InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cereal Box Romance ❯ Too Much of a Good Thing ( Chapter 8 )

Edited by thyme_cat

 

 

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

 

Chapter 8 - Too Much of a Good Thing

 

“Osuwari!”

 

Inuyasha hit the floor of Kagome's little house with a surprised yip, toppling a small pile of brightly colored bits of cloth into a scattered mess. Standing in the doorway, wet hair dripping down the back of her bathrobe, Kagome glared murder at the hanyou who now lay face first in her dirty clothes, trying not to explode with anger and embarrassment like a star going supernova. There had to be a good reason for the hanyou to be picking through her underwear.

 

“What are you doing in my laundry,” she growled, her hand clenching around the strings of her shower bag.

 

“Kagome!” he yelped, his ears flattening to his hair and his voice muffled by silky fabric. “It's not what you think! Sesshomaru-“

 

“Osuwari!” she shouted before she could stop herself. She'd had a sleepless night, first dreading a tearful conversation with Inuyasha that had never happened, then replaying the action of a certain tuft of fluff through her mind until she'd been squirming and panting. Finally, she cursed herself as a hormonal little tramp for letting him touch her like that, and in front of her friends, no less! Her mother would be so disappointed. So, after tossing, turning, and crying a little, she'd gotten up just before dawn for a well-needed bath. The last thing she wanted to hear first thing in the morning was the name of the demon who was the source of all of her problems.

 

It would be just like Inuyasha to make his own brand of trouble.

 

The second sitting had forced him further under the pile, and now only two silver ears were visible under her clothing, flicking up and down as he flailed his arms. “No, you don't understand! He-“

 

“You still haven't answered my question! What are you DOING in my LAUNDRY?!”

 

“Sesshomaru-“

 

“OSUWARI!”

 

“To think my blood runs in his veins…” a smooth voice spoke next to her right ear, tickling the baby hairs that grew at the edge of her hairline. Kagome jumped, stumbling into her house and casting a startled look over her shoulder. Sesshomaru stood framed by the door, silver hair backlit by the pink light of dawn, looking much too perfect for that early in the morning. He may have spoken about his brother, but his golden eyes were fixed on her. Giving his hair a toss, he ambled into the room.

 

“Don't you know how to knock?“ Kagome snapped at him, backing away from him as she eyed him for hidden Mokomoko-samas. For a moment, she thought she was safe, until she stepped on something round that rolled under her foot. “Eeeaah!”

 

Shrieking, she fell backward onto a bellowing hanyou, knocking the air out of both of their lungs. He was the first to recover, “Get your fucking elbow out of my back!”

 

“It wouldn't be in your back if you weren't in here in the first place!” she gave him a sharp jab with her elbow to accentuate her point, feeling no guilt at his painful exclamation.

 

In one easy stride, Sesshomaru reached her and extended his hand, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to her feet against his side despite her protests. Eyeing his still prone brother on the floor with distaste, he said, “You are clearly not wanted here, half-breed. I suggest that you leave.”

 

Inuyasha shook his head, turning loose a yellow bra that had gotten hooked over one ear.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome protested, sure she was going to drop dead of mortification at any moment. No one should have to see their best male friend wearing their braziers.

 

“Asshole! I ain't leaving-“ he stopped mid-sentence as Sesshomaru shifted slightly, rubbing his side against Kagome, who gave him a confused glance. “The fuck are you doing?”

 

“Yeah, what are you doing?” Kagome asked as the taiyoukai lightly bumped her with his hip again, smoothing the silk of his hakama over her terry cloth bathrobe. `This is weird.' She waited for some kind of lascivious remark to spill from his mind yet she received nothing but silence. `Ah crap, did I leave that stupid ring under my pillow?'

 

Inuyasha's clawed fingers wrapped around her ankle and she squeaked, startling away from them and falling into Sesshomaru, who took the opportunity to rub his chest against her back and his cheek across the top of her head. Inuyasha growled from the floor and tugged at her ankle, almost pulling her back down to the floor. Trying to kick her foot from his grasp, she tolerated whatever bizarre crap the taiyoukai had decided to pull in favor of using him as a balance.

 

“Sesshomaru!” Inuyasha sputtered angrily from the floor, rising to his knees and one hand as he jerked on her foot. “If you don't knock that shit off, I'm gonna-“

 

“Osuwari!” Kagome yelled when he released her ankle and grabbed her knee, his claws poking tiny holes in her bathrobe. His grip slackened in surprise as the subduing rosary wrenched his neck to the floor.

 

“And why would she want the stink of a half-breed on her person?” the taiyoukai smugly asked his humiliated, prostrate brother.

 

Voice muffled by the tatami, Inuyasha growled, “Better than your stench!”

 

No longer hindered by Inuyasha's hand on her leg, Kagome hopped over his red-clad back and scurried to the other side of her house, diving for her tote. From a small, zippered compartment, she pulled out a small bottle of perfume: light and citrusy when applied in small doses. `If it's scent that worries them, then I'll give them a reason to complain!'

 

With warning for their sensitive doggie noses, she pushed the plunger twice, grinning as Shiseido's Zen permeated the cabin. Sesshomaru, who was in the process of stepping over Inuyasha, froze with his foot in the air, his eyes wide and startled. For a moment, Kagome thought he might try to brave the perfume but an instant later he was gone in a rush of wind.

 

The unfortunate Inuyasha was not so lucky. Groaning as he struggled against the subduing spell, Kagome almost felt sorry for him when he broke into a series of violent sneezes. Almost.

 

“Evil wench,” he moaned when he could finally form words and sat up, shaking his head so hard that his ears flapped against his hair.

 

“If I ever catch you in my laundry again…” Kagome warned him, giving the bottle a little shake, knowing that he'd hear the liquid slosh inside.

 

“Yipe!” he lunged for the door and was out of her room in a red flash.

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

Kagome sat straddling a thick, sturdy branch of one of the trees that grew within the wall of the demon exterminators' village, her back against the trunk and her arms crossed securely over her chest. Trees weren't her usual habitat; they were difficult to get into and weren't terribly comfy, not to mention climbing them in a skirt showed way more than she was comfortable showing. However, desperate times called for desperate measures.

 

“Achoo!” Inuyasha sneezed from below and then snuffled loudly. “Stupid girl.”

 

“Serves you right, Inuyasha!” Kagome yelled down at him and patted the tiny bottle of perfume that she had brought with her from the future. Its original purpose was to attract the interest of a particular hanyou; she found it ironic that she now used it to force him to keep his distance. “Don't you have anything better to do?”

 

Inuyasha grumbled something unintelligible and she sighed, shifting her bottom on her perch and resigning herself to an extended stay in the tree. Days, maybe. `Where on earth is Sango?' she bemoaned silently. Sango would be able to help her.

 

For three days, she had been tailed by two persistent inuyoukai shadows that had rubbed, groped grabbed and sniffed her, despite the fact that she not only liberally doused herself in Zen, she didn't hesitate to turn it on them when they got too frisky - which was more often than not. Why Inuyasha was not constantly hacking at Sesshomaru with Tetsusaiga for touching her and why Sesshomaru was even touching her in the first place was a complete mystery, but one she was not given much time to ponder while dodging wandering hands. Her only clue to the brothers' strange behavior was a repetitive thought that surfaced in the cesspool the taiyoukai called a brain: something about winning and the hanyou losing. But what? Did she even want to know?

 

The only thing that would definitely be lost in this whole fiasco was Kagome's mind. One horny dog demon she could handle…well, not really… but two? Her temper had long since run out and her virginity had suddenly become something to protect like gold. She may have once been eager to shed the mantle of old-fashioned purity, but that had been before the tag-team assault by the brothers. So, here she sat, treed like a cat, with a clear view of anyone approaching her from almost any angle, perfume in her pocket and ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

 

Boy, did they piss her off.

 

That wasn't to say that she was any less hormonal and tempted (especially when Sesshomaru flicked the end of his Mokomoko-sama in her direction), but she'd follow Kikyou into hell before she'd let them seduce her before she was good and ready! And she may very well have been ready if only one had tried a little romance. Butt sniffing did not count.

 

Inuyasha was right out, anyway: he loved Kikyou. No matter how much she may have once loved the hanyou, she would not complicate or tarnish that love by being the “other woman”. Never before had she felt so cheap and used than now: she was a consolation prize of sorts because something wasn't quite working out with Kikyou. And how dare Inuyasha pursue her when he still belonged to Kikyou! Two-timing jerk!

 

“Osuwari!”

 

“Gah!” Inuyasha cried as he unexpectedly hit the dirt.

 

“Wow, Inuyasha, what did you do? You were just sitting there!” Shippo's voice floated up from below.

 

“How should I know? Crazy bitch.”

 

“Osuwari.”

 

Inuyasha didn't curse that time, either inured to having his face planted into the ground or expecting it, or both.

 

Shippo sighed heavily, and then called up into the tree, “Um, Kagome? Could I talk to you?”

 

Leaning over, she looked down at her kit, worried by the hesitancy and shyness in his normally confident voice. Smiling reassuringly, she said, “Sure, Shippo. Would you like to come up?”

 

“Actually,” the kit glanced askance at the hanyou as he fiddled with the hem of his jacket, “I was hoping we could talk somewhere private.”

 

“Good luck with that,” she scoffed to herself but swung out of the tree anyway, one hand awkwardly pressed to her bottom in case a stray breeze, or something less benign, tried to lift it. Before her toes had touched the ground, Inuyasha was already on his feet, looking like he had every intention of following. “You're not invited,” she told the hanyou, patting the pocket that held her new weapon.

 

“But-“

 

“I'm serious! Don't follow, or else.”

 

Inuyasha cringed but continued to protest, “Sesshomaru could be anywhere out there. I ain't gonna-“

 

“I can take care of myself!” she snapped, frustration and anger percolating through her blood to pop behind her eyes. “When is Sango going to be back? Didn't you say that the swarm was nearly destroyed?”

 

“It was!” he yelled defensively. “Weak humans must be more pathetic than I thought.”

 

“Osuwari,” she replied and Inuyasha connected with the dirt with a resigned “oomph.”

 

“Come on, Shippo, let's go talk,” she caught the kit when he leapt into her arms.

 

“Are you worried about Sango and the others?” he asked as they passed out of the village gates and into the forest.

 

“Yeah, a bit. They should be back by now. I wonder what's keeping them?” She shrugged and sighed, comforted by Shippo's pat on her shoulder. “I do know that when she comes home, I'm going to clobber two dog demons with Hiraikotsu.”

 

“Oh,” Shippo said and Kagome could almost see a bulb light up over his head. “Then that means…”

 

“Means what?” Kagome settled on a sunny boulder and moved the kit to her lap where she gave him her full attention.

 

“So you don't like all the attention from Inuyasha and Sesshomaru?”

 

Kagome blinked and gave him an incredulous look. “Whatever gave you the impression that I liked being groped?”

 

“Well, Miroku groped Sango and she married him-“

 

“She also hit him a lot, too.”

 

“-and whenever Sesshomaru grabs you, your eyes get all sparkly-“

 

“They do not!”

 

Shippo raised a disbelieving eyebrow, something she was positive she'd seen Sesshomaru do a few times. “So I thought that was how you, you know…”

 

“I don't think I do, Shippo,” she prompted, but in truth, she was pretty sure that she did.

 

Squirming in her lap, Shippo rubbed his nose. “Well, I thought that was how you…told girls that you…ahem,” he coughed into his paw and rubbed his nose again.

 

“Liked them?” Kagome finished for him. Shippo nodded and blushed to the roots of his red hair. “You didn't grope Rin, did you?” He nodded again miserably. “What did she do?”

 

“She stuffed a crayon up my nose,” he mumbled, rubbing the abused appendage with a tiny, clawed finger.

 

Kagome tried not to laugh, she really did. Unfortunately, the giggle burst out of her, bypassing her mouth, which was clamped shut, and spewed out her nose in a noisy snort. She tried to blow if off as a sneeze, but Shippo would have none of it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he lifted his nose into the air and did his best Inuyasha-pout impression, which did nothing to improve Kagome's giggle fit.

 

“It hurt, you know.”

 

Blinking back tears and hunching her shoulders to keep them from shaking, Kagome spoke when she thought her voice wouldn't crack, “I'm sure it did, Shippo. Maybe you should try giving her flowers, next time, or draw a picture for her.”

 

“I still have the crayon,” he said hopefully.

 

Her face was going to break, she just knew it, but she was not going to laugh in the face of childhood love. Only her indomitable will, the one that had kept her from strangling Inuyasha all of these years, and the dear, trusting eyes of her kit prevented her from exploding into peals of undignified, helpless laughter. “Then I think a picture would be perfect.”

 

Sesshomaru stood at a polite distance behind the trunk of a massive pine tree and gave the bouquet in his hand a confident smirk. Flowers, candlelight, and soft music, she had said. Soft music wasn't readily available and candlelight would come later, so this bouquet that Rin had collected would be the perfect place to start. After getting nowhere with the miko for three days, he realized that a change of strategy might be required to achieve his ultimate goal: triumph over his half-brother and countless nights of unbridled, passionate sex with the little miko. If she were always this fiery, then the bedsport promised to be…intense.

 

Inuyasha's mother had been a sweet, demure little thing that had been swept away by his advances and had melted under his touch. It had almost been too easy, but fun, nevertheless. Kagome was proving to be quite the challenge and where she should have opened her legs and begged him to take her after her taste of his Mokomoko-sama, instead, she sprayed him with perfume. Infuriating, clever bitch. However, no female could hold out forever: he was a master of the art of seduction. It had been a long time since his skills had been truly tested. The more she resisted, the more excited he became and the greater his desire to win her.

 

He shifted anxiously, impatient for this little heart-to-heart between the kit and the miko to be over. It was his turn to have her attention. He had missed most of their conversation but doubted that any courtship intended by the kit could be taken seriously. Where was Jaken, anyway, and why wasn't he keeping the pups from underfoot?

 

“So what made you change your mind?” he heard Kagome's soft, lilting voice float on the breeze and imagined that same voice speaking to him through damp, tousled hair and scattered cushions.

 

“Sesshomaru doesn't seem to be an enemy anymore, so I just thought…”

 

What did he, Sesshomaru, have to do with the kitsune's puppy love? Unless, after witnessing Inuyasha's bumbling pursuit of a dead woman, the boy had developed a taste for men? `This Sesshomaru is a sexy beast.'

 

However, the kit's voice had no place in his fantasy, so he banished it, debating on the best way to get the kit out of his hair. He settled on a subsonic growl that any young youkai would recognize as a cue to make himself scarce.

 

“What is it, Shippo?”

 

“Uhhh…I'm gonna go work on that picture.”

 

Sesshomaru heard a rustling that he recognized as the miko getting to her feet.

 

“I'll walk you back to the village, then.”

 

Growling again, he let Shippo know that dawdling was not to be tolerated.

 

“That's okay, Kagome! I'll be fine!” the kit shot past the taiyoukai, his red tail fluffed like a bottlebrush and standing straight out behind him.

 

“Shippo, wait!” Kagome called after him, her human feet making a racket in the carpet of pine needles. Suddenly, she stopped running and let loose an exasperated sigh and a quiet, human growl.

 

`She knows I'm here,' he realized. `Who is this miko, Kagome?' Deciding that the best course of action would not involve angering her further, he stepped from behind his tree and into her path. Already, her eyes were snapping with irritation and her hand was in the pocket that held that noxious perfume.

 

“That will not be necessary,” he reassured her quickly and handed her the bouquet of flowers. `This will keep her hands busy. Maybe I should have had Rin make a chain of them: they would complement the comely bluish highlights in her hair.'

 

Kagome blinked several times before taking them, her cheeks pinking and her brown eyes softening as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, then took the bunch of flowers. Artfully arranged lavender and buttery-yellow orchid-like blooms were surrounded by long, elegantly striped leaves and held together by a length of purple silk cording. Never, in her entire life, had she ever received such a lovely bouquet. The gift and the comment about her hair was more than enough to overlook the fact that the flowers were called “toad lilies”. “Wow, um, thank you,” she mumbled.

 

`Then she does like flowers. I will fill our chamber with them and pleasure her on a bed of rose petals.'

 

`That was almost romantic, in a perverted kind of way,' she thought wistfully. `And he's paying attention to what I like. How sweet.' He took a step toward her and she braced herself for dodging an attempt on her ass but was pleasantly surprised to find her arm wrapped around his.

 

“You will walk with me.”

 

`Would it kill him to ask?' she grumped half-heartedly to herself. `Oh well, at least he's trying.' Feigning more reluctance than she actually felt, she batted her eyelashes and shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose.”

 

`She is no miko; she is a vixen in disguise,' he thought as he took a peek down the front of her strange, low-cut, strappy shirt. Between her breasts, it left an empty valley that was just begging for his hand to enter and cup one perky mound. But later…he did not want to get doused with that foul scent again. Now, to be covered in her scent and the odors of sweat and sex was an entirely different matter.

 

He glanced down at her, not surprised to see a blush staining her cheeks but curious as to its source. How could such a feisty, sexy little thing be so shy that a simple walk would cause her such discomposure? He had chosen to take her on a walk because Izayoi had enjoyed them, and they seemed to fit in the category of “date”, though Izayoi and Kagome were nothing alike. Whereas Izayoi had taken him to bed in two days, Kagome had lasted, what, five and counting? And he hadn't had to put forth near the effort. Yes, the little miko was much more vivacious and intelligent than the pretty princess - better in every way. Wouldn't the old dog be jealous?

 

The woman beside him gasped and stumbled, catching herself on his arm, which pleased him immensely.

 

“Are you ill, miko?” he asked as his eyes were drawn to a tacky blue ring on her finger. It had “dog” written in raised kanji on the top and it irritated him that Inuyasha was giving her jewelry, ugly as it was. Though he had numberless baubles more precious and beautiful than that piece of crap, they were all safely ensconced in his treasury and he would have to leave her alone with that mongrel to get them. The pup must have brought it with him and had gotten it at the same place as the other white one. But the material of the rings was so odd-

 

“I'm fine,” she quickly assured him, pulling her hand from his arm and covering the ring with her other hand. He took that moment to place his hand on her waist, and then nodded, urging her forward with the pressure of his arm.

 

The sound of swiftly running water reached his ears as the composition of the forest gradually began to change from tall, sparsely spaced conifers and thin undergrowth to more densely growing deciduous trees crowded by thin saplings and tender, green ferns. Cicadas sang in strident, whirring chorus against the counterpoint of Kagome's crunching footsteps. Relaxed and at ease with his companion, he was almost able to forget the purpose of his presence in this village and simply be a male escorting a female on a sultry summer afternoon. It was a pleasant thought and he let his eyes drift slightly closed as he caught the scent of her clean hair mingling with the spice of pine, ripening nuts and fresh water.

 

The forest opened up to the bank of the river, a short verge with a jagged, sheer, three-foot drop to the surface of the water. Wild and tumbling over exposed boulders, the stream flowed much more swiftly than at Kagome's favorite sunbathing spot. Holding her steady as she climbed over a fallen log, Sesshomaru appreciated the way her skirt flipped up in back, showing an expanse of lightly tanned, toned thigh. As if in response to his thoughts, she clutched at the hem of her skirt and tugged it down, shooting him a nasty look.

 

`He can go from dreamy to lecherous in a single second,' Kagome grumbled to herself as she made sure that her skirt covered everything that it should with a final pull at the back. Truth be told, she had enjoyed the stroll as much as he did, until he'd ogled her legs. Just the same, she supposed it was a good thing that the guy who was interested in her was turned on by everything she did. But why was the stoic demon lord, infamous for despising her race, suddenly so keen to get her in bed?

 

And what was that about Inuyasha's mother, Princess Izayoi? Though she hated being compared to other women, even in a favorable light, the history behind his silent musings was simply too intriguing for words. Did Inuyasha know that his brother had slept with his mother? Was Inuyasha truly Sesshomaru's brother? Oh, the possibilities…

 

She stifled a conspiratorial giggle behind her hand and did a goofy Kagome-dance in place, shimmying her shoulders and wiggling her hips to her own happy rhythm.

 

“Something pleases you?”

 

The question intruded into her thoughts and she stopped dancing with an embarrassed flush, the twinkle in his golden eyes more amused then lascivious, until:

 

`I shall have her dance for me again wearing nothing but my own sash.'

 

Distracted by a mental image of an unclothed Sesshomaru wrapped up in his sash like an early birthday present, she babbled, “Oh, I was just thinking…how much I liked this river.” She caught an impression of disappointment in the slight thinning of his lips before he turned his head to stare at the water. `You could have thought of something better than that, dummy.' She struggled to recover, “I mean, thank you for bringing me here.”

 

The water rushed past them, crashing and splashing as they stood on the bank in silence. A glint of silver flashed in the depths of the stream and Kagome was forcibly reminded of the blank ring that she had carelessly thrown into it. Several times, she had returned to its banks to search for the little piece of white plastic, even traveled downstream a bit to see if it had washed up, but to no avail. It had vanished.

 

Pulling her thoughts back to the present, she regarded the profile of the demon next to her. An aquiline nose, high cheekbones, and a tapered jaw lent him an effeminate beauty that she was sure aided him in his perverted escapades. It was the magenta stripes that started at the base of his elven ears to slash across his cheeks to which her eyes kept wandering: so fierce and mysterious. And she could positively kiss that little blue crescent moon…

 

“Sesshomaru?” she said before she even knew it had slipped out. He turned toward her, the cool fire in his eyes somewhat daunting, but now that she'd started, she wasn't going to back down. “Why are you here?”

 

His lips suddenly distracted her: pale, full, and beautifully shaped. Entranced, she waited for them to stir, pressing her own together in remembrance of their silkiness. Her mouth was suddenly parched and the air just a little too heavy to breath, a warm weight pressing on her chest as her lungs struggled to expand. She licked her lips and watched as his moved to form words that did not reach her ears. If only he weren't quite so tall, then she could stand on her toes to reach them…

 

`He's bending down,' she noted in wonder as he lowered his head, his burnished bangs lifting from his forehead to dance in the gentle breeze. `Should I kiss him? I really want to but he's been so aggravating these past days.' He was saying something again but she paid it no mind, forgetting that she had asked him a question in the first place. `Then again, he's being really sweet now and maybe I should reward good behavior…'

 

He cocked his head and a quizzical light flickered at the backs of his eyes, giving them a playful sparkle that launched a bevy of butterflies from a hidden corner of her stomach. Her blood became a quiet roar in her ears, drowning out everything but her own fascination of the man before her. Each quiver of his eyelashes and quirk of his mouth, the dappling of the summer sun in his hair and the contrast of his crests against the pale skin of his face, the countless tiny creases in his lips opened mystery upon mystery that she was compelled to solve.

 

Placing a hand on his un-armored chest, she rose to her tiptoes, tilting her head and parting her lips to fully receive him, her eyes fluttering closed. The colorful bunch of flowers in her hand dropped slowly to her side to rest against her thigh, the ends of the silk cord tickling her calf. Relentless, her pulse thrummed steadily faster as it beat down any lingering doubts and hesitations, leaving only one giddy thought to spin through her head, `I really, really want to kiss him…'

 

 

 

A/N: Ha ha! Yes, I am leaving you there. You may thank my beta for that idea - she is absolutely brilliant. And that little cliffy is dedicated the Chaos-and-Serenity, who not only leaves fantastic reviews, she also ends her chapters on evil little precipices that make one fall out of chair.