Chapter Text
Kagome woke slowly, sunlight filtering through the window, and she groaned—she'd forgotten to close the curtains before she'd gone to sleep. Her hand moved instinctively, groping for the curtain that should have been mere centimetres from her bed, only to find air there instead.
She instantly shot up, holding the blanket against her very naked body, searching for the person who should've been next to her, but there was nothing. The bed was cold, indicating she'd been alone for some time.
She'd been used. She'd been abandoned. He'd just left her after he'd spent all night doing that and—
Emotion welled up in her chest, and she cleared her throat as she searched for her clothes, unable to stay for even a moment longer. "You're an idiot for thinking it would be more than just this," she said, not even bothering to shower before getting dressed. "Idiot. That's what you get for listening to Kagura."
Kagome hadn't been able to hide her attraction from her assistant, and Kagura had fully backed her up, encouraging her to make a move for months—on her best friend's brother, no less. And look where it got her. Kagome shoved her keys in her purse and hurried to catch a taxi back home to shower before work.
She tried to come up with what she would say to Kagura when the inevitable questioning would begin—they'd been seen leaving together after the corporate dinner, after all—but nothing she could think of did her experience justice.
She could still feel his hands on her, could still hear the whispered words in her ear that had given her hope for the morning after, and her heart ached. How dare he ask if he could keep her if he was just going to leave in the morning!
She'd thought she'd known him, especially after working in the same department for the last year, but clearly, everything she'd thought about him was wrong.
A humourless laugh escaped as she opened the door to their offices. Evidently, she didn't know her boss as well as she'd thought. Maybe no one did. Taisho Sesshoumaru had a way of remaining separate from everyone, even at work—but no, Kagura had sworn he softened when he looked at her.
The kicker was that Inuyasha had pushed her into leaving with him too, swearing up and down that it was the right thing to do—that she'd regret it if she didn't.
Joke's on them, she thought. She ended up regretting it regardless. Before, she could pretend that all the attention was due to her friendship with his brother and working together. But now… Now, there was no going back.
"Lost in thought, are you?" Kagura nudged her best friend and boss. "I bet you can hardly walk straight today."
Kagome managed not to sob, sucking in a calming breath but refusing to look at her. "Nothing happened."
"Liar." Kagura smirked as she nudged her again. "I can smell him all over you."
"Don't—" she hissed. "I don't want to talk about it. We've got work to do." Kagome pushed past her, stalking toward her cubicle before collapsing in her chair, for once glad she didn't have a clear view of his office. This way, she could avoid him all day.
Kagura moved a little closer, hovering at her desk. Sesshoumaru was the CEO, but Kagome was the department head of Human Resources, and Kagura was her assistant. "What happened?" she asked, placing her hand on Kagome's shoulder. "Do I need to cut someone?" Kagome gave her friend a sharp look, but Kagura wouldn't be deterred. "I'm asking as your best friend, Kagome."
Her jaw clenched as she stared at her screen, determined not to let any tears fall. "He left."
"He left?" Kagura repeated faintly. "What the hell do you mean, he left?"
"He wasn't there when I woke up," she clarified, hands balling into fists over her keyboard. "You were wrong. You and Inuyasha. He doesn't care at all."
Kagura's mouth snapped shut, radiating with fury. "He didn't even leave a note?"
"Nothing." Kagome stretched her fingers, then returned to her emails as she let out a resigned sigh. "It was a fairy tale while it lasted, but waking up alone in a cold bed isn't my style."
"I'll kill him." Kagura straightened, ready to make war on her behalf, as she often did. It was why they got along so well. Kagome's temper was just as bad, but she'd learned to control it. It wouldn't do for the head of HR to start throwing pencils at people.
On the other hand, Kagura never bothered to retain a verbal filter. She knew she'd never get fired—she'd never put Kagome in that position in the first place—but pushing people's buttons allowed Kagome to swoop in and calm things over, gaining the client's trust and usually their business.
Kagome immediately grabbed her wrist, vehemently shaking her head. "You're not going to do anything. I just want to forget the whole thing ever happened. I know he already has."
Kagura huffed as she tossed her hair. "I won't allow him to forget. That asshole! After all he did—"
"Who's an asshole?" Inuyasha rounded the corner of Kagome's cubicle, his tie lop-sided as always.
"Your idiot brother!" Kagura yanked on Inuyasha's ears as though he were Sesshoumaru himself.
"Oi, leggo bitch!" Her words registered, and he turned to Kagome. "Wait, what did he do now?"
"He left her alone in the hotel!"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Yeah fuckin' right. The bastard's been—" He looked between the two women, taking in Kagura's ire and Kagome's melancholy. "You serious?" Kagome nodded shortly, too morose to look him in the eye. Inuyasha yanked himself away from Kagura's grip, ears flattening as he rubbed them. "The fucking moron... I knew he was going to mess this up."
Kagura blinked. "Why aren't you pissed?"
"I am pissed! He'd been planning this for months!" He raked his hands through his hair. "I can't believe he got cold feet."
Kagura shifted her weight. "Cold feet? You mean he—" She looked over at Kagome.
Kagome hazarded a glance at her best friend, not wanting—not allowing herself to be pulled in, to be taken advantage of. Again. She got to her feet. "I have work to do. And so do you," she said pointedly.
Kagura huffed but didn't argue as she returned to her desk, narrowly missing the subject of their ire as he came in and sat in his office without so much as a glance at Kagome. She pretended it didn't matter, like each step he took didn't cut into her heart, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he'd upset her as she went about her day.
She would not cry at work.
He's not worth it, she told herself, the lie tasting bitter on her tongue. But gods, how she wished he would at least have looked at her. To show something.
He seemed to be avoiding her as much as she was of him, their paths not crossing once, and Kagome sighed as she pulled her lunch out of the fridge in the staff room several hours later. Maybe she could transfer herself to another office.
Or resign. She had the resume; she could go anywhere. Maybe she'd leave Japan entirely.
"How're you doing?" Inuyasha leaned against the door frame, arms crossed. Kagome waved a hand. She didn't even want to try to answer that, not when he knew her humiliation firsthand. "Look, K'gome, I'm sorry, this is all my fault." His ears lay flat against his head as he shifted his weight. "The bastard claimed to love you, so I thought… I never should've pushed ya to go home with him."
"You don't fuck someone and leave them if you love them," she bit out, anger flaring up past the misery. His ears flattened, and she sighed, leaning against the counter in resignation. "It's not your fault, Inuyasha. You didn't know."
"I know, but I still didn't want you to get hurt." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't get it. He'd been trying to work up the nerve to ask you out for months." Kagome snorted as Inuyasha added, "He even picked out the locations of your first ten dates. I'm telling ya, he had a whole plan. It makes no sense."
She tried to ignore it, to ignore the fluttering in her stomach—in her heart. "If he had all these plans, why didn't he say anything?"
Inuyasha flushed. "Keh. Hell, if I know." He rubbed his nose. "Shy or somethin'." Her heart broke again. There was no way that a daiyoukai of Sesshoumaru's stature was shy about anything. Either he'd just used her to get his dick wet, or she'd been so bad at it that he'd been turned off enough to throw away even the slight possibility of taking it any further.
Neither option suited her, but it was better than the intrusive thoughts about him secretly hating her and using it as an opportunity to take her down a peg.
"Inuyasha!" Sesshoumaru's voice cut through her downward spiral, and the hallway, making them both jump.
The hanyou groaned. "Why is everyone pissed at me today? I ain't done nothin'!" He shoved his hands into his pockets and trudged towards his brother's office.
"I do not pay you to loiter," Sesshoumaru snarled the moment Inuyasha entered his office. "Where are the damn reports I asked you to pull?"
"You only asked for those ten minutes ago, ya bastard! I haven't even been able to talk to the other departments yet!" He crossed his arms—if his brother wanted to be a bigger prick than normal, he certainly wasn't going to put up with it.
Sesshoumaru shoved the drawer of his desk closed with a bang. "I am in no mood for your games, Inuyasha."
"Just because you fucked things up with K'gome, doesn't mean I'm going to take your shit," he bit back, arms still crossed. "I'll take her side over yours any day." He watched as his brother's eyes flashed crimson but didn't back down. He wasn't about to transform here—he was too professional for that—but the asswipe had another thing coming if he thought he was just going to stand here and take the abuse.
Sesshoumaru looked like he was trying to calm himself down, youki spiking every so often, before the pen in his hand snapped in half. "She left me."
Inuyasha stomped up to his desk, slamming his hands down. "You were gone when she woke up, asshole! What did you expect her to think?'
Sesshoumaru stiffened. "I was not; I—" He stopped short, anger instantly deflating. "She believes I left her?"
"She went to a hotel with you, slept with you judging from the scent reeking off both of you, then woke up in an empty bed." He was sorely tempted to beat his brother over the head with his computer—or at least his stapler. "Why didn't you leave a note? Or better yet, fucking wait until she'd woken up?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes were unfocused. "I left her a note," he replied tersely. "I left to acquire breakfast and flowers for her. She had abandoned me upon my return."
Dragging a hand down his face, Inuyasha groaned. "You left it somewhere stupid, like in the bathroom, didn't you?"
Sesshoumaru turned away to look out his office window, face flushed. "I had thought to spoil her."
"You should've thought of that before you slept with her." Sucking in a calming breath, he stepped back, not trusting himself not to impale his brother with something. "She doesn't care about that shit—not about your title or your power or your money. All she wanted was you, and you weren't there when she was the most vulnerable."
Sesshoumaru got up from his chair and made his way to the door so quickly that Inuyasha was barely able to stop him in time. "Do not confront her in the middle of the department for everyone to hear!" he growled. "Her ego won't be able to handle that."
He flinched as he tightened his grip on the doorknob. "She has the wrong idea. I will not allow her to feel as though—"
Grabbing the back of his collar, Inuyasha yanked him away from the door. "And she won't listen to a damn thing you say if there are witnesses."
Sesshoumaru reluctantly allowed himself to be moved. "Then what must I do?"
"You're not going to do anything. Not yet," he said, ears twitching in agitation. "Lemme go talk to her and somehow get her in here. Then you can get down on your knees and fucking beg for her forgiveness. Not that you deserve it."
The scent of blood permeated the air as he dug his claws into his palms. "If she is not here within the hour—"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes; he could point out that they wouldn't be in this mess if Sesshoumaru had simply talked to Kagome, but in the end, he felt sorry for the bastard. "Yeah yeah, you can hunt her down and shit. Just don't do it in the middle of the department floor or anything."
"Boys." Kagura poked her head in. "Might I suggest you shut the fuck up before the humans on the floor hear you, too?"
Colour stained Sesshoumaru's cheeks, and he stalked back to his desk, muscles rolling as his jaw clenched. "Is there something you need, Tatsumaki?"
"Yeah." Kagura gave him a dirty look. "You to fix this with Kagome. You—" she said, glowering at Inuyasha, "—go talk to her. I'm going to give this asshole some pointers so he doesn't fuck this up again." Inuyasha lifted his hands in surrender, then walked out of the office, managing to close the door before Kagura started to berate his brother.