InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Devotion ❯ Secret Attractions ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

have been working on this chapter for a long time so it’s a little bit longer than usual. This chapter is also mostly devoted to the Souten and Shippo pairing but the next one will have more Rin. Promise!

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The sleep didn’t help. Or it might have if he had been able to. Whenever Sesshoumaru had gotten even remotely close to falling asleep, his thoughts would wander back to Rin. He would remember her smiles and laughs and that he hadn’t had either for going on three days. But, as all proud people do when things don’t go the way they plan or they should exercise their ability to become sad, he became angry and irritable.

The days were beginning to blur together without anything to root him to the present. Every day he kept the Western Lands safe. It was only now that he realized why. For Rin. His demon servants could protect themselves well enough against the stupid, lesser demons that tried to cross into the Western Lands uninvited. But when he brought Rin here, he wasn’t satisfied until he knew that she was safe. It also occurred to him that maybe that was why he had been acting so strangely lately. She wasn’t there and if anything happened to her…he had told her…She was the one who ran off!

What did that mean? She didn’t need him anymore? Had this been in those first couple of days, he would not have been bothered in the slightest if she had decided not to follow him any further. But, why was he so unnerved at it now? He searched for an answer to tuck away the obvious answer. Then he found another way to keep him away from realizing his true feelings: because she had decided to take on the task of repaying her debt and should be held to it.

He should have gone to retrieve her right then. But Jaken was already well on his way so he decided no to bother. He had told him to go the next morning but he knew he might not live that long if he continued to get on his Lord’s nerves. Besides, if the toad came back without Rin, then he’d have a reason to hit him. Not that he needed one.

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After greeting everyone and showing them to the dining hall where a table full of food waited, Rin asked to speak to Souten in private.

“You know why they’re here. I told you that using the Pike was a bad idea. If they find it they’ll take the shard. Then what?”

“Calm down, Rin. We’re not going to tell them I have it. I’ll just refrain from using it until I have to.”

“You know how I feel about lying. I can’t do it. Not to Kagome. She’s been like a mother and a sister to me all these years.”

“The Thunder Pike is all I have left of my family’s legacy. I won’t let them take it.”

“I can’t sit there while you lie to them. However, I can’t let them take the Thunder Pike so…Tell them I went to my room to rest.”

“Thank you Rin,” she whispered in her friend’s ear as she held her close. Then she turned to walk away.

“Oh, and Souten…I think I saw Shippo blush when he saw you,” the mischievous matchmaker giggled before turning away herself.

‘Yeah, I’ll listen to you when you’ve straightened things out with Sesshoumaru,’ she thought before returning to the dining room. She stopped dead in her tracks and almost squealed with shock when she saw the scene before her.

InuYasha and Shippo were putting away the whole breakfast feast. Of course the others had eaten, but in reasonable portions. There was no way they were this hungry but it would be rude to ask them to stop so she took her place at the head of the table with a sigh, waiting patiently for them to finish.

“Where did Rin go?” asked Kagome.

“She was tired. She went to her room to rest. So, what brings you here?” she answered simply.

“Actually we’re looking for the last shard of the Shikon Jewel. You don’t know anything about it do you?”

“This meat is awesome. What is it?” InuYasha asked in between bites or should I say mouthfuls. Perfect timing. And she didn’t even have to lie. At least Rin would be happy.

“Human,” she answered. It was enough to make the two stop eating. She waited until she saw them flush before she let out a light chuckle. It was just a joke. “It’s just pig. I tried human before, once, when my brothers offered it to me. Honestly, I don’t know why they thought it was so appealing. I guess it’s like a taste in wine. Some have unusual methods to drinking theirs.” She saw all of them loosen up a bit. But a certain fox-demon wasn’t convinced.

“So you don’t eat human like your brothers?”

“Well thanks for breakfast. We’ll find ourselves some rooms if that’s all right with you. Come on InuYasha,” said the monk, Miroku.

“Why?” he said as he kept eating. It was astonishing that nothing ruined his appetite. Not even Souten’s grim humor.

“You really are dense,” sighed Kagome as the other two managed to guide him away from the table, leaving two very angry-faced demons to stare at each other.

When the voices receded far enough down the hall, they both silently agreed to continue.

“Do you eat Thunder Demon?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“I just assumed since you wished for their death so much you might have wanted to eat them. Does that make any sense to you?”

“They killed my father!”

She seemed shocked to hear this. She nervously put her finger at the corner of her mouth again. “And you killed my brothers! This is old news. Don’t mistake me for my brothers. If you do, you could end up overstaying your welcome much faster than you think.” She sighed after that. She really had hoped that all of that was in the past by now. Apparently, she was wrong. Oh, well.

That thing with her finger was so cute. Shippo just couldn’t stay angry with someone this beautiful, though he hated to admit it. He noticed that her eyes burned fiercely when she was angry. He barely heard her threat when other, more sinful, thoughts began invading his mind. Damn, he thought, he spent too much time around that lecherous monk. Then he saw sadness dim the fire in her eyes. It paled her beauty and he cringed inwardly, knowing he was the cause of it.

“I’m…sorry.” And there was the result of his time with InuYasha. The apology was forced. She could tell.

“Look, when you’re ready to pull your head out of your ass and make a real apology, come and find me.” She got up to leave.

“Wait…I got revenge a long time ago. I guess it shouldn’t matter if you’re their sister. You’re the one who is due for revenge. Can you forgive me?”

Those green eyes bored into her. They were so intense…and sincere. She sighed. “I suppose I can put this behind me. But I won’t forget.”

“Neither will I, and I don’t expect you to.”

“Then I guess I can show you into a room. Follow me.” She walked down the many halls of her domain. She remembered how lively this place used to be when she was a child. Every room always had someone in it. She had locked most of them by now. There was one wing that she kept open though. The wing that her family had inhabited when they were alive.
She went to the hall next to it and moved to unlock a door. Then something occurred to her.

“How many rooms do you need?”

“Huh? Oh, three.” InuYasha liked to be in the room with Kagome in case something happened and Miroku and Sango had gotten married quite a while ago.

“You’ll have to excuse the state of the rooms. No one has used them in years.” She proceeded to unlock the firstthree rooms on the left of the hall. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be back shortly.” She walked over to the other hall to lock the doors of her family and saw Kagome about to enter one of them. Not that one. She couldn’t believe she had left it unlocked.

“Kagome!” she yelled running down the hall. “You don’t want to go in that room. I already unlocked some for you on the next hall over.” She gently pushed Kagome aside and locked the door. Phew! That was close. She was just moments away from seeing all of the pictures she had drawn as a child. There was one in particular that no one else should see.

“Oh, okay. I’ll just go get the others.”

After Kagome had disappeared from view she went down the hall and locked all of the rooms except hers and Rin’s. Then she went back to the room that Shippo had chosen and knocked.

“Come in.”

She opened the door and stepped inside. There was something in the doorway that she hadn’t noticed and she tripped over it. She might have fallen if he wouldn’t have caught her.

“Sorry, bad habit,” he said. She gazed into those green eyes and her heart raced. ‘Too risky,’ she thought as she pulled away from his grip gently.

“I would have been fine. And if you’re going to leave stuff on the floor, at least make sure there’s room to walk.”

“Whatever. Did you come here for something more than to play the role of mom?”
It was so much easier to talk to him when they were peeved with each other. “I just wanted to tell you that the locked rooms are off-limits and I don’t have servants so it’s pretty much every man for himself. There’s not much to do here so you’ll have to find other methods to amuse yourself. I have to go and find a village with food because of how much you ate this morning, so I’ll be back later.”

“Can I come?”

“Why?”

“You said there’s nothing to do and it’s the least I could do since I’m going to be eating most of it.”

She wasn’t expecting that. “Why not. It is the least you can do.”

She led him outside to where Korryu was sleeping peacefully unaware of the new arrivals.

“He’s huge!” exclaimed Shippo.

“Yeah, a huge baby. Wake up Korryu!” she said before shooting a small shock of electricity at the dragon.

“I’m up! I’m up! Do you have to be so rough?”

The girl rolled her red eyes. “We need to find some food for later. We have guests. He’s going to help.”

“Hello Shippo. Maybe now she’ll stop talking so much about– Ow!” the girl had sent a slightly larger bolt at Korryu for not being able to keep his big mouth shut.

“Get on,” she ordered the fox demon after she climbed up onto Korryu’s back. With his fox legs he obeyed easily, sitting behind her.

“Hold on. That’s not exactly the easiest place to sit on Korryu.” He slipped his arms around her waist. For the first time, he knew why it was so hard for Miroku to keep his hands off of Sango.

Souten tried to tell herself that it was just out of necessity that she had asked him to put his arms around her. But when she felt the warmth of him behind her and the tenderness of his touch she knew that she subconsciously wanted this. When she felt his whole body tense behind her she knew that he wanted her just as badly. “L-let’s go Korryu,” she said shakily. The red dragon was happy for her as he lifted into the sky obediently.

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“How did you think I got food? It’s not exactly like I have a thousand vassals to work the land and pay me!”

“Still, I didn’t think you stole it!” It was a genius method he had to admit, but he was against stealing. She shot down a lightning bolt that made everyone scatter. Then in the confusion she grabbed as much food as possible.

They were back to square one. At least she didn’t have to deal with controlling her feelings anymore. “Get over it you weakling!”

“At least I’m not a coward!” His stomach rumbled.
An evil smile crept across her face. “Fine, then you just won’t eat tonight. How does that sound?”

“Hey!” he whined grabbing for her wrist. Korryu was faster and blew some fire at his tail making him scream in fear and run around in circles until it went out.

“She’s not a little kid anymore, Shippo. She could have done something far worse than setting your tail on fire. A word of advice: don’t get her bad side.”

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Author’s Note: That was a different ending than I was expecting when I started this chapter. I don’t think I’m so good at twists so any you guys send will be taken into consideration. Okay…I think I’ve gotten far enough in my story to ask my reviewers for some ideas when they review, although the “update pleases” are still welcome and appreciated greatly.