Instigation by Demonlordlover2
Instigation
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Disclaimer: All InuYasha characters depicted are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi and are copyrighted by Viz. All original characters and the plot are the intellectual property of Demonlordlover. All names and places, either factual or imaginary, are used for the purposes of entertainment only. Demonlordlover is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of InuYasha. Copyright infringement is NOT intended.
This story was written for Nuinzilien in thanks for her donation to A Single Spark
Instigation
by Demonlordlover
The immediate arrival of a potential danger had the birds darting out of their protected perches among the boughs of the blossoming trees. A light sprinkling of feathers and unfurled leaves floated on the gentle breeze, twirling and twisting in a graceful descent to land among the verdant greens and yellows of the newly sprouted grass and recently uncovered pillows of moss.
Scowl firmly in place, Kagome plucked a thorn from the soft material of her light blue sweater. She continued her march forward with military precision. The well house loomed on the horizon, and she was determined to make it to the sanctuary of its ancient shadows and the promise of unbroken silence.
Inuyasha had been insufferable for the last few weeks. Jealous rages and the entirely unacceptable possessiveness with which he treated her had sent her fleeing from his presence. The temptation to do permanent damage to his already short-circuited hanyou brain had grown entirely too alluring.
She would have thought even 500 years would have mellowed him out.
After Naraku's defeat, she had gone home. She had wanted to stay in the past with her friends. She really had. But... In the end, she had felt it was her duty to return home. Who knew what sort of problems could arise if she played havoc in the past?
There hadn't been a day since her return to the future that regret forgot to call on her. She had agonized over whether or not she should visit but had always chickened out. Surely her friends had moved on with their lives. It wouldn't be fair to play peek-a-boo with their emotions.
Five years after the defeat of Naraku she'd stumbled across a familiar youkai aura while walking home from work. She'd felt youki in her time before. Never had she recognized in a distant way the power! Curious and just a bit desperate to search out a remnant of an era long past, she'd chased after the fading signature.
Chest heaving and sweat beading on her forehead, Kagome had tracked the youkai to a small building on the outskirts of Tokyo. Imagine her surprise to find Sesshoumaru's mother! The markings were hidden, but the hair, the facial structure, it was all the same as Kagome remembered. Dressed in a silk blouse and a knee-length skirt of the palest pink, an incredibly white, fluffy piece of fur wrapped about her shoulders, she looked as if she had stepped out of a catalogue for the rich and famous.
About to back away in shock, Kagome had been snared by a piercing look from the youkai. A soft smirk had followed.
"You are the woman who traveled with the hanyou."
Surprised that the female knew who she was, let alone remembered after all these centuries, Kagome had nodded. Confronted with a potential answer to her burning question, she hadn't been able to quell the question that bubbled forth. "Do you know what happened to him?"
The female's nose wrinkled and she sniffed. "Much that I wish it was not so." She reached into a small bag and withdrew a gold embellished card. "This is my son's direction. Speak to him."
Nodding dumbly, Kagome had clutched the card to her chest while the female perused her rumpled blouse and plain beige skirt. Another haughty sniff and she was gone, leaving behind a cloud of perfume as the only reminder of her visit.
Even her trepidation over contacting Sesshoumaru hadn't stopped her from calling him as soon as she got home. A short conversation, in which she was grilled to ensure she was who she said she was, followed. Three hours later she opened her door to see Inuyasha standing on the stoop.
She'd been so happy to see him! She hadn't dared to hope he had survived to her time. According to him, Sesshoumaru had demanded the truth to her origins once he had been revived and noted her absence.
In order to ensure the timeline was not altered beyond her interference, he had then demanded Inuyasha leave her be until such a time as it was deemed safe. In other words, Inuyasha was to stay away until Sesshoumaru said otherwise. Frightened by the prospect of screwing up what had occurred in the past, Inuyasha had obeyed rather than fight the edict.
In the discussion that followed that revelation, Kagome was heart broken once more. Inuyasha had mated. She hid her sadness behind a watery smile, but he saw the pain. She knew he did. His bright smile had startled her.
Kagome slapped open the well house door. If only she had known! How stupid could she have been not to have taken into account how very different he was? That a human mother did not erase the millennium of youkai instinct he had inherited from his father?
She closed the well house door behind her, put her back against it and slid down to sit on the floor. Surrounded with the familiar musty odor of rotting wood and damp stone, she sighed.
He was more than mated. He was mated to two women. Two! And he wanted her to be the third. No, she corrected mentally. He more than wanted. He was practically taking the decision out of her hands! She was not about to accept what he offered, but he wouldn't leave her be about it!
It had become almost like an obsession for him. To add her to his little harem of mates cum wives. And the worst of it was that she knew his mates. Knew and wanted to keep them as friends. Wanted to keep him as a friend since anything else would be unacceptable.
Sango and Rin. Her two human friends from the past. How on earth Inuyasha had managed to mate Rin without Sesshoumaru decapitating him, Kagome couldn't figure out. Unless it had to do with her extended life. She couldn't see Sesshoumaru ever mating her, himself. So, to have her saved from mortality, he might have considered Inuyasha as mate material.
But two mates? Her modern sensibilities revolted at the notion. She would have been sad that he had forgotten her but also happy he had lived a good life had he taken one. By claiming Sango after the death of Miroku via a jealous husband and then taking Rin, her opinion of Inuyasha had suffered.
She loved him as a friend, but never again could she see him in a romantic light. His interest was certainly off-putting, to say the least!
Then, when she'd turned him down, he had turned stubborn. She wasn't allowed to see Sango or Rin, either, until she changed her mind. Her brief visits to them had shown they were happy with their lives. There had been something there, something she hadn't been able to decipher in the short amount of time allotted before Inuyasha had shocked her with his proposal.
Her declination had ended the visit and started the intense pursuit of her consent to be Inuyasha's third mate.
He scared away delivery boys. He slept on her roof. If she went out, he invited himself along. Without the rosary, the necklace lost during the battle to fight Naraku, she had no way to dissuade him. Words failed to penetrate the hanyou's thick skull.
Kagome sighed and drew her knee up to settle her chin on it. Obviously, instinct was involved. Maybe his stubborn refusal to give her up was because he had viewed her as his for so long, it was natural for him to claim her as a mate?
She didn't know much about dog demons, but going on his father alone, monogamy was not something to which that particular breed of youkai aspired. Intensely loyal, they were capable of vowing eternal protection. Born into an era where multiple wives was the norm, ask them to stick with one woman, and well, you had a problem.
Kagome sat a little straighter, eyes widening in realization.
Maybe that was why Inuyasha hadn't been able to choose between her and Kikyo before the other miko had been put to rest. He hadn't wanted to! He'd wanted both, like his father had wanted Sesshoumaru's mother and Izayoi.
Deep blue eyes narrowed into thin slits. The little, no good, philandering-
Kagome cut her thoughts off with a shake of her head. It wouldn't do to get mad at him for something she wasn't positive about in the first place. That left the problem of ridding herself of Inuyasha's interest without losing his friendship or her right to see Sango and Rin.
She groaned when the obvious answer came to her. She didn't know enough about Inuyasha or his instincts in regard to her after so long apart to formulate a course of action. She did, however, know someone who did. And, lucky her, she had his direction.
- - - - - - - - - -
"You see, I just wanted to ask if you knew how I could dissuade Inuyasha without, um, hurting his pride too much." Kagome's fingers twisted in the soft fabric of her sweater.
Seated behind a massive oak desk that had been stained a soft red, the Taiyoukai looked as imperious as she remembered. The large room was devoid of other furnishings aside from ceiling to floor book shelves and filing cabinets that sat against the walls. The cold of the tiled floor seeped through the thin material of her socks.
After she'd thought to ask Sesshoumaru how to handle Inuyasha, she'd marched out of the well house and called him. A car had been sent for her, and now she stood in his spartan study sweating out his intense regard.
Sesshoumaru watched the woman fidget. He leaned back in the leather chair as soon as she had finished, a headache already threatening to overtake his overtaxed patience. He'd assumed, given her friendship with the hanyou and the other mates in question, she would have been receptive to Inuyasha's suit.
Trust this woman to never respond as she ought, let alone how he had guessed she would.
"Your affection for the hanyou is obvious, miko," he stated bluntly. "Much as it pains me to admit, he is a stable protector and will see to your material needs."
Rin would have never been allowed into the hanyou's bed otherwise, Sesshoumaru added silently.
Hands fisted, Kagome gently brought them down to hang by her thighs before she allowed her temper to gain hold. She'd been there for an hour. Nothing had been resolved, and she was beginning to think this had been a terrible mistake.
Had she really expected Sesshoumaru to understand?
Voice low, she met his impassive gaze. "I am fond of him. As fond as I am of Sango and Rin, in fact. Had he not already been mated, I would probably be rejoicing right now. I refuse to give more than I already have, however, and will not be relegated to live as another one of his mates."
"You desire the position of first mate." He could understand such a demand. His own mother had been jealous of her position as first mate to his father. The slayer had been first mate, but given the miko's involvement in the demise of the late hanyou and her powers, that seemed reasonable enough a request.
She rolled her eyes. "No. I want to be the only mate. He can't give that to me, so I won't accept his offer."
Sesshoumaru arched a masculine brow. "You ask too much of the hanyou. Diluted as it may be, he carries my father's blood."
Grumbling, Kagome sighed. "I realized a few hours ago that his youkai blood probably meant he couldn't be faithful to one woman. Still, I didn't ask for anything, Sesshoumaru. He decided he wanted me to be his mate and now won't take 'no' for an answer!"
Golden slits met her statement. "His desire for many mates has nothing to do with his inability to accept your refusal." The things humans came up with.
Kagome blinked. "Excuse me? Then why does he have so many mates, and why doesn't he accept my refusal!"
Leaning forward, Sesshoumaru placed his forearms on the desk before him. Still seated, his glare pinned her to the floor. "It is the nature of youkai to claim as many mates as is feasible." He settled back against his chair, allowing his arms to fall to the arm rests, when she scowled at the explanation. "At one point it was a human practice as well, miko. A sign of power, as it were, that one male possessed enough strength and wealth to keep many females."
Kagome chewed on her bottom lip. "I knew that. And, to an extent, I realize that it isn't fair to expect youkai to be monogamous because humans have become so for the most part. I just want to know how to keep him from pestering me but not lose him as a friend."
He sniffed haughtily. "The time for such action was in the past. He views you as weak. A lesser member of his pack that had held an unnatural power over him. Unless you are willing to engage in a physical skirmish with him without the rosary you will not impress upon him your independence."
Surprised to find herself fighting back tears at the revelation, Kagome homed in on the most grievous of Sesshoumaru's charges. "I only used the rosary so he'd listen to me! That doesn't mean I'm weak!" Inuyasha was always so stubborn, so ready to charge into his own death rather than reason out an alternative solution.
"Do you really believe you could have subjugated the hanyou without the rosary?"
Chin jutting out in mutiny, Kagome gave a short jerky nod of her head. "I wouldn't have let him walk all over me, if that's what you're talking about!"
He smirked. "And yet you cannot control his actions any better now."
Frowning, Kagome was forced to bow to his logic. "This Inuyasha... He's different than the one from the past. If it's at all possible, he seems more set in his ways. More determined to force his own way through brute stubbornness."
"Time affects all. Hanyou, his blood would settle even further as he ages than a youkai. In the past, he most likely reconciled your control over him as being unnatural, a product of superior supernatural powers working against him. By its sundering with the rosary's loss, he was free to follow where instinct led. Now, in the present, it would be possible to convince Inuyasha that you are not weaker than he. However, in his formed pack, you would then have no place but where he once reigned. He is alpha. To displace him as such would cause resentment and bitterness. You would need to be on constant guard from challenges to reassert his dominance."
Sesshoumaru glared at the polished surface of his desk when the sounds of the other occupants of the manor broke his concentration. "As Alpha, he is obligated to see the females in his pack mated. If not to himself than to an equal of another pack."
That was how he had been ensnared four times. Others outside of his pack, allies all, had approached him about securing mates for their daughters. He, being the most suitably powerful, had been unable to refuse since it would have been an insult to their blood or a sign that he was too weak to care for a mate.
"Not being Alpha, yourself, only your Alpha has the right to refuse a suitor. Inuyasha considers himself as your Alpha, so he will do as he sees fit in regard to your status as an unmated bitch."
Kagome felt as if she had been punched in the stomach as all the air rushed out of her lungs. Inuyasha was so prideful. He had commented many times before about the rosary, his resentment aimed more toward it rather than her. She had thought it an odd quirk, since she was the one who controlled the rosary. He had, in reality, chosen to direct his frustration at the rosary rather than her in a roundabout way of preserving his position, since to grant her his ire would mean that it was she, not the subjugation magic, that had controlled him.
Kami, youkai instinct was complicated and made almost impossibly indiscernible once entwined with masculine illogic! she thought. Then the full situation hit her.
Sesshoumaru had basically told her there was only two options. Accept Inuyasha as a mate or lose him, Sango and Rin forever to a challenge. She couldn't live a life of worry and fear that he would one day catch her by surprise should she win. To get him to leave her be she would need to challenge him but not take a place in his life.
But, wait... "What about another rosary?"
Sesshoumaru sniffed. "The hanyou would not thank you for its return, miko. After so many years of indulging in the freedom to do as he pleased he would battle against your control. Do not expect him to accept it as he had so easily in the past. He is not a pup but a grown hanyou."
An ear splitting shriek interrupted the glum conversation before Kagome could reply.
"Sesshoumaru!"
Kagome was startled to watch a grimace pass over the Taiyoukai's face just before the door to the study swung open. A svelte figure draped in scarlet silk and the glitter of fine gems stormed into the room.
"I won't stand for it! You will tell that horse-faced bitch that she does not control me!" demanded the irate female.
Happy to remain out of the line of fire and determined to remain so, Kagome froze. Taking short breaths, she hardly blinked lest she draw the attention of the angry demoness to herself. The fact that Sesshoumaru allowed the female to speak to him meant she had to be his mate.
Curious about the sort of female he would choose for himself, Kagome wasn't surprised to note how lovely the demoness was. Curves in all the right places, cobalt black hair that laid in a straight sheet of silk down her back, symmetrical features... The demoness had looks to die for.
As the argument between the demoness and Sesshoumaru intensified, his fingers tightened on the edge of his desk. His eyebrow developed a twitch. Kagome grew wide-eyed as she shamelessly listened in.
It was just like a soap opera! Apparently Inuyasha wasn't the only one with multiple mates. The demoness, Sirai, was wailing that the first mate, Ennai, was trying to curtail her spending whilst buying anything Ennai, herself, desired. Throwing in the mention of the other mates and their childrens' buying habits - leaving Kagome in awe as the names flew off Sirai's tongue before she lost count - Sirai flounced around the room in a cloud of offended femininity.
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Sirai demanded to know when she finally wound down from the high dudgeon she'd worked up into. Tapping her foot, she crossed her arms over her ample bosom.
Before she was afforded a reply from the irate Taiyoukai - who, to the miko, looked prepared to cleave the female's head from her shoulders with nary a regret - the study was filled with squabbling youkai who had heard Sirai's rant, rushing to protest their innocence and levy their own accusations against the female and any other that stood by.
Shrinking into the chair she had ignored earlier in her desire to face down Sesshoumaru, Kagome gulped down the giggles that wanted so badly to break free. Poetic justice, she mused with a secretive smirk directed at the put-upon Taiyoukai. This was not the feudal era. Doing away with annoyances wasn't done. Youkai hid their natures from the majority of humanity.
He couldn't just get rid of an entire houseful of people without someone taking note of it and asking some very uncomfortable questions!
Any male, youkai or human, who thought to take more than one mate or wife should come here, she decided. One look at the grief Sesshoumaru had brought upon himself because he hadn't kept it in his pants...
The oldest couldn't have been more than two hundred years old. Without battles to fight, where would they have learned the same discipline that Sesshoumaru held so dear? With him as a protector and provider, they would have definitely been free to indulge in any manner of luxury.
In short, Sesshoumaru was a victim of his own success. She just did not see him as the nurturing type. He would have been a fierce protector as evidenced by Rin, but a nurturer and guiding force for bratty youkai kids? More than likely he had left that in the less than capable hands of the pampered mates.
Now that she thought about it, Kagome wondered how he had explained having more than one mate to the government. Or did he claim he was just a generous benefactor to widows? Widows who had kids that would have looked stunningly like him if it weren't for the petulant aura of indolence that laid over the entire crowd of gathered youkai?
A giggle-snort slipped free. Kagome clapped a hand over her mouth, but the damage was already done.
The racket in the room immediately quieted. For once grateful that the miko had an inappropriate sense of timing, Sesshoumaru barked, "Out! All of you."
A few dared to open their mouths to argue, but he sent them all away with a wash of cold youki that threatened to burn as well as freeze their innards. His four mates and twenty-three pups left without another word. No doubt they would dip into his bank account in order to sooth their egos at his dismissal in the presence of the human.
He swiped a clawed hand through his hair, dislodging the tight knot that had held it back. Who the hell did he have to kill to get some peace from the lot of ungrateful, useless bratlings and bitches?
He sneered at the open doorway. It was because he couldn't just kill on a whim that he was in this predicament in the first place. The last death at his hands had taken half his wealth to cover up. Humans were greedy pissants.
The memory of the pest of a journalist that he had minced into a thousand pieces of crimson pate put a smile on the Taiyoukai's face. Some of the tension left his shoulders and he recalled the miko's presence. "There is nothing to be done," he stated baldy, diving back into the conversation with all the aplomb of a trained strategist. The sooner he got her to realize there was no other option the sooner she would leave.
Kami he needed some quiet. An ibuprofen would be nice too. And some tea. Perhaps a few nibbles of the newest concoction Jaken had cooked up. He could light the fire in his bedroom- the one place his squabbling pack knew better than to invade- and rusticate in peace.
The promised nirvana swiftly departed from his mind's eye when the miko suddenly stood. "Okay."
When did she grow reason? he wondered, instantly suspicious. He had anticipated a few more rounds before she would break down into tears. He would then kick her out, wipe his hands of the business, and forget about her. "You accept that the hanyou will not halt his pursuit?"
Stopped on her way out the door, Kagome glanced at him over her shoulder. "I didn't say that."
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at her evasive answer. "You plan on challenging him?" If that was the case, then he, Sesshoumaru, would be called upon to act as impartial judge.
A smirk crossed his lips. He wondered if he should hope for the miko to win merely to have the hanyou's humiliation to savor for all eternity.
"Nope." Kagome smiled cheerfully, fully at peace with the decision she'd made while he had been lost in thought behind his massive desk. "You said the time to act had been in the past. So... I'll just go back to the past and fix things."
Waving good-bye, she left the study. Footsteps considerably lighter than when she had plodded into the manor, she hummed on the way out. She had decided against asking for the driver to take her home. She knew the way, and there was a plan to be made. The long walk would serve her well to organize her thoughts and form a plan of attack.
Inuyasha, she vowed, you won't know what hit you!
- - - - - - - - - -
It took Sesshoumaru one hour, forty-five minutes and three sips of the Darjeeling tea to process the fact that the miko somehow had access to the past. Access that she had, for whatever reason, not utilized before now.
The fine china gripped between thumb and forefinger shattered upon the realization.
She was returning to the past! Leaping to his feet, he felt a surge of hope crash against the resignation that had weighed him down since mating the 'horse-faced bitch' as Sirai had so aptly named her.
If the miko got to play god with the timeline, then by Kami, he would too. Fate be damned!
All consideration previously shown toward preserving the present flew out the window. He was not Inuyasha, he decided as he swiftly went through his wardrobe and pulled out the tattered remnants of his feudal era clothing. Inuyasha was a doddering fool. Utterly untrustworthy, incapable of handling the fragile skeins of time, the hanyou had been held in line from interfering. He, however, was more than capable of tweaking a few things and none would be the wiser.
None that mattered, in any event. The smirk on Sesshoumaru's face bloomed into a full-fledged grin when he slid the door to his bedroom suite open to reveal the pasty-faced countenance of the waste of flesh belonging to the one he was unfortunate enough to claim as heir.
Said waste of flesh gulped at the entirely predatory manner with which his father regarded him. "Uh... Maybe I'll come back another time."
Sesshoumaru's eyes danced with liberated mirth. "You do that." Or how about you simply cease to exist? the Taiyoukai finished silently, eyes following the male's departing back. Attempt to see him committed to an asylum for insane youkai, would he?
Oh yes, he knew all about the connections his bastard whelps had been cultivating with the upper echelon of youkai society. Only the other lords had the power to see him locked away or put down like a mangy dog in a pound. And, slighted by him in the past or embarrassed by their own lack in comparison to his power, those same aristocrats were all too eager to commit to such duplicity.
Surrounded by money hungry-mates and pups more than eager to dispose of him in order to plunder his bank account unabated by his iron fist, Sesshoumaru had absolutely no qualms about what he was about to do. With how the youkai population had recovered in recent years to swell their numbers into the millions, he would, in fact, be doing the world a favor.
Blissfully freed from the constraints that had held him down for so long, Sesshoumaru's fingers curled around the small pack he had filled with an assortment of items. He flipped mokomoko-sama over his arm to rest upon his shoulder for the first time in three centuries and left the manor.
- - - - - - - - - -
"No." Meeting his glare with a heated look of her own, Kagome refused to back down.
Just about to sling her leg over the wood of the well, she had been interrupted by the Taiyoukai sliding the door to the well house open. Startled, she'd almost lost her balance when he walked into the small space as if he owned it.
The demand to follow her into the past had been unexpected. His refusal to take 'no' for an answer brought back rather unpleasant memories of why she was leaving in the first place.
Sesshoumaru blinked. He hadn't expected her to actually presume to have any say in the matter. "No?"
Eyes darting from the black abyss of the well and back to the Taiyoukai, Kagome decided that some risks were more worthy than others. Moving faster than she ever had, she swung her leg over the side and fell into the well.
When the blue light illuminated the shadows surrounding her she breathed a sigh in relief. Her eyes widened at the feeling of claws digging into her wrist, jerking her to a halt before she could fall all the way into the past.
"Ow!" she yelped when the socket of her shoulder vainly protested its mistreatment when Sesshoumaru roughly jerked her out of the well to dangle before him.
"You will take me with you or you will not go."
Kagome huffed in defiance.
"Let me rephrase that, miko," Sesshoumaru drawled in a silky tone that promised unimaginable pain. "You will comply or I will personally see to it that you are mated to the hanyou within the week."
Swallowing hard, Kagome reconsidered her options. "Why do you want to go back?" she inquired. "It isn't to take over the world or anything, is it?" If he would go on a killing spree, well, she just couldn't be a party to that. If refusing Sesshoumaru meant sucking it up and having to challenge a stubborn, emotionally retarded hanyou for the rest of her life, then so be it.
He lowered her to the ground. If only she knew. After the hell he'd endured being in charge of his large pack the last thing he would seek would be dominion over anyone other than himself. "I have no desire to rule the world."
Hair sliding with the movement, Kagome's head tilted to the side as she regarded him with a solemn expression. "It's about your family, isn't it. You want to get away from them."
Surprised by her astute judgment, he remained silent.
Kagome sighed. "Look, I don't know if you can even come with me. Inuyasha was the only one who could pass aside from the centipede youkai. I'm convinced she was dead when she was dropped in the well, though, so that wouldn't work for you."
Sesshoumaru unbuckled the pack he had brought with him and withdrew a braided strand of his own hair. "This complication, I already foresaw." He held the hair out to her.
Staring at the silver mass askance, Kagome gingerly took the offering. "What am I supposed to do with this?" The hair was a lot heavier than it looked, she absently noted while hefting it in her hand.
Irritated that he would have to spell it out, Sesshoumaru stepped forward. The memory of Sirai's tantrum and what he had to dread back at the estate knocked the starch out of his pride. "Put it around my neck and tie it off," he demanded through clenched teeth.
He wanted her to make him a necklace out of his own hair? Kagome shrugged. It wasn't like he was asking for a pint of blood.
That didn't stop her fingers from shaking as she did as bid. It wasn't often that she had been this close to him in the past. Sure, there had been a few times where she'd been up close and personal with mokomoko-sama, but nothing like this.
Internally breathing a sigh of relief once she had completed the chore, Kagome let the hair drop from her fingers. The knot held steady.
Sesshoumaru closed a hand over the knot and uttered the binding words he had memorized on a whim years before the miko had even been born.
It had been the year his 20th pup had been born. Said pup had vomited on him within minutes of being born. The mates had flown into hysterics lest he kill 'the darling.' He had retreated to his study to brood over a bottle of cognac with a side of misery. Drunk and bored within an hour, he'd poured over the ancient tomes horded within his study. One curse had caught his eye. Ready to rebel against what his nature had handed to him, it had seemed more of a blessing than a dire curse.
And now he would actually be able to employ that once useless bit of knowledge.
Kagome watched as the Taiyoukai's hand began to glow an eerie green color. Nervously shifting away from his position, she was halted from further escape by a hand wrapped around her wrist. Pulled forward until her fingers covered his illuminated fist, Kagome hissed. It hurt!
Just as suddenly as it had come, the light died. Sesshoumaru released her and she stumbled backward. About to ask what was going on, she was silenced by a finger to her lips.
Staring down his arm, Kagome's eyes widened comically when he next spoke.
"Do not speak." The next word she spoke would bind him to her will. He hadn't quite thought through this portion of the spell, but until she spoke he could remove the necklace himself whenever he chose since it was his youki holding it to him. Once she activated it, however, his own youki would turn against him to hold it in place.
However, just the fact that he was bound to her through it would save him the grief he'd lived for the past hundreds of years. He'd essentially made her his alpha without the embarrassment of submitting in an inuyoukai fashion. Any bitch that wanted him for a mate would have to first replace the miko. Once they were in the past, he was sure her friends and the hanyou would keep her protected.
All responsibility would be removed from him. He, in turn, would allow her to live whilst staying as far away from her as possible to avoid the activation of the spell.
This was no rosary the likes of which Inuyasha had suffered. He was sure of it. However, he didn't want to take any chances on the miko, either.
He removed his finger and Kagome took in a deep breath while she pondered the odd turn this had just taken. Was it like the rosary? To allow himself to be bound he had to be really desperate to get away from his family.
Really, really, 'he wished they had never been born' desperate.
And, as tempting the notion of letting a tiny word slip free was, Kagome knew better than to assume Sesshoumaru would allow her to live with such power over him.
Nodding to show she understood, she put a leg over the well's side. Sesshoumaru followed at her side and when the magic flared to life once more, she wasn't unduly surprised to see him follow her into the time slip.
- - - - - - - - - -
Three weeks later, Kagome was at wit's end. As soon as they'd been transported into the past, Sesshoumaru had exited the well with one graceful leap. Left behind, she'd struggled to the top. It hadn't surprised her to note he was gone.
Shrugging off his actions as those of a desperate youkai on a mission, she was soon caught up in a tight hug. Shippo had apparently hung around Kaede's village even after she'd left.
The reunion then got really teary when Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku came onto the scene. Immediately recalling how the love of her best girl-friend had passed on, she had leveled a glare in his direction.
Oh, she had more than a few words for him. And she had no intention of seeing him killed over such a shameful peccadillo. That waited until later, however. The night would be for the welcoming dinner and memories shared.
After that first night, things definitely changed. She'd expected it, but hadn't realized how much it would bother her. Hearing and experiencing are two different things, apparently.
The Inuyasha she knew from the future was fully evident in this feudal hanyou. The five years they'd been separate had softened his memories of her temper and the conditioning of the rosary.
If anything, his single status made everything that much worse! As a hanyou bound by the rosary he had been adorable in a gruff way. Free, he was impossibly arrogant and inconsiderate of her right to make her own choices. In short, he was a jackass.
What was worse, he didn't treat Sango like that. No, with the slayer's training in combat, Kagome supposed he viewed her as an equal. She, on the other hand, was still inept in most ways except with the bow. That, she had mastered before the defeat of Naraku.
Stomping toward the well, Kagome considered pinning him to the God tree again. Would it make him respect her to know she was capable of subduing him, even in a permanent way? She could always pull the arrow out!
Sighing, she sank on to the grass with her back against the well. She shivered. Dripping wet hair had soaked the back of her shirt. The cold traveled through the thin material. She crossed her arms over her chest.
He'd finally pushed her too far this afternoon. She'd known that he sometimes watched her bathe. While in love with him, she had been shyly appreciative of his desire to protect her and a had gotten a secret thrill out of his presence.
Now, she wanted to box his ears for stomping all over her right to privacy. He hadn't even pretended to hide! After she'd undressed and gotten in the water, he'd shown up on the spring bank in a flurry of silver and red, yawned, and settled in to watch her with intense amber eyes.
Talk about unnerving! Nothing she'd shouted or threatened had done anything more than cause him to smirk.
Just thinking about it, Kagome felt her pulse pound in her temples.
She'd had the fastest bath in history, scrambled into her clothing, and when he moved toward her she screamed as loud as her human lungs would allow.
While he grabbed his ears in agony - pain he deserved for being a jerk – Kagome had made her getaway. Now, she wondered what she could do. Nothing she'd tried had worked.
And, as fond of the idea of pinning him was, she'd have to be prepared to keep him pinned and she wouldn't do that. Not to him. Yet to pin and release him would mean she'd better be prepared to face challenges from him.
Urg. It was terrible! Kagome groaned when the pounding in her temples escalated into a full-blown migraine.
"So, you are the one I need to defeat. Pathetic."
The sultry voice came out of the blue, startling Kagome out of her pained musings.
The aggrieved miko glanced up. Standing a yard away, a demoness that looked vaguely familiar sneered down her rather broad nose. Kagome blinked.
Huh? Then it came to her. This was Sesshoumaru's first mate. Ennai, Entai, Ensei or something like that. The horse-faced one she'd only gotten a glimpse of when she'd come to defend herself from the other one's complaints.
Words registering belatedly, Kagome mumbled, "Defeat?"
Flicking a hank of hair over her shoulder, the demoness yawned. "The fool male, Sesshoumaru, you twit. You control his fate. It is unacceptable. Father had intended on waiting for my three hundredth year to force an alliance, but word traveled of Sesshoumaru's claims of an alpha female, a miko, who would refuse all mates. He has already sent away three other females. I am not so easily dissuaded."
The demoness sniffed. "You might be the Shikon Miko, and thus scare away the little bitches, but I will kill you and claim my prize. How much better it will be to own him rather than the other way around?"
Eyes wide, Kagome gaped. "Excuse me?" He did what?
The demoness smirked. "You didn't know? More's the pity. However, I won't keep you long. Be a good human and sit still."
Still lodged firmly in disbelief, Kagome almost didn't roll in time to avoid the claws that had swiped where her jugular once stood out in clear relief against the dark well.
Kagome jumped to her feet and placed the well between them. "Stop! I don't know what this is about, but I can tell you I don't want Sesshoumaru! Take him with my blessings!"
The demoness scowled. "Your enchantment about his neck has already refused any female within touching distance. Only your death or its removal will suffice."
Is that why he wanted it? Kagome wondered. Did he know this would happen?
Distracted by the questions the demoness' words brought about, Kagome missed the female's shifty eyes move to the right before she feinted to the left. The claws scoring down her arm weren't so easily dismissed.
Gasping as severed nerve endings screamed in protest, Kagome started to get pissed. Not the 'I'm so angry I could spit' pissed. This was the 'I'm going to blow and I don't give I damn who I take out with me' sort of rage.
"Look, you bitch," she began, ignoring the sticky warmth flowing down her arm as each word was bitten out from between clenched teeth, "I don't know who you are and I don't give a damn. Since we've never met before today, I'm going to assume you're telling the truth, and that Sesshoumaru is an even bigger asshole than I'd previously thought. I will take care of this claim he said I have. You can leave now and wait for that. If you continue, you will discover just what this miko can do."
Shocked into silence when the human began to glow an intense pink, the demoness swallowed. Realizing she'd taken a step back in an instinctive move, betraying a tingle of fear, she squared her shoulders. "I do not answer to a mere human. I've heard about you. You have no bow and arrow, and that is your only strength. You will die by my claws."
Goaded by the salt being rubbed into that already poisoned wound to her pride, Kagome shrieked, "I am not weak!" Reiki flared about her body, uncontrolled and insatiable; a flash fire of indignation, repressed annoyance, and righteous anger.
As all outbursts end, hers was no different. Burned out within seconds, her aura calmed in the absence of youki to consume. Kagome slumped against the well's side as ashes floated about the clearing.
Oddly invigorated by the release, Kagome stood straight. Eyes narrowed, she headed to the village. There was a hanyou that needed to be set straight. If he wanted to play at being a youkai, then she would be more than willing to accommodate him.
After that... Well, she had a Daiyoukai to hunt. And she had more than a few words she wanted to say to him.
More than those, however, were the two burning on the tip of her tongue.
- - - - - - - - - -
Stealthy, Kagome silently thanked Kirara for flying her into Sesshoumaru's lands. Following rumors of the Daiyoukai's movements, the miko and firecat had converged on a clearing where the sounds of battle resounded.
So lost in combat were they, not even the warriors battling noticed her presence. That was a good thing, too, since Kagome was struck dumb by the sight of Sesshoumaru fighting... himself.
Future Sesshoumaru was discernible by his shorter hair, and she grinned widely when the past - or was it present - Sesshoumaru slammed him into a tree. A giggle slipped free, but the combatants didn't hear. Kagome snickered again. Sesshoumaru was such an ass, he couldn't even stand himself!
From the looks of things, they had been fighting for days now. The ground was scarred. She and Kirara had flown above other newly leveled patches in the forest. The miko idly wondered if those were other battle stages.
When the Sesshoumaru of this time pinned the future Sesshoumaru, Kagome decided modern times hadn't been kind to his training. She stepped out of the concealing brush and walked over to the two straining Daiyoukai.
Finally catching their attention, she was amused to note the widening of future Sesshoumaru's eyes while the past Sesshoumaru appeared... unsurprised?
She'd think about that later. For now, she had a few things to say.
"Do not," future Sesshoumaru ordered, perhaps sensing her intent.
With the hold his counterpart had on him, he couldn't escape the coming words. Like a dying man watches his life flash before his eyes, he stared in morbid fascination as her mouth opened, each movement grotesquely exaggerated into a caricature of their usual mobility.
"Fuck you."
Before she could get to the rest of the diatribe she'd carefully planned out, the necklace of hair around future Sesshoumaru's neck flared brightly. An odd gasping sound filled the air, and Kagome was suddenly grabbed in an unbreakable hold.
"What is this magic!" present Sesshoumaru demanded. Holding her before him, he sneered at the future impostor as he stalked closer to their position. The pheromones emitted by the older male were sickening, even almost as disgusting as the fleeting attempt to grab his person in a rather personal way.
"Oh no!" Kagome gasped, finally remembering the necklace. She'd meant for him to, well, she didn't know what she'd intended to do! She had no problems with the Sesshoumaru of the now, however! He didn't deserve to be molested by himself!
Groaning, Kagome twisted in his hold, but wasn't able to move out of the tight embrace. "Look," she began when he leaped away from his amorous twin, "Just get him to the bone eater's well. I'll take him back to the future, and you'll be free of him."
Immediately discerning the need to act when the spell-influenced inuyoukai growled in jealousy at his closeness to the miko, Sesshoumaru nodded. "You will explain this after."
It was bad enough that his counterpart had shown up in the past, ready to kill his own past self to resume the leadership, claimed to be submissive to the miko, and now had impure thoughts about his person... He would not walk away from this without the 'why.'
Prepared to promise anything to get this farce over with, Kagome nodded.
Flying across the lands, chased by a horny Sesshoumaru while held by Sesshoumaru, was something Kagome would never forget. Her headache threatened to come back, but she pushed it aside in favor of concentrating on the well as soon as it came into sight.
"The well is the portal to the future. You'll have to act like you're going to jump into it so he'll follow."
The Daiyoukai nodded to show he understood. Mind racing with the possibilities opened up to him, his fingers tightened around her waist.
Picking up on the tell-tale sign, she rolled her eyes. "Trust me, you don't want to go there. I don't know what killing that demoness did to the future, but it couldn't have been much. You could get stuck in a time he-" she stuck her thumb out to indicate the following Daiyoukai "-is trying to run away from. Imagine a time so bad even YOU turned tail and ran."
Incensed by the reality of her warning even as he accepted that something terrible, indeed, had to have occurred to allow for the drastic changes in himself, Sesshoumaru relented.
Three minutes later, the present Sesshoumaru tricked the future persona into the well with a come-hither look Kagome hadn't known he had in him. Bound by the rosary, the future Sesshoumaru was still connected to her and the well activated as it had for Inuyasha many times before. He shouted in frustration when the magic whisked him away.
Before he could hop back in from the future's side, Kagome sealed the well.
- - - - - - - - - -
"And that's all I know," Kagome finished. She took a sip of the tea Kaede had prepared for her. She really needed the bracing effect the stiff beverage offered. Sealing herself away from the future had never been a part of the equation.
How could she ever open the well up again? The future Sesshoumaru wouldn't hurt her family, of that she was certain. Yet, with the rosary still active, he would keep coming after the past Sesshoumaru.
She winced as the headache bloomed into reality once more.
From across the fire, Sesshoumaru was silent as he processed the incredible tale she had shared. He'd guessed at her origins but hadn't known the well was the portal. The assumption that she could traverse time at will had been made.
The future she had revealed was grimly accepted. Nothing so fantastically impossible could be a falsehood. Not from her, at least.
Forewarned was forearmed, however. There was much to think on, Sesshoumaru decided. Rin and Jaken had been left for too long whilst he battled himself, so he would find them and contemplate his options.
Without further ado, he left the hut.
Left behind, Kagome sighed into her tea. Maybe it was time to see if Inuyasha's hair had grown back. She had been a bit rough on his hanyou hide.
- - - - - - - - - -
Four days later found Kagome kicking the vegetation in the forest once more. After Inuyasha's hair had grown back - melted by her reki in a surprise attack - he had apparently decided she was trying to prove her worth as a mate.
In short, he had been flattered and proved more than willing to take her up on the 'offer.'
Sango had been the voice of reason that had prevented Kagome from removing a rather pertinent bit of Inuyasha's mating equipment, thus solving her problems once and for all. To pay her friend back, Kagome caught Miroku eying the sassy bit with an insanely jealous husband that would spell his doom while she was giving the monk a wink. She glared the hussy into submission after giving Miroku a knot on his head to remember.
Still in a predicament, Kagome left the village to hunt down a poor demoness or hanyou that would be dragged back to the village and offered up to the inu-hanyou as a sacrificial lamb. It was youkai instinct, so he could deal with someone else who had that damn thing. Not her!
Before she made it to the next village Sesshoumaru glided through the air to land gracefully at her feet.
"You will come with me."
She blinked. "What?" Was something wrong with Rin? She hadn't expected to see this guy for a long time.
If at all. Naraku was dead. He couldn't care less about Inuyasha now.
Stalking close enough to intimidate her into compliance, the Daiyoukai sniffed. "The future you described will not be. In order to prevent its occurrence, you will mate this Sesshoumaru."
He'd considered the future self's plan and had found it flawed but not illogical. He had been working off of faulty assumptions about the future while making his mistakes. If modern time would mean the end of youkai reign, what did he care about providing heirs to his line? Especially those of the ilk she described. However, to prevent others foisting their daughters off on him and to save face, he would need an excuse to refuse.
The miko, he and his future self agreed, was the solution. They would go about it in different ways, however. Human, as his first mate, no demoness would seek a place beneath her. Also, as a human, there were ways to ensure she never bore pups. Assuming he would deign to bless her with his presence in the pallet. Why she had to be the human chosen had to do with her cleanliness and proven battle prowess. She was clumsy, but she wasn't powerless, thus making her less onerous a human than most.
He explained this all to her in short, concise phrases lest he confuse the issue.
Appalled and yet strangely amused by the taciturn male using the verbal caveman routine - You... female. Me mate you - Kagome didn't bat an eyelash. "No thanks."
Turning around to leave, she was halted by his drawl.
"There is some benefit for you, miko. Consider the hanyou."
She slanted a suspicious glance in his direction. "I'm listening."
He smirked. "This whole ordeal was begun in your quest to gain his acceptance of your refusal. As my mate, he would surrender all claim on you." The Daiyoukai walked closer. "Yet, also as my mate, he would be free to claim you as a sister in his pack without the urge to mate. You would also remain equal to him, if not more so, thus ensuring he will once more take into account your opinions."
She pondered the thrill those little words gave her. "I'd still have to mate you. I don't love you. Mating you would mean I could never find the right man, either."
Sesshoumaru shrugged. "Love is overrated. You will live as long as I do. Rin is fed and protected. She desires nothing but to be in my company. Eventually you will love me."
Kagome snorted. "You are so conceited." Though she had to acknowledge the fact that, without taking into account the future Daiyoukai's actions, Sesshoumaru had her respect if nothing else. Plus, he was a good provider and protector. Everything else was emotions. She was stuck in the feudal era. Stuck in the feudal era with Inuyasha hell-bent on claiming her and who knew how many other females for his little hanyou harem.
Would it be so bad to be the only mate Sesshoumaru would have? "Would I be the only mate? Only, as in, never ever will you claim another one? Demon or human?"
Sesshoumaru nodded. "The only." Just recalling the future she had described had his nethers freeze. To be so out of control of his own life would be unacceptable. His word would bind him as surely as any spell. He knew how to get what he wanted and was still willing to sacrifice pride to get it.
"You won't go crazy and jump me, will you?" She had no intention of letting herself go years as a virgin, but still. Time would be nice.
It was his turn to snort. She took that as a 'no.' "Ok."
What did she have to lose? As he closed in on her position, Kagome held her ground.
- - - - - - - - - -
"So. Mated. To Sesshoumaru." Sango stirred the dinner pot, but couldn't take her eyes off the miko.
Kagome nodded. "Yeah. He went to get Rin and Jaken. They'll be here in a little while. I'll still be living here but Rin will stay with me. I guess it will be a bit like two ships passing in the night, but that's fine with me."
Inuyasha had been aloof upon her return, but was strangely - not to mention blissfully - silent. He had smiled in greeting, however, so she was content that he accepted it.
Sango shook her head. "How could you be happy with that? Didn't you want love?"
Kagome smirked. Sesshoumaru had left a rather impressive hickey on her neck as a scent marker of who she belonged to. While he was doing so, something had come to her attention. A rather hard something. I'll settle for making him my sex slave."
An anal-retentive, emotionally-repressed Daiyoukai... what else was he hiding inside his fundoshi? She would spend the next couple of centuries finding out.
Sango sputtered, cheeks flaming, and Kagome laughed. He was probably right in that she'd end up loving him. She'd do her level best to ensure it wasn't one-sided. She had eons to work on him. She had it on good authority that she was quite likable too. Give him a few years to settle, and then she'd pounce.
She grinned behind her hand when the squawkings of a rather obdurate toad youkai made themselves known. Odder things had happened to her in the past years, and she'd climbed higher mountains.
Life wasn't what she'd planned. But the hell with blueprints. She'd have fun living, and that was that.
And to think this was all instigated by the need to understand Inuyasha. Kagome giggled. Destiny was weird.