Chapter 6

"I just can't believe that you would do this, daddy!" Kagome's voice was bordering on hysterical.

"Kagome…" Her father's voice sounded tired. "Think of it from my point of view-"

"I will not! What time period are we living in, Dad? An arranged marriage? Are you serious? Please tell me this is some kind of a joke."

"Kagome…I'm an old man. I just want to see you happy."

"I know, daddy." Kagome heaved a sigh. The initial anger was seeping out of her as her father continued speaking in the same measured, exhausted tone.

"Sesshoumaru is a good man. He is strong, hard-working, and from what the ladies at the office tell me, not hard to look at either. You know Kagome, your mother and I had an arranged marriage."

"You…you did?" Kagome was blown away by this admission. Her mother and father were two of the most committed people she had ever known, but they had always been vague about how they had met.

"Yes." His voice sounded warm with nostalgia. "Your mother's parents just wanted a better life for her. I concede that times have changed, Kagome. But your mother and I grew to love each other dearly. You and Sesshoumaru are more alike than you can yet see. I want to be able to leave this world knowing I left my child happy…" His voice was plaintive, agonized. He wanted her to tell him he was doing the right things.

Bu there it was again. Another person who didn't think she was happy.

But didn't I do what you expected of me, father? Didn't I do the right things?

"What if I am already happy, father?"

"If you are Kagome, call it off. I'm sure I can find another way of assuring this merger, but if I can't, I wouldn't sacrifice you for it." His voice was regretful.

"…alright. I'll have to think about it, daddy."

"Take as much time as you need. Don't be hasty."

"I love you, daddy."

"I love you too, darling. Goodbye."

"Bye." Kagome hung up the phone and buried her head in her hands. The ring Sesshoumaru had given her glittered on the bedside table, and she turned her back on it. The night had been a blur of senseless trivialities after she had answered him.

The phone in her hand rang again, almost giving her a heart attack. She picked up automatically.

"Hello?"

"Kagome!" Sango's voice crackled for a second over the other end, sounding distraught.

"Hey, Sango."

"Kagome, what the fuck is going on? I just saw the newspaper this morning."

"Wha-What?!" Kagome squeaked.

"What's this bullshit about you marrying Sesshoumaru Taishou? Is this true?"

"I- yes- maybe…It's in the paper?" Kagome's heart was racing dangerously fast. She felt like she was careening down a slope, unable to brake.

"Yes! What do you mean, maybe? Kagome, why didn't you call me?" Sango sounded hurt. Kagome sighed.

"It…just happened last night. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't believe it's in the paper already…they must have been plotting this."

"Who?"

"My father and Sesshoumaru."

"Kagome, you don't want to marry him." Sango said matter-of-factly.

"I already said yes." Kagome breathed, more to herself than to Sango. Her hesitant agreement had been a greater catalyst than she had intended, and now events had been set irrevocably in motion. She had never felt more trapped. She was dimly surprised to register than silent tears were trailing down her face.

"Kagome, you were just telling me how much you liked Inuyasha! Do you really think anything is going to happen if you're engaged to his brother? Please tell me you're not going to go through with this."

"I'm…not sure." Her voice broke slightly. She berated herself and cleared her throat.

"That's exactly why you shouldn't do it! If you're going to get married, you have to be sure about it!"

"I don't know why he put it in the newspaper Sango. I said yes, but I really need to think about it. I'll talk to him." She said in a rush.

"Kagome, do you need me to come over? Are you ok?" Sango sounded mollified and slightly worried.

"No, Sango. I have to get to work. I'll call you again soon."

"Ok, babe. Take care of yourself."

"You too. Bye." Kagome hung up again. For the first time in ages, she didn't want to go to work. She dreaded the reactions of her secretary, her co-workers. She could easily envision their sickly sweet congratulations, their simpering smiles. She fell back on her mattress with a muffled thump, staring at the dull white ceiling.

Even now, her strongest desire was just to see Inuyasha. But she feared that confronting him would be the worst of all. Yes, he was hesitant, but he had kissed her the last time she had seen him…and now she was engaged to his brother. It seemed like the lowest betrayal. She wondered how she had turned into such a horrible minx. She picked up the phone a third time, gritting her teeth and deciding.

"Higurashi Ent. How may I direct your call?"

"This is Kagome Higurashi. I'm not feeling well today. I won't be coming in to work."

Sesshoumaru's ring was heavy on her finger as she walked through the labyrinthine passages of the city streets. It had been agonizing to put it on, but she reasoned she had better wear it, if only as a reminder.

She was only mildly surprised at how easily she remembered the way, even though she had only been there once.

The small, affluent building was at odds with its surroundings. New York City was a gritty, smoky place. The dichotomy of dirty cobblestones leading to the gleaming door made her think of how Inuyasha was always at odds with his environment. What had initially repulsed her now seemed endearing.

She was disgusted with herself, because she felt safer, seeing Inuyasha now. There was a rift between them, a barrier she was sure he wouldn't break; after all, it wasn't just any man to which she was now engaged, it was his own brother. She rang the gilded doorbell with her left hand, the ring glinting teasingly in the mid-afternoon light. She waited.

He was at the door in a moment, and she caught her breath. He looked as though he had just risen. His silver hair was tousled silk, his eyes hooded and tired. A pair of black silk pajama bottoms hung low on his hips, and a fitted white wife beater clung to the muscles of his stomach and chest. He was slender, but fit, and Kagome tamped down the sudden, mad desire to lift his shirt and run her hands over the sculpted planes of bone, muscle, warm skin…

"Oh." He said. "It's you." His voice was flat and inflectionless, and for a moment he reminded her of Sesshoumaru.

"Inuyasha, I-I wanted to talk to you." She said helplessly, suddenly at a loss.

"What for? There's nothing you could have to say to me." His eyes were cool his tone measured. Kagome, mortified, realized her vision was blurring with tears. She looked at the ground, hoping he hadn't seen. She had been so careful applying her makeup this morning, too.

"Hey." A small note of panic. "What are you- Shit, don't cry or anything." He reached forward, putting a steadying hand on the small of her back and drawing her inside.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have come here."

He didn't answer, but led her through the vestibule and another winding hallway, into the kitchen. He wordlessly poured her some coffee, then took a mug for himself, and sat down across from her.

"Okay. You wanted to talk, talk."

She looked up at him, and there it was again, the way his gorgeous, feral eyes didn't seem to fit in this domestic room, the sinews of his arms taut against the checkered tablecloth. She wiped discreetly at the corners of her eyes, trying to erase the evidence of tears without doing further damage to her mascara.

She cast her eyes around the kitchen, searching for something to fix them on while she spoke. There was a small window at the back that looked out at a pathetic little garden. It was a miniscule spec of green in a place overgrown with steel. An intrepid dandelion was reaching hungrily for the sparse sunlight.

"I guess you've read about Sesshoumaru and me," she began, a shaky laugh escaping her involuntarily. She wondered it she was coming off as a crazy person. Probably. "I didn't know it was going to be in the paper like that…my best friend called me this morning, pissed I hadn't told her first."

Inuyasha was looked into his coffee, his face inscrutable. She hurried on, worried she'd lose her voice again if she kept looked at him, at the dip of his collarbone and the gleam beneath his eyelashes.

"It's my dad. He and Sesshoumaru talked without my knowledge, and they want this marriage to be the representation of our two companies coming together. I-I said yes because I had to." She looked into her own coffee, the murky depths quivering slightly, ripples catching the fluorescent lighting. A loud noise startled her, and some of the hot beverage splashed her hand, but she didn't register the flash of pain.

Inuyasha had stood up abruptly, and his calm façade was gone. He looked murderous.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Kagome. You don't have to do anything. You made a decision, so don't try and blame it on other people. If this is the way you want your life to be, if you want to live for other people, don't drag me into it! Why did you even come here, huh? To give me some half-assed explanation of how other people are forcing you to make life-altering choices?" He laughed. "What, did you think I'd care? Do you really think you're anything more than another conquest for me, another stupid slut to use? Did you think you were the one using me?" He barked a condescending laugh. His knuckles were white against the sides of the tabletop.

Kagome sat, stricken, for a moment. Her heart was beating uncontrollably at the volume of his tirade, and the flush across his cheekbones and the tension along his slender body. The veil was over his eyes again; she had no idea how he felt, but if his words were any indication, she had only one course of action. She stood to leave, but he had already crossed the room to stand before her.

For a moment she looked into his eyes and time froze. For a moment she knew…something she hadn't know before…the heat radiating off of both of them enveloping her, his face was the world because she was so angry at him. She was furious, gloriously mad, she wanted to hit him and hurt him, have him hurt her, she wanted to hate him but he was so beautiful. For that second the very space between them was poised like a cat ready to spring, pregnant with a thousand conflicting emotions, a million bad ideas.

He grabbed her shoulders roughly, crushing her to him in a kiss hard enough to bruise.

She struggled against him for a moment, and he pulled away, only to throw her hard against the opposite wall. China rattled in the cabinets, and Kagome's head cracked against the paint. She saw stars as he grabbed her wrists, holding each one down with his own hands like manacles on either side of her, taking another brutal, searing kiss, his teeth scraping her bottom lip. His whole body was pressed against her, holding her immobile, and she arched against him involuntarily. He swallowed the desperate sound she made, his sharp nails digging into her wrists.

His knee divided her thighs, pressing her flush against him even closer. His hands were everywhere, beneath the thin material of her respectable blouse, calloused against the silk of her bra. His thumb flicked across her nipple, and he broke away just as she moaned, a desperate, wanton sound, affixing his mouth to her throat instead.

"Inuya-yasha…please…." She didn't know what she was begging him for; to stop, or to double the force of his ministrations. He paid her no heed, slipping the bra strap off of one of her shoulders, nipping his way across her collarbone, down her arm.

She moved her hand to brace herself against the wall. She felt him stiffen, suddenly cold.

It was over too quickly, and he jumped away as though she was dirty and contagious. He was looking at the ring on her finger, and for a moment he looked scared and vulnerable, but then he smirked.

"See baby, if I wanted something from you, I would have just taken it." His chest rose and fell with irregularity. Kagome took a deep, wrenching breath and looked down at her disheveled attire. She straightened her clothes in stony silence, her hair over her burning face.

"Thank you, Inuyasha." She said finally, proud that her voice remained steady.

"For what?" He looked incredulous, and his self-satisfied sneer almost wavered.

"For convincing me that I've done the right thing."

And with that, she left his home in righteous indignation for the second time, the streets of the city swallowing her like prey, a maze of sidewalks onto which her smart shoes beat a rhythm which could replace conscious thought in the tumultuous recesses of her mind.

The dimly lit bar cast long, neon-tinged shadows across the lone occupants. It was a remote hole-in-the-wall, practically empty at 2 a.m. even in the city that never slept. The two men who sat at the bar on two rickety stools were talking quietly. One was hunched over morosely, the other animated.

"So, Inuyasha, are you going to tell me the real reason you dragged me here at this time of the morning? Not that I'm not always willing to go drinking."

"Figures. You depraved bastard."

"I'll deign to ignore that on the grounds that you're probably projecting. Is it your brother again?"

"That asshole." Inuyasha stated with indifference, his expression unchangingly depressed. He took another shot, motioning at the bartender to keep them coming. The portly man behind the counter just raised an eyebrow, pouring him another.

"Not him, then. A woman, perhaps?"

"Keh." Inuyasha's brow furrowed, and he drank the shot placed in front of him immediately. His head swam for a moment as the alcohol burned its way down his throat.

"Ah. So it is a woman. I didn't think you had it in you to care about just one. I thought," the man said, in long-suffering tones, "that I was teaching you well the ways of bachelorhood. You hardly want to go through anything like what happened with Kikyo again, do you?"

Inuyasha just leveled a drunkenly murderous stare back at him.

"I'll thank you not to mention that succubus to me again, Miroku." He said matter-of-factly, and then promptly fell off of his bar stool.

His companion, a slim man with dark hair tied back rakishly in a ponytail, grinned for a second, biting back and laugh and what was undoubtedly a snide comment before helping Inuyasha back up. The bartender stood awkwardly aside, seemingly torn between continuing to serve his only paying customer, and cutting off someone who was obviously too inebriated to remain seated. Inuyasha swayed on the stool for a second before seeming to steady.

The bartender relaxed, looking only marginally guilty as he poured them both another round. Miroku glared pointedly at him, staying Inuyasha's hand as he reached for it.

"I think you've had enough."

"Keh. What do you know?"

"I know how heavy you are, for one thing, and how unappealing carrying you back to your apartment sounds right now."

"Lazy bastard." But Inuyasha made no move to reach for the alcohol again, staring at it through hooded eyes instead, as though inquiring as to how such an innocent-looking beverage could do this to him. Miroku's expression took on the first sign of seriousness he had shown all night.

"Inuyasha, who is this girl, really? I haven't seen you this torn up since Ki-..since you-know-who."

Inuyasha sighed. He buried his head in his arms, the room spinning in a decidedly disorienting manner. Miroku put a comforting hand on his shoulder, a concerned expression on his face, all signs of laughter gone. Inuyasha mumbled something into his arms.

"What was that?" Miroku asked kindly.

"She's my brother's fiancée."

"Sesshoumaru?" Miroku choked on the sip of water he had been taking.

"Do I have some other brother I'm unaware of, idiot? Yes, him!"

"You can't possibly be entertaining the idea of going after this girl, Inuyasha. I know you've enjoyed…difficult conquests in the past. But this is different. If they're engaged, he must really love her." Miroku looked slightly amazed. "I didn't think the indifferent bastard had it in him."

"He doesn't. It's arranged, part of a business deal. And you're right, this is different. She isn't like other women."

Miroku looked worried. Privately, he observed that Inuyasha had said the same thing, only once, about one other woman. He was reliving a time when it had not been as easy to tell Inuyasha to go to bed with the next hourglass-figured bleach-blond gold digger, and he'd feel better in the morning. Inuyasha could see through those women easily, but strong women, calculated women…he didn't understand them. This women, aside from belonging to his brother…she had entered into a marriage for business reasons, and was precisely the kind of girl who Inuyasha didn't need.

"Inuyasha, no matter the circumstances, she's agreed to this as much as your brother has. You have to avoid her, and you have to behave as you should when you have to see her." Miroku told him.

Inuyasha's liquid eyes looked suddenly, immeasurably sad. He stared at his untouched whiskey for a moment.

"I know." He said. Before Miroku could stop him, he reached out and drained the glass. Then, to his companion's amazement, he slapped money on the bar, stood up, and walked steadily out into the black morning.

AN: So I've noticed with all the settings I've been choosing, my characters are heading towards raging alcoholism if this keeps up…sorry!

I know some people resent it, but reviews are really what keep me POSTING this story. It's not that I'm writing for them, but I can easily write this story for myself; I take the effort to post it online for FEEDBACK. So your reviews are very much appreciated! Tell me what you like, what works for you, what writing seems weak, what you would like to see more of.

Thanks!