InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Requiem of Time ❯ Not All Good Things Must Come to an End ( Chapter 9 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: -sighs- Sorry it took so long, but I am finally content with this chapter. It's long, too! How about that? You kind of deserve it, after I threw that last one your way. ;) I hadn't planned on it being so short. It kinda just got written and posted, then after some comments and a re-read, I was shocked, so now you get a longer one! (Granted, it was at the cost of taking longer to write and edit… :S Forgivings?)

Also, the first `section' of this chapter may be a little to much for some of your comfort zones, so in case you're wondering, if said zone is breeched, you may feel free to skip ahead until the chapter breaker point. There's no plot after the hot and bothersome bit begins, so no worries there. And it isn't a lime or anything, I just feel like it was a little more… Um, I don't know how to describe it. Maybe a more intense mindset? -shrugs- Anyway, it was just a warning. :P

Speaking of warnings, I'm going to tell you now that this chapter is basically the last full-focus update which is dedicated solely to the building of Sesshomaru's and Kagome's relationship. At least, that's as far as I can see, through the fog of my -ahem- dedicated organization skills. -scoffs at self- Not to say that there won't be intimacy later on (there will be), but rather that it will be a lot more plot integrated from this point on. Yep, I'll assume that's why this chapter just wouldn't end. Getting that `cutsie' phase taken care of and jumping back onto that plot train. YAY!

Hope you enjoy this long, long, long chapter! In case you're wondering, it takes up more than fifty pages in a word processor. XD And thanks for enduring my prattling, now and at the end of the chapter. :3

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Chapter 9

Not All Good Things Must Come to an End

Kagome was fast asleep. Sesshomaru, on the other hand, was deep in thought, but would appear to be asleep to anyone brave enough to peer into his quarters. So far there was peace and quiet, as the more curious beings were content with walking by for a sniff and leaving it at that. It made Sesshomaru wonder if their eagerness for a change had them as stirred up as himself; it seemed impossible but one should never cut short possibilities, especially the good ones.

The conversation he and Kagome had had before she drifted off -odd, seeing as it was early afternoon, but he had no complaints- was recycling through his mind. The most intriguing bit was her attempt to explain why she did not wish to mate as of yet. It confused him, despite there being a great deal of sense to it. She had found another thing to worry over, or attached meaning to old emotions. She did not want to have children -not his, specifically, because of longevity- until she knew for certain that she could live long and be there for them as a provider and protector. In part, that had insulted his protectiveness, and her attempt to exemplify what she inoffensively meant began with InuYasha's example of growing up and his mother dying when he was still a `toddler'. Then Sesshomaru began to mute the familiar story out in favor of seeing if he preferred one of her breasts over the other. Why not? They had been right there on display, teasing every time she breathed. She had smacked him for not paying attention and muttered `men'.

Reminiscing paused when Kagome shifted, her arm and leg moving across Sesshomaru's half naked body. The weight of her was comforting as she stilled again. Her breaths skipped warm and then cool across his bare breast, and he could feel the rhythmic beatings of her heart against his side. This pleased him to indescribable degrees, and he fondly pressed his lips to the top of her head before resuming his thoughts, absentmindedly stroking her back and loving the faint hum she gave. He was so glad to have her with him again. The time following her woeful departure had been agonizing. It had him thinking at times that she may never want to see him again. That their relationship would die.

But it did not…

Displeasure pulsed and vanished upon reliving a comment Kagome had made earlier. Apparently, both his mother and Sheng had been meddling in Sesshomaru's affairs. Again. This time by means of telling Kagome of certain customs and personality traits inuyÅkai grew up learning to understand, and by giving a small amount of pressure in her decisiveness. Overall, their interference was innocent, if not possibly helpful. At the very least, their involvement was a godsend compared to Le's somewhat distorted way of getting things resolved. That last note was not absolutely terrible. Sesshomaru now had someone to reprimand. Excellent. It would not be kicking a toad, but it would definitely suffice.

Ideas slowed and ended briefly as Sesshomaru's senses -surveying as they tended to do every so often- honed in on his intended, and the time was spent enjoying what he had. Being intimate with Kagome was addictive and savory, as it had always been, but there was an unmistakable splendor and pride involved when their relatively innocent activities were done in his quarters. They had not mated, yet, and Sesshomaru was no fool to feel in good spirits over something which did not happen. On the other hand, he could not shake a certain glowing sense of worth and accomplishment. Perhaps her dislodged emotions at their admittances had stirred up his instincts, or maybe it was the fact that her splendid scent was mingling with that of his room; the latter being a smell which consisted of years of his presence and of fabrics and furnishings he was familiar with since being a child. In other words, Kagome was nicely integrating herself with a nostalgic element of his life, and that was something he absolutely adored.

Far too soon another of their conversed topics bared itself for attention, and Sesshomaru's appreciation for the ambiance became subconscious yet again. Kagome had brought up the subject of other women in his life, again, and he had to assure her that that was an aspect in his life which would forever be forgone unless she outright refused to mate with him; something he had great doubt in happening but one must keep in mind that it was Kagome being referred to.

She had also asked about Chiro. Simply questions of intrigue, unless she was an excellent liar to the point of hiding the scent of frying patience. Sesshomaru answered them, carefully, in part thankful that she did not ask about any women who came before Chiro (seeing as even one woman was punishable by death of relationship). They had spent nearly an hour discussing one another's view on the topic -and relating ones- in civil or teasing tones, though Kagome's voice had sharpened now and again. He did not mind it. The sound simply represented how territorial over him she unconsciously was, and his pride flared all over again despite himself.

After that shockingly smooth -and hopefully never again repeated- part of their long conversation, Sesshomaru had then asked Kagome if she would soon pursue learning how to better control her powers. Such would not only lengthen her life considerably, but also develop ways to exercise that control in fashions unique to her. He could not say how long it would take for her to grow accustomed to the art, seeing as she was a miko and not a yÅkai, but he was almost giddy with hope that it would be quick. After all, she had given the promising suggestion that her hesitation on certain matters would disappear at that point. It had excited him enough to begin thinking up names for their children.

As odors continued to mingle overhead, lacing tangibly through warm gusts of spring coming from an open door, images of future possibilities shuffled past Sesshomaru's mind's eye. For most of his life, he had a fair certainty that his living relatives would find him a mate since his interest in women had been limited and kept him from searching on his own. And that was fine, mating was not traditionally emotional. In time, they would have found a healthy young woman with desirable features similar to his own, as was customary. Excellent breeding was always a part of the life of royalty, whether it was for strength, appearances, intellect, or all three and more. Incidents such as InuYasha were seen as a disgrace to a lineage thousands of years in the making, and as a defilement of family honor. On the other hand his cousin's, LÃ©i Kueng's irresponsibility with finding a mate, as the woman selected for him had been deemed `inappropriate', was also dishonorable. Seeing as his status was second to highest, other inuyÅkai could find it in themselves to overlook such actions.

Sighing with mild exasperation calmed Sesshomaru, and his fingers smoothed slowly along Kagome's side. Yes, he had expected to be partnered in an arranged mating, just as it had happened for his parents, and as it had happened for their parents and so forth. He grew up knowing that his children would bear similar traits to his own; blue tinted silver hair, molten gold slit-pupil eyes, desirably fair skin, and an incredible ability to wield youki. Now all of that was bypassed. He could wonder if any children he would have with Kagome would bear markings. If they would grow claws, and develop larger canines after their baby teeth fell out. He did not know what color their hair would be, or their eyes. What their strengths would be, or their weaknesses. It was thrilling to think about, and it had a primitive -and so far, very ignored- part of him itching to get the experiment underway.

“What are you thinking about?”

For one of the very few times in his life, Sesshomaru flinched. It had escaped him that Kagome was awake.

She hummed to him, rubbing his chest fondly, and pulled herself up to lean on an elbow and hover a short distance above. It was a teasing position in many ways, both within reach and not, and her slightly distraught hair slowly slid in layers over her nude back to land on his abdomen. Her smile was full and sleepy, and by all means arousing.

“About children,” he admitted, lifting a hand to groom the loose snags from her midnight blue locks. “Are you certain you do not wish to mate yet?”

Her expression peaked with surprise, then eased open with a tender love that was almost as satisfying as sex. The slow coloring of her cheeks was just a bonus.

“Hm… Not yet,” she breathed, cautiously regarding a corner instead of him. As though a lack of eye contact was going to hide her own naughty thoughts from him. “Maybe after I learn a few tricks.”

A grin freely dominated Sesshomaru, which made her glance and smile beautifully. Funny, how much being happy in front of him seemed to annoy her until earlier. Perhaps it hit her understanding that she would have to grow accustomed to it.

“Ah, so you do wish to mate?” he asked playfully. Her body screamed the answer, as always. It was her mind which needed convincing.

She sighed, feigning the more familiar emotion of boredom, and cushioned her chin on a palm while drawing delicious patterns on his chest with a teasing look in her eyes. Her actions spiked his sense of touch, and her hair turned to cool silk as it passed between his warming fingers. “Hm-hm-hmm, I guess. It sounds a lot easier than this courting business. Anyway, for some reason I keep coming back here, so I might as well have a permanent excuse for my actions. Besides, I'd have to deal with the hatred and vengeance of everyone in this floating castle if I just up and left.”

Sesshomaru chuckled, and her hand stilled as though to feel the sound escaping him. He always enjoyed that little bit of spunk in her. It was good to see in full now.

Her finger pressed harder as it commenced its dance, the dull nail creating a ripple of sensation through him. It was a rather cute aspect of her, like her blunt little teeth and curbed ears. He would not mind in the least if their children lacked claws. In fact, it would render them easier to rear… “I was being serious, you know.”

“I know,” he replied, beginning to return her attentions on her lower back, smoothing a fingertip along the soft and dipping skin just above the `no touch under fabrics' zone. Playing with that border kept them both entertained. “Hence its being funny.”

Her drawing had stopped when his began, and she now gave him a weighing look. “`Funny'? Don't you mean 'entertaining', or 'humorous'?”

She was poking fun at his manner of speech, and two more fingers joined the one trailing her back, spread to distract her nerves with three moving points of contact. “Is something wrong with 'funny'?”

She took a deep breath, shifted her legs a little while looking at nothing, then answered. “It just sounds fu- odd, coming from you. It's like when you said 'shit' in the cave when Bashamon's seal fell in a river. I still can't believe you said that, it sounded so wrong.”

“Really?” he inquired. “Everyone swears, given the appropriate circumstance. Even if it is only in their thoughts.”

“Hm,” she managed, her eyes unfocused a little to watch a spot of air. His claws now carefully scratched her back. They both relished in the act. Some of the faces she made were priceless, and at times she would arch and turn and twist her body to try and get him at that one little spot just itching at her skin for attention. For the moment she was content with what he was doing, and it showed in her absentminded and motionless state. He would give it two more minutes before the squirming would begin.

“So… Kids, huh?”

Sesshomaru's spirits skipped. Someone should have warned him, during some moment of his centuries of life, that becoming emotionally bound with a woman meant losing portions of self-control and sanity. Maybe they simply knew that they were worth sacrificing. “Yes. I was wondering what they would look like.”

“Good point. ... Are yÅkai babies born with light blue eyes before the color sets in?”

He had to think about that for a moment. Babies were not his specialty, nor were they frequent in coming. There had been four births amongst his many servants in the last ten years, three of them from well established couples. “Briefly, perhaps.”

“Hm,” she hummed again, and she shifted to pillow her face on his sternum, watching him. “You want kids?”

“Eventually.”

“How many?”

Sesshomaru smirked at the ceiling, wondering over her possible reactions, and began to gently scratch her head since her back was most likely red by now. That, and it was hard to angle his arm under her elbows, which were on either side of him to accommodate for her position. “Many.”

The relaxation she was riding bolted in a minor flinch, and he heard her rub some fingers together. “How many is `many'?”

That was an excellent question… “Is there a record in the future for how many children a woman has ever birthed?”

Kagome went still. “Yeah. I believe it's about sixty.”

“Sixty?!” he exclaimed, genuinely shocked, and she nodded against him. Even yÅkai found it difficult to bear so many.

“The poor woman ovulated multiple eggs at a time…” Kagome explained. “Call it having litters. By the way, I refuse to have more than… than five kids. And even then you'll have some convincing on your hands.”

“Hm,” he tuned, humored. This was an excellent conversation. And here he was expecting her limit to be two, which was a healthy number of children in his opinion for humans. Considering how long Kagome would be living with him, they may have more than she expected. Children left to live their lives, after all, and women have a tendency to satisfy hormones at a mature age. “We will see.”

“U-huh,” she challenged with an unconvinced tone.

He shrugged, making her head bob with the gesture. “Children are a natural result of copulation. How many do you imagine two humans would have in a thousand years and more?”

Her thumb rubbed along his collarbone pensively, and a faint scent of worry came off of her. “You know they won't be full yÅkai.”

“I know,” he assured for approximately the thirtieth time since she first stated as much, and he wondered over what he was scenting. “That is not enough for you to fret about. What are you thinking?”

She wiggled, then quickly relaxed as he continued stroking her hair. “Damn that nose of yours... Yeah, I have a worry over the doctors of this time. The death rate of infants and mothers is a lot higher now than it is in the future.”

He sighed, mostly because he had taken in a deep breath of the pheromones she was unconsciously emitting. “You have nothing to fear. My herbalists and physicians are experts in their fields, and you are very healthy and in your prime for bearing children. Deaths are a result of having no medicinal and emotional aid, or from a lack of health or worthy genetics from either of the parents. You have no need to dwell on the issue, I assure you.”

She was quiet, thinking. “Our children would be healthy, right?”

Her precautions to him were somewhat tiring, but he hid it well. Perhaps after their first child she would come to some senses on the topic. Then again, that also likely predicted some immense paranoia during pregnancy… “Yes, they will be. Exceptionally so. Why?”

She shrugged, which only appeared to be a way of rubbing against him. “I don't know if there are diseases or defects when crossing two energies and genetic histories. It seems there would be. I've never heard of a yÅkai and a miko having children, that's all. I mean, it's not like we'd be the first, right? Their children would have to be famous and talked about a lot, I'm sure, so then why does no one know about these sorts of things?”

The minute amount of annoyance was vanquished by hearing her voice such thoughts, and he grinned. “Well, there is a first for everything. You are unusually comfortable with this topic.” Kagome gave an irked humph, laying the palm of her hand to his side and sending small sparks of fire racing inside him as her thumb brushed on his skin. “It is very pleasing.”

An almost nervous giggle bubbled from her, sounding something like a cat trying to chirp. “At least one of us is happy about that.”

Sesshomaru scoffed, foreseeing another of her pleasant little arguments. “You enjoy it as much as you love me.”

Kagome shot up, mouth open in disgust. Or, that was the look she was aiming for. It was ruined by a smile. “How conceded can you get??”

“Very,” he supplied. “And I was merely stating the truth.”

Her mouth shut, and she lifted her nose and looked away.

“Correct?” he prompted, slightly pressing his fingers into her side. She squealed with a wild flinch and tried to roll away from him, but he easily caught her in a quick move via straddling and continued with the torture. “Admit it.”

“NO-HO-HOO!!” she cried, squirming futilely and trying to push his hands away. “STO-HA-HA-HOP!!”

“I can keep doing this for weeks,” he informed truthfully, which made her scream partially in dread. Then a very pleasing game came to mind and he ceased, for a moment. “Admit it.”

A suppressed grin made her flushed face look to be in pain, and her breathing was in panting little laughs. “Wha?”

“Admit it,” he ordered gaily, poking her slightly to watch her dramatics. “Say you love me.”

“No,” she dared, accepting the punishment of being tickled for the next ten seconds and screaming throughout it.

“Say it,” he toyed.

“It!” she cried, hyperventilating. “There! I said `it'!”

He blinked. Then smiled, and poked her some more. “No. Say that you love me.”

“That you love me!” she repeated, shrieking happily and turning frantically as he touched the minor pressure points in her sides, neck, and pretty much anywhere else. If she did not want him to tickle her, then she would not be ticklish.

“Say `I love you',” he ordered playfully, having quite a bit of fun.

“A-ha-ha-haw,” she cooed, looking up at him adoringly with a flushed face and hair spread across the blanket which covered the futon mattress. “That's so sweet of you to say.”

This game of theirs lasted until two minutes after she first claimed not being able to breathe.

“You love me!” she screamed defiantly and joyously to his final attempt, tears streaming from her eyes and the corners of her mouth twitching from having smiled for too long.

Finally, he gave up in recognition of her admirable stubbornness. Sesshomaru released her wrists from above her head -seeing as she had worked them out from against her sides- and rolled off of her to lounge a short distance away. “That is true. You may stop bellowing it now.”

“Hehehe,” she giggled, turning onto her belly and pushing up to sit on her heels. “You lo-o-o-ove me.”

He smirked at her attempt to hit a good note.

She continued, singing. “You want to to-o-o-ouch me. You want to ho-o-o-old me. You want to ki-i-i-iss me.”

He waited for more, but it was not coming. “Is that all?”

A choked chuckle was the answer. “I don't really know the song. And if there was more, it'd be dirty.”

At that Sesshomaru laughed, and thought of a new activity. “Dirty? No,” he disagreed, getting up to his knees to slowly stalk closer to her on all fours. “But we could make it so. You owe me a disrobing.”

Her eyes widened, but he sensed a more naughty and playful side stir itself up in her, lighting a fire behind her blue eyes. “Th-! That was an accident!”

He grinned. “That does not matter.”

The abrupt sweetness of her scent slapping him in the face and clenched his concentration as she leaned back from him and began to scoot away, prompting a primal part of him to move faster. Her hands darted forwards as a means of attacking first, and he easily grabbed her wrists.

“A-! Hey! Not fair!” she yelped before he sat back and slowly began pulling her closer. He did so gradually, giving her more time to try and get away. She should have known that escape was impossible, but nevertheless she continued yanking and bouncing like an ensnared rabbit. It was quite beautiful, in and of itself, and very lovely with her being topless as well.

“Perfectly fair,” he countered, looping a hand around the small of her back when she was inches away and pressing her to him. He put his mouth to her ear, but the prepared words died as their delightful position opened to many possibilities. So, instead, he breathed softly down her neck, giving her gooseflesh as he drew in her scent and held her possessively against him.

“Oh, kami,” she barely whimpered, then spoke up. “Sesshy, you know better.”

“I do,” he replied, entertaining tantalizing thoughts while nuzzling under her chin to orally tease her neck and ignite her sense of vulnerability to him. Her little shudders tasted delicious. “Now, ask me if I heed better.”

Kagome took a moment to think on that, staring over his shoulder. “Jerk,” she finally huffed. Cool fingers stroked up his sides, curiosity and uncertainty lingering in the depths of the touch. He cupped her bottom, feeling the muscles flex in sudden protest, and lifted her to bring the sloping base of her neck into easier reach of his mouth. A small grunt of surprise came from her, as it usually did when he demonstrated strength in such little ways, and by the time he had her in position her knees had slid apart against his thighs and now cuddled his hips lovingly. It nearly made him purr.

“Sesshy,” she warned halfheartedly, failing at any attempt to sound strict and serious.

The lobe of her ear brushed the tapering end of his eyebrow as he tasted the smooth skin of her neck, and her legs clenched around his waist as she hugged him close. “Yes?” he prompted just far enough away so his lips tickled her.

“… Never mind.”

After a rumble of approval he started nibbling around, searching for a new area to torment. He felt her go stiff and still, waiting him out and not daring to move. It was a challenge to one another, testing his senses and assessing her will and endurance. Maybe in a few years she could stand a chance. Maybe.

“Oh!” she moaned when the spot was claimed, his lips encircling it before sucking in and biting gently. This was not the first time he had done such a thing. It was a sensual weakness of hers which he was very aware of, and he enjoyed taking advantage of it. She had even given it a name, once, saying the first time that `the last thing I want is hickey evidence of our making out'. After said first time she stopped complaining, and was content with enjoying it and commenting on long canines and vampires, whatever those were. He had a feeling that their history lay in Europe somewhere.

Kagome melted, warm and humming contently to him. She eventually got over the sensational rush teased him in turn, first by planting her toes and leaning in to him until she was high up on his lap. The second was by playing with his ear with her tongue and teeth. He used to hate that. Hate it with a burning passion. She taught him how to love it, then how to crave it, and in turn he learned how to better get it.

They stopped after half an hour of playing when Sesshomaru knew he was two moans and a lick away from collecting what his more assertive side said she was overdue to give and pinning her. The most frustrating part was he knew that, if he did take action at that point, there was small chance she'd start to say 'no', and even then the word would probably come only in retaliation to the irreversible. It was to avoid as much that he regrettably dragged himself out of bed and pulled the long disused outer haori off the foot of the thick futon mattress. That the under layers of his clothes were off the bed and laying about the room hinted greatly at the fun they both had had while halfway disrobing the other quite a while ago. Donning the fabric and scanning for a sash, Sesshomaru wondered when Kagome would get less skirmish around him so that he could go back to easily wearing kimono (which needed to be put on before hakama, but seeing as she did not want him undressing in front of her that was temporarily forsaken).

“Leaving?” she asked, settling her own haori onto her shoulders but not yet bothering to close it. The ties to her white hakama she tightened, but not with the annoyance she once bore. It was hard to hate something when, really, you didn't hate it, and when it happened with great frequency. Yes, nothing eventful came of undoing the ties, but it was still fun to pick at the knot while she was blissfully unaware of it. Besides, it needed loosening if she wished to tuck in the hem of her haori anyway.

Deciding that the sash had fled the vicinity, Sesshomaru shrugged out of the fabric and draped it over the foot of the bed again, deciding to change very discretely into a kimono.

“Briefly,” Sesshomaru stated, taking slow, deep breaths and feeling uncomfortable with a drying, slight sweat on his back. Two moans and a lick was the closest they had ever gotten to the next stage, and he needed a walk for many reasons. Or a nap in the snow. Face down. Or to just mate and get her hesitation over with so they could very thoroughly enjoy themselves multiple times a day. A small part of him wondered what the future record was for a man to be waiting things out with a woman. Whatever it was, Sesshomaru had a feeling that four and a half years would top it.

He could almost smell the small blush Kagome developed when, with a dark purple kimono on and his back to her, his hakama dropped to his feet for him to step out of.

“I should just come over there and give you a hug,” he commented, selecting a white sash and wrapping it back about his waist. She bewildered him sometimes.

“And I would prefer that you not,” she replied, voice slightly higher. Yep, she was blushing.

Tugging the sash securely and not bothering to fuss over an orderly appearance, leaving the front of the kimono somewhat more baggy than usual, he turned and hesitated.

Kagome studied him with a small smile. “I'd tell you that you look good, but you probably already know that.”

That made him chuckle. “Yes, I do. Are you hung-?”

“I'm famished, let's go.”

---

“How was your day?” Sesshomaru's mother asked far too merrily. She had taken their mealtime as an opportunity to talk in a very friendly, `obviously non-invasive' fashion.

Thank goodness Sheng took it upon himself to guarantee it.

Kagome, for some unknown reason, felt very on-the-spot, and she ate her top-rank miso soup dutifully while pointedly ignoring any sort of attention from the woman sitting kitty-corner to her.

“It had been good,” Sesshomaru supplied, completely at ease though his slight irritation shone through on the word 'had'.

“Excellent,” Sheng initiated, changing the topic. “I have some matters to discuss, young Lord. Both personal and political.”

Kagome, in her months of sometimes abundant exposure to their work, defined 'personal matters' as events taking place within the o-shiro, and 'political matters' as events taking place elsewhere. So far, her theory was holding true.

At Sesshomaru's nod, Sheng began, and a part of Kagome's mind wandered off for this while her chopstick wandered for some delicious pot stickers.

“First, Bashamon's seal requires rejuvenation soon.”

`Sheesh, already?' she couldn't help but thing. For not having wings, time certainly knew how to fly.

“That can be taken care of tonight,” Sesshomaru supplied.

Kagome had the sinking dread akin to being told that a doctor's appointment wasn't too far away, but a part of her squealed giddily and wanted to send her running for that blasted stake. She had gone to strengthen that darn seal several times already, and it was becoming more -how would you call it…- `enjoyable' than peculiar to feel Sesshomaru's energy twine through hers to access the Jewel. He could always teach her how to do it herself, but she had a pretty good idea that a part of him really didn't want to.

“Good,” Sheng continued. “Also, Lord Le and myself have agreed that Kagome deserves more training, as she had requested earlier today. We plan on alternating, starting tomorrow. My temporary duties will be back in your hands as a result, Lord Sesshomaru.”

Kagome gawked at Sheng, first for the sudden `Lord' business and second for the statement, then glanced at Sesshomaru who approved of it, and then she dared a glimpse of his mother and quickly returned to dipping her next bite in a sauce and chewing. Couldn't that woman request some food to occupy herself with? At the very least she should remember to blink, just to break up that flat stare.

“Is that all for personal matters?” asked Sesshomaru.

“Yes, that was all. On with the political, the city of Edo is becoming a financial concern. Stray samurai are picking desperate followers out of the streets to try and build a fortress city elsewhere. You would think that they knew times were different, but humans are ceaselessly amazing creatures.”

Edo... The future Tokyo. Kagome tried to remember how old the actual shrine was. She knew her house was very modern in comparison, and she could hardly wait for some wandering priest or priestess to deem the land sacred and build the shrine. It'd be interesting to see it without a house in the background. In fact, it would probably be a more scenic place.

Glancing up from her food with a soft smile nearly gave Kagome a heart attack. They were all staring at her, and for no apparent reason. What did she do? Did she have something on her face?

Sesshomaru looked away first, and his doing so drew Sheng's attention. Li Hua was perfectly content with continuously pondering Kagome though. “If the samurai are able to find followers, then something must change so that citizens are not willing to leave. Something to occupy their time with and make money from. ... I will compose a message for the current reining lord, advising an increase in trade and lowed taxes to promote production and employment.” Sesshomaru looked at Kagome again, smiling ever so faintly. “Perhaps it will also entail that a miko of great stature shall visit to assert necessary changes. In two weeks.”

Kagome blinked. Twice. “… Me?”

“Certainly,” Sesshomaru affirmed, eying his rice but continuing without touching it. “You know the future city it will become, and even without complete education in these matters I am certain that living in your time has given you an eye for flaws in this era.” She had barely gotten any of that, and chewed the words as he did another bite of food. “Besides, it seems that someone is needed to prompt the building of both the shrine and its grounds. You are obviously the most qualified person to oversee it.”

Digesting this, Kagome put two and two together, and it equaled five. How did the topic change like that? It was almost as though they read her mind. ... The missing fact slipped into place and her lips pursed. Was there a smell for 'gee, I really, really miss home'? ... Well, that wasn't entirely out of the question. Still, she'd pummel him for an answer later, and for electing her like that, and then just for fun.

The meal finished rather uneventfully in uncharted conversation, which was a blessing in most ways. Kagome was still feeling illogically happy that Sesshomaru had actually eaten with her. A whole meal, too. Not just a few bites like any yÅkai could get away with. In fact, when the conversation died and Sheng began chatting with Li Hua, Sesshomaru almost acted human with his appetite. The only things assuring her that he was still yÅkai were his aura and his abnormal precision with chopsticks… When a grain of rice stuck to his upper lip and fell, Kagome couldn't help but to second guess who and what she was attracted to when he caught it at chest level with the chopsticks and without looking. She avoided commenting on it, supposing that in the eyes of everyone like her it would be like marveling at a child's ability to laugh.

`Tonight', it seemed, translated to `immediately after lunch' for Sesshomaru.

“It's cold down here,” Kagome commented to the silence, wanting to think about something else.

“Hm,” she heard Sesshomaru, the only other person occupying the rather odd corridor. A while ago, she hadn't thought about there possibly being chambers beneath the castle bit of the o-shiro. It made perfect sense though, taking into account the fact that said o-shiro was a huge bubble-barrier lifted into the air and managed by a barrier emitting orb, and the bottom half of said bubble contained all the earth supporting the buildings. Yes, that did make sense. About as much as a floating castle did in the first place, so there was just a conjoined sense of `sensible' in the senseless reality of things. Yeah, she could work with that. After time traveling and playing `dodge the demon' for a whole summer, then falling in love with a yÅkai by first hating him, she was pretty immune to the shocking details surrounding her.

Kagome's train of thought hit an elephant when she felt Sesshomaru's arm slide up her back and his hand grasp her upper arm to hold her closer. She was amazed that they didn't fall flat on their faces, seeing as the relatively short part of the hall was pitch black, and then she mentally kick herself forgetting the obvious. Sesshomaru was too pompous to not match her pace perfectly to avoid as much.

“Why are you irritated?” she heard him randomly ask.

“Pft… Because I let myself fall in love with a freakin' perfectionist.”

She could almost hear him grinning as his strong hand gave her arm a loving squeeze. “No complaining.”

“I can complain as much as I darn well please,” she fired back, crossing her arms. Dear lord, she hated that corridor. Not as much as the cave in the mountain, but it definitely made her list. Cold, dark, a little damp, and occupying the abyss at the end of the tunnel was the equivalent of a slowly maddening ghost. Maybe, if her training went really well, she would be able to enhance her vision and stop tripping over her own damned feet. And regulate her body temperature. On the other hand, if it meant she'd have to smell and hear even more of the place at the same time, she'd probably pass…

Sesshomaru, always the mature one when compared to her, had let the previous topic go, sinking them into a silence interrupted only by her footsteps, and hers alone. It left her thinking on his arm around her, which reminded her of earlier that evening when she was warm without even being fully dressed. It made her smile.

“You were rather `eager' earlier,” she dared to comment to the dark. She didn't like the silence.

“Hn,” was the reply, sounding to be amused. “As were you.”

She balked. “I was not!”

“Oh?” came his voice in the dark. “Perhaps it was my imagination, but I distinctly recall some cooing and you grabbing my hand to place it on your bottom at some point.”

The blood burned her flaming cheeks at that, and she tightened the knot of her crossed arms. “It was the heat of the moment, alright?”

The darkness chuckled. “You are not as innocent as you think you are.”

“Ooh!” she seethed, settling for anger rather than embarrassment. In all honesty, his `imagination' was not only accurate, but picked out one of the more innocent of the audacious little acts she had dared. “You… I! ... Be quiet.”

Her frame narrowed slightly as he gave her another small squeeze, and for some damnable reason her annoyance began to fade in the wake of a little voice. It screamed `he loves me, he loves me, he loves me' over and over again. “When I learn how to live longer, I'm going to Tahiti for a decade…”

“M-hm,” he hummed with exaggeration. “You would get bored.”

“Then I'd tour Europe for half a century…” she continued almost dreamily. “After that, maybe travel the world until my brother graduates in the future, then I'll become an astronaut and defy the laws of nature by undressing from that bulky spacesuit and tap-dancing on the surface of the moon until the words `I am so not bored' get stamped across its face just so you can see every nearly every night.”

Mentally, Kagome began marking a point for herself. Then Sesshy opened his mouth.

“And after that?”

“You're impossible!” she bellowed, hoping his ears hurt.

“Oh,” he challenged, “I am the difficult one?”

She huffed, then shuddered when she felt watched.

“Ah,” came an eerie exhale, cool and spiteful. “Young love. So tender and feeble.”

This was the part that reminded Kagome of the hospital. The dark, damp tunnel of no return she could handle. The being who was trapped for all of insanity in its depths, no. There was just something really, really bad about him (even when disregarding the various attacks and Japan-domination he had attempted) and she blamed the vengeance he'd be seeking for what the Jewel in her had done to his lost body. At least, she could so long as Sesshomaru's telling of the story was one hundred percent accurate. Okay, maybe she'd sharpen her sense of smell, too, just to catch him in any possible lies. She hated him having that advantage over her.

“How is your sanity, Bashamon?” Sesshomaru greeted heartlessly, as he always did. It was quite the habit.

“Lingering,” came the proverbial answer.

Kagome couldn't see the barrier as she stepped closer, but feeling it in her mind was enough. Her eyes followed the approaching edge blindly, and its icy composition licked across her flesh as she passed through it, starting at her toes and moving up as she penetrated the spherical wall.

Memories of her first trip to Bashamon's seal flashed through her. The conditions and circumstances were always the same, and with her unable to see the thoughts flourished. There were definitely differences now. Sesshomaru had his arm around her, for starters, and when he let go only to hold her hand and guide it down to the sealing stake, she held his back rather than wonder over the alien feel of touching him.

`We've come a long way, huh?' she thought, recognizing against her fingers the smooth and ornately carved post which bound Bashamon to this world in place of the Jewel. She rubbed her fingers across its top until it rest in the dip of her palm, then grasped and waited.

It all happened so quickly of late. That, or it had seemed to be an eternity the first time, thanks to her roiling emotions. She winced her eyes as a red light bathed the surroundings, which happened to be a tapered off hallway carved into the earth and supported by thick beams of wood. She had grown accustomed to seeing the interior of Bashamon's new prison. What still put her on edge in the most illogical way was the sensation of Sesshomaru's energy. That raw power of the youki he wielded. It unfolded from him, a flame of might which pierced the air on its way to enveloping her.

Kagome bit her lip, reminding herself to stay calm and to ignore the wordless screams from her miko powers. She had attacked Sesshomaru the first time they tried this, lashing out in an instinctive frenzy to the point that he had to grab her. This time she did a remarkable job of convincing herself that the licking tendrils of youki were okay. They would not hurt her, and their warmth was neither a burning nor a poison. It was simply Sesshomaru, and he felt that power course through him every instant of his life, so she could handle it briefly.

When Kagome was completely covered, and that small voice in her head began vibrating with terror, she inhaled and sighed. His energy washed against her, like rolling heat waves, feeling every inch of her body and waiting. She needed to surrender. It was an odd thing to admit, let alone do, especially when you called it that, but there was no better word for it. Sesshomaru had yipped at her to `be calm' the first time, and she hadn't understood. She hadn't known that `be calm' was the equivalent of opening up to him.

Relaxation ran a jolt down her nerves, being the small snaps of disconnection her muscles received as her powers retracted towards her `core', opening the superficial passages which channeled energy. It felt like the cold and dropping sensation of worry and fear, or of shock, and she wondered if her energy really did that at such times as well. It had taken a long time for Kagome to distinguish her core. It was not the center of her body, not a designated focus of her mind, or a point of balance. It was her `beginning', where the will for the next heartbeat urged, and the truest of emotions and experiences which defined her resided. It was the part of her which surged and swirled warmly in her times of greatness, and which shied and tightened during moments of foolishness. It was just her, just as being a miko was just being herself. Maybe she could call it her soul, but she would have to die to further define it.

And despite how poetic one's core sounded, it really was simply an everyday thing. It just took some time to recognize it.

Heat rushed into her, pulsing in opposition of her heartbeat as it traveled through her surface, dominating the area it occupied and making her fingers grow numb and hot. And then she felt the Jewel, a third energy within her. Isolated, it awoke, leaked an almost powdery offer of supremacy in exchange for freedom. Her energy wanted to leap out and enshroud it, to hide it from the more curious and influential youki, and she again reminded herself.

Rather than becoming tainted, the fluffy and immaterial strength of the Shikon no Tama was pulled. Like honey. Guided out and cradled in the confines of Sesshomaru's youki. It shot down her arm painlessly and seeped from her into the seal.

And then it was done. It took all of two seconds since her touching the stake, and it left her breathing a little more heavily. She felt cold when the youki left, and her energy leaped out to fill her selfishly, tingling with inspection for any damage. There was none. These sessions never harmed her, merely tested her trust and self-control.

Sesshomaru lifted her hand off the seal, and she watched him, radiating with energy, as he eased her up onto her feet and they stepped for the edge of the barrier.

“Until next time,” Bashamon bid farewell, laughing in a show of slacking mental well being. It made Kagome shudder, as did walking through the cold barrier and the sudden plunge into darkness when Sesshomaru's power withdrew and settled into him again.

They were quiet, walking hand in hand since neither found it absolutely necessary to let go, and she laced her fingers between his. When they were a good distance away, Kagome spoke up. “Why do you keep your energy out until we pass the barrier? You always do it, and I can't figure it out.”

She sensed some hesitation in his reply, but it sounded perfectly normal if only a little belated. “You are weaker now. It is a precaution to prevent Bashamon taking advantage of that.”

Weaker? She wasn't weaker. She certainly didn't feel like it. “How so?”

Having only her hearing and the strength of Sesshomaru's hand in hers was exasperating during conversations, especially when he was quiet with thought. “The simplest way to explain it is that you bear a temporary youki path through your energy. YÅkai can sense and exploit it, if given the chance, and there is little you would be able to do to prevent it.”

It seemed he had more to say, but what already came out his mouth had her stopped dead in her tracks and silenced him.

“You… You've been doing what to me for all these months?!” she demanded loudly.

“It is extremely temporary,” the darkness explained with his voice. “It lasts no longer than a few minutes.”

“That doesn't matter!” she fired back.

“You have always been safe.”

“That also doesn't matter!” Kagome yelled, mad but scared more than anything. No wonder she had a mini panic attack every time they strengthened the seal. He was burning holes in her natural defenses! “You should have at least told me!”

Shifting fabric hinted at a shrug. Or shuffling feet… She doubted but preferred the latter. “What would having told you sooner, now, or later accomplished?”

She bristled, and was about ready to march past him stubbornly despite the guarantee of a flat and bleeding nose and a silently mocking rock wall. “You should have told me sooner, and it would have… It would have made me feel better!”

“Really?” he asked, giving her the brief vision of him wearing jeans and bearing a high school backpack. It was quite disturbing. If anything, he'd be in college. “Define `sooner'.”

“`Sooner' being before we first did this!” she clarified.

“When we were at odds with one another?” he inquired.

The only noise out of her mouth was the sound of her teeth clicking shut, and she bunched her lips irritably. He had a point. Damn it. And being `at odds' was putting her past grudging despise for him mildly. “You still should have told me…”

Her other hand was taken, and she flinched and looked down at her darkness swallowed extremities, then followed them blindly up as they were lifted. She didn't have to see Sesshomaru to know he was smiling over this argument before he kissed her fingers. “Alright. Would you now like to be informed of something ahead of time?”

Frowning at his mouth, since hearing his words was the only lead her eyes had, she wondered what the catch was. “Would I prefer to be in candlelight so I can find and beat you for it?”

His chuckle whittled lazily away at her frustration. “Perhaps.”

“Then let's hear it now,” she sighed. If she had half a chance in light, it would only be to embarrass herself in attempting to do horrible things to him. Maybe only somewhat horrible things… It really depended on how much longer he continued massaging her now upright hands with his thumbs. He really did play with her emotions like a game of chess, and some day it was going to start making her mad.

“Hm,” he began, working slow circles in her palms. “It may differ for miko, but in late pregnancy yÅkai women are weakened in the same way by their offspring's foreign energy.”

A small trickle of worry washed down Kagome's back, ebbing away quickly. “You should have told me later…”

He almost purred rather than hummed, and she stapled down a shiver with her will alone. “What would that have mattered?”

“I may just not want to take that chance,” she stated sternly.

“Really?” he asked again, the little massage slightly intensifying and making her go all soft and simpering.

“Yeah… And I hate you…”

“You love me,” he said matter-of-factly, now merely holding her hands. “And I am not going to allow you to forget that.”

Kagome opened her mouth to continue the argument, and it turned into one of the most sudden and erotic kisses she had ever been exposed to. They both left the underground corridor in an exceptionally good mood, though her hair was a little messy. Having fun in total darkness was just exciting.

---

“Almost,” Sheng encouraged from behind his sake cup.

Last night had been very enjoyable, and that bit of goodness was being completely made up for now. Boy, she had a monster of a headache. “It hurts…”

“I know,” Sheng lied, refilling the cup to sip at it for the next ten minutes. “That is because you are trying too hard.”

Kagome almost threw a fit, and let go of her energy entirely to slump with her elbows on the table and her chin between her fists.

“You know he will-“

“Assume that I gave up,” she finished while bottling up her lingering spiritual powers, not caring and thinking only on how sore her whole body was. “We've been at this for hours. I think I've hollowed out my bones by now.”

Today was Sheng's claimed time to train her. She should have taken the last session from ages ago as a hint and have run away. There was just one small little problem to that though, and it was the fact that she wanted to learn how to use what she unlocked under his tutelage. She couldn't say `no' to Sesshomaru forever, after all. In fact, she was quite impressed and proud of herself already. “If you're working me up so I have to get hot, vomit every five minutes, cramp up, freeze, get nauseous again, become agonizingly paralyzed, and get the throbbing migraine from damnation itself, just to say that I've `widened my connection', I'm going to hurt you.”

Sheng grinned happily at her. “Your memory of that is excellent!”

“It's been ingrained,” she grumbled. “A full day of Hell, and for what?”

“For this,” Sheng answered. “I was hoping this day would come, and now it has. I must admit, you took your time.”

Kagome blinked at him. “… Whut??”

“I said-”

“I heard you,” she assured calmly. “It was merely an offer that you save your prophesizing ass before I beat it in every way fathomable.”

His smile wouldn't go away. “Has anyone ever told you that you are positively adorable when you're -How had you said it…- `righteously ticked'?”

“You have until the count of three to apologize for your unforgivable sarcasm…”

Sheng quirked a brow at her. “If it is unforgivable, then I would rather bypass the useless pleading and see what you could possibly do to me.”

“Oh, I'll show you,” she assured, shifting to get a little more comfortable on her throbbing, numbing bottom. Her energy flared to life under her skin, filling every gap between her nerves and making her tingle, and she began concentrating on where she felt it and what movement patterns each area within her made, just as he had told her to do. He said to start with her hands and feet, and work her way inwards. “Right after I learn this, you'll see. I'll singe you hairless.”

---

Sesshomaru was having minor difficulties keeping his curiosity in check. Yesterday had him on his toes wondering over her progress with Sheng, and today had him worried over her safety with Le. He gave quite the entertaining lecture to the councilman over the physical and mental wellbeing of Kagome, but it all turned out to be far less than reassuring when sudden and silent explosions of her energy erratically erupted in any given area on o-shiro grounds. The total effect had Sesshomaru wondering whether or not he really wanted the whole process to begin anew the next day.

“Sesshomaru,” his mother vaguely scolded, and he refocused on her and Sheng. Kagome's training was one thing. One completely unrelated to his own. It felt odd being lectured again, but in all honesty there is always something to learn when being re-established as a Lord, especially when the information changes.

Sensing the same yipping argument on one's attention span as Sesshomaru did, Sheng voiced up. “Please recite the major trade route seaports of Japan in relative order of corresponding commerce.”

This request had Sesshomaru's patience writhing, but it was nonetheless important. Knowing the ports was useful for not only trade routes but also for transportation, the latter of which was applicable to both the population shifts and war strategies of humans. It seemed demeaning to be drilled on trade, seeing as it changed with remarkable frequency, but it was a leading factor in human actions. Kagome's energy popped again, and he began listing the ports.

He missed seven out of nearly three hundred, and spent another half an hour not only repeating the list correctly -after challenging the information and being proven wrong- but also stating why he assumed their placement of importance.

This was one of his mother's favorite things to do to him, but she had thousands of years to become quite numb to the boredom and could now merely accepted the information without judgment.

Sesshomaru, on the other hand, still found all of this schooling to be quite stupid…

---

A full week passed, and Kagome found herself babying her head while laying in Sesshomaru's bed. Hell, she might as well be there. Neither of them preferred otherwise, after all, and she quite enjoyed just knowing he would be there soon, crawling into bed and snuggling in. The thought still gave her shivers and a silly grin

Yes. That would happen very soon, unless that meeting he mentioned last night would last longer than absolutely necessary… They worked him like the species he was, and despite the fact that he was built to stay in one meeting for a whole week straight, that didn't mean they should do it. Which they hadn't. In fact, Kagome got every night with him, but they shouldn't keep him any longer…

“I feel like the whining wife of a businessman,” Kagome told herself, only mildly insane at the moment. Overall, the training was beginning to tax on her. All of the other training she had ever undertaken, save for the small amount Sesshomaru had begun showing her, had been physical. This, on the other hand, was almost a psychological adventure to the inane, and it left her mentally exhausted and worn every night. And to think that Le said she should feel lucky to require sleep as an excuse for a break. The old stubborn bastard… He had also told her to be grateful that Seshsomaru had forbidden him from the `life or death' teaching method, but she was more appreciative of the fact than mad.

The sliding door hissed open, and Kagome flipped sides eagerly to see- “… Oh, hi, Jia.”

“Sorry,” the young yÅkai apologized with a small wince, stepping in and closing the door with one hand. Her other was occupied with Kagome's miko garb and some other fabrics, all nicely folded into a short stack. She hadn't seen those for a few days, and was growing oddly comfortable with wearing silk kimono everywhere. They were particularly enjoyable when one had no undergarments on. Besides, the training wasn't physical, so why not wear the pressured finery? “How was your day?”

“Ugh,” Kagome answered, flopping back down onto an odd pillow. Jia had passed word around about a wondrous bag of feathers to rest one's head on for sleep. Under Kagome's cheek was an attempt by someone with free time, and although it was better than folded fabrics, she could have gone without the feather stems violating at least one part of her from the neck up with every shift she made. Kagome really didn't want to complain though, after all the work they'd done. Maybe, after seeing red dots all over her, they'd figure out to use the soft and fluffy down feathers rather than clipped flight feathers.

Then came a sudden and displeasing thought. “Jia, was this pillow boiled?”

“… Boiled?” asked the young yÅkai slowly.

Kagome grabbed a corner of it and dropped the bag of feathers onto the floor, feeling icky. “Never mind. How was your day?”

That began a five minute spilling of the day's best gossip, none of it pertaining to the hottest couple on the block, of course. And that was good. Kagome didn't want to hear her life incorrectly reiterated.

Jia could have probably gone on for hours, but she decided to close her mouth until next time and excused herself when a particularly handsome lord entered his rooms.

“Hey there, sexy,” Kagome grinned, her heart singing a little song. That sentence made Jia's footsteps trip up outside, and Kagome was just humored at all the stories THAT comment would spurn.

The amusement got rubbed out when Sesshomaru turned around after closing the door.

“… What were you talking about?” she asked, somewhat concerned.

He blinked at her curiously. “Nothing unusual. Why?”

Kagome scooted to the edge of the bed farthest from him, and beaconed with some pats. “Because you look exhausted.”

A frown adorned his face as he began to disrobe. “Do I?”

“U-huh,” she confirmed, thinking. “Do you feel tired?”

Relief twittered in her chest when he smiled lazily. “Very.”

Perhaps it was wrong to enjoy watching a stunning specimen of humanoid male undress while feeling bothered over his wellness, but the majority of her didn't give a darn as the moving sculpture unveiled nicely developed muscles while flowing in movement. What could she say, he was built for perfection, and she really couldn't hate everything about that. Damn, he was sexy…

“I thought you could stay awake for more than a week at a time,” she stated.

“Yes,” he confirmed. If his replies weren't traditionally clipped, they definitely were when he was weary.

“Didn't you sleep well last night?” she asked, wondering if she snorted or something even more humiliating.

At that he stopped what he was doing and regarded her again. “I did not sleep.”

Kagome's eyebrows raced for her hairline. “What did I do?”

That small frown of his returned, and she knew that for a split second he found her to be as insane as she felt. “You slept soundly. And drooled a little, like anyone else would when on their stomach.”

She was never sleeping on her stomach again… “That kept you awake?”

Sesshomaru blinked. Twice. Then smiled and began walking over to the wall which held his wardrobe, hakama swishing faintly. “No. Nothing you do in your sleep would keep me awake should I choose to rest.”

Kagome pondered that as a drawer opened, and she abruptly felt affronted. “You don't sleep with me?”

A faint, almost regretting sigh interjected their conversation. “No.”

The heat of a very healthy blush swirled into her face, and she pouted with annoyance at his back. “Not like that, you pervert.”

“Hm,” he intoned, pulling out a long gone accessory of his. Kagome stared at his insanely huge fur boa as it was flicked over his right shoulder, and like magic it moved to nestle against his skin just as it always did. “The first time I fell asleep in your premises, you unreasonably shoved me off the bed and onto the floor.”

Her jaw flapped. “Wh-? I-! … You're holding a grudge??”

“No,” he denied calmly. “I am merely stating a fact. And yes, I have fallen asleep with you, but I do not do so every time.”

“So then what do you do all night?!” she demanded, becoming flustered. “Just… lay there and watch me doze??”

“Sometimes,” he answered, not phased in the least. “Usually I use the time to think, and listen to you.”

Kagome was fully armed to dispute this stalker behavior of his, but an even more jarring subject bared itself for debate. Literally.

“Ack!” she yelped, yanking the blankets to her eyes and facing her drawn up knees when the very nice image of his bottom seared itself permanently into her mind's eye. “What are you doing!”

“I prefer sleeping nude,” he said bluntly. His energy stirred briefly, and she peeked at her fingers to see that only moonlight lit her skin. She needed to learn that candle choking trick he just used… “You are more than welcome to join me.”

Her heart was galloping, and it skidded to a dead halt when she felt the blankets tug and the mattress shift. She waited, glued in place, but when nothing happened she dared a peek.

He was laying down on his front, the blankets up to cover all but what she was quite accustomed to seeing. His face was pillowed mostly by his left forearm, the loose corresponding fingers tucked just under and against his hidden breast, and his other arm was simply up near his head for comfort's sake.

Kagome stared at his being completely relaxed for a few seconds, and flinched when his eyes opened little more than halfway to regard her.

“Maybe I should go?” she offered spontaneously, feeling funny after being caught watching him.

“Not necessary,” he assured, lids dropping as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “As I said, you will not be able to disturb me, short of shoving me off the bed.”

She smirked sheepishly, not knowing what to do. She looked over when something started patting, and saw his unhindered hand unhurriedly mimicking her inviting gesture.

Very deep shivers echoed quickly in her and she fidgeted. Initially, she wanted to shy away, knowing he was naked save for that fur of his, but another part of her argued that he was not on his back and that if she ever wanted to grow accustomed to him at any given instant then she should start sooner than later.

A playfully daring side woke up then to dispatch her uncertainty more easily, and with minimal thinking she began smiling whilst undoing the ties of her clothing. “Hold on a sec.”

Squirming quite a bit further beneath the blankets, she got the more simple juban's tie undone and squirmed out of the swath of nighttime fabric.

`You naughty, naughty girl,' she told herself happily, pushing the safety of her warm clothing aside with her feet before crawling closer to Sesshomaru under the cover of bedding and relative darkness.

Reaching him, she curled against his side, stretched her left arm over his back, and rested her head comfortably on his shoulder where she had a clear view of his face. He looked pleased that she was touching him. She just had to see what other emotion he'd produce in a few moments.

As she relaxed he shifted, the normal process of them becoming comfortable together. Then his brows pinched and he shifted some more before stilling. “… Are you…?”

“Touch me and live to regret it,” she dared, wondering how much suffering his will could handle at such a moment. Even she was tickling over the feel of his thigh and hip rubbing against her bare legs and abdomen, and to distract herself she began to scratch his back on her side of his pelt.

Silence ensued, and he was the stillest thing in existence. “This is not fair.”

“I know,” she teased. “But you're tired, so let's just go to sleep.”

Surprisingly, he made no argument, disappointing her anticipation for a qualm he couldn't win. So she waited, raking across his well toned back and wondering how long it could take for him to think up something else.

Nothing was happening though.

A little put off, Kagome tilted her head slightly to see him better, and stopped. Sesshomaru had fallen asleep. Sure, he was probably great at pretending, but something almost instinctive told her that he wasn't conscious. There was an unmistakable peace in the looseness of his expression, a completely carefree parting of his lips, and his breathing was very slow; and deep, but not in the sense of drawing in a lot of air. He was just… Asleep.

Still absentmindedly scratching, Kagome grinned foolishly and nuzzled comfortable against him before very, very gradually stilling her hand. Smoothing her hand under his fluffy boa fur pelt thingy-ma-bob, her palm cupped his side which was not nestled between her breasts and rested there for the night. A intriguing calming emotion trickled throughout her as she relaxed against the man who wanted to marry her. With that in mind, she thought that falling asleep would be difficult. It wasn't.

---

The only indication to herself that Kagome had dozed off was a new numbness in her right arm and severely shifted shadows. Then there was the thing that had awakened her, and oddly enough it had her thinking `what on earth is that so very comfortable feeling?'

Not too troubled, and groggy in spite of feeling like she had just blinked, Kagome dared a peek at Sesshomaru. He did indeed prove to be a very good pillow by not moving an inch in his sleep, and she foresaw many a comfortable nights. After affirming his state of being, she began investigating hers, and drew her arm from across his back to bring it along her side.

It was huge, lusciously soft, and wrapped around her like a plushy boa constrictor.

`Oh no,' she thought while blanching, pushing down on the fur to get it off the bulge of her hip. It really didn't want to. Instead of shifting down, it flexed more securely around her, and this made her stomach flip. `Oh no, no, no… Off, get it off!'

Alright, the fur boa thing wasn't a crocodile eating Amazon python, but waking up to having something you did not give permission to wrap around you was almost as bad.

`Why, for the love of decency, did he bring this to bed with him?' she asked herself, trying to twist slowly out of the furry spring she was caught in the center of. For every tug, it curled, and every pull resulted in a slip along her skin, making the whole scenario very pleasingly disturbing.

`This is ridiculous,' she cursed inside, easing away from Sesshomaru so she could torture the thing off of her. It acted like it had a mind of its own. How freaky was that?

After about five gruesomely frustrating minutes she got the idea of just biting the damn thing. It would have worked wonders, if the odd flinching clench it gave at the very thought didn't hint otherwise. When it loosened slightly, she grabbed the opportunity by the tail, literally, and yanked.

Said tail had been between her knees, and was then pulled quickly up… She was not good at basic math when deprived of sleep.

“YEEEEEAAAAGH!!” she yelped, trying to jump away from the intense violation of personal space. The edge of the bed met her bottom, which was more than her flung back hand found, and soon momentum had her falling with a dull clatter to the ground.

“Oooow…” Kagome whimpered, rubbing the back of her head and removing her lower right leg off the low laying futon mattress so she could settle completely on the floor. If that wasn't enough, the damn fur thing was completely limp, and gathering it up she lifted it over her head to fling back to its owner, and instead she found its owner looking over the edge at her.

“… What are you doing?” Sesshomaru asked oh so innocently. Damn his ability to not sleep for days at a time, get a few hours in, and look absolutely pristine minus some sleepiness.

“Being molested by a fuzz ball!” she yipped. Kagome felt her spirit ascending from mortification, and with a scream she brought the damned fur to her lap and covered herself. `I thought you said you'd sleep through anything' were the first accusing words out of her.

”Not if you plan on shaming Tenseiga with your superior ability of waking the dead,” Sesshomaru countered, getting comfortable with his face in a folded hand. “I will be taking my pelt back now, if you would.”

Tensing for the rush of defiance, Kagome straightened her back slightly and shuffled her toes. “Turn around.”

“I would rather not,” he stated, the shadow of a smile beginning.

“Whatever you have in your head, it's not funny.”

“Of course not.”

“…” He wasn't moving. “You're not getting this back until you turn around.”

The edge of his well developed canine showed in half a grin. “Do you not recall that I have seen you naked before? Regardless of five seconds ago.”

Kagome pinched the fur. “I was in the bath, you openly peeping Tom, and the Jewel had reappeared. Why else would I expose myself to you? … And that was ages ago.”

For some reason he was now smiling, and it made her wonder if she proved to be more of an entertaining peep show now than- Never mind. There was just something unattractive about developing girls in the light of healthy maturity. To the well in mind, at least.

“You'll get your damn groping fur,” she began bitterly, wondering how long this little spat of theirs was going to last and what outcome it would bring, “when you turn around.”

He held out his hand. She almost spat in it as a means of arguing.

“I could just take it,” Sesshomaru began to ponder aloud. “Or will it to me. There is more satisfaction in taking direct action though. Or you could begin to squirm, that would be fun.”

Barely monitoring her balance, Kagome yanked the hand holding her off the floor from behind her back, jerked upright, and jabbed a finger at him. “So you were moving this ten foot furry mass around me!”

“Hm. No.”

“… What?” she asked from behind her slightly shaking hand. It didn't fancy that position after having held her up for a few minutes beforehand.

“Perhaps in a way,” he adjusted. “It is very subconscious. Like you when you move or talk in your sleep.”

Talk? She did that? How often? What did she say? What was she dreaming about? Please be about math, or anything unrelated to him. Oh dear lord, had she drooled at the same time? Wait. “Don't change the subject!”

“Fine,” he agreed, sticking his hand out again.

Crap. “… What do you mean, `subconscious'? Is it really part of you? I know this can bleed, but that's about it.”

“Now you are the one changing the subject,” he commented, fingering an edge seam of the cotton filled mattress.

“Just tell me,” she argued, surprisingly not too uncomfortable now over the situation. Sure, he was seeing an immensely little less of her than he had over four years ago, but that was dwindling in importance. Maybe she could relate it to a bathing suit? A really comfy white bathing suit which animal rights activists would drench in red paint. Then again, had anything died to make that if it had blood? “And start with where it came from.”

That earned her a flat stare. “That is not obvious?”

“No it's not obvious,” she snipped halfheartedly.

Sesshomaru gave up on staying vertical in any sense and rolled onto his back, the crown of his head almost pointing at her. If she wanted to make a dash for her clothes, that was the time. Instead, she just sat there and waited. It was going to take a little while if he was getting comfortable first.

“Have you noticed where it goes when I transform?”

“Oye,” she sighed, pinching her temples with one hand. He was going to make her think, and it was probably four in the morning. “I'm not sure. That was ages ago, when you and InuYasha were fighting in your dad's remains. … And that wasn't too classy, either.”

He shrugged, the sheets rustling faintly.

“Is it that huge swath of fur that goes over your shoulder from your chest to your back?” she guessed.

“M-hm,” she was verified. “Strong yÅkai are born with them. It is nature's assistant, since the youki would otherwise course in a raw form through its host until they died. Pelts though, sharing blood and flesh with their closest kin, not only filter the energy first but also store and dismiss it until an older yÅkai decides the child is ready to learn how to control it.”

While mental images of his possible childhood slinked through her thoughts, Kagome scooted closer to the bed, and was leaning her back to it when her next question came to mind. “It's like Shippo's fur, right? I thought he'd grow out of it when he got bigger, but it just seemed to grow, too.”

“Yes,” Sesshomaru confirmed simply. Rather than continue, he paused and began to speculate aloud. “One would assume that you would have been given some physical aid as well, being a miko, after so many generations of evolution.”

That was curious. “I guess spiritual energy isn't as… wild?”

“Possibly. It is far more deadly to go without an aid though.”

“No it's not,” she countered automatically. It couldn't be. … Could it? He had said before that youki creates, and spiritual energy destroys.

“It is,” he stated. “Which is why you should have been born with a buffer. Something to keep you away from it until you were ready.”

Kagome couldn't help but to shrug. “I dunno. Maybe it's because miko are miko via their soul rather than heritage, or because I'm not a spiritual animal manifestation. Maybe it's all just stored in my head, and came as I got older and learned some things. Hm, scientists say that only a small percent of the human brain is used, anyway. Maybe that's it.” Reading the silence as Sesshomaru's way of considering the possibilities, she let it last until her curiosity got the best of her. “So, what kind of a connection do you have with this pelt if you can make it move without touching it? Just by thinking?”

There was a shifting, and Kagome glanced out of her peripheral to see him nod. His eyes were closed again. He was probably still really tired. She would be, too, if she couldn't sleep at all through the equivalent of eight days of classes and homework assignments. “Not exactly that way. It is more like and uncommonly used muscle, or like a detached tail. It takes practice to learn how to utilize it.”

She could understand the unused muscle bit. She still couldn't wiggle her ears no matter how much she thought about doing it while staring in the mirror as a kid. Then memory lane merged with a fork in the road, and she found herself playing with the long and thick fur between her fingers. “So, can you store energy in this?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“How much?” she asked, wondering what kind of unit of measurement this sort of thing had.

“Hm. A lot,” was his first answer, which made her roll her eyes. Some unit. Most guys used it. “In prime conditions, I could fight and hold my own fully transformed for two days without drawing on more than what my pelt can store. In fact, I cannot filter youki while in that state. No yÅkai can. It is too stressful and demanding.”

Turning to face him, Kagome looked on in shock. He actually admitted something to be stressful and demanding. It made her feel as warm and fuzzy inside as she felt outside, thanks to a certain something bundled over her. “Hm. So, random question, can you feel through the pelt? Like, if someone touches it?”

“Yes. And distance does not hinder that.”

A brilliantly wicked new game came to mind. How to get the Sesshy out of a meeting using only his pelt. Then that thought backfired. “You can feel me right now, can't you?”

“It is very distracting,” he admitted, and when her fingers stopped she felt the thing move against her stilled palm.

Well, so much for saving decency. She dug around the blankets for her yukata and dropped a good portion of the pelt over his upturned face. “You could have told me sooner.”

“Again, what good would that have done?” he asked, not moving the fur as she slid into her short cotton robe of a pajama outfit. She needed to roll from her bottom to her knees and feel around to find the tie, and when she tightened it about her midriff he shifted his pelt from his line of sight. It remained touching him, and she marveled over how it must feel from his perspective. She enjoyed the fur because it was just so big and soft, hated it because it could move on its own, but to have an innate bond with it as well? It probably felt like being whole again. Like getting a tail painlessly re-attached. If that were the case, why ever tuck it away? Li Hua wore hers everywhere, draped over both shoulders to hold the back of her head. Then there was Sheng, who pretty much never wore it that Kagome noticed. Maybe furs needed a break from time to time as well? Or maybe Sesshomaru was just recharging it?

It was hard to tell, especially when she didn't voice the questions. She was in no hurry to get the answers though. Certainly not at that hour. “Want to play hooky tomorrow? Erm, today?”

That got her a look, maybe since she hadn't argued with him like she usually did on such points. “What is hooky?”

“It's skipping lessons,” she supplied. That was the easiest if not the best way to describe it to him. “Come on. I've been on this darn floating castle for far too long. Let's go to Edo!” Excitement billowed in her and she scrambled onto the bed next to him, and that required more hopping than crawling since her yukata kept her knees fairly useless. “And you can't go visiting Lords and whatnot. No business. Just a day of fun! We could, I dunno, eat crappy human food and go glass-less window shopping, and- Oh! Let's walk the beach! Can we go walk on the beach? It's so nice, and there might be shells!”

She didn't stop blathering until realizing that the slight shake that she was slowly beginning to notice wasn't her, it was Sessohmaru silently laughing.

Slapping his shoulder, Kagome crossed her arms and huffed in the opposite direction of him. A great irritable mood was charging up her horizon like a bunch of opinionated little hers in samurai armor upon energetic steeds. Then a hand settled on her lower back, rubbing slowly on its way to grab her hip, and as she was pulled closer to Sesshomaru said steeds stopped with shock, and said Kagomes went flying over said steeds heads into the dirt. To put it more simply, her mood was shot to Hell in a hand basket.

“I am not about to deny you something which brings you such joy,” Sesshomaru cajoled, having sat up some time while her back was stubbornly to him. Her hand sank down the depression made by his own, and she moved her fingers over his, sending them bouncing like a kid's stick along a picket fence. For some reason she always smiled while touching him, and she hadn't noticed that until then. The very masculinity, the strength without the bulkiness some men had, of his hand made her happy. She was absolutely hopeless, but it was nice knowing she had his probably undying permission to be affectionate towards him. They had come a long ways since nearly hating each other. Twice…

“Hm,” he hummed as she fiddled, and she was pulled back just enough to be up against his chest. “I will not deny you myself, either, if I am so pleasing to you.”

Kagome's hand stilled. “You just slaughtered a moment.”

“Did I?” he asked through a short chuckle, and she felt his hand smooth to her abdomen. “Let us make another one.”

“Screw you,” she scoffed, lifting her hand off his, replacing it on the bed somewhere else, and having it slide with gravity back to his. Dammit, he wasn't giving her enough room to be offended. In fact, he seemed ready to just wrap around her, with his hand to one side, his torso to her back, and now she noticed his legs were slowly sliding up to her other side, and his hand was snaking more securely about her middle, and- Oh, flame it and douse it! She was becoming the prey again! “I'm going to go to bed.”

“Are you?” he asked. That simple question started a whole hour of entertainment, which started with cursing, was filled with laughing, and it ended with Kagome cursing at him again when she realized that the sky was light gray with warning of sunrise.

“That's it!” she yelled, yanking her freshly cleaned hakama up under her yukata, securing them, and then throwing what she was supposed to sleep in aside to put on her haori. “We're going now!”

“Going?” he asked, still looking great for the few hours of sleep he had gotten.

When she frowned at him, the various fun incidents of having yelled at him to keep the blankets on from the waist down while they teased one another came rushing back, and she shook her head with a small smile, pissed at the fact that she couldn't keep her moods in check around him anymore. “Yes, dammit, we're going to Edo. Now get dressed because we're leaving in three minutes.”

At least, they would have left if Sheng hadn't found out and thrown a hissy fit.

“But little Li Hua will have my hide if I let Sesshomaru leave his lesson,” Sheng tried when guilt tripping Kagome into staying for Le's training didn't work. As a direct result, Sheng was arguing with her, and Sesshomaru had made a comment on who gave permission around there. The question wasn't answered. Not directly.

“Then let her have it,” Kagome huffed, listening to the odd clinks of thick old coins as Sesshomaru counted them. She didn't need to spend anything, but it was always fun knowing there was a reservoir if something gorgeous came along. “I've been renting mine out to you and Le for a week. I need a break, and I'm taking Sesshomaru hostage.”

The clinking stopped, then continued.

“That's quite the way of putting it,” Sheng commented. “Seeing as you can't leave without him.”

“I could jump,” she argued, half her mind completely off the topic and imagining just what sorts of things were considered to be gorgeous in Edo.

“A guard eating lunch would hear you scream, walk outside, step off, and catch you and bring you back up before you'd hit the ground,” Sheng stated smugly.

“Yeah? I'd purify him if he touched me,” she fired back, her anxiousness to leave spiking at the unmistakable sound of a small drawstring bag closing.

“I'm accompanying you to Edo then,” Sheng sighed. This almost made Kagome blow a gasket at the thought of losing great one-on-one time with Sesshomaru, but then the old yÅkai continued. “And when we arrive we will part ways. I have a sake brewer to visit.”

“Somehow, I'm not surprised,” she said through a smile.

They managed to arrive when the sun was just cradled by the lowest edge of Mount Fuji, and that promised bustling streets. Perfect.

Kagome walked contently against Sesshomaru's side, the early summer morning chilled yet pleasant. She wore her white miko garb, standing out but not too severely in the crowd. Sesshomaru was wearing mostly white as well, including his traditional garb of hakama over a kimono. He also had on a darker blue vest, of sort. It was like a style lacking, waist length happi coat with the sleeves tailored off. It didn't close in the front, either, and damn did he make it look good. So, on top of his height he was also stunning to passerby. Then again, rub mud all over him, and he'd still pull off being quite the sight. Kagome should have expected that they would be stared at. Then again, the thought of them looking like quite the item had her in even higher spirits. Now she could hardly wait to learn how to further train herself and get cracking on their relationship.

“Ooh!” she sang out when gorgeous item number one came into view, and she pointed. “Look at that! Isn't it pretty?”

Her attention made the merchant's day, especially when she couldn't resist hurrying with the remaining ten feet through the sparse yet bustling crowd and looking down at the trinket. What it happened to be was a simple yet eye catching hand mirror. The frame was of a very dark blue, bringing out her eyes when she gazed into it, and the surface was perfectly flat save for a small carved out bubble indent's edge at the upper left portion of the oval.

Kagome grinned down at herself in it, and at a simple question regarding color the man behind the table hustled happily around and picked up the item like it were finely blown glass and held it in the light. `Ah, yes' was how a story concerning talent, rarity, and beauty and how they all added up to a pricy result began. She listened because she enjoyed having someone work some acceptance and appreciation out of her. He was very good at it, and she bid him a friendly farewell consisting of the promise to think on it.

Breakfast came after eight other gorgeous sightings, which were laced amongst approximately fifty minor excitements, and after eating she was rearing to go down another five streets of salespeople crying for Sesshomaru's obviously upper class attention.

Speaking of him, Sesshomaru was tolerating this rather nicely. In fact, he almost seemed to be enjoying himself. Maybe he was off in La-La Land and thinking of something completely different, or perhaps he was glad to learn what tripped Kagome's trigger in terms of merchandise. A greedy part of her hoped for the latter. She wouldn't mind receiving gifts from him. They weren't the `all important', but they would be very nice, now and again.

“It does not,” Kagome argued merrily, their sporadic conversation taking yet another turn at his comment.

“Yes,” he disagreed, “your voice does change to a higher pitch while you are talking to merchants.”

“Well, your voice just dies when they start talking,” she offered.

“It is called listening,” he countered, visually regarding what was probably quite the site to him when a woman hoisted a whole three feet and larger salmon over her head while looking at them happily. It wasn't the strength that was impressive, as there wasn't much needed in terms of those who worked for a living, but it was the fact that she could keep a heavy, slimy, limp scaly sack of meat over her slightly distraught hair that kept Kagome's attention long after Sesshomaru had gotten bored and searched for the next spectacle.

“If I didn't ask my questions, you wouldn't be able to listen even more,” she quipped. “So there. Besides, I think you ignore people more tha-”

“Kagome,” he began flatly. “Look over-“

“Or should I say you interrupt more tha-” She got really mad when he just killed her ability to talk by painlessly yet securely gripping her lower jaw and turning her head to the opposite direction.

There were stores, people, and something waving.

“O `ami!” Kagome sputtered, blinking and then slapping Sesshomaru's hand away. “Is that…? It is!”

Said waving something cupped their hands to the sides of their mouth and yelled “Kagome!!” from across a mass of humans.

Shocked, Kagome slowly smiled, heart jumping and stopping in rapid succession. Her attention quickly shifted between Sesshomaru and the newcomer, and she didn't start running over until Sesshomaru had been pushing her ahead while walking for four confusing seconds.

“Oh my God!” Kagome cried, ecstatically leaping into full throttle wherever there was a healthy gap in the flow of traffic. “Sango! What the hell are you doing all the way over here?!”

“Waiting for you, I guess!” she yelled back over the heads, waiting on the other side. When Kagome broke through she absolutely collided into her friend with a strong embrace, then they held one another at arm's length.

“It's been so long!” Kagome now exclaimed out of excitement. “How have you been?”

“Can't complain,” Sango stated, grinning from ear to ear. She was in a sturdy kimono which reminded Kagome of the one which suffered through their summer together, but this outfit was mostly light green with a yellow fabric around the front. The days of pink were fading. “And neither can you, it seems.”

It was then that Kagome noticed that Sango was eyeing Sesshomaru before returning inquiring eye contact over a malicious little smirk. Blushing, Kagome shook her head ever so slightly, Sango's smirk disappeared then returned with a vengeance, Kagome blushed all the harder, and Sango rubbed her upper arms reassuringly.

“These things take time to be done correctly,” Sango almost commented before letting her hands drop. She then bowed politely to Sesshomaru with her hands to her lap, and Kagome glanced back at him to see his nod of a reply. Oddly enough, it was nice to see them politely acknowledging one another. It was a bit redundant to think they wouldn't, seeing as Rin lived in Sango's village, but Kagome was nonetheless reassured that no sparks would fly between slayer and yÅkai.

“So what drags you out into public?” Sango asked merrily. “Is Kagome getting bored already?”

“No,” Kagome snipped. Okay, maybe those two could become friends with her as a conversation target.

“Yes,” Sesshomaru had agreed in perfect unison with her.

Sango laughed, commenting on them being made for one another, and Kagome's questions began flowing out of the need to talk about something less odd. It seemed that Sango was there for work, seeing as demons really could learn to stay away from a slayer's village and head out for a higher and crowded human population to get lost in. That, or they were getting more creative with hiding. Another fact was that Edo had not been Sango's idea, but Miroku was actually off taking care of `monk things'. It never got deeper than that.

“And InuYasha?” Kagome asked, not worried for the first time in her life saying that name around Sesshomaru. Before there had always been at least the slightest of flutter in her heart. Now she felt a little something, but it was more the curiosity behind the discovery. That, and aforementioned yÅkai had gotten bored and was innocently touching Kagome's upper arm and playing with her hair. It didn't bother her, but it did unsettle her mouth, which couldn't keep its corners from curling up over his almost curios actions.

Sango was rather fascinated by their first truly public display of fondness, but she managed a reply while looking between Kagome and Sesshomaru in a mix if awe and humor. Yeah. It was one of those things you just had to see to believe. “He's being babysat.”

Kagome giggled, waving a hand at his own, and her fingers were easily caught and held near her shoulder to be lightly massaged. It seemed that Sesshy didn't mind going public in the least. “You mean he's babysitting?”

Sango was going pink for holding in a certain emotion, or perhaps a noise. Whether it was the urge to laugh or to squeal over them was left unknown. “No. My girls are training Hiroko how to slay a hanyÅ, so to speak, and Shippo is keeping his child mentality tactics in check by guilt tripping InuYasha or making him feel obligated to stay. Rin is beginning to pick that up as well.”

Rin… There was something Kagome felt like she forgot, of all the timing. Suddenly a whole avalanche of guilt came crashing down, and she looked back and over her shoulder at Sesshomaru. “Oh! I told her you'd go visit her some time ago!”

For some reason, this news brought entertainment.

“You assume I have not?” Sesshomaru asked as Sango turned her quick laugh into a cough, making passerby veer even more clear of them. At Kagome's asking stare, he continued, pinching her fingertips like some personal masseuse. “It is a sufficient means of killing time whilst you train, socialize, or sleep.”

“Letting him slip out of your line of sight?” Sango teased earnestly.

Kagome looked at her and quirked her mouth wryly. “So, are you in Edo then to make sure Miroku keeps his hands to himself and you?”

“Ah!” Sango barked quickly, balking in shock.

“A-HAH!” Kagome cried, pointing with her free hand and leaning as forward as comfortably possible with Sesshomaru having a hold on her. “You haven't changed one bit!”

Sango was now blushing, but it was probably partially out of anger. “I certainly have! It's that perverted monk who hasn't!”

“And you love it.” Kagome almost accused through a smile, leaning back again until pressing against Sesshomaru. It felt good having him there with her.

When enough time had passed that Kagome felt bad about first talking to Sango on her day of playing hooky with Sesshomaru, and second for talking about things Sesshomaru didn't relate to in the least, she offered to visit Sango later. After that, five minutes of squabbling, compromising, and bargaining ensued, and in the end Sesshomaru got his way. Kagome found herself with both the shockingly heavy purse and her friend and wondering how long it was until three hours before sunset, at which time she'd see Sesshomaru again. He was probably off with Sheng somewhere, or having a healthy dose of personal time. Either way, her fingers wanted to feel him again.

“You are so hopelessly in love with him.”

That got Kagome's attention, once their hour long conversation had died. “Hm? Oh! Um, yeah, I guess you could say that.”

Sango set down the oil she was sniffing and picked up another. “Well, at least you're not denying it anymore. That's good to see.”

Kagome puffed out some air and it disturbed her bangs. They needed to be trimmed again. They were beginning to get just against her eyelids, and it was quite annoying. “You expect me to?”

“Yes,” Sango admitted, voice nasally as her nose was wrinkled in preparation to sneeze. She set the obviously vile vial of oil back where she got it from, and searched for one she had previously liked so as to replace what was up her nose. “I mean, sheesh, it took you a whole summer to really even hint at liking InuYasha, so going the whole way with someone would be, what, six years?”

Kagome nearly shattered the fine glass in her spasmodically clenched fist. “That's ridiculous.”

“Just a guess,” Sango teased. “Speaking of, seeing as I must be wrong, how is he?”

Kagome scoffed. “I'm in love with him, aren't I? He's an absolutely terrific pain in my ass.”

It took a moment before Sango organized her thoughts to speak. “That's not… I mean, you know…? … Have you found out where other markings are yet?”

… Oh. It was that sort of question. Well, the next ten minutes were bound to be fun, if nothing else.

---

“What do you mean, `female things'?” Sheng asked in a manner that was one part happy, one part confused, and most parts incredulous.

Sesshomaru shrugged, still looking around with mild interest at the decorations. Humans certainly loved bright colors and a variety of shapes once indoors. Maybe his room would slowly morph over the years with being mated to Kagome. On that note, it was not really a matter of what-if anymore, but rather a matter of waiting. Like a predator knowing the game for its next meal was over, but enjoying the tail-ticks of lying in wait. Maybe Sesshomaru should just pounce his little deer and be done with that enjoyable part of it. Then again, he may never be in this stage of a relationship ever again, so in a way, waiting was a good thing. Reliably frustrating at the worse of moments, but over all, a good thing.

“She ran into a friend,” Sesshomaru supplied. “Quite literally. Kagome went ablaze when she recognized her.”

Sheng shifted against a nearby wall, happy to visually follow the wiggling tail end of a service girl as she walked between customers some thirty feet away. “Ablaze, hm? I suppose it would be the appropriate evolved form of one brightening or lighting up.”

Sesshomaru rolled his tall ceramic tea cup between his hands, from opposing palm to fingertips, and vaguely wondered if anyone there suspected yÅkai to be in their midst. Large villages or cities were not popular places for his kind to visit. “Are you going to invite her to a room, or just visually molest her?”

A dry chuckled eased from Sheng, and he interrupted it with a drink. “I would rather molest than wonder over possibly becoming a father. So, now that you've told me why you and Kagome have separated for a while, what are you going to do?”

“I have a monk to find,” Sesshomaru stated. “Some holy grounds to visit, and if there is time then I have some streets to prowl.”

This had Sheng contemplating Sesshomaru for a moment. Indeed, such were most likely the first words of their kind to escape a yÅkai all at once, but Sesshomaru had his reasons. “Alright. I will be returning before you rejoin Kagome. Having some time away does me good though. Now scat, you're getting your scent all over me. I don't need your mother harping at me for knowing where you are.”

---

“Go ahead and relax,” Sango cajoled, patting Kagome on the back as they walked. “Sure, it hurts the first time, but it's worth it.”

“Hurts?” Kagome asked at the sudden topic change from the slayer's children. Then she felt ignorant with being raised by her bashful and long time abstinent mother. “I'm not worried about THAT, I'm worried about resulting kids. I'd feel terrible, having a hanyÅ child and then dying while they're still so young.”

“Well, you said you were going to get the hang of that trick you've been practicing,” Sango countered. “Besides, you deserve it.”

A twinge sprang up Kagome's spine. “Deserve?? That's hardly the word I'd pick. I feel more eventually obligated than deserving of it.”

An elbow poked her side playfully. “You'll see what I mean after the unforgettable night. Or day. It is quite the spontaneous event.”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome didn't reply, grappling for something else to think about. Sexy golden eyes flickering in candle light kept stealing any alternative thoughts.

“Sure,” Sango plowed on without heeding Kagome's discomfort, “it's not going to be fantastically perfect. It never is. But there are just so many emotions, and the bonding, ooh!”

“T.M.I.”

“What?”

“Too much information,” Kagome supplied.

The elbow revisited. “Ah. You'll see. Don't come complaining to me, either, when you've realized all the nights you've lost.”

Kagome was about ready to clobber the very open woman over the head with a Lord's salary in a drawstring purse, but instead she laughed with a sudden thought. It was great talking to a friend again. “Hey, you said work was hard to find, right?”

---

Finding a human in an area that was absolutely decimated with them was proving to be very difficult… It reminded Sesshomaru of the reason why he had stayed in the library of Tokyo oh so long ago. Outside was odorous, and inside smelled more of books than of the rarely visiting humans it was built for.

In all seriousness though, if you left a human in a room with a dictionary and a chair, they would probably just sit down and play with themselves in various ways, and perhaps hit themselves with the book out of boredom rather than read it. Some of the more curious may try a balancing act involving the chair, book, or both, and possibly add themselves dangerously to the mix before resorting to hitting, but in the end you are bound to encounter some dull thudding rhythms.

Sesshomaru, on the other hand, would just leave the room. If that were impossible, he would be perfectly fine with reading the dictionary from cover to cover five times in a row. When boredom struck, he would most likely balance himself sitting in the chair with it on its back legs, corner the book perfectly on his nose, and take a nap for a few days exactly like that. Then he would re-read the dictionary another eight times, get bored, and go to sleep until time eroded the room from around him and he could leave with quite the vocabulary.

But back to sniffing out a monk from amongst the masses. Sesshomaru was almost certain that he remembered the young man's scent, though sometimes his memory distorted it between the young man who was hot on any willing woman's trail and the settled father of three, but the recognition should be there when he was close.

A good hour passed, and Sesshomaru learned to hate a very particular sort of human: merchants. The noisiest, most deceitful of creatures one could ever dread to find. Some of them, at any rate. They were the ones who went quiet for about ten seconds after Sesshomaru would glare at them and walk on.

Elusive monks were also working their way towards the top of Sesshomaru's list of things which displeased him that day, but fortunately he found the young man. And in a surprising yet rather fitting place.

The future Higurashi shrine grounds were mostly bright green with young shoots as they began to shoot out of the withered brown bed of last year's growth. There were also scant snow patches, but they were clinging to the surrounding clumps of trees where the sun never directly shone. Sesshomaru found himself watching a group of humans and their activities from atop the Bone Eaters Well's house, which seemed to be prepared for turning into a proper shrine rather than a guard house. Sesshomaru did not sense anything in particular to speculate as much. It was the intriguingly braided ropes and inked parchments that made him assume. They were attached to the walls of the well house, but being inactive Sesshomaru had no trouble remaining exactly where he was on the roof.

The monk he had been searching for, Miroku, was walking the grounds inquisitively, as though looking for something, and when he stopped and lifted a hand another monk would approach, stand still, nod, and one of the group members dressed in orange robes would hustle over through the young grass and thoughtfully plant a stick in the ground.

This happened three times, and by the number of sticks, had happened quite a few times more beforehand. It was not until watching the forth becoming planted that Sesshomaru discovered the pattern. They were marking where the tall stone statues stood on the shrine grounds in the future. Perhaps there was a natural flow of spiritual energy in that area.

A few more minutes of this passed when Miroku stopped and finally looked by only moving his eyes at Sesshomaru. The lack of activity invoked some questions, but Miroku handled them all very well and called for a brief break to relieve himself.

Of all things… Sesshomaru could tell the monk was lying -even from his vantage point- for an excuse to go out of sight and into the woods, but surely after years of practice and of rearing children the young man could come up with a better fib than that.

Before Miroku began to approach Sesshomaru was already behind the well shrine, and contemplating whether or not to be extreme in not being discovered by excessively racist religion fanatics. The decision was made for him though when the monk, in walking past, angled his head before stepping noisily into the foliage. It wasn't a crunching sort of noise, as one heard in the fall, but rather the mushy squirts of death made soggy and weak for the new generation of growth.

“You are exactly who I wanted to see.”

This caught Sesshomaru's attention, briefly. Many people sought his attention on a daily basis, but this was the first that a monk had admitted as much. Then there was a miko who sometimes said that too often, or while angry. “Indeed?”

“Why is the Bone Eater's Well here? And why did you have the tree moved?” Miroku asked, coming to a halt after looking over his shoulder to scan the visibility through the trees. There was none, which meant it was perfect. “It's sent the local Buddhists into a frenzy, and they've already established that the tree has transcended through time to have grown so quickly. I suppose that's a good way to have it called the Tree of Ages, but this is a little extreme for no apparent motive. Would you mind enlightening me?”

The ways in which time planned things amused Sesshomaru. “In exchange for a small service, no, I would not mind.”

Miroku had his hands casually up his sleeves, but an air of readiness still clung to him. It was in the spread of his feet and the slight pinch of his shoulders, but aside from that, he looked ready to greet an old friend.

Hah, they were far from friends.

“I'm listening,” the monk encouraged.

Cooperation was not expected. If negotiations were negated, Sesshomaru would have to whisk Kagome away sooner than expected. Miroku was hesitant when Sesshomaru stated that the grounds needed both to be fully sanctified to the point of emanating a permanent barrier and to have a shrine built, but he became an advent listener as the reasoning was detailed.

“I see,” Miroku began as their agreement was closed. “I will do my best then, so long as Kagome confirms the facts and agrees to help in the designing. … I assume she is with Sango?”

Ah, a clever one. “Yes.”

“Good,” the monk replied. “How is she?”

The proverbial reply of her being well surfaced, then paused. The monk's mood was changing. There was a peculiar strength mingled with worry and unfamiliar trust. It annoyed Sesshomaru, but he kept his voice emotionless. “Kagome is doing very well. Keep in mind she will hold it against you if you act as her father.”

The monk blinked, and shifted into a genuinely more casual position. “Hm. I know. It is hard trusting some of her decisions though, after seeing the ones she has already made.”

That was completely understandable. Kagome was quite the annoying ditz when she was younger, if having been attracted to a loudmouthed idiot was not evidence enough of that. It made Sesshomaru wonder, sometimes. Also, the monk was a father of two daughters, so the instinctive mistrust of unattached males courting females he cared about was probably influencing him as well.

Even though the potential argument was obviously one Sesshomaru would win, he avoided picking it. A relationship was infinitely better if none of the couple's friends had qualms with their being together. “I will bring Kagome with me soon to visit Rin. It will also give you time to discuss certain matters.”

Miroku agreed with a nod, and their conversation was over. He returned to his work of sensing stick-spots, and Sesshomaru went back to the bustling streets. There was a specific, more pleasant merchant he would not mind bargaining with before finding Kagome.

---

“Oh really?”

“Ah, ha ha, yeah,” Kagome confirmed while admiring some rather clunky yet pretty shoes. “He didn't really say the exact words yet, but the meaning was there.”

At that Sango sighed, and set down a bundle of bright fabric she had been looking at for her daughters. The woman was actually looking at things with a genuine interest, since Kagome decided to hire her in sharing the weight of the purse. It was not much, but it would help out Sango's family in a time of lacking business. “Yeah, men are like that sometimes. He'll say it, eventually.”

Kagome shrugged. “It's not like I need his feelings confirmed or anything.”

“Yeah, but admit it, it's still something you'd like to hear. Especially if your playful stories of him making you say it are true.”

This made them both giggle through the ceaseless prattle of the woman trying to verbally shove merchandise down their throats. It eventually had them walking on for another place.

“You're so in love with him,” Sango randomly commented.

“Hm? Why'd you say that?”

“Because, you started sighing when he left, and that was quite a while ago,” was the reply.

Kagome exhaled dramatically, then frowned. “That wasn't a sigh of missing him, it was being exasperated.”

Sango shrugged with a little smile. “I think it's quite cute.”

“Cram it,” Kagome muttered.

“Aw. You're getting into a mood.”

“And you find that to be adorable…” Kagome muttered, head up and eyes half-lidded to show her annoyance without sighing again.

“Absolutely,” Sango answered cheerily through a grin. “Let me know when you start slapping him over little things.”

The thought nearly had Kagome laughing. Nearly. “I've slapped him a few times before, but it hasn't been for rubbing my ass. He's not as forward as Miroku used to be.”

“Used to be, huh?”

“… Oh. … Well, anyway, I've only slapped him when he darn well deserved it, and he always knew he did. Probably. Deep down inside. If he thought he didn't, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to catch him.”

Sango giggled, and it seemed rather out of place for how serious Kagome was being. “What? What's so funny?”

Brushing off imaginary lint from her bosom, Sango collected herself before speaking. “If you had a certain necklace on him, you wouldn't need to catch him.”

Kagome was instantly mortified and began to laugh loud enough to have people give funny looks. That was fine though, Sango was enjoying the mental images, too, so they both got stared at.

After various expressions, gestures, and onomatopoeia to portray the key points they found to be hilarious in that concept, the humor began to ebb. Very, very slowly.

“Oh, kami, he's too regal to be sat,” Kagome laughed breathlessly, the corners of her cheeks hurting for having smiled for so long and hard.

“I know,” Sango replied in the same tones. “But I- I can still see you doing that to him!”

Wiping tears from her eyes while shaking her head, as difficult as that was, Kagome tried to breathe normally again. “I think I'd die laughing before being able to get the first letter pronounced. Oh, sheesh, I've thought about this before, but damn it's a lot more funny with a friend around!”

“Oh is it?”

Kagome shrieked quickly while jumping forward before turning quickly to see Sesshomaru. About a foot away from where she had been standing. Sango took his appearance a lot better, and was simply white as a sheet and wide-eyed, slowly beginning to find this all to be funny.

“Don't do that!” Kagome yipped, marching back the three feet she had leaped to smack his chest. “I nearly died of a heart attack! … And wipe that smile off your face!”

Still grinning, Sesshomaru put his hand in front of his mouth, moved it to the side, and revealed a perfectly serious face. Almost stern.

“… Stop that,” Kagome tried again, her stomach tickling.

The smile returned. “Make up your mind.”

Obviously ready to lose this argument, Kagome settled for planting her feet and crossing her arms. “You're here early.”

“Was this not our day together?” he asked, not at all sounding bothered.

“Oh!” Sango spoke up, entering the conversation and making Kagome flinch. “I'm sorry, I had no idea that-“

“You're fine,” Kagome interrupted. “It was good to see a friend again.”

Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow.

“You were never my friend!” Kagome yelled at him. “You went from a pain in my neck to a romantic pain in my neck! No in-between, you're just like dry-ice, you headache-inducing jerk!”

A part of her wondered if her outbursts would ever, ever get him yelling at her in return. “I am sorry that I frightened you,” he apologized, probably irking her all the more by finding her to be rather delightful at the moment. Come on, she was terrifying when she was mad, dammit!

“... Apology accepted,” she sniffed, figuring she couldn't say that he didn't scare the living crap out of her after that epic yelp-and-jump maneuver.

“Good,” he said. “Then I will give you a few more minutes.”

Kagome was rather surprised when he turned around and walked away, and she didn't stop staring at his rapidly fading figure until Sango touched her shoulder.

Sango was trying very hard not to laugh.

“What?” Kagome asked, anger fading in wake of curiosity.

“Honey,” the slayer began almost sympathetically, ready to burst. “You just got mugged.”

Shocked, Kagome's hand flew for her hip, and she realized the sack of coins was nowhere in the vicinity of where she had left it. One would thing that, due to its heaviness, its absence would be noticed… “That pompous bitch!”

Sango frowned with a giggle. “Wasn't that his money?”

Kagome simmered. “It's the act that counts…”

---

Chuckling to himself, and wondering over the slight loss of weight to the purse, Sesshomaru had the feeling that Kagome was cursing him out. He didn't feel bad about it though, seeing as it was his money, and he already apologized for the worser crime of scaring her. If she hadn't been shocked, he supposed that taking the purse back would have been a bit harder to do. He was going to have done it without her noticing, but the subject was too demanding of a comment from him. He had seen how that `necklace' worked, after all, and he would like to keep his face as far from the ground as possible at every given moment in life.

The last coin clinked into his palm as he neared the rather pleasant, older merchant he had been talking to not long ago. Nodding to one another in recognition, the amount was soon handed over to be re-counted by the human.

“Fancy coins,” the tiny yet healthy and happily married man commented, flipping them in his scarred and callused hand while counting. “Same material, same weights, but different image imprints. So, you are a demon then?”

More humans needed to be educated on the differences. Calling Sesshomaru a demon was as inaccurate and insulting as it would be to call him a peasant. “A yÅkai.”

“Ah. Fancy that. We don't see many of your kind here in the cities,” the man commented warmly, not at all frightened. Many people were not scared of Sesshomaru, initially. It was those who thought they had something to either prove or to protect who feared him. “I suppose your claws and birthmarks give you away, and those aren't easily hidden, are they?”

Then again, this man was exceedingly unafraid to be asking questions. “I presume you have encountered others?”

“Oh, yes. You don't live to be a human my age these days without some form of an encounter, especially in the field of a craftsman. It is unusual to not receive the standard human currency, but in the long run I suppose that increases their value… Hm, I see you're paying me half for now, as agreed,” the merchant acknowledged.

“Yes. You will see the remainder later, if your craftsmanship is worthy of it.”

The merchant nodded, smiling. “I assure that you will not be disappointed. Please feel free to return for them in fifteen days or later.”

---

The o-shiro felt empty and bland without the lovebirds around. Le had taken Kagome's disappearance as a promise that she will work herself to the bone the next time he sees her, and left it at that to enjoy his day off. Sheng also did not mind Sesshomaru's lacking presence, seeing as he himself had also not been there. Li Hua, on the other hand, was rather mad for a healthy portion of the morning, and finally resigned herself to her rooms for a well deserved nap.

What woke her up was sensing Sheng's return, and she could hardly wait for the verbal lashing to begin. Upon sitting up, it was obvious that she needed to reaffix her hair picks.

Dragging herself off the cotton filled mattress, still fully clothed, she walked over to her vanity corner. Her kimono had gotten somewhat askew, its normally vertical edge now slanted to disrupt the even hem. She hated naps, they always demanded so much time from her afterwards to right her appearance.

The slight tug of her long hair pins coming loose was a familiar feeling, her drawn up tresses falling smoothly to frame her face, and setting them down she pondered herself in the perfectly flat sheet of mirror.

“You have certainly aged,” she muttered to the reflection, wondering if she saw a slight graying under her eyes and smoothing it under her fingertip. It was probably from the sleep. Despite what she said, memories of when she always wore her hair down came back whenever she had her pins out, and a sad comfort enveloped her. It was so long since she was innocent and not mated, and it was not so long ago that her mate was taken away from her.

“If you want `old', you should look at someone else.”

Li Hua focused her eyes in a different part of the mirror, regarding Sheng in the background doorway. The sneaky bastard. “I did not call myself `old', you antique.”

He barked a laugh. “I said old, not antique. And all women lie to themselves, you were thinking as much.”

Sighing through her nose, she visually dismissed him for founding her rarely used comb. From time to time she would use it, usually when she wanted to feel better, and right now she did.

“Thinking about him?”

“You are welcome to leave,” she replied, closing her eyes while dipping the rounded teeth into her curtain of hair. It brought back memories.

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” he happily stated, and she heard him walking in.

“Now, Sheng.”

The footsteps gradually stopped, not too far away, and trying not to let him get to her she continued. The comb was fine toothed, and carved from bone, making it seemingly as light as air. At times, she could hear it whisper to her as it went through her already untangled locks.

A weary impatience settled in when his heavy touch rested lightly on her shoulders. “Leave me alone.”

“Now, now,” he eased, smoothing some of her frustration away by stroking away from her neck towards her arms and repeating. “If you keep everything pent up, you'll scare Kagome away. She won't want to be related to such a terrifying woman.”

“Hm. Tell me, Sheng, exactly how fond are you of unbroken fingers?”

“Oh, very,” he chuckled, the motions of his hands uninhibited by any uncertainty she may or may not have instilled in him. “Hm. When is the last time you have been with a man? Intimately?”

“You know that one,” she scoffed. “You are bad luck, now go away.”

At that he paused. “Come now, just because you were finally loosening up a little does not mean it caused that argument.”

“Argument?” she asked, dislodging herself from him by turning halfway around in her small European bench to frown up at him. “It was a catastrophy! I am never disrobing around you, ever again, Sheng! You know full well I want grandchildren rather than another screaming brat of my own, anyway, so go bother some other distraught girl!”

Sheng grinned shamelessly, the quirky bastard. “Aw, but you are my favorite, little Li Hua. And I still say you are exaggerating. The timing was way off, and the distance too great for any pheromone reactions. Chiro would have been in his bed that night regardless of our activities.”

“Ooh!” she seethed, turning back around and smacking the low table surface. Some feminine trinkets jostled, and she flinched upon realizing she had just slapped her comb. It wasn't broken, and it would take far more than that to even phase it, but it frightened and bothered her nonetheless. “Oh, now look what you have done! You are such an inconvenience, go to China for a decade!”

“Hm,” he hummed thoughtfully, taking her anger in impeccable stride. “I am sorry. I did not expect you to be `distraught'. Really, though, it has been well over two hundred years since he d-”

“Get out,” she bit out bitterly. “Just shut up, and get out. It is the least you can do for adding insult to injury, you horribly timed bad luck inducer.”

She waited, not sure what the response would be. Silence filled the room though as she felt him leaving. He did what she wanted, and for some reason, she felt a little worse for it.

For a short while she merely stared at the wall ahead of her, thinking. She did like Sheng, for various reasons, and age was not as important to yÅkai as it was for humans (who lived very short lives in comparison), but sometimes that man just grated on her nerves.

Shifting her hand, the edges of her comb, a gift from her deceased mate, became apparent, and she angled her fingers to pick it up and continue to brush her hair. She did not indulge in the activity often, but when she did, she would prefer to be left undisturbed.

---

“You don't have to yet,” Kagome reassured barely even a minute after Sesshomaru left.

“I should though,” Sango countered, letting Kagome out of their embrace. “I don't want to be the one keeping you away from your yÅkai.”

“My-? That's horrible.”

Sango giggled at Kagome's blush and winked. “You know it to be true. All guys are the same, no matter what species they are. If they're allowed to call us theirs, then we should be able to call them ours in turn. Right?”

“Ever hear of polygamy?” Kagome asked.

“… Multiple husbands?” Sango guessed.

“Oh, preferably.”

They both laughed, and despite Kagome's reassurances that she would sense out Sesshomaru this time before he arrived, Sango bid farewell and left with an order to visit sometime.

Assuming that ten minutes of entertaining herself would ensue, Kagome tried to find Sheng and gave up after realizing he was nowhere in range. After a huff and glancing back to confirm that Sango was long gone, Kagome looked ahead once more and had a silent panic attack. Sesshomaru had appeared out of thin air like a Hollywood special effect, scaring the daylights out of her and some people who had been glancing her way. She opened her mouth to complain about him pulling stunts, but he beat her to the first words.

“Do you still wish to see the ocean?”

She huffed again, smiling despite herself. “Can't I be annoyed with you for even two seconds?”

His smile had her melting, and she didn't mind when he tucked his arm under hers and lifted, making her hand slide into the crook of his arm.

“Nice trick,” she commented, holding him and pondering over Sango's words as they began to walk together. “Did you learn something other than some English while you were over in Europe?”

“Perhaps,” he hinted, not minding the people staring at them. Kagome wasn't at all bothered, either. She had a forearm to fondle and badly maintained streets to not break her ankles on.

---

Sesshomaru could not help but to envy sand. This was admittedly highly abnormal for him, but once Kagome had decided to roll up and secure her hakama legs she went to kick around in the surf and emerged with wet and sparsely sandy legs.

“Come on,” she whined some more, grabbing his wandering attention again as she closed the gap between them. “Are you too regal to take off your shoes and have fun?”

“Yes.”

She stared, and crossed her equally exposed arms. “You won't drown…”

Frowning minutely over the slight insult, Sesshomaru tucked his hands into opposing sleeves. “That is obvious.”

“… Hm,” she hummed through a grin. “Well, I suppose you could, actually. Ever hear of a riptide? It's basically the water grabbing you and pulling you under along the ocean's bottom, and they're pretty much impossible to swim out of if you panic. Isn't that neat?”

He blinked, and wondered if there really were demons in her era and humans just did not know it. Well, apparently Bashamon survived as long, and if he could then there probably were other yÅkai and lesser beings.

Tucking her hands behind her back and swinging her shoulders gently, Kagome giggled to herself for no apparent reason. “You can get in the water with your shoes on and pants down, I wouldn't mind.”

Sesshomaru smirked over the thought, and decided to have a seat in the sand.

“Oh, come on!” she yelled, radiating displeasure.

“I am fine with remaining dry,” he offered, resting his arms atop his lifted knees. “You, on the other hand, are more than welcome to disrobe further to play in the water.”

After commenting on something called a `bathing suit' and `driving him absolutely mad' with it, as impossible as that sounded, she sighed and turned away. “Alright, I'm going to hunt shells.”

That was by far one of the easiest once-animate prey Sesshomaru could possibly think of, and that may have been a leading factor for why she suggested doing the activity. He watched her leave, waving whenever she looked at him over her shoulder. After the first two times she stubbornly marched onwards with her face fixated ahead, refusing to look again.

Pleased with the results, Sesshomaru began to take off his shoes.

---

“Uneventful jerk,” Kagome muttered, watching the waves rush up and splash her legs before receding, taking gritty sand from under her feet for an odd sensation of sinking. “I swear, once motion pictures hit Japan, I'm shooting a film of a couple walking the beach and submitting it.”

Another wave reached up the land, and she spotted a small, shiny shell tumbling up the beach in it, disrupting the flow of water.

The urge to chase after it surfaced, but remained unfulfilled when she went up instead of forward.

Kagome shrieked as she was sent spinning in a circle with her legs out and a strong hold around her torso under her breasts. When the world righted to her equilibrium again, she found herself sitting bridal-style in Sesshomaru's arms, and looking with astonishment up at his beaming face. The bastard got a kick out of scaring her of late.

“Oh, put me down,” she griped good-naturedly, smacking his chest lightly. “And stop scaring me like that, I'll have a heart attack and die from it.”

“Then I would revive you,” he assured, setting her down in the cold surf.

When she had her balance, Kagome shifted her shoulders, cleared her throat, and spontaneously kicked a wave up at him and ran like mad. Shrilling when he caught her up again, she sprawled and laughed even while he threatened to fly up and drop her in the ocean. At that she vaguely challenged his strength, he proved it, and that led to kissing on the sand until she dropped a handful of it on his head and ran away again. She never got far doing that…

Despite all appearances, she was thrilled that Sesshomaru could and would loosen up and have fun with her, even if it meant he got wet and sandy.

“The sun will go down soon,” Kagome observed, staring at the oddly cast shadows of the vegetation and rock outcrops. “Want to build a fire?”

At the lack of a response, she glance back at Sesshomaru, who looked a little befuddled.

“For the purpose of warmth, entertainment, and for the sake of seeing something burn,” she supplied. Then a thought struck her. “You've built fires before, right? Or was that Jaken's job in taking care of Rin?”

Nothing sounded better than to tackle Sesshomaru to the gritty ground at his small smile. He was happy a lot around her, for some odd reason, and she was thrilled to see it.

“I am capable of building a fire,” he assured. “It is simply convenient to use the Staff of Two Heads, so yes, Jaken frequently undertook that task.”

Pondering over how the toad was fairing quite a few minutes after his being mentioned, Kagome continued with her self-appointed task of gathering kindling. Finding an armload of tinder was surprisingly simple to do despite being near a shore. She completed the job quickly and walked out of the woods towards their designated pit location, near a huge outcrop to be out of the wind, and she nearly dropped her bundle.

“There you are,” Sesshomaru commented, sitting cross-legged next to a mini bonfire worth of arranged wood. The stack reminded Kagome of the Mayan temples, with its square pyramid shape becoming progressively smaller the higher it was. There were two logs parallel to each other per layer, giving the to-be-roaring fire plenty of oxygen as only the corners of the wood touched anything. Rin must have enjoyed when the sun set if Jaken set up such fires for her.

“Were you waiting long?” she asked, approaching and wondering if she really had taken longer than a few minutes.

“No,” he admitted, watching her shove some kindling between the logs into the stack's belly.

“Good. So, do you have any tricks to get this lit?”

“Hm. A few,” he answered. When she finished and wiped her hands on her damp and salty hakama legs, he pulled back a sleeve before reaching in and placing his hand over the tinder.

Kagome didn't have long to doubt this method before a windy flame took root and spiraled up along the logs to be come an inferno. He retracted his unscathed arm and shook his sleeve back down to his wrist, and she supposed he didn't lose even a single hair from the flame which was keeping her at a minimum of four feet away from it already.

“Okay,” she began, thoroughly impressed seeing as not even gasoline could accomplish what he just seemingly magically did. What she witnessed was positively illogical, but perhaps it had something to do with the flame he had conjured in his hand in Tokyo, whereas she could only manage a small blue icy gem. Then there was another impossible thing before her, and it took a moment to continue talking because watching him sit a foot away from the flame, hair and clothes rippling nonchalantly in the strong heat waves pouring from the flames, was breath taking. “Care to douse it and show me the other tricks you have?”

After yelling that she was being sarcastic when he moved to do so, Kagome finally forcefully sat in this lap to keep him from proving himself to her. Then she began to turn away and made to crawl off him into a more comfortable temperature range.

“Relax,” he breathed, holding an arm around her middle. A whimper of displeasure escaped her, her skin prickling as though every hair were receding in terror, but when his energy misted up against her she calmed. It was almost instinctive, thanks to that darn seal. This opened up a whole new world of experience. The flame's heat lifted off her body, replaced with a comforting warmth that seeped into her muscles. It reminded her of the cozy space in bed she longed to return to every cool morning after getting up to turn off her alarm clock.

The sigh was inevitable in its coming from her, and her limbs became blissfully heavy as she did what he told her to do. Kagome truly enjoyed being enveloped by his energy, and this time the duration wasn't brief. The feeling remained, and the slightly glowing red currents stroked in rhythmic patterns.

“This is nice…” she hummed. His chin alighted on her shoulder, and she tilted her head against his face. “Is this what you get to feel like, channeling your energy as you do?”

“No,” he admitted. “It is different, and difficult to explain. You will experience it upon learning how to properly channel your energy.”

Leaning against him, she folded her arms over his as they rested across her abdomen. She watched as tendrils of flame, flowing up from their holds in the sides of the logs, flickered towards them innocently. “… Would I be able to touch the fire unharmed right now?”

“You would.”

This was just too cool. Glad to already have her boot shoes off, she slowly stretched out her legs, heels plowing slowly through the sand. Kagome was slow in putting her toes closer to the flames, expecting to have to retract them quickly.

He chuckled near her ear, startling her. “Go ahead. You can trust me on this.”

“It's not a matter of trust,” she replied, nibbling her lower lip and sliding just one foot forward. “I'd trust you with my life. This is just going against instinct for me.”

The thought of insulting him was enough of a nudge for her, and with a leaping heart she touched her right big toe against the bottom burning log. Flames parted around her presence, and she initially drew back a good two inches. Sesshomaru, watching over her shoulder, remained silent through her uncertainty. After a few breaths, and confirming that she was indeed unharmed, Kagome inserted half her foot through the wall of light. The blazes explored between her toes almost curiously, and she had the mental image of puppies licking her foot.

Kagome giggled over the feeling as the fire tried to coax her flesh into charring. It was only warm, like putting on a fuzzy sock straight after the dryer.

“This is amazing,” she stated through a wide grin. It was a quite the adrenaline rush, playing with fire.

Feeling adored when Sesshomaru kissed her clothed shoulder, Kagome again began to think about spending her entire life with him. Maybe, just maybe, children weren't too out of the question.

“I can teach you this,” he offered spontaneously. “Granted, you may be singed a few times in practicing, but the act is fairly simple once you figure it out.”

He made it sound like driving a stick shift car, and that was something she still didn't look forward to. Nevertheless, the urge to say `yes' sprung up and bounced excitedly like a puppy. Grinning, she took her foot out of the fire and hummed instead, nestling her toes back into the cool sand. It was funny. There was a time that she would be mortified to sit in his lap. Those days were long gone though, and the left her free to snuggle back into him. “Not now. This is too perfect to ruin with blisters. … Hm. The fire is gorgeous, I'm sure we'll be dry in no time.”

Sesshomaru chuckled, shifting with her until they were both quite comfortable, and she smiled over at the orange ball of a sun when he nudged in and began to tickle her ear with his lips. “Your hakama would dry faster if you were not wearing them.”

“Oh really?” she whispered back, playing along. “I would get cold.”

“Not with me,” he promised, and she dislodged her ear from the origin of his sultry, seductive voice. Dear mercy, she was a blessed fool to love him.

“You don't have to ruin a moment with your maleness.”

“Oh, but I do,” he jested back. “And what is the harm? I know you enjoy it.”

Slightly teed, Kagome dropped the whispering. “You know, I really hate that nose of yours…”

That got her nuzzled again, sending goose bumps marching down her whole left side. “It loves you, though,” he argued, searching for one of her triggers. She always shook when it took him too long (as in more than fifteen seconds) to find one, but it was fun. He did find them quickly, she was just getting better at not reacting as strongly. Still, she expected at least a year to get her resistance down pat.

“What else loves me?” she asked teasingly, squealing deep inside when he hummed in thought.

“I do.”

“Do you?”

“M-hm,” he confirmed, finding her ear again in spite of her best efforts to hide it and lightly brushing it with his lips and breath. That never got old.

Wiggling contently, she let him have his fun. He stepped over the wall of men admitting their feelings for her, it was the least she could do. “I love you, too.” Then again, maybe she also had a bit of a wall, seeing as a variety of conditions to that statement in the forms of mild and taunting insults lined up, but she pushed them aside. The moment was too nice. And she had the rest of her life to point out his few and minor flaws. She could probably count them on all of her digits, and that meant that she would just have to pin them to him all the harder to compensate for lack of material. And so far, he tolerated all of her vain attempts with good graces. If she tried acting like that around him upon first meeting him, she probably would have gotten more than an army's worth of skulls melted over her. As twisted, demeaning, and demented as it sounded, it was a special feeling to not be on Sesshomaru's long and well developed bad list. Dear lord, it was simply amazing being loved by him. She didn't know what she would do if that ever changed, for any reason. Not now, after they'd come so far.

Kagome's heart quivered as a thought slipped silently into being. For years, all of her motives and goals, all of her drives in life, were focused around her precious pain in the neck. It was something she hadn't really given voice or acknowledgement to, and now that it was given a name she couldn't help but to sit and ponder the little critter of an idea. Sheesh, years… It made sense, in that regard, that she would be absolutely miserable if he were suddenly gone from her life. Sure, her feelings toward him had suffered through quite the roller coaster feat, but in the face of all uncertainty she was still there. They were with one another in the end, and that was something of a miracle.

Suddenly filled with the urge to laugh to the stars until they echoed back, Kagome quelled the splendid emotion to make sure Sesshomaru didn't catch up on it. After all, she had to get the best of his senses some time. “Hey, could you do me a small favor?”

His toying stopped, briefly. “Name it.”

Stomach rising like a hot air balloon filled with sugar and spice and everything nice, Kagome sighed through her nose and stared at the fire. “Could you list off the process of mating? No one has really told me anything beyond the courting bit.”

Aforementioned balloon was hit by a breeze of affection when he hugged her loosely to him. The reply wasn't immediate. He was thinking.

“Typically, yÅkai mate by mating, but that is neither an important nor a mandatory part,” he began, speaking at a measured pace. This was probably the first time he had to surmise all of the details and state them. “Mating is simply a mindset; a very strong bond. Some exchange vows or items, just as some human cultures do. Some mate bodily and remain detached emotionally for seasons thereafter. For others, it just develops.”

This was interesting. She could relate the concepts easily to human actions in regards to wedding. Sex wasn't required, though it was a common result the night to follow, and in her era many exchanged rings, a symbol of belonging to another and of their own free will. Then with the other, it was obviously either an arranged marriage or marrying for something other than love that he as referring to. But the last… “What do you mean when you say `it just develops'?” Was it like moving in with a boyfriend or something regrettable like that?

“Well, we would be a decent example of that,” he replied, amused. “They simply spend a lot of time together, have their good and bad moments, but in the end they continue to find one another.”

“Because they're happy together,” she finished, and his nod brushed his jaw against her hair. “Hm… Yeah, that's us. Who would have thought, years ago, that we'd fall into a relationship?”

This produced a scoff. “Not me.”

“Hm,” she sniffed. Yeah, fate should have courtesy warnings. Still, it was more fun not knowing and accepting reality's backhand. “Why not? It was your fault, after all.”

“The blame is fully yours,” he countered.

“Is not!” she argued while laughing, ready to turn around to face him and jab fingers. Instead she merely held one up in the air before her to gesticulate how very ticked she felt that she should be on the matter. “I wanted to skin you quite a few times, not get groped and kissed all through the nights!”

“And yet you kept returning to me,” he sighed, shaking his head. “What on Earth was I to do with you?”

“Oh, apparently you were to attract me to within inches of my tolerance and then some. I'll never forgive you for tricking me.”

“Tricking you?”

“Yes!” she yelled, giving up on the solitary finger and using both hands like a flustered, failing translator. “How the devil did you change my mindset, in one month, from fighting you physically to fighting you off emotionally?! How?!”

He hugged her again, making her melt. “I am simply amazing like that.”

Rolling her eyes, she turned her head to see his irises glow in the sunset, glint with the fire, and burn with her reflection. Dear kami, he was something. It seemed less than ridiculous that resisting him was just a bad habit now. “Just- Shut up and kiss me.”

The fire crackled merrily and fell in each time a charred log gave way. When the glorious pile was no more than a sloppy looking beach fire, Kagome was head over heels in nigh-mindless love with Sesshomaru all over again. And sandy, she was very sandy. Maybe Sango was right, as would everyone else be though Kagome's ego was less teased by the words of a best friend. Maybe her hesitation was illogical. Perhaps it was dawning in her life that their relationship go up another notch. Hell, she deserved it after all, didn't she? Yes, excellent, a fine excuse to tell herself years to come.

Besides, just in case something did happen, she didn't want `the moment' to happen in a place where everyone could smell it. Gross. Then again, she wasn't fond of sand being in her hair let alone elsewhere.

“You are beginning to smell peculiar,” Sesshomaru admitted from around her lower neck, near her shoulder. It reminded her that the scar from InuYasha's bite was completely gone now.

That hot air balloon, which had been going through a thrilling hurricane for the last half hour or more, now rocketed skyward as the pressure in her head seemed to decrease to a pleasing degree. “Is there a hot spring nearby?”

“No,” he answered slowly, probably quietly analyzing her. “It would not take long to get to one though. What is on your mind?.”

She smiled. Okay, so his nose wasn't all-telling. “I was just thinking we could go take a bath… You put this sand on me, so naturally it's your responsibility to take it off.”

Actions ceasing, Sesshomaru pulled back to openly visually consider the oddity in his lap. “You really need to stop teasing me. I do have limits.”

Did he? Those may prove to be fun to mercilessly exploit… Aside from that, Kagome laughed, and she laced her arms about his neck and kissed him cutely. “Can't you smell honesty along with lies?”

He was absolutely motionless against her. “I was being serious.”

She paused, smile twitching to a less fabulous expression. “As am I…?” Where were the fireworks? Dammit, she was far too worked up by the prologue of events and thoughts to not be given the show.

“…”

Pursing her lips, she lifted off of him and sat up, regarding his flat expression. “You think I'm full of it, don't you.”

“Absolutely,” he confirmed, laying in the sand as though it was made especially for him

She about backhanded Sesshomaru for how well trained he was now. “Let me put it this way. Either take me up on the suggestion now, or forever damn the possibility of the mood ever returning.”

At that gentle nudge, he picked her up, and the thrill bubbled into her all over again. She had no idea what would come of her suggestion, but it was now a door she felt comfortable trespassing through. Even if he had to carry her.

---

A/N: Wow, the chapter FINALLY came out! Hope it was long enough! ;) I believe the muse wanted a last go at the cute relationship dandies before the plot took a firm hold again, so the next chapter should be getting a bit more detailed in that regard. I still have some loose strings to tie up, and we are quite a few chapters away from the grand finale! :D

T-T I had been wanting to surprise the heck out of you, but I'll admit it: Yes, there IS a lemon in the beginning part of the chapter to come. -is shocked- I actually wasn't planning on having one so soon, but… -sighs- I guess I could go for the classic surprised teenager response of `it just sorta happened'? Anyway, two things to note on that:

One- The lemon will be on this site. It will be in the beginning of the chapter, so you can skip ahead if you'd like. If the chances are simply too great, then you are more than welcome to browse the site fanfiction.net for the `censored' chapter. (It's just missing the first part. :D)

Two- There will be a little bit of plot, but don't worry, it will all be thoroughly revisited later in the chapter, so please don't feel like you must pick through it to not miss out. :)

I'll be warning of this all over again in the beginning of the next chapter, but just a quick brief of what's to come! Thanks for reading, and as always, thoughtful reviews are much adored. :3

~AD

P.S. I'll try to update `on time' next time. :x Again, I'm sorry, but this chapter was being very demanding. ;) -scolding- Bad chapter, bad!