Govern Our Conditions

It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions. -William Shakespeare

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any of its characters.

A/n: Ummm…when did this happen? When did I become fan enough of the Sesshoumaru/Kagome pairing to write a whole fic about it? My true-blue InuYasha fan friends are cringing somewhere. What can I say? This is an addiction that I enjoy way too much to go back now.

Chapter 1: Three Things Cannot be Long Hidden

For the infant Kagome, life was a series of images, sounds, and feelings that were, each day, new puzzles to be sorted out until she started to recognize things. She had started to become familiar with faces, three in particular, when her world faded away to just one image. The white spot against the black was all the babe knew.

Wait, she began to see blue lights, specks dancing around her, and she was a toddler, not an infant. She was falling into the blue and it tugged at her arms, legs, head, stretching her to make her bigger. The white spot with its surrounding black was trying to get inside her.

Kagome sprouted big, blubbering tears because the white spot had black claws that were ripping at the little child that was her inside the young body. She wanted it to stop; the painful sense of it all was too powerful. From the outside, she gave a most agonized scream, but inside, she dug deep within the self within to find a new light. The pink light was softer than anything she had ever felt before. The white spot and encompassing black had not seen the pink light; Kagome pulled on it.

Now the tortured scream came from the black that bled behind the white spot. Young Kagome felt its claws retract as it was pushed from the her inside by the pink light, and out into the blue light with dancing specks. Its scream was drawn out, only to abruptly fade as the white spot against the black vanished.

The pink light hid itself back inside the deepness the little girl had pulled it from.

All around her, blue light died out, taking its tiny orbs with it.

Kagome was left alone in darkness, and she felt so weak. But she could also feel damp earth beneath her small legs. And if she reached out, her touch met cold stone. However, all her senses were beginning to only register one thing: tiredness. She wanted to push herself to look up, regardless of what her body was telling her.

Suddenly, there was softness covering all of her. Was the pink light back? Kagome felt wind instead of light. She opened her eyes against the softness she had instinctively shielded blue eyes from.

Four year old Kagome managed to catch a glimpse of two burning moons encircled by starlight before she let go of everything else.

Surprisingly enough, for a kitsune, the little boy was being much too loud. Kagome tried not to let it get to her, he was still a kid after all, but their mission required stealth, as defined by quiet. Eavesdropping was not done in noise. Her grumbles of frustration began to add to the kitsune's shuffling sounds.

She decided to risk it, "Shippo, be quiet. Can't you transform into something a little bit less noisy?" The next thought she did not say out loud: 'Though, I thought the fox was one of the stealthiest creatures in existence.' "They'll hear us coming," the black-haired girl continued, "if you don't stop fidgeting, and then what's the point?"

"But Kagome," Shippo whisper-whined, "it's his youki. It's so powerful; and I'm scared."

Kagome took pause, stopping her movements, to look back at her young friend. One glance and she decided to make a complete about-face, rotating and sitting down before the boy. He only had to look into her blue eyes for a moment in order to see what he needed to see. Shippo took a running jump into his caring friend's arms.

"I'm sorry, Shippo. You're just a kid and I'm bringing you into all this. We can go back if you like."

Green eyes met blue once again. But the small fox shook his head.

"It's okay, Kagome. I'm not that scared when you're near. Let's keep going, and I'll try to be quieter."

"Oh Shippo," she smiled as she hugged him close. "I don't care what anyone else says, you're braver than you think."

Her smile made him smile. "Let's go, Kagome."

"Right."

Staying perched on her shoulder, Shippo was nearly silent when they started to move again. The young woman crawled quietly through the halls toward her destination. She may have been slower than normal, but she was stealthier for it. Kagome knew she had made progress when they were six and a half feet from the door they were looking for and no one had come looking for them. It was enough to make her let out a sigh of relief.

'Okay,' she thought. 'Almost there.' And she looked up. She wanted to take her sigh back now.

Across the hall, about six and a half feet from the other side of the door, was a presence. Actually, there were two presences, just like Kagome and the young demon. It was probably not a good thing.

Still being as quiet as possible, Kagome addressed her counterparts. "Kikyo? Inuyasha? What are you two doing here?" Her nearly identical counterpart was completely silent in response.

But the inu-youkai muttered back, "Keh. Just wondering what my old man is up to. Same as you, I'm guessing."

"So you're spying!"

"So are you!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

Even though the back and forth felt heated, the two quarrelers remained embattled in hushed tones. The pairs did get closer and closer to one another. Everything became second to the words exchanged so that none of them really realized that they were right in front of the door now. (Well, Kikyo probably knew exactly where they stood, but was too busy experiencing the verbal spar to put in a thought of her own.)

Shippo let his feelings out though. "Idiot."

BONK! Inuyasha switched to physical expressions at this point.

Kagome got angry and let out a furious, "Shhhh!", which came out much louder than anything anyone had done or said before. Everyone suddenly recognized where exactly they were.

The two males on the other side of the door heard the muffled scrambling as the noisy spies tried to make clean getaways, not realizing that the jig was already up.

The deep chuckle of the silver-haired inu-youkai would have developed a sense of fear and terror in the other male occupant of the room if the other male occupant had not known the inu-youkai as well as the other occupant did. That grumbling laugh was an inspirer of trepidation. But the human male was an old friend, and as such, he did not shiver; he laughed instead.

"Those kids are far too young to be eavesdropping on you or I, Toga-sama. Not with your magnificent power and my keen sense of the mystical and the magical!" exclaimed the old man. "Why, if they were still out there, I'd give them the greatest lecture on the powers of…"

At his companion's impassioned antics, the Lord of the West felt his laughter grow and he began to tune out another long-winded explanation he recognized was in the making. But when he realized the time, he cut off the monologue in order to make an exit.

"Higurashi-san, thank you for meeting with me today. But I must return to my home so that the preparations can begin in earnest. I trust you will complete your duties here in time."

Startled from his reverie, the old man quickly scrambled for a reply. "Of course, milord. I will have Kikyo and Kagome prepared to meet you within the week."

"Good." The great demon stood, as did his old friend, they both gave courteous bows, and the Lord of the West began to leave. "I will see you then. Please, bring your whole family for the ceremony."

"Yes, Toga-sama, I shall."

It was at dinner that the announcement was made. Inuyasha, surprisingly, had not left with his father, but had stayed for the meal, and was too busy scarfing down bits of fish to realize that the old man had put his own utensils down. Kikyo noticed, however, as did her younger sister Kagome. The two young women stopped eating so that they could search their grandfather's closed eyes. Young Souta, at the end of the table glanced at his two sisters, at his suddenly serious grandfather, and at his quiet and calm mother across from him. He too set his bowl and chopsticks down. Quiet, little Kaede, sitting next to her mom, watched to see what would happen next.

The eldest of the Higurashi's looked up after crossing his arms. All of a sudden, he spoke.

"As you know, our family lands have been under the protection of the Western Lord for centuries. We have maintained a peaceful and lasting relationship with the Great Dog Demon himself for many years as well. It is to your father, Inuyasha, that we owe all of our loyalties. As such, it is now time to honor the bond between the Higurashi's and Toga-sama."

Kikyo, not one for many words, shared a look with her sister. "What's that mean, Gramps?" asked Kagome. Shippo, from atop his human friend's shoulder, was utterly silent.

"It means, Kagome, that you and your sister Kikyo must now cement the ties between our two families that were drawn up at the moment of your births."

"Gramps?" replied a confused Souta.

With the mention of Kikyo's name, even Inuyasha was quickly at full attention for the conversation.

"Is this what you and my old man were talking about today?"

"Ah, Inuyasha, yes. This concerns you as well. You see, in order to express our family's loyalty to yours, it was decided by the Lord of this house that we would give something precious to your family."

"Lord of the House?" Kagome wondered, her confusion only growing with the continuation of this conversation.

"Yes, Kagome." It was her mother who looked into her daughter's blue eyes and answered. "Your father helped decide all of this when you were born. Though it concerns both you and your older sister." The youngest, Kaede gazed up at her mother.

Kikyo finally spoke. "Something precious?" she said.

Appearing quite putout at all the interruptions to his otherwise lengthy speech, the elderly man harrumphed in frustration and tried to bring things back under his control. "As I was saying, in order to prove that we will forever be loyal to the Lord of the West, my late son reached the conclusion that you, Kikyo, and you, Kagome, will be tied to the two sons of Toga-sama. And in return for our signs of loyalty, you two would be offered the eternal protection of the inu-youkai family. You see, it all goes back to the days when…"

All Hell started to break loose; the others rapidly ignored the old man because their anxiety was beginning to pour out. Inuyasha wanted to get loud and vocal, but Kikyo was quelling him with a look for now. Souta was just glancing back and forth between the two black-haired girls and the white-haired demon across from them. It was Kagome that had to try and sort out the suddenly acute confusion.

She almost leapt out of her seat in her haste to break her grandfather's tangent concentration. The kitsune had to clutch tighter to her wavy black hair.

"Tied? What do you mean tied? Are we getting married, Gramps?"

Abruptly realizing he had other things to explain before he could go on, Higurashi-san stopped to gaze into his granddaughter's clear eyes.

"Oh no, my dear girl. It's not marriage that will tie you to the two sons of Toga-sama; it is a less permanent arrangement than that. In a ceremony a week from now, Kikyo will be tied to the eldest son, Sesshoumaru-sama, and you, Kagome, will be tied to Inuyasha as their Fuku Ryoji. This means that you will act as their deputy consuls, offering them guidance and helping their distributions of power until they do find mates of their own."

"So we're just stand-in brides, then?!"

"Yes and no. You have the same sort of powers and responsibilities as their future mates will have, but you are not as bound to them as a mate would be. And who knows, maybe one day you will be mates. In the past, it has happened a few times that the Fuku Ryoji of a demon lord became his or her mate in the end."

The hanyou who had been steadily growling louder and louder at the table burst into a standing position. He looked down at the elderly man with fists clenched in anger. He was not about to let all this happen.

"Bullshit," Inuyasha spit out. "I'm gonna mate with Kikyo and no one else! So I ain't gonna have anyone but her be this Fuku Ryoji of mine, or whatever. And there's no way I'm gonna let that bastard Sesshoumaru anywhere near Kikyo or Kagome!"

"Inuyasha," Kikyo tried to warn.

"There's no way I'm letting my stupid old man get away with this!"

The older Higurashi sister strode over to her friend and took his shoulder in pale hands. She gently pushed to get him back into his seat at the table. Kikyo's calming presence next to him got the hanyou to at least stop yelling.

"Inuyasha, if this is the will of both my father and yours, then we cannot go against it. Doing such would almost be the same as declaring war against Toga-sama. We have to go through with the ceremony."

"But Kikyo…"

"Please, Inuyasha. Everything will be fine. It is not the end for us."

'But Kikyo…' Kagome's thoughts were racing at her elder sister's words. Her sister's voice was saying one thing, but her dull eyes were saying another. 'What if you're wrong? How can you be so calm?'

Back in her room, the young woman tried to remain relaxed as she prepared for bed. Six days had passed since the earth-shattering meal of the Higurashi home. Inuyasha had returned to his father that night, enraged to the point of almost physically attacking his father, but Kikyo had managed to convince the young demon to promise not to bring up the issue with his father at all. If it were not for her powers of persuasion held over the hanyou, Inuyasha might have been killed long ago. That meant that tomorrow was the ceremony of the Fuku Ryoji. And that meant that tomorrow, Kagome would be bound to act as a temporary "mate" to her best friend, while her sister would become bound to the brother of the man she actually wanted to mate with. It was all too heartbreaking for the middle Higurashi sister.

Kagome let her eyes roam from the mirror she sat in front of to her pillow at the center of the room. A little fox demon was curled up on the pillow; her friend was fast asleep with his face buried in his soft tail. He had been waiting for her to come to bed, but she was just too anxious about the next day's events that she had missed her chance to doze off with him. With a sigh, she went back to brushing her hair in front of the timeworn mirror.

"I can't believe father decided such a monumental thing for us when we were just kids," she whispered to herself. "I mean, I know we have to show respect to Toga-sama's family, but to practically marry us to his sons? Well, I guess none of us ever knew that Kikyo was going to fall in love with Inuyasha."

A few more strokes of the brush and another sigh.

'I would never let this happen to Shippo,' thought Kagome, having glanced back at the kit.

She set down her brush once she was finished, her black hair now shining smoothly in the night.

"I can't believe she'll be stuck to Sesshoumaru. If only she could somehow be tied to Inuyasha instead."

Kagome took one last look at her reflection.

And that is when she finally smiled for the first time in six days.

Then she quickly ran off to Kikyo's room. She did not even bother to knock on her sister's door, but instead, slid it open without haste. She bounced over to the older girl sitting in front of a similar mirror to the one she had in her own room.

"Kagome?" questioned Kikyo, seeing her nearly identical sister's reflection in the mirror. "What are you doing out of your room so late? We should both get some rest before tomorrow."

Ignoring Kikyo's inquiries completely, Kagome smiled into the mirror. "Can you get a note to Inuyasha before the ceremony tomorrow?"

"Yes, but why?"

"I think I have figured out a way to make sure that at least most of us are happy. A way that doesn't mean war."

"Kagome, what on Earth are you talking about?"

Nearly the entire household of the Western Lord was gathered in the main hall for the ceremony of the Fuku Ryoji. Of course, at the head was the Lord himself, along with his current mate, the human hime, Izayoi, and his first mate, the female inu-youkai, Tsuki. Kneeling in front of them, though one was fidgety and the other completely still, was Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. Everyone was absolutely quiet nevertheless.

The doors opened to a new elegant and noble sight.

The human Higurashi clan was dressed in the finest of outfits as they entered the Western Lord's personal domain. The elderly Higurashi, as Lord of the House, was leading two young maidens in pale blue kimonos of the finest silk. Behind them was the Lord's daughter-in-law, leading the two youngest children of the Higurashi family. The two kids, a young boy and an even younger girl were holding up the trailing veils that covered their older sister's pale faces. Everyone soon took their rightful places.

The Higurashi females stood in front of the sons of Toga.

All of those gathered, demons and humans alike, went absolutely still as the Great Dog Demon began the ceremony that would bind the four young people at the center of the room. His words went rapidly and before anyone was really prepared, it was time for the final lines.

"Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, you must know ask of these females for their consent to this bond. Ask them if they will be accepted to you as your Fuku Ryoji."

Sesshoumaru, as the eldest of the two brothers, looked to the maiden in front of him to ask first. His voice was calm, even, and cold as he spoke. Nothing but his demonic aura glittered in his eyes. "Do you bind yourself to me as a sign of loyalty to which I offer you my everlasting protection? It will forever tie our houses. Do you accept being mine?...Fuku Ryoji."

Inuyasha quickly followed his older brother, repeating the same words to the black-haired girl in front of him.

Both of the two sisters responded at the same time, "I accept…"

"…Inuyasha-sama."

"…Sesshoumaru-sama." Kagome looked up for the first time, and her veil fluttered to the floor.

It all happened so fast that neither human nor youkai could react preventively. Sesshoumaru grabbed her by her throat, claws starting to press into delicate flesh.

"Inu…yasha," Kagome choked out.

In a fury, the eldest heir to the Western Lord coldly declared, "I was promised the older female! How dare this human girl attempt to bind herself to this Sesshoumaru instead!"

Blue mortal eyes met his gold immortal ones.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, please," her words were hoarse. "My intent was not to trick you. I only had to keep Kikyo from being bound to you."

With a menacing growl, his claws began to draw blood. "Why?"

Kagome, still trying not to get herself killed, shot a glance at Inuyasha, who had leapt up when his brother attacked his best friend. The hanyou was barely being held back by her older sister. Kikyo's intent was probably to prevent more bloodshed. She had to trust that Kagome knew what she was doing. All the other lords were standing as well. Were they waiting for her death or her answer?

"It is not my secret to tell," she admitted when she once more looked directly into her executioner's eyes.

Finally, someone else was going to attempt to end this chaos without the cost of a human girl's life. This someone knew the only true outcome to all of this. "Sesshoumaru! Enough!" called out Toga to his son. "You must not harm the human female. As the ceremony is complete, you two are now bound. At this point, there is nothing anyone, neither I nor you, can do."

Enraged, but duty-bound to his father, and honorable to a fault to his people's traditions, Sesshoumaru swiftly retracted his claws. The young woman dropped to the ground hard. Sparing none a second glance, the callous demon left.

It could have been atrociously silent had it not been that the lovely female inu-youkai began to laugh.

"Milady?"

Tsuki smiled down at the crumbled Kagome. "Not many can create a fool of my son. I am amused to the point of full-blown laughter. Let her stay; maybe she'll be good for Sesshoumaru."

Slightly perplexed by his former mate's behavior, Toga replied, "She must stay, without royal punishment, but only because the binding prevents her from being outright executed." Such ominous words made the Higurashi girl cringe. "For now, my mate and I will discuss this with the rest of the Higurashi family. Everyone but the three bound must leave this room."

Rather than look any of her family members in the eye, especially her mother, Kagome kept her head down as the entire gathering made regal exits. She could feel eyes on her, but she never looked up. Even when the place went deadly quiet after everyone but two others had gone.

"Kagome!" Kikyo rushed over to her sister, reaching for the wounds on her neck.

"Are you alright?" asked Inuyasha, his white ears pointed back.

Feeling their profound concern for her, she could not help but gaze back at them. "I'm fine," she assured.

"And I've decided that I'll accept any sort of punishment Sesshoumaru feels I need since I'm the one that tricked him. I intentionally created an important tie between us that he wanted nothing to do with. Yet, with this tie, it also means that he can't hurt me too much because I have to work for him.

"But you know what? I hardly care. All that matters is that I prevented him from getting bound to you, Kikyo. The best part about all of this is that you two get to be together."

"Kagome…" said Inuyasha. Kikyo hugged her sister close and Kagome pulled herself tightly to her mirror image.

"Please, let's just deal with all of this mushy stuff later. I have to go find Shippo. I have no idea where they put him once we got here…He's probably really scared…" Silent tears escaped blue eyes as she let go of her older sister and stood up. She tried to carry herself in a dignified fashion walking out of the room. But she left them with one of her patented Kagome Higurashi smiles before she dashed away. "Good Luck!"

"Be careful, Kagome."

Two and a half weeks. And he had not tried to kill her, only because her status as Fuku Ryoji prevented against such a death. Neither had he tried to physically hurt or torture her, only because this sort of senseless violence was beneath him. But he refused to talk to her, and when he did it was to abuse her title and never use her name. He ignored her mostly. And she would have normally been just fine with that, but she had a job to do, and it was opposite her nature to not at least try with people.

Having been mulling over the last few weeks for the last hour or so, the blue-eyed girl was startled to hear a tap at her door. The gentle sound broke her from her reverie and she wanted to berate herself for jumping at such a small noise.

"Umm,…yes?" she responded.

An even smaller voice came from the other side of the door. "Kagome-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama has requested that you meet him in the visitor's hall right away."

"Requested? Probably more like, 'demanded'."

"Shhh, Shippo," Kagome scolded the young kitsune. "Please don't get us into even more trouble." She turned back to the girl at her door. "Thank you for this message. Please tell Sesshoumaru-sama that I will be right along to meet him."

Probably relieved to have successfully delivered her message, but not excited at the prospect of returning one, the nameless servant girl hurried off to get her duties done so that she could go back to the quieter chores that she felt posed no risk to her life.

"I wonder what Sesshoumaru-sama wants with me?" pondered the Fuku Ryoji.

"I doubt it's anything good," Shippo assumed.

"We don't know that for sure. She said I was to meet him in the visitor's hall, after all."

'Maybe he's finally going to let me do my job.'

"You stay here, Shippo. I'll go see what's up."

'Is he going to finally accept me as his partner?'

Kagome was not going to waste another minute. She hastily checked in the mirror once to make sure she was presentable; her curled black hair was still neatly pinned. Then she waved goodbye to her little friend so that she could speed through the hallways toward the visitor's hall, where, likely, a less than amused inu-youkai was waiting for her.

When she entered the room with a graceful bow to announce her presence, Sesshoumaru seemingly stared right through her. She recognized that he did that often.

"Ryoji, do not prolong trivialities. Stand at your position and be silent."

'So that's a "no" on the finally accepting me as a partner thing.'

She did not run to the spot near his side, but she also did not walk at her normal pace. Best not anger the beast.

Nearly seconds after she had entered the room, a new presence joined the two of them in the room meant for greeting official guests of the Lord of the West. In walked a confident young man with two slightly less confident men trailing behind him; they all wore brown pelts of various sizes and shapes. The blue-eyed woman suddenly stood a little taller.

"Wolf-youkai," exclaimed Kagome in half-hushed tones. So she had already broken one of Sesshoumaru's rules and her recent engagement of the day had just begun.

"Sesshomaru-sama." The black-haired male youkai stiffly nodded as his sign of respect, while his two companions bowed low so that black and blue eyes met wood. "I am Koga, of the Yoro Clan. And according to some sort of rule between our clans, I have to come to you in order to get a little help around here. See, my clan is in the midst of a war between the Bird of Paradise demons, and I hate to say it, but they've almost succeeded in kicking our asses. Now I could try and take them all on myself but, I'd rather not have to lose more of my brothers and sisters to these bastards."

Standing next to the powerful inu-youkai, the human woman was working hard to not show any outward signs of her shock. She could hardly believe such seemingly disrespectful words were coming out of the wolf apparently asking help from someone stronger than himself. But she also recognized that, despite his tone, Koga really was deferring to Sesshoumaru in a deferential way because the wolf-youkai maintained lowered eye-contact and wasted no time will empty flattery, he went right to the point.

However, she was more startled at the word that came out of her lord's mouth.

"No."

Taking a step forward, but inclining her body toward Sesshoumaru, Kagome could not inhibit herself from becoming a physical part of the conversation. "Sesshoumaru-sama, we have to help them! What if more really do die? Can you just live with that?" The demon being questioned was not pleased with the interruption.

"The weak perish. It is life, human." He had actually turned to look at her when he said this.

"I refuse to accept that. I think we should help them."

"This Sesshoumaru will not offer his aid."

"Well then, I'm going. Come on, Koga-san; I think I will fight with you."

So far, even at the mention of his name, the leader of the Yoro Clan could only watch the exchange between demon and human grow in force. The girl had put herself in front of him, facing Sesshoumaru and giving her back to Koga.

"You cannot."

"Well, as I am now your deputy consul, not just some lowly 'consul' as you so often think, I get to have a little say in what you do or do not do. But I have always had control over what I get to do or not do."

"This Sesshoumaru does not need your advice."

Dammit, she would get the last word around here, even if it was just for today. This was her first real chance at being useful; she was not about to let a stubborn dog bar her way.

"Look, Sesshoumaru-sama. My name is Kagome, not 'human' or 'Ryoji', and I am your Fuku Ryoji. That means I am sort of like your mate; I am your partner. You can hate me or not, but do not let your anger get in the way of us doing our jobs. It is the honorable thing to do to help Koga-san and his clan."

His golden eyes refused to blink.

In the stillness, Koga the wolf demon smirked. "I'm going to make Kagome my woman someday."

A/n: The chapter title comes from the quote: Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. –Buddha. Okay, please forgive me if my interchanging of Japanese and English terms irritates you. I had a little trouble at first deciding if I was going to stick to purely English or use just the Japanese terms for certain things. I decided to use both because it sort of lets me use the terms as synonyms for one another. I shall try to be as clear as possible with my writing though. If people get confused, let me know so that I can make the proper corrections. Also, as I am Western, things will seem more Western as far as some actions and dialogue. However, I am researching and learning as I go some not so Western cultural mechanisms. Try not to belittle my naiveté too much. Alright, I'll get back to writing the second chapter. On another note, I will only update this story once a month because it takes so long to write each chapter and because I have other projects going on. This does not mean that I will update at the same time every month though; it could be the last day of the month, or it could be the first. You'll just have to wait and see. (This is probably the longest author's note I will ever write.)

Be seeing you on the other side of the rain,

-ROMS