Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. Hehehe! I also don't own the song, 'Lips of an Angel'. I believe it is owned by Hinder.
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.
Queen of the House, Queen of His Heart
It was many years ago, the last time I saw her. Our separate duties and promises led us down different paths. My duty led me to mate a demoness I didn't love.
Her duty to the Jewel of Four Souls and her promise to my brother took her from my side. She built a temple, high away in the mountains, very solitary, except for the temple guardian.
This may come as a surprise to you after what I have said that we never had a romance, or an affair. She was too pure to touch. She was too much of an angel for me to soil. A soul who has traveled through Hell is unworthy to enter Heaven, the stain of Hell clings tightly to me. Standing near her is the closest I ever will get, ever have gotten. She was my angel. Yet, I never touched her.
I remember well the only night in all these years any contact between us happened.
It was a very stormy night. Rain fell like it was trying to rinse the grit from the world. The windows were streaked as if they were crying in deathly pain.
My mate had gone to bed early. She was rounded with child. It would be our sixth. I sat in my private bedroom and she slept in hers. I just sat and watched the rain fall. I sat right there for two hours before going to bed and turning the lights off.
I was woken up three hours later by my cell phone. I looked at the caller ID. It wasn't a number in my phone so it came in with no name, but I would know that number anywhere.
“Moshi moshi.” I thought something I couldn't call her, “Why are you calling so late Higurashi-san?” I whisper so as not to wake my mate.
I heard a sob, one that made it sound like she had been crying for a while. “I didn't know who else to call!” Through tears, squeaks, sobs, and pauses where she couldn't breath I gathered the story. Each time she stopped breathing my breath and heart would stop.
She and the temple guardian had had a massive fight, over what I couldn't decode. He had left her stranded, alone, snowed in during a blizzard. Just half an hour ago. She was hurt over the fight and scared when he didn't return knowing that even he could get lost and freeze to death in a blizzard like this one.
“Sesshoumaru-san, I don't know what to do!” she gasped and cried.
“Just stay there Kagome-san. He will return.” I reassured her.
Eventually she calmed down. I didn't have to say anything more on the subject. She just believed me. Nothing else had to be said.
“Thank you Sesshoumaru-san.” She sniffled after she said that.
I closed my eyes for a moment to allow the sugar high her saying my name caused to disintegrate. Normally I wouldn't encourage small talk but I was too weak to deny the curiosity. “What has happened since last we met?”
She went off on an explanation of buying the land at the top of a mountain, on another island, and building her temple there. She told of a few different visits for patrons that stood out. She told of some of the temple guardian's ridiculous antics. Then she said, “I had a vision of you the other night. Something I remember from the past. That battle in your father's tomb, how fearsome and ferocious you were that day.”
“Hmn.” I couldn't tell her that I often had visions of the past in my dreams. A past before mates and pups. A past where one priestess changed my life and yet changed nothing to come. A past where I could dream of a touch that would never happen, but almost could.
I heard the house settle with a vague moan. If my mate knew of this call she would be so mad and hurt. I listened to everything around me briefly. There was no sound, aside from slow breathing, my family. And I was thankful.
She didn't ask, as I knew she wouldn't about how I had been, my life was broadcast on the news often enough to keep her informed. But she did ask how my mate was doing. Following that she asked about my pups. I could hear the smile on her lips and the slightest hint of sadness.
She then rambled about her brother who visited with his wife and new baby in late summer. She dragged out her last words.
“He still isn't back yet.” I said, I knew it.
“Yes, he's not.” she choked out as if it had been a question.
“Don't worry Kagome-san. He will return soon.” I heard feet pad by my door and down the stairs.
“Thank you again for talking to me. I feel much better now... Goodbye Sesshoumaru-san.”
“Goodbye, Higurashi-san.”
Somehow we both knew that would be the last time we would talk or have any contact with each other. Any contact with her made it hard to be faithful to my responsibilities. I suspected it was the same for her.
I got out of my bed after hanging up. I walked to the closet by the front door and took out my coat.
Soon I was sitting on a snow covered roof watching as Inuyasha returned to my angel. She cried out in joy and ran to him. Taking him into her embrace she gushed, “I was so worried!”
Inuyasha looked away from her. I caught a look on his face that said he was still hurt from they're fight as well. Finally the ungrateful boy hugged her back. “I'm sorry for what I said, Kagome.” he murmured into her hair.
“Me too!” A few stray tears found a home in his shirt. “Come on in, there's a fire in the main room. I'll make you some hot tea.”
He obediently followed her in. I left.
POV Change
A few years after that night, I was looking at the body when she came beside me. Inuyasha was with her. He looked all defeated. None of his usual brashness leaked through his sadness.
“Hello Inuyasha-san,” I whisper, “hello Higurashi-san.” It seems Inuyasha didn't hear me, he just looked down into the casket.
Higurashi-san on the other hand whispered back, “Hello Kagura-san. How have you been? Do you need any assistance?”
“Not at the moment. But I wish to talk with you, privately.”
She followed me into the hallway and out a little used outside door. There I stopped and said, “Higurashi-sama, I wish to, that is I want to ask you to bless the body and departed soul of my mate. He-he would have liked that, we would like that.”
“Kagura-san... I... I thank you for asking me.” She bowed lowly to me.
“There is another favor I would like to ask, Kagome-sama.”
“Yes?”
“His-his remains will ex-expand soon. It will require a mountain to bury him. I-I will like, that is if it is possible to bury him under your temple.” I was a little afraid to look at the human girl.
She just smiled sadly and said, “Of course, It would be an honor to guard his bones.”
“Thank you.”
A year after his death I went to visit his grave and the temple on the mountain. Inuyasha took charge of my seven pups so I could speak with the temple priestess alone.
“Kagome-sama, I have something to say to you.” I gestured to Sesshoumaru grave stone. “About him.”
“What is it Kagura-san?”
“I... He took great care of me. He gave me all the pups I asked for. Sesshoumaru treated me like a queen. I always knew I was well protected, that Sesshoumaru would always be there. To some extent he even loved me. But...” I held up my hand to stop the reassurances that she would spout, “I didn't hold his heart. By the time he mated me it was already gone. You had it. I was the queen of the house, of his life, but you were the queen of his heart.”
“No he loved you I know it!”
I shook my head. “No, Kagome-sama. He cared for me but he loved you. And it was alright. I knew that this was the way it would be when I mated him. I was duty and you were love. And in his way he loved us both. And we both loved him. And I want to thank you for it.”
“What?”
“If he never loved you he would never have cared for me as he did... For a while I resented you. But I can't resent you anymore. I've come to peace with you, with everything that was in our life together. You never tried to take him from me. Never tried to contact him, except once. I was so scared that he would leave me for you that night. But he came home within the hour, only smelling of his brother.”
“He left you alone that night?”
I smiled, “Yes, I stopped him as he left, asked him where he was going. He said 'Going to catch a wayward puppy and send him home.'”
“I never knew. I wish I could have thanked him for it.”
“You already did. His body is forever near his angel, something that couldn't happen for him in life.”
As I was leaving with my little ones I said to the temple priestess and was sure to be overheard by the guard dog, “Maybe you should marry Inuyasha, Higurashi-sama. You could have a family of your own.”
“No, both our hearts lie elsewhere.”
“Suit yourselves. We'll visit again.” I got in my van and drove away.
Later that night Kagome's lips moved in an angel's prayer. She again petitioned Heaven for the soul of a sinner.
The End
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Hello everyone, this story was written in celebration of my 10th story up at Dokuga. In a celebratory mood I gave away one one-shot request. Bird That Flies At Dawn was the first to reply. She/he wanted a songfic based off of the song Lips of an Angel by: Hinder. I have to say I absolutely hate this song. It sounds so unfaithful to me. As I was listening to it it reminded me of a movie my mother watched and summarized to me. While I didn't even follow the summary at all it did help inspire this. (I think it was a Bollywood movie.) I just can't see Sesshoumaru being unfaithful to his mate, even if he loves someone else. I've always thought he had too much honor to do something like that. The way my mom explained it to me the guy in the movie was the same.
Anyway I hope that Bird That Flies At Dawn likes this and that it didn't ruin the song for her.