The Courtship of Lady Kagome by Meara

Chapter One - "State Your Intentions"

Sesshomaru was everything a Taiyoukai should be. He moved with a breathtaking grace and elegance that no mortal could ever hope to match. You could only stare at him (from a safe distance since it was well known that he was also an easily annoyed Taiyoukai) and wonder why a being whose named meant "The Killing Perfection" could look so much like an angel.

As an adolescent, Sesshomaru had spent a great deal of time mastering the art of appearing unapproachable. Like everything else he'd set his mind to, Sesshomaru had accomplished it with ease. In less than a decade the look he gave you, (when he deigned to recognize your existence at all) implied that he ate human babies for breakfast, lesser youkai for lunch and those who managed to piss him off as an in-between meal snack. Sesshomaru's family motto was in a language called "Latin" that his father, the late and universally dreaded Inu no Taisho, had learned from some holy men from the western world. It summed up the White Prince of the West's view on life quite succinctly. "Se no Incommodes Perdies;" translated the phrase meant, "Annoy me and perish."

There were many things that endlessly fascinated Sesshomaru. One was the art of achieving the ever elusive, perfect haiku. Another more intellectual challenge was solving complex puzzles. His true passion, however, was reserved for the acquisition of power, since he had long ago pledged himself to the path of supreme conquest. The Lord of the Western Lands, however, was selective about the kind of power he sought.

Not for him were items like the Shikon no Tama or any other magical bauble. A Taiyoukai of his reputation and mystic prowess tended to go for larger-than-life tools suited to the art of warfare. Sesshomaru had a preference for outrageously large swords with names that meant things such as "painful, messy destruction" and the like.

That endless need is what initially drove him to try, on a regular basis, to take the great sword tetsusaiga from his hanyou half-brother, Inuyasha. Once the sword had been broken and re-forged with one of Inuyasha's fangs, Sesshomaru immediately considered it inferior and promptly lost interest in obtaining it. In fact he was quite prepared to ignore his bastard sibling for the next few centuries had he not witnessed a display of the one thing he found most fascinating of all, power, from a most unlikely source, the human Miko who traveled with Inuyasha.

Shortly after Inuyasha's group had finally destroyed Naraku (an annoying hanyou whose demise had been on Sesshomaru's short list of things-to-do) he came across his brother's odd group in the middle of a battle. Never one to miss an opportunity to see Inuyasha get thrashed due to his lack of discipline, the Lord of the West settled himself comfortably in the boughs of an old tree, well out of sight.

They were fighting one of the late Naraku's detachments, his so-called son, Byakuya. The creature seemed intent on two things. The first was to gain revenge for his "father," Naraku, having being sent screaming to hell. The second was to make long winded, pointless speeches that were dangerous only if he intended to bore his enemies to death.

It was an unremarkable fight, at first glance. Byakuya had brought a small horde of lesser youkai with him that the Demon Slayer and the Monk, along with the transformed fire-neko, were making short work of. The Miko was off to one side, in back of Inuyasha. She was calmly using her arrows, aglow with her power as the protector of the Shikon no Tama, to pick off various youkai who were unfortunate enough to draw her attention. Sesshomaru's half-brother, finally tiring of ripping up the forest with various attacks from tetsusaiga, was about to finish Byakuya off when something remarkable finally happened.

Without warning, Byakuya bounded over Inuyasha and headed straight for the Miko. In the blink of an eye he had her on the ground while he straddled her. One hand snaked up her body to grab for the shards of the almost completed Shikon no Tama from around her neck. The other hand, rather impulsively, slipped under her clothing in a crude attempt to cop a quick feel.

"What a delight to the touch you are, wench," Naraku's detachment said with a wicked smile. "I think I will not kill you, after all. Becoming my sex toy would be a much better fate for you."

Those whispered words (and grabbing a hold of the Miko's breast) were Byakuya's greatest, albeit last, mistakes of his misbegotten life. Giving a shriek of pure outrage, the young woman was suddenly engulfed in iridescent light. The unwelcome visitor was lifted off her body and suspended in mid-air, quite unable to move.

"Keep your freaking hands to yourself!" she snarled, carefully enunciating each word.

With out a moment's hesitation, Kagome purified Byakuya's ass (and the rest of him, for that matter) straight to hell. It probably wasn't the reunion Byakuya had planned on, but at least now he'd get to keep his father company in what ever toasty corner of the underworld Naraku was currently occupying. Kagome watched with grim satisfaction as the ash that had been the demon son of the evil hanyou gently blew away on the afternoon breeze.

Needless to say, this caught the Taiyoukai's attention. He then did something he very rarely allowed himself to do; smile. The Miko, (he struggled to remember her name... Kimi, Kinki, Keiko...Oh yes, Kagome!) Kagome, had power. It was raw, untamed power to be sure, but that didn't stop Sesshomaru from being fascinated by it. Kagome was not simply a puzzle, but a complex puzzle. Sesshomaru was hooked.

The White Prince of the West was unsure how he could turn her power to his advantage. Even so, Sesshomaru was certain his clever and obviously superior Taiyoukai intellect would eventually come up with an appropriate solution. It was just a matter of time and persistence.

That day marked the beginning of an obsession for the Lord of the Western Lands. Sesshomaru was careful to keep close tabs on the movements of Inuyasha and Kagome. He found himself actually looking forward to days when they were close to his domain. After instructing Jaken to care for Rin (in a voice that implied that failure would mean a fairly quick but excessively painful death), Sesshomaru would bound off to secretly observe the Miko as long as he could.

One of Sesshomaru's character flaws was that he was patently unable to let something go once he'd made up his mind to have it. All Sesshomaru knew and cared about was that Kagome was the most powerful female he'd ever come across. It didn't matter to him that said female was human (a species he usually went out of his way to avoid contact with, since those encounters tended to end in bloodshed). It didn't matter that his half-wit, half-brother was so strongly attached to the young woman. Sesshomaru's ego would never let him seriously view Inuyasha as a threat.

The White Prince of the West seemed totally oblivious to the idea that stalking Kagome in this fashion could only lead to disaster. When it finally did nibble at the corners of his tidy (and superior, of course) mind, he quickly brushed any qualms aside. He was, after all, the Taiyoukai Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands and what he wanted he got. Come what may, Sesshomaru was unswervingly determined to see this thing through to the end and find a way to use the Miko to his advantage.

If Sesshomaru had been a tad less stubborn, he might have avoided the fate that was about to befall him. Then again, the Lord of the Western Lands was not only intractable but vain and incredibly prideful of his own superiority. One of the lessons that he had failed to learn as a pup was that the Powers-That-Be really enjoy taking down those who have put themselves up on a pedestal. All of the bad karma Sesshomaru had managed to accumulate over the centuries of his life was about to take its toll. The Lord of the Western Lands was about to find that, appropriately enough for an Inu-youkai, payback was indeed a bitch.

Kenji, Taiyoukai of the Southern Lands was a formidable demon. He'd been the Lord of the South for almost four centuries, ruling with a fair hand. "Fair" was a subjective term during the era of warring states. In this case, it meant that he was perfectly willing to lop off the head from any miscreant, whether youkai or human, once he judged them worthy of the action. Kenji was also known as a Prince who demanded order in those he ruled as well as those who were in his service. Oddly enough, the one place the Taiyoukai got very little order and peace these days was at home.

Kenji was a tiger youkai. In his true form he was swift, relentless and deadly. He and his Mate of one hundred and fifty years, Sakura had three, healthy cubs. By and large she and Kenji were well suited to each other. Just like the Lord of the Southern Lands, Sakura could also be relentless; although that was not the word that first came to Kenji's mind these days. Recalcitrant, stubborn and a pain-in-the-tail were more accurate but the Prince had not survived all this time by being stupid so, wisely, he kept his thoughts to himself.

"Miyuki is still unmated," Sakura said. She walked half a step behind her Lord, as was proper, and kept her eyes demurely downcast.

The tiger Youkai bit back the annoyed sigh that threatened to slip from his lips. "Indeed. That may be why I see her at meals three times a day. Little things such as that tend to reinforce the point that she's still living with us."

"She needs a Mate," Sakura said evenly.

"I know that. Perhaps at the autumnal gathering of the Youkai Council she'll meet someone she likes," Kenji suggested through clenched teeth. He and his Mate had been having this conversation much too often as of late.

A sly smile crept across the feline features of the Lady of the South. "Actually, I believe that she need not wait that long. It has come to my attention that you and the late Inu no Taisho, of revered memory, arranged to have an unattached son of the West take a daughter of the South to Mate."

That stopped Kenji dead in his feline tracks. "I recall no such agreement and I certainly never signed any accord such as that. When did this 'agreement' happen?"

"The year Sesshomaru was born, as I recall," Sakura said smoothly. "It was during one of the numerous toasts you and the revered Inu no Taisho raised to his new heir. You must be aware that Sesshomaru has yet to take a Mate. It's the talk of the Youkai courts across the Four Lands. It would make his father very happy to unite our two, great houses."

"Ah..."

The Lord of the Southern Lands and the Inu no Taisho had been good friends who considered themselves to be Taiyoukai of discriminating tastes, especially when it came to sake. They would spend whole evenings (and occasionally the next day as well) taste-testing the new shipments of their favorite beverage that came in during the spring and fall. Any festive occasion gave them the excuse to test out the latest acquisition from his sake cellar. Kenji had the uneasy feeling that this so-called "arrangement" (of which he had absolutely no memory) had been brought up during one of those marathon sessions. Hell, he could have stripped naked, climbed on top of the roof and set fire to his own tail and not remembered that, either.

Giving a short cough, the Taiyoukai continued on his way, his determined Mate a step behind him. "It hardly seems fair to hold the Lord of the West to a suggestion made in a moment of celebration by his father and me. Besides, Sesshomaru is known to be discreet. He may be courting a demoness and we simply have not heard of it."

"If that is true, then it would be the height of bad taste to try and force our beautiful and accomplished child on him," Sakura agreed.

A cold shiver ran up the tiger Youkai's spine. Sakura had agreed with him a bit too fast for his comfort. Kenji's worst fears were realized by his Mate's next words.

"It would be very prudent, then, to pay the Lord of the West a visit in order to settle this matter" she said. "I shall instruct the servants to begin packing at once."

The feline Lord turned to watch his Mate move down the hall. He gave a resigned shrug of his shoulders and continued on his way to his study. He had long ago learned not to get in the way of Sakura's plans. She was a good person, at heart, if a bit too ambitious when it came to their cubs. Besides, Kenji thought as he slid close the door behind him, it had been far too long since he'd paid a visit to the excellent sake cellar at the House of the Moon. Cheered by this prospect, he turned his mind to the affairs of state that awaited him.

In the three and a half years Kagome had been working to find and reunite the scattered shards of the Shikon no Tama, she'd discovered a few enduring truths. One was that hot springs weren't nearly as numerous and conveniently placed as people liked to think they were. Another was that a steady diet of ramen noodles was not the way to stay healthy. The greatest truth, though, was that whenever attempting to take a bath in any place other than a locked room, having a half ton, fully transformed fire-youkai nearby was a great way to ensure some privacy.

Kagome sighed with content. Sango, sitting right beside her, did so as well. They were three days out from Kaede's village and after a long, warm, dusty day on the road, the small pond they'd found was just perfect for a cool bath. There was a large, old willow tree hanging over the water, gnarled roots making perfect if impromptu seat-backs for the two young women. Kirara lay in the shade of the willow, head down and eyes closed.

"Don't get me wrong, Kagome-chan, I want you to stay but I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't remind you that you'd be giving up a lot," Sango said. The water covered both of them to the top of their bare breasts and was just the right temperature to lounge in.

Kagome smiled warmly at the young woman she considered a sister, "I've given this a lot of thought, Sango-oneechan. Yes, I'll miss some things about the future; like air conditioners, indoor plumbing and cable-TV. Those things are nice but there's this voice inside me that says my home and my destiny are here, in this time. Besides, we don't know that the well will close up after I complete the Shikon no Tama. I still may be able to commute back and forth for visits."

Sango slid a little deeper into the water, letting it come halfway up her neck. "Destiny... Does that destiny include Inuyasha?"

"Yes," Kagome replied, "but not the way you think. I love him the same way I love you and Miroku. You're more than just my friends. You've become family to me. Inuyasha loves me deeply, I know that, but it's not a romantic love."

"Kagome, what changed? It was plain to everyone that you loved him, as you put it, in a 'romantic' way."

"I did love him like that, once. The problem is that Inuyasha can't decide if he wants me or Kikyo. He may have a century or two to figure it all out but I don't. Besides," Kagome rolled her eyes, "he has his undead, ex-girl-friend following him all over Japan screaming that she hates his hanyou guts and wants to drag him to hell with her. Oddly enough, that's soured Inuyasha on romance right now."

Immersed in both the water and the conversation, neither noticed the wind when it picked up. It swirled in a circle, around the small pond. The breeze made Kirara's ears suddenly perk up. The big neko youkai opened her eyes and looked around, giving a soft growl. Raising her head slightly, she tried to get a decent scent from the meandering wind.

"Kirara," Sango asked, moving to grab a towel left on the nearby grass, "what's wrong? If it's Miroku I swear I will hit him so hard that those children he keeps asking me to bear him will feel it!"

Above them in the old willow, Sesshomaru silently cursed the fire-cat. He'd mastered the art of hiding in plain sight from both humans and youkai decades ago. In this case it meant sitting on a thick branch, literally not moving a muscle. That took a great deal of concentration. Masking his aura was the easy part. Unfortunately, there was only so much he could do about his scent, particularly at close range.

If only the wind hadn't shifted, that damned fire-cat would never have known he was here, Sesshomaru fumed silently.

Kagome also rose from the water and wrapped a towel around her giving Sesshomaru a brief, albeit excellent, view of her physical attributes. She was far from unpleasant to look at, Sesshomaru decided. Lush, round breasts, long toned legs, a tapered waist and gently rounded hips showed that Kagome was no longer a girl. She was a woman.

The Lord of the West momentarily found himself envious of the small scrap of terrycloth that Kagome had draped over her body. It was hard enough to stay motionless in the tree without having to deal with his sudden and very intense sexual attraction to the unclothed female. Sesshomaru was also glad that his white, silk pants loose enough to accommodate his body's reaction to the aforementioned naked Miko.

People liked to believe that Sesshomaru despised all humans. That wasn't entirely accurate but since the rumor was usually quite helpful in his dealings with mankind, he didn't bother to correct it. After all, both youkai and human male and females were anatomically similar (hence his bastard of a half-brother, Sesshomaru mused). What the Lord of the West truly loathed was weakness.

Humans of the feudal era were, in his opinion, just that. Used to being harassed, thrashed and occasionally eaten by large, hulking and deadly youkai, they rarely put up much of a fight. Annoyingly enough, Sesshomaru found that the normal reaction to his presence was for humans to scream and in some cases, faint dead away before he had even touched them. The sad truth was that most of the humans he came across were barely able to grasp the concept of personal hygiene, never mind the art of self-defense. That was the real cause of Sesshomaru's distain for them.

The Miko below him was clean. In fact, her daily bathing seemed to drive his half-brother to distraction, making it even more appealing for the Taiyoukai. She held the mystic might of the Shikon no Tama so strongly in her lovely body that he swore he could almost smell it. For Sesshomaru, the combination was a powerful aphrodisiac.

That, perhaps, was why he was paying less attention to the willow tree he crouched in and more on the woman below it. It may also be why he failed to notice the very light cracking sound the branch gave off just before it broke away from the tree. Happily, he was able to leap free but ended up landing (gracefully as always) in front of Kagome and Sango, both of whom were only wearing towels.

"Hentai!" they shrieked in unison.

The shrieks were more of outrage than fear, Sesshomaru noted in the one corner of his mind that wasn't completely appalled by his current situation. That did not stop them from reaching for their weapons, however. Sango had her katana in hand in the span of a heartbeat. Kagome grabbed her sturdy bow, notched an arrow in it and had it pointed at the Taiyoukai just as quickly.

Unfortunately for the Miko, the act of getting a good draw on the bowstring caused her towel to come loose, fall away from her body and then drop to the ground.

"Stop staring at me you pervert!" Kagome's scream ran up several octaves in horror at her predicament. She stood there for a long moment, unsure if she should grab the towel or shoot at Sesshomaru. Taking the middle road, Kagome scooted behind a now standing Kirara, bow still strung as tightly as her nerves. "I said stop staring at me!"

It was then that the dreaded Lord of the West was treated to the very thing he found so fascinating about Kagome. Her power, in the form of iridescent light, danced around her body in reaction to her anger and alarm. Part of it flowed into the arrow aimed at his heart. The waves of energy were intense enough to be almost palpable to him. Between the mystic energies and Kagome's current state of undress, he was transfixed.

Logic dictated that Sesshomaru should have felt at least a little concern for his wellbeing. His senses told him that the kind of spiritual energy Kagome was giving off just might be strong enough to, if not purify him into his next incarnation, to at least burn him very badly. Oddly, though, he appeared unperturbed. That's because the erotic display of power was sending most of Sesshomaru's blood rushing to the wrong head. It made thinking, rational or any other kind, difficult for the moment.

Another common misconception was that Sesshomaru had no emotions. He did have emotions; lots of emotions as a matter of fact, lust being in the forefront for the moment.

Happily, once the young Sesshomaru had hit the equivalent of youkai puberty, his father had seen to it that his son mastered the discipline of masking his emotions from others. So while his brain danced in chaotic circles of carnal desire, Sesshomaru remained outwardly calm.

"How long were you up there?" Kagome asked, outraged. "And just what did you think you were doing?"

"This Sesshomaru does not explain himself to anyone." The Taiyoukai gave the two women a cool glance and then turned to walk off in the mysterious yet elegant fashion he had perfected. At least she hadn't noticed the tent in his hakama, Sesshomaru thought. Kami, but he needed a bath in an ice-cold stream.

Kagome grabbed her clothes and was hurriedly stuffing herself into them. She'd taken to wearing the traditional red and white garb of a Miko. It was comfortable and easy to move around in. Besides, Kagome had decided that having an un-dead woman dictate what you did and did not wear was down-right crazy. The only nod to the 21st century was her socks and Reebok sneakers. The traditional tabi socks and zori sandals made her toes cramp.

"Oh no, you don't Sesshomaru! You are not leaving here until I find out what you were doing in that tree!"

Sango slowly let her guard and the blade, down. "Kagome, maybe we should let him go. It's not as if we're ready for a protracted fight," she looked around for her clothes. One of the first lessons her father had taught her was both simple and logical. There were times to fight and there were times when it was best not to. Since getting into it with a Taiyoukai while wearing just a towel was suicidal, Sango was more than willing to let this incident pass by without bloodshed.

While Sango may have known better, Kagome was too angry to think as clearly. She'd shoved the first, then second sneaker onto her sock clad feet and started stomping after Sesshomaru.

"Hey, don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you! Were you following us? Because if you were..." That was as far as Kagome got, literally.

Tripping over the untied laces she went down in a tangle of arms and legs. Unfortunately, probably because of her agitated state, her power was still running on high. During her summersault the energy at last found a partial outlet. One of the sneakers, charged a glowing violet, seemed to rocket off her foot and make a bee-line for Sesshomaru.

The Lord of the Western Lands stopped abruptly when he felt the Reebok running shoe slam into his lordly derrière, leaving a scorched imprint on his silk hakama. Any lingering lust faded away in an instant. The prudent thing to do would have been to ignore it and continue walking.

Unfortunately, Sesshomaru's pride tended to run as hotly as his libido.

With deliberate care he leaned over to gingerly retrieve the soft shoe and then steadfastly stalked towards his accidental assailant. Sesshomaru towered over the Miko who still lay on the ground. Holding the sneaker by its laces and between two claws, he let it dangle above Kagome's head for her inspection.

"I believe this is yours."

Kagome absently wondered how big a bruise the sneaker would leave on her face when the Taiyoukai let it drop. "Oh, so it is. I didn't mean to hit you with it, Sesshomaru-sama," Kagome added the honorific, hoping a proper show of deference would help to defuse the anger she could clearly see on the White Prince of the West's face. "It just sort of... happened. Besides, you still haven't explained what you were doing in that tree."

"Sesshomaru-sama!"

Normally, Sesshomaru inwardly winced whenever he heard the voice of his toad-like retainer. The creature was utterly devoted to him, but the Taiyoukai occasionally found that loyalty suffocating. Nevertheless, the voice was a surprising relief to hear. It might help to extricate Sesshomaru from his current situation. With any luck there was a crisis in the Western lands that needed his immediate attention. He silently mused that an earthquake or flood would come in handy right about now.

"Jaken, why have you followed me here?" he asked, still holding the sneaker by its laces.

Waddling at maximum speed, the kappa youkai had a wide smile on his green, weathered, little face. "Your loyal servant has come to bring you the happiest of news, my Lord!"

Jaken gave a wide sweep with his tiny arms. "Granted the agreement between your revered father and Kenji-sama isn't truly formal, but the Lord has brought you his youngest daughter to take as Mate!"

In back of the reptilian retainer came a pair of youkai that Sesshomaru immediately recognized as the stately Lord Kenji and his graceful Lady. The third figure was only now moving out of the shadows of the woodlands and into the light. What he saw made his heart freeze in his chest.

The daughter of the Lord of the South was cross-eyed. There was also a disturbing kink in her tail. It swayed back and forth, causing the female to bob her head as she walked. It was when she opened her mouth to speak that Sesshomaru truly realized the peril he was in.

"Oh, Sesshomaru!" called the female as she waved at him.

Kami, Sesshomaru thought, the demoness was possessed of a grating, nasally voice that could peel the lacquer right off of furniture at twenty paces.

"Sesshomaru," she continued, in that screeching voice, "I want pearls as my first courtship gift! Did you hear me? I want pearls!"

Still lying on her back, Kagome gently tapped the Inuyoukai's ankle with her finger. "Excuse me but if you're finished playing with it, may I please have my sneaker back?"

The Taiyoukai looked down at the young woman and then glanced at his rapidly approaching intended "Mate." If nothing else, Sesshomaru was very good at thinking on his feet. He could not have lived so long, fighting to protect and hold the Western Lands without becoming a master strategist. Granted, the idea that popped into his head wasn't the best plan he'd ever come up with, but it'd have to do in a pinch.

He tossed the shoe high into the air and before it had even started to fall back to earth, the Taiyoukai swept Kagome up and onto her feet. Kagome gave him a startled look, mouth gaping open in surprise as she found herself suddenly upright.

"I regret that I may not have the honor of taking your daughter to Mate, Kenji-sama." He deftly caught the sneaker and, going to one knee, offered it up to the Miko like Prince Charming to Cinderella.

"This Sesshomaru is currently pursuing someone of great power and prestige. I hereby proclaim my intent to pay court to the Shikon no Miko, the Lady Kagome!"