InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ I Will Wait ❯ Chapter Seven: Three Small Words ( Chapter 7 )

I Will Wait By: BansheePuppet Chapter  Seven: Three Small Words   ‘There are things that have happened for which I am not to blame.  I am the demon lord of the West, and yet, in your regard, only a man.’   Sesshomaru leaned back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling for some time in thought before he felt the woman stir at his side.   “Do you regret it?” he asked blandly.   Kagome curled into a strong shoulder and sighed softly.  “I only regret making you think that I might,” she replied.  She tugged herself up to kiss his jaw.  “And I regret not telling you ‘I love you’ before we came this far.  No, I don’t regret ‘it’—I don’t think I could if I tried.”   “Then I’m glad,” Sesshomaru replied, mentally tracing backwards over the events that led to this moment, Kagome’s bare breasts pressed against his ribcage as she curled against his, also bare body beneath the sheets, flesh to flesh with noting more between them but mutual love.  He couldn’t help but feel like they’d danced this dance before, really, but that didn’t quite matter.     It had been early the previous evening, the night of the festival, and he’d dressed for the occasion, putting aside his armor for the evening in favor of black hakama and a matching silk top embroidered in silver and gold with a pattern of moon and stars.  He had one of his servants tie his hair back into a ponytail.   The attire was befitting of a Lord at such an event, but he couldn’t help wondering if it would be to Kagome’s taste.  He spoke politely with the village chief as he waited for her to arrive.  He didn’t remember the topic now—small talk—inconsequential and unimportant things that didn’t particularly matter.   …and then he saw her.  She was helping Miroku and Shippo push Inuyasha and Sango forcefully into a romantic boat ride.  Both were protesting and blushing and he couldn’t help but feel that teasing them was probably rather fun.   And Kagome looked stunning, of course.  Her usual short-skirted clothing had been put away in favor of a sundress—white with large sunflowers spattered about randomly.  The welcome committee had obviously gotten to her, as there was a floral wreathe in her hair.   “Excuse me,” Sesshomaru told his company.  “My date has arrived.”    And said ‘date’ was currently being ogled as Miroku had gone off to buy food after enough of Shippo’s pestering.  Sesshomaru decided to make it rather obvious that she was NOT available.  Call it a ‘jealous’ or ‘overprotective’ nature if you will, but whatever the reason, he approached her rather deliberately.   “Kagome.”   She gave him a stunned look, followed by a shy smile.   He rather deliberately smiled back to make the point to her admirers.   “I…made it,” Kagome told him, fidgeting a bit.   “Yes,” he replied, tilting her chin up to kiss her fully on the mouth.  It was a passionate kiss, primarily because he was unable to stop himself at a slight peck where the woman was involved.  “You have,” he finished, breathing against her lips.   Kagome found she was clinging lightly to his shirt, heart pounding at the strong kiss.  Her cheeks were bright red and she was at a loss for what to say.   “Shall I buy you dinner first?” he asked matter-of-factly.   “Y-yes.  I…um…you look really handsome,” Kagome sputtered.  ‘Could I possibly sound more stupid?’ the miko wondered as he took her hand and began leading her towards the food stands.    Sesshomaru gave her an enigmatic, miniscule smile and replied.  “That dress suits you.”   ~*~   It was coincidence.  Kouga grinned, excited.  “Kago…!!” His eyes widened when he saw none other than Sesshomaru approach her and all but inhale her face…and she seemed to like it.   In spite of himself, a slight choking sound cut off the rest of his word in his surprise.  He was kind of frozen in place from shock.  He’d thought Inuyasha was his competition.  ‘What the hell is going on?!’ his mind demanded to sort out the sudden confusion.   “It looks like we’re both being left behind,” a certain lecherous monk’s voice said from behind him.   Kouga spun about to fine a shish-kabob being held out to him.  Shippo had run off somewhere, so the monk saw no harm in giving his food away.    “Though I have to admit, even I’m a bit surprised that she picked Sesshomaru.”   Kouga glared at the kabob he was now holding, for lack of adequate things to blame.  Inuyasha was one thing, but he knew against Sesshomaru he didn’t stand a chance of competing for Kagome’s affections—they were completely different TYPES.   “Well,” Miroku said with a shrug.  “I guess there’s no accounting for love.”   Miroku had just been starting to fall for Sango when he noticed Sango and Inuyasha falling for one another.  It was, perhaps, a strange couple, but he decided he wouldn’t get in the way of it.  It was more important to him that they were happy anyway, so he took up the roll of ‘matchmaker’ subtly, always giving them the ‘alone time’ they needed to finally admit their feelings until finally he saw no other option but to shove them on a boat together and instruct the boatman to ‘not let them dock until they’ve stopped being stupid.’   Kouga sighed now, feeling a bit deflated.  He sort of knew Kagome didn’t like him, so it wasn’t much of a shock in that regard, but he thought as long as there wasn’t someone else that she liked, he had a chance of winning her over…so much for that.   “I saw a game where you shoot arrows at wooden ducks to win stupid prizes.  Wanna try it?” he asked the monk.  He needed a distraction, anyway.   “Hah. Sure.  If I make a big enough fool of myself maybe I can get a cute girl to take pity on me and bear my child,” Miroku joked.   “…idiot.”   ~*~   Sango was about to die of laughter.  She took a deep breath to calm herself down, ringing out her ponytail as Inuyasha shook himself off.  He didn’t like being wet, but more importantly, Sango was laughing, and it somehow was contagious and addictive, but the frivolous mood was slowly giving way to the need to breathe as they sat in the grass side by side.   “I have to admit…that was kind of fun,” Sango said, ringing out the bottom of her kimono.   Inuyasha was squeezing some excess water from his hair, ears twitching slightly.  “I’m gonna kill that monk,” he stated.   A long silence passed between them.  “Sango, I…”   “Omigod! You two are soaked!” Kagome yelped as she nearly walked into them, hidden on the other side of a small hill.  “What happened?!”   Sesshomaru stood beside her, arm wrapped lightly around her back.  They had eaten dinner and watched a short one-act play and were now about to go for a walk around the lake before the evening fireworks when the stumbled, quite literally, across a very startled, and very soaked pair.   “The boatman wouldn’t let us dock and get off!” Inuyasha huffed irritably.   “So we swam to shore,” Sango finished.  “…after Inuyasha got made enough to capsize us, of course.”   Long story short—Inuyasha got mad and stood up, knocking the boat over, so they ‘made a swim for it’  Typical story for him, no?   “More importantly, what are YOU doing with HIM, Kagome?” the hanyou demanded, glaring at his brother.   “Taking a walk,” she tried.  Explaining that she was DATING Sesshomaru would probably just cause headaches.   Of course, that didn’t keep Sesshomaru—who rather enjoyed irritating his brother—from elucidating.  “DATES are wont to do that sort of thing,” he said.   “D-Date?! You!??? Why would Kagome date YOU? She’s too good for you!”   It had long since been established that Inuyasha and Kagome’s relationship was similar to a sibling relationship—that is to say they usually irked one another to no end, but that was really just a way of showing that they cared.  Seeing as Inuyasha hadn’t had a proper family life growing up, now he’d become a bit overprotective of the miko.   “Don’t be so mean!” Kagome protested, fighting the urge to use the ‘s’ word.  “Inuyasha I…I LIKE Sesshomaru…and he likes me, so I…please just accept that.  I know you don’t get along but…can’t you just try? For my sake?”    “Che. Whatever.  Go walk, stupid.  If he hurts you I’m not gonna come to your rescue this time.”   Kagome smiled at the hanyou.  “Anyway, don’t you have more important things to worry about than me right now?” she said, words laden with meaning, and Inuyasha flushed in reply and turned away to sulk.   “Take care of him Sango,” Kagome chirped before pulling Sesshomaru along past them.   Sango blushed brightly at the implication.  “Inuyasha…”   “Sango, I…oh, you first…”   Sango shook her head.  “No, it’s noting. Just…Kagome probably appreciates you not making a big deal, I guess.”   “Che.  What’s there to make a big deal out of?  What she does with who is her own business.  It’s not as if he’s dating YOU,” he said irritably, then blushed as he realized what he’d just given away.    “Oh…shit…uh…I mean…”    Sango carefully placed her hand over his.  “I’m glad…that it would annoy you,” she said.   The dumbfounded look he gave her as he said her name only was priceless.   ~*~   “Thank you,” Kagome said.  “For not fighting with Inuyasha this time,” Kagome said.   Sesshomaru shrugged blandly.  “I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate anyway.  He looked ridiculous.  Besides, it would have irritated you.  Our date is more important than my idiot brother.”    He’d spent most of that short conversation with Inuyasha trying not to laugh at the wet dog look he was sporting, anyway, not that you’d ever be able to tell past Sesshomaru’s ‘bored stiff’ expression.   ~*~   Kouga wiped a few giddy tears from his eyes.  He hadn’t found anything this amusing in a while.  “Miroku, you suck at this!” he laughed.   “Shut up.  I’m a monk, not an archer,” the monk complained as another arrow missed the target by about twenty feet.  Still, for all his protests, it was fun, just goofing around with Kouga.  It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.  “Fine smartass, YOU try it.  I’ll find some cute girls to give your prizes to.”   “Pervert.  Give me the bow.”   ~*~   In the end, they watched the fireworks from the lake.  It was quiet and they sat together in the grass, Kagome leaning against his shoulder as they talked about meaningless things—school, Sota, Rin and Jaken, a certain sitcom Sesshomaru had become fond of over his short stay in Kagome’s time…their relationship in the grander sense, what Kagome planned to do when she returned to the future, and of course, before the fireworks were over, Sesshomaru found himself kissing his ‘girlfriend’ again, tangling their tongues, wrapping his one arm around her tightly as if the thought of letting her go was too much of a burden to bear.   ~*~   And somehow, that had led them here, to this moment—waking up late in the morning to his naked lover lying beside him, curled against him, telling him she shared his feelings.   “You’ll really wait?” the miko asked innocently.   And Sesshomaru nodded.  “I will,” he replied before the moment was broken by a certain bundle of human child energy bounding into the room and pouncing his blanketed chest as Kagome yelped and hugged the blankets to cover herself.   “Rin has learned to cook eggs!” she announced.  “Sesshomaru-sama missed breakfast though!...but Shippo-kun ate them with Rin and said they were very good!” she announced.   Why Shippo was here was something Kagome decided she wouldn’t ask as she watched Sesshomaru continue to lay there with the girl sitting on his stomach, lazily allowing her to babble at him until she was done.  She couldn’t help but think he was going to be a very good father when they had their own children…someday.   ~End Chapter~   A/N:  I can’t help but get the feeling my writing is actually getting worse…I’m starting to lose energy for some of my longer-standing projects, which means it’s a good thing I haven’t got far to go on them.  Anyway, as I say every time I actually type and post a chapter, I have every intention of finishing this story…I’m just taking my sweet old time doing it. Heh.  I won’t say ‘write another chapter soon’ because at this point we all know I’m going to dawdle, so instead I’ll say ‘anxiously await the next installment!....which might not come for a while…’  Well, I’ll try to become inspired for the next chapter quickly, but I make no promises.  I have too many projects happening at the moment, as usual.