Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of it's characters are property of the brilliant Takahashi-sama and I claim no ownership of them. Only the story belongs to me.
Pairings: Inuyasha/OC, Sango/Miroku, Sesshoumaru/Kagome.
Follows: The Anime and movies.
"spoken" 'thought'
Warning: Some citrus in this chapter, nothing too descriptive but it is there.
Special thanks to my betas PockyThief , TheMikoShivae and Kiyota .
Chapter 9: The day has come...
It was nearly dark before I had reached the priestess's hut, having been held up with the search for Rin's killer. As I stopped outside of her door to tell Jaken to wait nearby, I sensed my half-brother's presence and turned to glanced at him. He stood no more than 20 feet from me with his hands covered by his haori sleeves.
“Hurt her, and I will kill you, Sesshoumaru,” he warned me yet again and I had to wonder about his intelligence. Surely the priestess had explained to him what I wanted. How would I go about getting that if I harmed her? Truly my half-brother did not think nearly enough, nor as often as he should. Giving him a slight nod, I watched as he turned and headed away from the hut.
“Stay close,” I instructed Jaken before moving toward the door. Behind me I could hear my retainer scurry off, probably in search of some wood for a fire. Raising my hand, I went to knock on her door, unaccustomed to having to knock for myself, but ended up not having to. The door opened to reveal the priestess before I ever had the chance to knock.
“Come in, Lord Sesshoumaru,” she invited, her eyes any where but on my person. It was probably more out of shyness rather than respect, being who it was. Though I had never witnessed her being shy, quite the opposite in fact, but given the circumstances it wasn't too surprising. Giving her a slight nod, I moved around her and entered the hut.
“Have a seat,” I offered gesturing to the cushion at the head of the table. Reaching over, I removed the teapot from the fire and began pouring us each a cup. Setting one in front of him, I set the teapot down before taking a sip of my own. “Well, no sense beating around the bush,” I decided, speaking more to myself than to the demon lord sitting across from me.
“As I am sure you have already figured, the answer is yes. However, certain conditions must be met, and if all are not, then my answer is no.” I paused to glance up at him and he gave me a slight nod to continue. “I will not even try to ask you not to fight Inuyasha. You are brothers, even if only half, and brothers fight.”
“That being said, you must not attack any member of our group or this village, unless, of course, they attack first. And you must not kill Inuyasha. Not unless you are unable to stop him from taking your own life without doing so,” I began and watched his face for anything that might cross it. Him being Sesshoumaru, there was nothing.
After he gave a slight nod, I continued, “Next, providing that we are not going up against one of your current allies, if at any time we are in dire need of your help and call upon you, you are to come to our aid. It would work both ways, though I doubt you would ever wish for the help of humans or a half-demon. Well, not counting this.”
He thought for a moment before again replying with a slight nod. “Last, and in case you can't tell, Inuyasha threw this one in, you must not try to steal his fang so long as he is alive to use it. Now I know you stopped trying for it a while ago, but Inuyasha being Inuyasha probably hasn't noticed that fact yet.”
“I agree to your terms, priestess,” Sesshoumaru replied after a few moments of silence, his eyes meeting my own. Well, great, now what? I thought for sure we would talk about the conditions a while longer, maybe give me the chance to stall for a bit. It would seem he has decided against that. Just what I needed.
Taking a deep breath after finishing off my tea, I glanced back up at him. “When do you...?” I began, unable to get the full question out. What was I supposed to say? 'When do you want to go have sex?' 'So, ready to go rut in the back with a human?' No, there was just no way I could finish that sentence, at least not out loud.
“Now would be preferable,” he replied as he rose from the table. Shaking myself out of shock, I stood as well. Taking another deep breath, I turned and starting heading toward the back room. Already I could feel my heart beat start to pick up to a speed that just couldn't be healthy. My palms began to sweat and there was a lump forming in my throat.
I moved out of the way so he could enter the room before turning back to close the door. I didn't really see a point to having it closed, since any who might stop by already knew not to and if some random person decided to show up out of the blue, they would knock. But you were supposed to have the door closed at a time like this, right?
Turning back around to face Sesshoumaru, I felt my breath catch in my throat when I saw he had already removed his haori. Even with his missing arm, Sesshoumaru was far more gorgeous than any man, or demon, had a right to be. His chiselled chest just went to further prove that. Raising my eyes to his own, I swallowed back the lump in my throat.
He reached his slender hand up to cup my jaw as he brought his face within an inch of my own. “Relax,” he instructed, just barely above a whisper a moment before he leaned in further to brush his lips lightly against my own. Relax he said. But what he did had the complete opposite effect on me. And some how I doubted anything he did would relax me.
I opened my eyes when he pulled back slightly – when had those closed anyways? – and gazed back into his amber eyes. I felt like a deer caught in the head lights. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Could only stare at the demon lord standing in front of me. His finger pads caressed my cheek lightly and I licked my suddenly dry lips.
His eyes followed the action, before he dipped his head down and ran his own tongue across the path mine had taken on my lips. I breathed in deeply, smelling Sesshoumaru's rich, manly scent and had to swallow again. That lump was really starting to get on my nerves. His hand made its way to the back of my neck and he pulled me closer to him.
His lips were once again covering my own in a slow, light kiss, barely moving against my own. I leaned into the kiss to deepen it slightly, more out of instinct than so he wouldn't be doing all of the work. Again he pulled away, only this time to place feather light kisses along my jaw line and down my neck, setting my skin on fire where ever his lips touched.
His hand trailed from the back of my neck to the valley between my breasts, where he parted my shirt, exposing my flesh. Moving to the swell of my breast, he slid my shirt out of the way until my breast was exposed to the cool, yet some how hot air around us. He glanced back to my face for a moment before lowering his head to place a burning kiss on my chest.
I breathed in deeply, which only caused my breast to become closer to his lips. His hand moved back up to my neck, even as he continued to kiss my breast, to trail a line down my spine, causing me to shiver. It was at this moment that a thought crossed my mind. I had to stop this. It wasn't supposed to be like this. If I let it continue like this, it would be too late for me.
Reaching my hands up, I cupped his face and raised his head until he was staring me in the eye. “Can you be Sesshoumaru again?” I questioned and could easily see the confusion in his amber eyes. “I mean, act normal. If it's like this, so soft and sweet, I will end up doing something incredibly stupid and fall in love with you. I would rather not end up hurt.”
“Very well. This once, this Sesshoumaru will do as you ask,” Sesshoumaru replied, his normal, cold tone already beginning to appear. I gave him a bright smile before taking another deep breath and nodding to him. I just hope that by asking him to be himself, so that I wouldn't fall in love with him, won't end up hurting me in the end as well.
Such a strange woman this priestess is. First, she sets such easy conditions on our deal, when any other would have asked for riches or land, and now she asks for me to be my normal, cold self, rather than being kind and gentle as I had been. Worried she would fall in love with me? Such a strange woman indeed.
“Remove your clothes and lay down,” I commanded, nodding toward her futon a few feet from us. I would be my normal self as she has asked, but not to such a high degree. I do not wish to hurt the priestess, and if I rutted with her as myself, she would most likely be injured. So I will be myself, just a little more gentle.
She seemed slightly taken back by the command as she stood staring at me for a moment. Finally, she nodded her head slightly and reached up to pull her shirt off of her shoulders. I watched as the material slid off her body to pool at her feet. A moment later it was joined by her pants, leaving her clad in only a strange looking undergarment.
“That too,” I instructed, causing the priestess to blush heavily. She bent down, her dark hair falling over her shoulder, and pulled the strange clothing to her feet before stepping out of them. She turned away, without glancing back at me, and made her way over to the futon. She hesitated at the edge for a moment before crawling onto it and laying down face up.
Removing my weapons, I quickly placed them next to where I had laid my haori and began removing my hakama and boots. Those too were added to the pile and as I turned back to the priestess, I found her transfixed on me. I watched as her eyes trailed down my body before her pink tongue once again licked her lips. I raised an elegant eyebrow at her slightly, not that she noticed.
Reaching down, I undid the tie holding my loin cloth in place and watched as the priestess turned away blushing as it dropped to the floor. Definitely a strange woman. Shaking my head, I moved over to the futon and positioned myself above her. As I began trailing kisses and nips down her throat to her chest, I heard her moan softly.
As I lay on the futon staring up at the ceiling and panting slightly, I heard Sesshoumaru rising beside me. Turning toward him, I watched as he began to redress. “Heading out at this time of the night? Why not spend the night here?” I questioned, wondering at the same time why I was extending the invitation to him.
“This Sesshoumaru must retrieve his retainer and return to the castle. It would not bode well to leave the toad outside by himself all night with no company. He would only bug this Sesshoumaru tomorrow trying to make up for it,” he replied as he turned back around to face me. After a moment I realized exactly what he had just said.
“Wait, you mean Jaken is out there in the cold right now?” I questioned and he replied with a slight nod. “Why didn't you say something? I could have sent him into the village to stay with the others. At least he would have been inside where it was warm,” I told him as I rose from the bed and quickly put on a house coat.
Walking out of the room before Sesshoumaru had the chance to respond, I made my way over to the front door and quickly opened it. A blast of cold air hit me head on the moment I did. “Jaken! Jaken, you there?!” I called out over the roar of the wind. A moment later, a slightly snow-covered Jaken appeared from out of the forest.
“Come inside where it's warm. Sorry, he didn't tell me you were out there or I would have sent you to stay with the others in the village. Go sit by the fire. I'll bring some more wood for it,” I told him as I shut the door behind him and moved over to the pile of wood. Grabbing a few, I moved back to the fire and began building it back up.
“Why don't you two stay the night and head out first thing in the morning? I have an extra futon you may use. No sense going at night especially since the storm is picking back up,” I insisted as I turned back around to find Sesshoumaru standing there still shirtless. He seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding his head in consent.
With a smile, I walked back into the bedroom and grabbed the smaller futon, bringing it into the other room. I laid it next to the fire before heading over to a nearby shelf to get a blanket and laid it on top of the futon. “There's plenty of wood if the fire starts to die down, and food if you get hungry. Good night, Jaken.”
Heading back into the room, I changed into my sleeping clothes and as I turned around to crawl onto the futon, I found Sesshoumaru standing in the doorway. “You can come in, you know. I don't expect you to sleep on the small futon,” I told him with a chuckle, wondering how I went from barely being able to breathe to speaking with him so lightly in such a short time.
“Good night, Sesshoumaru,” I told him as I lay down and covered myself up. After a moment, he closed the door and crawled in next to me. I pulled the blanket up so it covered him before turning onto my side and sliding my hand under my pillow. With a yawn, I closed my eyes and felt sleep begin to take over.
Please R&R, good and bad reviews are welcome, however, I will ignore flames.