A Long Way Home

Summary: Kagome Higurashi, daughter of a wealthy banker, finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom by a notorious smuggler. Now, the only way she can escape is with her father's cooperation and the aid of...her doggy-eared kidnapper?

Warnings: Language, violence, implied rape, implied prostitution, mild sexual situation (non-consensual), OOC, very mild limeyness

Miscellanies:

Word Count – 18818

Post Date – August 6, 2014

Arr! Ye be warned!

The Executioner's Dance

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The sweat on her palms felt sticky against her ears.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Even with her hands as mufflers, the maddening sound continued in her head.

Letting out a clenched sigh, Kagome willed the dripping to go away. She needed to focus right now on mentally preparing herself for meeting the 'big man' around here.

Inuyasha said earlier that he would be back for her later, and she could only guess that she would be meeting the man who had orchestrated all this. In her attempt to not let the fear and anxiety go to her head, Kagome tried to consider what he would do to her. It crossed her mind that he might use her to make some sort of ransom video for her father like she always saw on TV or, she thought with a wince, he might even beat her.

'Oh god, what if he wants to torture me?!' She thought with panic. A beating she might – might – be able to handle, but she could hardly watch PG-13 violent scenes, much less take some thug's torture. With a suppressed whimper, she looked anxiously at the door again, knowing that Inuyasha would be fetching her any second.

With a deep breath, Kagome clenched her fists in determination. 'No! Pull yourself together!' She furiously snapped at herself. 'Panicking isn't going to help,' she reasoned. If she didn't give this Naraku man any reason to hurt her, then she would be okay, right?

Slightly calmed by the optimistic thought, Kagome slumped tiredly against the cell wall. 'How could it only have been two days? It feels like I've been here forever.' She was disgustingly dirty, stiff as a surfboard and bored out of her mind from being locked up all day. So far, all she'd been allowed to do was stay put in the cell and think herself to death. Plus, trivial as it sounded, she hadn't been able to check her phone in two days. She always had the irrational fear of everyone who called or messaged her ending up hating her if she took too long to respond, and this was really pushing the limit. At least now, something was happening to get her home, right? 'It's okay. I'll probably be back before I know it.'

Drip.

Kagome flinched as the sound of water registered again. She glared hatefully at the line of water creeping along the ceiling and oh-so-rhythmically torturing her as it dropped to the floor. 'I swear, if you drop one more time, I'll – '

Thankfully, before Kagome was forced to come up with a threat for the water on the ceiling, her cell door opened.

Inuyasha walked in, and before she could react to his presence, he grabbed her wrists and tied them together.

"Come on, wench. Naraku wants to see you."

And she was angry again.

"My name's not 'wench,' jerk. It's Kagome. Ka – go – me! Get it right," she demanded, but pushed herself off the ground and obeyed anyway.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and "feh"-ed in response.

He closed the door behind them, and began leading the girl through the chilly corridors. She remained half a step behind him, but he could sense the apprehension rolling off her in waves. Even with only his peripheral vision on her, he could see she was holding back shivers, perhaps out of some silly sense of pride.

A violent tremor suddenly racked her stiffened frame, throwing Kagome off balance and nearly sent her face straight into the concrete floor. However, Inuyasha seemed to have anticipated that, and his arms were right there to catch her before she fell. With a quaky gasp, Kagome recovered, pushing herself back up.

"S-sorry," she whispered, even her voice chilled into quiet.

"Keh. Clumsy wench. You're gonna be harder to keep alive than I thought if even floors are too much for you to handle."

Kagome was almost offended. However, she got the sense he was attempting a small joke to lighten the mood, and for that she was grateful. It at least made the prospect of meeting this Naraku man just a bit less terrifying.

They continued walking and ended up at one of the large open warehouses. As she made her way up the stairs and saw what was waiting for her, she felt her stomach drop to her shoes. There were three men standing orderly slightly to the side, and given their dress and the way they barely glanced at her, she guessed that they were just guards of some sort. 'Gangs have guards, right?' She really didn't know. Gang Structure 101 wasn't a required class at Minamoto High.

However, what terrified her were the two people that were bound and seated on wooden chairs at the bottom of a raised platform. They were knocked out...or dead; their eyes were shut, heads lolling unceremoniously on their shoulders. 'Oh my god, this looks like an execution.' She felt ice shoot through her veins at the thought, and without her permission, her eyes watered in fear. The bound men and the guards with their large metal guns in hand...they were probably going to tie her up as well and then shoot them all together.

'It doesn't make any sense...why would they kill me if they need to use me ransom?' She desperately tried to reason.

Or maybe her father had already paid the ransom and she was being killed anyway because she knew what they all looked like (and it wasn't like there were a lot of people that looked like Inuyasha or the purple man in Japan...).

'Oh god, oh god! I should have seen that coming!'

When she reached the final step, Kagome felt herself shake in terror and would have tripped if it hadn't been for Inuyasha catching her again. Unconsciously, she grabbed onto his arm, squeezing the thick, red fabric and his muscles like they were the only things anchoring her to the ground. She felt the appendage stiffen immediately at the contact and yanked her offending hand back as soon as she realized what it was holding.

All eyes were on them as he lifted her back up stoically, and Kagome couldn't help taking the opportunity to whisper, "A-are they going to kill me?"

Inuyasha's brows furrowed in what looked like confusion, but a voice answered her before he had the chance.

"Kill you?" An airy chuckle reverberated through the room with a low echo, filling the four walls around her until she wanted to curl into a ball to avoid suffocating. "No, Kagome, I very much want you alive."

Her eyes shot up at the voice, trying to figure out where it was coming from, but it said no more.

Inuyasha didn't seem particularly shocked at the voice, merely setting the stunned girl back on her feet.

They proceeded up the final step, and Kagome stood by his side nervously when he abruptly stopped. Again, everyone's eyes were trained on the young woman, and Kagome's heart pounded fearfully in her chest.

'Come on, be brave, be brave,' she mentally chanted.

Suddenly, Inuyasha turned to look at a dark end of the room. Kagome followed his gaze, squinting to make out whatever it was he had seen, but couldn't find anything out of place...well more out of place than she would expect in a scenario like this.

"You're almost as beautiful as your mother, Kagome." The voice remarked from what sounded like right behind her, and she spun around so quickly she feared she might snap her neck. Once again, she could find nothing, but her fists clenched defensively in some naïve attempt to fight off the invisible man.

Silence followed, and the comment began to register.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. 'My...mother...? Huh?'

She had never known her own mother, but her father had told her that she died months after Kagome was born in a car accident. 'How would some thug know my mom?'

Though she didn't bother to humor the backhanded compliment with an answer, she did note the way Inuyasha stiffened at the comment. Using her mighty skills of deduction, Kagome realized that perhaps the mystery man whom she could only guess was 'Naraku' was not the only one who had apparently known her mother. 'What the heck is going on?'

"Bring her forward."

Inuyasha turned to Kagome, eyes avoiding hers, and led her to a third chair. Unlike the other two captives who were both tied down, Kagome was left to stand, shivering and trying to figure out what was happening.

Silence reigned over the room for what felt like an hour. She took a frightened look at Inuyasha, hoping for some signal or message that would reveal what would happen to her, but his gaze was locked forward, and she got the distinct impression that he was purposefully ignoring her...which, of course, did not make her feel better.

She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for whatever was coming, when a hand fell onto her shoulder out of nowhere. Shrieking in terror, Kagome jumped to spin around only to find that the hand was very firmly attached to a man, one with dark eyes and smooth waves of hair softly falling down his back. His eyes seemed to flash black, red and a deep purple in the darkness, though she couldn't tell if it was only a trick of the light.

"Why so jumpy, Kagome?" He asked with what she supposed he thought was a comforting smile.

Kagome shivered at the way he said her name, unconsciously shrinking away from his hand, and winced when he tightened his grip at the movement.

"Wh-who are you? What d-do you want with me?" She asked, willing herself to look into his eyes.

His eyes hooded lazily, amusement dancing in their depths. "My name is Naraku, dear."

'He's the boss?' Kagome thought. Something about his...aura – no, his…his – something was so off, it was making the hairs at the back of her neck prickle in terror. She had been preparing herself for the America's hollywood-styled, Russian mob bosses she had seen in movies, not this. His eyes clawed over her form as though he wanted to eat her, literally.

He said no more, but Kagome felt him slide his hand from her shoulder down to caress her arm, and the sense of revulsion that rose in her was enough to have her yanking herself away. "Don't t-touch me!" It didn't come out as confidently as she had hoped, but Kagome was just glad she managed to get it out at all.

He smiled that same slimy grin and a hand shot out, pulling Kagome flat against his chest. "It would be very wise for you to grow accustomed to my touch," he said, tilting his head almost curiously.

'Huh...?' Kagome thought before his implication dawned on her.

Shuddering violently at the realization, Kagome raised her hands up to push him away and screamed, "Oh my god! Get away from me, you – you pig!"

Nonplussed by the action, he shook his head with a tsk. "Didn't your father ever teach you not to call people such bad names," he asked. If she weren't so absolutely terrified, she might have punched him for the cocky lilt in his voice and the arrogant eyebrow he raised at her harmless strikes.

Inuyasha could tell too, which was why he refused to look her way, and his jaw clenched anxiously when Kagome looked over to him for help. 'Why's she looking at me?!' Naraku wasn't stupid. He would pick up on it, and use it against him and her in some way. Inuyasha didn't know how – reading intentions and minds was Goshitski's thing – but he didn't want to find out. 'At least not with her,' he thought, concealing his alarm and wishing with all his might that Kagome would look away! He couldn't do a damn thing to help her if Naraku saw that there was anything but indifference between them – not that there was, Inuyasha reminded himself, but perhaps the girl felt more protected around him after the Onigumo incident.

Throwing a wild kick at the black-haired man when Kagome realized that no one was going to do a thing, she yanked herself as roughly away as she could. This time, he was willing to let her go, though that amused glint in his eyes still stuck. Kagome backed up hurriedly, nearly tripping over herself to get away.

"Don't you want to know how I knew your mother, Kagome?" He asked with a grin.

The fact that he seemed so eager to tell her was enough to send off red flags that no, she would not want to know. Her reply choked in her throat as Kagome tried to think of something to say, something that would get her some ground to stand on.

"Y-you have to let me go," she started. "My d-dad...he'll call the police. They'll find me."

Naraku laughed like she had just told him a joke, and Kagome took a glance around again at the other six people in the room. The two that were bound were still completely out – or dead, she reminded herself with a cringe – and the three guards looked forward in complete boredom, as if they had seen this a million times before...which they might have, Kagome thought, and that did nothing to quell her fear. Reruns of crime shows had not properly prepared her for this. It was one thing to imagine what it would be like to fight the bad guys and save herself, but actually facing this man brought a whole slew of emotions, and none of them were bravery.

"Taiyo couldn't even save Kikyo, and she knew what she was doing." Cocking his head to the side in amusement, he continued, "You? I'd be surprised if he'd even noticed you were gone."

That was impossible, she knew, but the idea that she might be on her own sent chills down her spine.

Shaking her head, Kagome forced that thought out of her head. 'No. Daddy knows. He'll find me.'

"It's been two days. He'll catch you," she insisted with a firm glare at the man, feeling an ounce of defiance return now that she was out of his slimy grip.

"Of course he will," Naraku nodded condescendingly before turning to walk away, heading for what looked like a row of tables lining a shadowed wall.

Something he said suddenly struck her. 'Taiyo couldn't even save Kikyo...' Kikyo. That was her mother's name. Kikyo...Mama as Kagome had always known, or not known, her.

What did he mean that her father couldn't save his mother, Kagome thought, swallowing the growing lump in her throat. Before she could ask, Naraku spoke again.

"Now, before 'Daddy' comes waltzing in to rescue you, we're going to have a bit of fun. Inuyasha," he finally addressed the stationary man, "why don't you strip her down for me?"

"What?!" Kagome shrieked, her still aching limbs jolted awake at his order. She stared at the black-eyed man in shock for a moment, as if his words had not registered. His large eyes had a way of passing an hour in a minute, and Kagome wasn't sure how long she stood there, the fear freezing her blood.

A firm hand at her elbow brought her back to the present, and Kagome immediately began screaming, "NO! No!" Nonetheless, she felt Inuyasha hold down her flailing limbs and screamed harder. A second set of hands grabbed her by her elbows and pulled them behind her back roughly, ensuring that Inuyasha did not have to deal with her frantic punches, light as they were. She watched as he began to unbutton her thin, cotton pajama top in a frozen panic before it kicked in that this really was happening.

With a half-crazed yell, she bucked forward as much as she could, intending to bite the very skin off of Inuyasha, who pulled away just enough that she missed. Nonetheless, she didn't intend to get raped without the fight of her life. She tried to wrench an arm away from the man, likely one of the guards, but his hold was steel. "Let me go! LET ME GO!" Kagome hoped she was breaking their eardrums.

So caught up in her desperate attempts to get free, Kagome didn't notice Naraku move to her until she felt the cold metal at her neck. Choking in fear, she felt her limbs freeze, heart seizing in her chest.

"Good girl," he cooed, the sharp blade carrying the promise of pain.

In the back of her mind, Kagome registered the guard behind her begin to tug her shirt off when Naraku cut his movements off, figuratively, as he hadn't moved the blade an inch away from her.

"No. I want Inuyasha to do it."

Unconsciously straining her neck to get it away from his knife, Kagome looked down in fear...anxiety...or was it dread?...as Inuyasha's clawed hands continued unbuttoning her pajama shirt and when he reached the last button, Naraku peeled it away to the sides until all she had was the paper thin undershirt and her short pajama pants. For once, she wished she had listened to her father about not wearing so little clothing to bed. Every inch of her skin felt hypersensitive, and the tiny hairs on her body prickled in the cold air as she felt Naraku rake his gaze down her body.

The other two hardly even mattered. She didn't care where the man holding her arms was looking, and Inuyasha was stubbornly focused on the ground to her left. Kagome wasn't sure if she was angry or relieved at that. A terrified squeak left her when she felt a hand – Naraku's hand – slither up her side to cup a breast and smooth his thumb over her skin. Her pants went next. This time it was Naraku using his free hand to slide them down her legs, pressing the knife firmly into her skin when she tried to clench her thighs shut so they wouldn't fall.

"No," she pleaded again, her voice coming out much more weakly. "My dad..." Her voice trailed off and Kagome had no idea why, but she found herself desperately looking towards Inuyasha. She didn't know what she expected him to do, but whatever it was, it wasn't happening.

"Cut open her shirt," he continued directing Inuyasha.

Kagome could only watch in horror as a clawed fingertip came to rest at the small dip above her breasts. It might have been her desperation, but she thought that it paused for a long moment right there, before Inuyasha gave an imperceptible shake of his head.

SHHZT. With an audible rip went Kagome's last line of defense.

Against her will, the tears finally started to come.

'He can't, he can't, he can't. He can't! I don't want to die,' she thought, squeezing her eyes shut. But, she didn't think she could go through this either.

Less than a second later, the knife was gone from her throat. In fact, every one's hands had left her. Blinking in confusion at the men who had moved a few feet away and created a small triangle around her, Kagome quickly brought her newly freed hands to cover her chest, wrapping the ripped cloth as best as she could back over herself. With the three surrounding her, there was nowhere for her to hide, but Kagome never wished she could dart into one of the shadows and melt into a wall more than now.

Naraku was the only one really looking at her. The guard behind her was as well, she supposed, but he didn't seem to see her; she was merely the place his eyes came to rest. And Inuyasha? Inuyasha had done his best to look anywhere but her.

A soft whirring sound filled the background as they all stood in silence. She tried to come up with something brave...something defiant to say, but the terror was too consuming.

"I like to give people options," Naraku began out of nowhere.

Kagome swallowed the imaginary ball in her throat, but her hopes began to rise regardless. Options...that must mean she had a chance.

"When people owe money, I give them options. Give me your child and I'll call it square. Kill off so-and-so and consider your debt paid. When someone tries to sell in my territory, I give them options. Give me your hand or your tongue and I won't kill you, I tell them." Her stomach sank, along with her hopes, at each example. Naraku went on, an obvious mocking not in his voice, as if he enjoyed the overt display of bragging, not even bothering to disguise the ridiculousness of his words. "I consider myself a generous man, and since I cannot offer your father any real options, I'm going to offer you one instead."

She wasn't sure she wanted to know. However, at the moment, almost anything would be better then letting Naraku touch her again, which was why she found herself asking in a whisper, "What is it?"

"I want you to dance for me."

A breath hitched in her throat when it seemed he would say no more.

That was it?

"Dance for you?" She wanted to hit herself on the back of her head as soon as she asked. Why couldn't she agree and get the hell out of there as soon as possible?!

"Yes, my dear. That is your second option." He closed in on her until she couldn't even see Inuyasha behind his body. An instinctive urge to push him away, shrink into nothingness under his unrelenting stare, overwhelmed her. "I believe you already know the first," he said, bringing a hand up to trace the outline of her breast. He ignored the small sound of panic she made and the way she hurriedly pulled away. "Which would you like?"

The choice seemed too easy. She should have been wary of his vagueness. How many times had some story warned her of striking a deal with the devil without knowing his terms? Nonetheless, Kagome was willing to do anything to get away from him, his conditions be damned, and she was sure nothing could be worse than subjecting herself to her original option. "T-the dance," she said with little conviction.

"Ah, wonderful." Naraku smiled at her widely, revealing a row of sharp teeth. It set off alarms in her mind, seeing the packed, immaculate rows of canines, but she pushed it out of mind. All she needed to focus on was getting this awful nightmare over with and waiting for her daddy to save her. "Inuyasha will take you back to your room, and he will be my messenger. In two hours you will come back and I will explain my conditions to you."

Kagome nodded her agreement, not trusting herself to say anything.

Naraku waved at the men, signaling for the guard to get back to the other prisoners tied to their chairs and for Inuyasha to come take her. She frantically pulled the shorts that had pooled at her ankles back up, trying not to cry at the immense feeling of shame that rushed through her. As he began to lead her down the stairs, Kagome broke out of her numbed state and spun around. "What about my dad?"

The whole room spun around to look at her, and Kagome regretted ever speaking up.

"I will be in constant communication with your father. Don't worry about that, my dear," Naraku assured, as if his "constant communication" meant something other than demanding whatever it was he wanted because he had her as hostage.

However, she wasn't about to bring any more attention to herself, so Kagome nodded weakly and followed Inuyasha's lead back to her prison.

When they got there, he moved to tie her hands back up in their restraints but stopped. Without an explanation, he backed away and spoke up for first time since leading her out to see his boss.

"I don't know what he's going to make you do. I didn't know anything about it until Naraku said so just now," he said, and Kagome got the impression from the look he gave her that he was talking about more than the outfit. Though, given her poor luck today, she'd be willing to bet that was just wishful thinking on her part.

When she didn't respond, Inuyasha nodded. "I'll be back to get you later." With that, he closed the door, leaving her to the darkness, her torn shirt, and the steady dripping of water down the walls.

Sweat poured down her temple and onto the padded floor in torrents.

"Again!" The booming voice of her master bounced off the walls.

Sango took a giant leap, bringing her hiraikotsu behind her back like an archer winding for the kill and swung it forward with deadly precision. It sliced through the air, leaving the faintest vacuum behind in its path. She watched with disguised excitement as it reached closer and closer until it finally snapped the wooden target to shreds.

Without skipping a beat, a hand went up and the hiraikotsu came dutifully swinging back.

"Good, Sango. Not bad." Her master noted from the side. "You would make a formidable foe for any demon," he evaluated.

"Thank you, Master," Sango bowed respectfully before her father – though he was her master in that moment – and waited for him to signal that their session was over. When the reciprocal bow came, she stood up and ran off to her duffle bag, eager to check her phone for a message.

The small flip-phone had been an enduring friend for many years, even while all her human friends moved onto bigger and flashier things like smartphones with large screens and ridiculously short battery lives, but right now, all she wanted to do was crush it in his grip. 'Still no message from Kagome,' she thought in frustration.

Really, she knew the girl was sick, but did she have to practically fall off the face of the planet for two days? Kagome almost always responded to her texts in a timely manner. The younger girl took a unique pride in her punctuality, which is why her lack of response was stirring up some worry in Sango. Missing practice and school were expected since she was apparently down with some flu, but not answering her messages? Not picking up her phone? Not having even thirty seconds to reassure her best friend that she was alive and okay? The whole thing smelled funny to Sango.

Pointedly flipping her phone shut, she shoved it back into her bag and huffed. Mr. Higurashi was the only one who picked up their house phone, too, and he insisted that Kagome was too tired, too sick, too whatever to talk.

Then there was the disquieting feeling she had gotten the last time she saw Kagome, after she dropped her off at home. There was nothing that appeared out of place, though considering she only excelled at the physical aspect of her family's tradition of demon slaying, she couldn't be sure. Demons had disappeared to the fringe of society, taking their violence – and human need for slayers like those in her ancestry – with them, but then why had she gotten that creeping feeling along her spine?

"Sango," her father's voice came up behind her. "What are you so pre-occupied with that you've been distracted during practice today?"

Looking down in embarrassment, she asked, "You could tell?"

"Of course I could," he patted her on her head, the booming 'master' voice replaced by the kind, fatherly one she was more used to. Under his strong hand, she felt like a little girl again.

"Sorry," she ducked her head. "I didn't think it was noticeable."

"Not to anyone else, perhaps."

"Of course," she answered, a hint of old fashioned teenage teasing in her voice, "Dad knows all."

"Yes. Now tell me what's bothering you." His tone was stern but comforting in the way only a parent's could be.

"It's silly," she prefaced before taking a deep breath, "but Kagome's sick and she hasn't been to school in two days and I called her house to ask for her but Mr. Higurashi says she's too sick to talk to me but keeps telling me she's fine and I keep texting her asking her what's going on but she hasn't responded to a single message which is really weird because she always responds – Kagome takes texting more seriously than some of her tests – " She paused for a fleeting thought, debating whether to mention the odd feeling she had gotten, before she realized the dark secret she had just revealed " – don't tell her dad I said that, though! Anyway, I'm not sure if it would be rude to just go over there and make her dad let me see her – I mean, if she's that sick that she can't even lift her fingers or say hi maybe I should check on her just to be sure because the only other reason why she would just completely ignore me is if her house were ground zero for the apocalypse."

Her father's eyes widened just a fraction, the only sign he was at all shocked at the word vomit that had come spewing out of his daughter, before he let out a soft chuckle, his middle-aged "character" wrinkles – as he liked to call them – crinkled in mirth.

"Oh Sango," he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her to his side. "I forget sometimes, maybe it's because of the nature of our tradition, that you're still a teenage girl." Sango gave him a half-hearted pout, which only brought about another round of laughter. "I'm sure if Taiyo says that his daughter is fine, she is fine," he reassured her with a pat on her shoulder. He and Taiyo had become quick friends when their daughters brought about their meeting, even with as reclusive as the banker was, and while he knew bits and pieces about the man's seedier past, he trusted Taiyo's word when it came down to it.

"Dad, you don't get it. We're best friends," Sango insisted, "even when she came down with this god awful food poisoning once, she let me know what was going on. I got every little detail about what each and every chunk of vom – "

He quickly waved his hands to interrupt her, a brief look of discomfort gracing his face. "Ah, I think I get the picture." Clearing his throat, he tried again, "Perhaps Taiyo just wants her away from her phone this time while she recovers, Sango. It's only been two days and goodness knows you girls are on your phones enough. Give it another day or two and if you still get nothing, then head over and ask how she is. How does that sound?"

"Okay..." She agreed reluctantly. "I just feel like something's wrong, you know? Like...maybe she's got cancer or something and that's why," Sango looked completely stricken at the thought, "Oh my god, I hope not." With a shake of her head, she took a deep breath. "I don't know...don't you always say to follow my slayer's instinct?"

"I do, but I don't think Kagome getting sick is a matter of slayer's instinct," he reasoned delicately, guiding the both of them out of the exit doors towards their car.

"I guess not..."

"Then that's that." He unlocked the doors of their car and got into the driver's seat as Sango lifted their bags into the backseat. "Come on. Let's go home and put this out of mind so you can focus tomorrow."

Nodding, Sango smiled at her father, glad she had decided to confide her silly concerns with him. If nothing else, it put her mind at ease. "Home sounds good. I heard Kohaku going on this morning about making Italian food tonight!"

"That boy," her father shook his head good-naturedly. "I swear, he's better with a knife in the kitchen than in the field."

"Eh," Sango shrugged with a smile, "I'm well fed, so who am I to complain?"

Letting out another laugh, he nodded in agreement. "That's true. I have always said that things are the way they are for a reason."

"Don't make yourself sound so wise, Dad," Sango teased, "You're okay with it for the exact same reason I am!"

And so the two bantered the rest of the way home.

They did, in fact, enjoy a nice Italian meal for dinner.

"She's a beautiful girl, isn't she?"

Naraku didn't really want his response, Inuyasha figured, so he merely kept his eyes on the ground and waited for his next instructions.

"You don't think so?" The black-haired demon turned the to face Inuyasha's downcast face, his right hand spinning the clear liquid in its glass with a relaxing rhythm. It was obvious that his half-demon lackey had no desire to answer, and Naraku found his canines gleaming in another smile at the realization.

"I would even say she's more beautiful than Kikyo," he continued, the corner of his lips quirking.

Inuyasha knew his 'boss' was waiting for him to snap, offering increasingly provoking observations in an attempt to engage him. 'Well, he ain't getting anything this time.' Kikyo had been his lesson. All those years ago, Naraku knew of his soft spot, his attraction for her, and Inuyasha could still remember every time Naraku would dangle her before him, taunting him with the fact that she would never be his.

"Well, Inuyasha? What do you think about our lovely Kagome?"

'Damn it,' he swore. Inuyasha knew better than to avoid the question if Naraku directly addressed him.

"She's..." He searched for something safe to safe, "...a nice kid."

Barking out a laugh, Naraku set down the shot glass he had just downed. It was an ever more frequent sight, Naraku drinking. Sometimes his hands would be shaking and he took a shot, as if to calm the disobedient appendages. Sometimes he would hear news of some lower level demons causing trouble in his territory and his hand would reach automatically for the bottles kept in his drawers. Inuyasha always watched with a wary eye; intoxicated Naraku was a volatile, violent Naraku.

"Kid," Naraku echoed with a deep chuckle. "That's not exactly the word that came to mind when I saw her tits. What'd you think of those?" He asked, the slight slurring and carnivorous grin he had the only indication of his drunkenness.

It took a moment for Inuyasha to realize his teeth were clenched uncomfortably. Even if he wanted to answer Naraku, what the hell was he supposed to say? He was certain that anything that came out of his mouth would be incriminating.

Thankfully, Naraku seemed content to merely muse to himself, and while it sickened him, the thought of Naraku's eyes on her, he would take that over having to respond any day.

"They were quite the handful," he mused, either ignorant or indifferent to the look on Inuyasha's face. "Much larger than Kikyo's, wouldn't you say, Inuyasha?"

'What is the point of this?' Inuyasha wanted to growl. He didn't want to relive the poor girl's terrifying experience, though it was unlikely Naraku gave half a crap about what he wanted.

"I don't know," he finally answered, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

"Hmm...you wouldn't..." His cool red eyes sparkled at him for a moment, as if the two men were sharing a very one-sided inside joke before they looked away. Picking up the glass he had just set down, Naraku hummed distractedly.

The black-haired man turned to face the diagram on his wall once more, and Inuyasha took it as a sign that Naraku no longer cared to bother him for a response.

After a long stretch of silence, during which Inuyasha did his best to keep his mind blank, wary of Naraku's incredible skill at reading his emotions and thoughts, he swallowed the lump of air in his throat and spoke.

"About her...what would you like me to bring down for her?"

"Ah yes," Naraku turned to face him again, eyes lighting up as if they had forgotten about the 'dance' he had coerced Kagome into. Moving steadily to a drawer in a far corner that Inuyasha hadn't ever noticed before, he pulled what looked like a handful of white cloth. "Take this down to her." Inuyasha caught the fabric easily, feeling an irresistible need to look down as if to gauge what Naraku had planned, but given the tiny amount of fabric he held, he had a good idea what it might be.

Forcing back the strange discomfort welling in his chest, he nodded. "When do you want me to bring her up?"

"Nine."

Nodding again, Inuyasha waited for his signal to leave. However, Naraku seemed more pre-occupied with his diagram on the wall.

As he felt Naraku's eyes trace every inch of it, Inuyasha could tell that the previous drunkenness had completely gone from his air. When Naraku's eyes turned to him, the same intensity in their depths, he had to refrain from shivering at the way they scrutinized him like a master sizing up a show dog.

"You're dismissed, Inuyasha."

Refraining from sighing at the release, Inuyasha nodded and pivoted towards the door, eagerly closing it behind him.

The sense of freedom that being out of Naraku's sight gave him was almost comical. Only an idiot would trust that feeling, and having been under Naraku's wing for decades, Inuyasha did not consider himself an idiot. He was much more keenly aware of everything about Naraku that had gone unnoticed for so long simply because Naraku was the 'father' that saved him from a life of poverty, thievery and loneliness as a child. Frankly though, he didn't know what to make of it anymore, his life under Naraku. It was safe, stable, secure, and everything he had ever known since his mother passed, he supposed, but it was exhausting. 'I can't betray Naraku,' he thought to himself, 'he's done everything for me when he didn't have any reason to give two shits.'

Then, as if a light switch flipped in his head, Inuyasha realized what he just thought. Immediately, he spun around with more than a little terror that someone like Goshinki was around, just waiting around the corner. When he was certain he was safe, Inuyasha berated himself for even thinking that. Betrayal? That had never crossed his mind before. While Naraku was no longer the man Inuyasha remembered as a little boy, he was still the only father, the only thing close to love, that Inuyasha had ever known. Back then, it had just been him and Naraku, the man who fed, clothed, schooled and raised an orphaned boy; all things considered, Inuyasha would even say Naraku had given him a rather ideal childhood...as ideal as a hanyou's could be.

That was long before, though. They had both been different people then.

The large metal doors signaling the cells that were originally storage facilities for the warehouse caught him by surprise, and suddenly, Inuyasha realized how heavy the hand holding the white scraps of fabric felt. With a shake of his head, Inuyasha shoved the thoughts out of mind. 'Fuck, why was I even thinking about this? I got other things to worry about.'

He didn't need to retrieve Kagome for another hour and a half, which meant he could either find something to occupy his mind until then and spring this upon her right before they left, or he could bring this down to her now and allow her at least the time to mentally prepare. He wasn't sure which option was more merciful...for him or for her. After all, how exactly was she supposed to mentally prepare for something like this? Inuyasha wasn't sure exactly what Naraku had in mind – he never was – but he'd seen and had himself been the subject of enough of Naraku's little games that he was fairly certain all Kagome could really do in the time being was keep herself together until it was over.

After a mental coin toss, Inuyasha took a deep breath and proceeded down to her room. The walk felt shorter than usual despite his slower pace, and he found himself at her doorway before he knew it. The odor of decaying flesh wafted to him, and he briefly wondered if Kagome could smell it. Her nose might not be as strong as his, but the scent was strong, and had he not already been accustomed to it, he would think it overpowering.

He took another small breath to find exactly which door it came from – some of the other captives, often the human ones, were not lucky enough to be important enough to keep alive – when he detected the scent of salt.

If there was anything he was never prepared to do, it was dealing with crying women. And sure, that was sexist and entirely ridiculous given whom he worked under, but Inuyasha could feel his stomach twisting unpleasantly at the sound of her muffled sobs and the scent of fear pervading the air, tainting her normally clean, sweet smell. 'Dammit! What the hell am I supposed to do?'

He raised a hand to the door, and paused. Maybe this meant he should come back later?

'No,' he dismissed the idea, instead giving himself the pep talk that he needed. 'Stop being a goddamned pussy and deal with it.'

With that, he opened the large door, ignoring the way he heard her quickly suck in a breath to stop crying. She sat in a corner of the room, looking entirely pitiful with her arms wrapped around herself, and Inuyasha fought the laughable urge to scoop her up and wrap her in his arms.

"It's not time yet, is it?" Her question was panicked, strained by her attempts to keep calm, and Inuyasha felt a wave of guilt like a punch to his gut.

"No," he hurriedly assured, "Naraku doesn't want you for another hour and a half."

He realized he could have phrased that better when Kagome's eyes shot up to him, a stark terror in them. That look didn't sit well with him, and the fact that he cared whether some girl was scared was even more discomforting.

He wanted to tell her that if she just did what Naraku said, she would be okay. Truth was, though, he couldn't back that up. Nothing guaranteed that Naraku wouldn't just come up with some other occasion to force the girl to do his bidding...if he needed a reason at all.

"He...what – I...what exactly does he want me to do?" She asked, perhaps assuming Naraku had now informed him.

Inuyasha could understand the question. From her perspective, what would Naraku be gaining out of it? He had a good guess himself, but he doubted she wanted to know. 'Something something ignorance is bliss,' he remarked wryly to himself. Still, he could answer her question with fair confidence.

Grunting, he asked with a characteristic bluntness, "You ever been to a strip club?"

"Wha!...No!" She sputtered out, a sense of indignation rising at the question.

Did she look like someone who went to a strip club?! What kind of person did he think she was, she wanted to demand, before it clicked. Duh. Why else would Inuyasha ask that?

"H-he...he wants me to do...that?"

He grunted his affirmative.

The thought had obviously crossed her mind more than once in the time since she'd been returned to her cell, but hearing Inuyasha say it aloud made it all the more daunting.

"But...wh-why? Whatever it is you all want from my dad, it – that – wh...what in the world do I have to do with it?" A small breath escaped her, and Kagome looked back down. "I don't understand."

"I don't know either," he lied, unable to decide whether he felt good about protecting her from the truth. He could, however, offer her something that would save her unnecessary suffering from Naraku's hands. "Just do what he says, and you'll get home sooner and a lot more in tact."

Inwardly cringing at his poor wording once again, Inuyasha reminded himself that there was no point in softening his words for her.

Thankfully, this time she seemed far more yielding than she had been that morning. 'Probably 'cause of the scare he gave her,' Inuyasha thought, forcing back a grimace as he remembered exactly how Naraku had gotten Kagome to agree to his "dance." Watching Naraku toy with the girl like a cat playing with its food had brought forward a feeling in him that he didn't have the words to explain yet. Protectiveness, anger, contempt...disgust...and lust, though he was fairly certain the last two were intimately related. The fact that he could even find any pleasure from seeing a woman in that situation, naked or not, made him feel like the abomination that the other demons reminded him he was.

"If you're not coming to get me," Kagome suddenly interjected, "then why are you here?"

With the slightest reluctance, he lifted the white scraps of fabric to eye level. "He wants you to wear this later."

Kagome stood on shaky legs, taking the clothing – if it could even be called that – from him. Inuyasha tried to pay no mind to the jolt of electricity that shot up his arm at the brush of her fingertips, and focused on the undisguised apprehension in her eyes as she let the spread the cloth with her fingers to see what Naraku had forced on her.

The off-white, delicate lace she held in her hands might have been beautiful if she could ignore the deep-seated anxiety festering beneath her chest. It was a set of fine lingerie, the pieces held together by thin suspenders*, though the bra portion could hardly be called that. Kagome didn't need to be wearing it to know that it would cover nearly nothing, the sheer lace leaving everything exposed for the world to see.

"I-I," she stammered out, her breath rising as she envisioned the scene...Naraku watching with reviling joy as she humiliated and degraded herself, and by her own choice. "I can't," she said, a pleading note in her words. A part of her, the small voice in the back of her head reminded her that, given Inuyasha's unwavering obedience this afternoon, there was nothing he could...or would...do that could change her fate.

Inuyasha watched the tears well in her eyes with growing knots in his stomach. He'd always hated seeing women cry, but something about Kagome's swollen face and her glassy blue eyes tore at him so fiercely he had to fight the urge to pull her face to his and lick her fear away.

'God dammit, Inuyasha. You're a dog demon, not a fucking dog,' he mentally growled, unwillingly thinking of how Naraku, after all his talks about demonic pride, would piss all over the moronic urges he had.

"Hey," he called her attention to him. "Just don't think about it, and it won't be a big deal." It was flimsy advice, but it really was the only piece of help he could offer.

However, she looked downright appalled at the thought.

"How am I supposed to not think about it?! I can't just turn everything off in my head and ignore the fact that some street thug is forcing me to – to – do that! He has no right – he – it – he practically threatens to..." Swallowing, Kagome forced the word out with no small amount of difficulty, "...rape me, and – and you just help him along and then he acts like some stupid, Saturday morning cartoon mobster with his 'choices' and you think I can just – "

"Don't ever let him hear you say that," Inuyasha cut in, his mood suddenly soured by the accusation she made against him and the off-handed mocking of Naraku.

Kagome reeled back at his tone, but didn't have the chance – or the nerve, to be perfectly honest – to interrupt him.

Clearly, however, something she said had struck a nerve.

"Naraku does shit like this because annoying little girls and their scheming fathers don't understand when to do what they're told and instead try to put up a power struggle that leads absolutely fucking nowhere."

Inuyasha stalked up to the stunned girl, a voice going off in the back of his head that he was overreacting, a voice that was easy to tamp down for the moment. He'd been trying to help the girl, but if she wanted to act like a stubborn teenaged girl and take it out on him, then that was her problem. "Who do you think you're dealing with? Your high school principal? The last person who tried to tell him what he had the 'right' to do ended up being fed his own fingers. Right now, you're important enough to him, but any sign that either you or Taiyo start questioning who's in charge, and Taiyo's going to get you back in pieces."

As if realizing that he was about to head down a road neither of them wanted to walk, Inuyasha took a deep breath. He didn't even know why her words had set him off, figuring it out would take more introspection than he was willing to spare, so there was no way she would.

He sighed, looking away from her eyes, and felt the sudden urge to massage his temples and quell the coming headache, "Think for a second, would you, kid? You know what we look like. You know we exist. You man not have seen anything, but we're not exactly selling girl scout cookies here. Taiyo has something Naraku wants and that's all that's keeping you alive. Right now, I'd be more concerned with how to keep myself on his good side than something like your pride."

Kagome was looking up at him with wide eyes, a look in her eyes as if she had both taken in every single word and completely missed the past thirty seconds.

He really hoped she hadn't missed it, because Naraku had done exactly what he just told her to prove a point, and while he could turn a blind eye...take a walk...through most of it, something told him it wouldn't be the same with Kagome. 'It's 'cause she's Kikyo's daughter,' he thought in frustration. 'I never should have gotten involved with her shit.'

It was just that Kikyo had been so...genuine...at least to him. She was one of the few people under Naraku that never smelled of deception when talking to him. And, she was beautiful...if there was anything he should have learned by now was the influence a beautiful woman wielded over men...especially someone like him who'd never known anything like a woman's attention. It was no wonder or secret to her or Naraku that he wanted her...badly enough to nearly betray the man who raised him.

"I..." She started, before trailing off. Some number of emotions clouded her scent...confusion and embarrassment prominent amongst them. "Sorry," was her instinctive response. A picture of her father scolding her when she was younger had floated across her mind as she watched Inuyasha go off on her, and Kagome restrained herself from looking down at her feet in shame, as if she had done something to disappoint him...

...except, this wasn't her father, and this wasn't about cleaning up her dirty clothes, or about wiping the counter clean after a midnight snack. And she was fairly certain that unlike her father, Inuyasha, or Naraku, at least would not having any trouble going through with whatever sick punishment he had.

Inuyasha refrained from the habitual "it's okay," nodding instead to indicate that he accepted her apology. The fell into an uneasy silence once again, and Inuyasha made a move to leave when the quiet started to bother his ears.

"I'll be back for you at nine."

The door shut with a heavy click behind him.

Kagome wished she had never opened her mouth. Now, then, or ever again. At least not while Inuyasha was around.

She was torn between the sinking feeling in her gut and an almost indignant fury at her white-haired 'babysitter' as she made the long, already familiar walk to what she assumed was the same place he had brought her earlier in the night.

How the hell had he expected her to react, she thought, clenching her teeth and glaring daggers at the back of his head. 'Just don't think about it,' she mocked in her head, 'it won't be that bad.' Right. Like she was supposed to just nod and say "Yes, sir!"

She'd been initially shocked and apologetic at the things she'd said when he left...but that was before she began to think about it. Trying to work her way through the issue only left her feeling more conflicted. Sure, he might have been nicer than the other thugs that she had met thus far, but nothing she said was false. Some part of her felt obligated to be more compliant with him because he had been somewhat kind to her, but the other part reasoned that that meant zilch since he kidnapped her!...which was why, despite the inner turmoil she felt at mentally yelling at him, she simply went with it. Anger was easy. It was comfortable.

In that second, the tiny, elastic piece of fabric in her hands no longer felt heavy wrapped around her fist. Instead, she imagined it was a boxing glove and let herself picture pulling her elbow back like an archer loading an arrow before releasing and punching the back of his head, her fist landing firmly in the thick, silver hair.

Were her thoughts more violent than usual? Absolutely.

What really mattered was that it ultimately took the weight off of any other thoughts.

Every moment spent thinking about grabbing onto his hair and shaking his head until she was happy was one moment not given to the fact that she was walking to what she was sure would be the worst moment of her life. Even the torn clothing that swung loosely around her frame didn't seem as daunting as it had earlier, though she was fairly certain that she should have been already dressed.

Inuyasha had made a point to look her up and down when he came to pick her up, as if questioning her choice to 'rebel' and not change into the scraps Naraku had given her. Time had flown by though, and Kagome spent so long looking at the cloth that she hadn't even realized her time was up until her door slammed open.

'He's such a jerk,' Kagome cursed, glaring daggers at the back of his head and eagerly welcoming the distracting thoughts. 'Stupid cosplaying kidnapper! Stupid everything.' Her mind was too filled with imagine scenes of hitting his stupid head repeatedly that she didn't bother questioning her thoughts. And why should she? Inuyasha was a jerk. A jerk that was very readily bringing her to her figurative slaughter (well, she hoped it was figurative...).

Step-by-step, she could tell they were getting closer to the room she had last seen 'the boss' and almost immediately the violent urges froze into a nauseating fear.

When he began reaching for the doorknob that she knew would lead them up those foreboding stairs, her heart caught in her throat and Kagome instinctually cried out, "Wait!"

Inuyasha paused and glanced back at her.

She had to find something to say...anything to stall him until she was ready – how would she ever get ready for something like this – but all she could think about was whether Inuyasha was getting annoyed waiting for her to explain why she wanted him to wait. Seconds ticked by slowly, and Kagome could feel the tell-tale stinging behind her eyes when reality began to hit.

Kagome hurriedly looked away, some socialized part of her not wanting to allow anyone to see her weakness. A hand at her elbow drew her watery gaze back to her silver-haired captor.

"It's not quite nine yet," he revealed, moving his hand away from the doorknob.

That one action, however small, flooded Kagome with temporary relief before she registered what he said.

"What? What do you mean? Why did we come early?!" Kagome demanded. Her imminent fear was that Naraku moved the time window even earlier to prolong her suffering.

"Figured it would be better a little before Naraku set everything up," he explained succinctly, not granting her any additional insight into what he meant. He pulled the door open, and Kagome's feet began to lead her up the stores once again.

This time, there were no guards, but the same two people were tied to the chairs at the bottom of the platform, and she couldn't help the same fear that they were dead arising.

"You should go change in the corner," Inuyasha instructed, pointing at an area that was partially sectioned off by large containers. "Naraku's going to come in soon and – trust me – he's going to make your life here hell if he sees you not changed."

Kagome attributed it to the potentially dead bodies right in front of her, but she didn't bother to argue with Inuyasha about the ridiculousness of his asking her to trust him. Heart beating so forcefully she feared a rib would crack, Kagome clenched her fist around the white fabric and moved to the area he had pointed out. Somehow, despite each foot weighing what felt like a thousand pounds, she made it there with relative ease.

Her fingers moved on auto-pilot, pulling away the scant layers of clothing she had on with more surety than she felt, and in the blink of an eye, she realized that all she had covering her were the lacy white undergarments and the two long suspender straps running down her chest...so much for trying to send the message that she wasn't going to do what he wanted.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the rush of shame and humiliation that ran through her...and this was before anyone else could even see her.

Right on cue, Inuyasha's voice called out from the main platform. "Hey, you done yet?"

"Uh – " Her voice broke off as she choked on her saliva, but Kagome poked her head out to nod and nearly shrieked when she came face to face with Inuyasha, who stood a mere foot outside of the shielded changing area. "Y – yeah."

Forcing herself to swallow the sick feeling in her gut, she inched out of the shadows. Inuyasha's eyes were fixed on the men strapped to the chair. Whether that was for her sake or not, she didn't care as it eased her discomfort regardless.

"How much time do we have left," she asked, cursing herself for sounding so meek.

"Ten minutes," Inuyasha answered succinctly, his eyes still fixed elsewhere.

Nodding to herself, Kagome mustered what little courage she had remaining and walked over to the edge of the raised stage, her mind conjuring more and more unpleasant scenarios with every passing moment.

Even without his keen sense of smell, Inuyasha could tell Kagome was barely holding herself together. With her back to him, he finally ventured a look at her. She was leaning against the side of the stage, and he felt more than a little disgust at himself at the way his eyes naturally traced over her scantily clad figure. He wasn't here to play in whatever little 'game' Naraku had cooked up for her and Taiyo, so he intended on paying as little attention to her as possible.

"Are they dead?" Kagome asked, calling his attention to her face. For the briefest moment, he felt himself panic at the thought that she had caught him staring, before he realized her eyes were nowhere near him. Instead, they were fixed on the two that Goshitski and some other of Naraku's men had brought in a day ago.

"No," he answered honestly, "just knocked out on whatever cocktail Naraku has on hand." And that really was all he knew. Based on the tidbits of information he'd gotten from Miroku earlier in the day, they were brothers that worked for one of Naraku's 'enemies.'' Whether those enemies were imagined or real was difficult to say.

However, he knew enough to say that having them here, with Kagome, was not a good omen.

She was apparently not in the mood to talk anymore after that, instead sliding down to the ground and hugging her knees to her chest, and it wasn't long before Inuyasha smelled that salty tang that signaled tears.

'Damn it,' Inuyasha cursed, already feeling his stomach turn at the mere scent. God only knew what would happen if she began to cry aloud.

"Hey, girl," he called out.

She squeezed herself tighter into a ball. It crossed his mind that she was going to simply ignore the world but that thought quickly left him behind when she pulled her head out of her shell and looked up at him with redder eyes than he had last seen. She was probably trying to keep herself from crying, for which he was grateful, but he would much rather she not cry and all and began to search for something to say to that effect.

'Fuck, I should have thought of something before getting her attention like that,' he berated, swallowing under the pressure of coming up with some consolation. He didn't do this sort of thing, comforting people. If he managed to get by without an ounce of comfort, so could others. That had always been guiding philosophy. But a stupid, emotional, irrational, idiotic and overall annoying part of himself hated seeing Kagome like this. Again, he wanted to emphasize how stupid that part of him was. It was the part that always got him involved with drama and shit.

But fuck if it wasn't annoying to put up with if he didn't do something to rectify the issue that aggravated it.

"Look," he began, still trying to put into words the feeling he wanted to get across...after he actually sorted out exactly what that feeling was. Taking a deep breath, he just went with what came to mind, "It probably seems like this is going to be humiliating and...and awful, and I'm not gonna lie: it will be."

Kagome immediately shot him a glare that would have reeked of incredulity had the sense of defeat not overwhelmed it.

He put up a hand placatingly. "Hold on, let me finish. It will be awful, but I meant it earlier when I said to not think about it too much and it won't be nearly as bad. Take it from someone who's constantly doing shit that would end up killing me if I thought about it." He paused for a moment, feeling keenly uncomfortable at how mushy and personal that sounded. Hopefully, he thought with a grimace, that would help her out without her blowing up at him.

Evidently in a more ears-open mood than before, Kagome shut her eyes in exhaustion. "I know," she started, "but I don't know how to not think about it. I'll be...well, I'll be…doing it and feeling it and knowing that someone is making me do this, and I can't do anything about it other than to – " She cut herself off and gestured to the sad mess that she was, "I can't do anything but sit here and cry," she bit out, though this time, her anger was obviously directed at herself. "I don't even know whether my dad's alright."

"Your dad's fine," Inuyasha quickly assured, knowing that that was the one concern he could put to rest. "Naraku won't hurt him as long as he needs Taiyo to get him whatever he wants."

"Oh..."

The two remained in an awkward silence. Inuyasha tried to think of something to say, anything to alleviate her fear of what was to come, but his brain was not cooperating.

However, Kagome was the one to break the silence this time. "Inuyasha?" She said hesitantly, as if testing the word on her tongue, and looked up at him with the slightest trepidation. He got the impression that she feared he would be angry at using his name, but it sounded strangely nice to him.

"Yeah," he nodded at her when it became clear she was waiting for some kind of affirmation.

"Why..." She paused, trailing off before shaking her head and refixing her gaze on the two other captives in the room with determination. "Why are you doing this? Working for this guy and doing what he wants? If...I mean – it doesn't seem like you want to."

Inuyasha felt his muscles tense and bunch at the question, as if already wanting to flee. What kind of question was that? Why he did what Naraku asked? He had no idea how to respond to that. Was he being forced to? No. Yet...in a way, he was, because the alternative was not worth pondering. How did he explain to a girl who had no idea how their world worked that there was no leaving Naraku's grasp? He would be dead, tortured then killed upon being caught, or perhaps even worse: forced on the run alone for the rest of his life.

Thankfully, before he had a chance to come up with something, a loud clanging sound echoed through the room, and the two spun around to face its source.

Naraku.

Inuyasha was suddenly all too aware of how close he was standing to Kagome and backed away so fast it impressed even him.

Naraku's eyes followed the movement, but he gave no sign that he planned on commenting. In fact, he said nothing at all as a small entourage of people trailed in behind him, shutting the door behind them that had startled Kagome in the first place.

Wanting to growl in distaste at the people that Naraku had brought, Inuyasha forced down the reaction. Onigumo, Yura, Jakotsu, the same two men from earlier and...a camera. Kagome seemed to notice the fairly large electronic before anything else, eyes widening in realization.

"Lovely to see you, Kagome," Naraku greeted, giving her an obvious once-over. "You look as beautiful as I remembered," he complimented with a toothy smile.

Inuyasha allowed himself half a second to look over at Kagome, who didn't even seem to hear Naraku. Her eyes were unfocused, blinking rapidly as she automatically stood up on shaky legs.

"I must say that you look absolutely stunning in your outfit," Naraku continued, walking over to Kagome who snapped out of her daze and immediately tried to back away. However, it wasn't hard for Naraku to maneuver the high schooler so that he could back her up against the edge of the stage. With one hand, Naraku traced her waist and with the other, he kept her still, though that didn't seem to be an issue. It didn't take a genius to see that she was petrified at Naraku's proximity.

"You should say, 'Thank you,' Kagome. It's the polite thing to do."

Her eyes snapped over to him, and Inuyasha froze at the plea for help, inwardly screaming at her to look away.

"Tsk," Naraku said with a shake of his head, "Here I thought Daddy would have raised you better."

The black-haired man seemed all too willing to talk to himself, unfazed by Kagome's lack of response. A light groan interrupted Naraku's game earlier, and Inuyasha turned to the two men that had been taken hostage earlier. His musclemen had moved to administer something with a syringe and woke the humans up from whatever drug-induced unconsciousness they were in earlier.

"Ah, our special guests are awake," Naraku enthused, pulling away from Kagome to face them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Inuyasha watched the scantily clad girl furiously wipe at her skin as if trying to get Naraku's very presence off. 'She needs to pull herself together,' he thought to himself. Naraku could smell weakness from miles away, and it would only delight him and want to further strip her down. 'I can't protect her if he does,' Inuyasha thought to himself before he realized what he'd thought.

Protect her? No. He was only there to monitor her and keep her alive until Taiyo paid for the mistakes he made eighteen years ago, Inuyasha forcefully repeated to himself, once again glad that Goshinki wasn't part of Naraku's posse of the day. What with how treacherous his thoughts had been lately, Inuyasha would already be skewered alive on a stake and left to die if Goshinki were here to inform on him.

"You didn't say anything about a camera." Kagome sounded more present, more confident, this time.

Whatever had clicked inside the girl's head worked because she stood up straight, as if uncaring what Naraku had forced her to wear, and held her chin up.

"Now what would be the point if I couldn't get this on tape?" Naraku retorted almost playfully as he and Onigumo set up the large camera on a tripod.

Her fists balled angrily, and even Inuyasha could read her desire to punch Naraku.

"I don't know why you need blackmail! I'm doing what you asked me too...I'm cooperating..." She insisted, her tone weakening with every word.

Red eyes met brown eyes as Naraku and Onigumo looked up at each other in some shared amusement.

"Blackmail?" This time it was Onigumo that spoke. Perhaps it was merely that he had caught the filthy, perverted human man violating her not even a day ago, but even the sound of his voice pissed Inuyasha off. "Where did you get that idea?"

The question appeared to give Kagome pause. "W-well, what else would it be for?"

"A gift to your father," Naraku said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm sure he's worried and I want him to know we're taking care of you."

"What?"

Again, Inuyasha caught her eye as she turned to him disbelievingly.

"Y-you're going to..." Kagome stiffened again, sending Naraku a steady glare. "You can't. I won't do it."

"Oh?" If anything, Naraku sounded even more pleased at Kagome's declaration and gave a signal to one of the guards. "Are you sure? I gave you a choice, Kagome, and we struck a deal. I don't like when people break a deal with me."

At his question, Kagome seemed to sway for a moment, but she hardened her resolve and asserted, "You never said anything about a camera or my father."

"Ah, well that assumption was a mistake on your part. Nevermind that, though. It's all in the past now." Naraku walked up to the guard he'd signaled earlier, and took a gun that the man offered him.

Inuyasha could smell Kagome's fear like a pungent shroud encircling him, and for the first time, he felt compelled to physically intervene. 'What the hell is he doing?' Inuyasha thought to himself, senses on alert. Naraku wasn't drunk, which was a blessing for them all, but even so, Inuyasha couldn't truly assure himself that the man – especially with his capricious temper – was in the right mind to remember that they couldn't harm the girl too badly.

The raven-haired man tossed the handgun carelessly between his hands, whistling a jovial tune as he approached his young captive. His eyes picked up on the missing red dot** without fail, but that didn't help him much at all. Every step Naraku took towards her sent her heart into an erratic frenzy that had Inuyasha's chest squeezing tightly.

"I-I...I'm not scared of you," the girl declared.

Inuyasha would have admired her fortitude if not for the shaking in her knees giving away the obvious lie.

"Good," Naraku cooed, "I would never want to hurt a beautiful, young woman like you."

His promise did not seem to alleviate her fear.

Naraku trailed a finger through her now matted black hair, and when he reached its ends, he turned away and walked purposefully towards the two recently-awakened men bound to the chairs. Inuyasha could hear the slow click of the safety notch, his chest tightening in anticipation.

Without missing a beat, Naraku turned the gun in their direction, angled it downward, and fired. The sudden move and resounding bang sent Kagome jumping into the air. Inuyasha's furry, white ears pressed themselves down at the painfully loud sound, but that couldn't cover up the long, agonized yell that reverberated and echoed in the spacious room.

He knew what to expect, but the sight felt like a punch in the gut nonetheless.

Blood, flesh and splintered bone spattered around the less fortunate captive's leg as the bone seemed to split down the middle.

The ringing in his ears must have blocked out the second shot to the man's shins, and for a few long seconds, he couldn't hear even his own thoughts.

The clattering of chairs readily brought his attention back to the present. Kagome had knocked over a stack of plastic chairs in her instinctive haste to run away – where she intended to go, Inuyasha did not know.

He could hear the barely squelched cries of panic caught in her throat as she scrambled to get back up, and watched her panicked movements with a strangely detached gaze. It reminded him of a fawn caught in a trap, her body small and helpless, her misaimed kicks hitting nothing but air.

Naraku paid no mind to the mingling screams and cries coming from his captive, instead stalking back up to Kagome, his slow, even steps freezing her limbs in place. Inuyasha barely refrained leaping between the two to stop Naraku in his tracks. It wasn't his fault. She looked so goddamned helpless that every inch of him felt compelled to protect her.

"Between those two," Naraku gestured briefly to the formerly drugged men tied to the chairs, "they've got three legs left…which only leaves you with so many chances to refuse."

Kagome didn't even seem to hear what he had said. Her mouth fell ajar at what was happening before she shakily closed it and took a short glance at what remained of the man's leg.

"Y – " She shook her head and looked downward, expelling a near silent breath and replacing it with a much shakier one.

Try as she might to appear strong-willed and defiant in front of Naraku, Kagome knew as soon as his threat left his mouth that she could never pull it off. She didn't dare even look over at those men again, knowing that she might not be able to refrain from screaming or retching…whichever happened first. Being the reason that one of them had to go through that again? She didn't think she could live with herself afterwards.

Her father would understand. She was doing this to save others. It would be okay.

Clenching her fists in the little defiance she could show, Kagome managed to get out, "What do want me to do?"

Naraku quirked a smile and gestured to the stage. "As I said, I want you to dance for me."

Shutting out the now quieter groans and wails in the background, she took a deep breath and walked purposefully towards the stage. Horrible as it sounded, what Naraku had done to 'motivate' her had helped. It was as if the prospect of what he wanted her to do no longer carried the same stigma her mind had given it until now. After all, she was doing this for a reason now, to help others…not merely to forfeit in whatever messed up game he was trying to play.

Using more upper body strength than she knew she had, Kagome pushed herself onto the stage in one smooth motion and stood upright. The new perspective from above gave her pause.

All eyes were on her – minus a pair of golden ones conspicuously staring at some interesting point on the wall – and Kagome suddenly found what little courage she had mustered slipping from her grasp.

'I can't do this,' she thought, feeling a warm numbness travel up her spine as she mentally shrunk from their gazes. 'I don't even know how to do this.'

She froze petrified on the elevated stage, waiting for something, someone to do something that would give her direction. Her hair, stringy and matted from her two days locked in their dingy…whatever it was…scratched at her back, and out of habit, Kagome reached behind to pull it over her shoulder, offering her just the barest sense of modesty.

The frosty chill in the air riddled her skin with goosebumps, and she looked over at Inuyasha again, almost out of habit. He was the only one here she felt she could get any grasp on, and foolish it might have been considering who he was, he was the only one she felt any sort of kinship with. There was an air about him that made her think she could trust him…to a degree, of course. 'That's because he looks just as uncomfortable here as I do.'

Unaware of Kagome's eyes on him, Inuyasha stood by the side, patiently counting the seconds until this was over. He couldn't bring himself to look up at her, knowing that he could only wait and watch.

"I – uh..."

He cringed at the way her voice sounded.

Quiet. Meek. Frightened.

He heard her throat clear before she continued more loudly. "I – I don't know what to do," she admitted.

Judging by the pleased look on Naraku's face, Inuyasha ventured a guess that he had anticipated exactly this issue. 'That explains Yura,' he realized with a frown.

As Inuyasha predicted, Naraku gestured at the scantily clad woman, who immediately proceeded to make a graceful leap onto the stage. To make things worse, Onigumo quickly followed.

Inuyasha saw the raw claw marks along the man's neck and clenched his fists nervously. Onigumo was a favorite of Naraku's, and Inuyasha would likely find himself in trouble for reacting the way he had if the smarmy human told on him. In the living entity that was Naraku's world, Naraku was only the lifeblood that tied everything together. His presence was one of importance, dominance and danger, his anger passionate and emotions volatile, his command invoking fear...respect...admiration – whatever it was, Naraku knew how to use it. But even those closest to him often never realized that the two men only functioned together. Naraku chose the melody, but Onigumo wrote the song. Onigumo had the brains and guile to get what he and Naraku wanted, and if there was any point that Inuyasha could pinpoint that his life with Naraku began to change, it was when his human counterpart entered the equation.

This...situation with Kagome had seemed beyond Onigumo's reach, at least until Inuyasha found the man in her cell, if only because this was one of the rare things the human had not been involved in – Onigumo hadn't even reached adulthood when Kikyo's drama went down.

It was stupid, Inuyasha decided with finality, that with the high stakes he played by, something as juvenile as another man tattling could be what cost him.

"Yura is an excellent teacher. I'm sure if you do as she does, we'll all come out of this happier."

He watched with a well-disguised trepidation as Yura smiled. The hair demoness had always given him the creeps, since the very first day he had met her as Naraku's new 'son.' Whether it was her near-constant nudity, her obsession with hair and strangulation, or merely the fact that she was always Naraku's most willing bedwarmer, he couldn't say.

Her hips swayed dauntingly up to the younger woman, and Inuyasha felt that stone in his stomach sink lower. Naraku's exact intentions were not clear, but his gut was telling him something bad was coming – something worse than what he was mentally prepared for.

'Maybe I should have spent more time worrying about my own state of mind instead of the girl's,' he thought wryly.

Soft footsteps mingled with a low beat and the ever-present crying of the man with the mangled leg, penetrating the barrier he had purposefully erected between his thoughts and the world outside.

It was unfortunate that Naraku had no intention of letting that wall stay.

"Inuyasha," Naraku turned to him, calling him forward with a flick of his wrist. His lips stayed upturned in that perturbing look of amusement Naraku always had. "Please. I do not want to leave you out. Why don't you go take a seat?"

He knew what Naraku meant almost immediately. Kagome's stare bore into him from above, and he refused to look up and gauge her reaction. It didn't take long for her to realize what Naraku had intended, and Inuyasha held back a cringe at the way her heartbeat sped up.

Her scent clouded over, though that may have been his own head mixing up everything his nose picked up.

It crossed his thoughts for a second.

The thought to say no. He didn't want to.

But, his feet trudged forward on their own nonetheless, finding their way up without any direction from his eyes. Her breaths matched his in rhythm, and Inuyasha tried to use that to stay composed.

He hated when Naraku got him involved. This was for Taiyo. Taiyo was the one that fucked Naraku over. So why did Inuyasha always feel like he got punished?

The lack of weight on his legs was the first thing that he noticed. Then the fact that he had somehow ended up sitting half-reclined on a chair in front of Kagome without even thinking about it. He could still feel her stare in his periphery and fought the urge to look up.

An unexpected rush of heat warmed his cheeks, and he nearly panicked when he realized he was blushing.

'What the fuck?' was the first thought that came to mind.

He could feel the blood pumping through him like torrential rivers overflowing into his veins and exhaled a pent up breath. His nerves danced and shot up his legs as though they were both bound by their joints and chained to the ground.

A bitter, convoluted scent soon overshadowed Kagome's, as Onigumo plopped comfortably next to him, his arms crossing behind his head and giving a sidelong look at the much less willing participant by his side.

Inuyasha could practically feel the satisfaction rolling off him, and immediately knew that Onigumo had some part in designing this whole theatrical performance. The man hadn't been around when Taiyo was, but a lack of personal vendettas never stopped Onigumo from getting what he wanted, by whatever means it took.

Kagome's voice broke through the white noise in his head, and he looked up at her for the first time. Her eyes were cast downward, but "I..." Kagome murmured in some combination of confusion and horror.

"If Inuyasha isn't as happy as my friend Onigumo by the end," Naraku interrupted, "one of these poor fellows over here is going to lose another knee."

The gun swung carelessly around his fingers, and Inuyasha watched the disbelief dawn in Kagome's eyes. For the first time since he had been forced up, he consciously pitied the girl. As embarrassed and uncomfortable as this was for him, it had to be a hundred times worse for her.

He realized with a start that Yura had begun moving, and his eyes shot over to Kagome again.

While she was neither tall nor long, Inuyasha got the impression that her legs might sway and topple her over if he so much as breathed. In a way, it made him feel better to have someone else so unwilling up here with him.

'I wonder if she feels the same way.' Did she just assume he was as much a part of her nightmare as Naraku was? 'To be fair, I kind of am...'

He realize with a start that Kagome had placed a tentative hand on his shirt, half a step behind Yura. She was mimicking the woman's moves with as little movement as possible, her whole body stiff and rigid.

Her eyes twitched and flickered back and forth from the ground back up to Yura in order to offer some semblance of following her lead, but never made their way up to his.

Her name danced at the tip of his tongue, as though hoping to reassure her that this wasn't about her; this was about Naraku returning the favor to the man who had humiliated him some eighteen years earlier. Naraku just didn't care about collateral damage...which was exactly what they were.

This really wasn't the time to be comforting her, however. In fact, he wasn't even sure what he was supposed to do. Sweet and pretty she might be, but how the hell was he meant to get off on seeing this? If he could see this from outside, he would almost find it funny. Yura's over-exaggerated movements and her undisguisedly sexual attitude, Onigumo's smug, stupid face, Kagome's stoic, robotic demeanor...and then there was him.

Whether at the reminder of his own part in this or at the tentative hand that was now resting on his chest, he lowered his eyes just slightly...and found himself staring straight at her breasts.

It was hard not to.

They were right in front of him, and despite how stunted his growth had been in many ways, he was still very much male.

A small voice went off that he should look away, but it was easily overpowered by another, stronger voice that wondered if they were as soft and smooth as they looked. He couldn't lie to himself; his hands twitched with the urge to reach up and mold themselves around the flesh, and Inuyasha found himself swallowing the ball that had formed involuntarily in his throat. At the sound of his gulp, he shook out of his stupor and quickly looked up, half-ready to panic at the thought that Kagome had seen him staring.

As his luck would have it, this was apparently the moment she decided to direct her attention back to him. Her eyes latched onto his, and he inwardly squirmed at the intensity behind them. Whether that was anger, indignity, disbelief, confusion, embarrassment or something else entirely in her eyes, he couldn't decide.

She continued dipping forward, a strange grimace of embarrassment and something else in her face as she followed Yura's movements , bringing the two objects of his earlier attention mere inches from his nose. There was a drop of sweat making its way down her cheek, and another that had already found its path down to the crevice between her breasts. He could smell the adrenaline coursing through her, her sweet scent tinged with something cool and hot at the same time. He wondered if her sweat would taste the way it smelled.

The thought was brief. Mentally smacking himself for it, he hoped no one knew what direction his thoughts had gone down – whether Kagome or Naraku knowing would be worse, he didn't know.

He looked away, his eyes finding their way back to the floor in seconds, only to realize that his heart was racing as if he had sprinted across the whole of Japan. Ruthlessly fighting away the stirring in his loins by squeezing his thigh muscles, he glared at the ground.

'Fuck, pull yourself together.'

Kagome wasn't faring much better. If Inuyasha had been able to pay attention to anything other than the fact that he had been 'caught' staring, he would have heard her blood racing almost as quickly as his was.

She mimicked Yura's 'dance' half-heartedly, having tried to force her mind elsewhere...to block out the muted sounds of the man crying, the other man's piercing leer, and the ever-present red light on the video camera that she could practically see from the back of her head...until Inuyasha's overt stare drew her back. Frankly, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel – or how she wanted to feel for that matter. She should be relieved, she reasoned. After all, Naraku intended on taking another leg if she didn't make Inuyasha 'happy,' and he looked about as enthusiastic about this whole arrangement as she did.

Still, a shiver ran through her spine. He was just as bad as the rest of them; it was silly how often she found herself needing that reminder.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yura swing a leg over that man – Onigumo, Naraku had called him, though she wasn't sure she wanted to put a name to that face – to straddle him. The suggestive move, unlike everything until that point, gave her pause. The short-haired woman began to grind her hips into his, and the mere sight made Kagome freeze.

'Oh my god...'

Kagome could feel her face light up in embarrassment and hoped she didn't look as red as she felt. The act was so...strange and provocative, she spun away, trying to get her nerves back under control.

Something compelled her to look back towards Inuyasha, and that was enough for her to decide there was just no way she could bring herself to do that.

God, just picturing herself doing that to him sent another round of blood flushing through her cheeks.

Unfortunately, her sudden lack of participation drew Naraku's unwanted attention back to her. She could sense his unyielding stare in her periphery, and shrunk under his gaze.

Her legs felt stiff under her. She could feel everyone's eyes on her but still couldn't bring herself to move...or to do anything for that matter. She almost wished someone would say something, even if it were only to yell at her.

"I...uh..." She began, with no idea how she planned on finishing that statement. She just hated the silence. There were a thousand phrases, words, or sentences she could have chosen to express what she felt, but at the end of the day, the only one she found was a soft "no."

She heard the thud before she felt it.

A sharp pain shot up her leg from her ankle and suddenly her face was rapidly approaching the floor. A lungful of air rushed out of her in shock, and the arm that caught her ribs before she could fall only served to further empty them.

Another harsh kick to her shin had her crying out\, as her body finally registered the excruciating burning in her legs.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

Had she been in any shape to do so, the violent outburst would have sent her jumping up in fear. As it happened, all she could do was bite down on her lip to withhold the scream that wanted to burst out of her from the agonizing pangs that shot up and down her legs and the twinging sensation in her ankle that couldn't have meant anything good.

She found herself pulled upwards and vaguely registered that it must be Inuyasha. Unfortunately, the movement destabilized her, and this time, the throbbing ache that travelled up from her ankle forced out a gasp.

When she managed to force back the yell that wanted to escape, she grabbed onto the nearest thing her hands could find and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to keep any stray tears from leaking out.

"Ow...that...doesn't feel good," she ground out in a whisper, mostly to herself in an effort to distract herself from the pain.

He would have laughed had he not been so focused on staring Onigumo dead. Inuyasha had never wanted to rip off the disfigured bastard's face more, and only the omnipresent stare from Naraku stopped him. What in the seven hells was the man doing? He watched Onigumo's gaze like a hawk, trying to figure out what the man was playing at.

A soft 'click' went off in the background, one that he could recognize as the camera being shut off.

"Well," Naraku concluded to himself, "I think Taiyo will like that."

Inuyasha could feel the long shudder that went up the petite girl's body and fought the impulse to stroke her back. He felt a slight force against his chest when Kagome attempted to push herself up again and merely ended up biting down on her tongue to keep from crying.

The girl was so stupid, he thought with an inner growl. He could see from his angle that her right shin had turned an odd combination of darkening red and white, and that her ankle was clearly twisted. Still, he felt an ounce of guilt over calling her stupid...even if it was only in his head. He didn't really know how to put himself in her position, but he imagined this experience had not been on her bucket list.

Taiyo would certainly shit a brick when he saw it, but this was honestly nothing new to the man. His wife had done far, far worse.

Something told him that this little tidbit of information would not help Kagome feel better. She just needed some air...and something to bind her ankle.

To his left, Yura had already cleared the stage, cheerfully pepping off to Naraku. Inuyasha watched the sloth-like crawl of Onigumo off his chair with a suppressed glare. The man's gnarled fingers gripped the edge of the seat, and he found himself thinking about the day he saw Onigumo in Kagome's cell, and suddenly that glare was no longer so covert.

Turning just enough to glance at him out of the corner of his eye, Onigumo gave him a lazy smile. "You're welcome."

Ignoring Onigumo's taunt, Inuyasha waited carefully as the man finally climbed off the stage before finally turning towards Kagome. The girl had not moved an inch since her first attempt to climb off of him, and he listened to her breath anxiously. He could smell that familiar scent of salt again, and felt the urge both to yell at her to stop crying and to pick her up and wipe them away. Naraku's gaze was locked on them, despite the business around them as the others began to pick up and clean the mess that the two hostages had created. The ever-present gaze only made him want to curse more; he had no idea how to act, but he really just wanted her to stop crying. He tried to remind himself that she was human, and having her shins kicked in and her ankles sprained was not the sort of pain that she could just push aside.

"Can you move?"

She was surprised he spoke to her. That much he could tell.

"I-I think so."

Her arms shook as she began to push herself up, and he heard the pained curse she grunted under her breath. His arms twitched in response, as if to pick her up himself, but he held them in place, waiting for Naraku to look away.

It took an agonizingly long time, but the older demon finally turned his attention elsewhere, and he moved to help the girl up. In a smooth movement, he flipped her around and helped her onto her feet. He pointedly ignored how soft her skin felt beneath his fingers, and how the brief glance he made to check on her ankle brought her breasts into view again.

"Lean left."

She obliged, her left arm coming up to encircle his waist, and after a few unproductive steps toward the edge of the platform, he sighed, bending down and picking her up by her knees. The movement apparently jostled Kagome's ankle because her face twisted into a grimace and her hands came up to find the nearest thing to grab onto, which was his shirt.

"Fuck, sorry," he immediately apologized.

At the words, she looked up at him in shock. "Oh...it – it's okay."

Naraku's eyes were on them again, and Inuyasha decided that he should hurry them out before the man came up with something else.

He knew better than to leave without explanation, though, so before descending down the stairs, he excused himself, "Have to wrap her foot."

With that, he began the journey back towards her cell and his temporary quarters.

The walk was longer than the one they took over here. Her hands were no longer clinging to his shirt, instead coming up to cover herself as much as she could. They proceeded in silence, only the occasional opening of doors disturbing the quiet. He wondered if it made her uneasy, having him carry her after what Naraku had done. Did she think he wanted that to happen? Or that he liked it?

"Is..." Kagome's muffled voice disrupted his train of thought. She squeezed her arms tighter around herself and bit her lip. "Is he actually going to show... that to my dad?"

It was a pointless question. Both of them knew that.

Nonetheless, he indulged her and nodded.

They fell into another long silence until he saw his door approaching and gingerly lowered the injured girl down.

She looked at him in confusion, prompting him to explain, "I actually do have to wrap your ankle if you want it to heal well."

"O-okay."

He guided the girl into his room, making sure she didn't put any pressure on her swollen foot, and set her down at the foot of his bed. He tried to pretend he couldn't hear the way her heart rate picked up, or how her eyes trailed his movement. And he most definitely pretended he had not thought whether she was as affected by him as he was by her.

He could feel her eyes on him, and fought a shiver.

Moving to the small refrigerator and drawers at the end of his room, he sighed in relief when he saw the ice pack. He certainly never had any need for one, so it was luck that one was so readily available. Wraps and bag of ice in hand, he knelt down and took her right foot up, assessing the damage. The whole area had already begun to bruise a deep purple, and the outside of her ankle puffed unnaturally.

He was no doctor, but he had enough sense to know how to wrap a sprained ankle.

At his gentle prodding, she flinched but remained as still as possible.

Trying to keep the injured leg as prone and comfortable as possible, Inuyasha placed the ice pack on her foot to slow the swelling. When she instinctively pulled back, he forced himself to keep her leg in place.

"Don't move or this will hurt more."

"I know. I'm not so sheltered I haven't sprained my ankle before," she said, giving him a sideways smile. "...It's just the first time it happened like this."

Returning a small smile of his own, he nodded. "Onigumo's an asshole to everyone, if it makes you feel any better." He could feel her eyes searching his face, and kept himself as composed as possible, waiting for them to fall back into a welcome silence.

He continued wrapping her foot, finding himself strangely enjoying the almost peaceful act. She felt soft and so...delicate, and the stark contrast between his claws and her fragile skin soothed him. She smelled sweet, the fear and pain in her scent having dissipated with the absence of Naraku and Onigumo. It almost made him feel good, the fact that he didn't inspire those feelings in Kagome, and he wanted to hit himself for the feeling. Nonetheless, he found himself listening intently to her steady breaths, imagining the warm air leaving her parted lips almost woefully.

A soft gasp lit up the space between them. Her breath morphed into a soft whisper that lingered in the air. "What the...Your ears...they're real. I just – I saw them move!"

Snapping his eyes up to meet hers – though hers had fixed themselves on her current point of interest, he opened his mouth to formulate a response, and instead found it dropping open in shock when he felt a hand reach up to catch an ear between his fingers.

"Oh my god," she let out a delighted gasp, "They're so soft!"

For the first time, she sounded like a genuine seventeen year old girl. Inuyasha planned on making fun of her for it, when she began to rub his right ear and he found the words caught in a choke. "He – ey, wha..." The sensation overwhelmed him so abruptly and powerfully he found his thoughts jumbled into a indecipherable mess. The clawed hand that had begun its journey upward to swat her hand away failed mid-way, landing to her side on the rumpled sheets of his bed.

He took a breath of air through his nose, trying to muster up the strength to yank his head away from her hand, but couldn't. 'What the fucking hell...' As though she knew exactly what she was doing, her other hand came up to join its sister and suddenly, he was leaning into her instead of away.

A delicious trill ran up and down his spine, and he fought to keep his eyes open. It had been nearly forty years since anyone had so much as touched his ears, and when the initial pleasant shock faded, he shuddered in an entirely different kind of pleasure, one that he usually kept locked down tighter than his thoughts around Goshinki.

He could hear her vague mumblings through the haze of his thoughts, but all he could focus on was the rapidly worsening ache between his legs and the way she smelled. He clenched his fists in a futile attempt to regain enough control to tell her to stop, but he truthfully wasn't sure he wanted it to. What she was doing had begun to open the floodgates of all the pent up sexual frustration from living under Naraku's thumb.

It was in her best interest to tell her to stop. Hell, it was in his best interest to tell her to stop.

He would have, Inuyasha assured himself, if he had only a moment to think.

Kagome watched his reaction in wonder, though she had yet to have any clue as the actual effect this had on him. Whether he knew it or not, his eyes had fluttered shut, occasionally crinkling around the corners as though he didn't know how to open them. She honestly hadn't even meant to touch them earlier, and would have felt embarrassed at her rude, brazen action had he not looked so cute! This was, by far, the strangest interaction she could have possible imagined having with the man, but when those fuzzy, white ears she had originally suspected were cosmetic enhancements began to twitch...how was a girl to resist?

The dulled twinge in her leg all but forgotten, she rubbed harder, using her middle and index finger to gently scratch at the very base.

His lips curled into a snarl that she would have thought was anger had his tongue not lolled out and drool begun to leak from the corner of his mouth.

Desperately holding onto the giggle that wanted to escape her, she pictured how angry he would be if she told him that she had picked this up from endless hours playing with Ayumi's big, furry samoyed "Meatball."

If she only had this image of him to go on, the face he was making at the very instant, she would have hardly thought him capable of hurting a fly, much less being a...a kidnapping, jerk henchman to a psychopath.

He looked sweet, like Meatball after a rough day of fetch, and she happily continued her ministrations, losing track of time as she rubbed his ears to her heart's content.

She failed to notice his fists clenching by her thighs. Or the obvious bulge in his pants. Or the way he had scooted forward, her partially-wrapped ankle dangling off his thigh and his torso positioned between her knees. In fact, she would have been content continuing on had a steely grip not stopped her hand from moving.

"Kagome," his voice was hoarse and unyielding, like gravel and iron.

Even as shocked as she was at his sudden hold on her arm, a part of her noted that this was the first time she actually heard him say her name.

"Stop," he demanded in that same voice.

His eyes were lidded and wide-open at the same time, his stare so intense she felt the need to scoot away from him.

Inuyasha could smell her anxiety, and even if he couldn't, it clouded the air around him like an aphrodisiac. She should be nervous. His wanted to rake his eyes down her body, if only to slake his eye-lust, but those bright blue eyes held his still.

It would have been so easy, he thought, so easy to yank the arm he had caught in his grip down, spinning her onto her stomach and sinking into her. She was so warm, so pliant, he would be inside of her before she even realized what had happened.

His nostrils flared as he picked up the slightest scent of excitement in the air.

She would like it, too, though she might not admit it.

A hundred images flashed through his head at once, all fixated on the small, practically naked teenager in front of him that was probably too stupid and naive to realize the danger she was in. However, some glint of fear in her eyes sparked an old memory in him of one of the worst things he had ever done, and he pulled his hand away from his bed in horror at himself.

He couldn't tear his eyes away, though. He wanted to see what she was thinking, if nothing else.

When Kagome couldn't bear the burning quiet anymore, she broke their stare.

"S-sorry," she stuttered out, her gaze darting back and forth from the ground back back up to his face, as though waiting for his expression to change. "I thought – it – you – it looked like you were...okay with it."

His breath rose and fell in a long breath, and his stare never left her.

Her body felt warm, the hand previously wrapping her ankle hot and callous against her calf and the other radiating heat like a furnace by her thigh. "S-sorry," she apologized again, wishing he would say something, "I should have asked for permission."

"Yes," he ground out, though she somehow knew it wasn't angrily, "you should have."

As though that one statement discharged the electricity zinging between them, he shifted back and hunched over, continuing on her ankle where he left off.

Kagome watched him work in complete silence, wanting to slap herself for not thinking before she acted. What the heck was wrong with her? She was not supposed to be cozying up to the guy...and certainly not rubbing his ears...even if it was really weird that he had fully functional puppy ears on the top of his head.

She honestly hadn't thought he minded, though – minus the first few seconds when he looked about ready to smack her. He actually looked like he enjoyed it. 'Still, I shouldn't have just assumed,' she admitted to herself.

Before she could think more on it, Inuyasha was done and her leg came to rest on a small stool.

Spinning away from her too quickly for her to see, he faced the small drawer where he had grabbed the supplies.

"There are two men outside this door and three for every door beyond it." When she looked blankly back at him at the information, he continued, "That was just in case you're stupid enough to try and run away with your ankle the way it is."

And before she could ask what he meant, he was out the door, slamming it roughly behind him.

He seemed to make that exit a lot, Kagome noted.

She sighed, propped her leg onto the bed, and lay down.

Couldn't they have waited for her to grab her phone before kidnapping her? She really needed to text Sango.

His arms had grown sore. The two drills had been heavier than he anticipated, but they got the job done. Drops of red dotted his chest, face and legs from the thin slash across the man's throat.

He gave a tentative tug on the drill handle, before conceding that they likely would not come out easily. They were probably dull by this point anyway. That was what he got for using cheap material, Naraku scolded himself.

At the very least he got to repay the suppliers of his shoddy work tools with the treatment they deserved. Clicking the disengaging button, he pulled again, and as he predicted, the thin metal drills remained lodged in the knees and the handles slid off smoothly.

The whole area was a mess. "Get rid of him," he motioned to one of the humans standing off to the side. The man untying the bloody body, and Naraku refrained from rubbing his temples at the headache this gave him. He needed a drink, and had he not had more work, he would have gotten one.

Finally, he turned to acknowledge the muffled moans and grunts of the man to his right. The gagged captive – the younger brother of his last victim – looked at the mangle body of his brother with wide eyes, and Naraku relished the fear in them. Perhaps this one would give in and tell him what he wanted to know...but given what he had done to the older brother and the fact that the dead man had betrayed nothing, he was no longer certain they actually had the information.

He moved his hair out of his face as he searched for another rod to click in. When he found what he needed, he turned back to the younger brother. Whether he knew or not would come to light sooner or later, but it never hurt to be sure.

Yanking the gagging out and positioning the tip of the drill at the man's knees, he repeated the same question he had asked the brother. "How did Kikyo hide the jewel?"

The man took a staggered breath. "I-I swear...I h-have no idea what y-you're talking about. Please, you have to b-believe me. I wo-would have told you."

"Did she have you build a room to house it?"

He continued the interrogation without a hitch, pressing on the trigger and watching the metal tip enter skin just enough to draw blood. The strangled whimper the man let out annoyed him.

"I swear I don't know what you mean! W-we j-just built – i-it was a regular h-house. Please," the man begged for his life.

Naraku didn't need to ask any more to conclude what he suspected earlier. The man knew nothing. This was waste of time, and he hated wasting his time. "What's your name?"

"K-Kaito."

He almost wished Kagome were here to see this. To know how lightly she got off.

He had not lied earlier. He had no desire to permanently maim her body or her face. She was too beautiful, looked too much like Kikyo, to do something so stupid. Nevertheless, she ought to have faced a much larger punishment.

She was Kikyo's daughter.

They built Kikyo's home.

Her crime was greater. But he needed her in one piece for his plans. And, he didn't like fucking cripples, so this would have to do.

His finger pulled the trigger and he watched Kaito scream.

*Apparently, suspenders can mean something different in non-US parts of the english-speaking world, but the suspenders in the story are the two thin straps that connect the bottoms to tops (though, they aren't usually/always used in a lingerie context).

**For most of the handguns I've used, the red dot means the safety is off, whereas white means off. I'm aware that this isn't always the case, but just play along with the story.

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was a bitch to write and took forever, but here it is! I welcome constructive criticism, so if you're interested in offering some, feel free to comment on how you saw the different atmospheres and characterizations, because I would love to know if they are consistent with what I intended! Like I said, this was a major struggle of a chapter, so I would be eternally grateful!

Anyway, muchas, muchas gracias to those of you that reviewed last chapter! I really appreciate it!