Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Defensive Interference	By : monophobian Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 4843 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off anything to do with Inuyasha.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
I've come to accept that this story just isn't the one I thought I was telling -- and I think I'm okay with it. So rather than keep pushing for whatever was on my mind years ago when I started it, I'm going to follow what it's become. And that's really helped.
It's been almost a year since the last chapter. A huge thank you to everyone who reads this and has stuck with this story. I really do have plans to finish it, but I'm accepting that it might just take me longer than I want to admit.
Hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think. :)
Monday had been a fiasco. Sesshoumaru’s youkai lashed out from his office in harsh spikes all day, battering against her in punishment. He didn’t say a single word to her, but let his displeasure echo through her office in resounding waves. By the time she got home she was dead on her feet, exhausted from the mental barricade she was forced to keep throughout the day.
Tuesday went quietly. Kagome stayed in her office and Sesshoumaru stayed in his. They met for a meeting Wednesday morning and she remained as professional as she could be while feeling the ice wall he emitted. Not the first time, wouldn’t be the last was her ongoing reminder. She could get through this.
Wednesday afternoon was a little different, needing some input from him. But while she was gathering the courage to leave the safety of her office for his, he was called out of the building for a meeting with another partner on another project. Kagome took that for the grace it was and closed herself in for the rest of the day. She finished what she could, emailed him her questions, then was out the door as soon as she could go.
Thursday.
Thursday was already proving to be a difficult day.
It was one of her days where she was free to work on other projects as long as she was available for questions. While she had been apprehensive about the arrangement at first, it was working out really well. It would change as the deadlines got closer and she needed to devote more time to Sesshoumaru’s project, but she’d manage that when it got here. Until then, she was going to take each day as it came.
This particular day? She wished it hadn’t come at all.
Sesshoumaru met her in the elevator when she got to work. It wasn’t the first time their arrivals coincided, but it was new to feel the tension. How long would he hold this anger against her for what she did? She had no idea, but she wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Good morning,” she said, ignoring his cold shoulder. She would be polite even if it killed her.
He nodded, but didn’t look at her. Worked for Kagome — she was free to stare at the closed elevator door for as long as she needed to.
It wasn’t a slow elevator by any means, but each floor inched along. All she wanted to do was hole away in her office, get as much work done as she could, leave the building and not look back until she had to return Monday morning. There weren’t any plans made for the weekend yet, but with the stress of the week Kagome was ready to call her friends and meet at a bar as soon as she walked out of the building tonight.
It really wasn’t a bad idea.
“The representative from the ad agency will be here for a meeting this morning,” Sesshoumaru said suddenly, breaking the mutual silence as they passed the tenth floor. “They want to go over their advertising campaign and make sure it’ll work with our release dates.”
Kagome remembered hearing Rin say something about the meeting, though she hadn’t known what it was for. Mentally juggling around her planned day, she figured out how it could work.
“I’m assuming you’ll want me there?” He wouldn’t have brought it up if he didn’t, but it was always safer to double check. “Anything in particular you would like me to bring?”
“Your current timeline and updated calendar.”
Easy enough request. “When is the meeting?”
“I’ll have Rin page you when they arrive.”
That seemed a little odd. Sesshoumaru had little patience for untimely meetings, but he knew these representatives better than she. Maybe they had a prior obligation before her presence was needed.
The elevator stopped on the top floor. Kagome headed straight for her office, so happy to be alone that she didn’t pay attention to any kind of scent.
***
Three hours later, Kagome stormed back into her office barely managing to keep from slamming the door in anger. The meeting had been a complete waste of time. Two hours she sat in that conference room, her fury boil higher and higher until she could have sworn it was going to shoot through the roof.
First, they had a poorly designed presentation filled with incorrect data that didn’t even resemble anything they were originally given. Second, as if he was purposefully trying to make it worse, the rep passed the blame onto his assistants — ignoring that Kagome only used his office email. She would have canceled the contract right there for gross abuse of time and resources.
But no. Of course that didn’t happen. This wasn’t her company. So what did the CEO do? Sesshoumaru asked Kagome why her communication had been so poor between the two offices.
Kagome barely kept her temper, knowing there was not a damn thing wrong on her end of the deal. All she was in charge of was the design timeline. Everything else went through other departments and all of her information was accurate, up to date, and relevant.
Her notepad and calendar landed with a solid thud on her desk and she promptly turned to face her window. Good thing they gave her this office, else she would be storming out of the building now just to get another view.
The door opened and her teeth sank into her cheek to keep from lashing out at the asshole quietly closing the door behind him.
She held on to her silence with a harsh grip, refusing to break first. He had been completely out of line and if she didn’t get her temper under control, she’d be walking out permanently.
“That was productive.”
Her eyebrows shot up, her back went ramrod straight, and she dug her heels into the plush carpet to keep from turning to face him. “That was a shitshow,” she spat at the glass instead, focusing intently on the food vender at the end of the block. “And you didn’t help.”
“On the contrary,” fabric rustled and she could just see him making himself comfortable in one of her chairs, “I gained a lot of information from that.”
The sly tone of his voice dug at her, needling in until she couldn’t help but turn and face him. He was sitting on her chair, one leg crossed over his knee and a smug look on his damn face.
“You gained a lot of information?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. “In that case, I guess I did, too. Learned all about how my employer is an ignorant sack of shit.”
One silver brow rose, but she drove right ahead.
“I’ve been doing my damn job this entire time and you know it. You know the emails I’ve sent all contained correct information because your admin received copies every single one of them!”
His lips curved into a smirk, the one she hated, the one that constantly drove her to insanity when trying to figure out what would please him. Never again.
“I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, everything I knew to do, and all I’ve ever received from you or your team were confirmations that I was doing it right. But when some incompetent blowhard steps in and delivers a bullshit presentation and deflects blame in order to make himself look good, you threw me under the bus in order to kiss his sweaty, inconsequential ass.”
The eyebrow smoothed out, his face turning bland once more. “Are you done?”
“Am I done?” she repeated incredulously. “Am I done with what, exactly, Sesshoumaru? Am I done venting?” she counted on one finger. “Not likely. I’ll be screaming about this all fucking weekend thanks to you. Am I done listing everything you did wrong?” Second finger went up. “Nope, haven’t even started on that, but I can if you’d like. Am I done with this job?” Third finger, her anger reeling higher and higher. “I’m two seconds from walking out that door and making sure I never see your arrogant face again.”
She expected him to retaliate. His damn pride was big enough to contain the entire building and she hadn’t cared one bit for stepping all over it. Instead, he watched her calmly. Quietly. There was an invisible wall between them she couldn’t read. Finally, he put both feet flat on the ground and waved a hand toward her chair.
“Sit, please.”
It was only because he said ‘please’ that she pulled her chair from her desk and sat.
“Would you like to know what I learned from the meeting?”
Kagome barely bit back the harsh no she wanted to spit.
“I learned that my business contracts’ weak spot,” he explained. “I learned that the long-time relationship I’ve had with this particular agency is being damaged by misplaced employees. I learned that my fellow business partner has slacked on what he demands from the people who represent his company’s name.”
She followed what he said, her temper slowly simmering down from the previous roaring rage it had been.
“And I learned that you can still continue working professionally with anyone, no matter how much they’ve pissed you off.” Sesshoumaru had the gall to smirk again. “Previous tirade excluded.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He used her? Just to see if she could act like an adult?
The simmer of her anger flared back up to a burning flame.
“Thank you for your contribution to that meeting. I was anticipating his failure and it’s good to know that my personal employment decisions aren’t the ones growing lax.”
“You knew that meeting was going to bomb?” she asked.
He nodded and of course. Of fucking course.
“Why didn’t you just put an end to it at the beginning?” she demanded. “Why did you waste all of our time? Did you really need such a demonstration? I knew within ten minutes that he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
“And yet you still maintained a professional attitude, despite your growing frustrations.”
She sat back in her chair, reeling from what Sesshoumaru revealed. There was so much — the scheming and manipulating wasn’t new. He’d always done that, having learned to be shrewd from an early age. But testing her in such a manner? Measuring her worth against an undisclosed evaluation?
Kagome snapped up in her chair, closing her calendar and portfolio and dropping them in her drawer. Her phone went in her purse, keys in her other hand, and she was striding past him before she could find form her thoughts into words.
Sesshoumaru beat her to them. “Miss Higurashi?” he asked, perfectly polite in every infuriating way he knew how to be.
“I don’t play games,” she threw at him, voice quiet and tightly controlled. “I haven’t played games in years.”
Silence fell behind her, but she knew he was watching her carefully.
“I’m not a pawn. I’m not a toy. I’m an employee. And most importantly, I deserve far more respect than anything you’ve done this week has showed.” She glanced over her shoulder and was satisfied to see that he was listening. “The next time you have doubts about my professional abilities, show me some fucking respect and talk to me.”
She reached for the doorknob, twisting it to open the door—
“Doubts like right now?”
Kagome froze.
“You’re leaving.” The contempt in his voice was a physical hit. “Rather than hold your ground through an argument, you pack up and run, just like you always did.”
The barb struck deep, landed, stung.
“I don’t know why I expected different. You found a situation you didn’t like and instead of facing it, you run.”
She let go of the doorknob knowing that she was letting him win. She wasn’t running…was she?
“You’ve ignored me all week,” she said slowly, verbally walking through her thoughts. “Utter silence from you for three days and then the first thing you say to me is a manipulation.”
Sesshoumaru didn’t say anything, but she didn’t make the mistake of believing he didn’t have a response.
“You threw me to the wolves in order to test my professionalism. I’ve been working here for a month and not once have I given you reason to doubt that I could do my job.” Her anger was building again, but twisting with knowledge that was beating back those old doubts. Swallowing old habits she’d forgotten, Kagome turned to face him. “You’re the one who hasn’t been professional, Sesshoumaru.”
His eyes flashed, but didn’t effect her.
“You’ve picked fights with Kouga every time he’s come here. You’ve doused my office in your scent, knowing it would follow me home and anger him more. And when I find a balance, when I finally took a stand to try to separate our personal history from our professional present, you retaliated against me.”
“I did not retaliate—”
“Yes, you did.” She had to stand firm and dammit, if Kouga could go back to work and face the turmoil and prejudice exposing itself in the high school, then she could damn well look at her ex— ex-whatever and make her boundaries clear. “You shut me out completely this week and then manipulated me. You tested me because you thought I was the same person I used to be.”
And didn’t that hurt, the reminder of the unsteady little girl she once had been.
“It’s been five years, Sesshoumaru. I’ve changed. You’ve changed. And you’re right, I’m leaving. I’m too angry to continue working today and you’re too…too…” She blew out a breath. “You’re too damn arrogant to admit that you need a break from me, too.”
At least, she thought that was the problem.
“You’re not the boy I remember. You’re not the boy I was involved with. But dammit, I’m not that same girl, either. And I took this job believing that you would be able to separate the me now from the me then. But you haven’t and after having that truth slapped in my face, yes, I’m leaving. I’m tapping out. I’m taking the breather we both need to try and figure out if there’s something salvageable from the mess this is.”
She swung the door open.
“And if that makes me immature, then I’ll gladly be immature because the other option is to let this already out of control situation blow up even further in our faces.”
***
She was such an idiot. Actually thinking they could work together with everything that happened? Obviously not.
After she left the office, Kagome found herself sitting at the quiet bar of a steady restaurant getting ready for their lunch rush. It was probably too early for most of the world to be having a drink, but with her day, she wasn’t waiting. The quiet helped her think through her employment at Baku Corp. All the times she let things slide — like his scent covering her office to an absurd degree. Or the fight he had with Kouga in the elevator. She never actually addressed that, just purified her office and then let Sesshoumaru throw his tantrum.
That silent treatment never should have happened. And she shouldn’t have avoided him while it was going on.
Would she ever be able to work with him after this? Kagome wanted to say yes, that she could continue to be professional, but she was starting to see that they didn’t know how to interact. She knew him too well and he…he probably knew her too well, too.
The stool next to her shifted and Kagome turned to watch Inuyasha settle in it. It wasn’t long before he had a drink himself, tasting the first sip of his beer.
“Heard you’ve been having a rough week,” he said, looking ahead at the game coverage on the TV.
“Your brother’s an asshole,” she spat, taking another sip of her drink.
“Keh,” came the expected scoff. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Fair. Inuyasha knew better than anyone else the particular brand of jackassery Sesshoumaru excelled in.
“But for the sake of this conversation, what makes him an asshole?”
Kagome considered that question, turning over the last few weeks in her head. “Everything.”
Inuyasha snorted again before tapping the lip of his glass against hers. “You won’t hear an argument from me.”
Commercials started on the screen, pulling them into a quaint silence. Sesshoumaru was a topic she typically avoided with Inuyasha, but she was happy he was the one there. “He doesn’t believe people can change, does he?”
“No, not really. It’s never been one of his strengths.” Inuyasha nodded a silent hello to another guy sitting at the other end of the bar. “I’m guessing you were hoping otherwise.”
That was an understatement.
“That said, he’s different with business,” he added quietly. “So long as I don’t have to answer to him, we can even manage a successful project. It’s not easy, but it’s been done.”
The fact they had even attempted such was a shock. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru barely kept from fighting when they had to see each other. Then again, with the care Inuyasha managed Izayoi’s small business, she wasn’t all that surprised that he would make something work.
“What happened?”
It was such a simple question and yet, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out just where it all went wrong.
“He invited me to a meeting he knew was going to bomb,” she began, running her finger through the condensation budding on her glass. “The rep we were meeting with shifted the blame everywhere he could until it made me look bad and Sesshoumaru let it happen to see if I could remain professional.”
“Ah.” He took another pull from his beer. “One of his tests. Did you pass?”
“Of course I fucking did!” she snapped. “I have emails proving that I did my job right. So when the stupid douchebag told me it was a test, all smug and apparently expecting me to kiss his ass, I exploded.”
“Good.”
The bartender slid her another glass, then disappeared to make drinks for a new party that just arrived.
“Yeah, good. All the way up until I told him off for playing immature games and walked out.”
Inuyasha didn’t say anything then, simply finished his beer as the situation settled around them.
“Why did you take this job?” he finally asked.
Oof. She had to think about that one. “It pays well.” She knew that had been a big draw. “It’s a large project, so I knew it would stretch me as a designer and that I’d learn a lot.” Kagome tinkered with her glass as she remembered the other benefits. “It was stable, but not permanent and I knew it would be a great thing to add to my portfolio.”
He nodded along, listening to each of her reasons. They still sounded good even now, so what went wrong?
“Could you have kept the design job without taking the office position?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Kagome frowned, realizing she’d never explicitly asked. “I’m not completely certain, but it seemed like they were extending the position to me first to keep everything contained.” She sipped her drink. “You think I shouldn’t have taken the position and kept just the freelance work.”
He shrugged. “That’s not my call to make.”
“What would you do?”
He snorted and she couldn’t help but laugh. Inuyasha wouldn’t have taken the design job, let alone the office position.
“Stupid question,” she corrected. “If you were me, what would you do?”
He fiddled with his glass before taking another sip. “What were you planning on doing?”
“Hell if I know. Give it the weekend, talk it over with Kouga, see how Monday goes?” Even as she said the words, she knew she couldn’t do that. Kagome had landed in this exact situation because she kept waiting to see how things went. If she were going to fix this, she’d have to actually do something. “Thoughts?”
He drained the rest of his beer. “I think this is the second week in a row that you’ve left early because professional lines were crossed.”
Hammer, meet nail.
“And I think if that’s happened enough to become a trend in the short amount of time you’ve been working there, something has to change or you’ll keep running into this same problem.”
It should have been obvious. She’d have eventually gotten there, but maybe after a couple more disastrous confrontations. “When did you get so wise, Inuyasha?” she teased, nudging him with her shoulder.
“Keh.” He leaned back into her. “Someone has to keep an eye out for you.”
“I never should have slept with him.”
Inuyasha stilled next to her and her shoulders sank. Somber amber eyes met her gaze, a wealth of turmoil swimming in them. “I think we’re all allowed a few mistakes like that in our lives.”
Her throat tightened. “Kikyou wasn’t a mistake.”
“No, but stringing you along was.”
The silence that followed was heavy, but not suffocating. They’d learned a lot through the years they’d known each other and while some of those lessons had hurt, she treasured the friendship that grew out of it.
“Come on,” he said, his voice a little lighter. “Let’s go find something to do. Kouga will have my head if I let you drink the rest of the day away without him.”
She smiled. “Don’t want to piss off Kouga.”
“Damn right I don’t.” Inuyasha passed a few bills over to the bartender. “He’s good for you.”
Kagome followed him out, a sad smile on her face. She knew there was no replacing Kikyou, but maybe Inuyasha didn’t need to find a replacement in order to love again.
- 11
- 12
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Defensive Interference