Bound by Corruption by BelovedStranger

Family Reunion

Prompt: 

'Comparisons are odious.' 

“So, little brother, we meet again.”

“Sesshomaru! What the hell are you doing here?” snarled Inuyasha, who stepped in front of Kikyo protectively, hand on the hilt of his sword.

Kagome saw that and tightened her hand around her bow, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. That had to be Tetsusaiga, the sword capable of killing one hundred adversaries with a single stroke, the source of the powerful demonic aura she’d felt not so long ago during the battle. What should she do if Inuyasha drew his sword and tried to use its powers against Sesshomaru? She almost smiled ruefully, for the answer was obvious: stay out of Sesshomaru’s way and let him handle things.

It was full dark by the time they’d gone in search of her sister, figuring they’d be finished with their intimate interlude by now. Sesshomaru had doubted that Inuyasha would have stayed the night on the battle field, and monitoring his brother’s aura, he’d been right. When Sesshomaru noticed his half-breed brother was leaving, he’d grabbed Kagome, and they had intercepted them outside the castle’s gates.

“Is that any way to speak to your elder brother, half-breed? It’s been several years since last we’ve met. Show some brotherly love.”

Inuyasha sneered at that, disbelief heavy in his tone. “Since when have we ever been close, you bastard? Don’t mock me!”

Kagome wanted to scream. Kikyo was so close, but these two were keeping her from the reunion she’d been aching for, for what seemed like years. As if Kikyo had heard her aggravated and desperate thoughts, she shoved Inuyasha aside.

“Kikyo?! Get behind me. That’s Sessh—”

Ignoring him, Kikyo moved to stand beside the red clad figure to stare wide eyed at Kagome.

“Kagome?” she whispered, interrupting Inuyasha mid-sentence without care. “Little sister, is that really you..?”

Seeing the heart wrenching sorrow and hope on Kikyo’s face brought Kagome to tears. With a small sob, she ran past Sesshomaru, dropping her brow in her mad dash and flung her arms around Kikyo’s slim form. Burying her face against Kikyo’s shoulder, Kagome cried harder.

“Kikyo! Finally, I’ve found you.”

“What the hell?” Inuyasha muttered, taking a hesitant step away from the embracing and crying women, feeling uncomfortable with such show of emotions. When a woman cried, when his woman cried, it made him feel helpless. Though he couldn’t really see the shorter woman holding Kikyo with her face hidden, he’d gotten a good enough look at her as she ran forward to see an uncanny resemblance to Kikyo. “So… This is Kagome? Your sister is alive?”

Sesshomaru made a rude noise. “Obviously. Must you state the obvious, Inuyasha?”

Back stiffening, Inuyasha growled, nailing his elder brother with an angry, almost hateful stare. “Hey! I was surprised, so—”

“—Enough, Inuyasha,” Kikyo ordered in not an unkind voice.

She was leaning back, her arms still wrapped around Kagome and gazing down at the younger woman will unveiled love. “Let us leave this place and make camp. We’ll discuss everything then. Come, Kagome.”

Even as Kikyo was ushering Kagome away, she shot a narrowed eyed glance at Sesshomaru. She had a lot of questions, and she did not trust the towering, obviously powerful demon near her younger sister. What was more, the few things Inuyasha had told her about his neglectful brother did not put Sesshomaru in high esteem in her eyes.

At her pointed glare, Sesshomaru merely lifted a silver brow before a small smirk appeared on his lips.

“Wait! Kikyo, you can’t really want to make camp with him, can you?” Inuyasha asked quickly, trailing close behind the two women. Then the half-breed Inugami stiffened when his elder brother moved to walk beside him.

“For now,” was all his lover had to say. It was neither a yes nor a no, heavily implying that her choice was not yet made up.

Grumbling to himself, Inuyasha crossed his arms and shot dirty looks at Sesshomaru as they travelled a few miles from the destroyed castle, but if he noticed, Sesshomaru gave no sign. He didn’t even look Inuyasha’s way. That Sesshomaru ignored him brought back painful memories of growing up in the same manor, surrounded by demons who despised and ridiculed him. Sesshomaru hadn’t bothered to notice him then, so why then did it hurt that he was still being ignored?

In the beginning, when he’d been very young, still a pup even in human terms, he’d gone to his elder brother when someone had mocked him for his half-breed heritage. Instead of championing him, defending him, Sesshomaru had told him to ‘get used to it’ and walked away from him.

After a century of life, he’d finally ‘gotten used to it’; however, the pain of rejection was as fierce as ever, never belonging, knowing without a questionable doubt that no one cared. Worse, most wanted him dead, viewing him as a stain in this world, a mistake. Demons and humans alike shunned him. A foot in each world but belonging to neither. Long ago, he realized that fate could be cruel, but when his eyes landed on Kikyo’s back, he’d also come to learn that fate could also be kind.

This human priestess, a being who should hate him did not. In fact, Kikyo loved him, had told him so, shown him, and he believed. She was his one weakness, the only person who mattered to him in this world. Then he shot another glare at his brother, who continued to ignore him. He’d kill the bastard if he tried to harm the woman he loved.

An hour later as they stopped to make camp, Kikyo built a fire after Inuyasha had picked up kindling. Inuyasha would have sat next to her if not for Kagome resting against her shoulder. The two women seemed disinclined to be far from each other’s side. He thought it was endearing as he sat a few feet away, but Sesshomaru wasn’t fooled.

As Sesshomaru sat on the other side of the flickering fire, he noted Kagome’s relief and need to be close to her sister, while Kikyo seemed more protecting than affectionate. Yes, he could see that the elder priestess cared for her sister, even loved her, but the way she continued to regard him let him know without words that she was keeping Kagome close so she could keep his miko away from him.

Seeing the two women finally reunited, the steel behind Kikyo’s eyes renewed his unease. Though Kagome had accepted him, would she be swayed to walk away if commanded by her elder sister? Hiding his emotions, Sesshomaru sat with his spine straight, a bland expression giving nothing away of his inner thoughts. Knowledge was power, and if he gave anything away to this older priestess, he had no doubt that she would use it against him.

He didn’t know this woman, and yet, just by watching her, he knew. Though she had yet to banish him—or try to—from the campsite, he was not fooled. She did not trust him, probably heard some sad tale from his weak, younger brother, and she had to be curious as to why he was travelling with Kagome. Kikyo knew what he was, an Inugami, a being who thrived on mayhem and battle. Though she seemed to accept Inuyasha, that could just be because he had human blood, not a full Inugami. Not like him.

Instead of judging Inuyasha harshly for his diluded blood, Kikyo judged him for being pure, a full blooded demon. He found this amusing and smirked inwardly. Strange woman.

“Okay, so why is your sister traveling with my bastard of a half-brother?” griped Inuyasha.

“I do not know,” answered Kikyo, her eyes landing on Sesshomaru. “Why don’t you tell me how this came about?”

Kagome stiffened against Kikyo before drawing back to look at her face. She answered even though the question had been poised to Sesshomaru.

“He was helping me!” she said quickly, then offered a small smile, unease making her almost sweat. “He protected me and did everything he could to find you, because I asked him to.”

Kagome was not accustomed to hiding things from Kikyo, but she had a sinking suspicion that Kikyo would condemn Sesshomaru, perhaps even try to kill him if she knew all the facts. Her sister had always viewed the world in black and white with hardly any shades of grey. What was more, even if Kikyo knew all, Kagome wondered if Kikyo would even believe her if she said that Sesshomaru had changed, that he didn’t view everyone as self-serving and corrupt anymore, since he now believed that she was not. 

As Kagome came to understand Sesshomaru better, she had a despondent feeling that Kikyo would not understand. Kikyo didn’t know Sesshomaru, hadn’t seen his ‘humanity’ like Kagome had.

At her words, Kikyo turned her eyes on Kagome, and what she saw was disbelief, a knowledge that Kagome hadn’t spoken the whole truth.

“Keh! Sesshomaru helping a defenseless woman without a hidden agenda? Oh please. An Inugami does nothing for free,” Inuyasha scoffed. “He made you create a contract with him, didn’t he? What was the price for helping you, Kagome?”

Kagome almost breathed a sigh of relief. This was a question she could answer truthfully without incriminating Sesshomaru.

“We never made a contract. He asked for nothing in return to help me find Kikyo.”

It was true, though Sesshomaru had lied about forging a contract between them, they hadn’t really, and, he had offered to help her find her sister without asking for anything in return.

While Inuyasha sputtered in disbelief, Kikyo spoke.

“Perhaps, but that is not the whole of the story. How did you two meet, how did you escape our village’s destruction, and why—” she spoke to Sesshomaru this time. “—are you helping Kagome without wanting anything in return? As Inuyasha said, Inugami do nothing without an ulterior motive.”

Sesshomaru felt like smirking, but easily withheld the amused expression. His tone was almost bored when he spoke.

“The same can be said of you, priestess.” He mocked the term, saw how Kikyo stiffened at the implication before continuing. “A miko has set guidelines to follow. Unfair, undoubtedly, but nonetheless so. How did you meet my brother; when? For how long have you kept your secret trysts hidden? And where were you when your village was destroyed?” He glanced at Inuyasha meaningfully before gazing back into her narrowed eyed stare. “How does it feel to realize while you were in the arms of your lover that your family was put in danger?”

“Sesshomaru!” Kagome gasped, horrified that he would say something so cruel, and to her sister no less! She glared at him, to which he just shrugged in reply, acting unconcerned.  

“Don’t you dare speak to Kikyo like that, bastard!” snarled Inuyasha. “Kikyo’s not the only one breaking a few, stupid rules.” With a contemptuous glance at Kagome, Inuyasha nailed Sesshomaru with a vicious curling of lips, more a baring of fangs than a smile. “I can smell her on you and vice versa,” he said in a low, heated voice.

His implication was clear. He knew that Kagome and Sesshomaru had been intimate.

Kagome blushed scarlet.

Sesshomaru didn’t react at all, save for looking at his brother with bored eyes. “What of it, half-breed? It seems you and I are more alike than either of us may like, considering we are attracted to a similar type of woman.”

Growling, Inuyasha leaned forward and smacked the ground before him with his palms. “She carries your mark! You bit her.”

He flung it like an accusation, as if it were something bad, and Kagome reflexively covered the mark with her palm. It stung a bit, especially when she moved her head, but she hadn’t questioned Sesshomaru’s actions. Now she wondered what it implied.

Kikyo shot her a sideways glance, one Kagome met defiantly. She would not be ashamed for sleeping with Sesshomaru. For once in her life, she’d made a choice for herself, to be selfish, without trying to please everyone else and ignore her wants and desires.

“What does the mark mean, Inuyasha?” Kikyo asked calmly, though her eyes were alight with some kind of strong emotion. Displeasure? Kagome wasn’t sure, but just the thought of Kikyo daring to judge her when she’d done the same thing, angered Kagome.

“What does it matter what it means?” she asked angrily. Then in a lower tone, “Don’t you dare judge me, Kikyo, not when you are with him.” She nodded towards Inuyasha as the ‘him’, and it was Inuyasha’s turn to blush when talking about his sex life.

“I am not judging you, Kagome.”

“Then why are you questioning Sesshomaru’s motives? You don’t see me questioning your actions with Inuyasha.”

“It’s not the same thing—”

“—How is it different?!”

Kikyo couldn’t answer without sounding like a hypocrite, so instead she said, “I worry about you, Kagome. I do not know this…man, so I have no idea if he is treating you right.”

Seeing Kikyo’s genuine concern, Kagome’s anger dwindled, and she reached over to squeeze her sister’s hand reassuringly. “I know, and I feel the same way. I don’t know Inuyasha, either.”

“Yah, but I know Sesshomaru,” interjected Inuyasha grimly, “and he’s not to be trusted. He hates humans, especially anyone with spiritual powers. Actually, he doesn’t seem to like anyone.”

“He doesn’t hate me,” Kagome denied heatedly, knowing that Sesshomaru’s feelings were the opposite. He loved her, and she wasn’t going to sit idly by while someone, not even his own brother, spoke badly of him.

“What? You think he loves you because he marked you as his?” sneered Inuyasha.

He wasn’t trying to be mean, but he hated his brother, knew him, and thought Kagome was being naïve. Just the thought of Sesshomaru manipulating this girl, Kikyo’s younger sibling, angered him.

“What are you—”

Inuyasha interrupted Kagome. “—That mark on your neck. It’s a sign of possession for many demons. When a male is interested in a woman, he bites them to infuse some of his aura with hers, warding off all other men. If any ignore the warning, the male kills the competition.”

Sesshomaru showed his first sign of emotion since meeting up with Kagome’s sister and lover. He frowned at his brother, displeased with him.

“Do not make it sound like it is a mark given to just anyone, Inuyasha. Only one woman can have a demon’s mark of possession. Until one of us dies or if the claim is revoked will it be void.”

“So… is it a sign that we’re… married in demon law?” asked Kagome slowly, trying to understand this strange and complicated custom.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Not because Sesshomaru took the choice from her, though that was a big issue in and of itself, but because she’d never thought of ever being married. That wasn’t her destiny, or at least she’d never thought it would be. She loved Sesshomaru, but did she want to be married to him? For some reason, she wanted to remain by his side not because some law said she had to because she was his wife and he her husband, but on their own terms. After coming to realize how stifling her calling as a miko was, how many rules she had to follow, she was actually hesitant to be anyone’s wife. A strange thought, but it struck true for her.

Then her worries were dashed at Sesshomaru’s next words.

“No, Kagome. You are not my mate. It takes more than a mark of possession to make us a mated pair. It is merely a sign that you are special to me, my lover and no one else’s, as I am yours.”

“Mate means marriage,” offered Inuyasha helpfully.

“I understood what he meant. I’m not stupid,” Kagome shot back, peeved.

“Keh, whatever.”

Wanting to make a point, even silently, Kagome stood up and left Kikyo’s side by moving around the fire and standing by Sesshomaru. With nothing more than a lifted brow of curiosity, he stood, staring down at her, his head tilted in silent question. Reaching out, she took ahold of his arm and stared at Kikyo proudly, her eyes silently daring her to object.

It was uncommon for Kagome to stand up to her sister’s obvious displeasure, having always done as she was told and expected without question. But Kagome had grown since then, matured. She was a young woman and could make her own choices without needing her elder sister’s approval first

“I’m tired. Can we discuss this in the morning after we’ve slept?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kagome sat down, and Sesshomaru followed. Though Kagome had only planned to sleep next to him, with a respectable space between them, at least trying somewhat to not totally anger her sister, Sesshomaru didn’t seem inclined to follow her example. Instead, he moved behind her. His arm went under her head as a makeshift pillow, the other wrapped around her tiny waist and brought her back up close to his chest. He spooned her from behind, angling her rump into his groin, and curled his knees behind her own, forcing her into the fetal position.

Blushing, Kagome closed her eyes, refusing to look across the fire to see how her sister was taking the situation. Rustling was heard, and she couldn’t help but peek… She watched as Inuyasha picked Kikyo up into his arms and jumped into one of the many trees surrounding them, to settle on a low branch, obviously intending for them to sleep up there. With his back against the tree, Inuyasha settled Kikyo before him, his arms wrapped protectively around her so that she would not fall.

With a small sigh, Kagome nestled closer to Sesshomaru, dreading what tomorrow would bring. She had no doubt that Kikyo wasn’t finished with interrogating Sesshomaru. Almost as if he sensed her mood, Sesshomaru moved her haori aside so that he could kiss the mark he’d given her, and for some reason, she didn’t mind that he’d placed a claim on her without asking her first. It was further proof that he cared about her.

A few minutes later, she fell asleep with the scent of blood and death on her clothes and skin, and on the man behind her. She was definitely going to take a bath first thing in the morning, she decided as she drifted off to sleep. 

Sesshomaru had no intention of falling asleep, not with the possible threat of Inuyasha and Kikyo. The elder priestess didn’t liked him, his brother hated him. Not like he cared, but to keep Kagome safe from harm, he only pretended to sleep, but before he closed his eyes, he caught Inuyasha’s gaze and narrowed his eyes at his younger brother in silent warning. Inuyasha glared back, and sent him a silent message of his own; he wouldn’t be sleeping either.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes. Though Kikyo and Kagome were sisters, while he and Inuyasha were brothers, the differences between the siblings were glaringly obvious to him. And yet, by the mere association of blood, their characters and conducts were always measured and weighed by the people around them.

Kikyo was the obviously better trained priestess and in control of her reiki than Kagome was, which her village had never let Kagome forget, he knew, seen and heard it so first hand.

And because his father sired a half-breed, many now viewed his line as weak, polluted. Holding Kagome close, he didn’t care what others might think. He wasn’t releasing this human woman because some else didn’t approve. No one was getting between him and Kagome—demon or human. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finally the sisters are together, but so are the half-brothers. More drama awaits in the next chapter!