Welcome to Paper Cranes. Like Somewhat Happy Endings, this story was spawned by a period of stress, difficulty with Wild and profound irritation with certain prolific stereotypes. And Like SHE, one specific fic spurred me into a writing fervor. The story was Lost Mate by Shellbabe. I did try to contact the author as I did Fortunesque in reference to my last fanfic, but received no reply. I debated posting back and forth for a while, but ultimately decided that, so long as I gave credit where it was due, made transparent the lack of plagiarism taking place, that posting this should be all right.

So, if you know Shellbabe or any new accounts used by the same person, please reassure him/her that I did not steal or copy and paste any part of her/his creative product.

For the same purpose, I acknowledge Rumiko Takahashi for her creative product as well, for without it Shellbabe, Fortunesque and I would have few less stories in the world.

WARNING: This fic is filed under DRAMA before ROMANCE and rated M, should not be read with the intent or hope of finding fluff. Moreover it should be obvious that content contained herein is not for the faint of heart, immature, or obnoxiously close-minded/narrow-minded. Things will happen that you may not agree with or enjoy. If you feel that this first chapter is a deal breaker for you because of the content, then don't read any further. DO NOT review to tell me so, you are basing your opinion and reaction on a fraction of the content included in this story. This chapter only covers a short span of hours in a story that traverses several continents and covers many years of experiences. I can support the behavior of my characters throughout this story having consulted with a rape and PTSD survivor. This will not be an academic essay by any stretch of the imagination. The point is to highlight that the situation exists and can be moved on from. That everyone is entitled to react and feel how they do. My very helpful support and friend has expressed frequent frustration with others telling her how she should feel instead of allowing her to find her feelings on her own. Not everyone falls apart immediately after a traumatic experience, sometimes they hold out for years as subtle symptoms come to light before breaking down and realizing they have a problem...This is called PTSD or delayed PTSD. It can precipitate from combat situations, physical trauma, emotional and mental trauma, child abuse, spousal abuse, domestic violence, and rape. It can go undiagnosed for years due to a lack of observation from intimate friends and family and prevailing denial from the victimized. Many survivors just want their life to continue on the way it started under their own power. Many want to forget they ever experienced whatever bad thing interrupted their life. They internalize it without addressing the trauma itself. Just because someone doesn't have a violent reaction immediately following a bad experience doesn't mean they're immune to the fallout.

due to continuing abuse of anonymity and guest reviewing all such reviews shall be deleted from here on out.

Under the Influence

"Are you sure you'll be alright taking him up by yourself, Kagome-san?" Hojo called after her slightly stumbling figure. "I'm sure we can get somebody to come down and get him or something. We aren't responsible for getting them into their apartments, just to their doors."

"Hojo-kun," Kagome grumbled back at him as she braced herself to shift the large body of their latest drunken charge to a more manageable position. "He lives alone. Who's going to come down and collect him from the van?"

It was a well-known fact that playboy son of multi-billionaire Taishou Hiroyuki viciously guarded his privacy. The paparazzi had learned that lesson years ago when the heir had melted four cameras of various intruders and a hand that was still holding its camera up to the elbow. The freelance photographer had attempted to sue Taishou Sesshoumaru for medical expenses and the cost of a new camera and wound up blinded by the inu's retribution. Sesshoumaru spent a week in lock up, being a legal juvenile at the time, and the camera man lost his livelihood.

For a brief period of time nobody attempted to take personal pictures of the Taishou heir without his express permission.

Luckily, the silver inu didn't care about pictures taken in public. So his reputation as the worst sort of cad was also common knowledge. A youkai of his ilk was exceptionally prone to sleeping around and drinking and just generally making the rounds of the young and unruly.

This wasn't the first time a safe ride had been called for Taishou Sesshoumaru, college senior and public bachelor of the year. Tokyo U had seen a spike in student applications the year he'd started to attend that had nothing to do with the school's prestigious reputation. And not all of those extra applicants had been female.

Higurashi Kagome had nothing to do with that sort of thing. She'd managed to get in on a full scholarship despite the exceptionally heavy competition. And she made a point of having very little to do with the circles the esteemed Taishou frequented. Kagome was at Tokyo U for one thing. And that one thing was turning out amazingly elusive.

She was set to transfer out at the end of the semester to finish her degree overseas and this was to be her last duty night with the SafeRides program. In fact, her shift was officially over fifteen minutes ago and as such she had volunteered to lug the drunken body of Taishou Sesshoumaru up to his penthouse apartment before heading back to the house she shared closer to campus.

"Surely we can get a doorman or landlord to take him upstairs." Hojo mumbled. Hojo had been her partner on a number of these long SafeRide nights and they'd become something rather like friends. Her only problem with him was his penchant for underestimating her and wanting to step in and help her at the first sign of difficulty.

She wasn't helpless. Overcoming adversity was her only proof of achievement. Curtailing her efforts before she could either achieve her goals or fail in the attempt kept her from marking her progress and growth. She liked Hojo well enough, but he often left her feeling smothered. It had been the subject of many discussions, most of them preceded by another failed attempt to get her to agree to date him.

Kagome didn't have time for a relationship like that, and if she did, Hojo would be the last she would choose. He was too clingy, like static, and too likely to be demanding. She really was all about her studies right now.

"Why should they have to be disturbed by his irresponsible drinking habits when we're already here and I'm capable of taking care of it myself?" Kagome huffed dragging the stumbling youkai towards the door being held open by a googly-eyed doorman.

Taishou-san wasn't quite falling down drunk, which she was thankful for, but it was a near thing. Normally, this was a building where guests had to be signed in by the tenant before being allowed into the elevators, but she doubted Taishou-san had the acute motor ability required to sign anything. Luckily, the attendant a the desk was obviously aware of her cargo and capable of realizing exactly the same thing that she already had. She had no intention of staying, and if she did, it would only be to insure the illustrious Taishou-san didn't die from his own recklessness. Even so, he made the attempt to get her name for the log books. "Miss," the attendant called her over to the desk, forcing the little female to drag the male who was head and shoulders taller than her completely out of her way to the elevators. Certainly not her ideal Thursday evening. She'd rather be home studying.

"Taishou's apartment please," Kagome declared almost imperiously. She had absolutely no intention of leaving a name. The SafeRide organization discouraged this kind of involvement for a number of reasons and she wasn't inclined to leave a written record of her presence here for a number of those same reasons. A soused youkai was likely to have any of a select range of reactions upon sobering up. One was to hunt down anyone to have seen them in their unruly, vulnerable state and eliminate the witnesses. Kagome had no desire to wind up a statistic.

"Can I get a name, please?" The attendant valiantly inquired despite his increasing fright as the youkai draped over her shoulder raised his dilated eyes to glare at him. Taishou-san, top floor apartment, had a formidable temper, drunk or sober, and had gotten more than a dozen building attendants and doormen fired from their posts on the spot.

"Why do you question me?" the drunken inu demanded, speech slurred and exaggeratedly drawn out to compensate for impaired neuron activity. Or so Kagome figured. Alcohol was a depressant after all. Then again, maybe the effects on youkai mental capacity were different from those in a human brain. It certainly took more of it to leave a youkai in a drunken state than a human because of differences in the inherent metabolic rates. Either way, it was clear he hadn't realized she was there and practically holding him up on his feet.

"I was questioning the young lady, Taishou-san," the attendant answered in a slightly squeaky, terrified voice. It was career suicide not to answer Taishou Sesshoumaru whatever his sobriety level. "I need her name for the registry before she can go up according to the rules." The uniformed man was starting to shake visibly as he clung to the rules. The rules were his only lifeline at this moment as most of the building's policies were in place because of Taishou-san's exacting standards.

To the attendant's undying relief, Sesshoumaru was no longer paying attention to the weakling behind the counter, instead his focus was on the fact that there was a young woman standing under his arm. One he couldn't ever remember fucking, which at this moment, seemed incredibly important.

"Miss," the attendant rallied one last time as the terrible Taishou's gaze freed him from the terrifying scrutiny of those golden eyes. He would definitely be having nightmares tonight and no doubt all of them would feature those eyes in a starring roll. "A name?"

"SafeRide," Kagome answered bluntly with a solid look that spelled out to even the fearful attendant that there would be no other answer given.

"Surely that is not your given name," Sesshoumaru slurred in an effort to flirt.

Kagome snorted as the fumes of his ingested alcohol ghosted across her face in an unpleasant cloud. She was certainly not impressed by his drunken charm any more than she had been by his very public and sober efforts to get into the pants of their economics professor at midterms. He probably wasn't even aware that she was in that class, which wasn't a major surprise. The class had over sixty other students in it. The only thing that kept her from being completely repulsed by him was the fact she was well-aware he hadn't done it for a better grade.

Taishou Sesshoumaru was only the second best student in the class. A fact that had been established prior to his sleeping with the professor. And he did sleep with her, Kagome was certainly aware of that after she'd accidentally overheard said professor crying when he dropped her flat the next day. Toki-sensei hadn't deserved that. Good-looking, greatly sought after or not, nobody had the right to treat people the way Taishou Sesshoumaru had a tendency to.

Kagome sighed as the attendant finally buzzed her through to the elevators and she pushed the call button. Sesshoumaru continued to make passes at her as they waited for the elevator to arrive. She ignored almost all of them while pondering what classes she had to study for. Finals were officially supposed to be held next week, but Kagome had arranged to take nearly all her exams early so that she could pack up and be at her new school in time for summer classes. The only one left to make arrangements for was, coincidentally, that economics class she shared with the drunken sot leaning unnecessarily into her.

"Tell me, are you really as eager to get me curled up in my apartment and buried in you as you seem?" the lascivious inu nearly purred into her ear, his effort was arrested by a quiet burp, ruining the effect. Not that she was effected anyway.

"I'm certainly ready to drop you off on your couch before I go home," Kagome scoffed quietly to herself as the elevator car dinged open to let them on. Unfortunately, she wasn't quiet enough. She should have known better than to express her repugnance vocally where he could hear her. She may have been used to being overlooked and ignored by the majority of the crowd, but there was no excuse for letting an inu know she didn't find him appealing.

With a snarl and a sudden hard shove to the middle of her back, Kagome found herself stumbling into the metal faced interior of the elevator and right into a mist of Taishou Sesshoumaru's recently sprayed toxins. Her eyes teared on coming into contact with the mist of his making and her throat burned as her surprised gasp drew the vapor into her lungs. Her skin began to tingle as the chemical cloud began to settle over her exposed arms and shoulders making her wish she'd kept her jacket on instead of shedding it earlier in the evening.

A moment later she found herself trapped against the chilled wall of the car with a drunken youkai pressed to her front.

A slightly detached clinical compartment of her brain observed that he'd released a poison specific to inu youkai courting in effort to lower her inhibitions, making it easier to seduce her. The burn of her lungs and irritation in her eyes would shortly pass as the toxin began to really set in, shutting down her pain receptors for the rough ride ahead. It wouldn't make her decide to have sex with the inu rubbing himself bodily against her front, but it would make her exceptionally aware of the muscles moving under her hand where it splayed against his chest in a pointless effort to push him away. It would send all of her sensations to the pleasure receptors in her brain, making physical ecstasy impossibly easy to achieve. No, the chemical wouldn't make the decision for her, for no chemical could, but it would make her incredibly sensitive to external stimuli. He would guarantee that stimuli was the type to lead her directly into temptation.

Clinically observant Kagome sighed in resignation, well aware that she might as well enjoy the experience, as he was definitely going to be very persuasive about letting him have his way. Especially since his claws were already down her loose fitting jeans and rubbing her through her panties.

Sensitive, virginal Kagome gasped breathlessly as the inu pressed his hot mouth over the peak of her straining nipple trapped under her tank top. The heat of his breath transmuted into a stream of liquid need that flowed from his mouth straight to the point where his clawed hand was manipulating her previously untried pleasure button. She thrashed mindlessly against the chilly wall, whether to bring on more of his touch or lessen it, she wasn't certain. Not that it mattered, he certainly wasn't going to let her get away now.

Through it all the elevator steadily rose ever closer to the youkai's abode. The glowing indicator lights went ignored as they slowly swelled in magnitude with each passing floor.

All Kagome could focus on was the increasing desperation to reach...something.

When the elevator reached its peak, so did Kagome as the vapor and Sesshoumaru's rubbing sent her body into an explosive orgasm that set her flying higher than the elevator car would ever go.

She came back to her senses with a sharp pain only to find herself bent face first over the arm of his sofa with Sesshoumaru buried cock deep under her skin. Her body burned with the reality of unused muscles being forced aside to accommodate a previously unknown intrusion and naturally her muscles tensed up defensively as a reflex.

A displeased growl rumbled from his chest and into her body via her recently invaded core.

That suddenly detached portion of her brain figured he was displeased that she had even felt the pain of her breached hymen. But then, there was no real way for him to know she had a slight natural immunity to youkai toxins. The problem was, in his inebriated displeasure, he could overdose her. Not that she could do anything about it if he did and it certainly wouldn't kill her. But it could cause permanent brain damage, such that would make it impossible for her to feel any kind of pain at all. That kind of damage would most likely lead to a fatal situation some time in the future.

Now wasn't the time for her to worry about it as Sesshoumaru yanked a claw full of her hair around the nape of her neck and forced her head up at an awkward angle from her bent position until her back arched out in a slightly disconcerting manner due to his refusal to allow his phallus to slip out of her since he'd already managed to successfully invade her flesh. He cupped his free hand in front of her face and released another dose of his mist then abruptly shoved himself deeper into her core. As was his design, she gasped her surprise, inhaling a copious amount of this latest dose of toxin.

Then he walked her in the direction of his bedroom half determined that the little female would never feel whole unless she was wrapped around his marauding sexual organ. Had Kagome still been coherent and privy to his thoughts, she would have observed that it was this masculine pride that drove him to break so many hearts. Luckily, hers wasn't on the chopping block.

Weak sunlight was what brought Kagome round the next morning, her brain fuzzy from the lingering effects of his toxic doses and her body raw and achy with overuse. She couldn't remember exactly how he'd used her or even how much and she probably would never remember all of what happened. All she knew for sure, was that he had certainly enjoyed her. Or so she assumed since he was still buried deep between her legs, though he, and his penis, were clearly asleep. Thank goodness.

Her eyes rolled and fluttered against the painfully bright fingers of light attempting to tickle her corneas through her lids. Carefully, Kagome opened her eyes to squint at the panoramic window smudged with what she could only assume were skin oils, her skin oils. Apparently he'd had her up against the window at some point. Such a mortifying thought. Thankfully he had no near, high rise neighbors and no paparazzi photographer was crazy enough to point their cameras in any direction close to Taishou Sesshoumaru's apartment.

With what felt like a physical version of a groan, Kagome carefully eased herself off the phallic organ snugly held intimately under her skin. The move caused the sleeping inu to temporarily tense his arm around her waist before settling into a deeper sleep. The minute his arm relaxed, Kagome crawled out from under it and swiftly attempted to find her clothes.

She was more than done here, thank you.

Her tank top was a lost cause as all that remained was a mass of tattered shreds. Her bra had apparently suffered a similar fate or so she assumed when she collected the pile of mangled wire and stringy cloth. Kagome rolled her eyes. Youkai did tend to be a little rough in their sexual relations, a hold over from their animalistic instincts. Clearly this translated to torn clothing.

Kagome was only glad that she hadn't woken up bloody as opposed to just sore. The hunt for her pants lead her to the front door where she found them closed under the door of his apartment. They'd obviously barely made it out of the elevator before impatient claws tore through enough of the waist to drop them like useless debris. She was beginning to be glad Taishou-san had never had any steady lovers as his destructive tendency would soon lead them to bankruptcy replacing clothing casualties of his libido.

She hadn't a clue as to where her panties had got to, perhaps rendered unrecognizable in the inu's quest to conquer her flesh. If she hadn't been in such a hurry to get out of the place Kagome would have made a more dedicated effort to locate them as the last thing she wanted to do was leave him a way to find her by scent.

In the tiny little room that existed between his front door and the elevator, she found her jacket from the night before obviously having fallen off after being loosened in his effort to fondle the tender spot sending up white flags between her legs. Its presence saved her from borrowing any of his clothing. Tying her pants up with a makeshift belt created from the scraps of her tank top, she donned her jacket and pushed the button for the elevator.

It was as she was waiting in front of the polished doors to the elevator that she noticed the glowing mark forming on the swell of her breast. Up until that moment she'd been able to ignore her appearance in effort to forget her discomfort of having little between her naked body and the world. With no shirt and no bra, she was forced to wear her jacket and pray that nobody thought much of the fact she had it zipped all the way up. It was as she was zipping it up and checking her reflection to assure herself that she was decent that the glow caught her eye.

The glowing mark was a harbinger of doom, the end of all her plans. It was a mark of the claimed. The wealthy Taishou Sesshoumaru, heir to the vast business empire that ranked third in the country, had taken a mate. She'd always expected to read about it in the newspaper someday or to overhear her classmates lamenting the great inu tying the knot with some female – or male. Taishou-san wasn't known to be too picky about his bed partners. They were male as often as female, or so she understood. Never had she thought to be this close to the travesty.

When this little glowing tattoo became common knowledge, her life as she knew it would be over. The mate of a Taishou was expected to have little else to occupy her mind. She would be forced to attend galas and banquets. She'd have to quit school and conform to the life of a high society matron.

She could see her life's goals evaporating into thin air.

Kagome glared at the mark and growled deep in her throat. Like hell she was giving up everything she was aiming to accomplish in her life because a drunken youkai bastard couldn't be bothered to keep it in his pants and out of her life.

She would just have to prevent this little nightmare from becoming public affairs. And she could do it, damn it!

When the elevator opened to allow her escape, Kagome had a firm plan in place. The first stop of her day was a trip back to the house she shared with her good friend Sango to do a little research.

No stuck up, reckless, cold-hearted youkai was going to mess up her life. No way.