Absolution by Demonlordlover2

Absolution

I have the author's permission to post this work on this site, under this pen name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at the address associated with this profile. ~~Wiccan~~

Disclaimer: All InuYasha characters depicted are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi and are copyrighted by Viz. All original characters and the plot are the intellectual property of Demonlordlover. All names and places, either factual or imaginary, are used for the purposes of entertainment only. Demonlordlover is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of InuYasha. Copyright infringement is NOT intended.

AN- Based on a Challenge by Vyncent in thanks for her donation to keep A Single Spark going.

Cold seeping into her bones, Kagome shivered beneath the thin, threadbare blanket. Tailbone aching, she shifted on the hard-packed dirt floor in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. The tug on her wrists ended that effort. Crossed at the wrists, her arms were pulled over her head and manacled to the wooden wall. She couldn't even bend her arms at the elbow.

The blood had long since drained from the extended limbs, leaving behind a numb, tingling sensation. At least her legs were free, Kagome philosophized. And whoever had imprisoned them had draped the blanket over her so she wouldn't freeze. At least not by much. She wiggled her toes inside the brown loafers to warm them.

Across from her position, bound in much the same fashion, Sango smiled encouragingly. "Inuyasha and Miroku will find us, Kagome-chan."

Years of feudal era living had worn away most of Kagome's internal optimism. Afraid to grasp that hope, Kagome asked, "Do you really think they got away?"

After traveling for weeks, they had stopped off to help a small village. Since it had been her first time performing an exorcism, Kagome had been exhausted, her powers drained by the new and difficult task. The elders had been grateful for their work in exorcising the ghost and had volunteered to provide for their luncheon repast.

Kagome had begun to feel quite ill mere minutes into the meal. Sango, Kirara and Shippo had been the first ones to pass out. Inuyasha had managed to pull out Tetsusaiga and Miroku had withdrawn sutras from his sleeves before she'd fallen into darkness as well.

Shippo and Kirara were also tied up in the room with magical enchantments that even their youkai strength couldn't break. Thankfully the kit was still asleep. Kirara was silent and alert as she took in the small, bare hut.

"I am sure of it."

Resigned to accept that small comfort, Kagome held her reservations. If Inuyasha and Miroku had escaped the trap, then she doubted that she and the others would be in this position.

What she didn't understand was why the men were being kept in a separate room. Or why they had even been captured in the first place. The jewel was no longer an issue. Naraku had been defeated and the Shikon no Tama dissolved with one selfless wish. Without the power of the jewel to draw upon, the dark hanyou had been killed by his own hand rather than allowing the pleasure to go to either of the Brothers.

Kirara's ears perked up, swiveling toward the tatami mat that covered the sole exit. Fear curled within Kagome's gut when she exchanged uneasy glances with Sango.

Twin youkai of indeterminate origins stepped into the room. Vivid red hair cascaded down nude bodies. The luminescent mass outlined the masculine grace of broad shoulders that tapered into lean physiques and ended at slender calves. Three dark blue streaks cut across each pale-as-milk cheek. Eerie silver eyes that were devoid of visible pupils fell upon the captive women. Feathers peeked out from the crimson strands, betraying the youkai origins. Crane youkai.

Kagome felt a blush rise into her cheeks and swiftly averted her eyes from the pair. "What do you want?" Proud that her voice stayed strong, she silently congratulated herself before adding, "And release us! We don't have anything of value for you to steal!"

Within a heartbeat, a pair of bare feet entered her line of vision. Unwilling to look up, knowing just what she would find so close to her, Kagome shivered. Whether it was from the chill in the air that had been renewed with the breeze entering through the open tatami mat, or revulsion from being in such an uncomfortable situation she didn't know.

"You, girl. Look into my eyes."

It took Kagome a second to realize that the male standing by her hadn't spoken. No, Sango was the target of that sultry voice. Even as a bystander to the effects, soft as a lazy summer wind, the youkai's voice beckoned her to obey. What could it hurt? They hadn't been assaulted. Just momentarily detained. Maybe if she complied, it would be received as a gesture of good faith? One that would be reciprocated by their release? It could all be a mistake. Being so ungrateful as to refuse him such a simple request could ruin their chances to be freed.

Kagome shook her head to clear it of the cloying desire to obey. If she'd been so affected by the male's voice indirectly, how would her friend cope? Fear smote the lingering influence.

Her horrified gaze shot up. Sango stared transfixed at the youkai crouching before her, a dumb smile plastered on her face. "Sango, no! Don't do it! Look away!"

Kirara lay silent, eyes blank as she watched the male's lips edge closer to her long-time companion's neck.

Kagome began to struggle in earnest, ignoring the painful drawing of the muscles and tendons in her bound arms. If only she hadn't insisted on performing the exorcism by herself! It could take days before her reiki was replenished. Her pride would spell their downfall! "Sango!"

She never saw the clawed hand above her draw back. Pain exploded in her skull, and then, Kagome knew nothing at all.

-----

Kagome woke up to an enormous pain in her neck. She winced, groaning when her fingers sought out the swollen, slightly raised skin. Knowledgeable fingers probed her neck and found four puncture wounds. What had they done to her? Lashes fluttering with the effort to open heavy lids, she rolled over from the slumped position she'd been in.

As soon as her vision cleared enough to take in the change in location, her breath caught in the back of her throat. She couldn't believe the tableau before her! Sango was kneeling before a completely nude Miroku. Chained in the same position she had been earlier, he was biting his bottom lip. The pained expression pinching his features gave her cause for concern until she realized that what Sango was doing to him was far from agonizing.

With the slayer's back to her, Kagome hadn't been able to see what was going on. Then, the bobbing of Sango's head coupled with its proximity to Miroku's groin sank in.

"Sango-chan?" she whispered. Her friend didn't even budge, but the bright violet eyes of the male Sango was servicing opened to meet her stunned gaze.

"Kagome-sama!" Flushed with embarrassment and arousal, Miroku tried to scoot away from the attentions of his love. Sango resisted, following him to engulf his swollen arousal once more in her hot mouth. He groaned, the feeling intensified by the fact that Kagome watched with unabated horror.

There had always existed a fantasy in the back of his mind involving the two lovely ladies. From a point on his neck soothing heat flowed downward, encasing the monk in delicious excitement.

Why fight it? he argued with himself. He'd been waiting for so long for his love. Why not embrace the moment?

An approving line of warmth crept down his body, wrapping around his brain, igniting his senses and destroying the last vestiges of rational thought. He stopped trying to escape. Instead, he arched his back into the wet, loving caress of lips and tongue. He beckoned to the stunned miko with a sultry smile. "Kagome."

Appalled, Kagome scrambled to her feet. Sango and Miroku wouldn't do something like that by choice! Not with her in the same room, at least, she clarified silently. "Snap out of it!" she yelled, clapping her hands together.

Averting her eyes from the pair when Miroku only closed his eyes to pant and moan, she looked around for something, anything, to help her save them from the spell holding them in thrall.

She didn't find anything in the large stone-walled room, but she did find someone. Two of them, in fact. In the shadowed corner of the room Inuyasha was tied back to back with none other than his brother, Sesshoumaru.

Kagome took a nervous step toward the hanyou. "Inuyasha?"

Glowing crimson eyes turned from where Sango continued to pull grunts and moans from the monk to lance her with his heated regard. She stumbled back a step and slapped a hand over her neck. The wound had begun to throb, sending an answering heat skittering down her spine to dance upon her flesh in an unwholesomely enticing manner.

Horrified, Kagome stared at the hanyou mutely when her body began to betray her. Moisture gathered between her thighs. Her skin became unbearably sensitive, the cotton of the simple pair of pants and shirt she wore now felt scratchy and heavy. Nipples puckered against the soft silk of her bra, and a strange ache in the pit of her stomach gained in strength until tears threatened to fall.

What was going on? she wondered. Struggling to fight through the debilitating feelings swamping her from overloaded senses, Kagome fell to her knees. Slumped over, she panted into the cool stone floor.

It had to be the same spell holding Sango and Miroku, she reasoned through another sweltering caress of heat and artificial need. It isn't real! she told herself. She had to fight it or end up doing something she would regret for the rest of her life.

Resolve firm, she lifted her head to plead with her hanyou friend. "Inuyasha, you've got to snap out of it. We have to escape!"

Nostrils twitching, a feral growl was her only response. Embarrassment warred with dismay when she realized he could probably smell her arousal. Forced or not, it would have the same effect on his demonic senses.

Cursing her past self for removing the beads, Kagome was at a loss. Without them, she had no way of forcing him back into a coherent state. Desperate, she turned to Sesshoumaru. He had remained aloof at her approach, head turned at an angle so that she hadn't been able to see his eyes or expression.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, do you have any ideas on how we can escape?"

Cold gold clashed with watery blue, and she sighed in relief. She'd rather have him lucid than the alternative. When he remained silent Kagome began to fidget under his disdain. Another moment passed and she was forced to accept that he either had no plans or, if he did, wasn't intending on sharing them with her.

Kagome scrambled to her feet and cast about for an escape. Three solid walls of stone defied every push and prod of her fingers. The fourth wall was broken by a large metal door, but she had even less luck there. Not even a crack in the frame could be found large enough to fit her fingers.

The ache in her neck increased, becoming terribly painful the longer she ignored the call of her body. A sob built up in the back of her throat every time she chanced to catch sight of Sango and Miroku in the other corner. They had progressed far past the previous actions, Sango now bouncing up and down on Miroku's lap.

Kagome hoped they could recover from this. Sango was a traditionalist, and while she loved Miroku, they weren't married yet. Miroku... he probably wouldn't mind except that he loved Sango. Her being forced to this state while he was helpless to resist would weigh heavily on him.

Skin crawling as the chill in the room further tightened her nipples into hard, painful little buds, Kagome wrapped her arms around herself to conserve body heat. How am I going to get out of this?

She was human and, weak from the exorcism, there was nothing she could do. A stray thought trickled through her panic. She was human, but Sesshoumaru wasn't. Why was he still sitting on the floor with Inuyasha rather than freeing himself?

Cautiously approaching the pair, Kagome carefully scrutinized the rope binding them together. Common for the era, frayed in some places, it didn't look strong enough to hold her, let alone two males of Inuyasha's and Sesshoumaru's caliber.

A closer inspection with her miko sight revealed strong magic woven into the rope. However... It could hold Inuyasha, obviously, but Sesshoumaru? She had not thought him so weak. Even the sutras of holy monks couldn't hold him.

When she took a closer step, coming within a foot of Inuyasha, the hanyou let out a rumbling growl. Nosing the air, he tried to close the distance between them. Kagome quickly fell back out of reach. Displeased, he snapped lengthened fangs at her, yowling as if in pain.

A brush of air betrayed the movement behind Kagome and she turned incredulous eyes on Sango. Nude, fluids tracing a path down the inside of her thighs, the slayer dropped before Inuyasha.

"Sango-chan!" Sango would never forgive herself for what she was about to do! Kagome wrapped her arms around Sango's middle and tried to pull her away from the hanyou. In a flash, her friend turned on her.

Tossed onto her rear, stars danced in front of Kagome's eyes from the powerful backhand that had landed with unerring accuracy on her cheek.

Jaw aching from the blow, Kagome was careful to avoid touching her friend again. She scrambled to her feet and wrung her hands in helpless anxiety. "Sango-chan, Inuyasha, wake up!" she yelled instead. "You don't want to do this! This isn't you!"

Sango's hands slipped beneath the fire rat hakama. Kagome sniffled. "Sango-chan, think about Miroku!"

At that strident plea, the slayer stopped. Blinking rapidly, her head cocked to the side in obvious confusion. The bite mark on Sango's neck glowed red hot, and her hesitation faded away. When she began to pull the hakama off, Kagome turned away, unable to watch.

Kagome's bite mark began to send stabbing spears of heat into her tender skin, filling her veins with torturous fire. Falling to her knees, she panted while the sounds of rough passion began to fill the air once more. A musky aroma, unknown to her before now, invaded her nose. She coughed, the scent entirely unpleasant as it touched her throat.

Think, Kagome, think! she mentally chided herself. She couldn't allow herself to fall to the spell! She just couldn't! Her only ally in this was Sesshoumaru, but he didn't seem the helpful type unless it suited him.

Wildly desperate, she crawled over to kneel at the Taiyoukai's feet. "Help them! Help us and I'll repay you! I promise!"

He sniffed haughtily. "You have nothing of value to this Sesshoumaru."

He'd heard about a lust spell made from human herbs that worked on youkai being manufactured on his lands. All efforts to discover the spell's preparation through rumor and research had ended without resolution. He'd allowed himself to be captured once he'd discovered the twin youkai den just outside his borders for the sole purpose of discovering what this spell's potency would be on him. He cared not for the fate of other youkai, but it was unacceptable to have a potential weapon in the hands of others, the likes of which he knew not.

Especially considering the potential threat to his ward the rumors purported.

How fitting that the youkai had brought in the hanyou and his group to share the test. It was obvious that the claims of the lust spell had been greatly exaggerated. The humans were completely ensnared by the will of the spell. Inuyasha's weak blood and even more pitiful self-control made him vulnerable. He, Sesshoumaru, was not.

Detestable as it may be, discomfited by the necessity to stay in close quarters with the hanyou, Sesshoumaru decided he would only stay long enough to see how the spell played out and to discern the intentions behind its usage. He stifled the urge to slam the hanyou's head into the nearby wall to silence his lusty yowls. Had the cretin no self-control?

Sesshoumaru's gaze bore a hole in the top of the bowed miko's head. Her body had succumbed to the spell, but her mind had not. The scent of her arousal wafted to him on the stale air with every shudder, beckoning and enticing, calling for a male to fill her.

He snorted to clear his nostrils of the scent. A smirk flitted across his mouth. It was indicative of why the hanyou and miko had never mated despite his past impression that it was inevitable. The hanyou had to know that the miko was above his grasping reach if she was capable of separating herself mentally from the situation to deal with it rationally, even when under the influence of a spell.

Pathetic. A human woman was of a stronger will than his hanyou half-brother. It would be humorous if it wasn't so degrading to himself by virtue of their shared parentage.

Stoically ignoring the panting behind himself, he was willing to see this farce through to its completion if only to observe when and how the spell wore off. Sesshoumaru distanced himself from the indignity of the jostling he received when the slayer mounted Inuyasha by mentally tallying the acreage he needed to patrol to make up the lost time he spent here.

-----

Kagome rolled over onto her stomach. Skin flushed with fever, she swallowed the bile that threatened to overcome her gag reflex. Kami, she hurt!

She was so stiff. It felt like every muscle in her neck had frozen in place, yet at the same time she was hot. So very hot. Sweat beaded on her temple, between her breasts, and under her arms. She itched terribly, the sticky sensation doing nothing to ease her discomfort.

Despite the pain, the spell continued to work on her body. Insidious whispers had entered her mind some time ago. Promising an end to the pain if only she would succumb to the desire. Pleading with her to listen to her body's demands lest she perish in the fires of her lust.

A rusty chuckle rasped out of her dry throat. She'd sooner die than knowingly allow someone to control her. She'd been there, done that and had no intention of revisiting the experience.

They'd been there for close to a day by her reckoning. True, her internal clock wasn't reliable, but the fact that her bladder was threatening to revolt gave her an indication that she'd been there for far too long.

Sango had gone back and forth between Inuyasha and Miroku so many times in the interim that Kagome had lost count. The sounds and smells of their couplings had been disturbing and made her nauseous just to recall. She wasn't ignorant, but the reality of sex was far less glorious than her previous assumptions had colored it. It was messy, noisy, and the smells weren't exactly pleasant either.

Even though they were under the influence of the spell, Kagome doubted she'd ever be able to look at the three of them the same. Why hadn't they been able to fight the spell? Was it her miko powers? But, if that was the case, then why hadn't Miroku been able to resist? His holy powers were the masculine version of her reiki.

Using the conundrum as distraction from the pain, Kagome didn't hear the tell-tale snick of the door's lock being disengaged. When it swung open, she was laid on her side facing it, curled up in the fetal position. Bleary, blood-shot eyes glared at the twin youkai who entered.

Passed out from the strenuous exertions, Sango and Miroku were slumped over, Sango's head on his thigh. Inuyasha was snoring away in his corner. Kagome had no idea if Sesshoumaru was aware of the visitors. Given that he had been unwilling to help, she was feeling uncharitable enough to hope he was caught off-guard.

The youkai circled her. "Why do you continue to resist?" Almost child-like, the influence in his voice grated against her screeching nerves.

Kagome pursed her lips but refused to answer.

He leaned down while the other youkai left her sight to move toward the corner Sango and Miroku occupied. Trailing a hand through her hair, the youkai sighed. "Yours would have been a wonderful addition to our collection."

Unable to help it, she croaked out, "Collection?" Her eyes narrowed. "Yours?"

He chuckled before standing tall to stare down upon her. "Your children, of course." He glanced over her prone body to stare fondly at his brother. "We do so love children."

"You... You mean you did this to get us pregnant!" she screeched, ignoring the flash of pain as her raw throat protested the vehement statement.

The youkai shrugged. "Of course. We had hoped the two of you would conceive, but at least the other woman," he paused before looking to his brother for confirmation, "has been more than fruitful. She carries the hanyou's babe. It doesn't always work, so that is glad tidings."

"You... You can't do this! It's wrong!"

"We already have. The woman will be held here until it is time for her to give birth. She will be released after we have the child. She will be none the wiser for her time spent in our care. What harm is it? We cannot conceive, so we do what we must." Metallic silver eyes glowered at the Taiyoukai. "We had hoped the dog would participate, since we do not like the idea of our children aging."

He waved away the regret with a long-suffering sigh. "No matter. The hanyou's offspring will be long-lived."

Eyes snapping with outrage, Kagome struggled to her feet. Once there, she whirled around to catch Sango in the arms of the other youkai. She nuzzled his bare chest, murmuring to the youkai in low, loving tones. Incensed, Kagome's aura flared weakly. "Put her down!"

The youkai rolled its quicksilver eyes before pacing by the irate miko without a care. Kagome leapt onto his back and latched onto his neck with dull, but still deadly, teeth. Biting, kicking, and scratching, reduced to a primitive state given her inability to defend herself or her friends by any other means, Kagome turned into a wild dervish.

An odd chirping screech echoed in the room when her aura, weak as it was, continued to press against the youki of the crane.

Bucking and hissing, the youkai she assaulted was assisted by his brother. He grabbed her by the hair, pulling strands out by the very roots, and flung her across the room. The whistling of air as it passed her preceded the dull thud of her skull meeting with the stone wall.

-----

Kagome came to with a start. "Sango!"

Jolting upright, she immediately regretted it when her vision swam and her stomach rebelled. Rolling to the side, she purged the remains of lunch with a wretched groan. Once she stopped heaving, she was grateful to note that the spell seemed to be gone. She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her shirt before turning bleary eyes on the room.

She was alone now except for Sesshoumaru. Rage, instant and all-consuming, flared to life. "You," she spat.

A blank face met her accusation. It pushed her into unknown heights of anger. "You pompous, self-serving son-of-a-bitch!" Chest heaving, she stomped over to where he sat still bound. "This is all your fault! You could have helped us, but instead you sat there and did nothing! Sango, Sango-" her words were cut off by a sob.

Sango had been taken advantage of, they all were, and he hadn't even offered to help! "After all these years, I had come to respect you. I thought you were more than a killer. More than a selfish youkai. You- You're nothing but a spoiled child! Willing to take care of your own, but unwilling to bend for anyone else, even your own brother! I thought we were allies!"

While fighting Naraku, Sesshoumaru had helped her when her powers were sealed. Protected her. Had it all been a means to an end? Had he protected her only on the off-chance that she was necessary to end Naraku's life?

Unbidden, tears slid down bruised cheeks. She had never been so daft as to assume he felt anything other than a distant duty toward them, but she'd had so much hope for the future reconciliation between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. For all of them to become more than allies. Friends.

"Cease your histrionics."

Blandly uttered, the boredom in every nuance of his words burned away her melancholy. "Make me." She sneered. "Oh, wait, you can't! The great Sesshoumaru is tied up with a lame, wimpy rope, caught by two pervert youkai!"

Irritated with her disrespect even as he acknowledged that her reaction and words were fueled by loyalty to her pack, Sesshoumaru shrugged off the rope and stood. "Quiet, woman."

He studied the stone walls. There was a spell embedded within the rock. Inuyasha and the monk had been removed shortly after the miko had slumped over into unconsciousness. He had been vaguely surprised her head had not been split open by the force of the throw.

Apparently she had a head hard enough to match the stubborn nature.

Pushing against the rock, he noted the crackle of magic against his palm. It was weak, but the intent behind the magic wasn't to hold the captives in. In the event of an escape, it would collapse inward. Death or imprisonment.

For an average youkai or human it would certainly be a discouraging fate. Sesshoumaru's lips twisted in offended dignity. His reputation had suffered greatly during his years spent outside youkai society tracking Naraku if those bumbling infant birds thought that he could be confined by such.

The experience had been entirely unpleasant, but it had been informative. Now that he knew the spell and its uses, he would be better able to protect Rin from its influence should anyone prove daft enough to chance an attempt on her.

"Miko."

Having stalked to the other end of the room to stand with arms crossed while she stared angrily at the wall, Kagome ignored the Taiyoukai. She had walked over the razor's edge of sanity a long time ago with regard to him, but she was still too upset to care.

Unable to simply go through her for reasons that would remain unexamined for the time being, Sesshoumaru lifted his hand to call forth his poison. "Your animosity amuses me. However, if you wish to live move aside."

Startled out of her pouting, Kagome whirled around in time to duck the jet of acid that splattered on the wall she had been staring at. The remaining walls began to tremble and shake instantaneously, but the stone was no match for Sesshoumaru's poison. Within seconds a giant hole was formed. Kagome jumped through, careful to avoid touching the still smoking remnants of stone that remained. Sesshoumaru stepped out beside her. The other walls collapsed inward.

Kagome swallowed. She would have been crushed instantly.

They had been kept in a separate location from the cranes' true home, Sesshoumaru deduced when he took in the open field they were in. Only the rubble from the stone hut remained as reminder of the youkais' audacity. His acute hearing picked up the miko whispering the names of her friends.

He turned away from the miko to track the cranes. It was time to disabuse them of the notion that he was a weakling easily dismissed.

Kagome watched him leave with mixed emotions. She was afraid to be on her own without knowing where she was. More importantly, however, she was terrified for Sango and the others. "Fine! Go about your way! I'll find them on my own. I don't need you!" Hopelessly lost but determined, Kagome stomped away.

An idea that had bloomed within his mind gave him pause.

"Help them! Help us and I'll repay you! I promise!"

"Is your word worth anything, miko?" It was always useful to have certain beings under your power. A miko was no exception. His brother's miko, a woman of the future who behaved rationally in a crisis, could prove an even greater asset than would be assumed of a human.

Halted by the words half-way across the clearing, Kagome whirled around. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes minutely on her small form. "Is it of any value or is it a commodity easily discarded?"

Unsure where he was going, Kagome couldn't help the fragile hope that began to climb into her heart. Sesshoumaru never spoke without reason, and, as much as she wished otherwise, she didn't have the skills to find her friends. She straightened her shoulders. "I always keep my promises."

He took a deep breath of air, siphoning out the secrets it held. "Head north. Your friends will be released to return to the village."

About to ask what he was going to do, Kagome was left to stare after him helplessly when he took to the air without further ado. Struggling between anxiety and hope, she settled on a mixture of both.

-----

"Shin! Get out of your mother's garden!"

The little boy stared up at his aunt. Bottom lip poked out, his eyes watered. "Will you tell Mama? I just wanted to get Ichii." A small doll was held up for her perusal. Knotted skein eyes sadly frayed, the poor little doll looked more like a lumpy pillow with eyes than the once proud warrior it had been made to resemble.

Unable to stay mad at that adorable face, Kagome sighed. "No, I won't tell your mother what you've been up to. How did he get into there?"

Shin smiled widely. "I wanted to teach him how to fly! He fell from the roof."

Kagome paled. "Shin! Don't you go onto that roof again! You could have been seriously hurt!" She knelt to pull him into a tight hug.

Puffing up in indignation, Shin wiggled out of her embrace. The shockingly white tuft of hair on his head poofed out even further. "Auntie, I'm not a baby anymore! My old man said I can go there if I want."

Taken aback by his vehemence, Kagome's mouth snapped shut. He was only six years old. Even a quarter youkai shouldn't be allowed to go onto a roof so young! But... She wasn't his mother. If Inuyasha said it was okay, then she didn't have any right to tell Shin otherwise.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Shin. I didn't know you had permission. Why don't you go wash up before your mama sees how dirty you are."

Chin held high in the air, Shin stalked away. A mixture of youthful pride and still innocent ignorance gave him an arrogant swagger. Kagome smiled sadly, nostalgia tightening her throat. He looked just like Inuyasha used to before the incident with the crane youkai.

Sesshoumaru had been true to his word. Shortly after she'd made it to the friendly village, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Kirara and Shippo had shown up. Bedraggled and discombobulated, they had no memory of the time in the stone hut.

The kit had slept the entire time and Kirara had no noticeable trauma from her time with the cranes either.

It had been up to her to explain to the others. Although she had taken great pains to heavily edit the particulars, she'd had no choice but to give full disclosure on what had occurred. It wasn't her place to keep their memories secret. Especially in light of the baby Sango carried.

Inuyasha had been devastated. He'd only recently mated Kikyo. Kikyo, the one Kagome had wished back to life for the sake of her love at the price of her own heart. Kikyo had forgiven him right away, but he had been eaten up with guilt. The emotion still refused to leave him entirely.

Miroku had been able to philosophize away the burden of the events as being the sole responsibility of the crane youkai. Sesshoumaru had slain them, so there was no good to come from dwelling on it.

Sango had been appalled and ashamed. Miroku had declared that his love wasn't lessened by the incident. It was his care that had seen Sango through her unwanted pregnancy and his acceptance that had stayed with her through her decision to give the child to Kikyo to raise with Inuyasha.

Shin knew, as all youkai would, that Kikyo was not his true mother. But in the nature of his kind he didn't care. Sango was referred to as an Auntie much like Kagome was. The slayer was stern, however, and not as welcoming.

Regardless of his innocence, she couldn't look at him and not remember from whence he came. Kagome was proud of Sango for how far she'd come in recovery, but knew better than to assume the slayer would ever hold true love for the son of her body.

She was healing as was Inuyasha, though, and that was all that mattered.

They had even begun to talk of the future. Sango and Miroku had moved to the exterminator's village to be near Kohaku's grave and to get away from Inuyasha and Shin. They did visit occasionally, and Kagome hoped that one day Sango would move back to Kaede's village.

The elder miko had passed on, but Kagome would always think of it as Kaede's village. She'd taken over the priestess duties before the elder miko's passing, but she still didn't feel at home there. There was too much about her that made her different. Too many hopes and dreams that she yet held, refused to relinquish, to allow her the complacency required to find true happiness in her lot.

But, for now, her friends were healing. Kikyo was talking about trying for a child. Inuyasha still held the guilt of his weakness in his heart but held Kikyo tighter. Shin was a ball of energy that was loved despite the scandal of his origins. Sango was with Miroku. Kagome had faith that the monk would heal the slayer's heart.

And Kagome had not forgotten that it was due to Sesshoumaru that they even had a chance. She had not let it slip her mind that she was in his debt. It had been a great many years, however, and she wondered if he would ever collect on her promise.

-----

Her 25th birthday was fast approaching.

Kagome left Kaede's village to take shelter in Inuyasha's Forest. Shippo had returned from training with a youkai master and was ecstatic about a celebration. Kirara and he were currently draping all sorts of greenery around the hut she'd taken residence in. Kikyo had taken to giggling at odd moments due to her pregnancy. Visiting for the occasion, Sango's own burgeoning belly had prompted the slayer to become more chatty than usual.

Shin and Inuyasha were hunting for a deer or boar for the feast. Miroku was visiting villagers to heal their illnesses to give her a day off of priestess duties.

It was solitude and quiet that Kagome wanted right now. Not a celebration. They all meant well, their intention to distract her from the reminder that her birthday served. It didn't work, but rather than berate them for their efforts, she simply put up with it.

Her feet faithfully carried her to the well. As was her tradition, Kagome swung a leg over the side and climbed into the depths to step onto the bottom. Once there, she sat in the dirt, back leaning against the cool stone bottom. She ignored the odd root that poked into her side.

After the wish had been made, Kagome hadn't known what to expect. The sealing of the well had been the least of her concerns in that regard but had proven to be the most painful for her to live with afterward. Her family was gone, unattainable to her mortal reach. Living the hard life of a priestess without the break modern times had afforded her weighed heavily on her fun-loving nature as well.

She did her best, but it never seemed to be enough. There was always one more person in need, one more herb that needed to be found and turned into medicine. One more couple wishing for a blessing on their union when she was doomed to a lifetime of loneliness.

Kagome better understood Kikyo's former self and the decisions she'd made. She still didn't think they had been right, but she understood. Being returned to life as a normal woman had been a blessing for Kikyo.

It was the soul that made the miko, not the personality. The Shikon had simply brought Kikyo to life with a new soul and all of her memories from life and undeath. It was how Kagome and Kikyo had come to be such close friends. The living Kikyo had been appalled by Kagome's treatment at her hands and had doggedly pursued forgiveness.

How could Kagome have stood against that? Even in the face of her true loss of Inuyasha's affections, she had willingly succumbed to the role of beloved sister and Auntie. If she couldn't have his love, she would accept theirs and be glad for it.

"Are you okay?"

Startled out of her reverie by the soft question, Kagome stared up at the lip of the well. Shippo's green eyes glowed with understanding. No longer a child but not quite an adult, he had grown so much as a person. Due to her pleading the kit's case with the ancient youkai master Totosai and the gift of sutras from Miroku, Shippo had begun apprenticeship with the sword maker and fire master.

The lessons were necessary. He needed that connection to his heritage. Even if she missed him terribly while he was gone and silently mourned the passage of his exuberant youth into a more restrained individual. He was no less loved for his more quiet nature, and he was still quite a trickster. It was the maturity that slowly crept into his face and figure, the words that were measured carefully rather than thrown to the wind, that indicated he was no longer the little kit that once crept into her sleeping roll.

She smiled. "I'm fine. Just... Remembering."

"The others were worried. Kirara and I came out here to get you."

About to reply, Kagome watched a shadow fall over the kitsune's face. Shippo fell away from the side of the well. "Shippo?"

Kirara hissed. Kagome clambered to her feet and was up the well's side faster than she had ever moved before. When her head peeked over the well's mouth she gasped. "Sesshoumaru!"

She hadn't seen him in years. Not since that day beside the stone hut. Shippo was on the ground in front of his feet, warily watching the Taiyoukai when Sesshoumaru's attention shifted to her. "Kagome, go back to the village."

"I think not," Sesshoumaru intoned. "You will leave, kitsune. The miko and this Sesshoumaru have matters to discuss that do not involve you or the hanyou."

Verdant eyes flashing, Shippo opened his mouth to refute the inuyoukai's claim. Kagome beat him to it. "He's right, Shippo. I need to talk to him. Please do as he said."

Eying him no less warily than Shippo, Kagome finished climbing out of the well to sit on the edge. Her fingers bit into the wood, turning her knuckles white with strain.

"I'm not leaving you here with him!" Shippo hopped to his feet. Mutinous, his brows lowered threateningly.

Sesshoumaru took a step forward, possibly to prove that Shippo's posturing was entirely unhealthy, and Kagome scrambled from her perch. Once between the two males she threw up her hands, palms out, to stop the budding hostilities. "Shippo, please!"

"No, Kagome. I don't like the look of him."

Taken aback by his hard tone, Kagome turned toward Sesshoumaru and pleaded, "If Shippo promises not to tell what you ask of me, will you please just let him stay?" The last thing she wanted was for Shippo to be hurt on her account!

Time was essential, and it was being wasted on the kitsune's obstinacy. He did not trust the sly fox. Still, a tongue can be split as easily as not. "Your word and your silence in this matter."

Surprised that Sesshoumaru would take it, Shippo nodded. "You have it."

Sesshoumaru then proceeded to place his full attention on the miko. "You will come with this Sesshoumaru. It is time to repay the debt incurred on behalf of your friends' lives."

Ignoring Shippo's gasp, Kagome nodded. "I was wondering if you were ever going to show up. What do you want?"

"Rin grows older. You will aid in the completion of the journey to secure her immortality."

Rin had chosen an entirely unsuitable male to mate. She knew better than to run off to be with her youkai, but her moping face and sad sighs irritated him. She vowed that she only had so much time to secure a mate, that she needed to follow where her heart dictated. If he could secure her immortality the infatuation would fade. Offered the opportunity to wait for a more suitable male, she would learn control of her rebellious heart.

"Immortality?" Kagome had no idea there was a way to become immortal. At least, not by any means that wouldn't warp the human into a monster like Naraku.

"There is a fruit tree that only flowers once every 1000 years. A human that eats one bite will be cured of any illness. Two bites will grant the human youkai strength. Three bites and the human is granted immortality."

"Wow. I didn't know there was such a tree! Why haven't more humans sought it?" If there was a way to become immortal, she knew emperors and daimyos would be all over it.

A grimace of distaste briefly crossed his face but he forged on. "Only through the auspices of a youkai and human coming together can the tree become accessible."

Her eyes clouded with confusion. "Why is that?"

Irritated by the entire subject, Sesshoumaru sneered. "The tree was crafted by the Kamis to bless youkai who loved humans."

A trickle of unease began to make itself known to her. "When you say 'coming together' just what exactly do you mean?"

Rather than directly answer, Sesshoumaru baldy stated, "My time of rut approaches. It will be necessary to undertake this task now, while the season will override this Sesshoumaru's refined sensibilities regarding such undesirable tasks."

It would also solve his other problem of avoiding bitches intent on persuading him to mate while in a less than stable mind frame. This would only be his second season of rut, the first marked by the bodies of four demon bitches that had dared his temper during his deadly lust. If one had survived, he would have been saddled with an unwanted mate.

The miko wouldn't be safe from his temper. Given her proven ability to act rationally while under duress he assumed she would stand a better chance of survival than the bitches that claw and attack in order to force his hand. He was counting on it, in fact, to ensure Rin received immortality.

Shippo and Kagome both gaped like fish out of water. She was the first to break the silence. "You want me to what?" she screeched.

Sesshoumaru's brow rose in mocking solicitation. "Your word was freely given with no limitations set on what would be acceptable recompense."

Shippo groaned. "Tell me you didn't, Kagome," he pleaded.

She whirled around to face him. "I had no idea he'd ask for something like this! I assumed, well, I wasn't thinking at the time!" She turned back to glare up at the Taiyoukai. "Is this some sort of joke? You want me to give up my virginity to your lust-crazed self to get some fruit tree to show itself to you?"

Among other things... Sesshoumaru would sooner discard his hakama and dance upon the wind than reveal to the stubborn woman before him that he sought asylum from the cunning avarice of bitches in heat. This could probably be done at another time. An occasion where he would be better able to prevent pregnancy, for one. But the coming season of rut had weighed heavily upon his mind. He detested being out of control.

As much as it chafed, he could trust the miko not to take advantage of him in that state whereas a bitch would not hesitate to push him into committing a grievous error. His mind shrunk from that fragile comparison to his father. His mother, the insufferable bitch, had managed to ensnare the Great and Terrible General in such a state of feral need. "I fail to see where this is a joking matter."

When the realization sunk in that he was serious, Kagome paled beneath the honey tan she'd picked up over time spent outside gathering herbs. She couldn't go back on her word. She'd promised!

As if sensing her weakening, Sesshoumaru shifted closer to stare into her wide eyes. "What was given can be retrieved, Miko. Do not trifle with this Sesshoumaru's trust."

Her slack jaw firmed. "I wasn't going to." She swallowed her anger to ask, "When, and for how long?"

Shippo made a gurgling noise behind her, but she ignored it to stare intently at the youkai.

Sesshoumaru didn't know how long it would take. A childhood tale related to him by his father, it merely said the youkai and their human lovers traveled to the highest peak of Mt. Fuji and copulated. Once the god was satisfied the tree would appear. "One moon cycle."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. "Unacceptable. I'm not going to do that with you for an entire month. How long is your rut cycle?"

Golden gaze slitted at the insult, Sesshoumaru considered not replying. Rin's happy face - made so by his vow to make things right for her - flashed before his eyes. "There were six, including yourself, who were given aid by this Sesshoumaru," he stated rather than reveal his rut cycle. The truth was, he didn't know how long it would last.

She chewed on her bottom lip. Closing her eyes briefly, she inhaled deeply before letting it all out in a rush. "Six days. You've got a deal." Kagome stuck her hand out for him to shake before remembering that he didn't know what it meant. She bowed instead to seal the bargain. "When will you come for me?" Determined to get through this with as much pride as possible, she kept her tone brisk.

"We leave now." Did the miko think he could be managed as easily as the hanyou? It would be his way, not hers.

Shippo finally found his voice. "You can't do this, Kagome! Whatever it was you bargained for, it can't be worth this!"

She turned to him with a soft, bittersweet smile that momentarily hid the strain lines around her mouth and eyes. "Oh, but it was, Shippo. It was worth any price. He isn't going to kill me." Hopefully. "Don't tell anyone, though. Okay? Promise me. Just tell them I went off since it was too much for me to deal with today. I'll be back in a week."

He looked ready to argue, but her pleading gaze and trembling mouth finally broke through his resolution to march to Inuyasha and tell him everything. "I gave my word, didn't I?"

Sesshoumaru didn't trust the pained look that crossed the kitsune's face. He would need to ensure the path to Mt. Fuji was suitably fraught with peril to delay an annoying rescue attempt by his hot-headed brother.

Finding herself suddenly wrapped in fluffy silver fur, Kagome screamed as the ground beneath her feet disappeared in a flash of brilliant green light.

-----

"You didn't have to sweep me away like that," Kagome griped as she stumbled along behind the Taiyoukai. "And this whole leaving without a bag thing was really bad planning on your part. I'm going to need clothes! And soap!" Just thinking about what laid ahead in her future made her grimace. "Lots and lots of soap."

Resisting the urge to throttle the woman with her own hair was proving an even more difficult task than he had assumed it would be. She had not stopped complaining since he'd let her down at the base of the mountain. The path was only visible by foot, so their only alternative was to walk.

Hoping that an endless litany of whining would delay the inevitable, Kagome cast about for another subject to wear his ear away on. Preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't notice the patch of dew-slick leaves that littered the forest floor before she put her foot down on it.

Hair falling from the impromptu pony tail, her foot flew up in the air and she went tumbling down. Luckily, she managed to catch herself on her palms before planting her nose into a large rock and possibly breaking it. She yelped when a sharp slice across her arm made its presence known.

Gingerly rolling to her knees, she cradled her injured arm. The afternoon light revealed a gash about four inches long cutting crossways across her bicep. Confused, she looked around. A stinging nettle plant squatted beside her. One of its razor sharp thorns was wet with her blood.

"Of all the stupid... " she muttered to herself, embarrassed at her clumsiness and angered that she only had herself to blame. The wound continued to bleed out, and she didn't have her medicine bag handy thanks to the Taiyoukai now standing in front of her. The fact that he was staring at her with all the affection one gives a flea didn't help her temper any.

She glared up at him. "This is your fault!" She held her arm up for his inspection in case he'd missed her spectacular fall. Fingers slick with blood slipped. She winced when her fingers scraped across the wound. She mumbled angry insults to the uncaring inuyoukai.

Testing the strength of her shirt - her last holdover from the modern era - she ripped a long strip from the hem and wrapped it around her arm to stem the blood flow. She tightened the impromptu bandage with her teeth. It would have to do. With luck it would stave off infection until she could get a herbal compress.

Popping up as soon as the task was complete, she took off down the trail at a fast clip.

Nonplussed, Sesshoumaru nonetheless sedately followed after the aggravated woman. She would eventually come to a divide in the trail and would be forced to cool her heels waiting for him. The irritation she would be sure to feel was almost enough to make him smile.

-----

Kagome didn't know what to think of the dim tunnel Sesshoumaru insisted they enter. In obvious disrepair, a sprawling shrine stretched out around them. The tunnel in question had been hidden beneath a massive statue of a turtle that dwarfed them in its shadow many times over. Sesshoumaru had moved it aside with the same ease Souta used to exert pushing a car across the floor.

"You didn't say anything about tunnels. Do you know what lives in there?" She shuddered. "Rats. Mice. Bugs."

"You faced Naraku and yet you fear such?"

She scowled. "Do you have any idea of the diseases that they transmit? I like my health."

Intrigued despite himself, he asked, "Is this a future teaching?" While allowing the miko to follow him during the days of Naraku, he'd learned about her origins. All youkai knew illness carried from one mortal creature to the next. It was a simple matter of scenting them out. Humans, with their inferior senses, still refused to accept that their diseases could be spread through their dirty skins to beasts and insects and back again.

Rin wasn't allowed to enter human villages for that very reason. She was healthy and he had every intention of keeping her that way.

Grateful for the distraction of his question when he began to lead the way into the tunnel, she concentrated on the answer while stepping into the tunnel after him. "Yeah. We've got microscopes that can see the germs that make people sick. It's why I always try to stay clean, even if Inuyasha and the others still don't believe me."

"The hanyou's senses are flawed."

Unable to argue that since Inuyasha's senses weren't as good as Sesshoumaru's, Kagome still loyally stated, "Well, they are better than mine." Even if she had to wonder sometimes. The hanyou reeked after a long day hunting. Kikyo never commented and he didn't bother to bathe unless blood was evident. On the trail it wasn't so bad. In a small hut... Well, Kagome preferred to step outside for fresh air as often as she could.

He snorted. Being proven better than a human was little more than an insult in itself, however.

The light began to fade and the fur she had been given to stay warm while on the mountain reflected the dying light, allowing her enough to see by in order to prevent a misplaced step. Desperate for conversation, she asked, "So how's Rin? What's the youkai she wants to marry like?"

The last thing Sesshoumaru wanted to do was speak about Rin and her suitor. Her choice in mate was still a sore subject with him. The stream of icy water that ran across the path ahead was crossed with a single leap before he recalled his human follower. He returned to her side the same way he left it, ignoring the sparkle in her blue gaze that spoke clearly of amusement.

It was when he lifted her into his arms that the first twinge of discomfort made itself known. The miko's light scent tickled his nostrils, urging him to bury his nose in the curvature of her neck. Confronted with a nude demoness in heat he cared not for their pleas. That he would even consider this human as pleasing bespoke his coming rut and the accompanying lack of principals.

When his eyes flashed red, Kagome instantly lost her smile. The clawed fingers on her thigh and shoulder tightened painfully with the promise of bruises come morning. Rather than cry out she held very, very still.

The moment passed within the space of a heartbeat. Knowing that time was now against him, Sesshoumaru crossed the stream and raced toward their destination. He was determined to make it to the promised security. He might be reduced to rutting with a human, but he'd be damned before it became a public spectacle.

Youkai, both male and female, were often drawn to other mating youkai. More often than not, it inspired an orgy of lust among the spectators as they were pushed into heat or rut by the stronger mating pair. Even if one of the partners was human, it wouldn't matter. His power release would be enough to draw a crowd of prurient interest.

As soon as the room at the end of the tunnel was made, he slid the iron door shut and activated the seals by following the instructions from his father's tale. The Great General had planned on trying for Izayoi's sake, but had discovered the length of time between flowering hadn't passed sufficiently for it to work for her. Now, 60 years later, Sesshoumaru found it irksome that he would stand in place of his father.

------

Kagome paced to the far end of the room. Pillows made of fine silk and furs were tossed about liberally but did nothing to relieve the stark gloom of the room. A sputtering torch glowed in the corner and shadows danced just beyond its weak reach.

Once she was within inches of the damp stone wall she turned around to repeat the circuit she'd been actively intent on marching since being locked in the room with him. With Sesshoumaru. With a Sesshoumaru that was currently seated in the middle of the room without a stitch of clothing on.

She squeezed her eyes shut when they threatened to reveal much more than she was ready to assimilate in passing. How was she supposed to do this? With him no less?

Brief snatches of her time in the youkai hut so long ago flitted across her mind's eye. She squirmed beneath the thin layers of protection her pants and torn shirt provided. He didn't expect that from her, did he?

Where was a handy lust spell to make things fuzzy?

She peeked at the kneeling Taiyoukai from beneath the screen of sooty lashes on her return trek across the dirt floor. He was handsome. Pretty even. He wasn't a stranger. It wouldn't be so bad if he also didn't make it obvious that he couldn't stand her.

Kagome sighed. In the end, she would keep her word. Sex was sex. It didn't mean anything, and she wouldn't be hurt by it. Assuming he didn't hurt her, at least. It wasn't like she had anything interesting planned for her virginity.

Dare she admit, if only to herself, that it was the mechanics of the act that bothered her more than anything else? The impressions she had carried away with her from the day in the stone hut had not lost their power over time. Rather, they had gained in strength through the exaggeration of her imagination.

This, she decided, was going to be a long week. Unless...

"Sesshoumaru?" Head carefully canted at an angle to avoid direct eye contact, Kagome called over her shoulder to the still kneeling inuyoukai.

He didn't reply, but Kagome caught the tensing of the air. It was as if his awareness now stretched into the atmosphere as a living, breathing entity. She gulped. "I'd heard about some people who poke a hole in a blanket. The woman pulls it over herself, and the man climbs on top. He puts his thing through the hole, they do it, then he gets off. That doesn't sound too bad. You'd be spared having to touch a yucky human more than you have to," she ended on a happy, hopeful note.

Granted, it had been a movie she'd watched a long time ago, but the idea didn't sound half bad. A perfect solution, in fact, for all concerned. She would preserve her modesty and he could pretend there was a demoness under the blanket.

Having shed his armor and clothing hours ago when his skin began to grow unbearably sensitive, Sesshoumaru mentally scoffed at the woman's suggestion. He had known that her scent was clean of another male's musk. It was the sole reason he was willing to overlook her attachment to his hanyou brother in order to endure her as his rutting partner. Taking Inuyasha's remains was not something he would ever contemplate. "Remove your clothing, or it will go badly for their future usefulness."

He had fought the stirrings of arousal as long as he could. It was unacceptable that he would ever be overcome by something so... bestial as the need to mate. To reproduce. In the end, however, even he wasn't above the call of demonic nature.

In mere moments he would lose the battle. The miko's preparedness wouldn't matter in the slightest to his feral self. She was primed to produce offspring, smelled alluringly of innocence - the sort of purity that would ensure his seed would not be forced to battle with another male's - and was willing. Or at least she had promised her acceptance.

Kagome's eyes widened. "What?" Was it already time? And what did he mean? Was he going to turn into some raving animal?

"Do not fight me," Sesshoumaru growled out when a surge of heat suffused his body. He inhaled a wave of fear, crimson tides washing away the remnants of gold. He wanted to dominate, to capture, the bitch slowly inching away from his position.

In a fluid rush of silver and pale, moon-kissed flesh, he gained his feet. Kagome stared at him in mute shock. "Sesshoumaru?" she whispered, hand to her throat.

Carefully stalking his prey, the inuyoukai scented the air. A grim smile displayed an impressive array of razor sharp teeth when her suitability was discerned. On silent feet he crossed the distance between them.

Nearly tripping in her haste, Kagome backed away. She fetched up against the wall. Trapped, she could only watch as he pressed against her, thigh to thigh, nose to chest. Its steady beat giving way to a panicked staccato, her heart rushed blood throughout her body. A full body flush worked its way to her skin, giving her a rosy glow.

You promised! she reminded herself when she wanted nothing more than to push him away. Remember your promise!

Ensnaring her to his will with palms laid flat against the wall behind her, caging her in, Sesshoumaru bent his head to snuffle against her collarbone. Following the trail when she offered nothing more than an incoherent sound of distress, he was soon burying his nose between the full mounds of her breasts.

Following the natural line of her curvy body, he nudged against the heated cleft between her thighs. Clean, he noted in approval. Even here, her scent was the pristine yet musky aroma of a female's heat. Without thought, his claws were put to use cutting away the rough fabric guarding her flesh from the chill of the room.

Closing her eyes in resignation, Kagome allowed him his way. When he pulled her down to kneel in the dirt, she offered nothing but a sigh of regret that her first time would be nothing more than a painful experience to be forgotten later. And when her maidenhead was breached without any further ado by the male that had mounted her, she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood but held the whimpers in as he moved within her body without care for her pain nor for her pleasure.

Kagome blinked back the tears that gathered, saving them to be shed later, when he shuddered above her with a hoarse growl before slumping to the side.

Taking in his panting form, seeing his eyes still red and his teeth still visible in an inaudible command to stay where she was, Kagome wanted to cry. To tell him to stop. To leave.

And in the end, when the strength of her word proved less than the desire to flee the inhumane travesty of all that it should have been, the glowing eyes of a little girl she once knew stayed her powers from rising to defend her ravished body.

Instead, she shut herself away from the experience entirely. Ignoring the steady trickle of fluid down her thighs, drifting upon the wings of her imagination, she knew nothing when he mounted her again. Heard nothing when, enraged by her desertion if only into the safe haven of her own mind, his growls and shouts grew to deafening proportions. She didn't feel anything when his claws sank into her skin time and time again while his teeth carelessly scored marks across her back and neck.

------

When the haze of his rut faded, Sesshoumaru found himself covered in blood. Startled by the discovery, he took stock of himself only to find what he had suspected. The scent told a story of old and new bloodshed, Kagome's, and for the barest of seconds he kept his head lowered rather than glance up from the pile of furs in which he had been sprawled.

Despising even that one instant of avoidance, the inuyoukai swiftly pulled himself out of the fog his Season of Rut had left him in. His knee slid across the soft furs and he levered himself up to take in the room in one sharp glance.

The pitiful, bloodied heap was flopped carelessly in the dirt. Even from the short distance between them he could see the open wounds crossing her back that yet sluggishly continued to seep.

Slowly taking his feet, Sesshoumaru soon towered over her.

Hanks of ebony-hued hair had been slashed away by careless tugs to lay in the muddied dirt. Claw-torn flesh had scabbed over for the most part but would leave scars on her human skin. The bite marks were the most troubling of her injuries. His fangs had lengthened during his rut, punching through either side of her collar bone, potentially scraping bone and leaving behind deep puncture wounds.

The scent of refuse in the other corner told the tale of how she had managed to relieve herself during her incarceration within the room. Her sluggish pulse and cracked lips revealed just how badly the lack of food and water had hurt her mortal form.

It was unfortunate that she had been injured, but that she yet lived where her predecessors had failed was a testament to her humanity. Submission to his greater will had ensured her survival whereas a demoness would have pushed him to kill in her search to secure a strong mate. A quirk of nature; bitches were drawn to strong males but could only survive one weaker than they.

The musk of his seed coated the skin of her thighs. He grimaced as the stale scent of his spent fluids mixed with her sweat and blood to create an acrid, entirely unpleasant odor.

Expanding his senses, he caught the fleeting auras of those that had gathered just outside the doors as they left. In a moment he would be able to leave to seek out the promised tree. Methodically replacing each layer of his clothing, he vowed to bathe the scent of this disturbing encounter from his body as soon as the first opportunity arose.

It wasn't until Sesshoumaru tied the last piece of armor in place that her unnatural stillness penetrated his mind. Turning on his heel he stalked back to her side before kneeling. "Miko."

Her breathing remained erratic but no other sign of recognition passed over her expression. He leaned closer to get a better look at her opened eyes as they stared into the dirt. About to turn around and leave when no expression was forthcoming, he was halted by an invisible force that wrapped around his body.

Immediately attempting to leap to his feet in order to defend himself, the inuyoukai soon found his limbs completely incapacitated. Inexorably forced to lower his head to rest against the woman's unclothed stomach, he growled but could offer up no further resistance to the invisible force.

"You thought the defilement of this woman would grant you a boon from us."

Everywhere, in his heart and in his mind, surrounding him in the room, the voice rang out in a deep baritone that resounded within the very marrow of Sesshoumaru's bones. "Release this Sesshoumaru," he demanded angrily.

"You now dare to order us?"

A harsh burst of laughter echoed in Sesshoumaru's eardrums, threatening to burst the sensitive organs. A cacophony of noise further pained his ears and brought spasms of dagger-sharp lights to dance before his eyes, a crowd of voices whispered in his head.

"We are the ones you sought to deceive. Do not think to order us. You will not like the consequences."

Sesshoumaru's heart stopped for the barest of moments. In that brief spate of time, excruciating agony shot up his spine and down his shoulder at the exact place it had once been severed.

"What was given can just as easily be taken away. Is that not what you once said? Threatened? We can do so much more than take."

The pain in Sesshoumaru's arm intensified into a burning inferno, the tendons and muscles screaming as if seared with the heat of a thousand red-hot spears that peeled back layers of flesh to dig into the muscle with malicious glee.

"We will give," the voiced hissed.

"Enough," Sesshoumaru panted out. "What is it you want of this Sesshoumaru?"

Silence broken only by the harsh breathing of the woman, audible due to his close proximity, flowed over his abused ear drums. Just as he was about to command the gods to state their demands, his vision swam. Gone was the stone room. In its place, a woman cradled a little girl in an odd white room.

"This is the woman who you used so harshly and turned away from without care for her wellbeing."

The girl slowly patted her mother's head, sniffling herself as she tried to comfort the grieving woman. "Don't be sad, Mama. Daddy wants us to be happy."

The woman only sobbed that much harder. Rather than succumb to the tears bubbling to the surface of her shining blue eyes, the child let the woman hold her tight without complaint, knowing that it was something her mama needed.

Fading, the scene changed to an older girl, still a child. A young boy who looked of familial relation to the girl held onto her hand tightly. They crossed a strange road while unknown things flew by on oddly-shaped wheels. "Now, Souta, you have to remember to look both ways."

The boy nodded happily, content to skip along at her side.

A group of girls her age approached from the opposite direction. The leader, a curly-haired girl with a red bow in her hair, called out to the sister, "Hey! We're going to the park, Kagome-chan! You wanna come?" She held up a scroll with odd kanji and a scandalous collection of bound scrolls.

Kagome looked down on her brother when the little boy sighed. She smiled and squeezed his hand before turning to her friends. "I'll catch up to you guys later, okay?"

A wide grin split Souta's face before the scene started to turn once more. A span of many days spent in company of a friend who was ill, even at the risk of catching said illness. The time she broke her arm trying to rescue a lost kitten from a tree and ended up falling.

In a continuous skein, the vibrant threads of her life were unwoven to be revealed to the inuyoukai. Kindess after kindness; charity for those who couldn't afford to feed themselves, compassion for those who would not care for themselves. Fiery defense of those who would not stand up for themselves, tempered by forgiveness of those who transgressed against her loving nature.

And then, in a final flash that blinded his sensitive eyes and exploded across his mind with a starburst of perfect clarity, it settled upon an older girl. The girl Sesshoumaru remembered from the beginning of their acquaintanceship. She slowly approached a strange hut. Once the door was opened he recognized the well from Inuyasha's forest. A demon shot from its depths and pulled the girl down into the darkness.

A whirlwind entered his mind, flooding his consciousness with memories - these loaded with thoughts and emotions that belonged to the woman herself. Her fear of inadequacy, her compassion for everyone that asked for it and many who did not. The joy she took in simple moments that was countered by the sadness of her heavy heart.

Then it stopped. Quieted. And there was nothing else left within her, her heart emptied of its vibrancy by his careless handling of her spirit.

"Look again, Sesshoumaru," the voice whispered urgently. "Peer closer, dig deeper. Look!"

And, because he couldn't refuse, because he had to know, needed to find within her a spark of life that had not been touched by his cynicism, his dismissal of her worth as a living being, for once in his blighted life, Sesshoumaru obeyed without question.

For me...

Buried beneath centuries of apathy and disgust, hidden behind the arrogant mask of a Taiyoukai of unquestionable strength and power, Sesshoumaru's heart clenched. Regret. Something he had never known before. Life was to be lived. Regrets meant he had been mistaken and he was never wrong. He did not deviate from his path once chosen. He was possessed of supreme righteousness in everything that he did.

But for her, for the fact that she would think of him, hope for him to gain what he had wanted - for his ward's happiness - at the price of her body and soul, he would feel this emotion. If she were to die, there would be no hate within her heart. Only the same acceptance with which she had greeted the heartbreak of the hanyou's choice in mate. The acceptance that had seen her through the loss of her family.

He couldn't understand it. How she could live amongst the same filth that humanity had perpetuated, hear the same words spoken in anger and hate against others of different origins and beliefs, and remain unsullied.

Even his Rin, had she survived in the human village before his protection had removed her from that hell, would have been broken. Had been, in fact, harmed emotionally and mentally, as well as physically, by the hatred that humans were capable of breeding. Mute, it had taken absolute trust in him for her to allow words to flow.

And the miko, Kagome, had no such trust in him anymore. Yet she still refused to hate him. Still hoped for him.

Sesshoumaru suddenly found himself free from the invisible bonds that had held him to the woman. Rather than jerk away, he merely lifted his head, taking in the blank expression of the broken female. The scent that had once disgusted him now gave him a disgust of himself.

Her blood. Her sweat. His seed. It all intermingled into a potent, cleansing brew of shame and culpability that he willingly swallowed. To do less would dishonor himself even more than his actions had already managed.

"Acceptance, Sesshoumaru, does not give absolution. Will you make it right?"

Completely still, Sesshoumaru remained kneeling beside the miko. What could he possibly do? The miko was alive. Without the gods' power, however, he could never reach into the cavern where the miko had hidden her mind to protect it from further harm.

"You sought immortality for one who desired nothing but acceptance. There is always a choice." The voice paused before becoming singular once more. This time a familiar, cold voice asked, "Why care for them, Sesshoumaru? Why protect or... love... them?"

He glanced up sharply but there was still nothing visually to give away the identity of the unknown voice. "This Sesshoumaru-" His words cut off. Unsure, where once he would have dismissed the questions as ridiculous like he had in the past, the Taiyoukai pondered the wealth of meaning behind their issuance.

The bruised and shadowed eyes of the woman curled up beside him haunted his conscience, forcing him to delve into himself as deeply as he had her heart. She had never judged him for his seeming cruelty. Had never dismissed his worth while he had granted her nothing but insults and apathy.

He had dismissed her worth for her weaknesses. Yet he guarded Rin. Protected the girl even though she was weaker than this miko. Confronted with the dichotomy of his hypocrisy, his head began to ache. What made the miko special? Was she even more than any other, or was it that her acceptance of her lot as a human, her joy in her flaws, proved her more? Isn't that why Rin had gained a place in his life? She was willing to give aid to a demon. To him. Kagome had done no less, yet had sacrificed so much more.

"Because," he finally replied, "she is worthy."

"And that is the right answer." Without a whisper, the disembodied presence was gone.

A sparkle caught the corner of his eye. Reluctantly taking his gaze from the miko he was startled to find a large peach, the flesh a rosy pink color, sitting only an arm's length away.

It is yours to do with as you please.

Sesshoumaru claimed the blessed fruit.

-----

After carefully harvesting the juice from the peach by dint of pure brute strength, Sesshoumaru lifted the miko's head and tipped the small jeweled cup to her lips. It took only a moment's hesitation before her parched throat instinctively worked to swallow the healing fluid.

Once the cup was empty he set it aside to wait. Beneath his regard the bruises and cuts began to fade. Claw marks knitted together, and even the punctures were soon nothing but a memory on her smooth flesh. Cracked and dry lips plumped out once more. The shadows that had created smudges beneath her eyes disappeared. Beneath the scent of her abuse he detected a shift, the change from mortality to something more.

She stirred within his arms. Lashes fluttered before opening, and she stared into his steady gaze.

Kagome stiffened, her spine impossibly taut as she was forcefully reminded of what had occurred when memories, those things she had hoped to never revisit, assailed her. Tears sprang into her eyes, and she tried desperately to roll out of his arms, to run far away from the one that had hurt her so very badly.

Sesshoumaru let her go rather than risk hurting her while she flailed.

Scrambling on all fours for the furs, she grabbed the nearest one and wrapped it about her nude form. Refusing to look at him, Kagome glanced wildly about the room in an attempt to find escape.

"There is no other way out." Scenting her fear and accepting that she was entirely justified in allowing it to control her, Sesshoumaru stood. He had removed his armor to administer the juice, and he now moved over to the heap of metal and bone. "We must leave this place. There is a task that needs be done."

Cringing when he moved closer to her, Kagome managed to bite out, "How many days?" In the silence she elaborated, "How many days have we been here?"

"Six."

She nodded as if agreeing with herself. "Then we aren't going anywhere. I kept my promise. I'm not going anywhere with you." She couldn't bear it, to look at him and know what he had done, how badly he had hurt her. He had known, the bastard. He could have warned her. Something, anything, to have prepared her for the attack he had forced her to endure for the sake of her friends.

She still refused to look at him, preferring to speak to the pile of furs. The fear had not disintegrated even in the face of her anger. Instead, it was fed by the upset. At first he couldn't understand it until the sight of her shoulders - hunched as if in preparation for a blow - communicated its message to him.

Never before had her words been tempered by anything other than common sense and respect. Even then, he recalled the stone hut and her disrespectful words to him. She had not allowed fear of him to rule her tongue. Now, now she feared reprisal. Feared his reaction, to be the recipient of more abuse at his hands.

The implication stung his pride. He had not been in control of himself during rut. Yet she would assume that he would lose all control of himself while out of it? About to become angered, the scent of her tears stung his nostrils.

She had never been hurt so grievously by him. Despite the small injuries she had picked up over the years traveling with the hanyou, she had never borne the brunt of an attack of the nature of his rut before. Controlled by her recently acquired knowledge of what he was capable of, even unknowing, she wouldn't know not to fear him. When had he ever shown himself anything other than a selfish beast in regard to her? And, while her body was healed, her mind would still be fraught with the atrocities his mindless self had inflicted upon her without warning or justification.

Acceptance does not give absolution.

In offering her the fruit he had returned something which he had not earned. If he wanted to retrieve his honor, he would need to seek forgiveness from the woman for stealing that which he had no right to take. "This Se-"

The door bent inward, and a loud screech accompanied by the metal bending. "Sesshoumaru! Open up you bastard!"

Instantly on guard, the inuyoukai cursed the kitsune's tricky sense of honor. No doubt he had viewed his loyalty to Kagome as sufficient provocation to over ride his vow of silence.

And now, when he needed time and privacy with the woman, Inuyasha was outside the door. The hanyou was intent on gaining entry. With his stubborn, rash nature he would continue to ram the door until it gave or his body failed him.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled. Pulling the fur tighter about herself, she sprinted to the door.

"Kagome? Kagome, is that you?" came the muffled questions.

Kagome slumped against the wall when Kikyo's voice reached her. Tears of relief slipped down her cheeks. Thank goodness Kikyo had made Inuyasha bring her. Right now, she didn't know if she could handle the hanyou's brusque nature or loud mouth.

Recalling the hanyou's mate and the threats she had once levied against the miko, Sesshoumaru decided to kill two birds with one stone. Angry that his time had been interrupted, the door was ripped from its mooring and tossed to the back wall. Before Inuyasha or Kagome knew what was happening, he had Kikyo within his claws.

"Die." Her face began to turn blue as he squeezed her airway shut.

Inuyasha moved to stop him, but one look at the Taiyoukai's face stopped him. Sesshoumaru could snap her neck before the hanyou could move a step and they both knew it. "What the fuck are you doing?" he asked instead. "Put Kikyo down!"

"Stop it!" Kagome yelled. "Let her go!" Forgetting her fear, she ran up to the inuyoukai and began beating on his chest hard enough to bruise the tender flesh of her hands.

Confused that she would plead for the woman's life - this woman had been the one to make attempts on her life and had stolen the affections of the hanyou - Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes on the miko. "No."

"Haven't you done enough already?" she countered. "Just... Just leave!"

Being ordered to do anything was unacceptable. The knowledge that the key to regaining his honor rested within one who would never grant him an opportunity to earn it rankled even more. But, maybe he held within his grasp the means to his absolution. "One moon, miko, and her life will be yours."

Immediately discerning his meaning, Kagome paled. A month with him? "Why?" she asked, her voice nothing more than a strained whisper. "Why are you doing this to me?" Lashes spiky from moisture, she finally met his gaze.

"Like hell! She ain't going nowhere with you!" Incensed by the scents Kagome carried, appalled by the implications, confused by something indiscernible that hid within the overpowering aroma of lust and blood, and enraged by the fact that his asshole brother had actually dared to force her to endure a youkai rut, Inuyasha put his hand on her shoulder to push her behind him. He'd defeat the bastard and then they could all go home.

Irritated by the proprietary manner the hanyou displayed toward the miko, Sesshoumaru blasted a hole in the tunnel wall and threw the woman in his grasp outside. Just as Sesshoumaru knew he would, Inuyasha left Kagome unprotected to race to his mate's rescue.

Within a heartbeat, the Taiyoukai had the miko pinned to the outer wall of the room. "I can kill them both. You know this. Your choice and your word." He detested the fear he inspired within her, but until he had a chance to prove his intentions were honorable, he had no choice but to play on her worry for their lives.

Trapped, her eyes burned. Unable to force the words past her constricted throat, she gave a short, jerky nod.

"For one moon cycle you will follow me." Again, she nodded. Lightly brushing her cheek with a clawed finger, he frowned when she turned her head away, flinching. There was so much ground to recover. He didn't know if it would be sufficient time, but then, Inuyasha was a fool. The hanyou would be sure to offer up more compromises on her part through his blundering rescue attempts.

"She will not be harmed," he threw at the hanyou now racing toward the pair. Before Sesshoumaru would have to deal with the recklessness of his half-brother, he claimed the woman before him and leapt through the hole. Once in the clean air of the outside world, he formed the youki cloud and they took to the skies.

Only when they set down just outside his camp did he recall that she was clad in the dirty fur. Rin would be more than willing to share a kimono with the woman, he decided. "Come," he directed the silent woman.

Automatically obeying, Kagome wiped away her tears. They were useless. What good would come of feeling? They still continued to drip from dull eyes regardless of her desire to the contrary.

Rin and Jaken looked up as soon as Sesshoumaru came through the trees. Their greeting died as soon as the miko made an appearance in all her bedraggled glory.

"Kagome-chan?" Rin abandoned the fire she had been tending to rush over to the miko's side. "What happened?"

A furtive glance to the Taiyoukai revealed a stone façade. Kagome sighed and finally managed to quell the tears. It all seemed like a bad dream now, but she knew that her presence in Sesshoumaru's camp, at his behest no less, belied that little wish despite the absence of what should have been grievous wounds. "I'm not hurt, Rin-chan." Not physically. Not anymore.

In an attempt to change the subject, she forced cheer into her voice and tried to pretend she pranced around in fur every day to ask, "I heard you were to be mated. Who's the lucky guy?"

Rin's eyes dimmed slightly when she snuck a glance at her guardian's impassive features. Seeing it, Sesshoumaru sighed inwardly. "Call Ah-Un, Rin."

Curious but not questioning, Rin obeyed and shortly the dragon was in front of the Taiyoukai. "Retrieve a kimono for the miko," he ordered the young woman once she stood at his side.

Again running off without question, Rin set about going through her three sets of kimono to find one to suit the miko.

"Jaken." Sesshoumaru waited until the toad youkai was shivering beneath his regard before stating, "You may take Rin."

Gaping, Jaken sputtered, "My- my lord! You..."

Still disbelieving what he was about to do, Sesshoumaru allowed a small grin to cross his lips, knowing what it did to the toad. Jaken swallowed nervously. "Her life will be in your hands. Do not fail her trust."

Rin looked up from her task and clapped her hands together while she beamed up at him. "Sesshoumaru-sama!"

"Rin."

Kagome watched as Rin moved forward, a blue kimono in hand, to stand before the inuyoukai.

"You will visit."

Nodding, the young woman's eyes sparkled but she shed no tears. "I will always come back to see my Sesshoumaru-sama."

"He will protect you." More of a threat than a statement, the intent behind the words wasn't missed by anyone within hearing.

Rin only smiled that much more. "He loves me."

He closed his eyes briefly, lips pinched, before spearing Jaken with a cold glare. "Once she is in the arms of her mate, they are to journey to the peak of Mt. Fuji. Tell him that this Sesshoumaru says it is more than a myth and that time is running out."

"My-" Rin's mouth closed on the words that wanted to come out when Jaken saluted Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru held his hand out for the kimono. When Rin laid it in his grasp, he said, "It is time to leave."

She fidgeted, and he sighed. "This will be the last time," he warned. Rin nodded before throwing herself forward to wrap her arms around his middle, hugging fiercely before letting go to step back.

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama." Rin bowed deeply, her long chestnut hair dusting the ground. Sniffling now, she climbed onto Ah-Un's back with Jaken's help.

He couldn't fail to note how her fingers caressed the leathery hide of the mount. "He is yours to do with as you please, Rin."

She glanced up sharply, shocked. Feeling generous in the face of her leaving, he added, "Jaken as well.

The toad youkai almost fainted. But... He had grown quite fond of the human girl over the years. The smelly, stupid youkai that she was promised to surely wouldn't know how to take care of her. And did he really want to be left here with Sesshoumaru-sama in the absence of Rin's calming influence?

And what of the miko? He could scent his Lord all over her even with his stunted abilities. With Rin he would only be charged to look after her. Should his lord breed with her... Jaken pictured a clearing full of hanyou like Inuyasha. He shuddered just thinking about it. Rin would protect him from abuse. His lord was not so magnanimous.

"Yes, my Lord!" Jaken scampered onto the neck of Ah to direct the dragon to the eastern wolf den.

Comprehending from whence the toad's haste materialized, Sesshoumaru was tempted to send him on one last errand but did not want to hold up Rin's journey. Her frown caught his attention.

"My lord, you will be alone." Softly uttered, her sadness beat at him.

From out of the depths of her heart, Kagome found herself saying, "Don't worry, Rin-chan. I'm going to keep him company. And you'll come back to visit, right?" Having gleaned that this was a permanent good-bye, that Rin had only been waiting on permission from Sesshoumaru to go to her love, Kagome didn't want the young woman to stall out of compassion for her guardian. Regardless of his treatment of her, Sesshoumaru obviously cared a great deal for Rin. Releasing her had to be hard. Rin's pity would be even more unbearable for the proud youkai.

Rin nodded. She wasn't sure, but there was something between her Sesshoumaru-sama and the miko. Maybe he would be as blessed as she in time. That hope was enough to grant her the freedom to leave without regret. "Good-bye!" she yelled out after Sesshoumaru tapped Ah-Un to get the dragon youkai to take to the sky.

Lifting one hand, Sesshoumaru bid his former ward, retainer, and mount farewell. His chest felt oddly heavy when they left his sight. Alone with only the woman that yet feared him for company, the Taiyoukai's fist tightened on the kimono in his grasp.

In the next heartbeat he turned away from the sky to face the glowing embers of the fire. The scents still hung about them in a heavy cloud of pain and shame. "It is time to bathe."

Kagome tightened her grip on the fur. "If you'll tell me where I can do it, Ill be back shortly."

"You will not. It is dangerous for a woman alone."

Shaking with the implication of what he intended, she shrieked in fear and anger, "No! I won't!" Visions of what had happened the last time she had been bare and vulnerable before him shook her to the core. All vestiges of compassion for the inuyoukai fled in the wake of her terror and she took off in a dead run.

Surprised by her vehemence though he decided he should have known better, Sesshoumaru caught her within seconds. "Cease your histrionics."

Laughing so hard she cried tears of misery, Kagome recalled the last time he had ordered her to calm down. It hadn't worked then and it was even less successful this time around. She couldn't stop her limbs from shaking and her heart wouldn't stop thumping within her narrow ribs. Ashamed of her cowardice, disgusted by the tendrils of saliva and mucous that clung to her lips and nose when great, body-wracking sobs caused her to shudder and heave, Kagome fell apart. "Why can't you just let me go? If you want to prove that I'm nothing, that you can control me, you've done it!"

Sesshoumaru pulled back to crouch on the balls of his feet. She couldn't know that what he sought was not her humiliation. Or to dominate her. He wanted... to make it right. For her and for him.

What was he doing then? he was forced to ask himself when she curled up into a tight ball, guarding herself from him in the only way she could. And yet she still did not attack. It would be useless, but even in her fear she did not turn her power against him.

Glancing at the kimono still clutched in his hand, Sesshoumaru didn't see it but the one who had put it there. What would Rin think of him, of what he had done and was still doing to this woman? He had found the strength to let go of his ward, releasing her to find her happiness with the one she wanted.

Why was it so hard, then, to contemplate the same with this woman?

The answer came all too swiftly. He wanted and therefore he had set about gaining it in anyway he could. He could have sent Rin with her mate to retrieve the fruit. Rather than admit the full strength of his own weak fear of being out of control during his rut, his distaste for the bitches that he should have lusted for as all youkai did, he had used the opportunity to claim and warp the miko's promise without losing face.

He had, deep within his animal heart, wanted to see what it was about a human that had prompted his father to sample their bodies even as he denied it to himself. Now he was further harming the one he had already erred against in the guise of serving the greater good for his benefit. Had he really sunken so low, fallen so far from the ideal of honor that he couldn't even separate it from his ego?

Sesshoumaru stopped fighting himself. It was moot. All the effort in the world to show the miko that he was not the monster she thought he was would prove futile. He was a monster. A selfish beast beyond redemption.

The lifetime of memories that had been shown him, sharing with him who Kagome was, flowed through his mind once more. She was not meant to cower. She did not deserve to fear for her safety every waking moment. She needed so much more than his fumbling apologies could ever offer.

Gathering her into his arms, he ignored the weak sobs that were stifled against the coldness of his armor. And when he set down just outside Inuyasha's forest and heard the approach of his hanyou half-brother, he ignored the relieved shout she sent out to the other male to gently set her down on the ground.

"This Sesshoumaru is no threat to you or yours."

And then he was gone, the resolve in his youkai heart to never burden her with his presence hardening into an irrevocable vow. He could live with dishonor and self-loathing. Her fear... He could not stand it another moment.

-----

Unable to sleep, Kagome turned over on the pallet. It had been a year ago today that she had been approached by Sesshoumaru about helping Rin. Her 26th birthday party had been subdued but happy.

She still had nightmares about the time in the stone room. Recently, however, they were followed by visions of haunted golden eyes and a mournful howl that blocked out everything but the melancholy sound.

Something, there was simply something there that she had missed. Unable to think beyond her own fear, she hadn't recognized it. Still couldn't understand his actions following the end of his rut and preceding her release.

What had changed? she mused. Insight slammed into her and Kagome sat up on a gasp. "Inuyasha!"

The hanyou came barging into the hut within moments. "Wah?" he asked, twirling around on his feet with Tetsusaiga held at the ready.

Kagome swiped away the strands of hair had flown into her eyes at his entrance. "Why didn't you tell me? Didn't you know?"

Confused, the hanyou blinked then scowled. "The hell? What are you goin' on about?"

Pushing back the blanket, Kagome took her feet. Hands on hips, she scowled right back at him. "Sesshoumaru gave it to me, didn't he? The peach."

"So?" Inuyasha countered. Defensive, now that he knew what she was talking about, he wanted nothing more than to leave. Kikyo's entrance right behind him halted that idea.

"What's going on?" Kikyo asked.

Lost in her own thoughts, Kagome mumbled, "I hadn't even considered how he had healed me. For all I knew, he had some sort of youkai magic. It all makes sense, in a weird way. Why hadn't I asked about this sooner though? I saw them. I saw her leave, and he hadn't given it to her. Had sent her to the mountain, herself. So why didn't I realize it sooner?"

In the mysterious way that close friends had, Kikyo picked up her ramblings and understood the true question in Kagome's heart. "Because you wanted to hate him." She shrugged. "It's easier to hate someone when they have no redeeming qualities, when you dwell on their transgressions rather than look at their whole character."

At Kagome's startled look, Kikyo gave a pained smile. "It was the same with me. While I was a golem, I knew that it was wrong to hate Inuyasha. I allowed my pain to guide my heart. Only when I was able to let my pain go could I see clearly."

Sinking onto the pallet when the strength in her legs failed her, Kagome whispered, "He hurt me. He knew it, he had to have known it. But something changed. It was him, wasn't it? He... He tried to make it right, but then what about afterward? Threatening you and then forcing me to follow him?"

Inuyasha snorted. "I ain't defending the guy, but it's Sesshoumaru. He ain't got no idea how to be a normal person."

Kikyo rolled her eyes. "I think what Inuyasha meant was that, perhaps, just perhaps, Sesshoumaru had wanted to apologize but didn't know how to go about it. In placing you under his protection he might have been asking for your forgiveness." She smiled. "He just didn't understand that you cannot force it."

Left speechless by the truth that resounded with Kikyo's words, Kagome plucked at the edge of the blanket. After precious minutes had passed, she asked, "Am I immortal?" Had he healed her only? She didn't remember eating anything, but there had been a cloying sweetness in her throat upon waking.

Inuyasha shrugged. "You don't smell human. If that means you're immortal, I guess so."

Kagome nodded at the pronouncement. Why he had made her immortal, and not simply healed her, she would have to ask the inuyoukai. Inuyasha certainly wouldn't know. "Can you take me to him?"

"Fuck no!" Inuyasha shouted. "Are you stupid?" Two sets of glaring eyes landed on him. Inuyasha's ears laid back, but he crossed his arms over his chest in mutiny. "I still don't trust him, and you ain't going!"

Kikyo turned to the fuming woman. "I'll go with you. Between us, we should be able to find him."

Inuyasha growled, "Hell no! I refuse!"

Kikyo smiled sweetly up at her mate though her eyes were hard as steel. "You have two choices. Take Kagome or I take Kagome."

He sputtered. When her hands dropped onto her hips he gave up. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you!"

Kagome jumped to his side and hugged her hanyou friend. "Thank you!"

He sighed and gave up the bluster. "Why, Kagome? I don't get it."

Her smile faded away to be replaced by a thoughtful frown. "I'm not entirely sure. There is something I need to ask him, but, really, I just need to see him again. To finally put the whole thing to rest." And, if he truly wanted her forgiveness, she would give it to him.

He had been careless with her trust, but he was not a bad youkai. He was selfish, arrogant, and so much more. But for those that had earned it from him, he had been protective. Caring. He had a heart, and if it was troubled over her then she would not see him continue to suffer. She no longer held the desire to hate him for his initial apathy and the pain he would cause her.

-----

It had taken a lot to convince Inuyasha to leave her on the border of Sesshoumaru's lands when the hanyou detected the Taiyoukai was nearby. The impression of Kikyo wringing his neck when Kagome told her how difficult he had been had managed to send him back to the village.

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome called out once the hanyou was gone from ear shot.

She waited and waited, but no one came. "Sesshoumaru, I'm not leaving until you show up and talk to me!" Still he didn't come. Inuyasha had said he was close, so she knew he had heard her.

A balding boar youkai suddenly stepped out of the brush. Paunch hanging over his leather loin cloth, the burnt red skin was creased with fat rolls. Yellow eyes widened with appreciation as they slid over her curvaceous form outlined in the miko outfit. "Well, well, what have we here?" He grinned lecherously.

Not impressed, Kagome huffed. "I'm not in the mood for games. I'm looking for someone and you're not him. Go away." Her fingers caressed the wood of her bow, prepared to notch an arrow in her defense.

He lost his smile. "Stupid human, I'll teach you to get lippy with me!"

Before he could step forward, a green flash of light whipped across his midsection, neatly severing torso from hips. Kagome grimaced at the display of guts and gore. Then, recalling the only person in possession of such a youki weapon, Kagome eagerly searched the surrounding woods for a sign of the Taiyoukai.

Obliging her quest, Sesshoumaru stepped into view. Silent, he waited for her to reveal why she had decided to come to his territory. Seeking him, no less. He had intended to avoid her, holding to his vow, but when he detected the hanyou leaving her to her own auspices in the midst of the wilds, he had been forced to stay. He couldn't see her harmed.

Confronted with the male she had only dreamed about for the past year, Kagome took a deep breath. Hesitation warred with the need to step forward, so she stayed where she was and carefully scrutinized him.

It wasn't surprising to see him look exactly the same. If he was bothered by his conscience there were no physical indications of it. If Rin's absence from his daily life hurt, she wouldn't know it by looking at him. But... She cocked her head to the side.

It wasn't in what you could see with Sesshoumaru. She'd learned that a long time ago. It was in what he didn't say or do. He hadn't left. He hadn't dismissed or insulted her. He was simply waiting. Waiting for her to tell him why she came, giving her the power to control their interaction.

There was so much she wanted to ask. To know. But he was terrible with words. She'd seen that with Rin and with herself. Mind whirling, she sought a solution to her dilemma. The sight of the moon overhead gave her just the one she needed.

"I always keep my promises."

Sesshoumaru didn't comprehend the meaning behind the words at first. When her intention became clear in his mind, he shook his head. "Your obligation to this Sesshoumaru is fulfilled."

He should have known that her honor would send her to him. She would insist on keeping her word.

"I'm afraid that isn't good enough. You're stuck with me for a moon cycle whether you like it or not," Kagome insisted, pressing her luck. If he meant it, if he truly felt something other than apathy for her, he wouldn't punish her for refusing his dismissal.

"Why are you here, Miko?" he asked rather than address her ludicrous statement. She no longer smelled overpoweringly of fear. There was a hint of hesitation, but she had let go of her terror of him. So why seek him out? For what purpose could she desire to keep company with him? He had long ago accepted that she would not grant him absolution.

"Why did you do more than heal me? Why am I immortal, Sesshoumaru?"

Either unwilling or unable to answer, his lips thinned.

"I know you won't hurt me again, so don't try to threaten me into leaving. I won't go anywhere until you tell me."

The feeling of being hunted crossed his heart. He didn't like it but was powerless to strike down the one responsible for it. "Do what you will."

Kagome nodded to herself. "Of that, Sesshoumaru, you can be certain."

-----

"Are you going to come in?" Kagome asked the Taiyoukai who stood next to the hot spring. She had been with him for three weeks now. Given his taciturn nature, she hadn't learned much about what he thought. She had, however, learned a lot more about his habits.

The male loved to be clean. He bathed by the light of the moon whenever possible. He didn't have a disgust of human food - even going to far as to sample some that she had brought in her pack - but detested poorly prepared fare. Most of the time he ate raw meat, though she didn't know if it was because it was what he liked or if the bother of spitting and cooking the meat wasn't worth it to him.

There had been a few times during their rambling journey that stray youkai would insult him. They were killed or maimed if they pressed him. Human soldiers were treated no differently. Kagome stayed out of the fights. If someone insulted him, attacked him, he had every right to retaliate in self-defense.

There were moments after he had slain a human bandit or other scum that had threatened him, or sometimes her, that he would look back to her, an inscrutable light in his eyes. She had finally figured out that he was judging her reaction. Questioned if killing those of her species would finally force her to leave his side.

It didn't. He was not a mindless killer. He resorted to death as a final blow, potentially saving some poor woman from rape or another village from ravishment at the hands of corrupt humans and youkai alike. Kagome wondered if that was why Rin was never brought around when Sesshoumaru fought. Why she was always left with Jaken when the Taiyoukai knew she would be confronted with death.

Had he feared the girl leaving his side? But then, Kagome mused, did that mean he wanted her to leave? Was he trying to turn her against him?

Incensed by the notion that he thought she was so narrow-minded, Kagome had stomped up to the Taiyoukai shortly after he dealt with yet another bandit. "I'm not going anywhere!"

He never replied, but the next time a soldier had insulted her, threatened to take her, and Sesshoumaru handled it in his usual blunt manner of bloody finality, he didn't look back to see if she still followed. That had been just as well, since the smirk of victory she'd worn would have probably irritated the inuyoukai.

And now she stood facing off with him in an attempt to wield the final blow against his impenetrable walls. Having donned her bathing suit, she stood in the shallows of the hot spring.

"Come on, I know you want to get that blood out of your hair."

A fleeting grimace crossed his features and Kagome inwardly crowed in victory. She held up the packet of herbs. "I found some of the mint you like." She'd always wondered about the slight hint of mint that had lingered around him only to discover that he used it as a sort of cologne. She'd been surprised to find mounds of the leaves crushed after his baths, but after asking him about it, he'd stopped. With the scent's disappearance she'd reasoned it out.

His nose tilted upward, and Kagome sighed. "Come on, Sesshoumaru. It won't kill you to admit you like the smell. I like it too."

His lips opened slightly but no sound came out. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and regarded her with something akin to confusion. "Why are you still here with this Sesshoumaru?"

He had expected her to leave much sooner. He wasn't holding her here. He was doing nothing except allowing her to share his space. Yet she continued following after him despite his many efforts to show the varied differences that stood between them.

He was a killer. She was not. He was a predator, she preferred noodles and rice. His idea of a good day was one in which he had managed to battle a fierce opponent and come out on top of a bloodied heap. She enjoyed sunshine and butterflies. Why did she stay?

And why did he care so much that she didn't go?

Kagome's hand lowered and her head dropped. Long bangs shielded her eyes from the penetrating gold. "Do you want me to leave?"

Sesshoumaru discarded his clothing and walked into the water. Kagome smiled and handed him the mint.

-----

"Oh, man, you'd think they would learn after a while." Kagome stretched out on her back to gaze at the stars twinkling in the sky. A month had come and gone. Somewhere along the line she'd stopped caring what she learned and what remained a mystery. It was strange, but the one who had once been the source of such pain and fear had become important. Very important. She was happy just being at his side. In the quiet moments she wondered what she would do if forced to leave him to his eternal solitude. How she would cope with leaving half her heart behind.

She turned to catch sight of Sesshoumaru's stoic profile. "Is it always like that?"

Sesshoumaru brushed a strand of hair behind his ear before reclining against the tree next to her head. "They are a nuisance." A group of youkai mad on power had sought him out for the chance to steal his youki through his death.

They had been easily dealt with. It was the panther youkai who had fallen to a reiki arrow that he was curious about. "Your aid was unnecessary."

"I know." Kagome plucked a fat piece of grass from the ground and popped it between her lips to chew on.

Sesshoumaru promptly removed the grass and flicked it onto the ground. "Do not do it again." By attacking she made herself a threat rather than a bystander. Spectators could be ignored. Threats were targets.

Grinning mysteriously, Kagome jibed, "What happened to 'Do what you will?'"

"Do not do it again," he repeated.

She shrugged. "If you have it in hand I won't interfere again. If I think you need help, well..." She shrugged again. "My arrows are on your side now, at least," she joked weakly, referring the few times she'd shot at him.

Struck by that statement, Sesshoumaru didn't reply with a dismissive rebuttal about the usefulness of said arrows. She was... loyal... to him? He glanced at her serene expression from the corner of his eyes before settling even firmer against the tree to watch the night give way to the sun.

-----

"No."

"Miko-"

Kagome crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you start miko-ing me, Sesshoumaru! I'm not going anywhere."

Frustrated, he growled, "Kago-"

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "If you do this I'll never talk to you again. I'll leave. I promise."

Taken aback by the fierceness behind her words, Sesshoumaru stepped outside his own frustration to really look at the stubborn woman. Taking note of the tears that glittered within her sad blue gaze and the defensive way she held her arms about her middle, he asked, "Why?"

She chuckled harshly. "If you can't figure that out on your own you're even more clueless than Inuyasha ever was."

About to take umbrage to the allusion, something in her wavering voice gave him pause. She had followed him for one hundred years. In that length of time she had lost her only friends. The humans to age and the hanyou to the death of his mate. Shin, Inuyasha's son, yet lived, but he was a bratling after the hanyou's heart and had no patience for a human woman that followed his reluctant uncle.

For her to promise to leave him over this... Sad. She was so very sad. The emotion beat against his heart, filling his nostrils and tightening his chest in much the same fashion it had the day he'd let go of Rin. No, he realized, it was different. Deeper. This hurt... It was his own as well as hers.

And finally he understood. "This Sesshoumaru will not hurt you again."

Kagome scowled. "What do you think this will do to me!" She loved him! And after all this time together he would ask some brainless demoness to see him through his coming rut?

"There is no other choice."

She bit back a sob. "There is always a choice. The question is if it's worth it to you." Unable to look into his confusion, she turned away to leave. The clawed hand on her forearm forbade her exit.

"Explain."

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "No."

His fingers tightened and she gave him a wobbly smile. "Do you trust me, Sesshoumaru?"

He didn't answer and Kagome whirled around. His grip loosened to prevent his claws from scraping her skin, and she pulled out the dagger he had given her long ago as a birthday present. She held it up to the light, giving him ample opportunity to stop her before slowly moving it toward his neck. "This says you do," she said once the blade rested against his jugular.

That he allowed it negated the need to reply, so he remained silent.

She replaced the dagger in its sheath at her side. "Don't you think it's time you forgave yourself for what happened?"

Is that what held him back? he pondered. The inability to forgive himself for his transgressions against her?

Why love them... Because she is worthy.

She was worthy. She had proven time and again that she was loyal. Nothing he could do would sway her against him, nothing anyone could say - and there had been many insults and even more arguments from demons and humans forbidding their friendship - that would tear her away. That she was immortal ensured that she would not leave him even in death unless he proved a poor protector. Still, it was up to him to decide if he was unworthy of her. She would do it. She would leave. Even if he claimed it was for her own good. She knew him. And, through her, he knew himself.

It was not fear for her but his own weakness that would turn him to another. His fears would be the end of what was and the night-less dreams of what could be if he allowed his self-loathing to continue.

Unless he took what she offered. Allowed her to make her own decision and trust in her forgiveness should he prove weak in the power of his demonic instincts once more.

Kagome waited with bated breath for the outcome of the internal debate going on inside Sesshoumaru's heart. So much rode on him, on her ability to show him without words that she had forgiven him. That she did trust him, and that his faith in her was not misplaced.

"It will be done."

When Sesshoumaru finally spoke, Kagome was afraid to let hope bloom in her chest at his oblique statement. "What will be done?"

He sighed, the expression one of many he had gathered through his friendship with the miko. "She will not be sent for."

"And?" Kagome held her breath.

Rather than reply, Sesshoumaru lightly brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. "Is this what you want, Kagome?"

She captured the hand and brought it to her mouth, dropping a small kiss on the calloused knuckles. Glowing blue eyes met and held his shuttered gaze.

-----

Oh, Kami, how was she supposed to do this? Kagome wondered in a rush of panic. Sesshoumaru had vowed that she would be the one to help him through his rut and, through this, she knew that nothing would ever be the same again between them. The promise in his trust...

She sighed, the panic easing slightly when the warmth that thoughts of him inspired within her soothed the anxiety. She could do this. She would.

She opened the door to the room with the key he had given to her. Once inside, she turned the key in the lock and heard the click of the tumblers settling in place, closing the outside world out of the small room.

When Sesshoumaru had decided to trust in her ability to see to him, he had commissioned this room to be built inside the small mountain. She had only assumed he meant to ensure there was privacy. When she turned around and caught sight of him, she was given a bad start and a huge reality check.

Nude, his body glistened with sweat in the dim light of the torch. Crimson slits regarded her with hungry anticipation. He tried to reach for her but was halted by the chains that anchored him, rendering him immobile.

Kagome inched closer. "Sesshoumaru?" A scan of the heavy links holding him captive with her miko sight revealed that his own youki and blood had gone into their crafting. He would be bound by them regardless of his great strength.

Her heart thumped painfully within her chest. He'd thought of everything he could do to protect her from himself. Stretched out as if he were on some sort of torture rack, he could neither scratch nor bite her. Provided she stayed away from his claws and fangs, of course.

Entirely comfortable in her own skin after decades of bathing with him wearing nothing but her own flesh, she methodically peeled off the layers of clothing she'd worn to protect herself from the harsh winter weather.

They had never been intimate; there had always been something between them that forbade a step into anything other than friendship. A lingering distaste of humanity, perhaps, she had mused on many a night while she feigned sleep under his watchful gaze. Or maybe it was something so simple as a fear of tainting their companionship, losing something precious in the process.

His rut had changed that, forced them out of the companionable inertia their relationship had fallen into. Confronted with the possibility of him with another, even devoid of emotion or engaged sensibilities, she found it unbearable to contemplate. And he, gifted with the knowledge of the future to come, had finally been able to release the past in order to embrace the present.

A feral growl brought her out of the rambling thoughts. Nervousness licked at her insides, but Kagome moved forward through it until she stood just between the splayed feet of her Taiyoukai.

Hers...

The chains clanked in protest when he strained against them in the struggle to reach her. She smiled lovingly. This time he was no less lost to rationality but it would play out differently. He had seen to it.

Kneeling, her soft hands traced the veins on the top of his feet before moving upward to knead the muscular calves with reverent care. Cords of muscle bunched beneath her fingers and the volume of his growls grew exponentially louder. Her palms coasted over his knees, dipping forward into the indentation behind his knee caps to lightly tickle the sensitive skin there before moving on.

Thigh muscles tensed and shivered beneath her exploration before Kagome leaned forward to lay soft kisses on the roughened skin of his inner thighs. His skin wasn't soft, different than a human's in that it was designed by nature to withstand claw and tooth. Gently laving the flesh with her tongue, she memorized the taste of him, filing away the texture of his skin to be savored later.

Her pulse beat in her ears now, and a delicious warmth built up in her stomach. Tendrils of heat snaked down her body, igniting her dormant sensuality.

Knowing that it would be best to continue her explorations before centering her attentions on the shaft that jutted so demandingly from the nest of silvered fur, she leaned forward to caress his stomach, probing the muscles there with delicate touches.

With each stroke of her fingers, Sesshoumaru grew still. Strangely quiet. Kagome glanced up to catch sight of his closed eyes and relaxed expression. His need still burned hotly against her chest, cradled between her breasts, but he had calmed.

"Sesshoumaru?" she whispered. His eyes slid open. The feral, crimson gaze that met hers was unblinking but somehow less... demanding than before. She smiled brightly up at him before dropping her head to pepper kisses across his chest. Lightly nipping at his male nipples when he snarled in the back of his throat, Kagome laved the abused flesh in apology.

When he began to toss his head back and forth, issuing pleading whines that almost brought tears to her eyes, she decided to end his pain.

Sliding down his body until her breath ghosted across the head of his arousal, Kagome shifted into a more comfortable position. He watched her with an unblinking gaze. The warmth in her stomach transformed into a colony of butterflies, their delicate wings brushing her senses and lifting her inhibitions with colorful bursts of desire.

A tentative flick of her tongue revealed the clean taste of him was no less deliciously male here than anywhere else. Following her instincts, she gently stroked his length with the tip of her tongue, mapping the veins and creases. His hips thrust upward with every touch. Propped against his thighs, cradled between the spread limbs, Kagome managed to keep from being dislodged.

When his arousal swelled painfully taut her mouth finally slid over the head. She took in as much as she could and covered the rest with fisted hands. His masculine scent surrounded her, making a mockery of her memories in the stone hut. This wasn't disgusting. It was heady, freeing, and it felt so good.

It was Sesshoumaru. That was all she needed.

Sesshoumaru howled, thrashing with the need to break free when she began a cycle of hungry suckling accompanied by squeezing of the fingers that circled his heavy girth. She moaned around his swollen flesh, thighs slick with sweat rubbing against one another in a useless attempt to assuage that ache that blossomed in her core the deeper she fell into her own desires.

Almost gagging when a particularly violent thrust sent him too far back in her throat, Kagome pulled back. His complacency under her touch was gone. In its place a wild, fiercely male creature had taken hold.

Heavy lidded eyes met his narrow gaze. Shuddering with the movement, she undulated, the blood-swollen tips of her nipples brushing against his hairless calves only to furl painfully tight. Kissing her way up his body once more, worshipping him with lips and tongue, Kagome stopped when his arousal rubbed against where it hurt most. Where her body ached, clenching in silent, painful cries for fulfillment.

A steady stream of snarls and growls thrummed in Sesshoumaru's chest, demanding and questioning all at one. Unsure, Kagome slid back and forth, coating his length with the moisture that gathered between her thighs.

When he thrust upward, catching her in a magnificently sensitive place at just the right angle, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Without further thought she sank down on her knees, taking him into her body in one smooth movement.

The initial shock of his entrance dispelled the fog of lust that had descended upon her. He was big, too much so for such a quick and careless joining to be done comfortably. The pinch of her protesting muscles saw a hiss whistle over her lips. When she instinctively surged upward to lessen the pain, the hard length sliding within her sent a staggering shaft of pleasure rushing up her spine and down her chest, leaving behind a throbbing urge to feel it again.

Falling forward, hair sliding over her shoulder to pool on his chest next to her small hands that levered her up from his bound position, Kagome began to move upon him. Slowly at first, unsure and clumsy, she soon picked up a rhythm that set fireworks off in her head and fire to course through her veins.

Moist, sucking sounds filled her ears as the evidence of her pleasure further slicked the shaft upon which she impaled herself over and over, almost mindless in her pursuit of fulfillment. Beneath her, Sesshoumaru's muscles bunched and flowed.

His aura crackled against her skin painlessly. Lips parted on growls interspersed with panting groans, he watched her take her pleasure. Jutting his hips upward with every downward slide of her slick heat over his swollen length, he urged her to hurry, to sink down that much harder.

He was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Panting, lost to the promise of ecstasy and the singing of her blood, she went over the edge. Stepped off the face of the cliff and drifted into the blissful unknown, Sesshoumaru soon to follow.

Chest heaving, thighs aching from the unaccustomed strain, Kagome waited until Sesshoumaru's eyes had slid shut before laying her head on his chest. The powerful thump of his heart soothed her into a dreamlike state.

She needed a nap. Just a brief respite. Soon he would be awake, wanting more, needing more.

She winced a little as her muscles protested what her body remembered as a long, prolonged mating. The things she did for love.

-----

"Release this Sesshoumaru."

Kagome pushed aside the snarls of her hair to glare at him from bleary eyes. She'd just been through five days of hell and he had the gall to order her around? She snorted, dropped her head down, nuzzled into his chest and went back to sleep.

Staring upon the dark head resting peacefully upon his chest, Sesshoumaru frowned. The scent of her blood was upon the air, and he... He needed to ensure that she was not injured beyond repair. He had assumed that were he incapacitated, she would be safe. It was a light scent, almost non-existent, but he didn't like it.

"You were injured." More of an accusation than a question, he was forced to wait until she lifted her head only to glare at him again.

Kagome groaned when muscles threatened to revolt even that miniscule movement. "Where's the key?" The sooner she could give him what he wanted the sooner she could go to sleep.

He gestured to the pile where the water pot and latrine had been stored. She dragged herself away from the comfort of his body heat, retrieved the key that she only now recalled seeing days earlier - blaming her sleep deprived mind for that oversight - and unlocked Sesshoumaru's left arm. "Now leave me alone. Sleeee-" Drawing out, her last word ended in a snore.

Once freed, Sesshoumaru set the room to rights before destroying the chains. It wouldn't do to have something of that nature around for an enemy to gain hold of. Once he was assured they were nothing more than metal, he dressed and, wrapping the tired and sore miko in the softest blanket available, left the room.

-----

Hours later, he sat within the warmth of a hot spring he'd found years ago while traveling with the miko to visit Rin. His former ward had been happily ensconced in the wolf den, pregnant and immortal.

Kagome had been the only reason he hadn't left immediately. Some part of him had resented the wolf, that he had been able to put that smile on Rin's face, had lit her soul with a love that he hadn't been able to understand.

He had lost his ward as he must to another. His caring for her had not extended into what she had needed. She had outgrown what he had been able to offer. Kagome... She had grown with him.

Sesshoumaru glanced at the miko. She had recovered after a brief nap. Still tired, she had decided to take a bath now rather than wait. He had been ambivalent. A large portion of him had wanted to refuse her if only to keep his scent so strongly upon her just a while longer.

Feeling his eyes on her, Kagome sighed for the hundredth time. "I'm fine, Sesshoumaru. Just a little sore and tired." The Taiyoukai hadn't taken his eyes off of her. It was almost as if he feared she would disappear or, worse yet, was hiding some grievous injury from him. On that thought, still sleep-muddled, Kagome snapped, "If you don't believe me, then look for yourself!"

One brow rose beyond his hairline, but she refused to back down. It wasn't like he hadn't seen what she had to offer, and she'd done a lot more than look at that gorgeous body of his.

The water rippled around his waist when he cut through the water to reach her side. Tipping her head back with one clawed finger under her chin, he leaned down to lightly press his nose into the crook of her neck. It must have been a ticklish spot because she giggled, goosebumps rising on her flesh.

Complacent under his regard, she didn't protest his rather thorough head-to-toe inspection. "Do you believe me now?" she asked with a smile.

He stepped to the side to sit next to her. She handed him the sachet of mint she had gathered for him days ago. "Hn."

Biting her lip, Kagome waited until he had finished with his ablutions before contemplating her next move. Had anything changed? Were they to fall back into the old camaraderie, just two people who had little but genuine respect and trust in common?

Kami, she hoped not. Her heart couldn't take it.

"You, miko, think too much." Sesshoumaru pulled her onto his lap. She always bit her lip when she was confused. Given their recent foray into the forbidden, there were very few things that could cause her confusion.

Unwilling to burden him with her heart's desire, feeling it wouldn't be fair to ask so much of him when he had already unbent so far to reach her half way, Kagome sighed into his neck. Maybe she did think too much. He was here, now, and it was more than she had ever dared to dream for.

Settling her against his chest, Sesshoumaru contemplated their future.

------

"Do you really think I should do this?" Kagome tossed a strand of dark hair over her shoulder in a nervous habit she'd pick up from Sesshoumaru. Seated beside him on their couch, she stared at the picture that the private investigators he'd hired without her knowledge had taken.

Souta, her mother and her grandfather smiled at each other across the small tea shop table.

Her companion shrugged. "It is of no consequence to this Sesshoumaru. Do what you will."

She groaned. "You'd think that you could grow an opinion over the span of 500 years, Sesshoumaru."

The hand on her knee tightened warningly. She batted it away carelessly. "Don't growl at me either. You heard what the doctor said. It's bad for your tonsils."

Stiffening at the mention of that foul charlatan, Sesshoumaru snorted his opinion on the 'doctor's' verdict.

"Oh, don't be that way." She snuggled up to him after dropping the picture onto the side table. She had another three months before the matter of her family could be handled. Right now, she had a cranky Taiyoukai to soothe.

He smelled so good. She nuzzled into his neck, inhaling deeply of his scent, grateful that she could do so.

Strong enough to heal from almost any wound, the pollutants of modern Japan had been too much for Sesshoumaru. After he had developed a sinus infection followed by another one - an unheard of occasion for the male - the youkai doctor had suggested a trip abroad to a sunny beach in Hawaii or another country that had yet to develop the overcast smog that refused to let up.

Amused that Sesshoumaru was such a poor patient but concerned for his health, Kagome had prevailed upon his better sense to leave Japan. Settled on Maui, now, he breathed that much better. He detested the hot and humid weather, but that he could breath deep without an annoying block in his nose made it tolerable. Kagome anticipated a permanent move to the island. That was okay, though. As long as he was happy, she would be too.

Leaving the back of the couch, his arm dropped around her shoulders. "When will Rin arrive?"

Thinking back to the conversation she'd had with the other woman a few hours ago, Kagome replied, "She and Kouga will fly in tomorrow morning. Their kids will be here in a week."

He grunted a noncommittal reply. Kagome laughed softly. "Are you ever going to give him a chance? He made up for his mistakes many times over, and Rin has him completely wrapped around her thumb."

"The ookami killed her."

Kagome rolled her eyes. She'd never throw what he had once done to her in his face, but she was tempted sometimes, just to show that people changed. He didn't believe in the golden rule. It was his way or the highway. She affected a pout instead. "Be nice, then. For me?" She batted her eyelashes and suggestively traced the neckline of his outrageously colored Hawaiian shirt with a single finger.

"You smell like an entire den of bitches in heat."

She gasped, offended. "Well, fine, you, you..." Sputtering, she tried to scramble to her feet but was held in place by the heavy arm across her shoulders. "Let me go you stu-"

Cut off by a pair of firm, very warm lips, Kagome sank into the heat of his mouth. When he pulled back to smirk arrogantly down at her, she huffed and crossed her arms. "You know I hate it when you act as if you don't like how I smell."

The infamous brow rose to the occasion once more. "Did this Sesshoumaru mention anything of the sort?"

"You said I smelled like a den of, well, you know what you said! What am I supposed to take from that? If you wanted to compliment me, you could have chosen roses, or lilacs. I've always been rather partial to gardenias, too."

"Useless things, flowers. This," his hand dropped unceremoniously to cup her through the thin silk of her dress, "is so much more."

Swallowing the moan that bubbled up when his fingers began to rub her through the dress, Kagome shifted to open her legs further. "I hope you plan on following through this time, Sesshoumaru, because Kami help you if you stop again."

There had been so many times in recent weeks when he'd teased her only to pull back at the last minute for no reason at all. She was primed and ready to blow, either into orgasmic bliss or rapturous anger for his teasing, she didn't know and didn't care.

Gifting the woman with a small smile, Sesshoumaru pulled her under him on the large couch. He licked her neck slowly before dropping lower. Taking his time to trace her pronounced collar bone, he placed one last kiss on the tip of her nose before standing up. Before she knew what he was about, the Taiyoukai had left the room.

Panting, senses hyperaware, Kagome recovered swiftly when the cool air of the air conditioning crossed her over heated body. "Sesshoumaru!" Leaping to her feet, Kagome took off after the frustrating male.

This time she wasn't going to whimper, and moan, and wonder why he hadn't followed through. She was either going to beat some answers out of him or take her pleasure whether he liked it or not! Preferably both!

Sesshoumaru stepped outside on the terra cotta lanai. Amid by lush ferns and tropical plants, the lagoon surrounded by pink sand was a private oasis he intended on indulging in soon enough. Now it was a matter of inciting his delectable lover into joining him in the open without fear of being seen.

Hearing the curses of his prudish female precede her, he discarded the cumbersome slacks and shirt to sink onto the prepared towel that laid on the warm sand.

When Kagome skidded into view, her jaw dropped in surprise. Propped up on his elbows, stretched out on his back and his full glory straining rather proudly in the warm air, Sesshoumaru tossed his hair over his shoulder. She didn't need to be told twice.

A flick of a button and the slide of the zipper, and the silk slid down her body to pool on the ground in a puddle of red. Still irritated with his lousy timing the past few weeks, she stalked over to him and without preamble dropped to straddle him. "I should get up and walk away."

Cupping her lush buttocks in each hand, he tilted his neck to allow her access to nip and lick the tender skin there. "Hn..."

Kagome latched onto the proffered area, sucking hard and then letting go to admire the dark bruise before it faded away. "I mean, how would you like it if I got you all-" she stopped to slide down his body, laying open mouth kisses all along the way until she reached his straining arousal, "hot and bothered only to leave you?"

Jumping when her words brushed across the tip with every movement of her lips, Sesshoumaru's head dropped on the towel. He didn't bother replying this time.

The plump lips that closed over his aching shaft were answer enough. Twirling, suckling, stroking him with teeth, tongue, and hands, she had him ready to release within minutes, having honed her particularly mind-blowing skill to perfection over the years. Reluctantly pulling her away with a hand tangled in her black tresses, Sesshoumaru effortlessly positioned her right where he wanted her.

Kagome shrieked when his tongue was buried between her folds, the hands that were anchored around her hips keeping her there, kneeling over his open mouth, while she watched him arch his hips in time to every thrust of his dexterous tongue. Denied the opportunity to do anything more than watch by virtue of the fact that her hands were trapped between his palms and her hips, she licked her lips and shuddered with every slide of his tongue against her most sensitive place.

Soon it grew to an almost painful intensity and she cried out his name. Begged him to fill her. Pleaded with him to take her, to leap over the abyss with her.

Unable to deny her, unwilling to prolong the torture for either of them regardless of how much greater the release would be, Sesshoumaru rolled her beneath him. She froze when he mounted her.

"Trust me," he whispered into her ear, gently sucking on the lobe. He had never mounted her, preferring to be face to face after the debacle of his cruelty to her so long ago. Now... He needed it, needed to assuage this quirk of his nature in the warmth of her body.

Kagome relaxed, accepted his familiar weight against her back. "I do."

When he slid home she moaned at the sensation. Heightened by the way she was opened to him in this position, her bundle of nerves was caressed with the passage of his arousal.

She went wild beneath him, bucking and clawing at his arms. "Sesshoumaru!"

Eyes tinted red with the lusty moan of his life partner, driven to a half-feral state by the scent of his blood upon the wind where she had managed to scratch him with her dull nails, Sesshoumaru withdrew only to thrust in that much harder. Careful of her human body's fragility, he stroked in and out as fast and as hard as he dared. Every instinct within his being was ignited; the delectable rump cushioned every thrust.

Before she knew it, Kagome had crossed over the edge. Limbs shaking, she wasn't allowed respite but was brought higher and higher, soaring as close to the sun as she had ever dared, held safe within his embrace. And when next she knew rapture, he was right there with her.

Shuddering, shaking with every pulse of his seed that left his body to be housed within hers, Sesshoumaru groaned into the back of her neck.

He dropped to the side and pulled her with him into the soothing heat of the water. Once she was nestled against his side, they watched the sun set slowly over the calm waters of the ocean.

Half an hour later, she yawned. Kagome tilted her head up to study him in the light of the newly-revealed moon. "What was that about?" she inquired in a soft voice. "Not that I didn't enjoy it, but... Before hand, everything?"

Sesshoumaru dragged his fingers through her hair to remove the tangles. How to answer without seeming to condemn her? He sighed. The truth would be the only answer. "You wish for a pup."

"A pup?" She cocked her head to the side to consider him from the new angle as if it would gain her a insight into how his mind worked. "And it wasn't just me that wanted one."

She had seen the covert glances he'd given Rin's stomach when she visited, pregnant yet again while Kouga looked on, prideful boasts echoing around them. Then again, those prideful boasts over how potent wolf seed was could have a lot to do with why Sesshoumaru had such great dislike for the ookami.

He shrugged. "We have not conceived during our numerous copulations. It stood to reason that, perhaps, it was a biological reaction and not a lack of trying on our part."

Her hands dropped to her stomach. "So you think... Maybe... Is that why you were trying to..."

"Human heats are weak. Perhaps this Sesshoumaru needed a bit more incentive to procreate." He waited in silence for her to blow up or take offense to his blunt speaking, even if it was what he viewed as the truth. They were of a different species, and his instincts were ingrained rather deeply. Maybe mating in the way of his kind, with her as demanding and as frustrated as a bitch, would prove the solution to their childlessness.

"Huh."

He frowned. That was all?

Kagome sensed his perplexed state and she chuckled. "It makes sense." She rubbed her stomach. "So when will we know when we're pregnant?"

"We're?" For an intelligent woman, she uttered some truly foolish notions.

She snorted. "Trust me, dear, I am going to make sure you share every moment of it if I am pregnant." Especially given he'd not even bothered to tell her what he suspected. Really, as if she was that sensitive!

Granting her a sidelong glance, he contemplated the nuances of that promise before addressing her other question, "It can take weeks for your scent to change. I have seen that there are human tests that can detect pregnancy sooner."

"Hmmm..."

"Marry me."

Kagome blinked. "Excuse me?" Where did that come from?

Irritated that she had not jumped all over him in joy like he had anticipated, Sesshoumaru glowered at her. "You share my life and will be a mother to my pups. Marry me."

Eyes glittering with emotion, Kagome leaned back in the water. "I can share your life and have your pups without a ring on my finger. Thank you, though."

Shocked, he demanded, "You will marry me!"

Negligently running a finger over the top of the water as if there wasn't an incensed inuyoukai just inches away from tossing her over his shoulder and beating his chest, Kagome sighed. "I guess I could. If you really want me to."

Finally catching on to her game when he glimpsed the small grin peeking out at him, Sesshoumaru snorted. "Insolent woman. Why does this Sesshoumaru bother with you?"

Climbing into his lap, Kagome sighed in bliss when his arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. "Could be the same reason I haven't yet given up on you, you obstinate, close-mouthed, arrogant, horny dog," she answered between stealing kisses from her gorgeous, loving inuyoukai.

"Hn."

Peals of feminine laughter rang out over the beach. Flocks of sea gulls took to the skies when it was followed by an unearthly, lusty growl of conquest and the conquered.