Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Castaways	By : SplendentGoddess Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 8564 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi or VIZ Productions, and I do not gain financially from my fanfic in any way.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 3 - New moon, now I'm no longer alone...
Spared a repeat of her nightmare, Kagome awoke with the singing birds at dawn feeling much more refreshed that time around. Of course, Inuyasha was already wide awake, and had been for at least a couple of hours, though he'd stayed silent in his branch above to allow Kagome to sleep in for however long her body planned on doing so. She could have probably slept even longer if it weren't for the birds waking her up, but she still appreciated the fact that Inuyasha himself had kept still and silent in order to let her sleep. After a quick round of their usual barbs back and forth he took off towards the ocean with a light chuckle in his throat, and about an hour after waking up breakfast was served when she pulled their roasted fish off the fire.
With nothing else in need of construction shelter wise, Kagome decided to initially occupy herself by putting their cell phones back together to see if either one of them was in working order. Fortunately both phones had been turned off at the time of being dunked, which had apparently prevented them from getting fried since they both turned back on, though unfortunately Inuyasha had regular service via cell towers as did she, so neither one of them could make a call from their present location. Turning their phones back off, she sighed, now officially bored. Sure, she had video games on her phone, but she didn't want to drain the batter, not to mention risk possibly damaging something in her phone on the off chance it wasn't really 100% dry on the inside yet. But that didn't stop her from wishing she had a deck of playing cards or something else non-digital she could use to help ease her boredom.
"There's nothing to do..." she muttered more to herself, her words quiet enough to have probably been missed by anyone with mortal hearing.
Glancing up into Inuyasha's tree after a moment, she was surprised by the way the hanyou was just staring off into space, a clearly troubled look in his eyes almost as if he was dreading something unavoidable.
"What's the matter?" she teased after a moment, hoping to lighten the mood. "I thought for sure you'd be all over that one. You drop your spontaneous quips in the ocean when you went fishing this morning?"
"Huh...?" he muttered, turning to glance her way distractedly. "Oh, uh...I'll give ya somethin' to do..." he chimed in way off cue, his heart clearly not in it.
Face serious, Kagome put her shoes back on then stood and approached his tree, reaching up and grabbing a hold of a lower branch and climbing herself up into the tree a ways in order to get closer to her companion. His eyes widened a bit in what looked like a combination of surprise and concern, the thought of his concern touching her heart if he feared she might fall, though she used to climb trees all the time as a kid and was pretty sure she knew what she was doing. Unable to make it to the branch he was sitting on she stopped on a branch only a couple of feet lower and about three feet over, enabling her to almost meet Inuyasha face to face. If she stood up on her branch and jumped she could probably grab a hold of his, but she wasn't that reckless.
"Okay, what gives?"
"I don't know what you mean." he answered defiantly, knowing he'd been busted.
"It's okay...you can talk to me. I promise I won't make fun of whatever you're worried about. What's wrong?"
She had been fully expecting him to put up more of a fight, to either change the subject completely and become his cocky self again or tell her seriously that it was either none of her business or at least that there was nothing she could do about it...whatever it was. She was not expecting the way Inuyasha merely sighed in defeat before standing up and hopping down to land on her branch, which drooped under the added weight, wrapping his arms around her and launching them both back up to the larger, more sturdy branch that could easily hold the both of them, as he settled himself back down against the trunk with Kagome in his lap. The entire maneuver took less than five seconds.
Face as red as a tomato, the miko was frozen stiff, too afraid to move for a whole variety of different reasons that included everything from falling out of the tree to finding out first hand whether or not Inuyasha had truly been affected by the cold of the ocean two mornings prior. If his plan had been to distract her from her line of questioning, mission accomplished. She was just about to squeak out a pitiful request for him to take them both back down to the ground when his voice suddenly pulled her from her own worries and had her focusing once again on what was troubling her companion.
"How much do you know about hanyou?" he asked her softly, causing her to ignore the sensation of being held flush against his body as she furrowed her brow and truly gave the question some thought.
"I'm not sure...the usual, I guess?" she answered hesitantly. "I mean, Kaede-sensei had many books about youkai, and part of my studies was learning about all of the different species, how non-animal youkai can be formed or created, and what their abilities are. I know hanyou are half human, that they are conceived, born, and grow up at a fairly human rate until adolescence when the full extent of their youkai powers kick in at the onset of adulthood to slow their aging and increase the strength of whatever other abilities they might have already possessed."
Feeling a little uncomfortable talking about his species in such a detached manner, she pulled back a bit in order to meet his eyes and stopped speaking about his kind in the third person.
"I know that things like your ears are a result of you actually being half human, half dog, since even though I'm sure your father had been in his human form while with your mother, an animal-youkai's humanoid form is a type of glamour, and their animal form is their true form, so you got his canine DNA. I know that unlike a full-blooded youkai, you can't change the shape of your body, either turning into a dog or a ball of energy. Full-youkai are energy beings, but being half human you're corporeal and that's why you had to take an airplane in order to fly to America."
He merely nodded at her, encouraging her to continue.
"What else?" he asked.
Furrowing her brow for a moment she thought about it a little harder then suddenly gasped, her eyes going wide.
"Oh, kami...are you talking about your...er...human time?" she all but whispered, as if there was anyone else around that could possibly overhear her.
He visibly relaxed.
"So...you do know..." he sighed, clearly relieved. He hadn't wanted to have to explain it to her.
"Kaede-sensei didn't know much on the subject, such as the science behind why and how it happens, but yes, it was in my studies that hanyou bodies sometimes shift the balance within themselves. That sometimes their...uh, your...youkai blood apparently needs to sleep, turning you temporarily human."
Thinking back on her lessons for a moment, she added, "I also read that a hanyou's youkai blood can override their human blood, not transforming the shape of their body but otherwise basically turning them full-youkai, though when that happens they are usually consumed by madness because they're not used to dealing with the full strength of their youki and it overpowers them. Is that true?"
He was a little caught off guard by the casual way in which she'd asked the question, but seeing the genuine curiosity in her eyes he decided to be upfront about it.
"Yes, that's true, but you don't gotta worry about me going all Mr. Hyde on your ass. My youkai blood only rises to the surface on its own when my life's in immediate danger and I'll die without the added power boost. I've got a better handle on it these days than I used to, and I can usually calm myself down enough to snap out of it if I start to transform against my will, and I can also bring on a semi-transformation if the situation calls for it while retaining my sanity. The first time it happened to me, after I got attacked by a group of oni during one of my excursions from the castle during my youth, it caught everyone by surprise and Oyaji had to overpower me and knock me out in order to change me back. After that, he immediately made a seal for my blood from one of his fangs in the form of a katana, which can either prevent or reverse my transformations. It's bad enough that I'm half human, but if word had spread that the second son of the Inu no Taisho was a mad man who couldn't even control his own blood it would've been a disgrace worthy of seppuku, so I immediately underwent training, both with my sword as a weapon, and with my own youkai blood, until I was a master of both. This was back in the day so it was still acceptable to walk around town with a sword on your hip. These days, though I usually still like to have Tetsusaiga with me whenever possible, my concealment charm makes it invisible so I won't cause a media stir."
She giggled a bit at the way he quirked his lip up at that statement.
"Of course, I don't have it with me now. It's only invisible when in direct contact with my body, and it'd be kind of hard to sit down in an airplane seat with a sword through my belt. It would've been too much of a hassle to try to get clearance for it on the plane in my luggage so I just left it at home, thank the gods, otherwise I'd have to go deep sea diving to retrieve it. But like I said, you don't gotta worry about me going nuts on you. Not unless you plan on beating me to a pulp." he finished with a wink that had her giggling again.
"Well, that's good, not that I was worried." she answered with a wink of her own. "But as for your human time..." she began hesitantly, letting her words trail off.
He hadn't thought she'd forgotten.
"Yeah..." he sighed, raising one of his hands to rub at the back of his head awkwardly. "That transformation is more outta my control. It happens on a monthly schedule and there ain't a damn thing I can do about it. Believe me, I've tried."
"So when does it start?" she asked knowingly. There was only one reason why he would've brought up such a subject in the first place.
"Tonight at sundown."
"How long does it last?"
"Just one night, thank the gods...I'll be hanyou again at dawn."
"So just one night a month?" she asked. "That's not too bad, then."
"Nah, that's true. It would happen more frequently if Oyaji hadn't been so powerful."
"I feel like I should probably know who your father was."
"If you were an active member of the spiritual sect, you'd know who I was."
"Well aren't you Mr. Important..." she teased. "But I get it, you're old, your father was ancient, your brother's a daiyoukai and you two are billionaires. I'm just a humble customer service representative struggling her way through medical school. Welcome to the American dream." she finished, sticking her tongue out at him.
He snorted.
"You're not a humble anything. Don't you dare try to pretend you aren't strong enough to turn me human right this instant if you wanted to. You might have turned your back on officially being a miko, but your aura is freakin' huge."
She merely turned her head, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks at the backhanded complement. Forgetting herself for a moment, Kagome settled herself against him slightly as a feeling of calm overtook her, a feeling that fled just as quickly when she suddenly noticed the way a certain something began pressing up against her thigh through his jeans. Squeaking in surprise, she jerked away from him so fast that she almost fell out of the tree before his laughter turned into a curse as he lunged forward to grab her just in time to stop her fall.
"Sheesh, woman. Is my body really so repulsive that you'd rather kill yourself?" he joked to soften the blow to his ego at her reaction, keeping both hands on her shoulders until he was sure she had her balance, as she straddled the branch, the length of her skirt enough to preserve her modesty as she sat facing him with both hands stretched forward on the branch before her, bracing herself.
"Not funny..." she muttered after a moment, her heart still pounding a mile a minute.
Releasing her shoulders, he shrugged, valiantly ignoring the heat he could feel on his own cheeks as he tried to shift his posture so that his impromptu erection wasn't quite as noticeable...not that she was looking, he noted, her eyes fixed on her hands.
"Not like I did it on purpose." he mumbled, his own embarrassment clear in his voice. "You should take it as a compliment."
She said nothing, and with the way her eyes were still fixated on her hands on the tree branch, she didn't see his growing smirk.
"Besides," he added smugly. "It's not like you're a virgin."
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and immediately locking with his own.
"Y-you can smell that?"
He barked out a loud laugh.

"No!" he admitted, laughing even harder as her cheeks darkened to match the color of his t-shirt. "I really had no idea but figured statistics were on my side."
"Bastard..." she grumbled lightly, clearly more embarrassed than angry.
"Aww, come on, priestess, it's all in good fun."
"Call me 'priestess' one more time and I'll start calling you 'hanyou', got it?"
Taken aback by her tone, he looked her way with genuine surprise in his eyes.
"What's the matter? I didn't mean nothin' by it. It ain't supposed to be an offensive term."
Sighing, Kagome reluctantly explained, "I...used to get harassed a bit by the secret youkai at my high school. There were a few of them, and they'd formed a clique, one of the groups of 'popular' kids, ya know? They all picked on me because I was the only human with spiritual powers, at least at the time, and you know how high school kids are, so I even started getting picked on by the normal humans just because they wanted to fit in, having no idea why I was the verbal punching bag but not caring. I mean, kids will be kids, right? But the leader, Kouga, an ookami, in private he used to call me 'priestess' as a twisted pet name, and he had meant it as an offensive term, since he'd known I'd had no intention of leading that kind of a life. He turned being a miko into my species instead of a profession, but I couldn't help being born with my powers any more than you could help being born a hybrid. The really sad thing is that at one point in time I'd actually kind of liked Kouga, and I thought he'd liked me too. He'd asked me out on a date once and I'd agreed, and we'd had a really good time. But his father didn't approve of him seeing a 'miko' and betrothed him to a she-wolf from a neighboring clan. I don't know what his father did to him but he turned against me almost overnight, saying how he'd seen the light, how it never could have worked between us, even accusing me of never having been serious with him in the first place because I knew just as well as he did that 'youkai and miko don't mix', as he'd said. I mean, I'm sure growing up hanyou and in the Edo period your childhood sucked way worse than mine did, so I'm not trying to play a sympathy card or anything, but suffice it to say I don't much care for being called 'priestess' like that. My name's Kagome."
Inuyasha could do nothing but stare at her in silence as all that she'd said slowly sank in. He could certainly understand her dislike for the term after having it explained to him, and he silently vowed not to call her that any more, but that wasn't the primary reason for his continued silence. She...she had actually dated a wolf-youkai? Such a thing was completely unheard of! He wasn't surprised that Kouga's father had put a stop to it, but the fact that she had even been willing in the first place... Then he mentally cringed as he recalled his own thoughts about youkai and miko not mixing. It wasn't that they couldn't, he supposed, it was just that they didn't. While it was still frowned upon, even in that day and age, it wasn't as if it was forbidden for a youkai to get together with a human, generally speaking. They had to be very careful about who they let in on their secret because they couldn't risk a blabbermouth, and for the greater good a human who betrayed their trust would be dealt with, but while hanyou were still very rare they were actually a lot more common in that day and age than they used to be back when he was a child. Living in a world so thoroughly dominated by humans and having to deal with the mortals on a daily basis had lessened if not eliminated most youkai's prejudice against the species. Still, not hating humans was a far cry from actually wanting to breed with them...and whenever such a union did take place it was never with a human who had spiritual powers! It wasn't forbidden...but probably only because such a happenstance had never existed and therefore there had never been a need to make a law about it. He wasn't sure where the spiritual humans rested on the issue, but he imagined it couldn't be all that favorable. Still, there was at least one spiritual human who apparently didn't see the world quite so black and white. That thought brought a smile to his lips. If she had actually been willing to date a pureblood back in high school, then maybe she wouldn't be opposed to the idea of seeing him again, after all. Maybe the only one holding them back was him. He had some serious thinking to do.
"Kagome it is, then." he commented finally, a single fang popping out in a half smirk when Kagome smiled his way.
With his excitement back under control now that Kagome was no longer pressed up against him so intimately - kami she smelled good - he decided to take pity on the girl and help her down out of their tree before she really did fall and hurt herself. Realizing his intention as he reached for her a second time, Kagome didn't resist and allowed him to scoop her up in his arms, thankful beyond words when her feet touched solid ground.
Recalling her original exclamation of boredom, and deciding the poor girl had had enough embarrassment for one morning, Inuyasha decided to come up with something to kill at least a little time as he asked her suddenly, "I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel all icky. How'd you like to get washed up a bit?"
Her eyes immediately lit up and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing again at her expression.
"A bath?" she asked excitedly. "I didn't want to hassle you about it, but I would love to be able to scrub some of the dirt away. I'm sure with your nose I probably reek, and I'm sorry, but since I agree with you I won't take offense at your not-so-subtle hint."
Inuyasha wanted to correct her, but he didn't think she would feel comfortable learning that, being half dog as he was, he had a very different perspective when it came to body odor and what smelled good or bad. He didn't think she reeked at all, and actually appreciated the more pungent quality of her natural fragrance, though of course that was only because she had a pleasing natural odor to begin with. It was all about body chemistry, and fortunately for his nose's sake her natural scent was something he could breathe in all day and never get tired of. Still, he was also half human, and he could definitely appreciate a human's desire for good hygiene. Especially given their current living conditions...or lack thereof.
"Eh, you're not that bad..." he finally decided upon, his playful wink leaving the statement open for interpretation on whether or not he was being sarcastic.
Making sure their fire had plenty of fuel to last for a little while on its own, he crouched down and waited for her to get into position. Kagome lamented not having a tiny travel shampoo in her purse, or any kind of soup for that matter, but she would make do. All she had in her 'emergency kit' for washing was a few towelettes and a small bottle of hand sanitizer that had thankfully stayed sealed while in the ocean. To wash her hands she'd been using the water from their drinking hole, just to physically rinse the dirt off, then to make sure her hands were actually clean enough to handle food she'd used her sanitizer...not that she planned on wasting the stuff on her entire body. Just rinsing the dirt and oil off her body and out of her hair would make a world of difference, and maybe she'd even tackle the challenge of untangling the raven nest on her head after getting it wet again.
Climbing up onto Inuyasha's back, she tried not to think about how odd it felt, or how strangely right it felt, to be clinging onto the man so intimately.
Once he was sure she was ready, Inuyasha took off, though they didn't travel all that far. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't want to bathe in the open ocean, even if there was nobody else around besides himself that would see her, so he stayed inland and took them to the nearest secondary freshwater pond. He was certain they wouldn't be on the island long enough for them to need more than one drinking hole, so they could take turns bathing in this one without worry over contaminating the water. Besides, even if they did end up needing more clean water, like if something somehow accidentally spoiled the one they were currently using, there were far more than just these two on the entire island.
Leaping through the trees, he somehow managed to resist his urge to tease the girl on his back by hoisting his hands up higher on her legs than they needed to be. Even though she had offered no protest or warning this time around, he had no doubt she would retaliate with the previously threatened ear flick or some other form of bodily harm if he dared overstep his bounds in that way. But the feel of her soft skin against his rough palms was so... He had to stop that line of thinking or he'd get hard again, and that would certainly make racing through the treetops more difficult. He didn't know why he was becoming so attracted to Kagome, although he speculated it was because he had never met another woman like her before, and if there was one thing he did know, it was that despite the outward persona he usually portrayed to the public of being a bit of a playboy, he was really more attracted to a woman's personality that her body. Granted, a rocking body was definitely a plus, but it wasn't the only thing that mattered in Inuyasha's book. Despite the types of women he usually ended up dating, he actually preferred beauty and brains, and so far in only a couple of days during the worst possible conditions Kagome had already proven to have an abundance of both. If they didn't get rescued soon he didn't know what he'd do...although a wicked little voice in the back of his mind told him he wouldn't mind finding out.
Arriving in the small clearing that contained a fairly decent sized fresh water pond, appropriate enough for bathing in, he slowly came to a stop, conscientious of not jostling the girl on his back too harshly as he came in for a landing.
"You can go first so that you don't have to worry about me funking up the water." he said as he sat her down on her feet.
Sighing, Kagome frowned and argued, "When are you going to get it through that thick canine skull of yours that I don't think of you any differently for your youkai blood?"
He smirked.
"Well, when you put it that way..." he laughed, causing her to blush as she realized what she'd just said. "But don't get your panties in a bunch, Kagome, I was just talkin' about my awesome manliness. But if you're going to bow out of the American custom of 'ladies first' then fine, I offered, but you're talkin' to a man born and raised in the Edo period, don't forget, so by all rights I should get the first bath."
Kagome wanted to argue against his chauvinistic attitude but bit her tongue, knowing he was right. She'd gotten a little spoiled living in America for the last five years...not that she really had an American family life she could compare to her old life in Tokyo considering she lived alone, but she watched enough 'reality' TV to know how most American women expected to be treated by their men. Which, in her opinion, explained why most of the women on those shows had relationship issues, but that was neither here nor there.
Deciding to throw Inuyasha a curve ball just for the hell of it, she bowed her head submissively, bending forward in a slight bow with her hands clasped politely in front. Switching back to Japanese, she said, "It pleases me that Inuyasha-sama should have the first bath."
Laughing the hardest so far since meeting the girl, Inuyasha reached up with a clawed finger to wipe a single tear from his eye as he threatened, "Keep acting like that and I'll have you wash me. It wouldn't be the first time I had a bathing attendant."
Lifting her head, amusement twinkling in her eyes, Kagome said, "Why am I not surprised?"
He merely chuckled again, before asking, "Rock, paper, scissors?"
She smirked. "You're on."
*Scissors*
*Paper*
"Damn."
Smirking triumphantly, Inuyasha feigned hurt feelings when Kagome jokingly accused him of cheating because of his lightening fast reflexes, but she truly had no intention of arguing with him over who got to bathe first. The whole thing had been his idea to begin with, after all. If it weren't for him she wouldn't be bathing at all.
"But seriously, though, you are definitely my senpai*, so go ahead." she assured him in that moment, having no desire to fight with him, especially over something so trivial.
She didn't move a muscle to turn and leave, though, and with humor never leaving his gaze, he stared her down, pretending to ignore the significance of her actually considering the two of them in the same class of beings. True, he was definitely way older than her, and definitely physically stronger, too, though magically stronger was open for debate, but a senpai was one's superior in the same field. He supposed that soldiers on either side of a war were still both soldiers, but somehow, he got the distinct impression she meant it a tad more personably than that.
"If you're going to watch then you'll have to return the favor." he warned with a seductive purr, reaching behind himself and pulling off his shirt from overhead, male stripper style.
Her eyes widened ever so slightly at the sight of all that delicious muscle, her memory quickly replaying what she already knew the rest of his body looked like sans clothing.
Gah! What's wrong with me?!
Finally managing to snap herself out of it, Kagome whirled around and disappeared through the trees, the light sound of Inuyasha's amused chuckling doing nothing to cool the heat she felt on her cheeks as she put a safe distance between them.
Letting her go without another word, Inuyasha shook his head in amusement as he removed his jeans before lowering himself into the cool but not too cold water. Since he took regular dunks in the ocean to catch their fish he didn't really even need a bath, although he'd figured that Kagome would appreciate the opportunity to get clean. Still, might as well try to wash some of the salt and grit out of his hair. Gulping in a deep breath he closed his eyes and leaned backward, fully submerging himself under the water. Reaching up he ran his claws through his hair a bit, careful of his ears, which were completely plugged and starting to throb in time with his pulse, though he was used to that kind of sensation by that point with the amount of swimming he used to do. He wouldn't get an ear infection. His youkai blood wouldn't allow it.
Inuyasha stayed under for around five minutes or so, nowhere near the full length of time that he could hold his breath if need be. Taking refuge in the moment of solitude, he thought about his miko companion and all that he'd learned about her...and how much he admittedly still didn't know. He was still having a time trying to wrap his mind around her brief tale about her high school days and the revelation that she'd once dated an ookami-youkai. She'd told the story so freakin' normally that one would think it could have been any other type of potential relationship gone sour, except for the whole 'youkai and miko don't mix' racism and him calling her priestess. But how had such a thing even come about? Why would Kouga have asked her out in the first place? Well...Inuyasha supposed he could give the wolf that one; he was certainly attracted to Kagome, and high school boys did not usually demonstrate common sense. Probably the fact that she was a forbidden fruit had made her all the more tempting, at least until his father had most likely literally beaten some sense into him. But why had Kagome said yes to that original date? And what had her family thought about it? Had they forbad the union too? She certainly hadn't mentioned anything of the sort in her retelling, although considering the way Kouga had started acting towards her it didn't really matter what her family's view had been, since the relationship clearly hadn't worked out. But had they forbad it and she'd been defying them? A high school girl's rebellious instinct to date whomever she wanted with or without permission? Had her family somehow, unfathomably, miraculously been okay with her dating an ookami? Or, perhaps, had she not even told them? Had she merely said that she had a date and they'd never met the boy, and Kagome had never revealed that one tiny little detail? There were so many variables his head was spinning, and not from holding his breath for too long, although Inuyasha did resurface in that moment, deciding that he'd stalled long enough and that the miko of his thoughts deserved to have her own bath time.
Climbing out of the water and shaking himself mostly dry, making sure to get all of the water out of his ears, he pulled his jeans back on and slung his t-shirt over his shoulder, unable to resist teasing Kagome a tiny bit as he couldn't have missed the way she'd been staring at his bare chest even if he'd been blind and in a coma.
Finding the miko sitting behind the trees not all that far away, doodling in the dirt with a twig, he had no fear of inadvertently startling the girl and spoke up at a normal level, stating "Okay, your turn." as she turned around to greet him.
Kagome, who had sensed his approach and had already been in the process of turning around to look his way as his words began leaving his lips, found herself suddenly stunned speechless for a moment as she once again lost herself in just how fucking sexy he truly was. Miko though she may be, she wasn't a prude, and she could most definitely appreciate the chiseled perfection standing before her. Inuyasha knew it, too, though at the moment Kagome couldn't be bothered by the smug look on his face. She was too busy imagining what it would feel like to run her hands all over that flawless body of his.
It took her a moment to realize that the smooth, glistening plains of his chest were completely hairless, and...come to think of it...there still wasn't even the slightest trace of a 5 o'clock shadow on his face, either.
Must be an inu-youkai thing... she realized, figuring that he must just be naturally hairless in some places, lucky bastard. Of course, she knew of at least one location on his body that grew hair besides his head.
Mmm...no! Bad Kagome! she mentally scolded herself.
It was around that time that the soft sound of male chuckling pulled her out of her revere to realize with a growing feeling of embarrassment that she'd been caught ogling him yet again. But refusing to give him the satisfaction of teasing her for her attraction as if she were a silly schoolgirl with a crush on her teacher, Kagome steeled her nerves in that moment, her eyes sparkling with challenge as he continued to laugh.
"Like what you see?" he asked her knowingly.
Replying as casually as she could, Kagome shrugged her shoulders before commenting, "I'm just jealous. I noticed you apparently don't need to shave, and I'm starting to get all stubbly."
"Ooo..." he sing-songed. "Do tell. Where?" he teased.
It was her turn to smirk.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
He grinned lecherously, the look in his eyes easily translating the thought, Yes, yes I would.
Shaking her head in amusement, instead of getting embarrassed, for once she retained her bravado, as she rose to her feet and dusted herself off a bit before slinking past him to make her way toward the pool.
"Be a good boy, now." she cooed. "No peaking."
"Aww, you're no fun." he grumbled playfully, pretending to be disappointed.
She quirked her brow at him, her look almost a challenge, and he gulped on reflex at what the look in her eyes could possibly mean.
"On the contrary, I'm more fun than you can probably imagine."
He smirked again at that, finding her sudden bravado a delightful surprise.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that..." he countered, his tone disbelieving. "I've got a pretty big imagination."
One side of her mouth quirked up as she scanned her eyes noticeably lower than his bare chest.
"Among other things." she purred, mentally removing his jeans yet again.
He should've been able to take her words as a compliment, to smirk knowingly while teasing her about wanting to see and/or feel those certain 'other things' a second time, since she'd had the pleasure one time already. She would then probably take his keyword 'pleasure' and run with it, causing him to step up his game even more so.
That's what should have happened, but for some reason, Inuyasha lost his bravado at her words, and with a distinct tinting of pink on his cheeks, he could do nothing but mutter an embarrassed "K-keh..." while she smirked in triumph before turning back around to finish her trek to the pond.
Damn...Kagome 2, Inuyasha 1... he mentally tallied, kicking himself for turning into a stuttering fool all of a sudden.
What was it about Kagome that made him lose himself so easily? Being a confident flirt was more than just a mask he projected to protect himself, but at the same time, it was more or less the persona he portrayed as his public image for the sake of keeping up appearances. His sense of humor was genuine, his perverted, sexual thoughts truly his own, but even he could admit that there was a time and a place to be serious, and although he'd never found such a time or place while in the company of any of his previous lady friends, there was just something about Kagome that made him want to drop the routine. She was just so damn real that he couldn't help becoming real himself in her presence. His wit had never failed him so many times in a three-day period before, and considering how his emotions were already a jumbled mess, he was not looking forward to sunset.
As Kagome made her way to the small freshwater pond and began unfastening the buttons on her blouse, her thoughts were running along similar lines. Not about the upcoming moonless night, but about Inuyasha's emotions in general. She had been fully expecting another quick retort to her latest comment and she was actually a little surprised at her apparent ability to embarrass him so easily. She had been starting to question whether or not he was truly capable of being embarrassed, but apparently, she had been right after all...all that confident, flirty, perverted nonsense, it wasn't really the real him. Oh, you couldn't fake that kind of attitude if you were secretly a puritan, it would go against your very nature and disgust you, so she didn't think he was being 'fake' with her, per se, he was just cranking up the volume on his inner comedian, not that she couldn't relate. You simply couldn't flirt with such confidence if that type of behavior honestly disturbed or offended you, and she certainly hoped he had connected those same dots because he certainly wasn't the only one who'd turned up the flirt-o-meter on occasion since landing on that island. Just because she didn't have a tendency to go there automatically didn't mean she couldn't hold her own when push came to shove.
A lady just knows that there's a time and a place...
Although, if you couldn't openly flirt with the drop dead gorgeous sex-god who'd just saved your life and who had already been openly flirting with you, whom you'd already seen naked and who probably wanted to see you naked as well, then who could you flirt with?
There's a time and a place all right... she thought as she dropped the rest of her clothing and got into the water. And that place is here and that time is right now...
He had been right, of course; she was not a virgin. Far from it, actually, though she wasn't a whore. In her twenty-five years on Earth she'd only had two sexual partners, both of whom had been her steady boyfriend at the time, but while she had been in her relationship with each man their encounters had been...fairly numerous. Especially her second boyfriend whom she'd met after moving to California, a Caucasian man with a fetish for all things Japanese. She'd allowed herself to get into it for a while, even going so far as to dress up as a few different anime characters during some role play, and she'd even helped the man with his endeavor to learn Japanese, but there hadn't really been a solid foundation holding them up relationship wise. After the newness had faded and he'd realized she was actually a real person with her own goals in life and not just a PersaCom sent to him to grant his every sexual fantasy their relationship had fizzled out, but she didn't regret the experience.
Her high school boyfriend, Hojo, had been the complete opposite, treating her kindly and with obvious love and devotion, though he'd turned out to be a little too traditional in certain aspects for her taste. He had been post-Kouga, and one of the few people who hadn't bought into all the gossip that always traveled around the rumor mill. Despite most of the popular kids always picking on her Hojo had been sweet, and had been one of the few things that had made finishing high school bearable. Their relationship hadn't worked out when he hadn't supported her desire to go to medical school...not overseas...but at all. She might have considered canceling her plans of moving to America if he'd turned out to be the man of her dreams, but he'd wanted her as a quiet, stay at home wife, and that had most certainly clashed with her plan of becoming a doctor. Plus there was the issue of her having to hide what she was from the man who was what the spiritualists called a 'normie'...meaning he had no spiritual powers whatsoever and was completely in the dark regarding the truth about youkai, and she had not been at liberty to change that. It had certainly been frustrating trying to deal with a boyfriend who treated her like a delicate flower who was too sensitive to face the harsh truths of what he considered reality, while at the same time constantly turning down requests to join a secret academy and learn how to fight and kill just on the off chance there was ever a disturbance in the peace, and while his refusal to let her go to medical school had ultimately been the deal breaker Kagome was fairly sure it never could have worked out in the long run anyway with her having to keep such a giant secret between them.
That certainly wouldn't be an issue with the silver-haired man waiting for her back in the trees. Not only did he know what she was, but she knew what he was, and Kagome could only imagine that Inuyasha had similar issues with regard to having to hide himself from the general public. Granted, she had absolutely no idea what his relationship status currently was, but she imagined he had to be single or the subject of a wife or girlfriend would've surely come up at some point, not to mention she hoped that he wouldn't be quite so flirtatious were he truly off the market. That didn't reveal how often he dated, of course, or how seriously he dated, but she knew that a genuine relationship would be difficult for him considering his mixed status. Not only did he have to keep what he was a secret from all the humans not in the know, but he probably couldn't even date a female youkai all that easily because while she would be in on the secret, she probably wouldn't want anything to do with a man who was half human. The fact that he was a hanyou didn't bother her at all, though, and the fact that he had regular business in her hometown wasn't so easily forgotten. She didn't think he would take her seriously if she actually dared voicing the possibility of them going out on a date at some point in the future, though. Youkai and miko differences aside, he was a freakin' billionaire, and that wasn't a fact so easily forgotten, either. She would hate for him to think she was only interested in him for his money, which couldn't be farther from the truth, though she did worry that she wasn't up to par with the kinds of women he would probably be interested in because of his status. He probably couldn't wait to be rid of her. Still, fate had thrust them together, that much was certain. Whether or not it was solely to save her life was yet to be seen, she supposed. Had he been brought into her life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime? She thought back to that old e-mail chain... Of course, maybe she was thinking about it the wrong way. Had he been brought into her life...or was it possible that she had been the one brought into his?
I think I've seen one too many chick flicks... she decided after a moment, mentally snorting as she leaned back and dunked her head, holding her breath as she did her best to scrub the oil and dirt out of her hair.
As she laid there, vulnerable and exposed in only about three feet of perfectly see-through water with her eyes closed, she couldn't decide if she was relieved or disappointed when the feel of Inuyasha's aura didn't change, meaning he was honestly keeping his distance and not trying to sneak a peak. She supposed it was possible he was very gradually tightening his aura around himself while closing the distance between them so that he could get closer without it feeling as if his aura had increased in strength, but something told her that despite all his playfulness he was actually an honorable man who would never do such a thing against her will. Kagome wondered briefly if she should reward him by washing her bra and blouse, thus making them see through again. Her clothing definitely needed to be washed, especially her underwear. The transparent properties of white fabric when wet was merely an unfortunate and unavoidable side effect. Smirking to herself, Kagome made her decision, sitting up and reaching for her underclothes to bring into the water with her. Her skirt and blouse she could get away with not washing, she didn't want to be dripping wet for the rest of the day, but her bra and panties needed to have a light scrubbing. Of course, her wet bra would undoubtedly end up soaking through her blouse at least to some degree, but shrugging to herself jokingly she figured, watcha gonna do?
All playfulness aside, it was definitely a relief to feel clean again, as she climbed out of the water and stepped into her shoes before anything else to avoid getting a bunch of dirt on the bottom of her feet, although the area was fairly grassy. Ringing out her panties the best she could she slipped the damp fabric up her legs before struggling with fastening her bra. It was always a pain in the ass to put a bra on with wet skin, and the bra being wet itself was certainly not helping, but she managed it after a moment and then reached for her blouse and skirt.
Making her way back to Inuyasha, who was right where she'd left him lounging on the branch of a tree, she smiled knowingly as he raised an eyebrow at her appearance, her blouse already totally see-through with her dark tan nipples exposed once again.
"Thought you said I wouldn't get another look." he teased, knowing she had obviously done it on purpose.
"Don't flatter yourself." she denied with a smile, stating, "My underclothes were dirty and I wanted to wash them. Who gave you permission to look?"
Crossing her arms, she effectively showcased her chest, lifting her breasts even higher.
"You haven't told me not to look." he pointed out, still openly ogling her.
"And what would be the point in that since you've already seen me anyway?"
"Well by that logic I should just get naked then." he countered, clearly trying to call her bluff.
She merely quirked a brow at him, replying, "Go ahead, I won't stop you."
Now who was calling whose bluff?
Refusing to be outdone and needing to make up for his earlier fluster, Inuyasha kept his fa�ade playful as he mentally braced himself before yanking his shirt back off once more. Seeing the way Kagome's expression didn't change, as she merely stood there with her brow quirked as if silently daring him to continue, he mentally counted to three before reaching for the button on his jeans. Undoing the zipper much slower than necessary, he was waiting for her voice to stop him, but it never came, and he learned in that moment that he never wanted to engage her in a game of chicken. Still, the idea of being naked in her presence didn't really bother him at face value. He honestly didn't have a problem with nudity, though for some unexplainable reason, he did feel more vulnerable with her than he'd ever felt with another woman before, as if he needed to know she approved of what she saw. But he had all the evidence of that he needed from the way Kagome had been staring at him shirtless and so he made good on his threat in that moment, dropping his jeans.
Watching her face very carefully, she definitely approved of what she saw.
He smirked.
Didn't think I'd go through with it, did ya Ka-go-me...? he mentally chuckled.
Now that he knew she wasn't disgusted by him his confidence was back with a vengeance.
"Okay, well, come on, we better get back." he said then as casually as he could muster, quickly handing her his shirt and jeans which she took from his outstretched hands on reflex before she could think about what she was doing. He then turned his back to her, exposing his exquisite ass, before crouching down in an all-too-familiar pose, thankful that she couldn't see his shit-eating grin from that angle.
Her eyes widened in panic.
Oh no...no way no how!
"Okay, you win!" she nearly shouted, throwing his clothes at him as she whirled around to let him get dressed in whatever semblance of privacy there was to be had by that point.
Laughing, he added another notch under his own name on his mental tally before tugging his clothes back on.
Totally worth it...
There was no way to miss the scent of arousal that was coming off of the miko all of a sudden. Her panties were damp from more than just the pond water, and whatever tiny insecurities had started to bubble up in his mind in the face of his uncertainty regarding how attractive she found him were instantly squashed. Running back to camp once she finally agreed to climb on his back, her hard nipples pressing into his back making him bite back a moan as something of his started to harden as well, Inuyasha distracted himself from his own attraction to the miko by trying to psychoanalyze his emotional reaction to her. He supposed, if he were to be truly honest with himself, that while he knew that hordes of women found him attractive wherever he went, it was only his human side that they were seeing. While his concealment charm didn't really project a fake, made up image, considering he did turn human on occasion and therefore the spell was designed to actually reflect his true appearance in his human form, he was sure most of the girls he'd slept with over the years would have shrieked in fear if they'd known he was half monster. The fact that Kagome could see the real him, and he didn't mean emotionally but literally...the fact that the woman could see his white hair and freakin' dog-ears...that was more than enough to make him a little self-conscious with regard to what she thought about him. He couldn't really vouch for the common view among the spiritual humans since he didn't associate with their kind, but among full-blooded youkai the general consensus when it came to hanyou was disgust. But Kagome was clearly not disgusted by him, which was the final proof he needed to know that there was legitimately not a single drop of prejudice in her entire body. The reason she had told Kouga yes when he'd asked for a date had been because she'd liked him, as simple as that sounded. Her family's views were yet to be seen, though he imagined they couldn't be too racist because somebody as pure hearted as Kagome did not usually emerge from an environment of hate, but ultimately it was none of their business who she chose to be with at that point in her life, anyway. She was an adult, and she didn't even live in the same country any more. The fact that she lived in LA, where he had regular business, had not gone unnoticed, and that she would actually initiate such an intimate round of teasing was a surprise, but a pleasant one. He was seriously starting to reconsider his own philosophy when it came to youkai and miko 'not mixing'. Kagome almost seemed too good to be true, and maybe she was and it wouldn't work out, but he'd be willing to consider being with a miko to find out. The pros definitely outweighed the cons. Actually, as he thought about it, there really weren't any cons except for the stigma of going against society, but since when had he given a fuck what anybody else thought?
Arriving back at camp, Inuyasha built their fire back up silently, unsure what to say to the girl he no longer though of as a miko but merely a woman.
Kagome initially occupied herself while he tended to their fire by working out the tangles in her hair with her pocket comb. After that task was finished, she picked up and began examining the surface of one of her mangos for bug bites, before deciding after a moment that she could use the fruit to break the ice as she approached where Inuyasha crouched by their fire.
"Can you...check this again for me? That it's still clean?"
Offering her a soft, genuine smile that was void of any lecherous undertones, Inuyasha took the mango from her hand and gave it a thorough once over with his nose.

"Still clean." he assured her after a moment, his smile increasing by the way she nodded her thanks before once again showing her trust in him by biting deeply into the fleshy fruit after pealing back a section of skin.
Late morning passed over into early afternoon in relative silence, but as afternoon slowly made its way into evening the pair began talking casually about his pending human night.
"Don't feel too bad." she joked, hoping to lighten his mood. "You're not the only one who suffers from a 'time of the month', ya know."
Smirking, he commented playfully, "It's the same only opposite. I turn human, while hordes of human women everywhere turn into demons."
Chuckling a bit as his companion shook her head in amusement, he got serious for a moment and asked her, "Do we gotta worry about your 'time' coming up? I know maybe it ain't none of my business, but it didn't look like you had enough of the necessary supplies to last the duration. We'd need to think of something. I could cut up my pant legs to make rags, I suppose. Heh, maybe that's why in movies the guys stranded on the islands always have the bottom halves of their pants tore up."
Instead of getting embarrassed, she smiled warmly at his genuine concern, chuckling a bit at his joke because it was true that the bottom of pant legs getting torn up beyond capri length was a stereotype of being stranded for too long in the movies.
"No need to ruin your favorite jeans." she assured him. "I won't have to worry about that for another week and a half or so, so hopefully it won't be an issue, though I appreciate the concern." she answered honestly.
"Keh, don't get used to it." he teased. "My human emotions just turn me into a bit of a pansy."
Chuckling a bit at those words, Kagome then got serious again as she asked, "Does it hurt?" She was relieved to learn at his reassurance that the physical aspect of his monthly transformation was not painful.
Commenting on his earlier statement of her being powerful enough to purify him into his human form, Kagome picked his brain for a little while on what he understood of the science behind everything, considering he'd had quite a few more years studying up on the subject than she had. She learned that he actually knew first hand that exposure to seemingly leather levels of purifying energy would only turn him human temporarily because it'd actually happened to him once before, when, during a battle with a rogue spiritualist who'd been on a crusade to rid the world of all youkai despite their peace treaty, he had been tossed into a purifying barrier, only to emerge physically unharmed on the other side as a human. Thanks to his samurai level of training with a sword, and the fact that the rogue monk had had no real battle knowledge of his own, having always relied on his spiritual powers, Inuyasha, with Tetsusaiga in its dormant form, had still been victorious in that battle.
There was a weird sort of truce between the spiritualists and youkai in that day and age that thanks to her limited amount of training Kagome was aware of, that together, their shared goal, the biggest concern, was protecting the unawares global human population. If a youkai went rogue and started to cause trouble the spiritualists were not only within their rights to take him out, but it was actually their duty to do so, and the treaty dictated that such an action wouldn't trigger a war between the races. But vise versa, the opposite was also true, and if a person of spiritual ability decided to rebel against his teachers and deliberately seek out to destroy all youkai like a vigilante, the demonic community could retaliate without fear of it raising the ire of other spiritualists. Of course, that wasn't to say that the two sides couldn't or didn't take care of their own, when the situation allowed. If a rogue youkai were caught in time by other youkai he or she would be executed by their own people and that would be the end of it. Likewise the spiritual humans, while not so quick to deliver death sentences among their own kind, did have privately run jails where troublemakers were housed indefinitely. It was considered merciful since they knew that to allow the rogues free would ultimately mean their death at the hands of a youkai. It was also where they locked up 'normal' humans who had found out about youkai and couldn't be trusted to keep the secret. It was for the greater good, and the Emperor, who was in the know, as were the leaders of the other countries around the world, condoned the acts taken by the spiritually powerful humans who the few 'normies in the know' tended to think of as holy saviors of mankind.
Inuyasha was a little worried about how Kagome would react to learning that he had actually taken human life, but she was quick to brush off his concerns, agreeing that it had been self-defense not only directly for himself, but for his entire species. Just because she didn't want to personally have anything to do with being a warrior and taking lives didn't mean she couldn't understand how such things were necessary. She was curious, though, how exposure to such high levels of purification could prove to have only a temporary effect on him. Half human though he may be, and unable to be purified completely in the sense of disintegrating into ash, shouldn't such a jolt permanently turn him human, if the youkai side of himself had been purified?
Inuyasha shrugged, answering that he believed his youki had come back because the monk had simply not been powerful enough to turn him human permanently. His youkai side was very powerful, making him what his brother had once referred to as a 'dai-hanyou', since he wasn't just half youkai but half daiyoukai. Had he been a pureblood of daiyoukai status like his brother and father, that blast would most likely not have killed him, or possibly even injured him that seriously at all. Sesshoumaru was ridiculously powerful, he told Kagome, explaining how once, back in the day, the man had even caught a miko's arrow mid-flight and snapped it in half like a twig, when he'd personally witnessed that very same miko take out a horde of lesser, beastly youkai with those same arrows.
Of course, the beastly youkai of human mythology were extinct by that point in time, having eventually been killed off since they had been too stupid and hostile to tame. It was a human's world they lived in now, Inuyasha admitted, and the spiritualists were definitely the ones in charge. The youkai, though they had their own communities of sorts, had to answer to the spiritualists if they did anything considered out of line. Though it was a truth most youkai in that day and age liked to ignore, the fact of the matter was that they were only alive because the spiritualists let them live. If the youkai hadn't agreed to peace, then the monks and miko of the world would have continued to hunt them until there were none left. It was fortunate for the surviving youkai of that century that the ancestors of today's spiritual humans had craved peace and coexistence. Back in the day, the alliance had started when a group of houshi and miko had confronted the more powerful and intelligent people-like youkai, asking for peace when they feared the alternative would be a never-ending war with countless deaths on both sides. The youkai who had been peaceful enough to agree to the cease-fire, as well as agree to the miko's demands that they stay out of the way of human development and that if they wanted to interact with mankind they had to do so under the guise of humanity so as to not stir fear into the hearts of everyone everywhere they went, were originally met with opposition from several other youkai who did not so easily agree to peace, but those war-hungry youkai were ultimately taken out of the picture. When the houshi and miko first announced their desire for peace, the youkai who rejected the offer and sought to wage war were dealt with in short order, surprisingly not only by the monks and priestesses, but in some cases also by the other youkai who had desired to prove to the spiritual humans that not all youkai thought alike. The treaty was officially formed once the number of peace-agreeing youkai outweighed the rebels who still wanted to rule the world. It stated that youkai of all species were free to live their lives as they wished, so long as they did so either far away from humans or pretending to be humans, and so long as they caused no harm to mankind.
Sesshoumaru, while Inuyasha would never call him peaceful, had kept an open mind regarding the whole situation, knowing it would ultimately be in the best interest for his people to cooperate with the spiritualists. Those who could not evolve became extinct; that was simply the way of life. Even he couldn't deny that humans were breeding like rabbits and would soon take over the world, so he'd had little choice but to adapt; less bloodshed equaled higher profit margins. Inuyasha also suspected that their father's fondness for humans had played a direct part in the daiyoukai's compliance. Their father was one of the youkai who had openly fought against the lower youkai refusing peace, which was one of the main reasons the peace movement had been successful in the first place, since none of the war-hungry youkai had been strong enough to defeat him...at least at first. Even though their father had died over two centuries ago, his name was still highly respected among the remaining youkai clans to that day. The Inu no Taisho had perished from wounds inflicted by a powerful dragon, a battle he'd lured far away into the wilderness to protect mankind. He had successfully slain the dragon, and had survived long enough to return home and ensure that his eldest son was ready and able to rule in his place as the new Inu no Taisho. Youkai were not immortal even though it often seemed that way and their father had already known that his time was limited. He would have eventually fallen from age alone; to die from battle had been a much more honorable death. His wounds had only proven fatal because of his age, but that had not lessened the significance of his sacrifice. In fact it had only increased it, because a sacrifice had been exactly what it'd been. Their father had known going in that he would most likely not survive the battle against Ryukotsusei, his only goal having been to take the dragon out with him, and he had succeeded. That dragon had been the greatest threat to the peace treaty and with him gone the Inu no Taisho had known that most other youkai would cower and fall in line.
Sesshoumaru had refused to let their father's death be in vein, and as the new Inu no Taisho his first order of business had been to publicly challenge any and all youkai who would oppose him. Let them come to him now if they were foolish enough to think that challenging him showed more bravery than stupidity. Very few youkai had proven suicidal enough to attempt challenging the young daiyoukai, though a few lingering nuisances did rise up on occasion and were quickly wiped away.
In that day and age there wasn't much, if any, residual hostility lingering between the youkai clans. Power was now determined by the almighty dollar, and Sesshoumaru was one of the most successful businessmen in all of Japan...and overseas, too, thanks to Inuyasha's insistence that they create a presence for themselves in America.
"Wow..." Kagome murmured in awe of the brief history lesson, realizing with a humbling sense of humility that she actually did know who Inuyasha's father was, after all. He had been so important in the original forming of the peace treaty between their peoples that his story had even made it into the human history books, or at least the secret 'true history' books that were kept in the spiritualist libraries.
"I know you said your father was an ancient inu-youkai, but I hadn't realized he was that ancient inu-youkai."
Inuyasha was momentarily worried that Kagome would start acting weird around him, but her scent didn't change, as if she suddenly felt uncomfortable in his presence. Her eyes were sparkling with a new found respect, but he got the distinct impression that her opinion of him as a person hadn't really changed all that much. After all, to be as powerful as she was, the odds were good that Kagome was also descendent from one of the more important spiritual lines. Though she'd told him her family name he wasn't familiar with the Higurashi line immediately off the top of his head, but she had said that her family had been living at that shrine for several generations, dating back all the way to the Sengoku period. She'd also said that her family, while they'd always been in the know, hadn't really had that much spiritual power in the last few generations, which explained why they weren't more active members of the sect. Sometimes powers did start to wane with time, especially if spiritual humans married and had children with normies, but it was also true that on occasion a latent spark of power would reemerge itself in a new generation, which explained what had happened with Kagome.
With evening coming to a close, Inuyasha announced that he'd better go get their dinner while he still could before they ended up being forced to go hungry for the night. Kagome nodded her consent and thanks, keeping herself busy during his absence by writing down in the dirt a list of additional things she wanted to ask him. When he returned with their fish their conversation was put on hold for a moment as he prepared their meal for cooking, then once Kagome had the cleaned fish skewered and roasting over the fire she got back to her twenty-questions.
Surprisingly undisturbed by her sudden desire to know everything about him, Inuyasha was happy to share with her whatever she wanted to know. When she asked him rather bluntly what it was, exactly, that he and his brother actually did for a living, he explained how their modern business had originally started from Sesshoumaru being a power head figure, and other clans wanting his support not financially, but in arms, to get what they wanted under threat of war that was supported by the Inu no Taisho if certain demands were not met. Since everybody feared that going into battle with Sesshoumaru meant certain death, it was a very successful business, since they never gave their alliance that easily and such partnerships always had to be earned. Sesshoumaru never did anything not worth his while and so the arrangements were always ultimately beneficial to the inu-youkai clan, and as the shift in power became more and more about how large somebody's bank account was instead of how many soldiers were under their command, the rules might have changed a bit, but the game ultimately stayed the same. They started backing other people's endeavors financially instead of with force, almost like a loan shark Inuyasha joked, though with much more long-term commitments. They didn't just dish out loans and expect to get paid back with interest. If Sesshoumaru were going to put his stamp of approval on something it had to actually meet with his qualifications, and as such he would take on partial responsibility of the project, though the person who'd approached them with the desire to be funded remained in control on the surface. That was the price they had to pay, guaranteed success of their business in exchange for Sesshoumaru being a part of it. Not surprisingly, they had plenty of takers. Especially back at the beginning of what one would think of as the modern era, where starting a business on your own without financial support was virtually impossible.
"Imagine like getting a loan at a bank to start a company, but you never fully pay off the loan and the bank owns a small part of your company forever." he explained.
In the modern-day world of stock markets, where companies actually opened themselves up to be owned in part by whomever could purchase the shares, they had their hands in just about every cookie jar that existed in Japan, owning little bits and pieces of major corporations like Yamaha, Sony and Hitachi, to Toyota and Mitsubishi, all the way down to the smallest companies still worthy enough to be included in the stock exchange. While most of the more successful businesses in Japan were not owned or run by youkai at all, Sesshoumaru had long ago adapted to the spiritualists' insistence of playing human in order to exist in modern-day society, and so all of the human businessmen of Japan recognized Sesshoumaru as one of their own, having no idea who the daiyoukai really was, aside from being one of the richest and most powerful men in all of Japan. If you wanted your business to be a success you got the Taisho Corporation, or TaiCorp, to fund you. The name brought with it instant recognition since people would take you seriously during your business' infancy, and TaiCorp would own as little as only 5% of your company, allowing you to call all the shots while they just sat back and watched their stocks rise in value. There were honestly very few larger corporations in Japan that they did not own at least a small part of in some small way. Even most of the companies that had originally started without their assistance, if they'd ever fallen into hard times, had usually ended up approaching them at some point or another for help to avoid bankruptcy. While it was true that they owned as little as 5% of some businesses, they owned as much as 50% of others, unwilling to take the reigns from any given company's CEO - they didn't need the extra hassle, for one thing - though depending on how much involvement a company needed in order to be saved, sometimes they would just buy them out and resell them, if the original owners had been bumbling idiots unworthy of owning their own company. Sometimes Sesshoumaru even bought stock of something just for the amusement of watching the stock's value skyrocket once everyone else saw that they had purchased it, the business world at large figuring that they must know something about that company, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of their name bringing success. It had gotten to the point where Sesshoumaru didn't even have to do anything; just being Sesshoumaru was what made him successful.
While they'd already had a presence in America through a backdoor of sorts, since various car manufacturers and other companies had branched out themselves and had strong presence overseas, they'd now more recently in the last couple decades made themselves known in America independently, willing to fund and support new American-made companies that they believed showed genuine potential to become just as powerful as anything back home. Since the Internet boom, their American office primarily dealt with the Dot Com industry; it was Inuyasha's personal field of expertise and something Sesshoumaru had given him free reign over to see whether or not the boy truly had what it took to make his own decisions when it came to who to back and who to back away from.
"Ever heard of Overstock.com?" Inuyasha asked smugly. He frowned as Kagome laughed.
"I bet you're the one behind the suggestive 'It's all about the O' slogans."
Chuckling, he shook his head, gesturing to his white hair and red t-shirt as he replied with, "Nah, though I did inadvertently inspire their color scheme when I met with their designer, since it turned out she was one of us and could see through the charm."
It was her turn to chuckle.
Any further chatting along those lines came to a sudden and immediate halt as the sun slipped out of sight and Kagome found herself gasping as her hand flew up to her heart, staring in wide-eyed fascination as Inuyasha's youki pulsed weaker and weaker as it drained out of him the same time the physical changes overtook his body. She couldn't blink for fear of missing it, as black bled down his silver locks turning them raven, as his canine ears shifted and morphed, traveling down the sides of his head while simultaneously reshaping themselves into rounded, human ears. His eyes darkened from golden amber to coffee brown, and his claws retracted into his fingertips, becoming blunt human nails. In only a matter of seconds it was over, and she could feel absolutely no trace of youki from the man sitting beside her. He was human.
"Are you sure that doesn't hurt?" were the first words out of her mouth, her concern obvious in her tone.
He sighed a bit, already feeling the onslaught of human emotions wanting to screw with him, though he would endeavor to keep from acting like a fool.
"Nah...it definitely feels weird, but it's not painful."
She noted as he spoke that his fangs were also missing, as she knew they would be, though she hadn't been expecting the sound of his voice to be slightly different. It was the same, but yet somehow...softer.
Pulling their fish from the fire before she forgot about them and accidentally burned them, she handed Inuyasha his fish with a mumbled, "I'm glad."
He blushed a bit at her words and then immediately chastised himself mentally for letting such a simple statement affect him. Of course she would be glad that it wasn't painful for him. What, had he thought she was some sort of sadist who would've gotten off on him screaming in agony? Feh! There was nothing special about her being relieved to know that his transformation didn't pain him, it only made her a decent human being.
Immediately tearing into his fish, he didn't comment back on her statement except for a non-committal grunt after he had a mouthful of food, though Kagome must have taken the sound as a thanks of sorts since she smiled a little before digging into her own fish.
Everything was silent for the next few minutes as they ate, save for the chirping of crickets, then tossing the remains of his fish into the fire when he was done, Inuyasha glanced around their campsite, grumbling low about how he really did hate turning human.
"The transformation itself ain't that bad, but I hate losing all my senses. I'm fucking blind." he griped, instinctively creeped out by not being able to see into the shadows all around them any longer.
"Is that like flying blind?" Kagome joked as she finished her own fish, hoping to loosen him up a bit. "You can't see what you're fucking but you're just gonna go for it anyway and hope for the best?"
Barking out an amused laugh, Inuyasha shook his head, stating playfully, "You've got a rather naughty mouth for a miko."
Shrugging, she retorted just as playfully with, "I'm a rather naughty miko."
Waggling his eyebrows, Inuyasha's face then got more serious as he stated that now that dinner was over it was her turn to share more about herself, since he'd shared so much of his own past already. Secretly, he figured it would prevent him from accidentally making a fool of himself if he kept quiet for the time being, though he honestly really was interested in hearing more about the girl...which still surprised him though he had to admit to himself that it was true.
Nodding her agreement that fair was fair, Kagome told Inuyasha more about her life in that moment, though there wasn't anywhere near as much to tell and it wasn't anywhere near as exciting as his life had been. She'd grown up on a shrine in Tokyo, moved to America after her twentieth birthday, the end, as far as she was concerned, though she did try to wrack her brain for filler at the expectant look in his eyes. She told him that while her family had always known about youkai, there hadn't been anyone in her immediate family who had been powerful enough to fully see through concealment charms for a few generations. Her father and grandfather could both 'sense' youkai, feeling their demonic auras and knowing which people among them were not human, but they couldn't see through the glamours unless they really concentrated, and even then they couldn't fully get rid of the double-image effect, being able to focus enough to see the youkai's true form but not enough to make the illusion of their concealment charm go away completely. At their rudimentary power level Inuyasha had been right in that the sect had more or less left them alone, because they weren't strong enough to be trained as members of the defense team. They were registered as being spiritualists rather than normies in the know, because they certainly weren't normies, having come from a long line of houshi and miko, but her grandfather had speculated that it was evolution in a way that was making their powers wane through the generations as there had been peace for so long that spiritual warriors were simply no longer needed. That had been their belief, at least, until little Kagome at age four had asked about the funny blue and green haired people with red eyes in the grocery store. She had been hushed quickly and rushed home where everything had immediately been explained to her. They had always intended on filling her in on the truths of the world they lived in, but not until she was older and more able to understand it. Being able to see through the spells so naturally, though, had left her family with little choice but to start her training much earlier than anticipated. Bringing in Kaede, the elderly miko quickly became a close friend of the family, and like a grandmother to Kagome, who spent the next several years teaching and training the girl. It had been Kaede's job to report to the sect just how powerful Kagome actually was, and while they wouldn't draft her and force her to learn to fight against her will, they were openly disappointed by her decision to refuse battle training. Her powers were definitely strong enough to be of use in taking out a rogue, should a rogue ever need to be taken out. Kagome did admit to Inuyasha in that moment that she had let Kaede train her on how to channel her spiritual powers into an object, though, as well as how to form barriers, which she'd already admitted before to knowing how to create. While she had no actual training with a weapon such as a sword or a bow and arrow, or even a gun, she could charge up just about any ol' blunt object to use as a spiritual weapon if push came to shove.
"Just because I don't want that life doesn't mean I was dumb enough to think I didn't need training when it came to my own powers. What if I accidentally zapped somebody if I got mad and my powers flared up against my will? Control means full control, and I couldn't risk not having full control of my powers, for the sake of them not ever running away from me, just like you and your youkai blood." she explained. "So I know how to bring my powers to the surface just like I know how to keep them at bay. I've never taken a life, but I've destroyed hundreds of shikigami. I'm not a warrior, and in hand-to-hand combat I know I'd lose, but if a rogue youkai were to ever attack me for the sake of being a miko, I could at least defend myself spiritually. Unlike the monk who attacked you, I wouldn't have to worry about purifying a hanyou who would then attack me as a human with a weapon I couldn't fight off, because I'm not the one who'll ever go rogue and go looking for trouble."
He nodded his understanding, glad to know that she wasn't totally defenseless, and also that she had no intention of becoming a vigilante. Not that such a thought had ever crossed his mind in the first place, though it was still comforting to hear.
Continuing her tale, Kagome explained how, having decided to not allow her destiny to be chosen for her, she had tried her best to live her life as a normal girl outside of her spiritual training, going to school, having friends. It was hard at times, living a double-life of sorts, but while she knew she wanted to be in charge of her own destiny, she was a firm believer of fate; she was meant to have her powers, for whatever reason. When she first decided that she wanted to go to school in America her family had been surprised, but supportive, and she had cooperated with the spiritual sect by staying registered with them, although she had applied for American citizenship for the sole purpose of protecting herself from being deported. She wouldn't put it past them to pull some strings to get her back if they ever decided they wanted her. Now, they would just have to ask nicely. Inuyasha chuckled at that, liking how she'd gotten one up on them.
Upon his inquiry, Kagome also informed him that her family had known that Kouga was an ookami-youkai, and while her grandfather hadn't been too happy about it, her mother had stated softly that times were different now than they used to be, and that if normal humans in the know were allowed to be with youkai if they so chose, why should it be any different for them? Her father, while clearly reluctant, had eventually conceded to his wife's viewpoint, and Kagome had gone on her date with her parents' consent, while her grandfather had tried to get her to take a wad of ofuda to use like a can of pepper spray if 'the wolf' tried anything. Kouga had been a perfect gentleman, of course, and Kagome knew he had turned against her because of pressure from his father, so she tried not to hold it against him. While she would never be willing to take him back if he ever hypothetically showed up and apologized, asking for a second chance, she would be adult enough to tell him to his face that she forgave him for his cowardice.
"He could have just told me that his father forbad our seeing each other and broke up with me like a normal boy, he didn't have to be a total dick to me for the rest of the school year, pretending he'd never liked me to begin with. But word had probably started to spread among the other youkai that we'd dated, and so he'd probably had to turn hostile to save face among his peers. Seventeen-year-old boys, ya know?" she said with a shrug.
"Fortunately, I haven't been seventeen for quite some time." Inuyasha stated almost reassuringly, which seemed odd to her for some reason, though smirking, Kagome decided to roll with it.
"Oh good, so then I won't have to worry about you acting all juvenile when we go out on our date?" she teased, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the flabbergasted expression on his face.
"Uhh..." he muttered, completely caught off guard and unsure whether or not she was just teasing or if there was actually a hint of seriousness buried underneath. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and embarrass himself.
Kagome, unaware of her companion's own mental dilemma, was working up the courage to seriously ask him out on a date, herself, despite the risk of humiliation involved should he not be interested. Hesitantly opening her mouth to breach the subject, she was proverbially saved by the bell when her question got cut off as she tried her best to stifle a huge yawn.
Chuckling lightly to himself at how adorable that made her look, Inuyasha murmured while tossing more wood into the fire, "You can go to bed if you're tired. You don't gotta keep me company."
"What about you?" she asked innocently. "You don't even have a place to sleep since you were just perching in the tree before."
"Keh, that don't matter." he told her, explaining, "I didn't used to ever sleep during my human night, hating how I felt so defenseless. My father wasn't without his enemies back in the day, and killin' me to get to him would've been an assassin's easiest assignment. I always stayed locked away in my room during the new moon, but you couldn't stop a castle full of dogs from smelling the change, not to mention sensing the disappearance of my youki, so pretty much everybody knew when my human time was. Oyaji had his most loyal guards always stationed at my door and outside my window, men who knew that my death would mean their deaths, but that didn't mean I'd felt secure enough to sleep soundly. Of course, these days I feel pretty safe at the house with our digital security system, but I'm sure I can handle stayin' up all night like I used to."
Nodding her head in determination, Kagome said, "Then I'll stay up with you."
He offered her an appreciative smile before shaking his head lightly.
"I ain't really too worried, Kagome. It's not like I really think that something's gonna suddenly show up and attack us. This ain't the Feudal era or whatever. But like you said, I don't got a place to sleep, so I'll just stay up. That doesn't mean you have to stay up with me."
"It doesn't mean I can't."
He quirked a brow at her, surprised but also deeply touched by her conviction. The atmosphere between them was getting a tad too serious, though.
"And what if I actually wanted the privacy so I can masturbate?"
Laughing, Kagome didn't know why that question actually made her feel better, as if feeling relieved that despite his transformation he was still the same man after all.
"And that'll take what? Three minutes? Then what are you going to do with yourself for the rest of the night?"
He chuckled.
"Besides," she added then, wondering why she was tempting fate by pushing it the extra step even as the words left her mouth. "Maybe I want to watch."
Fortunately he only laughed harder instead of getting embarrassed or deciding to embarrass her by calling her bluff again. He clearly had some kind of a retort, however, as he opened his mouth to speak, but then suddenly he was the one yawning, much to his horror, which had Kagome giggling again as his cheeks noticeably darkened.
We can joke about him yanking it and that doesn't faze him, but to accidentally reveal that he's tired embarrasses him. She mentally threw her hands up in the air. Men...

"I'll make you a deal..." she started then, deciding to completely ignore the recent masturbation jokes. "Either we both stay up all night, or we both get some sleep. You can share my 'nest'."
His eyes widened a bit at those words, though he could tell she was being serious from the tender expression on her face, the look in her eyes betraying only her genuine concern for him. Mentally kicking himself even as he knew he was a slave to his human emotions, knowing he should make some kind of a crude joke while also knowing he wasn't going to, he asked her with unmasked amazement in his voice, "You...wouldn't mind?"
"Of course not."

At those words she made her way over to said nest, pulling back the blanket to reveal the layered futon of leaves underneath. It looked...cozy...and way too intimate for strangers. The bedding was much too small for the two of them to sleep side-by-side without touching.
"When I offered to hold you in my arms before you turned me down." he pointed out.
"That was before I got to know you." she replied, giggling as she added, "You may be a bit of a hentai at times, but you're harmless."
"My bark is worse than my bite, huh?" he joked, poking fun at the double meaning because of his canine heritage.
Shaking her head with a bit of a wry grin on her lips, Kagome slipped off her shoes before settling herself down into her makeshift bedding, holding the blanket open in blatant invitation. When he hesitated she joked, "Come on, I don't bite...unless you ask me to."
Laughing a bit, her joke successfully melted the building tension he felt at the notion of sharing her bedding. Settling himself down beside her, then, he was amazed to feel just how warm her little nest truly was when the blanket was pulled up and over their bodies. Of course, it was a bit uncomfortable lying flat on his back with her body pressed up against his side, but if he tried to scoot any further away from her he'd fall out of the nest. Hearing her sigh beside him, he hesitantly turned his head to look her way, immediately relieved by her relaxed, knowing look.
"This from a man who held me in his lap ten feet off the ground this morning?" she questioned playfully. "What happened to you holding me in your arms, huh? I mean, I expected part of you might stiffen from our proximity, but not your whole freakin' body."
He chuckled a bit despite himself; she had been right before, his sense of humor was rubbing off on her. Still, it was making him feel better.
"Here...it's okay, really." Kagome said then, reaching across his body for his left arm before turning and rolling herself over onto her right, dragging him with her so that he was forced to roll over as well. Suddenly, Inuyasha found himself lying on his right side behind her, his left arm draped over her body as she spooned herself against his embrace.
He had thought it would feel even more awkward, stiffening up for a moment as he realized what she was doing as if mentally bracing for impact, but then suddenly, Inuyasha realized that nothing could feel more right than laying there with Kagome in his arms, and he found himself curling their bodies together even closer, resting his hand on her stomach. He was convinced it had to be because of the new moon and his overactive human emotions, but still, for that night, for that one moment in time, he wouldn't deny himself.
"Stupid fly..." he heard Kagome mutter as she reached up with her left hand to wave a bug away from her face.
"Yeah, guess they're not afraid of me any more. Sorry." he mumbled self-consciously, as if he had somehow failed her by preventing to keep the bugs away any longer.
"S'okay...used to camp before. Used to it." Kagome muttered, already sounding like she was falling asleep.
"I'm gonna turn hanyou again at the breech of sunrise." he found himself murmuring suddenly, though as if to warn her of the transformation itself or to reassure her regarding the insects even he couldn't be certain. Was it really possible she was only allowing their proximity because he was currently human? Would she react negatively to waking up in the arms of a half-breed? From everything he knew about her so far he doubted it, but still...
"So?" she answered back drowsily. Her tone indicated that she wasn't confused by his statement, suspecting what he might've been worried about while at the same time wishing to reassure him he had nothing to worry about.
He remained silent then, giving her body a little squeeze for a second in a wordless display of what her nonchalance really meant to him, his gratitude that she was honestly, miraculously, not bothered by the fact that he was half youkai. He wondered briefly when he'd come to think of himself as being human except for being half youkai, as opposed to being youkai except for being half human, but he supposed considering he was presently all human it was all right to think of himself from that perspective. He still felt connected to his dormant inu half in some ways. Burying his nose in her hair for a moment, Inuyasha cursed his weakened sense of smell, but feeling his exhaustion start to consume him, he didn't fight it, for once not feeling awkward in the slightest to be wrapped around a female body. He couldn't remember the last time he'd held a woman as he slept while honestly enjoying the experience, and they hadn't even had sex first! Was this what women referred to as 'cuddling'? It was something he thought he could get used to, so long as the woman was the one presently in his arms.
He was too tired to even realize that some part of his mind should have offered a protest to that latest thought, as he drifted off into the most pleasant dreams he'd had since before his mother's passing.
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*After some mild debate with myself, I decided to use the actual Romaji spelling for 'senpai' instead of the phonetic spelling of 'sempai'...I figured I would run the risk of getting corrected either way, so I wanted to do it right. The correct spelling, using the Hiragana-to-Romaji translation chart, is 'senpai' because N (?) is the only consonant that stands alone as its own syllable, and senpai in Hiragana is spelled with the three syllables se-n-pai. However, their N is actually pronounced as an M when preceding bilabial consonants, so if you saw my spelling and were thinking to yourself "I thought the word was 'sempai'" then fear not, because audibly you were right, that is how you say it.
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