InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Quadrangle ❯ No Regrets ( Chapter 11 )

A/N: Lemon Warning.

 

Conchita - when I saw your reviews, I knew I recognized your handle but couldn't quite put my finger on it…then I remembered! Unwilling Indulgence! I'm so thrilled that an author that I admire actually likes my silly drabble. *happy dance*

 

Elixir of Destiny - Thanks! It's been fun playing with his character in this story because he is so rarely out of his element. Sensuality and Longing! Oh my!

 

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

 

Chapter 11 - No Regrets

 

Twining her fingers in the silky hair that spread over her like a blanket, Kagome sighed and tried to ignore the insistent tug of her mind back to consciousness. The arm around her waist tightened fractionally and the chest beneath her cheek rumbled quietly, just for her. Well, she liked to think that it rumbled for her, but she knew in her heart of hearts that it couldn't be so. He was with her for reasons of his own and she probably didn't want to know them, anyway. It was only a matter of time before he stole away his warmth and the peaceful contentment that came with his melodic voice and golden eyes.

 

`Besides,' she reminded herself, `I'm on my way home and that will be that.' The thought filled her with a sudden, sickly dread, but of what, she didn't know. Curling in closer against the youkai that had somehow become her anchor, she tried to leach from him as much of his presence as she could, gathering it inside of herself and holding it close to remember when this world had been left behind.

 

She felt him shift under her, cool knuckles tucking under chin and tilting it up. Eyes blinking open, she met his slight frown with a sad smile. His frown deepened imperceptibly but the heat in his eyes scorched her soul with its intensity, blinding her with a golden rain of fire, reaching into her and rousing a part of her that had lain dormant for years. As if under a compulsion, she loosened her fingers from his hair to stroke the stripes on his cheeks with her thumbs, cupping his face with her hand. His eyelids dropped to bank those smoldering embers and suddenly, she couldn't stand to be so far from them. Pulling herself up his body with a hand on his armless shoulder, she pressed her lips to his, almost groaning when his arm wrapped around her back to crush her close. She tasted him desperately and he met her hunger with a fervor that rivaled her own.

Scraping his fangs against her tongue, he drank in the drops of her life's essence with a greed he'd never known he possessed. Even her blood held the dazzling spark that was uniquely Kagome and it blistered and danced on his palate. Too soon, her lips abandoned his as she sat back, eyes wide and a little glassy.

 

“Bath,” she mumbled, pulling herself out of his lap and taking a couple of shaky steps toward her yellow pack. Fishing around until she regained her composure and found what she wanted, she stood and hugged the bundle to her chest, in awe of and embarrassed by her own brazenness.

 

“Where do you think you're going?” she asked the inuyoukai who had stood and looked to have every intention of following her.

 

Sesshomaru growled softly as she spun and hurried out of the glowing ring of firelight, wondering how a bath could possibly exclude him. One did not kiss this Sesshomaru like that and then go bathe alone.

 

`Who knew,' Kagome wondered as she willed her blood to still, placing her fingertips on bruised, swollen lips as she scurried down the path that Shippo had assured her led to a moderately warm spring. `Who knew that the cold-hearted Sesshomaru could be so passionate?' She was very glad she had the forethought to ask where it was before she'd taken that nap. It would have been mortifying to flee, and then have to return to camp to ask, and then run off again. The kids were sleeping; she would have had to wake one of them up or ask Sesshomaru, and by that growl, she doubted he'd appreciate it! She came to an abrupt halt. `You ran away again, silly girl. When are you going to stop running?'

 

She glanced over her shoulder into the darkling woods, considering going back to get him. `Keh. Like he'd want to do that with you. You all but attacked him when you woke up.'

 

`I didn't hear him complain. And what about the other night?'

 

`He was in Inuyasha's body, remember? Inuyasha is always a little more emotional on his human nights. It stands to reason that Sesshomaru was a little more emotional as a hanyou.'

 

`Right…but still…I wonder what it would be like. Would it be so wrong, just once? I'm leaving soon anyway.' Her eyes grew distant as she stared back toward camp. It was as if she could sense him; his frustration was almost a tangible thing and if she reached out, she could tap that thread…

 

She shook her head, `You're imagining things, you hussy.' With an exasperated sigh, she stomped up the path to the spring. Kicking off her shoes and pulling off her socks, she put an experimental toe in the water, wincing at Shippo's definition of warm. Perhaps not cold, it certainly wasn't as warm as she'd hoped. Grimacing, she stripped and waded in up to her hips, soaps in tow.

 

Scrubbing down her body with a foamy loofa and letting the conditioner sit in her hair, the hairs on the back of her neck began to prickle and that sense she'd felt earlier returned with full force, though now the thread felt more like a cord. Hastily scanning the trees, she almost dropped the sudsy wad of plastic, but she couldn't see anything. Brow furrowed in consternation, she continued to scrub, taking special care to exfoliate her elbows. She'd read somewhere that smooth elbows were sexy elbows, and though she didn't know what could possibly be sexy about elbows, she exfoliated anyway.

 

There it was again; the awareness of him, so close that she could almost taste him, and he was tugging on that strange strand that seemed to connect him to her. She did drop the loofa this time and took an alarmed step backward, splashing ungracefully. `Hentai! He's watching me!' She ducked into the water and choked back a scream, staying there a moment before hastily rinsing the conditioner from her hair with trembling fingers. When he didn't show himself, she settled down, a wild, deliciously naughty idea occurring to her.

 

`It's now or never. Do you really want this? If he takes you up on it, there's no going back.' Hesitating, she chewed her bottom lip. `What about Inuyasha?'

 

`This isn't about Inuyasha, it's about me.' Before she could talk herself out of it, she smiled wickedly into the darkness that hid his perch and scooped up the loofa and body wash that floated near her. Taking exaggerated care to squeeze soap into the plastic folds and work it into lather, she stood again and straightened an arm, soaping it slowly, starting at the fingertips and working up to her shoulder and across her chest. When both arms were liberally covered with white foam, she brought the puff between her breasts and squeezed, smiling lazily as a long trail of suds slid down her belly. Throwing her head back so that the wet strands of her hair touched her butt, she soaped each breast with languid circles, for once glad that the cool water had hardened her nipples.

 

She heard a quiet rustle from where she knew he sat and turned her back, offering a fine view of her tiny waist and flared hips that would disappear into the water just below two dimples. Dipping the loofa into the water, she held it to her shoulder and squeezed out the water, letting a soapy stream cascade down her back. She froze at the sound of sloshing water, then forced her hand back into the spring and to her other shoulder, adding a small toss of her hair for effect.

 

She gasped when hot lips met her neck, nipping at the small protrusion of her spine at the base and trailing kisses across her shoulders. A long, wet tongue lapped at the water that beaded on her skin and the poof was plucked out of her limp fingers to be tossed into the spring. Knuckles grazed down her ribcage, tickling deliciously and sending a flush through her body that sizzled the water that clung to her flesh, enveloping them both in a cloud of sweet steam. Cool water was poured over her back and she cried out in shock as the cold fingers of liquid slithered down her body, followed by a searching mouth and nibbling fangs. He caught the skin of her hip in his teeth and suckled, drawing a guttural sound from her throat and an eruption of gooseflesh.

 

Her knees buckled and a strong arm wrapped around her, supporting her weight with a hand on her breast. Her heart almost stopped, a rush of adrenaline tingling through her limbs, so alarming was the sight of his claws splayed against her flesh, and the lips on her back froze. Bracing herself against the demon behind her, she pulled his hand from her breast and in front of her face, forcing herself to trace each purple stripe on his wrist with her fingertips. His silky head nudged her back, encouraging her to take her time, gliding a cheek across her skin until his breath tickled her waist. Drawing his hand to her face, she rested her cheek in his palm, waiting for her heart to resume a more normal pace before brushing feather light kisses along the base of his thumb. Slowly, she let his claws slide down her face and over her neck, concentrating on pleasure they wrought instead of the remembered pain.

 

In one swift movement, he'd turned her around and swept her up against his chest, holding her there with his arm while he devoured her mouth. As soon as her feet hit solid ground, he bore down on her, lowering her to the bank where he'd spread his hakama and Mokomoko-sama and pressing the length of his body against her.

 

“What are you doing to me?” he whispered against her mouth as he nipped at her bottom lip and ran his hand over the contour of her flank. His erection was hard against her thigh, promising a dark fulfillment for which she burned.

 

She shook her head and buried her hands in his hair to run her fingers through the silver strands that curtained them from the rest of the world. Finding satin flesh beneath his hair, she traced his spine with her fingertips, gathering the courage to quest lower, cupping his firm cheeks and squeezing.

 

He growled, slipping his hand between the thighs that she parted willingly, and laved his mark, delighted by how the heat of her flesh scalded his tongue. Only now did he regret the loss of his other arm, wanting to touch more of her with every fiber of his being.

 

Nudging aside tender folds with the tip of his member, he hovered at the entrance of that blazing furnace, already slick and swollen. She squeezed his butt again, rolling her hips and letting him slide against her, spasming when he brushed against a part that shot darts of ecstasy through her core. She rolled her hips again and he stilled her with a growl; he knew she was untouched and did not want his youkai to hurt her when he took her. And if she moved like that again, he would not be held responsible for his actions.

 

She thrashed her head and groaned, almost a feral yowl, and the heat that poured from her pores licked at his body like flame. He was losing the battle with his youkai and his noble intentions of easing her into her first coupling were shattered by her nails digging crescents into his skin. He entered her swiftly, stopping only when he could go no further and matching her shriek with a growl that shook them both.

 

He stretched her almost to the point of breaking, parts of her screaming that she'd never felt before. She'd had no hymen to tear, years of rough travel and tampons had seen to that, but the new sensation was unbearable and glorious all the same. Bending her knees and tilting her hips, she moaned as he filled more of her before pulling out, leaving an aching void in his wake. She rose to meet him as he plunged into her again, moving slowly as he slid his body against hers, coating them both with a sheen of musky sweat.

 

Centuries of control unraveled in an instant, mercilessly shredded by the thrum of power beneath her skin and tang of desire that spiraled in her scent. She was all he could smell or taste, her sharp cries of pleasure all he could hear, but he couldn't get close enough to her, not even sheathed inside or blanketing her body with his own. She seemed oddly out of reach even as she clutched his shoulders and clenched around him, goading him to a desperate frenzy of need.

 

Unaware of the pink light flickered around them, building in intensity as they drove each other past the point of coherent thought, they hit their peaks simultaneously and for an instant, joined more completely than either thought possible. Moments later, the bubble of light exploded into countless shimmering points of color that whirled and scattered about the enraptured couple. Sesshomaru collapsed heavily on top of her, robbed of consciousness by the wash of purification.

 

Kagome crawled back to reality, blinking against the drops of light that floated soundlessly to the ground like snow. Sesshomaru was a dead weight on her body, and bliss blurred into fear as she realized that the air hummed with purification.

 

“Sesshomaru, are you okay?” she jiggled his arm that lay limply across her chest, the air rushing out of her in a sigh of relief when he finally blinked groggily and grunted.

 

Was he okay, what an interesting question. Would he survive the surge of purification? Yes. Could he live without the creature beneath him? No. He wasn't sure if that fit the definition of `okay' or not. However, he was certain that things would work themselves out after a nap, for this Sesshomaru always got what he wanted.

 

Kagome had somehow missed the memo on the prudence of sleep after sex, never having had previous experience of afterglow or the lethal fallout that sometimes accompanies it.

 

`He didn't bite me again,' Kagome thought as the night breeze dried the sweat on her exposed skin, chilling her despite being sandwiched between a fur pelt and a large demon. His nose was buried in the crook of her neck, breathing moist air against the puncture scars he'd left days before but hadn't reopened. She kind of missed that; it had been painful but in a dangerously erotic sort of way. Was he going to let them fade now that he was back to normal? She supposed he would since he didn't really need her anymore. And what did she care; she was going home for good soon and they would have faded anyway. Still, she was irritated; she was good enough to fuck but not good enough to belong to him.

 

`Maybe you're reading too much into this?' the thought bubbled up through her growing frustration and doubt and she viciously popped it. Frowning, she tried to scoot out from under him but was pinned in place when he trapped her legs between his and slid his hand underneath her back, the movement reminding her that they were still quite intimately joined. `Kami, but he's a heavy dog when he wants to be,' she squirmed again and he growled in her ear, more of purr than anything else, and she gave up. This was what she'd wanted, after all, a special memory to treasure when the mundane world of jobs and traffic tickets reasserted itself. No matter that it wasn't with the right dog…

 

Blinking up at the stars that winked overhead, she stopped that train of thought and held it up to the faint starlight. `That's not right, is it. I could have stayed with Inuyasha but I didn't. I let him go.' Sesshomaru rumbled that strange purr again, snuffling slightly as he pressed his nose into her hair. The tenderness of his touch brought a familiar sting to her eyes and she blinked rapidly to clear them. `Oh, why did I do this? It's made everything so much more complicated than it had to be.'

 

One hot tear escaped her efforts and slid down her cheek, puddling in the ridges of her ear. A wet tongue snaked into her ear, lapping at the salty liquid and then tracing its path up her cheek. Helpless against the frisson that shook her body, she tangled her fingers in his hair and laid her cheek against his. Chasing away the confusion that was threatening to strangle her, she closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of their lovemaking. `No regrets.'

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

“What was that?” Miroku sat up sharply, knocking his staff over and setting the little gold rings to jingling. “Did anyone feel that?”

 

Sango yawned and gave the monk a speaking glare from her makeshift bed against Kirara. “Feel what, monk?”

 

Rubbing his bangs out of his face and smoothing his short ponytail, he tried to get the fine hairs that had stood to attention to lay properly again. “A flare of immense spiritual power,” he shivered and chafed his arms. “Lady Kikyou? You must have felt it.”

 

The woman made a noncommittal sound and rolled over in her bedroll. She had not felt it and it was beginning to worry her. After Sesshomaru's comment about her not being much of priestess, she'd tried to exercise her miko powers to gauge what'd he meant and had come up with nothing. She had lost her power or it lay dormant. Either way, she was not about to admit it.

 

Miroku gave her a calculating stare, fairly certain of what was going through her mind but willing to let her keep her secret if she so chose. Neither Inuyasha nor Kikyou would tell them why they'd both run away with the jewel or why Kagome had left with Sesshomaru again. Time would reveal all; he'd just have to wait…perhaps until the new moon, when he could beat it out of the truculent hanyou.

 

“Inuyasha?” he called up to said hanyou who was sitting in the same tree in which he'd taken residence when they'd decided to camp, refusing to come down even for dinner and hardly saying a word.

 

“Shut up and go to sleep,” came the gruff reply, and Miroku figured that was all he was going to get out of him that night.

 

Sango yawned again and curled up with her back to the fire. “As much as I hate to say it…he's right. If it was spiritual, then it probably won't attack us tonight. I don't think it's anything to worry about.”

 

Miroku shrugged and picked up his staff to lean against his shoulder, settling his back against the tree. They might dismiss it now, but he had a feeling that it was important somehow and directly concerned them. However, he could wait until morning to ponder it.

 

Inuyasha listened as the breathing of his comrades slowed and deepened, signaling their passage into sleep. He had felt it and it troubled him, greatly. The only sources he could think of with that much spiritual power were Kikyou and Kagome, and it sure as hell hadn't come from Kikyou. He had half a mind to race off toward the source but the other half warned him away, showing him Kagome's hard eyes as she kneeled in front of him: I'm sorry, Inuyasha, but I'm tired and I just…I just can't.

 

What had she meant? Can't what? She just wanted a break, right? Go home, take some tests or whatever, cool off, just like always. In no time at all, she'd be sitting him so hard he'd need a cold compress on his back. He deserved that kind of sitting! Then, he'd make everything up to her, tell her how much she meant to him. Sighing, he clenched his fist, digging claws into his palms. He hoped that this was all it was. She'd never just walked away from him like that, not to join someone else. Try as he might to tell himself that she would get over her anger and come back to him, he couldn't shake the relentless anxiety that amplified his insecurity and insisted that no, she just couldn't, that he'd lost her.

 

But what had set off that immense burst of purification? Were they fighting something? If his brother allowed so much as a scratch to mar her skin, he'd rend him limb from limb. Growling harshly, he was standing on the branch, Tetsusaiga gripped in white knuckles, before he caught himself. Though strong, the power did not feel like it was released in self-defense. A heavy knot of foreboding tightened in his stomach; whatever had been the cause of that flare of power, he should have been there to stop it but now it was far too late.

 

With stiff, jerky movements, he sat back against the tree trunk, for once not being able to find a comfortable spot. He couldn't leave; he still had a woman to protect, didn't he? He'd promised…and oh, how bitterly that word dissolved on his tongue.

 

He glanced down at the miko huddled in sleep below him. If he'd known the phrase, “distance makes the heart grow fonder”, he would have admitted (though not out loud) that he understood it perfectly. Now that he had her back as living being, he couldn't quite remember what he'd loved so dearly about her. She was melancholy, quietly impatient and suffered his brusque façade with a resigned tolerance. Her smile was rare and forced, never quite finding its way to her eyes. Kagome's spunk and kindness, hot temper and forgiving nature were completely absent. `She's not Kagome,' he mused silently to himself. `And Kagome's not Kikyou.'

 

XxxxxxxxX

 

Jolted awake by a kitsune bottom to the gut, Kagome shielded her eyes against the garish morning sun and groaned. Shippo bounced on her stomach again, his green eyes dancing with mischief.

 

“It's past breakfast time and Rin and I are hungry,” he stated with a knowing little grin.

 

“Since when did my body become a trampoline?” Kagome grouched at the peppy kit, holding him still with two hands under his armpits. Shippo's grin stretched across his face and Kagome just sighed. “Okay, okay, I'm getting up.”

 

“You might want to get dressed first,” he suggested, desperately trying not to break into unmanly giggles, especially when Kagome just stared at him blankly. “Unless you've decided to wear fur?”

 

Opening her mouth to ask what he meant, Kagome glanced down at herself and realized that she was wrapped in Sesshomaru's Mokomoko-sama - and nothing else. With a strangled squeak, she dropped the kit and hoisted the edge of the pelt up to her chin, dismayed when it shifted to reveal most of one leg. Blushing, she huddled under the fur and fumed. How had she gotten back to camp in the first place? They had fallen asleep on the bank of the spring…Sesshomaru must have woken up and brought them back, but he wasn't with them now. Some favor; if they'd stayed by the spring then at least she could have entered the campsite with her dignity (and apparel) in tact.

 

“Where's my clothes?” she hissed at the kitsune who had lost the fight with laughter and was now madly cackling and clutching his stomach. Shippo shook his head and pointed toward a small bundle near the path to the spring.

 

“Did you have a nice bath?” Rin asked innocently and Kagome's face flushed darker, which sent Shippo into new peals of laughter.

 

“Shippo, I swear, you've spent too much time with Miroku,” she huffed, gathering the heavy pelt around her body and stomping toward her clothes. Snatching them from their drape over spiked metal, she stormed around the nearest tree and struggled into her cream blouse and blue skirt, realizing belatedly that her undergarments were missing. Were they still sitting on the bank of the spring? She made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and tried to twitch the wrinkles out of her skirt. Running her fingers through her hair to detangle some of the knots, she decided she looked presentable enough, though she was certain she could use another bath. Even to her weak human nose, she smelled strongly of Sesshomaru. No wonder Shippo knew what they'd been up to.

 

Stepping out from behind the tree that had served as her changing screen with the Mokomoko-sama draped over her arm, she put on her best no-nonsense face and planted a fist on her hip. A more sober Shippo snickered behind his hand but managed to hold back the bulk of his mirth. Pursing her lips, Kagome fought another blush and gave him a cool stare. “And you wonder why Inuyasha always beat up on you.”

 

Shippo's hand dropped from his mouth as the hilarity drained from his eyes. “Sesshomaru-sama doesn't hit me.”

 

Instantly feeling bad for her words, Kagome dropped the pelt on top of the armor and swept the little kit into her arms. “No, he doesn't.”

 

Hopping up from her seat near the fire, Rin skipped over and wrapped her arms around Kagome's waist, resting her head on her chest next to Shippo. “Shippo and Rin are happy for you, but Shippo thinks your red face is funny.”

 

Kagome rolled her eyes but gave both children a final squeeze before sending them back to their seats by the campfire. In several short minutes, she had hot cereal boiling in the water Shippo must have fetched earlier that morning and was watching the children color with Shippo's crayons. Smiling fondly, she went to work on the snarls in her hair, brushing it until is shone. Embarrassment aside, she would miss these mornings and the children she'd come to think of as her own. It was strange how easily Rin had burrowed into her heart, joining Shippo in that special place where maternal instinct guided her. And Sesshomaru…

 

As if materializing from her thoughts, she felt his presence appear at her back and expanded her aura to brush against his youki. He returned her ethereal caress, and then settled a large hand on her shoulder. Covering those deadly claws with her fingers and holding them gently, she leaned her head against his arm. `Aren't you annoyed with him over not biting you?' her inner voice suggested.

 

`I don't really have the time for that, do I?' she scolded her mental voice into silence. For one night, the beautiful demon had been hers and despite his reasons for allowing it, she wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

A hissing and sputtering erupted from the small campfire and Kagome leapt from her seat to save breakfast. Pouring out servings of porridge, she handed bowls to the children and raised an eyebrow to Sesshomaru, who shook his head once.

 

“Why can't we have Ramen for breakfast?” Shippo asked, eyeing his breakfast with distaste.

 

“Just eat it, Shippo. We have a long day of travel ahead of us if we want to reach the village tonight.”

 

“Why do you want to go home so badly, Kagome? You're not still mad at me, are you?”

 

Kagome sighed and smoothed his hair back into his ponytail. “No, Shippo, I'm not angry. It's just something I have to do.” This was going to be more difficult than anything she'd ever imagined, leaving them all behind. Claiming a bowl for herself, she ate slowly, trying to capture and retain the flavor of oatmeal cooked over a campfire. However, the cereal coated her tongue like wet cardboard and she ended up giving the rest to Rin, who had wolfed hers down as soon as it was placed in her hands. Maybe next time, she'd bring back that instant oatmeal with dried fruit and loads of sugar…Kagome stopped that train of thought before it could take root in her mind. `This is it. There won't be a next time.'