A Royal Pain

Kagome tried to restrain her tears, but she could not. Falling to the ground she sobbed thinking of what horrors that her dear friend might have had to suffer. Why did men during these times have to be so rough and crude?

One time she believed Sesshoumaru to be the jerk of the world and then he did nice things making him seem like a true savior. Kagome actually had for a time stood up for Sesshoumaru when Inuyasha bad mouthed him, but now she didn’t know what to think or what to do. The one thing she did know was that she couldn’t approach Miroku looking like this. She had to get control of her emotions.

Sango was right. This Feudal Era was not the same as it was in her time. People were not as forgiving of mistakes and Kagome had to adjust to the times she was living in or she indeed would not survive.

Slowly Kagome got back on her feet and wiped away the tears. She would do as Sango asked. That was the least she could do for her friend.

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Miroku and Inuyasha were coming back to the village after defeating another low class demon for a village that gave them two bolts of rather expensive silk. Miroku hoped that Sango would like the pink and blue material since he had indeed been so busy worrying about money that he almost forgot about their wedding anniversary.

“You know Miroku, one of these days they are going to seriously kill you or arrest you if you don’t quit being so damn greedy.”

Inuyasha complained as he carried both bolts of silk.

“Come now Inuyasha, we are doing them a service. Besides I do not want my wife to want for anything and I think you would consider that we are doing this for Kagome too.’
“I am trying to get enough money together to rebuild Sango’s village. I want her to have her home again so really what we are asking of these wealthy Lords is not much.”

Inuyasha sighed and resigned himself to silence once again as they entered the village.

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Kagome walked up to the village trying to control her emotions. She had to look as though nothing was wrong, but knowing Inuyasha he would read right through her so Kagome thought of happy things to make herself smile. If she could remain in a cheery mood he may not detect that she was faking her happiness.

To her surprise Sango caught up with her.

“Kagome, are you ok?”

Sango asked and Kagome smiled softly.

“I should be asking you that.”

Sango huffed.

“Don’t worry about me. I am fine. It is nothing more than Sesshoumaru trying to keep us on edge and remind us who the true Alpha dog in the pack is. He just has too much time on his hands so most likely he will continue to request things from us until something else catches his attention. Demons don’t like being ignored and Sesshoumaru I am certain is just feeling a bit insecure about his position with us since we haven’t been treating him as we should.”

Kagome frowned.

“What are you saying? That we don’t appreciate his efforts when he did help us? I always said thank you to him, it was his fault for walking away before we had a chance to thank him.”

Sango smiled at her friend shaking her head almost laughing.

“Kagome we haven’t been referring to him as Lord Sesshoumaru. He is a Lord and that title is important to him. We have been disrespectful in many ways since Inuyasha has not shown the proper respect to the demon Lord, but he is his brother so that makes things a bit different. We however do not hold any blood ties to him so we must start showing him the respect he deserves whether we like him or not.”

Kagome sighed feeling like a real creep for washing her brother in law rather than doing something like that to Inuyasha. At least now she knew if she did have to wash her husband the proper way of doing it, still that didn’t make her feel any better about what happened.

“Do you think Inuyasha will be mad at me?”

Sango looked down at the ground.

“No, he will probably try to kill Lord Sesshoumaru if our demon Lord were to try anything that is beyond the duties we were tasked with. He should know the rules since his human Mother would have to have taught him something about all of this. If he doesn’t know than Miroku and I will have to educate you both since Lord Sesshoumaru is not wrong in requesting certain things from us as a Lord.”

Kagome frowned. She didn’t want to deal with Sesshoumaru ordering her around to do things like that bath. What if he were to request something more? Could she stop him or would Inuyasha be angry that she didn’t do as his elder brother asked or even worse, became angry because she was touching his brother? He was so jealous and might go get himself killed by Sesshoumaru if he found out about what happened.

“I hope that Inuyasha knows about these things. As much as I wanted to drown Sesshoumaru, I wouldn’t want to see the two of them try to kill each other again. Rin really loves Sesshoumaru and it would definitely hurt her if Sesshoumaru were to get hurt again.”

Sango laughed at that.

“I would worry more about Inuyasha Kagome. Lord Sesshoumaru has in fact been rather easy on his little brother. Inuyasha should know this by now.”

Kagome frowned.

“Do you really think so?”

Sango nodded.

“If he had wanted Inuyasha dead there were plenty of opportunities for him to do so. Our demon Lord has reasons for keeping Inuyasha alive. Perhaps we should consider that as a blessing since without Inuyasha we would have been killed several times over.”

Kagome thought about that and it was true. If Sesshoumaru really wanted Inuyasha dead than he could have killed him many times, especially on his human nights.

As they walked into the village Miroku and Inuyasha came out to greet them along with Kaede and Rin.

“How are my little ones?”

Sango asked Rin.

“They are all sleeping Lady Sango. The three of them were perfect Angels.”

Rin stated with a wide smile. She loved Lady Sango’s babies and in many ways could not wait to grow up so that she could have some children of her own. The only problem was that she wanted to stay at Lord Sesshoumaru’s side and yet her heart longed to wed her childhood crush Kohaku. Rin wondered if Kohaku would mind following Lord Sesshoumaru once again if they were to wed. There was also the fact that Lord Sesshoumaru had to approve of the match since he was indeed her caretaker.

“I am glad. Thank you for watching them for me.”

Sango stated to both Rin and Kaede.

“Miroku, can we talk to you and Inuyasha in private for a moment?”

Miroku nodded and Inuyasha looked at Sango suspiciously. Something was wrong and from the smell of things it smelled like Sesshoumaru. He didn’t like this one bit. If Sesshoumaru did anything to his wife he would kill him.

Kaede and Rin walked over to Kaede’s hut to give the group of young people some privacy.

Sango then proceeded to tell Miroku and Inuyasha about their incident with Sesshoumaru.

“He just wanted a bath huh…….”

Inuyasha stated and then looked at Kagome who had tears in her eyes.

“I am sorry Inuyasha…….I didn’t want to……..”

Inuyasha hugged his wife.

“It is ok Kagome. If Sesshoumaru only wanted a bath than that is ok, as long as he didn’t hurt you.”

Kagome was shocked. She expected Inuyasha to take off to go kill his brother for making her bathe him. This was completely unexpected.

“So he asked you for a Lord’s bath.”

Miroku stated to his wife who looked a bit concerned.

“Yes in two days I am to meet him at sunset.”

Miroku sighed.

“Well I guess there really is nothing I can do about it. As long as Sesshoumaru doesn’t ask for anything that isn’t allowed to a Lord I must comply. Did he state that he wanted you to come by yourself?”

Sango shook her head no.

“Fine then I will go with you. I don’t wish for you to be alone with Sesshoumaru especially if he comes up with other demands so I can insure that you are being treated fairly.”

Inuyasha looked at Miroku feeling bad for the guy, but fact was he was having his own issues with his wife. Perhaps if he went with them he could learn something.

“Can we come as well?”

Kagome looked horrified at her husband, but Inuyasha just smiled at her and kissed her on the lips.

“It will be ok Kagome. This isn’t something that is unusual in this era. You wanted to learn more about the era you are living in so I suggest we do this too.”

Sango hoped that Lord Sesshoumaru would not be angry if the others came with her.

“I believe we should all go, but if Lord Sesshoumaru wants to do this in private you must leave with the men Kagome.”

Miroku and the others understood as they walked back to their huts and pondered what to do next.

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After getting dressed, Sesshoumaru headed out again towards the village to watch and see the reactions of the men’s faces when their wives told them about bathing him. He was expecting more of a ruckus not a simple agreement. Izayoi must have taught Inuyasha all about the protocol when it came to Lords.

Well, at least Kagome was flustered, but that whole scene she made during the bath was completely ridiculous. Now he had to take care of that problem through his little brother. Why did Inuyasha’s group have to be so damn difficult?

Sesshoumaru decided to wait until nightfall and then he would grab his little brother from his slumber and force him to explain more about Kagome’s world on the other side of the well since Sango had stated that Inuyasha had gone with Kagome through the bone eater’s well to this strange world that Kagome had lived in.

Tonight was Inuyasha’s human night so it should not be too difficult to get the boy. That way Inuyasha would be at his most vulnerable and that would make this whole excursion easier. Besides, his brother owed him for multiple things and indeed he would pay.