Unforeseen Obstacles

Disclaimer: I don’t know Rumiko Takahashi, so I can’t say I own any of this. Now the warning: YAOI. That’s right, man lovin’ man. If you don’t like that, you don’t have to read another word. If you don’t like my pairing, you don’t have to read it, but you’ll be missing out! I’m constantly reading InuYasha fics with pairings I don’t like just because I like the story. But if you don’t like my story, please be polite when you tell me. And also, tell me why. Or if you do like it, review and write whatever you want, LOL.

Notes: Dangerous ground…

Genre: Drama, romance…

Rating: R

Codes: Mir/Sess

Feedback: Reviews are something that give me a happy little thrill. They’re also making my muse purr and chatter.

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Unforeseen Obstacles…Chapter 19

I fight to just hold on to what I believe…

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“Miroku,” Sesshomaru called softy. The monk stopped and turned, startled. Sesshomaru seldom said his name, or any except his brother’s or Rin's. Miroku sometimes almost wondered if Sesshomaru even remembered his name.

“Yes?”

“Drop,” he said. Miroku, confused and suddenly frightened, dropped to the ground. Not a moment too soon, either, as a blade passed overhead.

“Damnit!” Came a deep voice from the bushes. Miroku spun, angrily and grabbed the rosary beads at his hand. He didn’t even see Sesshomaru move, the youkai was just suddenly standing in the bushes, digging through them roughly. A moment later, he had tossed a filthy young man wearing furs and smelling strongly of bear halfway across the field.

“Do you wish to kill him or shall I?” Sesshomaru asked Miroku. Miroku stood back up and glared down at the youth. He appeared to be about the same age as Miroku himself, but he was definitely not human, so appearances would be deceiving. The youkai glared back, hatred in his red eyes.

“I suppose you have a reason for trying to decapitate me?” Miroku asked, fingering the beads lightly. The youkai looked half-starved and desperate.

“Go to hell,” he growled. “Better kill me now before I eat you,” he added with a half-grin. Miroku sighed. He couldn’t kill a helpless being that wasn’t attacking him. It wasn’t in his nature.

“Leave us. I have no time for you,” Miroku said and turned to walk away. The entire party moved on, but Miroku noticed very quickly that Sesshomaru wasn’t with them. He turned back and the taiyoukai was standing over the youkai, his hand on toukijin.

“Miroku?” Kagome queried when she saw him stop.

“Go ahead,” Miroku said, then turned and went back, walking up to Sesshomaru.

“I am letting him go,” Miroku said quietly. “He has done no harm.” Sesshomaru looked up.

“Had I not warned you, you would not be standing here and disputing this with me. He must die.”

“He’s starving,” Miroku hissed. “He can’t defend himself.”

“You protest the lack of honor in the kill,” Sesshomaru reasoned. Miroku nodded. “If I release him, he will find another human to prey on. You have killed youkai for less.”

“I was defending either myself or a village,” Miroku argued.

“I do not understand how this is different.”

“He can’t fight back! There’s no proof he could even kill anyone!”

“He—”

“Enough!” Miroku interrupted. “This is not a debate! No one is killing anyone right now. If he comes after us again, we will kill him then.” Sesshomaru went very still. Miroku realized his mistake. It was one thing to protest, but he had just interrupted and made demands of the taiyoukai. Miroku’s stomach tightened in fear at the look in Sesshomaru’s eyes. “I refuse to take the life of someone that cannot even fight me!” Miroku added, masking the fear that was growing in him with anger.

“I was not asking you to take his life,” Sesshomaru said, his voice cold and even. The trace of curiosity that had been there moments before had vanished. Miroku realized he had stepped over the line. Since his life already hung by a precarious balance, he stepped forward and placed his hand gently on Sesshomaru’s arm.

“Please. Respect my beliefs,” Miroku whispered. The stone set of his eyes vanished and Sesshomaru turned his back on his prey and his lover and walked after the group. After his heart left his throat, Miroku sighed and looked down at the youkai that had caused this trouble. “You,” he said angrily. The youth jumped and looked up at him, the sneer that had started to form disappearing at the sight of Miroku’s face. “If I ever hear about you preying on humans again, I will personally hunt you down and kill you, do you understand?”

“And who are you?” growled the young man.

“I am the monk, Miroku. And that,” he said, pointing to the retreating figure of the man he loved, “Was Sesshomaru-sama, lord of the western lands. If you cross me, you answer to him as well.” The boy had paled.

“The deadly son of the great Inutaisho?” The boy swallowed audibly. “Forgive my ignorance and thank you for sparing my life,” he said, bowing.

“I hope to never see you again,” Miroku growled.

“That is my sincerest wish as well,” the youkai said, then stood and ran away, quickly, leaving his weapon behind.

‘Great,’ Miroku thought. ‘Now I have to soothe the ego of the ‘deadly son of the great Inutaisho.’ Why does my life always have to be so complicated?’ Miroku walked quickly after his friends, hurrying to catch up. ‘I couldn’t just find a nice village girl to bear me a son and live an ordinary life. I had to be born cursed,' he thought, sarcastically. 'In more ways than one, apparently.’

…

Yikes. Having to choose between your convictions and pissing off Sesshomaru… Not an easy choice to make. I apologize for how short this chapter is. I promise to make it up next chapter!

Reviewer responses brought to you by Evanescence (which I'm listening to while writing yet another fic):

Kira: Saw Willy Wonka, huh? Did you like it? I want to see it, but I love Johnny Depp. And I love Tim Burton (although he's scarier looking than his films). Hmm, -usese old lady voice- when I was young, huggle was just a cute way of saying hug -end old lady voice- -gets huggled, falls back on ground from the tackle with an 'oomph'- -hugs back- Glad you're still enjoying!

YoukaiObsessed: Yeah, my tv's on a lot (my job is daycare in my home, which is why I get to write fanfics at work, hehehe) but I have on headphones and almost never watch it. Man, I haven't played Final Fantasy (any of them)in forever. I actually bought my PSX for FF7 back when it first came out (I remember being so awed by the graphics I was floored... wow things have changed). I've been playingmostly Star Ocean 3 and Bloodrayne 2 myself (and Champions: Return to Arms with my friends). But I haven't had time for video games. Fanfic, fanfic, fanart, AMVs... I'm horribly addicted. I'm glad you liked "Onigumo".. I wrote it in like 30 minutes in the middle of the night. I don't think I've even read it yet -blush- at least, not all the way through. It's been well-received, so I'm glad my lack of editing and rereading it like I usually do wasn't too bad. LOL at 'sneaky assed Sesshomaru' . Yeah, I liked the 'I'm no better than they' moment, too. And I liked the 'Sango forgives him' moment, too,that scene was acutally very important to me.I'm glad you like it!

Shanna: Yeah, my last reviewer response was huge! I had a lot to say, though. I'm a chatterbox. This isn't the only story I'm writing, though, I'm also working on about four or five others (only one Mir/Sess in the lot). You don't have to be a teacher to have good grammar, lol. Admittedly, I've taught and I do teach, but I'm not, by profession, a teacher. So maybe Lilly is just someone with good grammar skills :D Yeah, I was pretty horrified by how long that story took me to finish. But I didn't write or draw much of anything for two years of my life. I only realized that today. I doubt you would have read it, it was a Star Trek: Voyager femslash fic. I figured that was a nice fix to the Kohaku problem and it gave something to Sango, who was still hurting inside. It gave her back something that she didn't deserve to have taken in the first place. -gets glomped- And I'm glad I've managed to supply some sunshine and flowers!

Lilly: Yeah, that response shocked me when I saw how long it was! It didn't FEEL that long!Yup, we Mir/Sess authors are rather few. It's so sad to me, since that's my favorite pairing. So it's no surprise to me that you've read my other Mir/Sess fic (or one of them at least). That was my first BDSM fic, actually. I've been reading them for years, but had never tried to write them before. Yes, I was a good beta, lol. I'm a big nitpicker, so it's usually a pretty thorough job. And it really helped me with my own writing skills. I'm glad I gave you a moment of happiness after a bad day, that's always good to hear! Yes, this chapter was big for the 'dealing and moving on' that the characters needed to do. And thank you for reassuring me that I'm keeping Sesshomaru in character, that's important to me! One of the reasons I hadn't written a humor fic for this series was that every time I tried, I made the characters OOC, so I finally broke down yesterday and started writing one. It's called "Out of Character Experience" and hopefully will be done before the end of the week. Although not Mir/Sess, it has a nice moment of it anyway (hooray for subtext). Mmm, er, well, I managed to go off on another train of thought. I'll derail now.

Bob: Happy to see you're still enjoying it! Yes, Sesshomaru has a rationale for everything (or tries to). It's part of the control-freak nature I'm running with for his character in this story.

Kai: Yes, Sango's moment was a very important one for all the characters, but as you'll notice looking at the codes for this chapter, it also accomplished something else rather important for the story...

Review responsesto be continued next chapter...