A/N (Spacewolf) I want you all to know, this is KOTH fanfiction, albeit KOTH fanfiction that Super Ceech has given her blessings to. I admit the urge to throw in a pointless and gratuitous shower scene was too great for me, so I apologize and ask you all to please bare Sesshoumaru with me!
P.S. (Super Ceech) The shower scene is rated T just so there are no complaints...but why would there be; it's a gratuitous Sesshoumaru shower scene after all!
Sesshoumaru awoke in a hotel room with pristine white sheets tangled up around him. He slowly pushed himself up and looked in the mirror, silken strands of hair gliding down his bare shoulders and arms.
A mirror was placed by the bed (he felt that was of dubious taste) but it allowed for a quick cursory appraisal of his appearance without ever needing to leave bed. And he did so love his appearance... and beds... on second thought that was a brilliant idea.
His long hair hung like strands of silver to fuse in a bundle of white with the sheets folded back around his knees. His eyes were clear, not a hint of the normal just-awoken-confusion most suffered. Resting his hands on his bare knees he squinted at his reflection distastefully.
Exactly three hairs were out of place.
"My hair," he murmured fretfully patting it in dismay. He slid off the bed, departing from the soft silken softness of high-end hotel beds.
He flicked his hair back over his shoulders. Shuffling past a chair in the hotel room, Sesshoumaru frowned at the suit that was laid out with a note from Rin pinned to it. Apparently in the dead of night, she'd gotten into his room, by means as of yet unclear. She'd tiptoed passed where his prone form had lain, unsuspecting, at his most vulnerable. With precision and neatness she'd executed her plan, carrying something in, setting it out, putting it in place and then stealing away as silently as she'd entered.
Again.
Sesshoumaru slipped into the bathroom for a shower.
The steam curled up from the heated rain that fell from the gleaming silver font head, reaching like longing fingers of mist around his thighs. His platinum hued hair, soaked and heavy with the dew of the shower clung to the contours of his athletic body. Hot water caressed his satin skin in way that no woman ever...cough sorry. Where were we again?
With the vague notion of having been spied upon by higher powers, Sesshoumaru ceased the flow of water and wrapped a fleecy white towel around his waist and cinched it firmly. Next he took an even larger fleecy white towel and twisted that around his hair and turned it into a towel turban.
As he exited the bathroom, he held onto the towel around his waist as if he feared a forty year old rabid fan of his ice dancing was going to kick down his door, rush in, glomp him and make off with his towel and his dignity.
But what were the chances of that happening?
...Twice.
...In one week.
Sesshoumaru sat down on the bed and flicked on the television to see if anything good was on.
Translation, to see if anything about him was on.
He found a clip show, devoted currently to showing footage from the Olympics. Having ended only two weeks ago, the world was still jazzed up on the post Winter Olympics Buzz.
Since he'd participated in this Olympics himself, he settled down on the foot of his bed to watch with some interest.
After showing a few highlights, which included a female skier taking down a barricade during her run with her face, and a luge team that had probably managed to cripple themselves, it got down to the good stuff.
"And now, for our favorite Winter Sports Brothers, the moment everyone's been waiting for, the Dareshi clips!" The needlessly tanned and plastic looking male host said with a smile so white and toothy it gave him a deranged appearance.
Sesshoumaru's own face ached at the thought of showing that much expression.
The promised clip shown was of Sesshuomaru and Rin; they had just been awarded the gold and were fighting their way through the crowds of reporters. In his arms, Jaken carried a bundle of something. One of his burdens fell and was trampled, and he fell to his knees beside it.
He screamed something about his chiffon samples.
Clip-Show Sesshoumaru for the ice dancing had been dressed in form fitting periwinkle blue with swirls and sparkles across the chest and down his right leg. A clever bit of tailoring around the waist area saved him from the embarrassment of what he liked to call "ballet crotch." The collar of this outfit was a huge fluffy ruff, tapering to nothing beneath his chin, and growing to obscene proportions behind his head. The cuffs matched the collar, so to speak, with their outrageously large white fluffiness.
His make-up was androgynous and outrageous, along his eye line, starting beneath tear ducts and tracing all the way to his hair line were ruler straight thick blue lines. His lashes were covered in the same sharp blue colour. His lips were also painted a bright blue.
Rin behind him was dressed in a pink complimentary suit which consisted of a needlessly short pink dress with a huge fluffy hem. Wide bell like sleeves with matching fluffy collars and an almost equally outrageous fluffy collar. Though not visible at a stand still, she wore pink short shorts beneath the needlessly short dress, seeing no real need to flash her underwear to the audience.
Unless it was completely necessary of course.
Her make-up was done the same as his, only in pink.
Rin called their outfits Androgyny Chic meets Cyber Punk.
Sesshoumaru called it Too Much Money meets Not Enough Taste.
However, tacky outfits aside, they had won the gold.
"Sesshoumaru!" An annoying, pushy reporter shoved his mike towards Clip-Show Sesshoumaru.
Real-Life Sesshoumaru growled at the memory.
He knew many men and women, good athletes all of them, who had sustained microphone related injuries due to pushy reporters.
"You've competed in two Olympics and taken gold both times!" the Clip-Show Reporter panted, galloping to keep up with Sesshoumaru's determination. "How does that feel?"
"Disappointing," Clip-Show Sesshoumaru replied without glancing at the insignificant reporter. "I was hoping that the Olympics committee would create a fourth, higher medal so that this year might actually be a challenge!"
"Uh..." somehow Clip-Show Reporter hadn't been expecting that answer. Brightly he tried again. "What advice do you have for new up and comers to the sport of Ice Dancing?"
"Remember kids, no matter how good you get, there is always somebody better," Clip-Show Sesshoumaru responded philosophically. After a beat he added, "And that somebody is me! But don't worry, someday I'll be dead and it's not hard to outskate a corpse!"
"That's not necessarily true!" Clip-Show Rin pipped up gleefully. "I bet Sesshoumaru would skate fantastically as a zombie too!"
"Um...?" the Clip-Show Reporter said slowly, confused. "Any other advice?"
Sesshoumaru thought about it and then said profoundly, "Stay in school kids... or you'll end up like my idiot brother!"
This was not the sort of uplifting encouragement that Clip-Show Reporter had expected.
"Well," Clip-Show Reporter asked brightly. "Will you be competing again in four years to take a third Gold?"
"No," Clip-Show Sesshoumaru replied firmly. "I am very disappointed with the Olympics committee. It's not just their persistent failure to present me with a challenge, but the rooms they provide are seriously lacking in satisfactory mini-bars!"
Clip-Show Sesshoumaru stopped suddenly and snatched the reporter's microphone. In a voice that rang with condemnation, as a priest would damn a heathen, in a wronged tone, Sesshoumaru explained his plight to the world. "I wrote to the Olympics committee and informed them of their failure to provide mini-bar satisfaction. I gave them a second chance and to my disappointment my fundamental mini-bar needs were not met! Therefore I will not be returning for a third time. Rin and I will now be turning professional. No challenge, no mini-bar, no Sesshoumaru."
Clip-Show Sesshoumaru handed the microphone back.
"That will be all," he informed them with the regal bearing and conviction of a politician who had just dismissed the press.
"Well!" the Clip-Show Host said with a laugh. "There's a man who's brave enough to wear that outfit and speak his mind!"
Real-Life Sesshoumaru tore his eyes from the television show and glared at the inefficient mini-bar.
"You're a failure," he told it cruelly.
It looked suitably destroyed by his harsh criticism.
Sesshomaru turned back to the clip show.
"And now," the Plastic Looking Clip-Show Host said with needless excitement. "Arguably the best clip of the Olympics, Inuyasha Dareshi!"
Real-Life Sesshoumaru grumbled.
The Clip-Show went to the clip of Inuyasha kicking up a rain of snow at the end of his run.
Normally reporters stayed respectfully back at the end of Olympic runs. They saved the bum rushing until they were a least a bit away from the crowds and judge. Today was no exception; Inuyasha, at the end of his run, immediately made for the reporters who, seeing their chance, eagerly swarmed him. Inuyasha ploughed his way through them, grinning ear to ear until he came to where an attractive young woman in a red coat was hanging respectfully back with her camera man.
"Do you have a comment, Inuyasha?" Clip-Show Kagome asked him, respectfully offering him the microphone.
"Sure I have a comment!" Clip-Show Inuyasha (which was just as ugly as Real-Life Inuyasha) bellowed into the microphone, tearing it from her hands. "Kagome! Will you marry me?"
He produced a ring on a delicate chain from the inside of his sleek racing suit. He tore the chain off his neck and offered it to Kagome.
She stared at him in disbelief.
"O-okay," she stammered shyly.
Inuyasha grabbed her and kissed her squarely on the mouth.
The crowd sheered and the cameras rolled.
Real-Life Sesshoumaru thought that was a slight breech in protocol. Reporters were not supposed to make the news, simply report on it.
Kagome had taken photo journalism in college, planning on being a new photographer, but fate had put her in front of the camera. With sweet good looks and a genuine kindness that was palpable even onscreen, she was the darling of her news station. Normally she only handled the local feel good story:
Local woman turns outhouse into a dung beetle habitat. Teens suspected of vandalism apprehended by citizens. Gratuitously fat cat stuck in a tree, rescued by Olympic candidate Inuyasha.
Sesshoumaru personally thought that since it had been Kagome's cat stuck in the tree to begin with, it shouldn't even have made it to the news but what did he know?
What was local story Kagome doing at the Olympics? Well she was the only reporter at her station dating (now engaged to) an Olympic skier, and she was the only reporter who was best friends with another Olympic skier's girlfriend and manager. Ayame had decided to become Kouga's manager, scheduling training times, finding instructors, arranging press conferences and exclusive interviews with Kagome. Last but certainly not least (as far as Sesshoumaru was concerned this was the most important part) Kagome was also the only reporter at her station, and one of the few in the world that could get private interviews with Rin and Sesshomaru, and she was the only reporter in the entire world that Sesshoumaru would be nice to.
Or Rin would hit him.
Of course this wasn't enough to make Kagome world famous, but it was enough to get her to the Olympics as a part of her station's reporting team there.
Maybe now that she was engaged to Inuyasha, she'd become famous.
Thinking of sweet and pretty Kagome with his brother suddenly filled Sesshoumaru with a deep and profound disappointment.
He'd always thought she had better taste.
It occurred to Sesshoumaru that he'd been sitting in naught but a towel and towel turban for a while now. Perhaps it was time to get dressed?
He wandered over to the suit and peered down at the note pinned to it.
Put on the suit, it said. Look pretty and be ready by twelve thirty sharp.
"Look pretty?" he read. "Well I think that's a given!"
Sesshoumaru checked the time. He had an hour and a half.
Plenty of time to put on the suit and go down for breakfast.
The thought of walking down to the dining room was daunting. It was such a long walk for food. He immediately dismissed the notion of calling room service. He hadn't called room service since the 'Misadventure.'
That left only the mini bar.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and stalked over to his hated enemy.
He opened it up and rummaged around.
He pulled out a small glass bottle of chic mineral water.
"What?" Sesshoumaru sneered at the mini bar. "Are you too good for regular water?" The only other liquid was small little bottles of various liquors. He sorted through
them in disgust.
"What is this?" he demanded the mini bar. "Liquor for babies?"
He set those aside and reached into the mini-bar fridge again.
He pulled out a few small package of clodhoppers.
"You've got to be joking," Sesshoumaru growled. "There can't be more than three clodhoppers in this!"
He threw that aside in disgust and reached in again.
This time he pulled out a small Toblerone bar.
"Look at this," he snapped. "Look! It's a third the size of a normal one! I'm a big boy and I want a big Toblerone!"
And that was all there was in the mini bar. Mineral water, liquor, two mini Toblerones and three tiny packages of clodhoppers.
"Failure!" Sesshoumaru declared. He thrust his finger at the mini bar. "You are the reason I'm not returning to the Olympics!"
The mini bar was devastated by his criticism.
Sesshoumaru sat on the bed and sulkingly ate the clodhoppers and Toblerones, washing them down with assorted mini bottles of liquor because he didn't trust mineral water (you mine minerals, not drink them!).
Mm mm!
Breakfast of champions!
Sesshoumaru then set about putting on the suit and making himself look pretty. Of course the pretty part didn't take any effort on his part; nature had done all the work for him already, all he had to do was reap the benefits.
He then grabbed his wallet, his keys, his lucky charm, two coupons for a dollar off sundaes at Dairy Queen, and several other VERY important objects and slipped them into his pockets. All this would make anyone else's pockets very bulky. This was Sesshoumaru however and Sesshoumaru's pockets Do. Not. Bulk!
At twelve–thirty there was a knock at his door. Sesshoumaru went to answer it looking damn snazzy in his tuxedo. At the door, there was Inuyasha and Kouga, or Beevus and Butt-head as Sesshoumaru thought of them. (Inuyasha was both by the way – Sesshoumaru didn't waste his time thinking about Kouga enough to give him a nickname.)
They were dressed in tuxedos as well. Inuyasha wore a pale violet cummerbund and bow-tie. Kouga also wore these accessories, though his were baby blue.
In his tuxedo, with his silver hair carefully tamed to cascade down his back, Inuyasha looked like a fairytale prince. Albeit a fairytale prince who was going to rip his bow-tie and collar if he wasn't careful. He kept tugging at it with a pained expression on his face.
Inuyasha and Kouga had both competed in the Olympics twice like Sesshoumaru. They had each decided to concentrate fully on their specialties – Inuyasha competing in the slalom and Kouga in the GS. The first year, Inuyasha had been fourth and Kouga had been seventh in their respective events. Just this year though, Inuyasha had risen to take the gold and Kouga had taken home a silver. If you asked Kouga, though, he was the real winner since he'd moved up six rankings and Inuyasha had only moved up four.
Sesshoumaru personally thought the calibre of the Olympics had simply gone down, allowing them to place.
"Brother, is something wrong?" he asked Inuyasha. "Your collar got too starched?"
"It's choking me!" he said in growing panic.
Kouga kept checking and re-checking his ponytail.
"It still feels weird to me," he whined. His ponytail was lower than normal. So rather than looking like an extremely buff teeny-bopper, he looked rather suave. He looked sophisticated and worldly, the kind of man you'd see drinking expensive wines, or touring museums. In reality, Sesshoumaru doubted Kouga could even spell museum.
"Come on, we've got to go," Inuyasha barked at Sesshomaru. "If we're late, Kagome will kill me. Then Sango will kill me. Then Ayame will kill me. Then Rin will kill me."
"Late?" Sesshoumaru almost-frowned.
"You didn't forget, did you?" Kouga demanded him in horror.
"No," Sesshoumaru lied. "Of course not."
He wasn't too concerned. If it hadn't meant enough to remember, it probably wasn't too important.
"You're not wearing your cummerbund!" Kouga accused, wide-eyed with horror. "Or your bow-tie!"
Sesshoumaru glanced back to where they lay on the bench.
"They're pink," was all he said.
"But you have to wear them," Inuyasha fretted. "You have to or the tux... I dunno it'll fall apart or something."
"Fall apart?" Sesshoumaru asked skeptically.
Kouga nodded emphatically.
"I asked Ayame what cummerbunds were for," he assured Sesshomaru. "She said that the cummerbund is like the pin in a sniper rifle, it just holds the whole thing together."
Sniper rifles?
"Really?" Sesshoumaru wondered, looking back at the cummerbund and bow-tie.
"Kagome told me if I don't wear my cummerbund, my pants'll fall down," Inuyasha piped up.
"And you believe these women?" Sesshoumaru drawled.
"Why would they lie about that?" Kouga asked. "It's just too pointless not to be important, you know?"
He made an excellent argument.
Sesshoumaru sighed heavily but put on the cummerbund and bow-tie, growling at their pinkness. He tried to comfort himself by thinking of them as sniper rifle pins.
"C'mon," Inuyasha growled. "Oh, for god's sake."
He undid his bow and unbuttoned his collar.
Now he was a sexy fairytale prince.
The three of them hurried along, and by hurried, Sesshomaru walked at a languid pace which drove Inuyasha and Kouga crazy because they were under the impression they should be running around like a bunch of ninnies.
Outside there was a small cluster of paparazzi. Beyond them was Ayame leaning against her 'baby.' It was a jaguar as red as her hair.
She wore a formal dress. She wore a simple sheath of blue silk it looked like. Over that she wore a sheer white fabric as the outer dress. The outer dress had greater volume and floated delicately.
All in all, it looked like a delicate white dress frosted with just a pinch of blue. On Ayame with her red hair it looked like fire and ice.
Ayame had somehow become rather classy.
That girl Sesshoumaru had met six years ago had grown into a confident sports manager with good taste and a good head for business. She was the kind of woman who deserved a sophisticated man. Such a pity she liked Kouga.
Still, Sesshoumaru respected her business savvy if not her choice in boyfriends or friends (Inuyasha).
"Inuyaha, fix your bow, c'mon," Ayame commanded, ducking into the driver's seat of her 'baby.'
Kouga slipped into the passenger's seat beside her. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru sat in the back.
Sesshoumaru was relieved someone else was driving. It would give him more time to try and remember where they were going.
Everyone seemed nervous, Sesshoumaru alone was a pillar of calm.
"Stop playing with it, Kouga," Ayame said tersely, never taking her eyes off the road.
"But it feels weird," Kouga whined.
"If you play with it, it'll fall off, I meant out, I mean you'll break it... you know what I mean."
"But it's mine," Kouga pointed out. "I should be able to do whatever I want with it."
"Kouga," Ayame said briskly. "As your agent, I'm commanding you to stop playing with your hair. As your girlfriend, I remind you that your hair and everything else belongs to me. If you pull out your ponytail, I'll clock you."
"Can't I put it just a bit higher?" Kouga asked tentatively. "I mean, just a bit?"
"No," Ayame insisted.
"Inuyasha's not fixing his bow," Kouga pouted.
Ayame looked up in the rearview mirror.
"Inuyasha, fix your tie," she commanded in annoyance. "For goodness sakes, it's only one day. You guys can play dress up for one day!"
Sesshoumaru watched this entire procession with only vague disinterest. He was wondering if he should get a manicure. Just a nail trim and a polish. Nothing FABulous.
"Sesshoumaru isn't complaining," Ayame finally burst out in annoyance.
"Sesshoumaru is used to Rin picking his clothes," Inuyasha muttered sullenly. He fastened his collar but couldn't figure out how to use the bow-tie. He left it untied around his neck and pouted. "Sesshoumaru would just go naked if Rin didn't dress him!"
Sesshoumaru would have objected to this, except it wasn't entirely untrue.
But it had only been the once, and he'd simply been too lazy to do his laundry, when left with the choice of dirty underwear or nudity, Sesshoumaru had selected nudity. It seemed like the right thing to do for him.
Then Rin had stopped by and after her screaming stopped, she'd immediately left to buy him new clothes. They'd had dinner arrangements that night and the restaurant, a fancy french place, had a strict dress code.
Sesshoumaru had been game for seeing if he could still get in, but Rin had informed him that that was one experiment that was never going to be conducted.
They pulled up in front of a large old looking building. Lots of dressed up people were hurrying inside. A white limousine was parked right in front of old stone steps.
Sesshoumaru wondered who'd ridden in that.
He gradually realized that this old building was a church. Everyone who was dressed up must be hurrying inside for the service or mass or happy-fun-prayer-time, or whatever it was called.
"Come on," Ayame urged. "We need to get inside or Rin'll freak. She's organizing this whole thing herself."
Sesshoumaru was dismayed; had Rin discovered religion?
He hoped she wasn't going to get born again, or something like that. Was he going to have to start speaking in tongues?
"Hey, Kagome!" Inuyasha called, he broke away from them and ran up.
Sure enough Kagome, dressed in a white gown very similar to Ayame's only Kagome's tinted lavender instead of blue, met Inuyasha with a resigned expression on her face. She carried several bouquets of flowers in her arms.
Before Sesshoumaru, Kouga, and Ayame could catch up with them, Kagome began wildly waving Inuyasha away.
She clearly wanted him to leave her alone.
Sesshoumaru instantly liked the girl better and his opinion of her intelligence rose another 2.74 notches.
Sango jogged up from the parking lot, she wore a white light blue frosted dress like Ayame. Only Sango held her's up high around her ankles, revealing the black pedal pusher pants she wore beneath the skirt.
"Inuyasha!" Sango hissed. She made a frantic motion for Inuyasha to leave Kagome alone.
Sesshoumaru instantly liked her better too.
Sango and Kagome said some things to Inuyasha too low for Sesshoumaru to hear.
"Um, let's hold up for a second," Ayame decided, pulling Sesshoumaru to a stop before he was able to make his way to Inuyasha.
Sesshoumaru allowed himself to be pulled to a stop.
Sango and Kagome shooed Inuyasha away, gesticulating wildly.
"...not supposed to see!" Sango snapped in annoyance.
"Fine, fine," Inuyasha growled.
"Inuyasha, stop harassing my Sango," Miroku scolded. He walked up in a black tuxedo with a baby blue cummerbund.
Miroku caught his friend by the arm and dragged him along.
"Let's all go inside and find a mirror so Inuyasha can fix his tie," Miroku called out cheerfully. "Ayame, I think the girls need you."
"Yes," Ayame agreed with a faint exhalation of breath she'd been holding. "Yes, I'm sure they do!"
"You've got everything in hand?" she asked Miroku.
"We've got it under control," Miroku promised.
Ayame hurried off to join Kagome and Sango.
Miroku led Inuyasha, Kouga and Sesshoumaru inside.
Sesshoumaru was a little surprised to see all of Inuyasha's friends here. Had they all discovered religion or something?
Miroku hurried them to a small little room. They entered one door, but there was a second door on the other side of the room. There was a mirror hanging up.
Miroku immediately ushered Inuyasha to the mirror and ordered him to tie his bow-tie. Miroku had to talk him through the process since it seemed Inuyasha had no idea how to tie his bow-tie, and Miroku refused to tie it for him.
It made sense that Miroku knew how to tie a bow-tie to Sesshoumaru. After all, Miroku, after years in school was almost an astrophysicist. Since it was such an intellectually demanding job that required vast knowledge, it only made sense that he would need to tie bow-ties.
You can't study the universe unless you can tie a bow-tie.
It was a fact.
He and Sango were of course going as sickeningly strong as the others. Sango had become a psychologist, or a psychiatrist; one of those people who dealt with crazies. Sesshoumaru just called them shrinks to avoid correction. Truth be told, he found Sango and Miroku to be rather boring professionally. All they did were intelligent things, nothing exciting like ice dancing or skiing.
Sesshoumaru got bored so he opened the second door and poked his head out. He was surprised to see the actual church part of the temple. People were quickly filling up the pews.
An older man, clearly the priest by his garb, walked into the room from the first door.
"Are we ready, boys?" he asked kindly.
They all shared a look amongst themselves and nodded.
"Then proceed," the priest urged.
They filed out. They arranged themselves close to the altar, anxious.
Miroku asked something casually about a ring.
This caused an instant excited reaction in Inuyasha and Kouga. Inuyasha began dancing in place and grew increasingly frantic.
Someone was really going to have to explain to him that Lord of the Rings was not actually a documentary and that Hobbits weren't actually a religious minority.
Sesshoumaru smiled faintly at the memory.
Some of his fondest memories of his childhood was reading his little brother the classics, and lying to him.
Yes Inuyasha, as long as you believe and think happy thoughts, you can fly. For fairy dust, just substitute glitter! Now leap off the back shed and fly!
Hey Inuyasha, why don't you go wait in that wardrobe until Narnia finds you?
Elves used to be real Inuyasha, but due to deforestation, they lost their homes and their culture succumbed to external pressures and elves have since either died or have interbred so far with the rest of the population you can't tell they're elves.
Go ahead, stick a fork in the electrical socket. It won't hurt a bit!
He'd actually gotten grounded for that.
How was he supposed to know the one time Inuyasha listened to him, it would be that?
A boring but familiar song – it was a probably a hymn or something – began. It felt a bit like a lullaby.
Sesshoumaru smothered a yawn and closed his eyes. He'd just have a nice little standing up nap. He'd mastered this technique years ago. It was wickedly useful to avoid boringly long ceremonies.
Like weddings.
Funerals.
Graduations.
Olympic ceremonies.
Sesshomaru felt someone step up beside him. He was none too gently turned around. He cracked one eye open.
"What are you doing?" Rin hissed at him.
"I'm doing my ceremony sleeping thing," he answered calmly. "Give me the highlights later."
He closed his eyes again.
Rin dug her sharp elbow into his side.
"Ow Rin!" he scolded.
"I can't believe you," she growled, shaking her head at him.
"What's the problem?" he sighed.
He sensed the priest was trying to smile genially was wanted them to shut up.
"I sleep through everything," he reminded her.
Rin glared at him heatedly.
"I'm not letting you sleep through our wedding!"
"Say what?" Sesshomaru demanded her. "Our what now?"
Rin flinched like he'd struck her.
The people in the pews shifted.
"Is something wrong, my children?" the priest asked with a tight smile.
"Yeah, not now pal," Sesshomaru replied, waving him silent. He focused on Rin. "Wedding? What?"
Huge salty tears filled her large eyes.
"You forgot, didn't you?" she sobbed, dropping her bouquet. She started to cry. Kagome, Ayame and Sango hurried forward in their almost matching dresses to comfort her. "I know you're hopeless about remembering things, but I was certain you'd at least care enough to remember this!"
Sesshoumaru sensed everyone was glaring at him.
"I might forget birthdays, anniversaries, Inuyasha's middle name and Jaken's existence," Sesshoumaru began in his defence. "But I'm pretty sure even I would remember my own wedding!"
Rin sobbed and hiccuped, she looked up at him from between her hands.
"Furthermore," Sesshoumaru was on a roll now. "Since when are we engaged? I'm pretty sure there's a ring involved or something."
Rin looked a bit hesitant now. She held up her left hand.
On her left thumb she wore Sesshoumaru's college ring. She'd always liked it.
"Didn't I lose that to you in a game strip poker?" he demanded.
Rin nodded.
"And wasn't it that or my underwear?" he added.
She nodded again.
"That was two years ago," he reminded her.
Rin nodded. She began playing with the ring, twisting it around her thumb. It was too big for any of her other fingers.
"I decided to take it as my engagement ring," she admitted.
Sesshoumaru frowned, he wasn't sure that was actually allowed.
"We weren't even dating," he remarked, his memory of the past few years returning to him.
"Yes we were," Rin insisted. "Remember all those fancy restaurants we went too?"
He did indeed.
Rin had made all those reservations, just picking out what he should wear and telling him when to pick her up.
"I thought you just like french cuisine," he admitted.
"I kissed you," Rin sounded like she was about to cry again.
"You only did that to gain the upper hand in situations and torment me," he scolded.
Rin nodded, admitting to that fact.
"So how long have we been a couple?" Sesshoumaru had to ask.
"About a year after we started ice dancing together," Rin informed him.
"When exactly was I going to be informed of this?" he wondered.
Rin winced and looked sheepish.
"I wanted to see how long it took you to clue in," she confessed. "It was like a bet with myself... I...I... well I guess I'm so used to organizing everything, with help from Jaken, and I guess in all the chaos and confusion of our second Olympic appearance and organizing the wedding before all our friends had to start training again I guess I just... forgot to tell you."
Sesshoumaru looked around. Now that he understood, he finally knew why Ayame and Sango were wearing identical blue frosted dresses. They were bridesmaids. Kagome's style of dress was the same except for the colour, her's was violet frosted, she was the maid of honour.
Kouga and Miroku with baby blue cummerbunds and bow ties were grooms men. Inuyasha with his violet cummerbund and bow-tie was the best man.
Sesshoumaru finally looked at Rin's dress.
It was a full skirted and delicate wedding dress. It had a few ribbons and bows, but nothing obnoxiously frou-frou. It was tinged pink to match Sesshoumaru's own cummerbund and bow-tie.
"I... I'm sorry," Rin murmured, ducking her head and swallowing hard. "I think I got so wrapped up in my own game of not telling you anything outright that I just forgot that you don't know."
Rin did seem to take perverse delight in making his decisions for him.
"I'm just really sorry," she said in a breaking voice. "If you w-want you c-can ju-just... just go."
Sesshoumaru sighed heavily.
This was all far too much drama for his taste. He slid his hands into his pockets.
"I'm up, I'm dressed, Brother's in a bow-tie," he murmured taking stock of the situation. He gave a casual shrug. "Ah hell, let's do it."
"What?" Rin gasped, looking up at him.
"Well, everyone's here," Sesshoumaru pointed out, waving an unenthusiastic hand at the pews. "The preachy man's probably already been paid. We've rented the space." He shrugged again. "You've got the honeymoon all figured out, I assume?"
"Niagra falls first," Rin began. "Canadian side of course. After that we're going to fly to..."
"Do I have to do any thinking?" Sesshoumaru interrupted. "For any of this?"
He waved a hand at the general wedding atmosphere.
"None," Rin replied.
"Perfect," he nodded his approval.
Crisply he snapped his fingers.
"Jaken," he barked. "Bouquet."
Jake shot out of nowhere to scoop up Rin's fallen bouquet. He gave her a new and undropped one and then vanished back to where he'd come from. Sesshoumaru turned to the priest.
"Preach on, preachy man," he urged with hand wave.
There was a tense minute of silence.
It annoyed Sesshoumaru.
"Look I had to use my mini-bar to be here on time," he snapped. "You'd better believe I didn't do that for nothing!"
And so the ceremony progressed. Choppy at first, but then with progressing smoothness as everyone settled back into the comfortable wedding swing of things.
..:V:..
It was during the wedding feast that Sesshoumaru finally remembered something important.
He elbowed Rin to get her attention.
"I was going to take you to Dairy Queen," he began. "I have coupons. But since we're in the wedding mood. Here."
He pulled a small box out of his pocket (this was the VERY important item). He opened it with one hand to show her the glittering engagement ring within.
Rin stared at it wordlessly.
"You were going to ask me..." she stammered with trembling lips.
"I was going to wait until we were professional and actually had money," Sesshoumaru admitted. "But you've gone to all this trouble and all..."
With shining eyes, Rin grabbed Sesshoumaru and dragged him into a cheer-rousing kiss.
..:V:..
"Oh for the love of!"
Sango leapt up from her table. She wasn't complaining at the kissing that Sesshoumaru and Rin were doing and had been doing for the last few minutes. It was actually cute, if you tried not to think about it being Sesshoumaru.
Rather she was annoyed because her cell-phone had begun ringing again. It was the fourteenth time it had gone off that day. She'd been ignoring it all along because it was one of her patients, but this was getting ridiculous. She was never going to get a chance to enjoy her time off unless she could get him to leave her alone.
She found a quiet corner outside the dining room to take the call.
"Yes, hello?" her voice was harried with frustration.
"Dr. Sango?" her patient sobbed. (She encouraged a lack of informality with her patients as many were afraid and intimidated by authority figures.)
"Yes I'm here," Sango sighed.
"I called before, why didn't you answer?" he sounded betrayed.
"I told you, I'm out of town at a wedding," she reminded him kindly. She softened her voice. Yelling at him would only aggravate the situation.
"Some people were mean to me at work today!" her patient wailed suddenly. "And I know He put them up to it! Then I saw a police car on my way home from work so I tried those breathing exercises you told me to do but that didn't work." He broke off and sobbed helplessly here. "And then there was this horrible display in the window of La Senza on my way home and all the memories came flooding back. When I got home my answering machine said I had a message, but I didn't. Someone just called and hung up. It was Him again. I know it was Him." He cried a bit. "When are you coming home, Dr. Sango? If you're not here He'll get me, I know! He's watching me! He's always watching me."
Sango pinched the bridge of her nose. This was a full blown headache she couldn't deal with it. She wished for the umpteenth time that she was a psychiatrist rather than a psychologist so she could prescribe him some drugs. She resolved that she'd get him put on some sort of medication as soon as possible.
"Are you coming home soon?" he whimpered. "I just really need someone to talk to."
"Just be strong a little while longer," she urged him gently. "I know you can be. I promise, I'll be back Monday, Naraku."
A/N (Super Ceech) And there you have it! Thank you so much for writing this, Spacey, and thank you so much for reading King of the Hill, everyone! Now we can all say a final farewell (I hope this gave you any form of closure you may have been somehow lacking). Au revoir everyone – see you in In the Shadows and any other one-shots I may happen to write!