InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomaru's Story 2: Prejudice ❯ Chapter 8

Dragonfly: Gomen nasai, minna! I have been uber busy lately, what with the chaos I call my life being torn in two directions and whatnot.

 

Tomaru: That's no excuse, wench! This is my story we're talking about here. You need to get off your lazy ass and finish this! I want to see who I end up with.

 

Dragonfly: -shrug- Couldn't tell you. I'm actually not certain myself. It might not be either Haruko or Niji.

 

Keiji: Yeah! I want Haruko!

 

Dragonfly: Well, you are the heir to the Southern Lands… they could help protect Lord Kuroki and the Northern Lands…

 

Keiji: And Haruko is one hot female…

 

Tomaru: Oi, you mangy wolf! Get your thoughts off my woman!

 

Keiji: She is not yours yet, dog-breath. You're the one drooling over my sister.

 

Dragonfly: Enough! Let's just see what happens, ne?

 

Chapter 8

 

Haruko was seething as she stalked away from the dining room where her fiancé and that too-beautiful ookami youkai were eating. Arrogant, condescending, egotistical, pompous ass! Ignoring me like I wasn't even there!

 

Well, honey, she is a full youkai.

 

Immediately her ears flicked from flattened irate to drooping saddened. She stopped a few paces away from the dining area and leaned against the wall. Her youkai was right- how could she compete against a full youkai- and a stunningly beautiful one at that?

 

“If I didn't know any better, I'd swear a flower had escaped from the gardens and was wandering the castle. Perhaps you are searching for me?”

 

Haruko looked up to see a pair of leaf green eyes staring down at her from a ruggedly handsome face. The black-haired man smiled, showing a bit of fang hanging over his lower lip that was absolutely devastating. She blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

 

“Forgive me,” the youkai purred, lifting her hand and placing a light kiss on the back of her wrist. “I was so overcome by your beauty I couldn't think properly.”

 

Blushing at the handsome stranger, she fought off an uncharacteristic feminine giggle. “Arigatou, sir. I don't believe we've met.”

 

Green eyes flashed mischievously. “Oh, I believe I'd remember meeting you.” He lifted her hand again and this time licked the soft skin, sending a slight shiver down her spine. Almost reluctantly he released her hand and took a half step back, bowing regally. “I am Keiji. I am here to save the poor inhabitants of the Western Lands from the menace that is my younger sister.”

 

Haruko blinked again, more confused than ever (not to mention a little flustered at his charm). “Your sister?”

 

“Niji. Also known as Kagetsuniji, princess of the ookami.”

 

The inu hanyou managed to hold in her gasp of surprise, merely gazing at him neutrally as she had been taught from birth. Inside, though… Kami! He's a prince? He's the heir to the Southern Lands!

 

Keiji- he must be Kouga's son, then. He's even better looking than his father…

 

Indeed. His long black hair wasn't pulled back in a high ponytail like Kouga's normally was, but instead was gathered at the nape of his neck in a thick braid that fell to his waist. He wore a red headband across his forehead, and his long bangs hung over his leaf green eyes in a way that nearly made her drool. He was dressed in simple armor and fur, like all ookami youkai, in red and russet colors, but it accented his youthful musculature in a very appealing manner.

 

Something in her eyes must have betrayed her because the handsome wolf lifted a black eyebrow at her. “I take it you have already had the… erm… pleasure… of meeting my esteemed sister?”

 

Slightly startled, Haruko's sapphire eyes widened. “H-hai. She is… currently dining with-“

 

“Tomaru,” he finished, looking over her head. “Good morning, old friend.”

 

The inu prince inclined his head at the ookami. “Good morning to you as well. What brings you to the Western Lands so early in the morning?”

 

Again with the adorable fang-grin. “Merely picking up some troublesome baggage.”

 

A soft growl had Haruko's attention from the two males' conversation. “I am neither troublesome nor baggage, nii-chan,” Niji hissed softly from her stance next to Tomaru.

 

Keiji shrugged. “Depends on who's asking,” he replied nonchalantly.

 

I completely agree, Haruko mentally nodded.

 

Niji sighed delicately and turned her interest back to the inu prince. “I must go, then,” she murmured to Tomaru, smiling shyly up at him. “Many thanks for your hospitality.”

 

“Oh, any time,” came his immediate reply, his gold eyes locked on her.

 

Keiji rolled his eyes as he leaned down and grasped Haruko's hand once more, capturing her attention. “You never told me your name,” he said softly as he gazed into her sapphire eyes.

 

Haruko managed to give him a polite smile. “Haruko. Daughter of Kuroki of the North.”

 

“Never say so. You are the Princess of the Northern Lands?”

 

She nodded. Keiji smiled his fang-grin again. “Old Kuroki sure did produce a lovely heir,” he murmured as he kissed her wrist again.

 

Suddenly he found himself slammed up against a wall, a hand on his throat and claws pressing into sensitive skin. He opened his eyes to see Tomaru holding him up off the floor, snarling as gold eyes narrowed. His silver dog ears were flattened against his head and his scent radiated barely-contained fury.

 

“Don't. Touch. Her. Again,” he growled, slowly, precisely. Keiji blinked in surprise and Niji looked somewhat alarmed.

 

“I didn't know she was yours, Tomaru,” Keiji managed to choke out. “The way you were acting with my sister, I thought you weren't leashed yet.”

 

“I am not `leashed,'” Tomaru said, still glowering. “Our parents arranged this- not us. There are… issues.”

 

“Onegai, Toma,” Niji pleaded, placing a hand on the hanyou's arm and earning her a death-glare from Haruko, both for the familiarity in which she used a shortened version of his name and for touching him. “Let my brother down. He did not know. We were not aware that you and this… princess… were mated.”

 

Haruko fought against the urge to rip those unusual turquoise eyes out of Niji's lovely head and stuff them down her pretty little throat. She questions me being a princess? Is it because I'm a hanyou, or because I'm competition?

 

Calm down, honey. Remember what your father taught you. Calm. Cool. Emotionless.

 

Instead, Haruko merely glanced at Niji as if immensely bored. “We are not mated. We are merely betrothed. It is not something either of us wished.”

 

Something flickered in Niji's turquoise eyes. Tomaru slowly let Keiji down, releasing his claws from his neck. “Come, nii-chan,” she said softly to Keiji, not taking her eyes off Haruko. “I'm sure Father is getting impatient that we have not returned.”

 

Keiji looked at his younger sister, confused. “O-okay,” he replied, looking like he wanted to scratch his head. Instead he bowed to both Tomaru and Haruko before following his sister down the corridor. “Until next time,” he said politely.

 

Tomaru merely nodded stiffly, while Haruko managed a weak smile at the handsome wolf.

 

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“That Haruko is lovely,” Keiji commented on their way home.

 

“She is… pretty,” Niji conceded, nodding slightly. “No wonder Tomaru agreed to betroth her.”

 

“Is it true, then? Is it truly a political match?”

 

Niji looked thoughtful. “It would seem. Lord Kuroki is having some major problems with the Toras of the East, mainly because his only heir is both female and a hanyou. And of course, Tomaru is in need of a mate as well…”

 

Keiji shook his head slightly. “I had heard that Kuroki's mate and heir died in childbirth. It's amazing he's lived this long without her.”

 

“I know. I wonder if he is holding on only until Haruko is married and the Northern Lands have a male heir.”

 

Keiji frowned. “Why didn't Kuroki come to Father? We would've been more than happy to help.”

 

Niji playfully punched her older brother. “You seem awfully interested in Haruko. Don't tell me you'd be willing to take her as your mate in Tomaru's place.”

 

“Gladly.”

 

She sighed. “It might have something to do with the fact that Lord Kuroki had contacted many suitors for his daughter, but all turned him down because of her hanyou blood. Perhaps she went to Lord Sesshoumaru because Tomaru is a hanyou as well?”

 

Keiji chuckled. “You are truly clever, nee-san. You will make some Pack Leader a very lucky man someday.”

 

“Too bad that man isn't Tomaru.”

 

He raised an eyebrow. “So you do like him. I wondered at your behavior at the party. Why did you leave him there during that strange dance?”

 

Niji blushed. “I got embarrassed. We were so close and touching… I had to get away before my scent gave away my attraction.”

 

Keiji groaned. “I don't want to hear this,” he muttered. “No man should have to hear about his sister getting turned on.”

 

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When both ookami were gone, Haruko whirled on Tomaru. “What in the name of Kami were you thinking?!” she snarled, her sapphire eyes flashing.

 

“What was I thinking?” Tomaru hollered back. “You were the one who was letting that wolf slobber all over you! You're supposed to become my mate, remember? Not his!”

 

“Am I?” she retorted, narrowing her eyes. “What about you? You were panting after that wolf wench like you were in heat! Or does this betrothal mean nothing to you?”

 

“We're not talking about me,” he snorted. “We are talking about you and how you were flirting with that mangy lupine!”

 

Haruko gasped in indignation. “I was doing no such thing! You were the one flirting- with that freaky-eyed bitch! And with me right in the room, like I wasn't even there!”

 

“I was being courteous to a guest!”

 

“Maybe in your demented mind,” Haruko spat. “I'm telling my father about your lecherous behavior and getting this betrothal nullified. I wouldn't marry you if you were the only male left in the world.”

 

Tomaru growled, glaring at her through narrowed eyes as she glared right back. So swift she didn't have time to blink, he pulled her against his body and held her waist tightly in his hands.

 

“Listen, wench,” he growled low, his voice sounding different to her ears. “Your old man and Sesshoumaru arranged this, but you're still mine. And I won't let go of what's mine ever again, got it?”

 

Haruko blinked in utter surprise at the different timbre of Tomaru's voice. She stared into his eyes, confused. Did… did his eyes change color? They seem… more gold now...

 

“Again? What did you have that was yours and you gave up, huh? Nothing!” she cried, trying to ignore the darker gold of his eyes now. “You've always had everything! Both your parents are still alive! You have an entire litter of siblings to fight with and love! I never had any of that! My mother and my brother were taken from me- do you know that pain? That agony?”

 

“I know that pain very well, wench,” Tomaru said again, in that strange voice, nearly growling. “Believe me- you are not the only one to live a life of misery and rejection. You may have been turned down for marriage by other youkai, but at least your life was never threatened every day by a heartless sibling. By ningens. By other youkai, intent on killing some weakling hanyou. Your father stuck around and raised you. Your father didn't die on you and leave you to the mercy of fearful humans. Your mother didn't waste away because some youkai mated her and then died, taking with him her will to live! Your life is a paradise compared to what I've been through!”

 

Haruko was well and completely confused now. “What…?” was all she managed to say before she noticed something odd.

 

Her jaw dropped in shock as she noticed that the pale green crescent moon on his forehead… had disappeared. What in Kami's name is going on here?

 

She didn't have much time to ponder the meaning of these little changes- nor his strange words- because abruptly he lowered his head and captured her lips with his in a searing, passionate kiss.