble.

 

Looking down at her little hand, and the offending digit that assailed his person, with an air of complete indifference, Sesshoumaru once again deigned to look into her deep brown pools. His gaze was met with anger, embarrassment, and another, unidentified, emotion.

 

“Hn…” The ningen had screeched several questions and, though not obliged to answer, just this once he would… purely for her edification, continued mortification, and the vituperations that would surely follow, of course.

 

“This Sesshoumaru is perfectly aware of the location of your less-than-remarkable eyes, Miko,” he said dismissively, having regained a measure of control over both his beast and himself.

 

Kagome glowered up at him with menace. `If he keeps this up I am going to singe something he undoubtedly values highly, giving new meaning to the words hot dog,' she reflected with a wicked smirk.

 

With a bored expression and a nonchalant toss of his noble head, he sent wayward strands of flaxen silk over his shoulders. “Miko,” he intoned in his usual resonant baritone, “I was merely examining your new manner of attire. It continues to leave very little to the imagination, though you are fully clothed. Clearly, you have missed your intended profession.”

 

“THWACK!”

 

Her slender palm connected with his warm, pale cheek, leaving her fingers sizzling and her eyes the size of saucers.

 

Oh yes… she was dead… no question about it. `Oh Kami...' “Whimper…” `It's just a matter of Inuyasha finding the parts to take back through the well and explain things to her family. It's the least he could do, after all.'

 

For a moment, she stood there, stunned, taking in the expression of the lethal being in front of her. For the very first time, she saw a series of emotions traverse his flawless features.

 

None of them good.

 

She closed her eyes and cringed in anticipation of the painful blow that never came.

 

Suddenly, she was alone atop the hill. No Ah-Un, no Rin and, most of all, no Lord Sesshoumaru; just an electric current that smelt like the sizzle of a lightning strike following a near-cataclysmic thunderstorm.

 

END FLASHBACK

 

Kagome never told her little group about that fateful encounter… and never would.

 

 

Author's Note

 

And so it continues…*Bows Reverently*

Until next time, reviews are fuel.

 

ElegantPaws