A.N. I like this chappie the most so far. It was hard to write for though. I knew how I wanted it to end but getting there was quite the journey. I went crazy for hours just staring at half-sentences thinking, ‘How can I end you!!’ So enjoy the fruit of my labor.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Inuyasha.

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(Tsuki)

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Shi no Kirei

Chapter Twelve

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(Tsuki)

The benefits of working so long with the same team of assistants: they didn’t ask any questions when you called them in to work at five o’clock in the morning and subsequently dragged an unconscious body in half an hour later.

“Alright people! We’re going through with next issue’s cover shot. I need cameras set up, clothes out, and backdrop down. These are the two were working with,” he guestured towards Sesshoumaru who had yet to wake up and towards a half awake Kagome, who was draped in one of Sesshoumaru’s jackets. “So set up accordingly.”

He received several verbal responses, but everyone in the dozen member team was scurrying about doing something.

Inuyasha looked at Kagome and waved her over, “Stay close, princess.” He then dragged Sesshoumaru over to a bench near Kikyou and patted his towel covered head, “Can you take care of cutting and drying this? I need it cut it close on the sides and backs. Scissors only,” He was hurriedly pulling things out of a duffel bag he had picked up from his desk on their way towards the gallery.

Kikyou smiled, “Consider it done.” After Inuyasha had left, she looked at the clock posted in the gallery and let out a slight sigh. “I guess I won’t be joining Suikotsu today, either.” She pulled out her cell phone and sent him a text that she was called in to work.

She didn’t know what was worse, the fact that she was cancelling through a text or the fact that she didn’t feel guilty about either. She ran a hand through her hair. Everytimne she was with Inuyasha, it was always like everyone else came second in priority.

It was now only a matter of time before she broke up with Suikotsu.

She closed her eyes.

Why was it that she didn’t feel any remorse? She dug into Inuyasha's duffel bag and looked for a pair of scissors and a blow dryer. While she was there, she took out a heat-damage reducing mostirizing cream and a comb.

Suikotsu wasn’t even the first tier on her list of concerns. Anything that was truly bothering her had absolutely nothing to do with the pediatritian. In fact, the main things that were actually bothering her could be found in that octagonal room.

Inuyasha and….

She looked across the room at Kagome as she plugged in the blow dryer.

The girl was seated in a chair as Inuyasha applied various make up products on her face. A woman was gluing on black pre-manicured acrylic nails and one of the male assistant had taken over fixing her hair.

Who was that girl?

In the depths of her soul, Kikyou knew she loved that girl in the way that a parent loves their child…in the way that sisters love one another….

It was as if they were deeply connected—something which had to be impossible.

She combed through Sesshoumaru’s hair with a fine tooth comb that prior to her use inhabited a jar of barbercide. As she trimmed, she tried to keep her thoughts off of both Kagome and Inuyasha.

The longer her fingers worked to dry and style bleached locks, though, the more and more impossible she found it. By the time she had gelled and sprayed Sesshoumaru’s hair with hair spray, her head was swimming.

She sucked in a breath and moved over to Inuyasha. By this time he was finished with Kagome’s make up and was working on picking Sesshoumaru’s clothes. He instantly took note of her presence and gave her a boyish grin, “This is looking promising—what do you think, Kik?”

The raven haired woman breathlessly nodded and after clearing her throat she asked in a composed tone, “Is there anything I can help with?”

Inuyasha stopped applying comparing ties and placed a hand on Kikyou’s shoulder. He directed her towards one of the doors leaving the room, “I requested five dresses be sent up here for the shoot. There still on my desk. Pick one and bring it here.”

Kikyou gave one last look and returned his smile. In a semi-joking voice she questioned, “And you’ll be fine with what I pick?”

Inuyasha snorted, “Would I send you otherwise? I trust you, Kikyou.” With a playful roll of his eyes at her question, he returned to work.

The raven haired girl suddenly lost her smile as she turned to exit.

She could feel a betraying emotion creep up inside her lately.

And a part of her was afraid to even begin to decipher what it could possibly be.

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(Tsuki)

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Amber eyes snapped open around seven that morning. Inuyasha was quick to note the awakening and was thankful his brother decided to join them after he had been stripped of his pajamas and then redressed in the outfit of Inuyasha’s choice. If he had woken up during, well, that would have been a tad bit awkward. The younger sibling grinned, “Mornin,’ Sleeping Beauty! Glad you finally decided to wake up! I was worried we’d fall behind schedule.”

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes as he looked around the unfamiliar settings, “Where am I?”

He quickly rose to his feet and made his way towards his younger sibling. “I will not repeat myself, Inuyasha. Answers,” he said crisply. A sweeping glance down told him that his attire had sharply changed. He was dressed in a fitted black pinstripe suit with an oceanic blue tie. The tie was concealed partially by the fact that the suit top was buttoned in the middle.

The change of clothes did nothing to appease the older Taisho. Inuyasha tried to remain calm despite the growing fit of rage that had enveloped Sesshoumaru.

“I needed two replacement models and you and Kagome seemed to fit the bill. It was either this, or mooch off you as your newly unemployed brother.” Inuyasha tried a touch of humor to lighten the mood.

It failed to work.

His brother’s eyes narrowed nearly to slits. “And you had to drug me to get me to cooperate?”

Inuyasha inwardly cringed. Sesshoumaru’s voice had become eerily calm. It was icy still, but there was no real hint of anger. Unless of course, you knew him… Inuyasha resisted the urge to break his gaze and with complete composure he managed to retort, “Yes.”

Sesshoumaru scowled deeply after a minute of staring down Inuyasha, “You irk me, I hope you know that…”

“Yeah, I’m starting to get a hint of that.”

Kikyou abruptly joined the conversation. With a slight smile at Sesshoumaru, she commented, “I have to say, Inuyasha, you’ve outdone yourself with this project. I’m impressed.”

The blonde grinned, “Glad to know. How's the princess? She all dressed?”

His question was met with a nod, but the raven haired girl added. “She’s still getting her hair done. You have a lost of perfectionists on your hands.” She laughed when Inuyasha gave her a ‘don’t I know it’ look, “They will be out soon though.”

Sesshoumaru looked at the time, “You do understand that I hold a full-time job, correct?”

Inuyasha nodded, “Yeah, yeah. I took that all into account. Now go grab some breakfast. There’s coffee and tea… I had bagels brought in. There’s fruit… Go have fun.”

His older brother cast one last scathing glance at Inuyasha, before making an exit.

Kikyou looked surprised, “I would have sworn that he would have thrown a bigger fit than that.”

“Well one: he hasn’t seen his hair yet,” Inuyasha grinned as he counted off the reasons on his fingers, “two: he’s a total pushover without his morning coffee, and three: well, let’s just say I slipped him a little something to help mellow him out.”

Brows rose and the woman deadpanned, “Did you drug your brother or legitimately drug your brother?”

Inuyasha scoffed, “They were both over the counter drugs, Kik. Don’t think so low of me.”

Kikyou gave him a look and murmured, “Only if you give me reason not too, Inuyasha.” She looked across the room at Sesshoumaru, “If only he had a different personality,” she abruptly joked.

The platinum blonde looked sharply at her, “Yeah?”

“Well, he certainly wouldn’t be the bachelor he is now. The entirety of your family was graced with pretty impressive features and that hair color really brings it out.”

“In other words, you’re ogling my brother now?”

The doe eyed woman rolled her eyes, “No.” She sniffed in afterthought, “And I don’t ogle for your information.”

“Whatever!”

Kikyou smirked, “I almost want to accuse you of sounding jealous, Inuyasha.”

The man crossed his arms in response. With a pouting tone he grunted, “Of course, I’m jealous.”

Kikyou felt an unwelcome flutter of her heart. In a low tone she questioned, “What?”

Inuyasha frowned, “You never made that big of a deal when I went blonde…”

The comment was met with a pasted on a smile. Kikyou half heartedly joked, “You took all the fun out of it when you sent me photo-shopped pictures of you as a blonde in addition to having me do your hair.”

He gave her a sheepish grin, “I guess that’s true.” His eyes lit up after a moment, “But speaking of hair,” he lifted his bangs, “Aren’t I overdue for a touch up?”

Kikyou looked at his hair and furrowed her, “Apparently not. Your roots aren’t showing at all, Inuyasha.”

“But the other day—”

She patted him on the shoulder and murmured, “It’s fine. Let me go check on Kagome.”

Inuyasha nodded, “Okay. Tell them that we need to start shooting like,” he looked at his wristwatch, “five minutes ago….”

Kikyou smiled slightly and turned to leave.

Inuyasha rose and decided to start the final tasks of setting up.

The backdrop was already set up, but he wanted to make sure that the lighting was just right. The scene would be shot against white like most cover pages, so he needed lighting that would not wash out Sesshoumaru and Kagome’s faces.

As it was drawing nearer to the first shot, he was kind of worried. He was going very extreme with this shoot and it was a decision that would either make or break his career under Jakotsu.

It was rare for TV dramas as popular as the one they were covering to go to their magazine with interviews, so he had to do this well.

He scowled, “The bastards didn’t make this easy though…” Cancelling on sending the actual actor and actress, really called for some creative improvisation on Inuyasha’s part. But with a clever title and the right dress and make up, he was nearly confident he could pull this off. In a louder tone, he called for his brother, “Can I get you set up, Sess? I need to see how you look under this light. Kagome’s taking too damn long for me to keep doing nothing.”

Sesshoumaru made his way over to the set and in clipped tones asked, “Where should I be standing?”

Inuyasha stood on a platform in front of the backdrop, “Exactly where you see me. Just turn this way,” he rotated ninety degrees so that his side faces the shooting equipment. “Cheat out to the cameras a little bit though,” he added as he stepped off the platform and let Sesshoumaru replace him.

There was no point in Sesshoumaru not cooperating when he was as tight on time as he was, so he did exactly as told. Inuyasha had to grin. There was no one better than to fill this position than Sesshoumaru.

The guy was a complete pack mule at heart.

Inuyasha smirked. If he ever did this again the next time he probably wouldn’t use the sleeping pills….

He looked at the no longer raven haired man and a grimace abruptly replaced his smile.

‘Feh, maybe I’ll just use a couple less….’

Inuyasha huddled up next to the camera man, “Okay, Kyoshi, what’s your suggestion. I’m not liking something about the wash, especially on the hair. It kind of screams ‘old’ —definitely not what I’m looking for.”

Kyoshi, one of the older members on the team, was in his late thirties and had a different hair color seemingly each week. Today he had auburn locks that there partially hidden beneath a baseball cap. He turned said cap so that the visor was behind him, “White is such a hard color to do lighting for, Inuyasha. It’s basically the hardest color to light.” He rubbed his brows, “I’ll try adding a little more violet to the light, but I don’t want to make his skin look sickly.”

Inuyasha patted him on the back, “Just do what you do best.”

Unfortunately for Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, had very impeccable hearing. And the mention of his hair only served to spark suspicion.

“I wonder Inuyasha, would it be too much trouble to see a mirror? I feel my curiosity towards my appearance is rather justified seeing as I was not actually conscious for any of this.”

Inuyasha tried to stay composed, his voice quavered slightly though as he tried to laugh, “We’re doing lighting, Sess. I’ll get you a mirror afterward, okay?”

Sesshoumaru stepped down form the platform, “No. I would rather have it now, if that’s all right with you,” he added coldly with a knowing tone that had Inuyasha’s soul in a vice like grip.

Kikyou abruptly could be heard calling, “They’ve finally finished, Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha mentally said a prayer of thanks before he sharply told Sesshoumaru, “Get back to where I placed you. If you want to be on time for work, hold your vanity off for another forty-five minutes!”

And then Sesshoumaru did something that made Inuyasha’s skin crawl.

He smiled.

Inuyasha suppressed a shudder. That man only smiled when he was thinking anything that didn’t quite fall under the category of ….pleasant.

In a voice that was squeakier than intended, he called, “We’re on set, Kik. Bring her here.”

Kikyou stepped into the room, Kagome in hand and a hush fell upon the room. Although out of the dozen team assistants who had started out, five remained, they stopped packing up and moved to the shooting area.

Even Sesshoumaru felt oddly complacent within her presence although it annoyed him somewhere deep in the depths of his mind.

But it was undeniably, however reluctant one was, that Kagome was stunning.

She was dressed in a little black satin dress with a plunging V neck. Around her neck was a lengthy beaded turquoise scarf that added an appealing amount of modesty to the dress. Although the lower half of her body would not actually be within the crop settings of the photo, she was wearing calf length black boots for added height.

Her hair was impossibly straight and her bangs brushed halfway over her blackened eyes. To help intensify her eyes, Inuyasha had amply used black mascara with a touch of black and a turquoise liquid eyeliner that matched Sesshoumaru’s tie.

Kagome hesitantly smiled at Inuyasha, “This is pleasing, yes?”

Inuyasha chuckled, “Yeah, princess. Just join Sesshoumaru, up there.” He pointed behind her.

Kagome whirled around quickly at the sound of the other man’s name. She hesitantly looked up and her heart seemed to race at the sight of him. Kikyou continued to stand by her side to balance her as Kagome shakily walked in the heeled boots.

The blue eyed woman took in a shaky breath.

As soon as she had reached the platform, Kikyou handed her off to Sesshoumaru, “Try and keep her steady, Sesshoumaru. She’s isn’t at all used to the shoes.”

Sesshoumaru took a firm grip of her thin wrist and one hand instinctively went to her waist. He looked into her eyes, “Slowly get up.”

He assisted her as she, one foot at a time, joined him on the platform. He would have released her, but Inuyasha called, “Freeze! Kyoshi, take that.”

Kagome, zoned out what Inuyasha was saying. In a light voice, she murmured, “Sesshoumaru…?”

“Eh, Kagome?” Inuyasha called, “Freeze, means don’t move, okay Princess?”

She lifted a hand and ran it through his hair enticing a groan from Inuyasha. She promptly ignored it, “Why do you look more familiar now?” She smiled. “I feel that I knew you…Just like I knew Inuyasha. But this is different.”

“This looks good on camera, Inuyasha, should I just go with it?” Inuyasha waved a dismissive hand, “As long as you have a clear shot, I guess go for it…”

Sesshoumaru looked at her, “What do you mean by different?”

“I… I am not quite sure…”

Sesshoumaru continued to search her orbs as if for answers, “You are undoubtedly the most cryptic being on this continent.”

Kagome took a step back abruptly, and with a widening of her eyes, she lost her balance. Sesshoumaru instantly caught her, as his hand had not strayed too far from her waist.

He held her dipped slightly for a moment, wondering if she too looked familiar. If perhaps, she could conjure up some past memory of the two.

Kagome cradled his face for a moment and then brought his closer.

And then she kissed him.

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(Tsuki)

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“Perhaps we are not so different after all.”

That utterance made her smile. In a light note, she agreed. “Perhaps.”

Her eyes stared into amber and she abruptly felt shy…yet curious. “I feel odd when I am with you. Is that in itself strange?”

Her question was met with a chuckle. “Saying that you feel odd, in all honesty does nothing to describe how you feel,” came a drawled reply.

“I don’t feel this way when I am with my father or Inuyasha yet it’s a welcomed feeling… I’m worried that that is the odd thing.”

“You seem fascinated in finding the answers to everything.”

“What if I am ill?”

“Immortals do not fall ill, I am sure.”

She abruptly took her companion’s face in her tiny hands, “Then I fear that what I am feeling is …affection.”

“You are undoubtedly the most cryptic being that I have ever come across.” His eyes locked into hers with amused curiosity. “Why pray tell, is that something to fear?”

She shakily brought her lips to his in the way she faintly remembered her parents to have done… softly, gently.

It had not been that long since they had established a ‘friendship,’ but at this point she was certain…

When she pulled away, she laughed nervously, “It is something to fear…because I love you, Sesshoumaru.”

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(Tsuki)

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“That was unexpected, huh?” Inuyasha was flipping through the digital pictures that Kyoshi had taken. He raised his brows as the cameraman paused on the final photo he had taken. “I can probably keep my job, though. This is perfect.”

Kyoshi scratched the back of his head, “Shouldn’t you check on your brother though?”

Inuyasha snorted, “Sess? He’s a trooper—he’s fine.”

“He passed out, Inuyasha.”

“…”

After a moment, there was a sigh. “Fine! I’ll be back in a second. Run that photo over to Jakotsu with some snide sounding message. Make it sound like what I’d say.”

Kyoshi couldn’t help but smile, “Yes, boss.”

Inuyasha made his way across from out of the photo area and into the gallery. Sesshoumaru was laying, eyes closed on a bench the workers had cleared. Kagome was seated at the foot of the bench staring into space leaned gently against Kikyou, who seemed at a loss for what to do.

The brown eyed girl was simply stroking the girl’s hair when he found them, but a part of Inuyasha knew that that was enough of a comfort for Kagome.

So he focused his attention to his older brother.

He gently shook him, “Hey, Sesshoumaru.”

At the sound of his name, said person’s eyes shot open and he bolted up. Inuyasha drew closer with concern, “Oi, don’t sit up so fast!”

And then Sesshoumaru did something more out of character than his fainting. He bared his teeth and snarled.

But what had Inuyasha and Kikyou taken aback more than the action, though, was the fact that his canines had vastly elongated into fangs.

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(Tsuki)

A.N. How’s that for a little romance and mystery? Though I don’t really know if that could be considered romance, but I kinda confirmed the biggest duh of this story (that he’s this mysterious demon love of Kag’s.)

Hope it was enjoyable! Review!