Chapter Five – Dinner with an Inu
It was quiet. Very, very quiet, and trying her best to ignore the silence, Kagome lifted another piece of smoked venison to her lips, glancing discreetly at the inu across from her just as the meat touched her tongue. Other than to invite her in and exchange small talk with Kotono before she left, he hadn't spoken, obviously choosing to dine in silence rather than burden himself with holding a conversation; something that a part of her was very offended over. However, instead of attempting to draw the youkai into meaningless chatter, Kagome ate her meal in silence. After all, she wasn't going to get riled up over nothing, and if he didn't want to talk, then he didn't have to talk. 'Maybe he had a long day,' she reasoned, glancing at him again. 'Or it could just be that he still thinks you unintelligent,' the offended part of her whispered, teasing in its viciousness. She tried to push it aside, tried to ignore the stirring of anger that it provoked, but to no avail. 'Surely you aren't going to sit quietly and let him think such things about you?' "I'll win next time." The words passed her lips before she could stop them, and a fine, silver brow quirked in question as a long fingered hand waved for the servants to clear away the remains of their dinner. "Pardon?" She opened her mouth again, but while her mind screamed to stop, her body worked on its own, sending more sound flowing across her tongue. "In Go," she clarified, pausing to smile gratefully at the servant who cleared her dishes from the table. "I'll win next time." Now, the other brow rose to join its twin, and there was distinct amusement in the golden hued gaze, but the Western lord spoke no words until he stood and motioned for her to follow. "That would require you to possess a fair amount of strategic knowledge," he responded, glancing at her as they walked away from the table. "I have plenty of strategic knowledge," she retorted, to which Lord Sesshomaru grunted quietly. "That shall be determined," he answered, sparing her a sideling glance. She opened her mouth to respond, but the youkai had led her to the far side of the room, the wall of which was one long shoji, just like the one that led to Kotono's massive quarters. Holding her answer for the moment, she watched as a servant obediently pushed it aside, and then gasped and promptly forgot what she was going to say. Spread out before her were the entirety of Sesshomaru's holdings—not the buildings of his shiro, but the lands around it—lit by the dull reddish rays of the setting sun. Rolling plains and flat valleys extended for as far as she could see, dotted with small villages and marred by cultivated rows of farm land, all split by broad dirt roads and bordered by dense forests. In the distance, the mountains rose majestically into the sky, reaching toward the kami with strong fisted arms. "Your lands are beautiful," she whispered, unwilling to speak much louder for fear of sending her voice across such a peaceful place. The inu said nothing, and she tore her gaze away from the sight before her to look up at him. His face was blank, as she suspected it always was, but there was a softening of the lines around his mouth, just enough to make her believe that he cared greatly for the grounds he watched over. 'Maybe…Maybe he isn't so cold…?' The thought caused her to shake her head and look away. She didn't know him, not truly, and there was no reason for her to believe that the youkai wasn't as others said he was; it was possible that he cared for his lands, yes, but it was also possible that he truly cared for little else. 'And this is the type of being you're going to give yourself to?' The thought came unbidden, and Kagome clasped her hands in front of her, digging her fingers into her flesh and using the pinch of pain to shove the musings away. She'd already had that argument with herself, and she wasn't going to have it again, not now, not ever. Just as soon as the determination settled itself into her chest, Lord Sesshomaru shifted on his feet and walked away, leaving her to trail behind him. The other end of the dining hall also had a wall-length shoji, which was pushed aside to reveal a large sitting room, wider than it was long with large cushions and low tables. "Tell me miko," Lord Sesshomaru murmured as he motioned to a cushion, "would you like to prove your intelligence?" She settled with a grin, nodding as he knelt across from her. He waved a hand, and a Go board was set before them in a matter of seconds, the familiar pieces clicking softly in their dishes. They commenced the game in silence, but it wasn't long until Kagome couldn't hold her tongue; an entire dinner spent in speechlessness had driven her to crave conversation. "I met Rin earlier today," she said, reaching forward to place a white piece. The inu said nothing, so she continued, keeping her voice hushed. "She seems very smart." Golden eyes flicked up to her face, magenta lids highlighting the sharp color. "This Sesshmaru will not have an uneducated pup, human or not." Something in his voice hinted that he was a little perturbed at the notion that she could've thought otherwise, and the 'human or not' jab pinched a nerve in her chest. "Well," she said, "all of us humans may not be educated…" She placed a white piece and plucked three of his black ones. "But the few of us who are value the lessons we're taught." She kept her face carefully blank, and was amused to see a flicker of emotion—maybe admiration, but more likely irritation—pass through the gaze locked on hers. The inu made a noise, a soft huff that sounded dangerously close to a haughty sigh of disagreement, and then lowered his eyes back to the game. He reached across the board, the sleeve of his brown, lightly embroidered haori held back with his free hand to avoid disturbing the small pieces. His black stone found a place at an intersection in one of the corners nearest her side of the table, and she pursed her lips as his move somehow prevented her from making one. "Come, miko. I have not all night." She glanced up from her inspection of the board, knowing that it had been quite a few moments since she'd moved. "Genius cannot be rushed, milord," she said, purposefully pitching her voice a little haughtier. He cocked a brow. "Genius wins every game, does it not?" Kagome shook her head, placed a stone, and added a black piece to the dish beside her. "It bides its time and waited for the right opportunity to strike." "Hnn." She felt her eyes narrow and settled back. "What does that mean?" For a moment, Sesshomaru said nothing, and then glanced up at her as he selected a black stone. "It means, miko," he began, gracefully setting his piece at an intersection, "that your particular brand of genius has failed you." Kagome scowled. "What?" His hand withdrew, and he motioned to the board. "You have lost once again." Fully prepared to argue against that statement, she looked down, feeling her lips pull tight as she inspected the board and counted the remaining intersections. 'What is he talking about? There's still room to play, and he hasn't captured more of my pieces than I have of his. Unless…' She looked up again, annoyance sparking to life behind her eyelids at the quietly confident light in his eyes. 'Oh, so he thinks he's going to win just like that, does he?' Setting her lips in a firm line, Kagome chose not to answer his statement, narrowing her eyes at him before turning her gaze back to the board. For quite some time, the game progressed in silence. Kagome, far too focused on beating the Western lord, only just barely murmured her thanks to a servant who brought her a cup of tea, and not even her own thoughts got in the way; in fact, she thought of little else except the board and her next move. Her single-minded focus broke only when the inu across from her murmured 'pass', and she pulled herself out of the daze she'd sunk into, realizing that there was no more space for her to place her piece. "Pass." Stones clicked together as they counted up their winnings, and Kagome double checked her tally before catching the gilded gaze of her host. "Forty." Something like a smirk crossed his features. "Forty-two." Disappointment filtered through her, and a curse worked itself past her lips before she could muster up the effort to stop it. "You do cease stop at unladylike sounds, I see," Lord Sesshomaru stated in a bored tone, "but stoop to unladylike language as well." Kagome glared. "I can speak whatever kind of language I want," she retorted hotly, crossing her arms over her chest. "In this Sesshomaru's presence, miko, no you may not," he responded coolly, lifting his head until he was staring down his nose at her. Kagome opened her mouth to bite back a reply, but some part of her brain backfired, and the words stalled in her throat, held captive by a single thought: 'he's trying to make me angry!' She could see the evidence of his manipulation now, in the way he tilted his head, in the minutely quirked corners of his mouth and the way his eyes glittered in amusement. 'Oh so it is anger you want, my lord? Fine. Take it.' And with that final, heated thought, she reared up, opened her mouth, and let him have it.
:..:..:..:..:
Ah, there it was. That zest, that fire he'd been looking for. Her eyes sparked like blue flames, the heat in her gaze a sharp contrast to the frigidity of her reiki, which flowed over his skin in crashing waves, knocking around in his chest with all the force of nature itself. From her pretty little mouth probably poured the most loathing collection of words ever strung together, but he paid no mind to her ranting, much more interested in the way she looked than in the sounds coming from her throat. 'Kotono designed her kimono well,' he thought, 'though it does not show as much of her as this one would prefer.' Though the thought of wanting to see more of a simple peasant girl's human flesh would have bothered him just a few days ago, he had recently come to the conclusion that a change in his habits was necessary. He was, after all, the last of the cardinal lords to take a human to his bed, and if the praises sang of humanity's females were worth anything, he would be wise to choose this little human. 'It is not as if this one would make the girl his mate,' he reasoned, 'for I require an heir, and I shall not tarnish my bloodline any farther with hanyou pups as my sire did.' The thought of his father's mistake brought unpleasant memories to the surface, so he turned his attention back to the miko across from him. She was still ranting, and he allowed her to go on, perfectly content with watching her as she worked herself into a frenzy. 'She is unlike any other human this one has ever come across,' he mused. 'She speaks her mind despite that I am youkai. Or perhaps,' he corrected, 'she speaks her mind because I am youkai. It is obvious that she has no death wish, that much is certain in her reason for coming here…but perhaps she does not understand that her disrespect will get her killed?' He briefly thought back to the argument they'd had a few days before and immediately dismissed the notion that the onna was ignorant of her actions. 'No, despite that I goad her into squabbles over her intelligence, I know that she is not dull of mind. So why, then, does she defy me as she does…?' His thoughts trailed off as the miko crossed her arms beneath her breasts and turned away, chest heaving with the exertion it must have taken to talk for moments on end. He took a moment to admire her profile, noting the pouted lips with amusement. 'She is almost as petulant as a scolded pup, only her sulking sparks a desire in this one to change her demeanor in much more pleasurable ways than arguing with her.' He buried the thought and cocked a brow, knowing that she could see him from the corner of her eye. "Are you finished, miko?" She turned on him, fury making her mouth thin and her eyes bright. "And that's another thing," she ground out through a clenched jaw. "My name is Kagome, not miko! Ka-go-me! Why can't you—" He drowned out the rest of her sentence. Her anger swept over him in cold gusts of reiki, biting against the exposed skin of his wrists and throat like vicious little insects. His instincts clambered for him to eradicate the threat to his person, but while his nature called for one thing, his body called for a different one entirely, and he kept himself blissfully ignorant of the onna's words in favor of entertaining the images dancing around in his head. Images of that kimono ripped to shreds, giving him unlimited access to the creamy skin beneath it; of nipples that were the same shade of pale pink as her full lips, peaked and begging the attentions of his tongue; of slender thighs, spread wide in submission; of a weeping womanhood, slick and ready for the taking. And, oh, how he would take. The miko's size gave him nearly unlimited possibilities; she could be picked up, flipped over, held down and maneuvered as much as he liked, all with the added benefit of being able to cage her beneath his body and feel her tremble her release. 'This one wonders...will she scream her pinnacle, or moan it?' Looking at her, he surmised that she would possibly scream it; after all, she had shown him that she was vocal when passionate about something, such as her intelligence. Why should she be any different when it came to her pleasure? Pulled out of his thoughts as the miko once more ceased her speech, he cocked a brow, and she scowled at him, pursing her lips in irritation. "Yes, I'm finished now," she huffed, obviously annoyed. He nodded curtly, watching as the color in her cheeks faded and the fire in her eyes dimmed just slightly. "Good," he responded, feeling the warmth of his firsts youki pulse against his senses. "Kotono has come to collect you." He sent out a responding pulse, and as he looked toward the shoji, the miko followed his gaze, her ire melting completely out of her aura as she laid eyes on the dragoness. "My lord," Kotono murmured, bowing deeply before turning her smile to the miko. "Come, Kagome. We have an early start on the morrow." Nodding complacently, the ningen moved to stand, silk shifting quietly in the silence of the room. "Miko." She stopped, sapphire eyes meeting his gaze. "Tell this Sesshomaru...why should you be the one to honor position of the twelfth?" The question sparked thoughtfulness in the miko that Sesshomaru readily admired. Her full lips, shimmering from the swipe of her tongue, twisted in contemplation, and her eyes lowered to the edge of the table as her reiki undulated from her body in calm waves. When she looked up again, many moments later, there was a placid light in her gaze. "I don't think I should be," she said quietly, shrugging. "I only hope that I can be." Momentarily, he watched her, observed the oddly shy light in her gaze, and then nodded, both in acknowledgement of her statement and in dismissal. She bowed, and then stood and walked to Kotono, who sent her outside and turned to him. "My lord, if I may speak?" He nodded. "She is the best choice, I think. The other two are nothing like her, and they do not intrigue you as she does." "You have grown attached, Kotono." With a shrug, Kotono responded, "And you will grow attached as well, my lord, if you give her a chance." Sesshomaru watched as she turned and walked away, her words echoing in his mind. It wasn't long before he made his decision.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter coming soon!
~Aubrey
