InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Miko Jumped Over the Moon ❯ Guilty Illness ( Chapter 8 )

Sesshoumaru was beginning to think that the kamis had it out for him.

The bedlam had started for the demon lord earlier in the week. A self proclaimed `Master of Potions' had waltzed into camp and told Sesshoumaru he was going to face `certain doom' and had the audacity to call him a `vile demon'.

Predictably enough, Sesshoumaru had dispatched the mouthy human in record breaking time, but not before the old man threw some kind of pocket full of posies at the demon. The strange pouch had not influenced Sesshoumaru but a few days later he began to see the effects on the rest of the ramshackle group.

Apparently, though the potion was powerful, it could not affect the demon lord. In fact, it only seemed to affect the humans in the group.

The monk was the first to fall ill, rapidly followed by the slayer and then his child ward. Kagome held out the longest, taking it upon herself to dote upon the sick humans. Eventually, however, even the Miko had to admit it was too much for her and she took to her sleeping roll like the rest of them. That was what put Sesshoumaru in his most undignified position of designated healer and babysitter.

Not only did he have to hunt down the herbs the Miko told him would help with the illness, he had to cook for them, hunt for them, provide care for the toddler Inuyasha, make sure the Kitsune didn't drive himself to distraction because he had no one to play with and he had to put up with the scent of them when they threw up. That was possibly the worst part after being at their beck and call.

For the most part they seemed too sickly to be taking any kind of sadistic pleasure out of being able to order a Taiyokai around like he was a common slave. Sometimes, however, he would catch a certain satisfied smirk on the Miko's lips that drove him to distraction.

She knew he loathed looking after them and she was enjoying his discomfort. And yet he couldn't call her on it; she was ill.

This, he reminded himself, was why he disliked ningens so much; they were so weak. A mere Kit was immune to a potion that adult humans couldn't stomach; it was disgraceful. And yet, as he watched his newly adopted pack, he couldn't help but see them as frail and in need of protection rather than weak and burdensome as he probably should have.

Damn those traitorous emotions. He swore they waited until he was unaware and pounced upon him gleefully.

He knelt beside the Miko, scowling as he realised what he was doing; to kneel to a mere Miko was unbecoming of one of his stature. If the lords of Yokai court could see him now, he would be cast out faster than his father was for mating Izayoi. He carefully removed the damp cloth from her forehead and tested for her temperature with his fingers. He had to admit, even if it was only to himself. That he enjoyed attending to this patient more than he did the others. She was not so much a chore more of a guilty, hidden pleasure.

She moaned slightly when his cold fingers touched her simmering forehead and opened her soft blue eyes to great him.

“Hey” she murmured before giving a tiny dainty sneeze.

“Hn”

“That feels good” she pressed his hand more securely to her face with one delicate, pale hand that was burning hot.

“Hn”

“Can I have some water” she asked tentatively.

Resisting the urge to growl at yet another reminder that he was at her beck and call, he walked away and reappeared with the water for her.

“Thank you” she whispered as she gave the water back to the Taiyokai.

“Hn”

“Sesshoumaru-sama?”

“Yes Miko?”

“Can I ask you a favour?”

“And what might the favour be?”

“Can I sleep on your lap tonight?”

He didn't know whether it was the way she bit her lips, the fact that her cheeks were bright red and her eyes dazed or it he was merely going certifiably soft, but he acquiesced to her demand.

And that was why, a few hours later, Sesshoumaru was found sitting under his favourite tree with the Miko's head on his lap, her eyes closed in a deep recuperative sleep. A long fingered hand was entwined in the Miko's hair and his other was holding her small hand within his own as he rubbed his thumb along the back of it.

He didn't remember consciously telling his hands to do that, but he was in no hurry to move them either.

That, in itself, was deeply unsettling to the Yokai lord.

But it didn't affect him as much as he had assumed it would...

Little did he know that Kagome was awake; almost fully recovered and enjoying every moment of his attentions.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. Thanks for reading and please review.