InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Because you asked me to ❯ Not alone ( Chapter 4 )

 

It was nearing midday when the woman awoke. The slight bouncing of the movement below her from the dragon she was riding on jostled her and she moaned softly when the jostling unsettled her stomach. Unused to the amount of food that she had consumed the night before and earlier that morning, her stomach was already quite sensitive, but the nap she'd had seemed to help settle it a bit. As she moved and tried to sit up, she upended herself and fell off Ah-Un's back, falling with a hard thump to the grass covered earth below.

 

“We will stop,” Sesshoumaru said as he stood still turning to watch the woman stumble to her feet. “Jaken,” Sesshoumaru said to his retainer and watched as the toad led Rin and Ah-Un, the woman walking alongside the dragon, her hand against his side, to a nearby tree that was full and thick with green leaves.

 

“We'll eat now,” Rin said softly to the pretty lady and hugged the woman's leg.

 

“Alright,” the woman said, returning the hug clumsily.

 

As Rin detached herself from the woman's side, the woman turned her head slightly, hearing the sound of a crow. Patting the child's head softly she moved away and followed the sound, not noticing when Sesshoumaru followed after her silently. She stopped for a moment when the bird grew silent and then resumed her trek when its call sounded again. She was growing nearer to the crow's find she knew by the smell of the rancid meat. It always tasted horribly and often times made her sick, but the child had said that they were to eat and so she had gone after her own food.

 

“No,” a voice sounded from behind her and she gasped as an arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her from going after the food. “I'll not have you eating this filth, you'll be fed properly.”

 

“Sesshoumaru?” she questioned, hoping she had the voice with the right person.

 

“Yes,” he said and pulled her back against him as he turned and led her away. “I'll not have you eating that ever again. You will be fed properly. If you wish to hunt I will teach you, but until such a time you will inform this Sesshoumaru if you hunger.”

 

“Have I offended you?” she asked her soft voice barely audible.

 

“No,” he answered and released a soft sigh. “That meat was rancid, not even I would be able to consume it without becoming ill. There is no doubt it would have made you ill, why do you eat it?”

 

“It's all I know in terms of meat,” she said her voice still as soft as it had been before, her embarrassment palpable. “The grass and tree leaves left me so hungry, I eat what I can, or at least did.”

 

“I am not upset with you,” he said trying to calm the fear and unease he felt in her aura. “Come with me,” he said as he moved away, feeling her hands grip his arm.

 

The woman walked hesitantly, her bare feet moving over the earth unsurely. She'd never been more than ten feet away from the place she slept since she'd been thrown into the wild. This was new terrain. New terrain could be dangerous. She stumbled over a rock and fell against Sesshoumaru's side, trying to balance herself as she held onto his armor.

 

The taiyoukai sighed and pulled her against his chest, wrapping her in his arm and tail. She was frightened and unsure making her stumble and fall, causing her fear to escalate.

 

“Calm your fear,” Sesshoumaru said as he held her in his arms. “Why do you not do as I command?” he asked when her fear hadn't abated even a slight bit.

 

“I've never - I've never been this far away before. I don't know this ground, this area.”

 

So that was what was causing her fear, he thought. He had not taken into account that with her lack of sight new areas would be even more unsettling to her. Every new place was a new adventure to Rin and he had simply assumed the same would be true for the woman, but as it was proven to him it would not be so. Somehow he would have to help her in each new place they rested in, help her to learn the area enough to quiet her fears before they moved on to the next place. He would also have to unlearn her of her habits of searching out rancid meat and eating bugs, grass and leaves. He meant what he said; she would be fed properly now that she was with him.

 

“Do not fear what you cannot see,” he said to her gently, though his voice was devoid of emotion. “Take slow steps, make certain your footing is sure, be calm and open your remaining senses to all that is around you.”

 

The woman in his embrace took a deep breath, her forehead resting against his armor plate as she tried to relax, tried to calm. She was with him, this man who had saved, who had helped her, who had taken her in when no one else gave a damn. That meant she was safe with him right? But what if…what if he grew tired of her? What if her sightlessness grew irritating to him too and he too deemed her worthless just like all the others had?

 

She didn't think she could handle that, survive that. She was too far away from the only place that she had ever known as home. She couldn't see and there were far too many new things about her. It had taken her two years before she had finally been able to memorize everything around her and no longer have to worry about stumbling around like the blind person she was. She didn't think she could do that, she didn't think she could make it on her own again.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped down to the woman in his hold. Her fear had begun to abate and then it had swiftly escalated to being far greater than it had been previously. Her heart was pounding furiously and he could smell the salt of her tears that were just below the surface. What was she thinking? What could be making her so afraid, so upset?

 

Holding her tightly against his chest, his arm holding her tightly and his tail wrapped thrice around her, securing her to his chest, he gave one graceful jump and leapt high into the boughs of the more than two hundred year old maple tree above them. He perched gracefully onto a high thick branch and sat down. Removing his arm from around her shoulders, but keeping his tail twined around her, he removed his armor and hung it on a thick off growth of the branch he was sitting on.

 

He maneuvered the woman in his hold to sit more fully on his lap and gently pressed upon her head, bringing her ear against his silk clad chest as he began purring low to her. It had soothed her the day before and it proved to have the same affect on her now as she calmed in his arms, her hold on him no longer so desperate.

 

“What is it you fear woman?” he asked after a while.

 

She didn't answer him, didn't raise her sightless eyes to him, but the look on her face said it all. Taking her face in his hands he looked into her sightless eyes, still amazed at the beauty of their silver-grey color and the way they reacted to light and spoke to her.

 

“This Sesshoumaru is not so dishonorable as to leave one behind that I have proclaimed as pack. Even should I find no use for you, you will have a home; you will have shelter and clothing. Never will you need worry as to where you acquire your food nor to your safety. You will have companions, and you shall Rin, and Jaken and this Sesshoumaru to call upon should you find yourself in need of company. You will not be left alone nor to fend for yourself, I am not like any others that you have met, who have betrayed you woman. Remember that. You are safe with me and my pack.”

 

He watched as in silence, tears filled her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks. Her hands that rested in her lap traveled up his chest until she was hugging him about his neck and crying, sobbing into his armless shoulder. He held her there in the tree, allowing her to cry. She needed this, he thought. She needed the tears, however many may come. They would cleanse her soul, heal her heart and in the end she would be the better for them having fallen.

 

Sesshoumaru held her, hugged her, kept her warm within the folds of his thick long tail. Her tears soaked the shoulder of his haori and dampened the skin underneath. There was no sound with her tears; no heart wrenching sobs no broken words or stilted breaths. She was silent as she cried, having learned long ago that if she gave sound to her tears it only invited danger. Her body shook against his as she clung to him afraid to let go, afraid he would disappear.

 

Surely this must be a dream, she thought in her torrent of tears. Surely she must be sleeping and when she awoke he would be gone. Who was she to have earned such kindness from a stranger? Who was she to cause a stranger to have such faith in her? For years it had been made clear to her that she was no one, that she was worthless and she didn't know how to think of herself as being anything else. Perhaps he would change that too. Perhaps he would inspire in her the faith in herself that he held in her. Was she worth it though, was she worth such faith?

 

“You need to eat,” Sesshoumaru's soft voice startled her from her thoughts and she turned her sightless eyes up in the direction his voice had come from. “You have not eaten properly in far too long and now that you have begun to eat properly, you must continue to do so otherwise you will become ill.”

 

“But what will I eat? I cannot hunt,” she said softly and heard his soft sigh.

 

“I told you that you need not worry about such things. I or Jaken will bring food at each resting place. If we must make haste and you and Rin must eat as we travel then Rin will gather edible ground food. You need not procure your own food; simply eat of what is offered to you.”

 

“I don't…how do I thank you for this?” she asked her voice soft and hesitant.

 

“You need not. As you are of my pack it is my duty to provide for you. I'll not have you going hungry or being harmed. Once we have returned to my castle you will be provided with a room and a wardrobe.”

 

“Wardrobe?” she asked with a shake of her head, not knowing the word, never having had use of it.

 

“Yes a wardrobe. It will contain silk Kimonos for both formal and casual wear.”

 

“Silk, no I can't, it's too much,” she said interrupting him. She was silenced by him pressing a clawed finger against her lips.

 

“Silk,” he reiterated in a voice that brooked no argument and a smile twitched at his lips. “You will have a personal servant,” he returned his finger to her lips when she opened them to protest. “She will help you dress. She will comb your hair, help you bathe, and be at your beck and call-”

 

“You can't do this!” she exclaimed as she grasped his wrist and tugged his hand away from her face, removing his finger from her lips. “It's too much,” she shook her head. “Please, I should be a servant to someone else not have one doting on me. I'm not worthy of it,” she argued not understanding how he could think she deserved any of this.

 

His wrist disappeared from her hold and three clawed fingers covered her lips, silencing her protests. A soft smile lit his eyes as he looked down upon the blind woman. Any other woman, worthy of the attention or not, would be fawning all over him and thanking him beyond measure for it and here she was begging him not to lavish her with such things, that she didn't need them and wasn't worthy of them. It was her vehement belief that she wasn't worthy of them that made him want to lavish and shower her with such things all the more. He would prove to her and make her believe that she was in fact worthy of such things, protesting against them or not, he thought with a twitching smile, before his eyes and face once again became cold and stoic.

 

“You will wear silk, you will have a servant. Your room will be in the family wing. You will have a private bath. Do not interrupt,” he said as he covered her lips back up with three fingers. “And furthermore, you will leave the decision of whether or not you are worthy of something to this Sesshoumaru.” He slowly removed his fingers from her lips once he had finished speaking and looked at her face, watching the emotions pass over her face like pictures in a book.

 

“Please Sesshoumaru,” she called him by his name without the title, the title itself not holding meaning to her as she had no understanding of such things. “Please give these things to someone who is worthy of it,” she said shaking her head as she looked upon him desperately. “I am not worthy of this I'm just some wild girl.”

 

“You are worthy,” he said not at all upset by her referring to him with such familiarity and seeing her refusals of his offerings for what they were. She was by no means disrespecting him or being rude, she simply did not see herself as deserving of such things. He would changer her perception of herself he thought.

 

“Please,” she tried to dissuade him once more. “I could clean floor or - or scrub dishes or something, this is too much!”

 

“You will not be a servant nor a maid.”

 

“But-” she was silenced once again by his fingers covering her lips.

 

“You will be treated as a lady of my lands.”

 

“But I'm human and - mmph,” the rest of her protest was cut off by his lips covering hers and she felt her stomach clench with some unknown warmth as her eyes fell closed as he kissed her.

 

Not what in the hell had possessed him to do that, he wondered as he broke the kiss, his eyes confused, though his face was stoic.

 

Mine he heard his youkai blood call to him.

 

His what? Surely his youkai blood couldn't have meant the woman.

 

Mine, it repeated and he decided to ignore it.

 

“You will not be a servant,” he said with an air of finality. “You hunger,” he said when her stomach growled. “You will eat.”

 

 

A.N.: For those of you reading this remember, since MM.org has not been sending out alerts, if you'd like an update alert sent to your inbox when a story has been updated, just put you name/handle and email address in your review along with the word `update'. Thank you and be well everyone. Happy weekend and for those of you going back to or already returned to school, do well and work hard.