Disclaimer: Once again… and I think I'll shout it just in case you don't get the point… I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA, THE CHARACTERS, SETTINGS, ETC.; THAT HONOR BELONGS TO THE WONDERFULLY TALENTED RUMIKO TAKAHASHI … No Copyright infringement is intended… thank you
Kagome looked up at the full moon and sighed. It was cold and she began to shiver slightly, but didn't notice it. She was too busy thinking about her latest musing. Inuyasha and the others were already asleep. The hanyou had recently mated the undead miko, and Kagome was still a little angry about it. She didn't care that he had mated, no; she had long ago given up on loving him in that way. She had someone to love now herself, even if it was in secret. She just didn't like that the being that she saw as her brother was mated to someone who was dead. The little miko didn't think he could truly be happy with her… she was afraid that Kikyo would break his heart again.
Kagome sighed as the thought went through her mind, but shrugged it off. She didn't want to lose her current thoughts.
It was late fall and started to snow the week before. Kagome was in her city-style pea coat with a faux fur trim, white boots, earmuffs, gloves and pink cashmere scarf, but even with all of the protection she was still chilled. Her wavy raven hair fanned out to her waist, and her cerulean eyes were still fixed on the wonder above her.
A figure stood at the edge of the meadow. His pristine white silk kimono and hakamas swayed slightly in the wind. When the being the miko loved saw her from his perch, he smirked slightly. It had begun to snow and the ice crystals made her hair look as if it was encrusted with diamonds. He slowly approached her and glanced up at the moon and then growled lightly when he noticed she was shivering. 'She never notices when she's cold.' The male mused internally. 'She must have something on her mind again.'
"Karei, you must be more cautious or you'll become ill." Came a deep baritone from behind the little miko.
Kagome jumped at the noise slightly and looked up into golden eyes. "Oh, you scared me Maru. I didn't even sense you approaching."
"Indeed. You should be more cautious, this Sesshomaru could have been a creature meant to harm you. That outfit, while camouflaging your person does not hide your aura. You need to conceal your appearance more effectively." The taiyoukai scolded her and she looked up at him sheepishly.
"I know, I'm sorry… I was just thinking, and I couldn't sleep. You don't have to be so formal around me koishi."
Sesshomaru smirked at her and his eyes softened significantly. "So I noticed. What ails you Kagome?" The dog demon gracefully placed himself beside his miko. She looked over at him and smiled as he pulled her into his lap. His tail wrapped around her and he held her protectively in his embrace. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly at the warmth.
She leaned against his chest and took a deep breath. "Well… there's been a lot on my mind lately. Mostly about Inuyasha and Kikyo."
The inu taiyoukai growled and tensed at the mention of his half-brother's name. "And why should this bother you?"
Kagome sighed and wrapped her delicate arms around his waist. "Don't be like that. You know I have no feelings toward him anymore. He's like my brother…" The young woman trailed off and buried her face in her taiyoukai's chest.
"Yes koi, I understand that. But why are you worried about the half-breed?" Sesshomaru nuzzled her head lightly.
Kagome looked up at him and scowled. "You know you shouldn't call him that. Even if he only has half of your blood, he is your brother. I know he looks up to you."
Gold eyes searched sapphire and he tilted his head questionably. "He looks up to me?"
Kagome laughed lightly, "yes he does, and you look like a puppy with your head like that."
"Is that so?" The Lord of the Western lands raised an eyebrow, and suddenly pounced on top of her.
Kagome giggled at the overgrown puppy's antics and tried to push him off of her. Sesshomaru growled playfully and looked down at her expectantly. She rolled her eyes and gave peck on his lips. She giggled when he growled again and took her mouth with his. She sighed happily as he deepened the kiss and shivered a bit when he pulled back. The taiyoukai suddenly sat up gracefully when he felt her shiver and took the girl with him.
"You still have not answered my question." The demon lord stated stoically as he wrapped his tail and arms around Kagome's waist once again to keep her warm.
The miko sighed. "Well Inuyasha has taken a mate."
Sesshomaru stared at Kagome in disbelief. "He did not…. He would not dishonor the family in that way." His eyes began to bleed red slightly and the priestess gasped.
Kagome cupped Sesshomaru's cheek with her hand and traced his markings with her thumb. This seemed to have the desired effect, and Sesshomaru calmed as he leaned into her touch. He took her hand and kissed it lightly as he lowered his forehead to hers.
"I'm afraid so… I'm just afraid that Kikyo will hurt him again. I know he's rash and outspoken, but he's been through so much. He deserves happiness."
Sesshomaru sighed quietly and pulled away from Kagome and looked up at the sky. "You give my half-brother too much faith. It seems as if he basks in misery."
Kagome giggled and followed his gaze. "You make him sound like a masochist. Look who's talking..."
Sesshomaru chuckled and tightened his grip around his priestess. "And how am I a masochist exactly?"
"Well… you hurt yourself by knowing that you refuse to really have me until Naraku is dead. And you are short with me when I see you outside of our midnight excursions. I can see your eyes… it hurts you to see me with your half-brother's pack and not your own." Kagome leaned into his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly, as if to tell him that she wished she didn't have to go anywhere.
The taiyoukai frowned thoughtfully. "You are much too perceptive karei. That is true, you are my pack now. I have taken you as my intended, and as such you are more than just a part of my pack, you should be with me at the head of it. However, I understand that my half-brother's pack needs you to find the Shikon shards and find Naraku. I assure you that once the remaining shards are found, you will join my pack in your rightful place." He nuzzled her neck as he finished and she frowned slightly.
"You do realize that I would want nothing more than to be with your pack now… right?"
Sesshomaru looked at her and hugged her closer to him. "Of course."
Kagome smiled brilliantly and Sesshomaru smirked back. "I always knew you would understand Maru."
The young miko turned her attention back to the night sky and her eyes glazed over in thought. Her taiyoukai looked at her expression and smirked, she was thinking about something again. After a few minutes Sesshomaru decided to break the miko out of her musings. "What ails you now?"
Kagome broke from her trance and smiled. "Oh nothing really, just another epiphany."
Sesshomaru smiled down at her. "Oh and what is it this time?"
Kagome smirked up at him playfully. "It's exactly that…"
The demon lord raised an eyebrow at the curious creature in his lap. "Elaborate."
The little miko laughed at her love's expense and took pity on him. "Time."
An eyebrow disappeared into silver bangs. "Time?"
"Yep. I have a theory on how time may not be continuous as we believe it is, but instead happen all at once." She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she looked at the stars above her.
"And how precisely did you come up with this?" His eyebrow remained raised as he looked down at her. Kagome, however, was deep in thought and her gaze remained transfixed on the sea of velvet above them. He followed her gaze, and waited. His gaze went back to the amazing creature below him as she spoke again.
"The well… it seems as if time stands still for it. It brings me here to the supposed past, and then home to the supposed present. I really never thought about it before until I watched this show on ghosts."
"And what do ghosts have to do with time?"
Kagome looked up at him and smirked mischievously. "Everything."
Sesshomaru mentally rolled her eyes at her universal explanation. "Hn… continue."
"Well first off, there's a center to every planet, and a center to every solar system, which is a star as far as we know. In turn there must be a center to a galaxy and a center to the universe itself. What if the center of the universe is in fact time? We literally revolve around time; so in theory time is falsified by movement. The center of anything really has no movement; it is energy. It is because of this that it is safe to say that it is very probable that everything happens at once; at one time I mean." Kagome looked thoughtfully at Sesshomaru for a moment and he looked at the woman with pride.
"And how does the well and ghosts come into this?'
"Well… the well for starters is like a star. It stands still, and is nothing but pure energy. The world goes on around it and it unsuspectingly changes the course of time. If I can indeed go into the past, and miss weeks of my life in the future, then it makes sense that everything happens at once."
Sesshomaru looked at his intended and smiled at her. "That makes perfect sense karei. And I can start to see where the ghost theory comes in. Does it have anything to do with the fact that spirits are energy?" He looked at her expectantly and she gave him a brilliant smile in return.
"I knew there was a reason why I loved you." She giggled as Sesshomaru growled at her lightly. This made the young woman laugh even more and she hit him in the arm playfully. "You know why I love you koi."
"Indeed."
Kagome kissed him lightly before she continued. "Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?"
Sesshomaru "Hn'd" and the miko smiled.
"Right ghosts. Well in my time there are these things called EVP recorders. I was watching an episode of my favorite ghost investigator program, and one of the EVPs picked up a woman's voice answering a question one of the investigators asked. The investigator asked, 'are you here,' and the recorder picked up her answer, 'of course I am, where are you?'"
The taiyoukai looked perplexed by this, and Kagome put her hand on his.
"I know the technology may seem incredulous, but it's true, you'll see in 500 years or so."
"Hn. I would like to see it."
"I know you would, but good things come to those who wait."
Sesshomaru smirked at the play on words and told her to continue.
Kagome obliged him and explained the phenomenon known as hauntings. "I was thinking that perhaps this supposed haunting was not a haunting at all. It could simply be a woman replying to a question she heard in her own time and place from a voice that she couldn't see or explain. I think it would be very interesting to know if there in that room on the day the woman was there when she was 'alive' whether or not a voice asked 'are you here?'" Kagome looked at Sesshomaru and was proud to see that he was still with her, and so she went on.
"If time happens at once, the energies of the two different 'times…'"
"Could in fact be one in the same and have happened at once." The taiyoukai replied back to the onna's delight.
"Right! So, the woman was in fact having a conversation with someone in her 'time,' but because we believe time is ever moving, then it would seem the conversation happened at 'present time.' Remember how I explained the different type of hauntings?" Kagome looked up at her taiyoukai and was not disappointed when he nodded and answered her.
"Residual, intellectual, elemental, and demonic." He chuckled at the last type and Kagome rolled her eyes at him.
"Right… this theory explains residual and intellectual hauntings… so maybe it really does explain the phenomenon that we have learned as ghostly presences." Kagome drew in a deep breath and fell back onto Sesshomaru's chest.
"You never cease to amaze me karei. How is it you think these things?" The taiyoukai pulled the woman he learned to love closer to him as he whispered his praise in her ear.
The young miko blushed, which made the demon lord smirk at her humbleness. "I…I don't know… I just do. The night air and its surroundings and the quiet help me. I've thought about many things, especially since you came into my life. I suppose you could say that you're my muse." She looked up at the dog demon with amusement.
"Well then… if just being in your life brings that out of your head, then I wonder what you will think once you become my mate…" He chuckled at the blush on his intended's face, and kissed her tenderly. "Tell me Kagome… do I haunt you?"
Kagome smirked at his question. "Every day and every night Maru… of course I wish those hauntings would be replaced by the real thing."
Sesshomaru smiled, yes actually smiled, at Kagome's reply and suddenly captured her lips with his. He slid his tongue into her mouth when she gasped in surprise, and she wrapped her arms around his neck for support. The taiyoukai smirked into her lips from the effect he still had on her. Kagome kissed back passionately and only broke from him when she realized that she needed air. She gasped and her lungs stung from the cold. She coughed lightly and Sesshomaru wrapped his tail around her tightly. She smiled as he nuzzled her neck lovingly.
He whimpered quietly and she chuckled at his over-protectiveness. "I'm fine koi, just cold is all."
"Then perhaps you should go back for the night." There was a hint of loss in his voice and Kagome frowned.
"No. I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks, and I don't know when we'll cross paths again. I'm not leaving you tonight." She said gently, and reached up to caress his cheek.
He swelled with pride at the realization of how loyal she was, but knew she had to be someplace warmer to sleep. "Very well, you shall sleep with our pack tonight."
Kagome smiled vibrantly at him as he picked her up and started for the cave his… their… pack was residing in for the evening. Kagome sighed happily and looked at the moon through his silver hair. She soon fell asleep and Sesshomaru ran his claws through silk and kissed her forehead lightly. Yes, she would sleep well tonight.
AN: Well that's all I wrote folks, he he -_-' And yes I am aware that his mokomoko is not a tail, but I like the 'fluffy' as a tail, so in my stories it is. :b And I dropped the "This Sesshomaru…" thing in this because talking in the third person is so formal. I wanted to portray the relationship developing between them, and in (ancient) high society, talking in the first person (privately) means that you accept that person as family or your equal. I hope this answers some questions, and I may put another installment in, it just may take awhile. Thanks for reading, and please review! ^_^