InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Spring Fever ❯ The Battle ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter 18

 

The Battle

 

It's the Shikon no Tama.

 

Those words were running on loop in Sesshomaru's mind. Nice of that Jewel to deliver itself... What it was delivered in though was still a bit of a mystery. He couldn't see it, and the wind wasn't in his favor, but he could certainly feel it. He remained calm, but for that last reason he had Bakusaiga gripped tightly in hand, ready to battle the beast.

 

Kagome, on the other hand, was busy staring between him and the distance, worry growing in her features.

 

Something went 'swish' about sixty feet away.

 

“Sesshomaru! Move!!”

 

He was half tempted to look at the crazy miko in a perplexed manner, but an air-splitting whistle suddenly reached his ears and he leaped away.

 

Too late.

 

The shrine's barrier shattered in a brilliant display as the whistling shot closer, and pain lanced through his mind when something grazed his left thigh and tore the pelt from his shoulder. His pelt, something every full fledged inugami is born with, had a connection with Sesshomaru, and right now that connection was giving him a splendid headache for how pained it was and how much energy it was drawing from him out of fear. Being stabbed twice more certainly didn't help things.

 

“It bleeds?!” the miko cried with disbelief, glancing at the sky before rushing over to it. Could she actually see the enemy?

 

She stared as the furry detachment writhed wildly against the ground and its bindings, and grabbing something above one of the gapping bloody holes she yanked up. Unsuccessful, she had to focus some energy into it and the thing became free and visible.

 

“Oh, god these are heavy,” she commented, tossing it two feet away where it landed with a thud. She grabbed the second while Sesshomaru stared at what she removed, rubbing a temple as his energy flared nigh uncontrollably through him. When his pelt was stressed, so was his will over his youki. It was a diamond shard, glittering with the fading tints of the sky. That shard was the typical result of Tetsusaiga's kongÅsÅha.

 

And that didn't make sense... Inuyasha wasn't there.

 

“At least only three really hurt it,” Kagome stated, watching as the blood seeped back into the wounds before beginning to heal. “I mean, of the fifteen here that's pretty good.”

 

“Do you see the wielder?” Sesshomaru demanded, quickly reclaiming the pelt and allowing it to make a full recovery before it lashed out at the miko.

 

Kagome nodded, still shaken by the recent events. “It's that dr-” She startled and looked quickly off to the distance. She just barely erected a personal barrier before something grazed Sesshomaru's armor, startling him, and she was sent flying through the shards of her protection.

 

Sesshomaru's mind was racing. She was human. She was mortal. She was hit hard enough to puncture a brick wall. He shot after her and she landed limp in his grasp.

 

“Miko!” he yelled, watching blood bead up on her lip and from her nose to creep slowly down her face. The coppery scent didn't belong there... It made a knot in his chest. “Miko!!”

 

She didn't respond no matter how harshly he shook her, and another earth vibrating step made itself known along with the sound of more diamond shards. Sesshomaru cursed and jumped away from the threat, now on the other side of the shrine property with Kagome. Citizens were screaming and car alarms whistled across the streets, but it was her voice he listened to.

 

“Wha' time z'it?”

 

Sesshomaru regarded the woman who was still slumped back in his arms, causing the blood to trail towards her eyes. An eerily familiar roar shook the air.

 

“Miko,” he tried again, forcing himself to be calm as he angled an arm under her head to make her look at him. There was another step, and the ground cracked and rose in jagged slabs when the shadow approached them.

 

“T's Kogame you dum-fuk...” was her eloquent reply. There was a thin trickle of blood coming from her ear, and her eyes were going in and out of focus. “We under water? I can't see right.”

 

Sesshomaru was approximately one fifth of a second away from dispatching that thing into hell, but Kagome prevented that.

 

“The Jewel!” she suddenly screamed, sitting up so quickly she almost doubled herself over into a face plant.

 

“Where, miko?” he asked, pulling her back.

 

“Kagome!” she yelled her name, getting it right this time. “Its heart.”

 

“Which heart!” Sesshomaru demanded. The enemy had two. He knew this well.

 

“Prick,” she scoffed, losing consciousness. He was worried. She had some brain damage, but he couldn't tell how much. Perhaps a slight concussion? Perhaps she'd die? He didn't want to think about that.

 

“Good to see you again, Sesshomaru.”

 

“Wish I could say the same,” the old Lord of the Western Lands replied to his invisible foe, setting Kagome down and standing. He knew for sure who he was dealing with now. “Although, you would probably be a sorry sight after all this time, Bashamon.”

 

The dragon lord growled low in his long throat.

 

Last time, Sesshomaru had been cocky.

 

This time, he was going to be deadly.

 

“Oh, I wouldn't be if not for you,” the demon granted. “Who'd have seen the hell that was to come after our last battle.”

 

“It was certainly a surprise,” Sesshomaru replied, Bakusaiga in hand as he walked forward. His youki quickly enveloped him, the fur over his shoulder rustling in his ear over the released power. He was pissed, and his senses were working overtime to figure out just where Bashamon was.

 

“Mm, one you have yet to witness,” grated the invisible demon. “Let's make sure it never happens!”

 

It lunged.

 

So did Sesshomaru.

 

There was a growl of mirth when Bakusaiga went slicing into an appendage, grinding easily through scales and shooting off energy to destroy the flesh of the foe, and Sesshomaru landed.

 

There were two thuds, and Sesshomaru looked back to see the clawed toe which Bashamon had severed himself. He severed it because the corrosion seeped through the skin and evaporated what remained. Soon it was gone.

 

“Do not begin to fathom that I would fall to the same fate as that pathetic hanyou minion of mine, Sesshomaru.”

 

“Minion?” Sesshomaru couldn't help but to ask. Ah yes. The hanyou who infiltrated Sesshomaru's lands, and who even sought to absorb the demon lord.

 

“YOU already know enough!” Bashamon roared insanely, swinging his tail for Sesshomaru. He dodged the general shape which he couldn't see, flipping backwards over it so he could land a strike, but something embedded itself into his sword arm when he sliced down. His blade sunk into flesh, thankfully, but it was yanked from his weakened grip. There was a vague amount of poison. Not enough to even bring Sesshomaru to a sweat though, just to make certain tendons malfunction in his arm. He landed imperfectly, rolling to a kneeling position.

 

The sword clattered to the ground when the detached tail faded away, but Sesshomaru knew Bashamon would use the blade as bait. He moved Tenseiga to his right side so as to draw it in his left hand.

 

“That pathetic excuse for a sword can't harm me!” the dragon roared.

 

Sesshomaru smirked, licking the wound in his arm quickly. “How little knowledge to you possess, Bashamon?”

 

The dragon was silent.

 

“Well, no matter,” he continued, twitching his fingers experimentally. That was a very weak poison. “If you lack the strength to even allow yourself to be visible, let alone powerful, then obviously knowledge would not be a priority in your life.”

 

There was a sudden swell of holy power, and glancing up Sesshomaru watched an arrow come screaming straight into Bashamon's eye.

 

He thought Kagome was too dazed still to do such a thing... Actually, he also thought her aim was horrid.

 

“Damnable miko!!” Bashamon cried. “Not again!”

 

Again?

 

Slowly the spiritual residue covered Bashamon's face, revealing his whereabouts with a shimmering transparent layer like dusted glass, and it rained down to his forelegs.

 

Sesshomaru could see his foe, and said foe couldn't see him. He was blinded.

 

Sesshomaru frowned. Bashamon had two eyes the last time they met. But that didn't matter.

 

There was a gurgling roar when Sesshomaru split open Bashamon's throat with his acid whip, blue blood spilling forth from the still invisible neck. There was a lot, meaning Sesshomaru had hit an artery. Good.

 

Bashamon backed up, foot relieving itself of Bakusaiga, and Sesshomaru reclaimed the blade promptly.

 

An odd odor hit the air then, and looking up Sesshomaru saw something neon green come gushing from the dragon where the blood dripped down.

 

With a roar, Bashamon spat a flurry of flame for Sesshomaru.

 

'Damn!' he cursed to himself, leaping back as the ground was rendered to a molten blob. He needed to cut deeper to disable that attack, and now he had the blade to do it.

 

Sesshomaru's feet landed softly, and Bashamon immediately turned to the spot and spat flame.

 

For his size, Bashamon's hearing was rather good.

 

“What's the matter, Sesshomaru?” he demanded, licking his drooling chops and making a full circle, sending his tail to sweep down several stair railings and gardens. It collided with a particularly familiar tree though, and suddenly stopped and... Stayed?

 

“What is this?!” Bashamon yelled angrily, tail seized in the shield of the Tree of Ages, the three paper tassels glowing a rich yellow with the spell.

 

“A tree,” Sesshomaru supplied, leaping at his foe. He wasn't expecting Bashamon to snap at him with his mouth like a cornered animal, but no matter... Sesshomaru sliced horizontally, severing the lord's tongue when the jaws came colliding shut harmlessly around him.

 

There was a light coming up the back of Bashamon's throat, and not wanting to die in the largest oven ever founded Sesshomaru made quick work of the lower jaw. Falling with the jaw amongst drops of liquid fire Sesshomaru landed, and dodged when Bashamon's whole head fell.

 

He never severed the head...

 

The dragon body wobbled, but remained upright. Sesshomaru stared at it, and was shocked when a new head burst out of the severed neck.

 

So, the Jewel was in Bashamon's chest.

 

“Ah, vision,” Bashamon sighed, blinking crispy new eyes and shaking gloppy blue blood off his fresh scales. “It proves to be useful.”

 

“Not helpful though,” Sesshomaru informed his opponent. “Prepare to die.”

 

“Not likely!” the aged demon roared, finally dislodging himself from the tree's barrier.

 

Sesshomaru became suspicious when Bashamon raised his right foreleg and beat at the air. A series of small diamonds came bulleting for Sesshomaru, tainted with jyaki and poison. He dodged all save for one, which grazed his right shoulder.

 

Sesshomaru landed, refusing to hold the burning wound. “Where did you learn that attack?”

 

“Doesn't it look familiar?” Bashamon asked, raising his claws again as they glowed red. “That was an impressive sword. Too bad your father's heirloom will end your life!”

 

Sesshomaru, recognizing the attack, knew fear. He sealed his youketsu, the source of all of his youki, before it was absorbed from himself, and leaped away from the swipe which would take his life if it landed.

 

“How ridiculously easy,” Bashamon laughed, watching Sesshomaru dodge the paw at his lowest energy level. “Either way, you shall die Sesshomaru.”

 

He drew Bakusaiga again, and Tetsusaiga pulsated.

 

It was calling out to him.

 

Sesshomaru was hesitant, fingers flexing uncertainly around Bakusaiga's hilt, but sheathed his sword for his father's.

 

“I have already told you,” Bashamon roared. “Tenseiga has no power over me!”

 

Bashamon reared for a strong fire blast, and Sesshomaru saw it. A faint pink glow in the invisible body.

 

A wretched scream tore through Sesshomaru's ears when Tenseiga sliced open its foe, digging through scale and bone for the heart. Sesshomaru drew back from the slice, blood coating him as he stood in the wound, and plunged the sword and his arm into the cleavage of the gapping slice in Bashamon's chest. Tenseiga, the sword which couldn't cut, pierced the heart and touched the Jewel.

 

Sesshomaru winced when a bright light burst through the area, making the air shake.

 

There was a blast, vaporizing Bashamon and sending Sesshomaru flying. He rolled a few times before catching himself, the wind whipping his bangs out from his face as he stared blindly ahead.

 

There were a few seconds of silence, eyes now completely shot for nighttime vision after that flash, and some things clattered to the ground, one metallic sounding and the other a repeated click. It was then that Sesshomaru realized that Tenseiga was missing from his grasp.

 

Walking to where he heard the items fall, tripping over a still embedded diamond shard and pitifully blinded by spots for the next few seconds, Sesshomaru felt the sword out with this toe and knelt, and his knee landed on a small round object.

 

It zapped him.

 

He ignored it, and seized his blade by the hilt.

 

It was different. In weight, scent, feel. Blinking, Sesshomaru saw it looked the same, but there was something new to it.

 

Recalling that he just defeated a demon with certain attacks, Sesshomaru watched as he concentrated. Diamond shards, thousands of them, decorated Tenseiga's blade. Tenseiga possessed all of Tetsusaiga's properties?

 

He stood, and facing the sky he prepared for an attack. “Wind Scar!!”

 

Three yellow claws of energy seared the night, and he stared.

 

Then there was a moan.

 

Sheathing Tenseiga and stepping towards Kagome, Sesshomaru stepped on something and looked down when it shocked his foot. It was the Shikon no Tama, swirling with a blackish purple aura.

 

He kicked it over to the house, and treating it like a ball he shot it up and through the open door with his toe. He'd let the cat play with it, if the cat was still there...

 

Kagome lay on her back, an arm across her abdomen and the other holding a bow. How she got it in her state he didn't know, and he never knew in the first place that she possessed a black one.

 

“Sesshy?” she asked when he picked her up. “Ugh... Put me down...”

 

“No.”

 

“I'll throw up,” she grumbled. “All over you.”

 

“Then you will,” he replied, walking inside with her.

 

“I'm tired...”

 

“Do not sleep yet,” he requested, not wanting to risk her falling into a coma. He still needed her. He also disliked the idea of her falling asleep indefinitely.

 

“Why not?”

 

“You may not wake up.”

 

“Giddy,” she replied, completely out of it. “A nap.”

 

“A very long one,” he informed, now climbing the stairs.

 

“You worried?” she asked. She sounded drugged, and probably felt like it too.

 

“No,” he replied, biting his tongue over feeling like he was lying. Was he worried? No, he wasn't. He refused to be. That was that.

 

Her bedroom was overrun by her scent. It was nice.

 

“My bed?” she asked as he sat her down, slowly reclining her to the pillow. That action felt so familiar and was so out of his nature that he felt like kicking himself. “Sleep?”

 

“No sleep,” he told her, feeling good about her at least speaking. Perhaps it was just a head injury. “Keep talking to me.”

 

“Bored?” she asked, yawning.

 

“No.”

 

“I'm gunna sleep.”

 

“No, you will not,” he replied, searching his list of threats for the mentally deranged. It was rather short, so he put himself in her mindset. “If you do, then you shall be awoken with pinches.”

 

She whimpered, turning her face and staring lazily at him as he knelt by the bed. One night. If she didn't fall into a coma after that, then she was fine. All he had to do was watch her.

 

Within five minutes he pinched her arm.

 

“'M awake!” she yelled, eyes shooting open.

 

“Were not,” he scoffed at her. “How do you feel?”

 

“Pinched.”

 

“Aside from that.”

 

“My face hurts...”

 

Yeah, she sorta got hit there...

 

“My chest hurts.”

 

“Your chest?”

 

“Mm,” she replied, shifting as her eyes hid themselves behind heavy lashes again. “Peep and die...”

 

So she said... He easily lifted the hem of her sweatshirt though without complaints to see a healthy bruise the size of a splayed out hand over her sternum and along the underside of her right breast, ending with a scratch in her right side. It was jagged for following her ribcage.

 

“You will be fine,” he told her, tearing the sleeve of his haori. He thought the scent of blood was from her faintly bruising face, not through a black sweatshirt.

 

“Giddy...”

 

“Wake up.”

 

“I'm awake...”

 

“I will put cold water on you,” he threatened, dabbing the cloth between the folds of bloody flesh.

 

She flinched violently. “I'M AWAKE, DAMMIT!!”

 

“Good,” he replied, the cloth only drawing back with blood, the cut up fabric and dust from her shirt was still in the wound, and that just wouldn't do. “How awake?”

 

“Partially?” she asked, falling back down to the pillow after that start she gave.

 

... Partially was good enough.

 

“Sesshy?” she asked a second after he leaned over and began to lick around the wound. “Oh, gross... Stop...”

 

He didn't. He actually felt better about doing it with her not wanting him to. Once the drying blood was gone from the five inch slice he braced a hand on her collar bone to keep her still and started at one corner of the wound.

 

“STOP IT!!” she cried, trying to jump off the bed. He had to secure her abdomen too.

 

“That was too painful and disgusting to do me any good,” she commented lazily when he pressed the fabric over the wound, fresh blood welling up already. Sesshomaru couldn't stop licking his lips.

 

Half an hour passed, one which was far more tedious than need be, and he lifted the cloth to check. It was healing over now. Good. He assumed as much would happen, but he didn't know if his saliva would work the same for her as it did for him. It wasn't suppose to.

 

The miko was worse for wear though.

 

“I'm so freakin tired, you sadistic ass!” she yelled, eyes darkening with the promise of bruises. She was returning to her old self, but he still didn't trust the irregular slur of her speech. Then again, maybe it had something to do with that cut lip, which he was now half tempted to 'heal'. Hey, he'd use the excuse if it was there. Besides, he didn't really remember the first time too well, but assumed it was pretty good.

 

“You look uncomfortable...” she stated a while later, looking exhausted.

 

“I am fine,” he informed her, licking the far shallower wound in his arm clean again. That one was making the slowest recovery because of how deep it was, but he could move his hand properly again.

 

“Go to your bed,” she practically ordered.

 

“No.”

 

“Go,” she pressed. “Let me sleep...”

 

“No sleeping.”

 

“Ass.”

 

“Defiant miko.”

 

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he smirked with a chuckle.

 

Ten minutes later, when that number clock read 1:53 she turned to her opposite side and sighed contently to the wall.

 

“Miko,” he warned.

 

“I'm awake,” she replied routinely. “And it's Kagome.”

 

She stared at the wall in silence, and he couldn't tell if she was asleep or not.

 

...

 

Well, since she preferred that side...

 

“Now what?” she asked when her back leaned towards the middle of the bed, a result of him getting onto it.

 

He lay on his side, her back inches from his chest, and tucking an arm under his head he wrapped the other around her and brought her closer. He could feel how conscious she was this way. She was too warm to be asleep, but colder than normal. Heating fast though. Her heart beat quickly, but that was probably because of his actions, and then she looked slowly over her shoulder at him.

 

“Sesshy?”

 

“It's Sesshomaru,” he corrected for her.

 

She scowled faintly at him. “Get.”

 

“Stay awake.”

 

“This isn't a- ... What's that word...” She was left to think of it, but seemed to forget doing so when his right hand reached up and rested two fingers to her neck. “A bribe...”

 

“Indeed not,” he agreed. He had a better feel of her pulse this way, but the position wasn't entirely displeasing either. Her heart simply danced against his wrist where it rested between her still developing breasts.

 

“You're a pervert,” she informed him a few moments later, shifting. Her moving only made her nestle closer to him, so she stopped.

 

“I am merely keeping an eye on you,” he told her, personally enjoying himself.

 

“I don't like it...”

 

“I do not care whether you do or not.”

 

Her heel hit his shit rather softly, then just rested there.

 

“I'm so freakin tired...” she yawned. “I'll just think of this whole situation as a dream and leave it at that.”

 

“You do not feel things in dreams, miko,” he informed her.

 

“Let me pretend,” she bit out, wriggling her shoulder blades spitefully against his chest.

 

He growled before he could stop himself.

 

She stiffened, and slowly looked back at him again. “... That wasn't an 'I'm pissed' growl...”

 

...

 

... ...

 

There was no good reply to that...

 

Her cerulean eyes blinked at him. Again. A third time for kicks. Then a brilliant flush spread across her pretty cheeks and she looked ready to pass out from a lack of air.

 

“Breathe, miko,” he ordered.

 

She did, and began to try and pry his hand away from her neck. “I'll stay awake!! Just get out!!”

 

He smirked over how worried she was, and how weak she could be when she was worried. She was so cute that it was disgusting. “Settle down, Kagome.”

 

She went stiff, then defied all the rules of logic and actually turned around in his grasp.

 

“You said it!!” she cried, wedging a hand in between their chests to jab at his. “You SAID it!!”

 

Said what?? ... ... Oh. “Your name?”

 

“Yes!!” she cried, looking quite... pleased. “I can't believe you stopped being an asshole just long enough to blurt it out!”

 

She wasn't pleased.

 

She was unbelievably ecstatic.

 

Her hand moved away from his chest, making erratic movements with its counterpart to find something to do, and when she finally gave an 'I give up' “Oh!” she darted them past his sides.

 

He balked, expecting her to begin that annoying tickling act, but she didn't.

 

Sesshomaru, demon Lord of the Western Lands, son of the Great Dog General, was being hugged...

 

He didn't know what to do. He didn't even know what to think. He wasn't thinking. She made his brain stop, and thusly killed him. Was he dead? ... No, his heart was galloping. Maybe this was what a heart attack felt like? His left side wasn't numb though. So... What was wrong? ... ... Was something wrong?

 

“Um, sorry,” she mumbled against his chest, shifting to reclaim her arms. She was letting go? Why? Damn her for making him indecisive!

 

Something deep down told him to stop. It was practically on its knees and begging. Completely and utterly ignoring it, Sesshomaru moved his arms around Kagome's waist and pulled her closer to himself.

 

Something went sparkling giddily in his mind, completely drowning the pleading voice. It was annoying, but not shun worthy.

 

“M,” Kagome uttered shortly. It was something between a whimper and a moan. He didn't like it. She should choose one sound or the other and not leave him guessing.

 

Laying on his left side, he moved his right arm up her back, feeling very uncertain this time about touching her, and resting his palm comfortably between the once offensive shoulder blades he held her. It was odd. He didn't want to let go.

 

“Sesshomaru...?” she asked against his chest, her arms still entwined around him. Her breath was hot against his neck, just like before.

 

Certainly, this sensation wasn't him wanting her... Even so, it would be a want for her body, not her. Right? ... Of course. It was decided. He didn't want her, per say, and that knowledge changed everything.

 

Her delicate fingers worried the back of his haori when his hand stroked the back of her neck, continuing up and through her hair. It was so soft... Maybe, if he continued, if he got his sudden curiosity over with, maybe he'd be fine with being near her once again without those thoughts racing through his head. Maybe, when he was away, she herself would stop racing through his head. Was it just his curiosity that tortured him? Did he see her as so utterly forbidden that she was tempting? He wanted to know her. He didn't want to hold back. Just one night. One night of knowing, and not merely wondering how she would feel in his arms without clothes on. Of knowing if he could summon those bumps on her skin like the rain had. Knowing that he could persuade her to wrap her legs around his waist and cry out his name. That last thought he was definitely curious about.

 

“Sesshomaru,” she repeated herself, completely still as her heart raced to fill her pleasure expanded veins. “What are you doing?”

 

He stopped. Why? Why did she have to go and ask that?? Asking it like that just made it sound like she wasn't curious as well, and he knew she certainly was. That once subdued voice began chatter at him. She was a female, and would bear any consequences of his curiosity. She was fertilely responsive to him, something he never had to worry about before. Was curiosity worth a hanyou mistake? ... Then again, would it stay in the future with her? No, he couldn't think like that. He could never live without knowing his child. He'd have to see if it had gold or blue eyes...

 

...

 

He shook his head. What a ridiculous thought.

 

“Nothing,” he finally answered, voice somewhat cracked for some reason beyond his comprehension.

 

“Okay,” she replied. “Thanks...”

 

He stared dejectedly at the wall for over an hour, skin prickling all the while with every breath she took. She had long since fallen asleep, or passed out, rather, yet again finding comfort in his lack of it. His arms were still around her, enjoying her presence in one way if not in the other.

 

Her arm shifted in her sleep, still draped over his hip. She had finally let it rest there simply because nowhere else allowed blood circulation.

 

“Mmmm...”

 

Now that was a moan. He glanced at her face, and found a silly grin there. She was crazy, and with a sigh he continued staring at his wall, twirling a lock of night around his finger. The hair fell from his casual grip when she moved her arm to his back and clutched him.

 

He was now glaring at the wall as his curiosity got a jump start on his logic. Damn this insufferable miko. Damn him too.

 

“Sessh...”

 

... She didn't... She couldn't... He didn't want to hear it... He really didn't...

 

He listened for her to say his entire name. Was she dreaming of him? What was she dreaming about?

 

Her grip tightened briefly, then loosened with a sigh.

 

He hated how good he suddenly felt. Even asleep she stole his good bad moods with remarkable ease.

 

He ran his claws through her hair, feeling how easily the strands parted at his touch. She hummed pleasantly at his attentions, nuzzling his chest and falling back into her dream with a sigh.

 

... This simply wasn't fair. What did fate have against him? Deciding to just relax for the torment, Sesshomaru sighed with her and rested himself. His senses were overrun by her. Her scent permeated the air as the feel of her in his arms was imprinting itself in his mind. He could hear the small moans which accented some breaths, and he watched her as she slept, lips barely parted as she sent curling waves of air to caress his chest. The only thing missing...

 

He smirked to himself, looking at it as a challenge. He wouldn't wake her, he knew he could get away with it.

 

Removing his arm ever so carefully from her back he eased it under her chin. Resting his thumb on one side and allowing his fingers to spread savoringly across her opposite cheek, Sesshomaru very slowly lifted her face up. She was still asleep. If she wasn't, she'd be staring straight into his eyes.

 

His heart was racing for some reason, and he tried to calm it. It wouldn't listen to him, so he had to just ignore it.

 

Carefully, Sesshomaru brought his lips to hers. Intentionally this time. He knew, this time, what he was doing. The kiss had to be just right. Not light enough to tickle, and not hard enough to hurt. Just enough pressure to make it enjoyable, and it was.

 

Her mouth shifted against his, and his eyes shot open to see hers still closed. He gently pulled away, and settled around her once more. She tasted like she smelled, which was simply herself, and every sensation of her was laced through his dreams that night.