InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Vying for Dominance ❯ What Really Matters ( Chapter 29 )

What Really Matters

 

 

“Kagome...”

 

She hardly recognized the calling of her name. It was so distant, so far away from where she was. So tired…

 

“Kagome...”

 

Moaning softly in protest as she was stirred even further from her rest, Kagome turned away from the voice that would try to wake her now. She was so tired…

 

“Wake up, miko.”

 

That did it. The hard, cutting edge, the cold measure that steeled every word, and the underlying heaviness that rumbled of danger snapped her into wakefulness in less than a second. Turning swiftly in defensiveness, Kagome drew in a startled breath that almost left her as a shrill scream when she saw the figure leaning over her. She only just managed to hold it back when her groggy mind and startled senses managed to place him.

 

“Damnit, Sesshomaru,” she breathed out harshly. “Don't do that. You damn near gave me a heart attack!”

 

Golden eyes narrowed into hard lines of amber. “You sound entirely too much like that foul-mannered hanyou.”

 

“So?” She snipped irritably, tugging her blankets up again and rolling onto her side away from Sesshomaru. “You sound like an overstuffed Lord.”

 

“Woman…”

 

Kagome had heard the dangerous edge that had tightened Sesshomaru's voice, and she understood the warning as much as she could feel his displeasure burning in his aura. She sighed heavily and flopped back to face him. “Look, I'm sorry. But mornings and I don't get along very well. Inuyasha usually gets `sat' repeatedly for trying to wake me up before the sun, and I really don't think it's going to be any easier for you. So, if you don't mind…”

 

Turning back to her side, Kagome snuggled down into the fur blankets and closed her eyes, sighing in blissful comfort and more than happy to chase her dreams back to her rest. That, however, lasted only an instant before she found her blankets being carelessly ripped away from her body. Screaming shrilly, Kagome jolted up and made a grab for her fuzzy comforts.

 

“Give that back!” She demanded angrily when Sesshomaru very effectively removed the blankets from her grasping reach.

 

“I think not, miko,” Sesshomaru returned flatly. “We have a busy day ahead of us, and it is time for you to wake.”

 

“Why you…” Kagome was in no mood for his highness' orders. She was cranky, tired, and she knew that the sun had just barely risen, so that meant she was due for at least another couple of hours sleep - especially since she had been going steadily for the past few days on nothing but a few hours rest. In her growing agitation, the young miko's powers began to flicker into wakefulness as well. They snapped around her in lancing waves of unrest, her grogginess not helping her at all to maintain already poorly constructed barriers.

 

But to Sesshomaru, such displays of power from his little miko were far from intimidating. In fact, after all the time they had spent together, to feel again the searing burn of her white light was more like an aphrodisiac. And the fact that her hasty wakening had caused the little miko to forget about her current state of undress, leaving her bare for his eyes to roam her lush curves and her heaving chest even as she tried to make herself seem intimidating; was so enticing that he was very nearly convinced to put her newfound energy to far more gratifying tasks.

 

Unfortunately, he knew, that would have to wait. But that did not stop him from indulging himself in a moment with his beautiful, fiery little miko.

 

“It is good to see you have regained some of your fire, miko,” he smirked as he began stalking towards her. Lowering himself to his knees, he set his arms on either side of her, forcing her lean back to keep his gaze as he moved forward. Her hard edge was lost as her heart began to pound in exhilaration, her blue eyes were wide with anticipation, and she bit her lip eagerly as she watched him draw even closer. He leaned into her slowly, drawing out every motion, watching and sensing her responses to him. His smirk had spread wickedly before his lips finally touched to hers.

 

Short, chaste, and deceptively knowing, he kissed her quickly before pulling back again. “However, tempting as it may be, it shall not help to keep you in this bed.” He lifted himself fully to his knees, offering her his hand with full expectancy that she take it.

 

Staring at him for a moment in complete disbelief, Kagome's lips pulled down into a sulking pout when she realized he really wasn't going to budge. “Tease,” she murmured dejectedly as she lifted a reluctant hand to take his offer.

 

“No, Kagome,” he corrected her as he brought her to a sitting position and wrapped his arm around her back to pull her flush against him. Her tiny squeak of surprise from the sudden movement was a drug in itself, making his next words flow from him on a purr of appreciation. “If I were teasing you…” His claws raked delicately down the sensitive skin of her side, and she trembled in his arms. “…Then you would not have the breath to accuse me of it.”

 

Taking her lips in another short kiss, he pulled back before he found the temptation of her simply too great. “Now up you get. I will assist you with your gown.”

 

Finally realizing her nakedness, Kagome flushed hotly and wrapped a protective arm around her chest. She could practically hear him laughing at her reaction by the dance of his aura in her senses, and that only made her blush even hotter. But Kagome refused to let him get the better of her. Trying her best to beat back her blush, she shot him a dubious look as she asked, “You're going to help me get dressed?”

 

His expression didn't even change as he replied, “I helped you get undressed, did I not?”

 

And Kagome's efforts to control her blush were lost again. Still, she was smiling. “Why are you in such a good mood this morning?” Not like she was complaining, but he was being so playful and charming that he almost had her forgetting where they were and what awaited them once they stepped beyond the barriers keeping them together.

 

But Sesshomaru only smirked in response. “That, my little miko, is for me to know, and you to find out.”

 

“Hey now!” Kagome squeaked in offense. “You can't just…”

 

Her light scolding was cut off prematurely when Sesshomaru suddenly stiffened, pulling her close against him even as his head turned sharply to the back of the room. “I do not recall giving permission for you to enter, Takked,” he bit out fiercely at the elder.

 

But Takked, stepping away from the long shadows cast by the rock in the hidden passage he had used to gain access to Sesshomaru's abode, only shrugged his indifference as he replied, “Then that would probably be why I do not recall asking for it.”

 

An inaudible growl began building in Sesshomaru's chest; but though Kagome couldn't hear it, she could feel it as he pressed her exposed body closer to himself to keep her concealed.

 

“Get out.” It wasn't a request.

 

“In a moment,” Takked replied easily. Turning away from Sesshomaru's less than amused glare, Takked sent the little miko being held concealed by him an apologetic smile. “I do apologize for the intrusion, young Lady.” His smile grew as he watched her flush hotly in embarrassment and huddle closer to Sesshomaru's protective hold. He shook his head. It was almost a shame that the lovers wouldn't be granted the time together they deserved. “However,” there had been a reason why he had been forced to breach protocol. “It seems your hanyou has arrived.” Looking back to Sesshomaru, he added, “Your presence is required, Sesshomaru. I will be expecting you shortly.”

 

“Inuyasha…” Kagome was so baffled by the elder Lord's statement that she hardly realized he had turned to take his leave through the hidden entrance in the rock. If Inuyasha had come, then that would mean her time here was at its end. All he had seen and felt and experienced being in this place, being with Him, all of it would come to an end. And once she left…

 

“Kagome?”

 

Looking up to Sesshomaru in a daze, Kagome tried, and failed, to hide her troubled expression. She knew the time had come for her to go, and yet she could help but wish…

 

“What will you tell him?”

 

“What…?” Her words died on her lips, her eyes drawing wide with apprehension. What would she tell him? Inuyasha was her friend, her best friend, but until only a few short days ago, he had been so much more. What would she tell him? How could she tell him? It wasn't only that she had been with another, though that in itself would be enough to make the overly-protective hanyou loose whatever cool he had, that it was Sesshomaru, his own brother, his rival; he could never understand, never accept it, he could never…

 

But, looking into Sesshomaru's eyes, being held not only by his strong arms but also in the captivating amber that spoke to her more than his words ever would or could; Kagome knew the answer. She breathed in deeply, letting the answer flow out on her breath. “The truth.”

 

“You know what his reaction will be.”

 

Nodding slowly, Kagome bit her bottom lip to still its unwanted trembling. “I know,” she whispered in quiet understanding. She knew how angry he would be, how hurt. “But…But I can't keep this from him. I won't. Because I…” She took in a deep breath, holding it for a moment as her eyes met with Sesshomaru's again. “I have nothing to hide.”

 

A slow smile began pulling on his lips as he looked down at her. “Good.”

 

“Good?” Well, she certainly hadn't been expecting that. “You mean to say you want him to know?” It could all but be expected that Inuyasha was going to try something stupid the instant he found out what happened between her and Sesshomaru, and he was saying that he was alright with it, that he wanted it to happen? The very thought made her angry. “If you think even for a second that I'm going to let the two of you fight over me…”

 

Sesshomaru stopped her before she could go any further by placing a finger firmly against her lips. “A fight is inevitable, Kagome.” His words were soft, but no less powerful. He was telling her, but at the same time, he was asking for her understanding. “You have made it so by declaring the hanyou your champion. It is only right that, as the one who has protected you in this place, I test his ability to stand as such. However,” his finger slipped away from her lips to give her room to speak even as he finished, “Such a confrontation will only make things easier.”

 

“Easier?”

 

Holding back his triumphant grin, Sesshomaru nodded. “For me to come and see you.”

 

“…You…You want…to…to…”

 

His placid expression finally breaking with a smile to hear the little miko's awed stuttering, Sesshomaru leaned in to her to steal her sweet lips in a kiss. Only after he felt her melt into the gesture, her body relaxing in his hold and a soft sigh of contentment leaving her, did he pulled back, waiting until her eyes drifted open to find his again before continuing. “Would such an arrangement be acceptable to you, my Lady?”

 

Her breath caught, her chest shaking, her eyes filling with crystal waters of pure joy. She couldn't form words, but she didn't have to. The breath she had been holding leaving her in a shuddering release, she hastily wrapped her arm around him, pulling herself to meet his lips once more, to tell him without words how happily grateful she was that he wouldn't be leaving her, that he wanted more time with her as well, that he didn't want what they shared together to end. All of her joy, her elation, he hope, her love, she poured into the passion of her kiss, telling him without words and without need of them.

 

He met her passionate kiss with his own, filled with anticipation, knowing her acceptance was only the beginning. Because though she accepted him now, alone and secluded from the world around them, he knew a time would come when more was needed, from him, from her; and it was that he found himself anticipating as he had never any kind of battle, any form of conquest or prize of power.

 

It was a challenge so unlike anything he had ever faced. Not just because of what it would mean or what it would represent, but because it was Her, and everything with her was always a challenge. But he reveled in challenge, and even with no victory to be had, so long as she was with him, so long as he could call her his own, then he would have won something that mattered more than a victory or a petty prize.

 

Salt from her tears played in his senses, and though he knew they were not tears of any kind of pain, he still would not have her cry them. Pulling back from her sweet lips, he lifted his hand to brush away the shimmering lines of moisture that trailed down her beautifully flushed cheeks.

 

“Is that a yes?” he asked, even knowing the answer.

 

And she nodded shakily, a radiant smile gracing her lips as she replied, “Yes.”

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

“May the Gods have mercy.”

 

“Keh,” Inuyasha huffed in response to the monk's whispered declaration. He had seen them as well, smelled the fuckers before he saw them too. They were everywhere. Hundreds of them, thousands even. Behind the barriers of the Inu Gathering Ground, there was no more hiding their numbers. “No God's gonna save you now, monk. Best be saving those prayers for a time when they're really gonna count.”

 

And, as strange as it was, Miroku actually took the hanyou's advice; asking instead of the ever graceful Kamis that they bestow the idiotic hanyou with a brain, or at the very least a slightly less volatile temperament that would help them get their dear Kagome and themselves out of this youkai death trap with their lives.

 

With Shaeda in the lead, little Shippo tucked safely in her arms, the group of friends was being led into the Arena. Jomon walked with the shade, while Haiiro had taken up a read guard position to keep his eyes on the group of trespassers to their ancient soil. Miroku never left Sango's side, and she held her little feline guardedly from the dogs that would have her for sport. Inuyasha kept pace with the Wolf Prince, but both felt the heavy tension as low growls filtered through the crowd to reach their ears.

 

“You best let me handle this, mutt-face,” Kouga told the hanyou in a voice hushed and guarded. “We already know they recognize Kagome as my sister. I will speak for her.”

 

“Not going to happen, flea-bag,” Inuyasha returned, though his voice too had been guarded against prying ears. “This ain't any of your business.” And it wasn't. Kouga might have been a full-blooded youkai, but he wasn't Inu. No, this was Inuyasha's problem, and it was high time for his voice to be heard amongst his father's people. “Just say outta the way and let me handle this.”

 

And though Kouga was none pleased about leaving Kagome's fate in the hands of the idiot hanyou that had already let her fall into this whole mess in the first place, he knew as well that if anyone was going to convince the Inu High Lord to let her go, that it would be Inuyasha. Blood is blood, even if only by half.

 

But that didn't mean he had to be happy about it. “You better not screw this up, baka-yasha,” the wolf bit out in hard warning. “If anything happens to my woman…”

 

“She ain't your…” Inuyasha's habitual rebuttal to the wolf's claim on Kagome died on his lips when they entered the arena and he finally saw her. She was standing with Sesshomaru on the dais at the far end of the arena. But though he knew it was her, knew it was his Kagome, he almost wouldn't have recognized the skinny, scrappy, loud-mouthed, clumsy little girl for the elegant Lady that stood now in her place. “…woman,” he finished in a daze.

 

From ahead of the stunned hanyou, Shaeda giggled happily to herself, knowing that her newest doll had exceeded expectations. She looked down to the little fox kit in her arms and offered him a bright smile. “Let's get you back where you belong, little one,” she told him sweetly as she moved towards the dais. Stopping just before she reached the platform, Shaeda bowed respectfully to the gathered Lords before depositing the little fox on the ground. “Go on,” she shooed him gently with a soft nudge towards his miko caregiver.

 

And Shippo, though shaking in nervousness to be so exposed when surrounded by such frightening Inu, quickly scampered his way up the level to throw himself into the miko's outstretched arms. “Kagome!”

 

He cried, excitement, anxiety, and fear, blending together into one soulful sound of a child calling for its parent's care. And in the arena, whose walls had for so long echoed the cries of battle, of victory and defeat; in this sound there was to be found understanding and new respect. The gathered crowed watched as the youkai child went so willingly to a miko's care. Though of different minds and different positions, none could deny the impact of what they saw with their eyes and heard with their powerful senses.

 

“Oh, baby,” Kagome cooed to the little kit, her arms wrapping protectively around him even as she tried to soothe away his trembling and heart-wrenching sobs.

 

“We…we thought you were gone…” Shippo chocked out even as he snuggled deeper into her warm embrace. “We thought you were…”

 

His words caught on another sob, and Kagome spoke quickly, though soothingly, to calm him. “It's alright, Shippo, baby. I'm here now. It'll be alright.”

 

Still sniffling, his eyes run with tears, and his little cheeks flushed and puffy, Shippo looked up to his Kagome. “Really?” he asked weakly.

 

And she smiled for her little kit. “Of course, sweetie,” she told him as her hand moved to brush away his glistening tears. “You'll see. Everything will be just fine.”

 

“You coddle the boy.”

Sesshomaru's statement had Kagome looking up to him, and her little Shippo burying himself even further into her protective embrace. “Like you're one to talk,” she returned smugly. “I seem to recall a little girl that has her own personal lap dog to chase away the big bag Boogie Men.”

 

“Hn.” She was bolder now, more comfortable and at ease than she had been in all her time here. But he didn't fault her for it. He couldn't, because she stood now by his side, and he would have her no other way.

 

“My Lords.” Any further comments were silenced when Shaeda addressed the dais. “May I present to you the Hanyou Inuyasha, champion of the Lady Miko Kagome.”

 

As Inuyasha stepped forward, he could feel the weight of the eyes on him, the angry glares that told him plainly he had no place, even among his own kind. To be here, in this place, standing in the shadow of his father's greatest accomplishment; he had never felt so pathetically small, so utterly useless and insignificant. He had never felt so alone.

 

But none of that mattered when he looked up and saw her looking down at him. The brightness of her sapphire eyes, the concern shining within them for even the hanyou that he was more warming and welcoming than the morning sun; and he knew what mattered. He could almost hear her voice whispering to him, filling him strength and courage when it felt as though he had none.

 

She was counting on him. And he would never let her down, not when she was the only one that had ever truly accepted him for who he was, not what others would have him pretend to be.

 

For you, Kagome. He wouldn't pretend. He knew what it was that mattered, and it wasn't what they thought, it had nothing to do with what he was or what he had been born to. So even as an outcast, as something shunned and ridiculed, something that could never belong and never be accepted; still he would make his stand proudly.

 

He didn't bow. He stood before the Inu Lords who he would have hear his words.

 

“I know you're all expecting me to do and say what Shaeda told me to.” He wasn't stupid. He knew why the chameleon had spent all that time trying to teach him what to say and how to act. She wanted things to flow smoothly, wanted him to pretend that he truly was a disgrace, wanted him to play the part of an outsider and beg for something that was already his. But he wouldn't.

 

“You expect me to bow down and call you all `Lords' like it means something.” He shook his head. “But I won't. Not because I'm insolent or ignorant, or any other label you might want to give me, but because it's meaningless. I'm a hanyou. Nothing I say or do here is ever going to change that, and not one of you will ever see me as anything different.”

 

His eyes swept over the Lords on the dais, finally coming to rest on Sesshomaru. “Fine by me.” It was a lie, and yet it wasn't. He couldn't deny that he had thought about it, couldn't deny that there had been times when just once his brother could see him as something more. But right now, it just didn't matter. There was something far more important on the line. And Sesshomaru, Inu Lord, brother, ruthless assassin, whatever he was, he would hear his words.

 

“I don't need this place.” And he didn't. He had lived for over two hundred years without it. “I don't need my father's name or my brother's title.” Because even if they knew, it wouldn't matter. All it would do would be to ruin his father's good name and force Sesshomaru to carry the shame that was his alone to bear. “None of that matters to me.”

 

He knew what mattered. “But she,” he lifted his hand to point at Kagome, “She matters. And I'll take on anyone that tries to say different. Kagome is mine to protect, and I ain't leaving this place unless she's with me.”

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Alright! Lol, so, my homework is going to be to watch as much UFC as I possibly can :) Fight next chapter! And a real one this time, no skimping or cutting or overviews (*is already biting her fingernails in horror*). You know, when I thought about it, I realized that I've never actually done hand-to-hand combat before. Weapons area easy, and using youkai or miko powers is a bonus; but actual hand-to-hand…I think it's going to be a challenge to get the scene to flow properly with enough description to make you feel like you're there but not so drawn out that it's repetitive and dull. Well *-crosses fingers-* Here's hoping.

 

And did anyone else see the awesome eclipse tonight? It looked like blood on the moon, a red shadow that coated the silver disk. Teehee…sorry, I just had to say that ;P

 

Anyways, laters

 

Shadow