The Meeting
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* As a note Miko are considered minor to major nobles, and the emperor has more power than just a figurehead. Dai-yōkai elect a King, or queen, and the two species live together. The humans follow their government, and the yōkai follow theirs. Interspecies relationships are still rare.
Sesshōmaru wondered how he let himself get talked into such things especially as Hiten’s charming smile flashed at every female from his workplace as each one entered. The hair on the nape of his neck stood on end, as each of the female’s gazes went straight to him.
He sighed, knowing that the saké in front of him would not be strong enough to get him through this.
Four women showed up, five men had as well. He smirked he could leave before this stupid date even started. Thank all the God’s.
“One of the girls said they’d be late,” one female yōkai, with a short straight bob said. The lie fell from her lips with ease, as she flashed a bright smile his way. He would have growled had it been appropriate.
“Oh yeah! That’s great! The more the merrier,” Hiten smiled charmingly, flashing fangs and a wink. Most of the girls blushed. All but one. Brown eyes, a slight curl to her hair, covered in the scent of another woman. The odd one out. The one who was, most likely, coming to keep up appearances, or had been dragged there same as him.
She kept darting her eyes toward the door and looking at her phone, and then the food was brought in.
He sighed, he should have brought noseplugs at the scent of overly fried foods and spicy snacks. Suddenly the door burst open, and the nervous one calmed.
A mass of messy curls, a petite little thing, but curvy in all the right places, and stunning sapphire eyes barrelled through the doorway her emerald green sundress swaying about her. His breath caught as all the other males had as well. This female was lovely.
“Ah, Kagome-chan,” the name fell from Straight Bob’s mouth. It was nearly a sneer.
“Yura-chan! So lovely to see you, I’m so glad I made it on time!” the bright sing-song lit to her voice belayed none of her inner ire aimed at the female. The bright lovely smile played on her lips as she sat next to the other curly-haired one.
“Oh Ayumi-chan, it’s been ages!” she hugged her, the other two lost their pleasant smiles for a split second before they plastered on fake ones once more.
“Kagome-chan, you haven’t met Asano-san, have you?” Yuka said, pin-straight hair shoulder length.
“Oh, no, I haven’t, excuse me, we’re all old high school friends. I am Higurashi, Kagome, I hope I didn’t offend?” Kagome smiled brightly at the other female, long black hair pinned back into an elegant coif as she introduced herself.
“You didn’t. Nice to meet you Higurashi-san,” a cold smile and a nod to Kagome in acknowledgment. Kagome smiled brightly back.
“Kagome-chan, you don’t work with the others?” Hiten asked.
“Oh no! I’m a lyricist. I write music,” the two unhappy females gave nearly inaudible groans at Kagome’s answer.
Interesting.
A ring went off, and Kagome fished her phone out of her purse, silenced it, and put it back in her purse, “Oops,” she gave a slight giggle and a small embarrassed flush.
“No worries. Well seeing as we’re all here. I’m Nomi, Hiten, this is Sumida, Muso, and beside him is Uchitomi, Miroku, and beside him is my brother Manten, and beside my brother is-”
“Mitsumori, Sesshōmaru,” he interrupted, eyes landing on Kagome. She was distracted by Ayumi thanking her profusely under her breath. Ah, so she asked for her help. Kagome waved her off, and smiled.
When her body straightened up, “Uchitomi, Miroku?” Kagome’s eyes met the suddenly nervous male, who scratched the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle.
Her eyes narrowed as she set her sights on Hiten’s co-worker. “Hello, Kagome. It seems you’ve been well,” her eyes narrowed further, but she took a calming breath.
No honorific. Very interesting.
“You two know each other?” the words left his mouth before he could stop them. Surprising Hiten and himself.
“We grew up together, Kagome and I,” Kagome flushed deliciously at his words, whether in anger or embarrassment, Sesshōmaru didn’t think he would ever know.
Kagome huffed, crossed her arms, and glared at the male, her eyes belaying what her lips could not, I’ll deal with you later . The threat hung between them before Miroku chuckled awkwardly once more. “I’ll buy you a drin-” her glare cut him off once more, “That’s right, an apology dinner then.” She relaxed, her glare losing some of its heat, and her ire died down. What a lovely little dragoness she was.
He was suddenly quite happy to be at the gōkon.
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The rest of the group date went, well, as well as Sesshōmaru expected. Yura, Yuka, and Sara mingled with the males in the room, drinks and food were all had. He sat in his corner observing as Sara Asano tried to gain his attention but all he could focus on was the petite little songstress across the room.
Miroku was in-between Kagome and Ayumi, both females arguing with him, but it was Kagome’s words that cut the other male down. “How dare you-”
“Before you get angry with me, I was dragged here just as Ayumi was. I wanted no part in this,” Miroku whispered hotly, obviously annoyed.
“Oh, don’t you dare think this absolves you! I can’t believe you! Well, no, of course I can! This is exactly why-” Kagome began her blue eyes alight with fire and it made Sesshōmaru’s stomach do very funny things. Was this what the humans called indigestion? He wasn’t sure if he liked it.
“Yes, yes, I know I’m a terrible womanizer. Must we always air my faults, what about Ayumi, she is in the same boat-” Kagome’s eyes blazed brighter, and he could swear he could see steam come from her nose. What a spitfire! She was stunning.
“Ayumi’s co-workers don’t know about Eri, nor should they! If it got back to her father she’d be disowned! You on the other hand-” Miroku interrupted Kagome once more, and Sesshōmaru thought the little thing might knock him unconscious for the audacity.
“And here we go. You always take Ayumi’s side,” Kagome flinched away from Miroku as if he’d struck her.
“Argumentative to a fault, Miroku pretending to be the victim, per usual,” Ayumi’s soft voice was harsh.
Miroku put a hand over his heart, “You wound me,” Kagome snorted at Miroku’s faux innocence, and Ayumi clenched her lips together to stop the abrupt laughter from leaving her lips. Kagome cracked first and all three of them erupted into pearls of laughter. For several minutes they laughed distracting the whole group, until Ayumi snorted, Kagome’s giggles were trying to hide behind her hands and Miroku was just boisteriously laughing. “Oh, you two! Gods! Well, I’m done for the night, do either of you lovely ladies need an escort home?”
Kagome dissolved into giggles once more but managed, “Not with Mr. Handsy!” Ayumi wheezed beside Miroku as the two women dissolved into laughter once more.
Miroku pushed both of them away, slightly rough, both squealing, “Hey!” in response before laughing some more.
After Ayumi shook off her laughter she stood and helped Kagome up as well both of them going towards the door. Both women turned and bowed to Hiten, thanking him, and left. Sesshōmaru rose, he told Hiten he wouldn’t be the first to leave, and he hadn’t. The fact that three left had meant that he could take his leave as well.
He did not thank Hiten. Though he was tempted. Kagome had been a treat. A very unexpected treat.
“Thank you, you’re the best friend in the whole world. I don’t think I would have survived without you, plus, Eri was furious, she was only placated when I told her I’d roped you into it. See you for lunch next week?” he heard Ayumi say to Kagome as she turned left to go towards the bus stop.
“Oh! Don’t worry about it, you know I always have your back. It’s a date! Tell, Eri-chan I say hello~,” Kagome responded, turning right and walking in the other direction.
What luck; she was going in the direction he was.
“Higurashi-san,” he called lightly, and she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him.
“Ah, Mitsumori-san, I’m sorry I did not get the chance to interact with you as much, but it seemed you were merely there to fill a seat,” she was observant as well. He liked that.
“Hiten, is also an old friend, unfortunately,” he said and was delighted when Kagome giggled once more. He’d never been fond of the sound before, but tonight was proving to be the exception.
“So you were conned into it, I see. You do not work with Hiten?” she wondered, eyes alight with curiosity as he fell in step beside her.
“No, I am a cloud engineer for an independent app developer,” No need to tell her he co-owned the business with an old friend.
“Interesting. How does a Dai-Yōkai become a cloud engineer? What even is a cloud engineer?” his brow rose, and he chuckled at her confused look.
“I hung up my swords long ago, Higurashi-san. I’ve always been good with numbers so when computers were first invented, and code became more sophisticated I was intrigued. So I became a programmer, and then a software engineer, and now a cloud engineer as it was more of a challenge for me. I have even dabbled in video game development and apps. It has been fun for me. As for a cloud engineer it is to create, maintain, and troubleshoot the cloud infrastructure, I quite enjoy it,” he answered and she nodded in understanding.
“As long as you like it that’s all that should matter,” she commented, and he paused. Thinking back on the past where he gave up his father’s empire to explore this new path. He had not regretted it and his father, while disappointed at first, was pleased at how Sesshōmaru thrived in his new environment.
“Yes, and you? You enjoy the arts?” He decided right there that Kagome’s answering smile could outshine the sun.
“I love them. My grandfather gave me my first violin at five, and it was the best birthday gift ever. Sadly, I was not allowed to pursue it to the degree I wanted, but I started writing lyrics and music around high school, and now it’s my career. I hope to open a production studio soon,” he was floored at her answer.
“You are that successful? I had heard that industry is pretty harsh to not only get into but maintain,” they were getting closer to his building and he found himself slowing down to maintain their conversation.
“I am pretty successful, and I know many of the right people. Which is also just as important, but I enjoy it all the same,” she paused to fish through her purse and grabbed her vibrating phone. Father flashed on the screen and she hung up.
“If it is important, you can-”
“It’s not,” her voice was somber her mood and scent soured. Her phone went off again Brat showed, and she sighed hanging up once again. “It seems you’re popular tonight,” he tried to make the mood light again, and she gave a small awkward laugh.
“My father wants me to do a tea ceremony next weekend, and I…” she trailed off, biting her bottom lip, and shook herself lightly before a forced smile came upon her lips, “It’s fine. Everything works out in the end,” he found he didn’t enjoy her forced smile, any more than her sour mood.
He paused in front of his building, “Well you can call them back seeing as how this is my stop, unless you need an escort home?” He found himself not wanting to leave her presence. That was very un-him. He wasn’t acting like himself at all this evening and he wondered, briefly, if his saké had been tampered with.
“Oh my studio is this way, I’m a night owl, I do my best writing at night. Have a lovely night, thank you for the conversation. Try not to sit in the shadows at the next gōkon, maybe you’ll find someone you like,” she went to turn from him, but he caught her wrist.
“I hope you do not see this as too forward, but would you like to come up?” He felt heat rise to his cheeks and the tips of his pointed ears, he was thankful for the dark, and dim street lamps.
He watched her nibble on her bottom lip, “I-” she stopped herself, a pretty blush ran across her features, and a lovely smile spread across her lips, “Sure, just no funny business. I’m not one of those girls who shacks up with every beautiful yōkai who looks my way.”
He chuckled, “I did not think you were. I will behave. I was gifted some chocolate, and seeing as how I am an inu-yōkai, well you may have it.”
Kagome giggled as she followed him inside. “Oh, do you also have coffee, chocolate, and coffee sounds amazing right now?”
“You are in luck, I have a top-of-the-line espresso machine,” he commented, and she gave him another sunny smile. He preferred this Kagome to the one who had been despondent after not taking her family’s calls.
A pretty little thing like her should only have a true smile on her face.