InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Into the East ❯ Maritime Shenanigans, Part 1 ( Chapter 29 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Into the East
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Maritime Shenanigans, part 1
Posted: 17 July 2013
Characters/Plot originally appearing in the anime/manga Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi
Everything else © me, so basically everything but Sesshoumaru at this point.

A/N: apologies for the awful formatting before. I was in a hurry and didn't check it once uploaded like I should have. Thanks for bearing with me. … And on with the show!

Sunlight slanted in through the cabin window, playing across Sesshoumaru’s face and teasing him to wakefulness. The ship rocked gently on a swell, and he awoke with a start, nearly hitting his head when he sat up in bed.

“Oh!” Vanessa cried, even as he ducked at the last moment.

He glanced at her and was shocked to find her smothering a grin with both her hands. He scowled.

“I'm sorry,” she choked out behind her fingers.

She was still in her bed, propped up on her elbows, eyes sparkling above her fingertips, and he found that no matter how he tried... he couldn't hold onto his irritation.

“You seem well this morning,” he commented, letting slide what he might have otherwise considered an offense. He really shouldn’t be surprised anymore that he let her get away with such things.

Vanessa dropped her hands to the thin mattress beneath her, but the smile lingered on her lips. “I feel better. We'll see if it lasts.”

“Have you been awake long?”

She shook her head. “Just a few minutes before you.”

Sesshoumaru scrubbed his hand over his face and swung his legs over the side, remembering to duck to clear the ceiling this time, and dropped lightly to the floor.

“Shall we take our breakfast outside?” he asked.

Vanessa smiled warmly. “That would be nice.”

She accepted the support of his arm as she hopped down from her own bed and gathered some of the food they had brought and followed him out of their cabin. There was a fire they could use in the cook’s station if they didn’t disturb his work so they roasted bits of pork until they were warm and crispy and went out into the sunlight.

The salted pork and hard, dry bread would grow tiresome, he knew, but they didn't have many options. They could fish if it became unbearable, he supposed. Vanessa had made sure to get spare hooks and line before they left, but there would be time for that later.

Sesshoumaru blinked in the bright morning light, made all the more dazzling by the sparkling sea that surrounded them in every direction as far as even his eyes could see. They had sailed south and west, far beyond any sight of land overnight, and Sesshoumaru couldn't help but feel exceptionally small when measured against the enormity of this ocean. Being among the most powerful creatures in his land, this was an odd feeling, and yet... he was going somewhere never before visited by any of his kind, none from Japan anyway. There was something to be said for that.

He glanced about at a few of the human crewmen casting him curious and wary looks. Before ever setting sail, Peinado had introduced him as he was, no disguises, and most had accepted the captain's word and judgment well enough. A small handful of men left the ship right then, and despite leaving the crew shorthanded, Sesshoumaru was glad to see them go. If they were superstitious, as Vanessa suggested, then they would only cause them trouble in the months ahead. Most of the others accepted his “strangeness” and if they were wary and kept their distance, that was fine by him.

The humans in this part of the world were strange to him, but according to Vanessa they would be among the leaders of her world. He wondered if these superstitions would persist through the centuries. Vanessa did not seem afflicted by them. Was she the exception? Or were men like these sailors what he had to look forward to in his long life.

Vanessa nudged him from his musings and held out his share of the food. “Something on your mind?”

“The future,” he murmured, squinting toward the west though there was no hope yet of seeing this new continent.

They had gone to the rail to stay out of the way, and now she leaned on it and looked up at him, picking at her bit of bread. “Anything in particular?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “Merely curious as to how so many humans will shape this Earth.”

“I could tell you,” she offered, and during their travels she had told him many things. She had told him fantastical tales of machines that fly with hundreds of people within, and buildings so tall that they touched the very sky, of people, humans no less, who will breach that eternal sky and set foot on the moon. The moon!

I was hardly to be believed, and yet he had never sensed any deception in her. It was either true or she was delusional, and he was unwilling to believe the latter. He shook his head. “No, I believe I would prefer to watch it unfold, to see it with my own eyes.”

He didn't mention that she had also told him that creatures like him and Saburo, even Inuyasha and the dragons they had encountered were nothing more than myth and legend in the future. He had to admit that it was a bit unsettling to think that his days may in fact be numbered.

“You should eat,” he murmured, still distracted by his thoughts, when a sudden exclamation make him jerk.

“Ah!” came a delighted cry from behind him.

Sesshoumaru turned to see the captain strolling toward them. “Miss Vanessa, and Seh... Sessho... eh... Señor,” he settled with an apologetic nod to the taiyoukai. Sesshoumaru fought the urge to roll his eyes. Really, was his name so difficult for the tongues of these people? He’d recognized the prefix that the children had attached to Vanessa's name, but when Captain Peinado continued to speak, he was – as per usual recently – at a loss and dependent on clues from Vanessa.

“We would love to join you for breakfast,” she said finally, smiling brightly at the human male, and wrapped the remainder of her meal in a cloth pulled from her pocket . If it meant proper food for her, he would suffer through the discomfort of being on the outside looking in on their conversation.

They followed the captain into his quarters, and he seated them, not at his desk where they had met the previous morning, but at a small table off to the side near a window. There was an array of porridge, sausages, bread, fruit, and a steaming pot of something undefinable, something he had never smelled before. They could have brought fresher food for the early part of the voyage too, but they had agreed that it was more prudent to bring more of something that would last well into their travels on the other continent. They didn't know what the chances were of restocking when they arrived in Havana.

Although it was not something he would normally eat, the smell of the food was enticing after the more practical provisions of that morning.

“You have coffee?!” Vanessa exclaimed as Captain Peinado began pouring steaming, dark liquid from the pot into cups set in front of each of them. Sesshoumaru looked up in surprise from his study of the food on the table.

Vanessa and the captain had been chatting amiably, and he had lost interest until that moment. Her eyes were bright and the grin she wore was radiant. She'd never responded in such a way to anything he had given her, he thought with a slight furrowing of his brow and an unexpected twinge of envy. Had she? And this was just a drink! He watched in strange fascination as she inhaled deeply of the steam rising from her cup, rolling her eyes in obvious appreciation.

“Oh...” she said, startled and suddenly uncomfortable when the captain asked her a question. “It's, um... common where I come from... No, I'm not originally from London. How did you come by it? I haven't had any in ages.”

The drink must be one of those things common in her time, but still very localized in his present, he reasoned. They were still talking, but Sesshoumaru's eyes were on Vanessa as she took a slow sip. “Oh, this is good,” she murmured as the captain continued to speak. “Turkey?” she asked in surprise. “Have you done much trading in the Mediterranean?”

Captain Peinado responded as Sesshoumaru took a delicate sniff of the dark liquid in his own cup. It smelled almost nutty and was slightly bitter on his tongue when he took an experimental sip. Unusual, but not unpleasantly so. In fact, the taste of it grew on him more with each sip.

Vanessa laughed suddenly at something the other human said. “You really must have been everywhere,” she said, her voice still full of laughter. “And now traveling across the Atlantic? I think you'll see the entire world before you're through.”

The captain shook his head modestly, but Sesshoumaru felt his brows knitting further as he watched them. Was she flirting with him? It was ridiculous that he should feel any amount of jealousy for this human. He was Sesshoumaru, after all. He was not affected by such things. And yet, there was a quickness in his heart that he could not explain, an ache in the pit of his stomach that he had never felt before. Whom had he ever had to be jealous of? He could take who- and whatever he wanted - that was the nature of power. But that was the crux of it. Vanessa was not something he could have just because he wanted her; she had to be won, and she couldn’t know that she was the prize. Dangerous thoughts...

He decided to focus his attention on the sausages and bread set before him. There was no sense in getting irritated over half of a conversation. He was brooding silently over his food, when suddenly there was a light touch on his knee. He snapped his eyes to hers and realized she had been talking about him.

“... Sesshoumaru has been such a huge help to me the past few months. I wouldn't be here if it wasn’t for him.” Then she smiled in that way of hers, and the unease in his chest lifted. Everything was fine again. It was a dangerous road he walked, but he wasn't at all sure that he wanted to detour anymore.

Vanessa turned back to the captain and they continued their conversation. Sesshoumaru watched, and listened to what he could, while he sipped at his drink until all that was left was a thick sludge of whatever had been brewed in the water at the bottom, and it was at about that time that the captain rose, claiming other duties to see to and walked them to the door.

“Vanessa,” Sesshoumaru began, frowning out at the gentle swells of the ocean. They had gone back to their earlier place at the rail after breakfast and “coffee.”

“Hm?” she replied, turning to him and tucking a curl behind her ear as the wind caught hold of it. She smiled up at him, but he hesitated. She always seemed to have such faith in him that it made what he had to ask... difficult.

He hated having to rely on her for snippets of conversation. How could he truly protect her when he didn't understand the soft mutterings of the crew as they passed by. What if they missed something vital because she couldn't hear as well as he did, or because he simply didn't know what it was he was hearing. It didn't help his pride that he had to admit that he was lacking in some skill vital to his success. But this was Vanessa. She would never use his weaknesses against him.

She waited expectantly.

“I would like... That is... Would you teach me your words? Your language?” he finished quickly, wincing at the botched delivery of his own request.

Vanessa stared at him, lips parted in surprise. He should have thought of it before, but he didn't find it necessary until now, and there hadn't been time while they were in London, and...

“You... Want to learn English?” Her lips turned in a half smile as though she didn’t quite believe him.

He nodded and leaned against the rail. “I should have asked sooner. It hinders my ability to protect you if I cannot know what is being said around me.”

She smiled and bit her lip, and her nose crinkled in a way he found oddly endearing, causing his need to keep her safe to grow to new levels. “I'm not a very good teacher,” she said.

In response, Sesshoumaru tilted his head just a little as he watched her, and said plainly, “You taught Rin.”

Vanessa waved off the comment and turned to face the water. “Just a few words, nothing meaningful.”

She was quiet for a moment, and then turned back to him. “You really want to learn?”

Sesshoumaru nodded. “I would not have asked otherwise.”

It also wouldn't hurt that this way he could know what the captain said that made her laugh so gaily. He only got half of the conversation, and none of it had seemed particularly amusing...

Finally, she smiled and nodded, and he was not surprised when she took his hand and tugged him toward the stairs to their cabin below. “Come on,” she said. “Better not to advertise how much you have to learn.”

Once more in their small cabin, they sat on the low chairs, positioned beneath the bunks facing each other. “We'll...ah... We’ll have to break the bond to do this. That was why I could only teach Rin before. You already knew what I was saying.”

Sesshoumaru suddenly found himself hesitant to relinquish that connection, and by the look on her face, the biting of her lip, Vanessa seemed equally so.

They hadn't been “apart” since that night back in Japan when, foolishly, he had nearly driven her away. They had relied on it then and every day since. “It will be temporary,” he assured her, though a niggling doubt still made him hesitate. What if it couldn't be reestablished? They had been tied for far longer than the old miko had likely anticipated, and there was no one near who would be able to fix it if it broke.

If the bond was permanently severed, he would have no choice but to learn the language, but it would be at the cost of no longer feeling her mood along side his. At last, he sighed and held out his hand to her. “Take mine. It will be easier for you to do it.” Her hands were gentle, and she had no claws to tear the silk.

Vanessa took his hand in both of hers, her fingers shockingly cool to the touch. She hesitated just a moment more, then slid her slender fingers between the silk ribbon and his skin and tugged gently to pull it over his hand.

The feeling of loss was immediate, and with it came a simultaneous, sharp intake of air. Sesshoumaru schooled his features more quickly, but he couldn't help the widening of his eyes as he stared at her. He remembered her sudden absence from the periphery of his senses back then, but he felt it so much more acutely now, as if he had lost her completely, yet she sat right there before his very eyes. The miko was thousands of miles away, if anything, the spell should have grown weaker, not stronger. There was no logical reason for it to bother him more to have her out of his head now than when the spell was first cast. And yet it did.

He knew he was not alone when tears sparkled in her eyes, and if she squeezed his fingers a little tighter, he couldn't say he minded the contact. Vanessa shook her head and quickly dashed them away while Sesshoumaru averted his eyes as she composed herself.

“Sorry,” she breathed. “That was... unexpected. I will be ready next time.”

It was strange now to hear her speak. Her speech was stilted and hesitant, and an accent he had never noticed before colored her words. Before, their bond had her speaking flawless Japanese to his ears, but this was so much more... natural, he decided. He marveled at how much she had learned in so short a time in his home, and how much she had retained since Shizu and Kaminari left and she no longer needed it.

“There is no need to apologize,” he said slowly, carefully, now conscious that she may not understand him explicitly. She nodded and took a breath.

“Ready?” she asked eagerly, now grinning with anticipation.

Sesshoumaru nodded, and she launched into the incomprehensible speech he heard from everyone else on the ship and in the town before they left.

For the next several hours, she broke down for him several words and phrases into something he could begin to understand, and by the time they stopped for the afternoon, in addition to a blossoming headache behind his eyes, Sesshoumaru had a few phrases and responses that he was confident he would remember. They were simple exchanges, and he would have to recognize the first part in order to respond correctly, but he held them fast in his mind. At least until their next session.

“Very good,” Vanessa praised, using words he had only just learned, but her brilliant smile was anything but patronizing. He couldn't physically feel it at the moment, but she was proud of him, and that in turn made his own pride swell.

Sesshoumaru inclined his head to her and said, “Thank you.”

Vanessa grinned and held out the black ribbon so that she could slip it back over his wrist, and it was no small relief to feel her hovering on the edges of his perception once more. She closed her eyes and smiled a soft smile of her own when she felt him again. That small gesture warmed him in ways that he knew it should not, but he didn't care. Her usual cheer returned when she opened her eyes once more. He hadn't noticed the tightness around those eyes until it was gone.

“That's more than enough for one day,” she said with a sigh. Sesshoumaru made a small noise of agreement. He hadn't studied so much since he was very small. “If we had something to write on, I’d teach you the letters that make up all those words and it might make more sense, but...” she shrugged.

“Let's go outside for some fresh air,” she suggested. “We've been cooped up here for hours.”

Sesshoumaru didn't mind the hours, the frustration... or the resulting headache. It was time well spent.

“You were wrong,” he said softly as she slipped past him. “You are a fine teacher.”

Vanessa paused and looked up at him, her cheeks coloring under his gaze. “It helps to have a good student.”

The next evening after another day of sun and English lessons, they were enjoying a glass of wine in their quarters after dinner when someone out in the large lower deck area played a few notes on a tin whistle. Another responded with a quick warm-up on a fiddle. Vanessa looked at him quickly, her eyes bright with excitement as a rousing tune wound through the hold toward them. Sesshoumaru could already hear stamping and clapping and shouts of encouragement. Vanessa grinned. “Want to have a look?”

He knew she enjoyed music, and though this particular flavor was not quite to his own tastes, he would humor her. Indeed, it would be a very long voyage without some form of entertainment, and who knows... he might come to enjoy it. But he very much doubted that. He inclined his head and motioned for her to proceed.

Outside their quarters, past the stairs up to the outer deck, the space opened up. Bunks, cots and hammocks were tucked in semi-private alcoves built into the walls. Storage barrels were as much furniture as the tables and chairs littered about the common area. A cook’s station stood to one side with a wood stove glowing with embers from the evening’s meal, providing some warmth in the cool night.

Vanessa led him to the source of the music, and he had to duck past several low beams before they came to a loose circle of men. Some were old and weathered, with leathery skin, tanned nearly brown by the sun, covering wiry frames. Others were young and lean, all hard and built for their lives at sea.

One of the older men, with a gap in his grin where teeth had once resided, glanced up at their approach and hurried up to them. He spoke a few words to Vanessa.

“Oh, no. I couldn’t,” she responded quickly. “I don’t know the steps.” She laughed at something he said and stepped closer to Sesshoumaru. “Maybe after a few songs. I’ll just watch for now.”

Sesshoumaru glanced at her. “He wants me to dance,” she explained when the man shrugged and rejoined his colleagues.

“Do you not wish to?” He recalled the scene in his dojo, and in the dim lantern light, he saw that she blushed, perhaps sharing his memory.

“Not right now. I hardly know him.”

Vanessa smiled and watched the other men enjoying themselves. Sometimes she laughed at lyrics he couldn’t understand. Sesshoumaru found he enjoyed watching her from the corner of his eye far more than he did the actual entertainment before him. After a while, the old man from before returned and whisked Vanessa away, laughing with half-hearted protests.

He quickly suppressed his own snarl of protest as a strange possessiveness came over him. That man had no right to touch her. And yet, despite her words she went willingly, laughing all the while. What claim had he ever made that would permit him to take offense? Had Vanessa even hinted at a need for aid, that man would be armless in an instant, without hesitation, and that was if he was feeling generous. At the moment... he was not.

Sesshoumaru leaned one shoulder against a support column in an effort to hide the tension he couldn’t release from his body while he kept a close eye on Vanessa, watching for any sign of distress. Despite their introduction the previous evening, the crew cast him wary and suspicious glances when they thought he wasn’t looking. He was supposed to be human, and it was an effort to play the part.

He watched as Vanessa hopped and skipped, matching the old man’s jig, and laughing when she missed a beat and stumbled. She hiked up the hems of her wide-legged hakama to match her feet to her partner’s, and in doing so, bared her legs to the calves.

Sesshoumaru scowled. He had grown used to the attire of the future and the associated level of modesty - especially with regard to that miko of Inuyasha’s, but these men were not of that future, and the women of London were just as covered as human women in Japan - and by that, he assumed custom must be the same. These men could not possibly have his level of control. He held his tongue, but now watched the faces of the men.

Vanessa danced with several other men, spinning and skipping before glancing his way with a grin. He quickly smoothed his face into something calm and tolerant, but still she paused, and with an apologetic gesture to her partner, walked the few paces back to him. A suspicious glint of mischief shone in her eyes, and her feet were light on the floorboards, still moving to the boisterous beat of the fiddle.

He realized too late what she intended, but even as she raised her hands to clasp his, he was shaking his head. “No,” he said firmly, ignoring the flush of her cheeks and warmth of her hands as she tugged his arm.

She managed to pull him a few feet from his post and grinned. “Come on,” she urged. “It’s fun.”

“I believe you and I differ in our notion of fun,” he muttered. He would just look like a fool. And then she laughed that same laugh of delight that had made him feel so envious earlier, and he very nearly gave in, but he kept his feet firmly on the floor as she danced around and around him, still holding his hand. His stout refusal to join her “fun” seemed to amuse her more than was warranted. However, though she laughed at him now, it was good to see her so lighthearted.

Vanessa laughed and finally came to a stop in front of him, one hand clasped in his, the other resting lightly on the side of his neck. She smiled up at him and he felt a contented warmth wash over him. For a long, wordless moment, she held his gaze, but then suddenly she looked away, blushing as though he had caught her doing something she shouldn’t. She moved her hand from his neck and straightened his collar - though it didn’t need it, and patted his shoulder. “Right... Right, not your thing,” she murmured as if to herself. “It’s getting late... I think I’ll go get some sleep.”

Sesshoumaru was left feeling cold when she pulled her hand from his and skirted past him without waiting for a response.

Now, just what was he supposed to make of that? He watched her back recede into darkness as she made her way to their cabin. Normally free with her emotions, she was carefully guarded with her feelings when he tried to make some sense of what had just happened via their connection. She had been enjoying herself, he could feel that for himself, but then her mood had changed so suddenly he wondered if it was something he did. Or didn’t do. And somehow he knew that, for once, she didn’t want to talk about it.

Shouts and laughter erupted behind him, and he turned. The scent of ale and other, stronger liquors was strong, and he silently bared his teeth at the raucous crowd of men. Vanessa had lost interest, so he no longer had a reason to remain, but did she want to be alone? Their small cabin was much more intimate and cramped than any campfires or rented rooms they had shared so far. He didn’t understand, and this troubled him. But if she didn’t want his company, what was he to do?

He started toward the cabin and hoped there was some way to resolve this.

vVvVvVv

In the darkness of their cabin, Vanessa sighed. She ran away. It was stupid, and there was no reason for it, but plain and simple - she ran away. Her thoughts and feelings had scared her so she clamped down on them and left, abandoning Sesshoumaru to the humans she knew he didn’t care for, and hiding in the seclusion of her bunk in their tiny cabin. In her bed, with the lantern turned low, she listened to the slosh and slap of water against the hull, to the creak of wood and sails, and wished she could just go home and put the confusion of everything behind her.

But that was the problem. She didn’t know which home she wanted to go to. She wanted both, and knew it was selfish and impossible to get everything she wanted. If she stayed, she’d never see her family again in this lifetime, and if she left, she’d never see Rin again. There was also the chance that she’d never see Sesshoumaru again either. It all depended on what happened in the next five hundred years. That was a long time, and though she had searched her memory, she couldn’t find anything new that suggested that she had seen him in her own past when she didn’t yet know him. The thought that these next few weeks might truly be the last she ever spent with him had hit home again as she tried to get him to join her in a dance.

She did smile a little at that. She’d miss his patience and what sometimes seemed a limitless tolerance of her whims and silliness. There was no reason why he should let her get away with half the things she did, she knew that, but he let her. And she didn’t mean to push his limits - usually, but she knew she did, and she also knew that sometimes he even liked her a little more for it.

In her earlier half-hearted attempt to get him to dance with her, she imagined a future together with him, and it had been nice. Too nice. More moments like that when she would coax an indulgent smile from him, adventures abroad, and quiet, peaceful times at home, evenings spent just talking about anything and everything - like they had done before they left Japan. Her heart had swelled at the thought that maybe, just maybe, he could feel the same, want the same things. And then that was crushed by the sting of her own betrayal.

There were people back home missing her, thinking she must be kidnapped or dead, not knowing what horrible things could be happening to her - had happened to her. She thought of her parents and her siblings. Her little sisters would be back at school by now, her brother would be at his office, and Bryce... Bryce.

As unhappy as she had been with him in the months before that party, she never thought they would be apart like this. She never wanted to hurt him or make him worry, and here she was, centuries away, actually enjoying herself - most of the time - and falling for another man. She was awful. What made her feel worse was that all of them, even Bryce had barely been an afterthought recently. How could she even say that she loved them, when she hardly thought of them? The fact that she had been fighting for her own life and Sesshoumaru’s in the days leading up to their departure was hardly an excuse.

Vanessa’s breath caught in her throat. He didn’t make a sound, but she knew Sesshoumaru stood outside the door. Ever since London, the connection she had with him seemed stronger. It could be her imagination, her relief after losing him and getting him back again, and paranoia over the same happening again.

She didn’t know how or why, but she could almost feel the nearness of his presence on the other side of the door. What she could feel was his confusion, and his concern, even the wariness as he rapped lightly on the door.

Vanessa said nothing, afraid of facing him with all of this running through her head, and hoping he would think her asleep though it had only been minutes since she left him. Besides, if she could feel him so easily, no matter how she tried to smother her own internal struggle, she knew he must be feeling it as well.

Sesshoumaru pushed open the door with a soft, low groan of its hinges, hesitated a moment then entered. For a long moment he just stood silently in the center of the cabin floor.

“Vanessa, I...” he began softly and stopped.

She could imagine his fist clenched at his side like he did when he searched for words he wasn’t used to saying, and she knew she wasn’t being fair to him. Her mood had nothing to do with anything he did, and he didn’t deserve to suffer for it. As though catching a wisp of her thought, he sighed. “If I have done something to offend, please... tell me. If you want to go back out there, I will-”

“No,” Vanessa interrupted, rolling over to face him. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” she said, knowing that he wouldn’t accept a denial of anything being wrong. How could he after her behavior? “But it isn’t anything you did.”

He was relieved, she realized with some surprise. Had he really thought he had done something wrong?

“Do you wish to be alone?”

Vanessa didn’t answer. She didn’t know. Just his presence in the room was a comfort, but she didn’t want him to worry over her up and down emotions. She couldn’t ask him to to stay and still refuse to tell him what had bothered her so suddenly, could she?

“I will leave,” he said softly and as he took a step back toward the door, she reached out to him.

“Don’t go,” she whispered, hoping that he wouldn’t run just as she had.

She wanted him near. She wanted to hear his voice and forget her worries. There was nothing she could do one way other the other right now. They were in the middle of the ocean, and she wouldn’t ask him to fly them back to land, not after everything they had done to get here.

Sesshoumaru stepped up to her bed as she thought these things and rested his forearm casually on her mattress. With her head pillowed on one arm, the height of her bunk set her eyes level with his shoulder. He leaned forward, putting his head close to hers and whispered back, “What can I do?”

Vanessa stared at his chest and slid her hand over to his, stopping just short of touching him. After a beat, his long fingers closed around hers, and just like that, her heart eased. She still felt guilty, but she also felt right, and when she squeezed his hand, he bent further and touched his forehead to hers. His bangs tickled her nose making her smile despite herself.

“I do not know what troubles you,” he murmured, his breath soft as a kiss next to her skin. "But if it will help, I will listen. Tell me only if you wish to." And when he shifted, she thought she felt his lips touch her forehead where his own had been only a moment before. Then he straightened, and the moment was gone so quickly she might have imagined the whole thing.

To say that Sesshoumaru was generally affectionate would be a gross overstatement. He had other ways of showing that he cared, but that small gesture was just what she needed. Had he known? She felt content and comforted and warm, and she could only imagine what a true kiss would be like. At that thought, she was glad the light was dim, because she knew by the sudden warmth that her cheeks had blushed pink at the very idea. She sighed.

“I’m not doing a very good job of making this a good trip,” she muttered and touched the claw on his thumb with the index finger of her free hand.

Sesshoumaru looked down at her silently and waited for an explanation.

“After everything that’s happened, I told myself that this part of the trip would be good. It has to be. And two days into it, I’m already a mess. I don’t know why now all of a sudden, but you shouldn’t have to deal with that.”

His lips twitched.

“I do not like when you are upset,” he admitted, making Vanessa wince. But he just smiled a little and shook his head. “Not because I can feel it too. It is not... comfortable, to feel helpless when something has upset you, especially when it was not me.” He let slip a small mischievous smile, but then turned his eyes aside and shrugged, looking shockingly vulnerable in the low light. “So if it is not something I have done or could prevent, what choice do I have but to offer comfort until it passes?”

Vanessa was stunned by his admission. How did he not have women knocking down his door for even a chance at his attentions, she wondered. He could have anyone. He didn’t have to live alone like he did.

The answer was already there in front of her, though: to most of his world, he was cold and ruthless, and cared about nothing and no one but himself, and that fact only made his words that much more potent. He offered his comfort because he wanted to. True, it hadn’t all gone as planned, but he was here because he wanted to be. He put himself through all of this because he wanted to help her. He could leave her at any time he wanted to, but he didn’t. Vanessa squeezed his hand again. No one had ever done so much for her while asking for nothing in return, and with a slightly thick voice, she said, “Thank you.”

“Get some sleep,” he told her. “You will feel better in the morning.”

And he was right. She didn’t know how long he stood there, a silent bastion of strength and security, but when she awoke in the morning, he was gone. She wanted to apologize to him, to thank him for bearing with her once again, but first she had to find him. Vanessa rubbed the sleep from her eyes and slid down out of her bed to go looking.

Fortunately there wasn’t far to go on a ship in the middle of the ocean, but she didn’t have to search long. Shielding her eyes from the morning sun with one hand, she spotted him. He stood out of the way of the crew with his face turned up to the morning sun, and she thought she saw his nostrils flare when the wind blew her scent to him and whipped his hair and clothes about him. He said nothing as she approached.

"Sorry about last night,” she said, sidling up to him and leaning her elbows on the starboard side rail. “Human moment, I guess."

Sesshoumaru glanced down at her then out to the western horizon. They were heading slightly south now in their westward journey. "How was your rest?" He asked, and Vanessa thought he might be avoiding exactly what what made her so upset. She wondered if he even wanted or cared to know. Maybe it didn't matter to him. Like he said, if it wasn't something he had done, what could he do? Still, even though he didn't ask, she felt like she owed him some kind of explanation.

"Fine," she said. "I think maybe everything just caught up to me and I felt a little overwhelmed."

He almost smiled as he looked out at the glistening water. "Understandable. You have been through much in the past months and have had little time to reconcile what you have seen with your reality in the future. I must admit, you have shown an admirable strength through it all."

"You mean for a human."

He shook his head, never taking his eyes from the water. "I mean for any being taken from his -or her- timeline and dropped into another. It must have been terribly disorienting and frightening for you. I sometimes forget that you are not fully at home here, even when you appear to be at ease with your surroundings."

Vanessa hadn't expected that. There were days she didn't know which way was up, but he always seemed to be there to show her. Was this something he had thought about?

"You've put some thought into this," she said with a smile.

"The confines of a ship leave room for little else."

Before she could consider the odd note in his voice, there was a commotion at the stairs leading down to the hold and crew quarters. She and Sesshoumaru exchanged a glance and turned to watch as two men - the cook and the first mate, hurried up the steps in the direction of the captain’s cabin. One of them had a lump of something gray in his hand.

“What happened? Can you hear them from here?” Sesshoumaru asked.

Vanessa shook her head. “No, just voices.”

They discreetly shifted closer until she could make out the words

“Oh,” she said softly, listening to the muffled discussion. “Gross.”

Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow expectantly. “Sorry,” she said softly. “It sounds like the crew’s meat rations have rotted. Some of it anyway. The captain says that it must not have been inspected properly at the dock. It couldn’t have gone bad in the couple days we’ve been at sea. Of course, Antón says that everything was fine when he checked it in - Heads up!” she hissed, and turned away hurriedly as Antón stalked back out the door. He saw them from the corner of his eye and paused, narrowing his eyes at them, at Vanessa in particular, and spat on the deck before moving on.

Vanessa gasped in indignation and turned to watch him go, while Sesshoumaru stiffened beside her. She could practically feel him restraining himself from responding, and the intensity of his own sudden and indignant rage took her breath away. “Rude,” she breathed. She inched back until she could feel Sesshoumaru at her back. Antón scared her. Where Captain Peinado was lean and wiry, Antón was a barrel of a man with thick, bristly, black hair, and small dark eyes. He didn’t wear a frock coat like his captain, and his pale linen shirt did little to hide the bulk of his muscles. Broad shoulders and bulging arms suggested that he might be the muscle to Peinado’s brain. And he had been against her presence on board from the start. Until then he had not been overtly disrespectful, simply cold and aloof. She could deal with that. Thinly veiled threats?

“You have nothing to fear from him,” Sesshoumaru growled for her ears alone. “But perhaps... keep your distance nonetheless.”

“You’re telling me. He couldn’t think I had anything to do with that, could he? The way he looked at me...” she shuddered. He put a hand on her shoulder as if to assure her that whatever trouble Antón might cause, he would be there to defend her. Vanessa smiled and clasped his fingers briefly.

“I do not see how,” he said. “We have not gone near near their stores, and as you said, it has only been two days since we left the city. I would wager their supplies were rotten before they came on board. His pride is wounded. That is all.”

The captain and the cook stepped up to the doorway then, both staring after Antón with a mix of emotions between their faces. Captain Peinado waved a hand after his first mate. “Bah,” he said. “Let him cool down. There is nothing to be done about the provisions now. We lose too much time by going back. I will assign men to fish to and make up for it.”

“Aye, captain,” the cook agreed. “I can work with fish.”

“Salvage what you can, and throw the rest overboard. We don’t need to stink of rotting meat to make this situation worse. Indeed, it may attract the very fish the crew will eat.”

Captain Peinado turned to return to his cabin and started when he saw his passengers.

“Señorita,” he said by way of greeting. “Señor. How fare you both this morning?”

“Is everything all right?” Vanessa asked, rather than answer.

“Ah,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Nothing for you to worry about. But you, are you liking my ship?”

She smiled. “Can’t complain.”

“Well, if there is anything you need, do tell me,” he said. “Excuse me.”

The ship quieted after the issue of the spoiled meat was settled, though more and more of the crew began to eye Vanessa warily when they saw her about the ship. She thought it was Antón’s doing. The first few days of the voyage, most of the men had been, at worst, cordial, but mostly friendly and eager to please “the lady of the ship.”

Now, days after the abrupt quasi-confrontation with Antón, many of those same men responded to her greetings with only a brief “Ma’am” before scurrying on to their duties. They eyed her uncertainly now, apparently apprehensive of the mystical powers of women at sea, but they were too conditioned by custom, and perhaps a background in servitude, to do otherwise. If not for Sesshoumaru and the Captain, the remaining weeks of the voyage looked to be quite lonely for her otherwise.

Someone had to have spread the rumor, and she had a pretty good idea who. It was difficult to avoid Antón, especially considering they were quartered across what was suddenly a very narrow hall from the first mate. So far she’d avoided another close call, but she wasn’t happy about it.

Vanessa flopped down onto her chair and crossed her arms in a huff. Seated at their table, Sesshoumaru raised questioning eyebrows at her.

“I don’t get it,” she said, unable to suppress her irritation.

He set aside the stack of playing cards he had been inspecting and turned to give her his full attention.

“These men are being such... men!”

Sesshoumaru blinked.

“I can’t go anywhere without someone looking at me like I’m the root of all their problems. I haven’t even done anything!”

He nodded in agreement and then frowned thoughtfully. “Have any of them said anything to you?”

“No,” she groused.

“Have they attempted to do you harm?”

“No.”

He paused before speaking again. “Then what would you have me do? It will not get us far if I kill every man who looks at you strangely. Though, I would be glad to do it if those men were not needed to sail this ship...”

Sesshoumaru let the offer hang in the air until Vanessa sighed. “No, I’ll deal with it.”

“Teach me something,” he suggested almost brightly. Vanessa eyed him warily for his sudden eagerness.

“Like what?”

He shrugged. “Words... phrases... or,” he tapped the deck of with a claw. “Show me what these are for.”

Vanessa smiled. “All right.” That was what she had gotten the cards for anyway, wasn’t it? When she had noticed some of the men playing with cards instead of dice, one of the more female-friendly gamblers had loaned her a deck. She just hadn’t started teaching him any games yet.

In the end, she decided to do a little of all three. Trying to teach him basic math with the cards would be an insult to his intelligence, but she could use them to go over numbers, and after a short while on a few number-oriented phrases, they reestablished their spirit bond and spent the afternoon playing any game Vanessa could think of. It was a welcome change to the past several days of avoiding fearful and accusatory looks over the bad luck of the spoiled meat. It took some time for him to figure out how to manage the cards one-handed, but soon he was flicking cards onto the tabletop as deftly as he swung his sword.

vVvVvVv

It wasn’t so bad for Vanessa when Sesshoumaru was at her side. The looks were less overt when it was apparent that he missed nothing, and no one was yet willing to cross him. Still, she was glad to retreat to their cabin when even those subtle glances began to elicit low growls from Sesshoumaru. She tried to ignore them, to pretend that these men weren’t piling their superstitions onto her, but her tension still bothered him, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Sesshoumaru cursed under his breath as his tongue stumbled and twisted the words he was trying to say into something entirely unrecognizable.

“In English?” Vanessa teased, but her smile was patient when he turned his eyes and a scowl at her. “Take a break.”

He sat back and rubbed at his eyes. Even as his own vocabulary grew, her Japanese was improving too, and he was able to help her with it now. Not nearly to the extent that she was teaching him, but he could supply a word or pronunciation where she struggled. This exercise was turning out to be mutually beneficial, despite his current frustrations. And it was something to pass the time. It had only been a little over a week since they left London, but already Sesshoumaru was beginning to feel restless, and they still had the better part of a month or more to go.

“We don't have to do this anymore. If you've had enough, we can stop if you want”

“No,” Sesshoumaru said in English, more forcefully than he intended, though he found he quite liked a single-syllable negative. She was speaking Japanese for his benefit now, but he was determined to succeed in this. “Sesshoumaru... No, I. I... want...” he huffed through his teeth in frustration. “I hear... man... mans...”

That still wasn't right, he thought and his scowl deepened as he growled low to himself and searched for the word.

“Men? Vanessa supplied. “You hear men?”

“Men,” Sesshoumaru agreed. “I hear men. I hear words.”

Finally, he sighed and gave up. “I want to understand what is being said behind our backs. You cannot hear it, and I cannot understand.” He could only glean so much from their tone alone, and less than that if it was hushed whispers.

“Hold on,” Vanessa said softly and slipped the ribbon back over his hand, and suddenly her warm calm and mild concern highlighted his own thoughts. Feeling her once again eased his own irritation. Her hands lingered on his, and he let them.

“Do you think we’re in danger?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head. “I do not know. I cannot know. The crew has not been overly friendly, but they have displayed no open hostility. Most of them,” he amended. “They cannot know of the sensitivity of my ears, yet that is useless if I do not know what they are saying.”

“Is that why you wanted me to teach you? Has this been going on all along?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “No. Initially, I was merely curious about your conversations with the
captain.”

“The captain?”

He'd said too much already, but she was waiting. Always waiting for him. He looked down at their joined hands. “Hearing only one side, I...” He let his voice trail off.

Vanessa's eyes were wide when he raised his gaze to meet hers.

“You felt left out. I'm so sorry. I had no idea.”

“It is a small thing,” he muttered. “It is nothing. I now have more pressing reasons to learn your tongue.” How could he tell her he was envious? He could hardly admit it to himself. But that night, before the rotten supplies were found, when she had been in the eye of practically every man on the ship, it had been nearly unbearable to watch her with them. He wanted her to himself. He didn’t want to share their remaining days with these humans. But he must.

“Is there anything else I can do?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head and squeezed her hand, still in his, and then let go. “Only what you are doing. I need some air. Care to join me?”

He stood without waiting for an answer. She would follow, he knew her that well anyway. What he really needed was to run or fly or anything else but sit idly on a ship, but if he could not do that, he could enjoy the sun with her by his side.

“You're restless,” Vanessa said, coming up beside him and leaning on the rail. He started at the comment. Could she have known his thoughts?

“Nonsense,” he muttered, though he kept his gaze trained on the horizon, always to the west, always searching for the misty irregularity that would tell him this leg was over. He had neither confirmed nor denied the truth of her words. With so little time behind them and so much ahead, how could he tell her he was out of his mind with boredom? She tried to keep him occupied with their language lessons and stories, and now card games, but it was no good. He needed action. He needed to move. Practicing his kata in the quiet of the night was therapeutic, but it did not release the long pent-up energy he felt humming in his veins. Despite the vastness of this ocean, he felt trapped.

Sesshoumaru glanced to the side and Vanessa raised her eyebrows at him expectantly. He sighed. “It is difficult to be idle for so long,” he admitted. And to think, they had at least four weeks yet to go. Perhaps more. What should have been a blink of his immortal eye, was turning out to be interminably long.

“And you can't go off battling sharks or they'll know you're not human. They already think something is off.”

If not for Vanessa, he would take his chances with the distance and leave, just fly off and be done with the whole business of these humans. But he wouldn't abandon her, and he didn't know if he could ensure the safety of them both. He knew he could fly faster than this ship sailed, but how much faster? Would he reduce their trip by days? Weeks? Could he carry everything they would need to last that long under the sun?

“You have dark clothing,” she mused, oblivious to the path his thoughts were taking. The red and white enchanted silk was much more durable for daily wear, but he did have spare clothes. One set was dark blue. He nodded and waited to see where she was going with this.

“Well... Why don't you take a flight tonight while most of the crew is asleep and there are only a few men on deck. I know you can avoid their notice, and then it's just a matter of not being seen on the open water.”

He had thought of it, but the dark clothing was a touch he hadn't considered. Still, he couldn't leave her.

“You cannot think I will leave you alone on this ship after everything that has been happening just to relieve my boredom.”

Vanessa waved off his objection. “Don't be silly. If you do it right, no one will ever know you're gone. I'll be perfectly safe. Besides, it isn't just about you being bored. You're edgy and restless, and more irritable than usual. I think you need this.”

Had he been so obvious?

“Very well. We can try tonight, but you must tell me if you feel at all threatened while I am away. I do not like to leave you alone with these men.”

“I'll be fine, and you will feel better too.” She made a vague gesture out at the water surrounding them. “Go eat something fresh. I don't think salt pork and bread is doing you any good.”

He turned his eyes out to the open water. “I told you before we left. It is fine.”

“I know, but you've sacrificed so much already. You should at least be able to eat something that isn't human food when the opportunity is staring you in the face. Do it for me.”

Sesshoumaru blinked and turned back to face her. Then he nodded once. “For you then.” He couldn’t help the surge of excitement that sprang up within him at the thought of once again being able to move at anything but a human pace.

That night, Sesshoumaru changed into his dark clothing, and with an odd pang of worry, looked to Vanessa. She just grinned at him. “Go,” she said.

“You will not leave this room? If anything happens, break the bond. I will return immediately.”

It felt like good-bye. Why did it feel like good-bye?

Vanessa laughed. “Quit worrying and go. I’ll be fine.”

Sesshoumaru perched on the edge of their window and leaned out to look up for any sign of patrol on the deck above. It wasn’t a large window, but he fit if he crouched. He couldn’t help feeling like he was abandoning her. The last time he left...

“I’m going to push you out that window if you don’t get a move on,” she threatened with laughter in her voice, but though he tensed when she stepped close, she only put a soft hand on his cheek. “Go,” she whispered. “I’ll be right here when you get back. Look, I’ll even block the door. No one will get in while you’re out.” Even as she spoke, she backed up and dragged one of the chairs to bar the door.

She sounded so sure of herself, and for his own sanity, he knew he needed to release some energy. Though he knew it would be better not to do that by breaking human heads, he didn’t want to leave. More specifically, he didn’t want to leave her. But, finally, with a low growl, he dropped backward out of the window, catching himself just before he hit the water.

For just a moment he hovered there and looked up to see Vanessa poke her head out the window. When she found him against the dark water, she waved. Maybe she would be fine, he thought, but he would not dally about. He would fly out, and then he would return.

Turning away, he sped off into the night, only inches above the swells. He paused just once more to look back and gauge the ship’s speed and course against the stars then started off again, and as he gathered speed and distance, he felt... good. He would find something, kill it, feast on its flesh, and he would sleep well that night. And he would do it before anyone could notice he was gone and take advantage of his absence. He couldn’t shake his worry over leaving her, and kept his connection with her in the forefront of his mind, monitoring it for any change; any sense of danger would send him speeding back the way he had come. On the upside, however, he might also find out now if they were limited by range. Would he cease to feel her if he went too far?

As his eyes adjusted to the glint of moon and stars on the water, and he was able to look through to the inky depths below, he began to see the sleek, fat shapes of fish schooling just beneath the surface. That same light now reflected back at him off their shiny scales. He felt his mouth begin to water over the very thought of fresh meat from a kill claimed by his own hands... hand.

He growled low to himself and his lips curved into an eager smile, his eyes bright with excitement. This would be a challenge. Fish had no windpipe to be closed by a strong hand or jaws. He couldn’t brace himself against the earth in his struggle, and if he found himself in the water - as was very likely given this particular prey - he had the air in his own lungs to be concerned with. His blood was fire in his veins at even this simple test of his skills.

Sesshoumaru eyed the fish in the water below him and judged them to be almost as long as he was tall. He would start with these and work his way up to something bigger another night. In that moment, he realized that he did intend to try this again. Even in this limited time off the ship, he felt free, a feeling he hadn’t had since crossing the narrow waterway between the continent and the island that had caused him so much trouble.

When one fish wriggled its way toward the surface, Sesshoumaru saw that as his opportunity and dove, striking the fish in its gills as he plunged through the surface of the water. Once the fish was stunned this way by a few more blows, it was almost disappointingly easy to drag it to the surface. His ability for flight was based on controlling air, not water; he had to swim like everyone else, but with a powerful kick, he launched himself and his prize out of the water and into the cool night air. He hovered there and braced the fish on his knees, and without further ceremony, he tore through its soft, scaly belly with his claws to reveal the pale pink flesh inside.

The taste was exquisite after just a week of salted pork and hardtack, and that alone convinced him that Vanessa had been right in sending him out here. By the time he thought that perhaps he should bring some back for her, he was left with nothing but bones. Somewhat sheepishly, he dropped the carcass into the water to be nibbled and disposed of by other sea creatures, and idly brushed scales off his clothes. Next time, he would time his outing closer to daybreak when his catch was still fresh and could be properly cooked for her. Or they could spend the afternoon fishing. Or something.

Normally fastidious with his appearance, Sesshoumaru glanced down at himself and grimaced. His clothes were a mess of blood and scales, but for once, he really didn’t care. His blood still sang with the thrill of even this small hunt.

Vanessa was right - he had needed this escape. He had needed this taste of the freedom he hadn’t truly had since before entering that godsforsaken human city, and it rankled that he had to go back to the ship and continue pretending to be human. He was more than that, better. He thought again that he could just go, take his chances and be done with them all. Fly away into the night and never return.

But then he thought of Vanessa, alone in the cabin they shared, hidden away from all those men, waiting for him to return. If he left, he would be entrusting her to the dubious honor of men stuck at sea themselves, human men who might not treat her as she deserved to be treated.

She needed him.

For her, he would return. For her, he would suffer through the limitations imposed on him in this charade, and... And he would do it gladly. Sesshoumaru arched and dove back into the water to scrub the remains of his kill from his clothes.

In the air again, soaked but refreshed, he hesitated in mild surprise for a moment when he was about to look to the stars to guide him back to the ship. This is new, he thought and closed his eyes to focus. Somehow he already knew which direction to go without even verifying his position. He could feel her. He hadn’t noticed when he was on board with her, but now he was certain he could find Vanessa just by the tug he felt when he considered his need to go to her. This merited some thinking later, but now he had somewhere to be.

He turned and drifted a few meters in the direction he felt her pull, glanced skyward to confirm his suspicions, and headed back to his waiting human. Sesshoumaru knew before he left that it would be challenging, but not impossible, to find his way back to the ship - at least until he was within hearing of the creak of timber and snap of sails across the water, but now he only had to follow the pull on his senses. That gave some small answer to his question regarding the range of their bond. He didn't know how far he was from the ship now, but but he could still feel her clearly, and what's more, he now had a sense of where she was. It was a strange sensation, and he wasn’t quite sure how comfortable he was with it, but it could have its uses.

As he flew, Sesshoumaru looked beyond that pull to the feeling of Vanessa herself. She was content, almost pleased with herself, and it made him smile. Perhaps she too had felt the release in tension this excursion had given him, and he wondered if she would give him that knowing smile of hers when he saw her. Who knew, maybe she really did know better than he what was good for him.

Finally, he saw the lights of the ship, and put on a little more speed to come in from behind where he hoped there would be less chance of being seen. There was no commotion, no cry of alarm when he glided alongside the hulking ship and into the cabin he shared with Vanessa.

Sesshoumaru slipped in through the window and landed lightly in the dimly lit room. Vanessa had left the lantern burning for him, and was sleeping in her bunk, not deeply; she didn’t seem to have been asleep for long. He stepped silently up to her bunk and watched her in the low light.

Not for the first time, the thought struck that he would miss her. He tried not to think about their inevitable parting of ways, but peaceful moments like this where he was left with nothing but his own thoughts made it difficult. A lock of her hair had fallen over her face, and pale strands fluttered on her breath. With a careful claw, he lightly brushed her hair off her cheek and adjusted her blanket over her shoulders.

He had stood just where he was now that night when the stresses of her travels had finally caught up with her. There had been no repeat, but he was reminded again that she was not like him; she was a fragile thing and had to be handled gently, protected. Like crystal, she could be strong and sharp, but just as easily, she could shatter. He never wanted to see her broken.

Yet even as he felt the need to protect her, more and more, he found her trying to take care of him. She had battled for his very life in London, and most recently insisted that he satisfy his need to move. He glanced at the chair still barring the door. That had been for his own peace of mind, not for any real danger. And now, just as on that night when he thought he might have done anything she asked to make her hurting stop, he wanted to kiss her. He almost had then.

All it would take was to lean forward and touch his lips to her skin. Nothing more. What was the harm in it? He had done it before, back on the road when he had feared for her life the first time she fainted. But he didn’t do it now.

Sesshoumaru was afraid, if it could be believed, afraid to open that door, and experience what this mere human could give him, only to have it slam on him when she left. Why put himself through that? Instead, he touched her cheek lightly with the back of one finger, careful not to wake her. He would have to be very careful from now on, or she would be the end of him.

“Thank you,” he whispered, and as he turned away toward his own bunk, he thought he saw her lips curve into a smile.

A/N: So... couple months, new chapter. Better than my past history XD This has been finished for about a month... I’ve just been tweaking it to death, and I think it’s time to lay it to rest.