InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cereal Box Romance ❯ Duck and Run ( Chapter 6 )

Edited by thyme_cat

A/N: Just a warning - this fic is lewd (you may have noticed) and it's only going to get more graphic.  The rating WILL go up - eventually (for every site by ffnet).  Thank you for all of your kind words - especially those of you who point out favorite lines.  I love that.  It strokes my ego and makes me squeal.

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 6 - Duck and Run

 

Countless stars winked down at her like thousands of watchful eyes, accusing and judgmental from their thrones in the dark heavens. If she listened very closely, she could hear their spiteful whispering behind their hands and out of the corners of their mouths. “Inconstant,” they'd hiss; “fickle,” they'd murmur; “so much for true love,” one would grumble and they would all nod and sigh and frown.

 

And Kagome would have to agree: if she weren't all of those things, then she wouldn't be lying in the grass and watching the stars as they criticized her. Instead, she'd be safe in her house, worrying about the consequences of littering a feudal stream with an item of youkai magic from the twenty-first century, or curled up on her futon and dreaming of her hanyou. If her love had been pure, she would have carried his torch, despite the fact that he loved another woman. She certainly wouldn't have lain awake for hours, painfully aware of the taiyoukai in the neighboring house and wondering if he was thinking of her, too. She wouldn't have slipped the dog demon ring on her finger and snuck to his window, trying to catch a thread of his thoughts. And she wouldn't have startled guiltily when caught by Akago, because she wouldn't have had anything to be guilty about!

 

“What are you doing?” the apprentice had asked, her scar puckering as her mouth tightened, her tone implying that she knew exactly what Kagome was up to and didn't approve; not one bit.

 

“I was…um, I wanted to make sure they didn't need anything, you know, like…” Kagome's mind had raced furiously, but apparently in the opposite direction of the finish line. Then, it had buried its head in the sand and Kagome was left with the old standby: evasion. “Why are you here?”

 

Eyes narrowing to hard slivers of obsidian, Akago had taken an intimidating step forward. Still crouched against the wall of the guesthouse, Kagome had tried not to cower. “Stupid little girl,” Akago had spat. “He'll ruin you, then throw you away.”

 

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Kagome had denied. She wanted to believe it, too.

 

“You'll be a tainted, filthy, youkai's whore.”

 

“No, I won't,” she'd hissed back, her hand clenching so tightly that the plastic of the ring bit into the soft flesh of her palm.

 

“No one will touch you, even if you manage to wash off the dog piss.” That said, Akago had strode away to the stable, the leather of her armor creaking quietly as she moved.

 

`Ew,' Kagome thought as she lay on her back on her grassy bed under the stars, Akago's parting words rattling around in her brain. `But what does she know? She can't even oil her armor right.' However, noisy armor or not, Akago had had first hand experience with the stigma of being touched by a youkai, even though she had been an unwilling participant.

 

Sango had told her the story months ago, though she hadn't gone into great detail. Akago had been a pretty maiden due to be married to a nice young man with a bright future of farming and raising babies ahead of her. She and her fiancé had been taking a romantic, unchaperoned walk in the woods when they'd been attacked by a lesser nekoyoukai, who'd just barely managed a humanoid shape. The boy had fled, leaving her to its mercy, which hadn't been much. It had left her alive, but scarred and no longer virginal.

 

Her fiancé had wanted nothing to do with her and instead of allowing herself to be sold to a local brothel, she'd fled, stumbling across Sango by pure luck. Sango had admitted to feeling a kinship with the broken girl who had refused to submit to the tragedies that fate had dealt her.

 

Kagome felt terrible for her, she really did, but their situations were completely different. For one thing, she had loved Inuyasha for forever. At least, that's what it felt like to the eighteen-year-old. It may have been a doomed, one-sided crush, but it hadn't been a fleeting thing! She'd agonized over that jerk! As for Sesshomaru, he was just as hopeless: as she'd expected, he hadn't said a word to her that could confirm that his lecherous thoughts went anywhere beyond typical, male perversion. In fact, he hadn't said a word to her, period. Lastly, and most importantly, she wasn't going to get sex from either one of them. It was ironic, really, how completely unlike her situation was from Akago's. The apprentice had had sex with a demon but hadn't wanted it; Kagome hadn't had sex with a demon, but wanted it.

 

Groaning, she pounded her heels into the dirt in an attempt to release some of her pent up frustration. How could she be thinking about Sesshomaru in that way again, when she should be moping about Inuyasha? And she had actually admitted that she wanted sex, and honestly wouldn't mind if it were with Sesshomaru. Not at all. She must have lost a marble, somewhere. It was rolling around the bottom of her bag instead of preventing her from thinking impure thoughts about a demon that she didn't know very well and who'd tried to kill her on numerous occasions. Who, by the way, also thought she had lovely flesh. Was she so starved for attention that she'd drool over the first cute guy who seemed interested in her?

 

Maybe she should have taken Kouga up on his offer when she'd had the chance. At least then she'd know if sex were anything to get all worked up about. She flopped an arm over her eyes, blotting out the stars that were now mocking her with their bright twinkling.

 

Here she was, pondering sex, Sesshomaru, and how she wasn't thinking about Inuyasha when she should be figuring out a way to get that blank ring back. True, it probably just washed downriver a bit to be buried in the silt of the river bottom, or caught in weeds, or swallowed by a fish. She desperately hoped so, because she did not want to explain to Sango that she had in her possession rings that could broadcast people's thoughts. Somehow, Sesshomaru would get wind of it and that would be it. She would die a virgin at the claws of an enraged, and righteously so, taiyoukai.

 

But did that stop her from wearing the dog ring? No…

 

`Open your eyes, miko.'

 

Dragging her breath in with a sharp hiss, she dropped her arm from her face and blinked up at a pair of shadowed golden eyes. Expressionless as always, he stared down at her from his great height, the breeze idly tossing his bangs over the crescent moon on his brow. He seemed smaller, less formal for some reason, and it took her weary mind several seconds to place it: he wasn't wearing his armor or the furry pelt that she'd always seen wrapped over his shoulder.

 

`Now what?' she wondered with a small tremor of apprehension and a healthy dose of irritation. It was bad enough that he had entrenched himself so deeply into her thoughts; she just didn't know if she could handle a front row seat to her own ogling right now. And if he didn't ogle her…Bad Things Would Happen. She didn't know what, exactly, but they Would Happen, nonetheless.

 

Sesshomaru watched an odd parade of emotions wander across the miko's face as she lay in the grass, her arm carelessly draped over her face.

 

He had approached stealthily; stalking his prey, his mind clear of distractions as his careful steps silently bent and crushed the grass. She had simply lain there, oblivious to the predator that approached, content in the knowledge that she was safe in a slayer's village and surrounded by friends. Silly girl, hadn't the village been destroyed by a swarm of youkai just a scant few years ago?

 

Stopping an arm's length away from her head, he'd waited for her to sense him, letting the delicious taste of the hunt curl over his tongue and activate his salivary glands. Motionless, he'd stood there, inhaling her clean, soapy scent, following the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

 

Now, he was tired of waiting. `Open your eyes, miko,' he urged silently, and much to his surprise, she did exactly that.

 

Holding her eyes for a long moment, relishing the way she gasped and squirmed under his gaze, he ran his claws through his long, silvery hair, knowing that the starlight would glimmer off the metallic strands and give it an almost bluish tint. Females loved that.

 

She frowned at him.

 

He gave his mane a little shake so that it would ripple around his body like a stream of mercury, a body from which he'd removed all accouterments, just so that if she couldn't contain herself, she would have unencumbered access to his virile masculinity.

 

Her eyes narrowed, her lips pursing into a fine, irritated line.

 

Unfazed, he let the corner of his mouth rise into one of his rare, nonviolent smiles. Lucky bitch: some of the females he'd bedded had never seen that smile. So that she could bask in the honor upon which he had just bestowed her, he lifted his face to stare at the night sky, as if no longer interested in the human lying at his feet.

 

“What do you want?” the female at his feet growled up at him. She didn't sound pleased…or honored…or seduced.

 

Sesshomaru cocked his head, regarding the uncooperative bitch out of one bright, golden eye. Perhaps this would take a little more effort than he had previously suspected. She had a fierce glare, he had to give her that, and the harder she frowned, the more her brown eyes sparkled.

 

Kagome huffed and flounced to her feet, standing with arms and legs akimbo as she glared up at the demon who apparently thought he was kami's greatest gift to women… `Oh, excuse me. Kami's greatest gift to bitches.' Her lip twisted into an angry moue as he simply stared at her, unruffled, his head canting infinitesimally more to the side.

 

“Well?” she snapped, leaning forward slightly. She was so not in the mood for this crap. If only he were wearing a subduing spell! “What are you doing here?”

 

“I do as I please, human,” he stated blandly, then added silently, `as will you.'

 

To her chagrin, Kagome blushed hotly and his eyebrow rose into his bangs, his eyes gleaming more brightly than the stars. “Yeah, think again!” she bit out and stomped past him.

 

`The nerve of that…that…dog!' Kagome fumed as she stormed into her house and dropped onto her futon in a cross-legged sit. `He was preening in front of me! I can't believe he thought that with a smile and a toss of his pretty hair, I would jump his bones! What kind of a girl does he think I am? That smug, vain, self-absorbed excuse for an overgrown poodle…'

 

`Wait a sec…' Kagome absently chewed on the inside of her lip, scrunching her mouth to the side to get to corner. `He was preening for me…'

 

“No way,” she whispered to the blank walls of her house.

 

`Was he…? No. He couldn't have been. It's just too weird.' She bit so hard that the soft flesh of her cheek began to bleed, bring pricks of tears to her eyes. Despite the pain and the ferrous taste of blood in her mouth, a goofy smile snuck across her face. `But I think he wants to seduce me…'

 

It was ridiculous, but now that she thought about it, his thoughts had pointed to that conclusion. She giggled, hugging herself as she did a squirmy, elated little dance in her seat. So what if he was Inuyasha's older brother! He wanted her, not her previous incarnation or her ability to see jewel shards. Granted, he would have to try a lot harder if he expected to get anywhere, and that wasn't saying that he would get anywhere…

 

But, oh! To be wanted! It was a giddy, tingly feeling, and now she was thrilled that Sango, Miroku and Akago would be leaving her alone with Sesshomaru. Falling backward, she grinned up at the ceiling and giggled again.

 

`He'll ruin you, then throw you away', Akago's words popped her little bubble of excitement, leaving her thoughtful and, for a moment, hesitant.

 

“Only if I let myself be ruined,” she spoke quietly to the absent girl and turned onto her side. After all, two could play at his little game. She had wanted a summer romance and one had fallen out of her breakfast cereal and into her lap. It was about damn time!

 

XxxxxxxX

 

Inuyasha had a bad feeling about…something, and he didn't know what to do about it. Usually, when he had dark foreboding twisting his gut, it was just before something large and hairy (or scaly, he wasn't picky) burst out of a forest or a cave and tried to cut, bite, claw or burn him to death. As of yet, nothing had attacked, though he kind of wished it would. At least then he would have something on which he could take out his frustration.

 

It had all started after Kikyou's surprise visit. Of course, he had gone to see her. No matter what happened between them, he would always love the miko; hadn't he promised her he would? And he was pretty sure that she loved him too. Wasn't her continued presence on this plane of existence and her infrequent visits to chat about nothing proof of that?

 

Thing was, you couldn't screw a clay pot. He'd tried. And no amount of water or Kagome's “Sour Cream and Onion Dip” could make the opening of a clay jug resemble a…

 

The hanyou blushed and broke eye contact with his reflection in the little pond, his ears flattening momentarily as his mind conjured naïve images of that most secret of places of the female anatomy, that which he'd only experienced pressed against his back as Kagome rode him.

 

“Damnit!” Groaning, he adjusted himself, wishing the pond in which he was soaking his feet was cold enough to take the blue out of his balls.

 

He just didn't know what to do with all of these feelings and urges that really hadn't started until several months ago. Well, he knew what to do with them: he just didn't know how to go about doing it. If his father were alive, he would have been his sensei in the matter of approaching and bedding females. He envied Kouga, in a way, for being able to declare to the world that a female was his, even if the shit-for-brains hadn't actually done anything about it. He was too shy to ask Miroku, fully aware of the teasing he would get. Going to his bastard half-brother was right out, despite his reputation in the youkai world of being a ladies' man.

 

And this brought him back to the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach; the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Kagome had been in the village the day that Kikyou had made her appearance, and then had gone off with Sango. He knew that Kagome had seen him with Kikyou; he had smelled her stale presence after Kikyou had left. Stupid fate, always giving him the shaft.

 

Then, he'd smelled his brother skulking around, and the bastard had left without a word. That was just plain weird and decidedly unsettling. What was he up to? It would be a cold day in hell before he believed that all the crap about “learning the duties of his birthright” was the only reason the asshole had been showing his face, lately. He didn't like to think about what that other reason could be, but his instinct told him to check up on the female he might love but definitely wanted to pork. And really, weren't Kikyou and Kagome facets of the same woman? So, bedding the living one was no real crime against the undead one to whom he was promised. Right? And maybe Kagome would agree to dress up in those miko's robes…then again, maybe not.

 

So, he was relegated to being rude to Kagome while trying to hide the pup tent in his pants, pining after a woman to whom he couldn't stick it, and experimenting with Kaede's pottery. Things weren't looking up for the hanyou.

 

Sighing heavily, he pulled his feet out of the water and casually sniffed the air before resuming his journey to the demon slayer's village. Since Kagome had not returned to Kaede's village or the well, it was the only place he could think of to look for her. He was taking his time, trying to work out these issues as they stumbled through his mind, even as the knot in his stomach grew tighter and his sexual frustration reached the bursting point.

 

The acrid scent of smoke intruded on his thoughts and he sniffed again. `That ain't normal smoke,' he thought as he filtered through the nuances of the scent. `That's anti-demon smoke…Sango?'

 

Holding his sleeve to his nose, he bounded toward the noxious odor. “Kagome!”

 

XxxxxxxX

 

“There are over one hundred crayons in that box, Shippo. I think you can spare a few for Rin,” Kagome admonished the fox kit who was hunched over his prize and snarling at the young human girl. When he made no move to share, Kagome warned, “Shippo…”

 

“But Kagome!” he whined, staring up at her with pleading emerald eyes.

 

“Osuwari!”

 

Shippo cringed, even though he knew it would have no effect on him. It was the purpose behind the word, and he knew she meant business. With outwardly great reluctance and a fake, heavy sigh, Shippo placed the box of crayons between him and Rin. “It's not fair,” he griped. “Inuyasha wouldn't make me share with Sesshomaru's whelp!”

 

“Shippo!” Kagome exclaimed in utter mortification that one of hers would be so rude to a guest. “Go to your room! And leave the crayons!” she added when he got up and moved to take the crayons with him.

 

“I'm so sorry, Sesshomaru-sama,” she apologized politely to the taiyoukai who lounged just outside of the decoder ring's range, or so she judged by the silence of his thoughts. Trying to appear casual, she took a couple of steps closer to where he sat under a tree in the shade, one leg bent at the knee and the other stretched in front of him, his wrist resting on top of his knee. He turned his head to stare at her and she met his eyes for a moment, and then fluttered her lashes as she glanced away.

 

Slowly, languidly, she lifted her arms and stretched, arching her back and turning her head away from him as her fingers curled in the air. She had watched Miroku drool over Sango as she'd done this (though she doubted Sango had done it for Miroku's benefit), so there was no reason it wouldn't work on the taiyoukai. Another sidled step, and…

 

`…she bares her neck to me now, yet growled at me last night. What is this bitch up to?'

 

Kagome didn't understand the significance of her neck, but whatever it was, she was sure it was dirty. Better yet, she had him guessing. Ha! Hiding her smirk, she rolled her head from side to side, letting him get another good look at her neck before she placed her hands on the small of her back and pushed her chest forward in another leisurely stretch.

 

`One more stretch, my miko tease, and I will take you here, in front of Rin and Jaken. And you will like it.'

 

Her breath escaped her in a shocked rush as she fought against the flush that she felt creeping up her neck. `Don't blush, don't blush,' she repeated to herself. `He doesn't know you can hear him, remember? Act natural! Please, don't blush!'

 

Grasping at the first thing that came to mind to distract her from that disturbing image, she turned to Rin and asked, “Um, Rin? Do you have enough, um, paper?”

 

The little girl paused in her efforts to add red edging to the garment of the figure in her picture, who could be none other than Sesshomaru. It was an abstract rendering at best, but no one could mistake all that silver hair. Rin glanced up at her, then to her lord. “No, Kagome-sama. Could I please have more?”

 

“Sure!” Kagome responded brightly and hurried off toward the cluster of small houses. Several seconds later and with liquid grace, Sesshomaru rose to his feet and padded silently after her. Rin watched them go with a slight frown, climbing to her feet to follow.

 

“Jaken, watch Rin,” Sesshomaru commanded the imp without turning his head.

 

Jaken, who had been dozing against a boulder warmed by the sun, seemed to wilt, casting Kagome's backside a withering glance as he responded, “Yes, milord.”

 

“But Lord Sesshomaru,” Rin started to protest as she came to an abrupt halt, but was silenced by a stern look over his shoulder.

 

“Rin, you will stay with Jaken.”

 

She sat back down, a pout puckering her lips as she, too, glared knives after Kagome. “Jaken,” she said, her voice querulous and unhappy, “why are we here?”

 

“Eh?” Jaken blinked bulbous yellow eyes several times before answering, “Only the kami know our fate-“

 

“No, I mean why are we in this village?”

 

The imp's face fell as his dissertation on the meaning of life was nipped in the bud. “Oh. You see, Lord Sesshomaru is…looking for…something and he intends to find…it…with her,” he jerked his bald, green head in the direction Sesshomaru and Kagome had departed.

 

“I would help him find it! Why does he need Kagome?”

 

Jaken's eye ticked and he scratched the back of his neck, which had suddenly become uncomfortably warm. “No, girl, this isn't something you could help him with.”

 

“Why not? What is it?”

 

“Because only matured females can...” he threw his hands into the air with an exasperated noise. “Bah! No more questions.”

 

Rin paid no attention. “But I'm a girl and I have almost ten winters! Why can't I-”

 

“Rin! No more questions!” The old imp snapped and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the boulder with his eyes closed and hoping that the girl would shut up. It was bad enough that he had to help his master seduce Inuyasha's wench by keeping Rin from underfoot; explaining his master's intentions to a jealous pre-teen had not been in the job description.

 

Kagome entered her hut with an audible sigh of relief and leaned her back against the wall, closing her eyes and laying a slightly shaky hand on her chest. Her body buzzed with disbelief and a strange anticipation; it was making her head spin and the bottom drop out of her stomach. `He didn't mean it; he would never…not in front of Rin. But then again, he is a dog…'

 

The mat hanging over the doorway rustled and she opened her eyes, finding herself trapped against the wall by a leanly muscled masculine body looming over her. Slowly, purposefully, his head lowered until their faces were inches apart.

 

The little house was already stuffy and warm, but the nearness of him was a physical force crowding the air out of her personal space. Her mouth went dry as her stomach erupted into a swarm of butterflies, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. With a small, panicky squeak, she slid along the wall to the door, only to be stopped by his hand planted on the wall by her head. She froze and straightened her spine, trying to look less like a scared rabbit and more like a cornered tiger.

 

Clearing her throat and giving her hair a nervous toss, she reminded them both, “This is my house.”

 

“Yes.”

 

`Tiger, think tiger,' she repeated mentally as his rich baritone rumbled so close to her body and his spicy scent began to dig its fingers into her brain. His aura throbbed against her, his thoughts an unintelligible static on the edges of his presence. “You're in my house,” she pointed out in a reedy voice, more to stall the slow descent of his face toward hers than anything else.

 

The molten gold of his irises flickered in amusement as he answered, “Yes.”

 

`It's really, really hot,' Kagome noted distantly. Her knees were also shaking like wet noodles and if she hadn't been leaning against the wall, she would have already landed on her butt. Maybe that would have been a good thing, since his face was getting closer, closer…she could feel his warm breath on her face as he exhaled...he had the most voluptuous lips. She licked her own.

 

“I, uh…need to get…” she was barely aware of what she was saying as those lips filled her field of vision. Instinctively, with the last vestiges of self-preservation, she shrank back into the thin wood of the wall, sliding down to avoid contact with the pale flesh that was steadily creeping after her. Too fast, he was moving way too fast!

 

“Get what?”

 

As his lips bent and shaped the words, the tension in her knees snapped and she dropped to the floor, barely catching herself on her hands before her bottom hit the tatami. “Paper!” she gasped, and darted toward her tote, pulling a handful of blank leaves from a side compartment and brandishing them between them like a shield. “See? Paper!” and she fled her house in a very un-tiger-like fashion.

 

Sesshomaru stared after her with a puzzled, mental frown. The girl was sending all sorts of mixed signals, sometimes at the same time. She had not responded to his advances, something almost unheard of. She had flaunted her body and led him to her room, then had avoided him and run off. Was this some kind of miko torture technique designed to drive males insane with unrequited lust?

 

A tangy scent caught his attention and he inhaled deeply, trying to catch its source. Already at full mast, his dick hardened further and he didn't bother to suppress a grin when he followed the scent to an untidy pile of clothing. Moving most of it aside with the toe of his boot, he uncovered a small, pink, silky treasure that was saturated with the delicious smell. Pinching a corner of the unfamiliar garment with two claws, he brought it up to his face and gave it a good sniff.

 

`She wants me,' he confirmed with confident, male pride. He had to be clever about this seduction, form a plan to entice her, and then leave her no route of escape. Clearing his face of emotion, he slipped the little scrap of pink cloth into his kimono for future investigation.