The Importance of Being Kept

Kagome woke up the next morning feeling so comfortable that she didn't want to get out of bed. For a moment, she'd forgotten she was with Inuyasha until she tried to move and couldn't because of the heavy muscular arm draped over her chest. She look down at a large hand covering her right breast and quickly turned to Inuyasha who was still sleeping and snoring softly. For a second she admired the gorgeous youkai sleeping on his stomach. His long white hair covered half his back and contrasted beautifully against his tanned skin. His face wore a peaceful expression on it. She smiled as his ears twitched in his sleep. Kagome let out a small" eek" when his hand squeezed her breast firmly.' Okay, time to go,' she thought. She was not about to be felt up by a perverted sleeping youkai. Easing his arm off her as gently as she could, she managed to free herself without waking him up. Slowly, she sat up trying not to cause too much movement on the bed. She'd almost made it when a strong arm wrapped around her and sent sprawling back into the covers. Kagome struggled helplessly as her body was dragged across the bed and back against the warm muscular body she was trying to get away from.

"Where do you think you're going?" Inuyasha's voice was heavy with sleep.

"I was trying not to wake you up. I have to go to class," Kagome said.

Inuyasha didn't seem to be paying her much attention he was too busy running his hands down her back and pulling her closer against him. He buried his face in the crook of her neck. "You smell good in the mornings and feel good too."

Kagome gasped when she felt his lips raking over her sensitive skin and stiffened when he began to place soft hot kisses down her neck. 'Oh my,' she thought. 'This can't be right. I can't let him do this..oh..that's my spot, oh gosh.' Inuyasha had began to teasingly flick his tongue against her skin between kisses.

"Umm, you taste good too," he mumbled.

'I will not get turned on by this, I will not get'...Kagome stopped when he raised up her pajama top and grabbed her bare breast.' Okay, too far and too soon.' She pulled away from him.

"Come on honey, let's have a quickie before we get up," Inuyasha mumbled.

It was then Kagome realized he was still half-sleep. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn. She grabbed one of his oversize pillows and began to beat him furiously upside the head. "You asshole! Do you even know who you're with?"

Inuyasha woke up. "Kagome? Ow..OW...OW! Stop it, why are you beating me with a pillow! What's wrong with you woman?" He held up his arms to defend himself.

Kagome smacked him hard with the pillow one last time. It burst open sending feathers everywhere. "I get it! You're use to having girls in your bed and you thought I was one of them. Well, I'm not! Keep your wandering hands off me!"

Inuyasha could see that she was hurt. What the hell did he do? Did he try to sleep with her?Oh no...he must have or she wouldn't be so angry. "Kagome," he tried to grab her but this time she escaped him and he ended falling off the bed and landing on his face. He heard the door slam before he could sit up. He sat on the floor covered in feathers and sighed.."Damn..."

Kagome ran into her bedroom and slammed the door. She leaned against it heavily willing herself not to cry. How could she let herself get so carried away with a guy who didn't even know who was in bed with him? The jerk! He had been so charming to her yesterday and so sweet last night. He had held her and comforted her during her most vulnerable moment and she had felt safe in his arms. He had made her feel as if nothing could harm her as long as she was with him. She wiped away a tear that slid down her cheek. She hated the intense mixed emotions he was causing her to feel." Forget it, forget it and forget him," she said out loud. She and Sango had hung out in the living room before she went to bed that night. Sango had warned her not to fall in love as a kept woman because she and Rin had made that dreadful mistake and was now paying dearly for it. She had told Kagome she didn't want to see her hurt. It was too late. Inuyasha was slowly melting the wall she'd built around her. Damn these youkai and their craziness. She decided to take a shower and start the day pretending she'd never spent the night snuggled against Inuyasha.

Sango knocked on Kagome's door ten minutes later. Kagome was just getting ready to leave. She opened it and smiled at the beautiful girl.

"Kagome, would you like to walk to class together?" Sango asked hopefully.

"Yes, I thought you were Inuyasha," Kagome said with relief. "I don't feel like dealing with him today."

"I don't feel like seeing Miroku today," Sango said. She had managed to avoid him all day yesterday and last night after discovering his secret.

"And I do not want to face Sesshoumaru either," Rin joined in as she came out of her room.

"Okay, we've got to get together and have lunch, somewhere where they won't find us," Kagome said.

"I have a car," Sango said. "As soon as we're finished with our classes, let's get out of here."

"That's a great idea," Rin said. "I need to get off campus for awhile and explore the real world."

Kagome nodded. "Without crazy, possessive youkai following us around all the time."

"Or having other youkai to do it," Rin said.

"Amen to that," Kagome said.

The girls laughed.

"You know what's even better," Kagome said. "We should have a girls day out!"

Rin clapped her hands excitedly. "That would be so fun!"

"Let's do it!" Sango said seriously.

For the first time all three girls were excited and happy to have something to look forward to that didn't involve their youkai men. They met in the parking lot in front of Sango's black convertible.

"Whoa," Kagome said looking at Sango's shiny expensive car. "Is this a gift from Miroku?"

Sango laughed. "No, I don't need Miroku's money."

"She's loaded," Rin said. "I don't even know why you're kept when you're as rich as Miroku," Rin joked.

Kagome stared at her in surprise. "Well it explains the fashionable way you dress," Kagome grinned. She'd noticed that Sango had a huge wardrobe that was filled with clothes and accessories from expensive name brand designers.

They jumped into the car and took off. "There's this nice restaurant on the coast perfect for lunch!" Sango said. "I love California, but I'm originally from New York and believe me there is a world of difference. When I first got here, my freshman year, I made sure I learned every road, every club, every scenery and bar. I was pretty much into the social scene. I was living free and loving it."

"What happened?" Kagome wanted to know.

"Miroku," Sango said.

"Oh," Kagome nodded understandingly. "I may be new to this, but I'm beginning to see that we don't have much freedom."

"Not at all," Rin sighed.

They road in silence for awhile enjoying the scenery until Sango turned on the radio. The girls began to sing to their favorite songs as they made their way through the steep hills into the city.

Inuyasha stared at his cell phone. The tracking device showed she had spent half the day in her room. Did she not have classes today, had he upset her that much that she had to stay in her room? He looked at his watch. Had she eaten? Upset or not, he still felt the need to take care of her. He dialed her number and waited for her to answer. Kagome's cell phone had been left on a table by her bed. It vibrated furiously across the table and fell to the floor as Inuyasha dialed her number over and over.

"This place is beautiful!" Kagome said as they sat outside a quaint little restaurant overlooking the ocean.

Rin nodded in agreement. "Sesshoumaru took me to a place like this when you guys went to club."

"I think it's so unfair he doesn't allow you to go the campus club. I mean, come on you're still on school grounds, it's not like you're in the city where he can't watch you." Sango said.

Rin grinned at her with a glint in her pretty grey eyes. "You want to go a club tonight?"

Sango laughed. "Why Rin I've never seen this side of you. You're usually so submissive to Sesshoumaru."

"He's had it too good for too long," Rin said still feeling sore from Sesshoumaru running out on her last night. "Why not give him trouble for once."

"I like this new you," Sango said with a huge smile.

"What exactly did he do to make you rebel?" Kagome asked as she took a bite out of her grilled salmon.

"You know as long as Rin and I have known each other, we've never really talked about our relationship with our youkai men," Sango said. "Perhaps, we should start, we can't always hold in all the crap they put us through."

"I agree!" Rin said.

"Okay, we have to make a solemn oath to each other that no matter what we say we keep it between each other. No one else is to know," Sango said.

"Agreed," Kagome said.

They shook on it.

"Okay what's the dirt? I've been dying to ask, " Kagome said. "You guys have been so depressed the past few days, you make me think those guys are torturing you."

"I love Sesshoumaru!" Rin blurted out. "There I said it. I love him and I really want to be with him, but he has no clue how I feel and it hurts to see him with someone else. Last night, I almost told him, but Kagura burst into the room and yelled that she loved him and he took off with her!"

"What?" Sango asked. "He left you there?"

Rin nodded and sniffed. "Can you believe my bad luck, the timing was just so off."

"Who cares about luck, I can't believe Sesshoumaru just took off with that hussy and left you," Sango shook her head. "I expected that sort of behavior from Miroku, but not Sesshoumaru."

"Well, we were in a compromising situation," Rin said blushing slightly.

Kagome and Sango leaned forward. "Go on," Kagome said.

"I was using his bath tub, you know the one Sango that I constantly talk about." Sango nodded. "Well, Sesshoumaru is usually such a gentleman that I can walk around with nothing but a bath towel on and he wouldn't try anything."

"Really?" Kagome asked and wondered if she did that with Inuyasha would he be able to be a gentleman also. She snorted the words gentleman and Inuyasha just didn't go together.

"Miroku would so grab my butt if I did that and a lot of other things too," Sango said.

"Well," Rin continued, "Kagura burst into the room the first time yelling something about standing her up, I guess they had planned to...well anyway, Sesshoumaru must have forgotten and she came to get him. When she saw me standing there with just my bath towel on she went crazy. Kagura can be very scary when she's mad. Sesshoumaru sent her away, he turned to comfort me and I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I actually tried to make the first move and kiss him."

Sango gasped loudly. "NO WAY!"

Rin nodded.

"What did he do?" Kagome asked intrigued.

"Nothing, my towel fell away..."

Kagome and Sango suddenly became quiet and glanced at each other in stunned silence. Rin's face was beet red by now.

"Oh my god..." Kagome said.

"What did Sesshoumaru do?" Sango asked.

"Apparently he got very aroused..."

Sango gasped again and covered her mouth in shock.

"What's so shocking about that? Isn't that what guys do when they're around naked girls?" Kagome asked in bemusement.

"You don't understand, Sesshoumaru has very strict control over his actions. He's never gotten sexually aroused around, Rin." Sango explained.

"It's true," Rin said. "I never thought he'd want me that way. I always thought he found me sexually unattractive until last night."

"Wow," Kagome said.

"But he did want me and he made sure I knew it. I don't know if you've ever experienced such a thing with Miroku, but I got to tell you, youkai men are huge! I mean huge as in that 'thing would never fit in a human female' huge!"

"Oh my," Sango's hand went to her throat.

"That's rather scary," Kagome said looking worried.

"Well now I know why women are so crazy about them," Rin said with a sigh. "Anyway, he actually threatened to take me to his bed if I didn't leave immediately."

"Whoa," Sango said. "You know what that would have turned out very badly if he didn't make you his girlfriend afterwards."

"I know," Rin said shamefully, "but I wanted to be with him so badly that I didn't care. I only knew that I loved him."

"Oh Rin, never sleep with a youkai as a kept woman if you don't know where he stands," Sango told her. "And that goes for you too, Kagome. I don't know if Inuyasha told you, but youkai men cannot sleep with their kept women unless they plan on making her their girlfriend or life mate. Otherwise, she'd just become their whore."

"What..." Kagome said thinking about Inuyasha this morning. She suppose it didn't count if the guy didn't even know who he was with at the time.

"Well, as soon as I opened my mouth to tell him, Kagura bursts in the room again and declares her love for him and he leaves me! He just takes off with her and leaves me!"

"Oh Rin, I'm so sorry," Sango reached over to hold her hand.

"That's horrible," Kagome said.

"You deserve to go out tonight and dance your heart away," Sango told Rin.

Meanwhile back on campus, Sesshoumaru was beginning to worry. He hadn't heard from Rin for most of the day and hadn't seen her go to class. Galieo and Jinko hadn't seen her either. He wondered if she was avoiding him after last night. It was the first time he had shown her how much he had wanted her, but in such an aggressive manner. Perhaps, he had frighten her. It was not like him to react so barbaric with Rin, but then again he'd never been put in a situation where her naked body had been pressed so tightly against his and he had never felt his control slipping with her until last night.

He was relieved that Kagura's psychotic obsession with him brought her back to his room. She had unknowingly rescued Rin from him and given him an outlet for his sexual frustrations. He had taken Kagura that night hard and violently not caring if he had hurt or not. He was angry at her for being so rude to Rin and disobeying his orders to stay away from him, but he also needed release very badly. Kagura seemed to love his harsh treatment of her. She begged for more and yelled words of love to him which he ignored. Instead, he pretended she was Rin and when he came inside of her hard and fast, it was Rin's name he moaned out loud. Kagura's love turned to hate and she yelled and screamed at him calling him all sorts of obscene names. He left her on her bed as she cried and asked him why he would love a nobody like Rin?

Love...

Was it truly love that he felt for Rin? Had he been denying himself this emotion all along? He needed to be with Rin to find out. Where was she?

"Inuyasha tried to sleep with you and he didn't even know who you were?" Rin asked.

"I know, bad huh? And, he had been so sweet to me last night. Why do guys have to mess everything up?" Kagome asked frustrated.

"You're not falling for him are you?" Sango asked.

Kagome sighed hopelessly. "I don't know. I have all these mix feelings for him now."

"I understand," Sango said. "It's hard not to fall in love with a guy that treats you like a queen. I mean think about it. They do a lot of stuff for us other girls in normal relationships could only dream about. We have the best of everything. A doting man, a wealthy man, a man that showers us with presents and takes care of us. They watche over us like we're the most important thing in their lives. Who wouldn't fall in love with that sort of treatment? I mean isn't that every girl's dream to have a man like that?"

Kagome and Rin nodded.

" And yet, they don't love us, at least not in the way we want them to. I find myself thinking I'd give up all the royal treatment just to hear Miroku tell me he loves me."

"I think he loves you," Rin said. "I know it's hard to believe because of all the girls he sleeps with, but I notice the way he watches you when he doesn't think you're paying attention. He gets this look in his eyes as if someone has stolen his happiness and tortures him by dangling it in front of his face. He looks at you as if you're untouchable, like you're something he wants so very badly, but can't have. It breaks my heart to see him watch you that way."

"Rin...why didn't you tell me this before?" Sango asked.

"Because I knew you loved him and telling you that would have only made things worse. You would have confronted him about it and I didn't want to see you hurt. I figured there had to be a very good reason why Miroku didn't want to make you his girlfriend."

Sango hesitated about telling the girls the truth at first, but the secret was too big for her to handle alone and she had no one else to talk to. "If I tell you this, do you swear you won't tell anyone else?" She asked the two gravely.

Kagome and Rin looked at each other and nodded.

"I know his reason. I didn't before and it drove me crazy, but yesterday morning, I found out."

"What is it?" Rin wanted to know.

"Miroku is an incubus..."

Rin stared at Sango in complete shock. Kagome stared at her in confusion. "What's an incubus?"

"It's a youkai that survives by feeding off a woman's sexual energy."

"Oh...OHHH! Whoa..." Kagome said.

"That explains it!" Rin suddenly shouted. A group of people turned to look at them. She lowered her voice. "Sango do you know what this means?"

"Maybe, I don't know! I hope it means that he really does love me and he's trying to protect me from himself."

"That's exactly what it means!" Rin said.

"But what if I'm wrong about his feelings? It's so confusing," Sango dropped her head down.

"You know what we need to do," Kagome said taking out Inuyasha's credit card and holding it up.

"Take out our frustrations on their credit accounts?" Rin asked. She'd done it once before with Sesshoumaru.

"Yep, I got a five thousand credit limit on this baby and Inuyasha is going to pay in more ways than one."

The girls giggled loudly.

"And afterwards, the clubs!" Kagome said.

As the girls were shopping in one of the city malls, Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru and Miroku were about to lose their minds looking for them. Sesshoumaru had never felt panic in his life, but he was feeling it now. Rin was nowhere to be found. She had always been there for him, always! This was the very first time she wasn't. Inuyasha had kicked the girls apartment door open when he thought Kagome was in her room and wouldn't answer the phone. Miroku had followed him in to look for Sango. Sesshoumaru had appeared also. Each youkai went into the girls rooms and found things they could not believe. The girls had left their cell phones and had taken off their bracelets.

"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha yelled when he walked back into the living carrying Kagome's phone.

"It seems as if they've ran away," Miroku said thoughtfully.

"This was planned," Sesshoumaru said.

"Why would they leave campus without telling us? Kagome, maybe because she's new, but it's so unlike Sango and Rin," Inuyasha said.

"I think I know why Sango would leave," Miroku said looking slightly guilty. He looked at the other two who suddenly wore the same expression. "Okay then it's obvious that we've all done something to upset them."

"They should know better than to leave from under our protection. No one knows who they are out there." Sesshoumaru said a frown appearing on his usually stoic face.

"They should be okay," Miroku said. Sango had always been a social person.

"Rin doesn't know much about the world, I've taken care of her for years," Sesshoumaru snapped.

"She's with Sango and Kagome who does know about the world. They wouldn't let anything happen to her," Miroku tried to reason.

"I don't like Kagome being anywhere without me," Inuyasha mumbled. A horrible thought suddenly came to mind. "Wait a minute, what if...what if they're on dates?"

This time Miroku looked worried.

"Rin would never date. She wouldn't know the first thing about dating," Sesshoumaru scoffed. He was more concern about Rin's safety than being with another guy.

"Kagome just might go out with another guy," Inuyasha said with fear in his voice.

"Sango too.." Miroku stared at Inuyasha. "I'm going to find them."

"I'm going with you," Inuyasha said.

"I have connections in the city," Sesshoumaru said. "People who know and see everything. I'll make a call and return with information. We shouldn't waste our time running around the streets of Los Angeles with no direction as to where to find the girls."

"So what did you do to cause Kagome to run away?" Miroku asked Inuyasha curiously.

"I tried to have sex with her by accident. She was having nightmares so I took her to my bed to sleep with me and woke up thinking she was, well you know."

"Amy?" Miroku asked.

"Amy, Bree, Telsa whoever, I forgot it was Kagome in bed with me! I was half sleep. I didn't know what I was doing!"

"That's bad," Miroku shook his head. "But I don't know if it's as bad as my problem. Sango found out my secret yesterday, apparently she skipped class to watch my extracurricular activities and saw me feeding."

"Damn!" Inuyasha said. "We're so screwed..."