AN: This is my first time writing for Sesshomaru, and I think it went pretty well. I don't know if y'all will feel like he's out of character, but I feel pretty good about this. It's an idea I've been sitting on for awhile, and I hope you like it!
Sesshomaru turned away from the elder priestess' hut after delivering Rin's latest gift, his body torn between the pull of two tides. Half of him wanted to leave the village as quickly as possible, and the other half craved giving in and sitting beside Rin, keeping her company. In a moment, he squashed the urge deep inside him as he'd learned to do long ago, and turned with determination to leave.
In the split second before he could leap away, he heard a soft voice call out behind him: "You should stay for dinner."
He stopped to look at the woman who spoke, his brother's woman, with an incredible sense of incredulity that didn't appear on his face. She too looked surprised, and he expected that she didn't actually expect him to respond. He narrowed his eyes and pulled his lips back in a near-snarl, "What did you say?" His sensitive ears heard her perfectly clearly, but he'd be damned if she roped him into spending time in the human village. He needed to leave it. Immediately.
However, this did not have the desired effect. Last time––the first time she'd spoken to him since her return, he'd given her a cold look and she'd left him alone. This time, he watched her take a breath and square her shoulders, declaring more firmly, "You should stay for dinner." Though her words were passive, he could tell by her tone that she was demanding his attendance. He stood frozen, unsure of what tactic would be the easiest to deter her.
She presumably took his silence and his stillness as attention, as she continued speaking, "She's not going to be little forever. She's human, Sesshomaru. Her life is going to go by in the blink of an eye for you. Don't let your arrogance get in the way of your life. Spend time with her before it's too late."
His arrogance? This woman Kagome certainly knew how to try his patience. Though, he'd never met anyone so confident in speaking to him, at least not anyone human. She bore into him with her eyes, and he detected within them a mature sternness that must have developed in the time since Naraku's defeat. Then, she'd been a brash child he'd tolerated, but now she spoke to him as though she considered them equal in stature. Foolish though she was for thinking so, he found himself considering her words.
"Well?" She asked, crossing her arms impatiently. "Should I expect you tonight, or should I not even bother?"
He scowled at her, not fond of her disrespectful attitude, but he was merely irritated, and not angry. These human children have stretched my capacity for this behavior, I suppose. "I don't eat human food," he said finally.
She laughed, her serious demeanor cracking immediately as she shook her head and resumed her stroll along the path, "Your loss. I'm an excellent cook."
He watched her walk past him at her leisurely pace toward Inuyasha, who looked just as confused as Sesshomaru felt. Kagome tugged on Inuyasha's arm, leaning up to kiss his cheek, and Sesshomaru heard her mumble something like "don't worry about it," as she pulled him along while Inuyasha gave him one final glower and descended into the forest alongside his mate.
When the sun fell behind the horizon, Sesshomaru found himself arriving outside the biggest house in the village, listening to the overlap of conversation within. Apparently, this was a large dinner party he'd been invited to. He felt like a complete fool for even arriving this close to a human social event, and he loathed the thought of walking through the door and sitting down amongst them, but even though he hated to admit it, that damn woman had gotten to him. Finally, with one quick motion, he tossed the bamboo mat aside and stepped into the room, causing all conversation to come to a halt.
"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin exclaimed happily.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Inuyasha growled.
Instead of answering them, he looked to the woman nestled between the two of them, without any clue of how to proceed. The others in the room all noticed this, and he felt their attention shift to her as well. She smiled and ladled out a bowl of stew, then held it out to him. "I knew it." The smile on her face was incredibly smug, so to avoid her, he dodged the bowl of stew and sat back against the wall behind Rin. Kagome made a point of standing up to shove the bowl into his hands, setting her hands on her hips. " You're having dinner with us, and that means eating with us."
Glaring up at her from his bowl of stew, he almost got up to correct her, but then he caught the dumb look of disbelief on Inuyasha's face, and his amusement overpowered his anger at Kagome. He settled back into the wall, and she nodded, resuming her seat and the conversation she'd been having with the slayer woman across from her as though nothing had happened. Eventually, the room acclimated to his presence and everyone started to relax.
Taking a quiet sip of his stew, Sesshomaru kept silent and mostly ignored the chatter in the room, just keeping an eye on Rin. After a few minutes, she turned to him and began to excitedly tell him stories of everything she was learning here in the human village, and how she wanted to become a master healer someday. She seemed comfortable and happy here in the village, and she'd even found something she wanted to do for the rest of her life, which set him at ease. He'd been worried when he left her here that she wouldn't be able to find her place. He supposed that if any village would accept the ward of a demon, it would be the village that accepted Inuyasha. This is what he'd wanted for her, and he was relieved to hear she wanted this for herself as well.
But she'd changed quite a bit since he'd spent legitimate time with her, and it was odd to watch her in her new life without him. She handled the children with an expert hand, keeping the twins sitting long enough to eat their food and keeping the infant from crawling into the burning hearth. Kagome had been correct; Rin was aging much quicker than he'd realized, and he felt the familiar knot of worry clench in his stomach. He didn't like the feeling, and he especially hated that he wanted her to need him. Now that in the near future she could stop needing his attendance entirely, it was much harder to ignore his feelings toward her.
Lost in his own thoughts and the surprising comfort of the warm room, Sesshomaru barely noticed as the children began to tire and everyone else started preparing to leave. He only looked up when Rin asked, "Are you staying the night, Lord Sesshomaru?"
He shook his head. "I'll be leaving."
She hid her disappointment well, something she'd never been capable of before, and wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug. To everyone's surprise, including hers judging by her sharp he returned it, realizing he'd never held her with both of his arms before. She quickly pulled away and bowed to him. "Goodnight, Lord Sesshomaru." She said her goodbyes to everyone else and left before he could stand. The knot in his stomach grew. She'd never left him of her own volition before. She'd always been eager to stay with him until he decided to leave, but this time she decided their parting would be on her terms. What else is changing?
Kagome glanced over at him and spoke to the slayer. "I'll take the dishes out to wash––no, Sango, you're exhausted. Put the kids to bed and get some rest, and I'll bring them back in the morning. Goodnight," she said to the family, waving at the half-asleep twins. Inuyasha stood as well, but to his dismay, Kagome waited for Sesshomaru to join them.
Sesshomaru didn't know why he hadn't left yet; perhaps he was recovering from the shock of Rin's actions. Uncomfortable, he strode past the two of them into the cool, dark night. He took cleansing breath of air, ready to leave the village, when he heard a clattering of dishes and a shout: "Sesshomaru! Wait! I want to talk to you!"
He sighed and turned to the human woman who had already caused him enough trouble for one day. "What could you and I possibly have to discuss?"
A disgruntled Inuyasha followed her out the door, arms full of precariously stacked dishes. "Yeah, Kagome, what gives? You've been actin' weird today."
She took the sides back from him. "I just want to talk." She glanced from him to Sesshomaru, as if unsure how to go about getting the conversation she wanted. "Please, just while I wash the dishes?" She hesitated a moment before continuing, "And I'll never call you "big brother" again. But if you leave now, I promise you that I will use that, and I'll be loud about it until you talk to me." She squared herself up challengingly, meeting his narrowed gaze.
"Kagome! Are you stupid? He'll just ki––"
"Fine," Sesshomaru said. "That is a manageable compromise."
Inuyasha gaped as Kagome smiled and started to walk down the stream. "Excuse me? Kagome––"
"Inuyasha, it's okay. Just go home, and I'll be there soon. I promise I won't be too long." She turned to Sesshomaru and gestured for him to follow her. Inuyasha reluctantly turned to walk away, though they both knew he'd be close behind them, hidden in the foliage of the trees.
Sesshomaru kept pace behind Kagome as she maneuvered her way down to the stream, and more than once he'd had to catch her and the stack of dishes when she tripped over something unseen in the dark. "Watch where you step."
"Jeez, you sound just like Inuyasha. 'You're such a klutz! Watch where you're going!'" She grinned back at him, "I know you hate having things in common with him, but sometimes it's so apparent you're brothers."
He ignored her and strode ahead to the stream. "Keep up."
She sighed and sped up, cursing him under her breath. "Don't be rude! It was a compliment!"
When they'd reached the water's edge, she set the stack down on the grass and slipped her arms through the slits in her haori, tying the sleeves back. "Thank you for coming with me. I almost didn't think you were coming at all tonight, so I'm grateful."
"Why?" He stood at the edge of the bank, looking out over the bubbling water and the dark horizon as he listened to her work through her chore.
"I… I actually just wanted to tell you a story. It means a lot to me." She kept staring straight at the bowl in her hand, and he could hear her heartbeat pick up from embarrassment.
He looked down at her. "You've taken up my time for something that trivial?"
"It's not trivial!" She glared at him. "Just sit and listen to me, please?" She gestured for him to sit, and when he didn't move, she stared at him expectantly until he conceded and lowered himself to the ground in a cross-legged position. "Thank you," she said, turning back to her dishes. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you about this friend I had back home. After Naraku died and the Jewel disappeared, I was stuck at home. Um, I don't know if you ever knew this about me, but I'm from five hundred years in the future. I grew up in a house next to the Sacred Tree, and I can use the Bone-Eater's Well to travel back and forth," she glanced up at him, but when he didn't respond, she continued, "But after the Jewel was destroyed, I got stuck on the other side. I thought I would never be able to return to this time, and that I'd just have to live a different life alone. I was studying in a little coffee shop when––oh, sorry, I mean a tavern? A rest stop? I don't know, it doesn't matter. But I was sitting by myself and he came up to me and asked if he could sit with me, and we ended up talking for awhile. I was glad for the company, you know? And he offered to help me study, which I really needed, so we became friends."
Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow, "Do you often talk to strange men in taverns? It's no wonder Inuyasha doesn't trust your judgement."
Kagome threw up her hands in exasperation and glared at him, "No, I don't–– It's not a–– Never mind. That is not the point of the story, Sesshomaru. I'm getting there. So, my friend told me that he'd adopted this little girl a long time ago, and that she was the first person he'd really ever cared about, and then she died. Years ago, he told me. And he said that his biggest regret was that he didn't spend enough time with her, that he didn't get to watch her go through the life she had. He wasted it being an idiot and not paying attention to her."
"And you're implying I'm doing the same thing as this human friend of yours?"
She started laughing and grinned, "I never said he was human, did I? That was gonna be the point of my story. He's almost a thousand years old, my friend. And I honestly think you should think about what he told me, because he sought me out. Everyone else he knew had died by the time I met him… Everyone we'd known had died by then." She turned to him, tears in her eyes, and he began to understand. "So it was just me and him who remembered them, and I had no idea I'd be able to come back here, so he really helped me. Three years we kept each other company, so he was my best friend. I got through school and everything because he helped me study, and made sure I didn't give up on myself. I honestly have no idea what I would have done without him there to help me through. I asked him why he did it once, and he said that he hadn't had anyone to look after in a long time, so he didn't mind." She smiled up at him tearfully, shaking her head. "It's so weird to see you and not be able to just talk to you. Time travel is so weird. I can see you now, but we'll never be friends. Five hundred years from now, we're best friends and you're never going to see me again." She sniffled and stacked the last bowl on top of the clean pile.
He couldn't believe her story. He'd sought out the company of a human girl in half a millennium just because he missed Rin? That sounded ludicrous, but it would be an even further stretch to think she'd made it up. "So what?" he asked, unsure of what else to say.
"So…" she said, standing up. "I came back here the day after my high school graduation," she laughed a little at his look of confusion. "It's the ceremony human schools throw to show that students completed their learning. And um, you were there that day. That's the last time I saw you. You congratulated me on finally graduating, and told me you were proud of me, and gave me a hug. And then you walked away." Her voice broke on the last word, and her tears threatened to stream down her face. "I think you knew I was leaving, but I still didn't get to say goodbye. So, um, I just wanted to say goodbye. And thank you."
Quickly, before he could protest, she'd wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly. Two times in one day is not a good sign, he thought. For a moment, he laid his hands on her back, then lifted her away from him, entirely uncomfortable with her proximity. "Sorry," she muttered. "Anyway, that's all. You can leave if you're ready." Gathering the dishes from the ground, she called out, "Inuyasha? Let's go home!"
Inuyasha descended from his perch in the trees and slipped an arm around her, snarling at him. She smiled up at him and leaned into his chest as they walked back the way they had come.
Sesshomaru stood there for a moment, dumbfounded by Kagome's recollection. He felt a strange sense of loss, though he couldn't figure out why. How could he miss something he never had? Sighing, he turned to look back over the riverbank, poised to leap away as he should have done early this morning. Goodbye, Kagome.