Chapter 2

Kagome picked up her cell and answered her text. "I'm kinda in the mood for beef curry. Maybe Padasha's instead?" If Hojo was thinking of doing what she had a feeling he was thinking of doing, this probably wasn't the kindest text, but maybe he would infer what he needed to infer: that she was not receptive to an offer of marriage at this time.

Alas, no. His reply: "I'll take you out for Indian food another night. I want a romantic night out with you."

Her brow creased in thought and she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. 'What do I do? I'm almost certain he will propose and my only answer can be 'no.'' She hefted a giant sigh and, cellular in hand, ran to find Mama.

She kicked off her shoes in a hurry and headed straight for the kitchen. "Mama!" she called.

Kaneko looked up from her work chopping vegetables and saw instantly in that way of all mothers that her child was distressed. "Kagome, sweetheart, what's the matter?" she asked.

"I—, Hojo—, I mean—," she whimpered in frustration and looked up at her mother helplessly.

"Easy, now. Take a deep breath and start from the beginning," Kaneko urged. She washed her hands and came over to Kagome to lead her to the living room to take a seat on the couch with her.

Once they were seated, Kagome did as she was told and inhaled deeply. "I think Hojo wants to ask me to marry him tomorrow and I don't want to marry him," she quietly said with her eyes lowered shamefully.

"Alright. What makes you think he is going to propose?" Kaneko asked.

"He asked me to go to Oliver's with him tomorrow night and when I suggested somewhere else he told me no, that he wanted a romantic night out with me," Kagome said, hesitantly raising her eyes to her mother's.

"I see." She thought for a moment. "Could it be as simple as he said? That he just wants a nice evening with you?"

At that moment, Kagome's phone rang with the predictable phone call from Hojo. She hit the side button to silence the ringer. "Sure, it could…but he's just been so intense lately. What do I do, Mama? He's a nice guy. I don't want to hurt him and I've actually been thinking about ending our relationship so if he asks, my answer would definitely be 'no.' And if I don't give him an answer about tomorrow soon, he's going to get all manic and start texting me like a madman."

Kaneko raised her eyebrows at this news. She had always suspected Hojo to be a little excessive in his pursuit of Kagome and hearing that her daughter had been keeping behavior that obviously concerned her to herself set her on worry mode. Her daughter had always been a kind soul, if a little naïve, and the only reason she could think for Kagome keeping Hojo's actions a secret from her family would be that she doubted her family would believe her. While it was true that the boy had done his best to integrate himself into their lives and make himself invaluable around the shrine, there was no excuse for abusive behavior and Kaneko was with her daughter—she did not want her making the biggest decision of her life for the wrong reasons to the wrong man. To Kagome, she said, "I think now is a good time to use your writing as an excuse. Tell Hojo you're not sure you can take tomorrow night off from your story yet and won't know until tomorrow. Take this time to think about what you really want. Tell him you'll be turning off your phone to make sure you can concentrate on your work."

Kagome's face lit up with relief. "Oh, Mama! You're brilliant!" She picked up the cell and texted exactly that then promptly turned off her cell and set it down on the coffee table. Her eyes shone with gratitude as she launched herself into her mother's arms. Hefting a huge sigh she said, "Thank you for understanding."

Kaneko raised a hand to stroke her daughter's dark waves in consolation. There was more to this that Kagome wasn't telling her, she was sure of it, but she would not pressure her. She would tell her when she was ready.

….

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Kagome pushed Hojo from her mind and focused on the Silver-Haired Man and her story. She wrote and wrote only pausing when called for meals and in the evening she wrote until the sun set and she could no longer see her marks on the paper. Resigning, she gathered her supplies and blanket and went back inside where she smelled something familiar and delightful: chocolate.

Her mother had made her special brownies with cocoa almonds in them and Kagome couldn't have been more grateful. She set her things down in the living room by the stairway and smiled when she saw her mother exiting the kitchen with two bowls of warm brownies topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream. Mama to the rescue!

They sat together on the couch eating their dessert while Kaneko soothed her daughter in her usual way of telling her stories of her father, Seijuu. "Have I ever told you that I dreamt of your father before I met him?" She was about to continue when she was interrupted by the clang of Kagome dropping her spoon in her bowl. Her daughter's face was awash in what could only be astonishment. Kaneko tilted her head in inquiry and asked, "What is it, Kagome?"

Kagome swallowed heavily and looked into her bowl as she took a deep breath. When she raised her eyes she was collected again. She sighed again in a small way and smiled. "No, you've never told me you dreamed of him. Do you remember the dreams?"

Once again Kaneko knew her daughter was withholding, and once again she chose to give her the space she needed with her thoughts. With a warm smile of reverie she said, "I remember them perfectly now, though I didn't always. This may sound strange, but in the dreams it was as though we knew each other. We talked and spent time together and then when we finally met in person we were both a little in shock. Can you imagine dreaming of someone for years, having completely lifelike dreams and then one day running into them in the subway? We just stood and stared at each other for what must have been a very long time but felt like only a moment."

"That's so romantic! You have said that you met in the subway before, but the dreams…Mama, I totally believe you about the dreams. I think it's entirely possible to dream of someone in lifelike dreams for years. How long did you dream of him?" Kagome asked.

"Well, about two or three years. All through the end of high school and then I met him right after graduation."

Kagome's brow creased in confusion and the unfairness of it all. "Only a couple years? That's not that long at all!"

"Why, of course it is. Three long years of dreaming of my ideal man, thinking I was crazy because I had feelings for a dream, comparing all other men to what I thought had to be a figment of my imagination…that's a long time, sweetheart."

Another sigh as she mumbled, "You're telling me."

…..

After dessert, Kagome helped clean up and grabbed her things at the foot of the steps and went upstairs to her room. She finished her nightly routine and turned down the covers to climb in. She reached to turn off the bedside lamp and nestled down into her pillows and light covers. Turning on her side, her breath started to even out and deepen and soon she had passed the veil of slumber.

When she opened her eyes, she was in a manicured English garden which she recognized as belonging to Silver-Haired Man. She walked lazily toward the fountain and, upon reaching it, bent slightly from the waist to trail her fingers along the surface of the water. It was as she was about to straighten herself that a strong pair of arms clad in his usual, elitist, perfectly-pressed Charvet dress shirt circled her waist and the tickle of warm breath on her shoulder alerted her to her beloved's presence.

"Hello, handsome-sama." Kagome had long ago learned that he would not tell her his name and so she determined a pet name that suited him perfectly. It had annoyed him a little at first, but with time he had come to embrace her praise of his form.

He nuzzled the side of her head. "This—I am displeased you have stayed away so long. Why is this so?"

He did that often, almost said something and then said, "I." It seemed strange, but she had a weird feeling he meant to speak in the third person. That couldn't be, right? "You know, it could as easily be said that you have stayed away as well. We never have figured out how to bring these dreams about."

He turned her around and she slipped her arms around him so they held each other. He was very tall, though luckily she was also relatively tall so she didn't have to crane her neck too far to look into his amazing golden eyes which presently smiled ever so slightly in the way that somehow she knew only she would be able to notice. Slowly, they moved down her face to focus on her lips and his eyes became dreamier, causing Kagome's lips to curl up at the corners.

"Did you miss me, handsome-sama?" she asked.

He huffed arrogantly in answer before lowering his lips to hers. After a gentle, tender kiss that curled her toes, he said, "Something disturbs you. I think perhaps it is the problem of this friend which though he has reached physical maturity remains a boy that you have been told frequently to remove from your life. You will tell me."

….

A/N: The name Seijuu means "sacred beast."