InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Oden Shop ❯ Nautilus' Library, Captain Nemo and M. Aronnax ( Chapter 11 )

Nautilus' Library, Captain Nemo and M. Aronnax

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

The favorite part of this apartment was his library, the monstrosity chest of historical treasures he had kept along the centuries.

It was divided in two open decks; the room itself was annular-shaped like the library Captain Nemo's described in Jules Verne's 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea', high pieces of furniture that supported upon their wide shelves a great number of books, following the shape of the room, terminating at the lower part in huge divans, covered with brown leather, which were curved, light movable desks, made to slide in and out at will, allowed one to rest one's book while reading. The working area was in the centre of the room, books were professionally ordered under his administration, as if he was a learned librarian. And Kagome understood now how Aronnax must have felt when he first stepped into the Nautilus' library.

The library resembled the Nautilus' down to the meticulous detail in the shape that Kagome couldn't resist the question which was burning to be let out, she had to ask him, she just had to, "so, how many books do you have here?"

Sesshoumaru gritted through his teeth an incoherent answer.

"Excuse me?"

"I said twelve thousand!" He glared at her.

Kagome bit her lower lip, she was suppressing a smile, and she was congratulating herself. The great Sesshoumaru-sama had a fancy, and his fancy was so adolescent-like that it warmed her heart through and through, no doubt that he admired Captain Nemo as well, well maybe not admiration, for he would never admit that, but respect would be more suited.

But she still had to press upon it, she would never let him live this down she decided, "You know that it was created by a lowly human, right?"

"I'm perfectly aware of that, wench, but humans have some qualities that I intend to explore thoroughly," he answered with a low seductive tone of voice as he advanced towards her.

"Sesshoumaru, not here in the library, I warned you," she admonished him, wiggling her finger at him.

"You dare to order this Sesshoumaru?" He lifted one of his eyebrows as he continued to advance towards her.

"No, Captain… I just…" Kagome answered in a mock tone of maid defending her virtue as she slowly backed away from him, Sesshoumaru's eyes twinkled with lust.

Suddenly she choked a giggle, "I'm sorry, but I can't do that, that's so silly," she giggled until her stomach hurt. Sesshoumaru stopped, there was a shadow of disappointment in his eyes that Kagome felt compel to ask, "You're not actually enjoying this role game, are you?"

He shrugged, "I won't mind when you addressed me as such."

"What? As pervert?" He glared, "you're ruining the mood, Kagome."

"Well, I wanted too, I just want to read, okay? So control your libido, Cap'n," she spanked him on his butt, feeling bold all of a sudden, but it quickly changed when she saw into his eyes, they were blaring with hot white desire, she pleaded, "Sesshoumaru… not here and now, Shippou could just barge in without-"

But her words were caught by his hot lips and hands made their way complacently to her hips, lifting her up so that she was straddling him, she broke the contact, nuzzled her flushed face against his lovingly. "In hundred years from now, would you still want me like this?" She whispered huskily, her lips trailing the pointed shape of his ear.

He smiled against her hair, "maybe I still would, but I would be a little more tender than now, but one thing is for sure," he guided her hand to his chest and held it there, "this only beats for you."

~*~

When she finally had the chance to roam his library, she felt the lust that she had thought died a long time ago, the lust to learn everything new, the lust to consume knowledge, the lust to become everything. She somehow felt that now she couldn't content herself doing what she thought she had done best, she had to do better, it was in her blood.

In her heart she was still that high school girl clutching a textbook, preparing herself for exams or doing homework, this sense of duty was her obsession in the past; it was the only thing, the only reason to guarantee herself of her importance to be in the other side of the well, the evidence that she had a life beyond Sengoku Jidai, something to do besides thinking about her unrequited love, but with the time this sense of duty became a perverse joy to hold as a threat under Inuyasha's nose, the threat of leaving him, and every time he would also tag along with it, behaving like he was supposed to, it was a daily pattern of securing their relationship.

When she read a book, she always breathed the scent of it in once she opened them, as if books had fragrances that would hint their contents and then she would run the palm of her hand along the texture of the paper, running her finger over the characters, she was beautiful when she was studious.

Sesshoumaru stole his way quietly in the library to see her, always this crave to be near her, everyday he found a new aspect that would drive him feverish with desire for her, her thin wrist, the little mole on the back of her left hand, the way she tucked her hair behind her ear, the way she scrunched up her cute little nose when she stumbled upon little something that would bother her, the way her back would hunch over in her stool and then straighten herself up like a girl playing a piano for the first time, and he would stood somewhere in the dark, stalking her movement.

He watched the way she read a book as if she was intimating the printed characters and he couldn't help feeling a little jealous over the manuscript, but then he caught her frown, he read the title of the book she was holding and in a flash he was beside her and grabbed the book away from her.

"Sesshoumaru?!" Kagome was truly shocked; it was unlike him to be rude.

"Ehm, I need to look over some words in this book, it's quite important, for work, you see," he said matter-of-factly.

She nodded, dumbfounded as he turned his back on her, distancing himself a bit, quietly and carefully he cut a few pages from the book with his claw, it was a fine cut, no one would notice that the pages were missing.

He gave her the book back, hiding the few pages he had taken from her scrutiny. "Did you find the words you've been looking for?" Kagome asked tentatively and he nodded, so she continued her reading of the 'red sorghum', searching the page she left off.

When she was in the middle of the story she suddenly felt that there was some missing plot in the story, an occurrence that ought to be in the book wasn't there, she leafed through the book and find nothing, she was exasperated, how could the writer not write the event that he was always hinting?

Sesshoumaru heard her loud sigh from the other side of the room and had to bite back a laugh, he was feeling a bit guilty too, but she needed to be protected from such image.

And the next morning he found her reading another book, he examined the title 'tropic of cancer' and immediately he went to her side, snatched the book away from her and melted it down with his toxic claw.

She sat there agape, her eyes widened over his behavior, and then something seemed to sink in as she narrowed her eyes on him, he was censoring her reading! At first she was touched and then she was angered, how dare he to decide what she should read or not!

He averted her eyes, as she began to address him he quickly made his way out, and there she was once again dumbfounded by his conduct.

~*~

When she was not with him at the time of the day, what would he do? He didn't call her twenty times in a day, he would never do that, he let his secretary called her for him.

Sometimes only to ask some silly questions like if she didn't forget to change the clock battery, of course that was important because of the last incident, but when he asked through his secretary for about twice a day, she felt like she was going to go mad.

But sometimes he also let the secretary called her under the pretense that Shippou wanted to check on her, as he listened to her voice the half of his heart that felt empty seemed to fill itself, that was why he couldn't leave her alone.

Though at one time she was really irritated at him for waking her up too early in the morning, as he heard her sleepy voice conversing with his secretary he was suddenly taken aback to hear her curse at him, not to mention the fifty years old spinster of secretary, she apologized profusely at the lady but before she hung up she lashed out one vulgar curse at him, after that he found himself grinning like mad the whole afternoon.

~*~

Like a jealous wife who inspected her husband's belonging once a day was how he behaved when she found him looking through her closet.

He turned to her and asked her accusingly, "there are some male items in this closet."

She sweatdropped, "Eehm… sometimes I like to wear men's pajama top when I go to sleep."

"Yes, I know, but where did you get them? And don't tell me you bought them yourself because I could faintly smell a scent of another man in it," he crossed his arms over his chest and continued to narrow his eyes on her.

'Uh-oh…' she panicked a little, should she tell him that the clothes belonged to her brother, no, she wouldn't lie to him, "they belonged to a friend of mine, he used to sleep over in my apartment, after I moved here we lost contact, but one day when we met, I asked him if he would like his belongings back, but he said to throw them away, it seemed that I haven't found the time to do that, so there they are." She drew out a long sigh of relief.

He still was in his defense stance, and continued to look at her coldly, "there are also some boxer shorts in underwear drawer."

"No, I don't wear them," she answered quickly, maybe a bit too quick for his taste, so he narrowed his eyes on her again.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome sighed, "you must've noticed how I sorted out my clothing, underwear went to the underwear drawer, socks in socks drawer and so on, it was nothing special really that I kept them there, and what the hell are you doing rummaging my drawers anyway?"

He was slightly taken aback by her question and answered indifferently, "I was removing your belongings to my room."

She was… she was touched, the word was touched and the feeling of warmness crept into her inner being, sensing the mood he took a step towards her and enveloped her in his warm embrace, but then he pulled back and grabbed a strange bundle as he make his way out of her room.

She frowned, "Sesshoumaru, where are you going?"

"I'm going to burn them," he answered in a defiant tone, daring her to change his mind, "and then you're going to tell me all about your stay-over friend."

~*~

Kagome studied her face in front of a mirror, she had never noticed the shape of her nose before, it was indeed tiny, like a button he said when he sucked it lovingly into his mouth. She hadn't noticed too how the right side of her face was slightly wider than her left side, the asymmetry bothered her, she wanted to look perfect for him she said, and he answered, questioning her wish, why she should look perfect when she looked beautiful.

Such things flowed out of his mouth naturally, out of others it might sound cheap, but out of him had brought up more insecurity in her. How and where could he find her beautiful when she herself didn't see it?

She studied her eyebrow, when he caressed it lightly she always felt such flowing relaxation and content that she almost felt afraid to enjoy the caress, so she kept her eyes opened and fought the effect of his touch, only when she found his eyes that she lost herself. But now looking at her eyebrow she found it too thin.

He once asked her which part of her body she loved the most, she had to ponder real hard to answer his question, after a while she said that it was her nape that she loved the most, because she didn't get to see it often, and asked him the same question back, after a moment he answered that it was his hand, she turned away guiltily thinking it was his left hand that Inuyasha had once severed, but then he gripped her chin and forced her to look at him when he said it was his right side, because it protected him when his left couldn't and because it was the only hand that he allowed to finger her opening.

How could she hear that and be more frightened? It wasn't because that she was afraid of his strong sense of possessiveness, she was afraid to fall and fell hard.

When she fell and was disassembled by him, who would catch her and put the pieces back?

~*~

Kagome ran to get the phone that had been ringing for the fifth time.

She grabbed the receiver and a sweet voice greeted her, the caller was looking for Sesshoumaru, Kagome answered that he was at work and asked for the caller's name so that Sesshoumaru could call her back later.

"Rin's name is Rin."

*end of chapter*

The original Nautilus' library in '20000 Leagues under the Sea' contained 12000 books, in case you're wondering what Kagome was talking about.

AN: was that a cliffhanger? Wow, it wasn't my style at all, but I found it as an appropriate ending for this chapter, so let's not consider it as a cliffy but as a preview of what's going to happen in the next chapter, as usual, another plea for reviews when you read this. And allow me to thank all of you guys reviewer for the sweetest, kindest reviews, I guess I'm in a melancholic mood, this fiction is slowly reaching to its end and somehow I felt like I'm going to close a chapter in my own life's experience, oh God… how sappy, forgive this author, readers.

Daniy: how are you there under the bright side of the sun? And when it's raining, the sky is covered with grey clouds, like here by me, I wish you though to have rainbow and a warm sun after the rain. You are kind and sweet and should be blessed in every way. (Thanks for all your reviews from the beginning of this fiction)

LadySessho: Do you like me? Oh come on, admit it, you wouldn't write such review and took the trouble to create a sess-you-yasha-kag talk, if you don't. Well I admit it; I like you a whole lot! Thank you for the reviews that always escalated my heartbeat more than normal.

Gale89: oh God, thank you! Your review was more than I could ask for, thank you for reading this fic and being so nice.

Mystic Hanyou: thank you, I hope you like this chapter, and I really appreciate all the reviews you've been given me, thank you for the time you spare to read this fic and review it kindly, it made me feel good about myself.

White Tiger Princess: you're welcome, thanks for taking your time reading this fiction.

For the post reviewer in a single spark:

Himeno: glad you liked the chapter, thank you for your review, it really helped brightening my moods; you really are nice and sweet.

DemonGodessSlayer: Thank you, I will.

And Mindy, don't get stressed out because of your exams, you're going to pass with flying colors, girl, and then you can become a junkie, you know, biologist and discount for drugs, or am I wrong and an idiot?