This chapter was a bit more difficult to write than the other chapters that's why it took me a little longer. It does have a lot of exposition but bear with me. Thanks to all who read and review. I of course have no claim on any characters from Inuyasha.
Chapter 7
Secrets Revealed
Maki walked into Sesshomaru's apartment to see him sitting in the black leather chair and the tabloids spread out on the coffee table.
"What?" said Maki.
"This is your work isn't it?" said Sesshomaru.
"Hey, it's what I do," said Maki. "It was either this or a shot of Angelina Beniot crawling all over you right under Bradley Ravine's nose. Now you know how distasteful that would be."
"It was distasteful!" sneered Sesshomaru.
"And you handled it magnificently," said Maki, "As for this, no one can see who the girl is, no harm done."
"I am calling her for lunch today, if she refuses, you will pay!"
"Look, it goes with the territory. As they say the only bad publicity is no publicity." Sesshomaru's eyes flashed red. "Now don't go there," said Maki, "that girl was pure class, I bet she hasn't even seen the tabloids."
"For your sake, let's hope she hasn't."
It was late morning when the phone call came. Kagome had walked away from her desk for a minute so Daphne picked up the phone. When she heard the voice on the other end her eyes went wide. "Please hold, she just stepped away from her desk I'll get her." Daphne hit the hold button just as Kagome returned. "You have a call, I think it's Sesshomaru!"
Kagome picked up the phone, looking around she saw she had an audience, "Hei," she said switching to Japanese. Daphne gave her the finger. She started giggling and continued in Japanese. "Who is it?" she said sweetly.
"It is Sesshomaru."
"Oh Sesshomaru do you want your jacket back?"
"I want you to go to lunch with me," he replied.
"I don't know if I can get away," continued Kagome in Japanese. Daphne and Collette were mouthing the worst curses at her.
Sesshomaru knew she was playing with him. "Shall I come and destroy your office so you will be free to come?"
"Oh that won't be necessary," said Kagome "I think I can pencil you in."
"Good," said Sesshomaru, "I will pick you up at one o'clock."
"Alright," said Kagome, "it will be nice to talk to you someplace I can actually hear you." She hung up the phone and faced Daphne and Collette.
"I hate you so much!" laughed Daphne.
"So?" said Collette, "You are going out with him?"
"I don't see I have much choice seeing that according to the – ah- "she pawed through the tabloids on her desk, "Tattler, he's my baby's father."
The morning was quiet, there were no conference meetings that day and Kagome had submitted all her reports. She decided to clear the rest of her day as she knew that she and Sesshomaru had a great deal to talk about. He was right, there were things that needed to be discussed that only they could discuss. There were still, many unanswered questions about the end, the destruction of Naraku and Inuyasha's death. Maybe, she thought, by talking to Sesshomaru she would finally get some closure. The girls in the office acted like this was some romantic romp. They couldn't possibly know that this had nothing to do with romance. There are some things that are impossible to share with others. You can talk about them but unless you were with someone who had experienced the same thing or was there with you, you never really share it. Kagome was also very curious about the changes she had already seen in Sesshomaru, the mere fact that he was living in the human world functioning as a human drew her suspicion. What was he up to?
At one o'clock sharp Sesshomaru appeared at Kagome's office. Everything seemed to stop as he helped Kagome on with her coat and they both walked together out of the office. A chauffeur was waiting by the limousine and held the door for them.
"Do you drive?" asked Kagome as they settled in the back seat.
"Yes," said Sesshomaru, "but not in Paris. I see you are wearing black."
"It's what I have in my wardrobe," said Kagome. She was wearing black boots a longish black and white plaid skirt, black cowl neck sweater and a black wool coat.
"You are in Mourning," said Sesshomaru. "Black is western, in our culture white is the color of mourning."
"Then you are in mourning too," said Kagome.
"I am I mourn for my wife and son, you mourn for Inuyasha. Neither of us can move forward." He said.
The limousine pulled up in front of a small restaurant in a picturesque part of Paris. Sesshomaru escorted Kagome inside. A young man in a neat black jacket greeted them warmly. He and Sesshomaru conversed in French, to Kagome's amazement, and they were led to a small lovely garden in the back.
"I told Jacques that we would want privacy so I reserved the garden." Said Sesshomaru.
"When did you learn French?" asked Kagome.
Sesshomaru thought for a minute, "Sixteen twenty three," he said.
Kagome decided not to pursue it. Menus were brought and Sesshomaru ordered wine.
As they looked at their menus Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru, "I thought you did not eat human food."
A small smile played at his lips, "French food is not human food." He said.
The French did eat some strange things but then again so did the Japanese, she supposed. When Sesshomaru ordered snails and steak tartar she realized he was right about French food, there was something even a demon would like. Kagome had a lot of questions she supposed Sesshomaru did too. She took a sip of wine and began. "You have mentioned a wife and son," she said, "Who was your wife?"
"Rin." Said Sesshomaru evenly, "Rin was my wife."
Kagome stiffened, she was a bit shocked, "I remember Rin as a little girl, I thought you were a guardian or father to her."
"I was not mature enough to be a father to anyone I those days, can you imagine? Rin and I were very much like a couple in an arranged marriage where a young man is wed to a woman when she is still a little child. This was not so uncommon back in the Feudal Era sometimes a woman was even married to a young boy who would grow up to be a Lord. I know you probably think in such a case the child would live with her parents until she was grown then go with her husband but this was not always the case. Many times the child went to live with her husband and took up whatever wifely duties she could. If he was a decent man their relationship would not be physical until she was fully grown. What they had was a developing relationship. Rin knew me better than anyone else. Even as a little child she knew my moods, she knew how to sooth my temper. I needed her, I needed her as much as she needed me. Do you know how we met?'
"No," said Kagome quietly.
"Do you remember when Inuyasha and I fought and he used the power of the wind scar against me?" Kagome nodded, "I would have been killed if my sword had not taken me from danger. Nevertheless I was badly hurt and lay in the forest unable to move. Rin found me and attempted to care for me. She was dirty, starving and ill treated yet she tried to care for me. Something in my heart changed, something awakened. Did you know that Kouga's wolves killed her? I found her covered in blood. I could not leave her, somehow I could not leave without her so I revived her. I was too arrogant to admit all this at the time, I said I was testing my sword but she had become important to me. Bit by bit through the years we became closer and closer. She grew into a beautiful woman and by then I realized she was my wife but I think she knew it all along." Sesshomaru grew quiet as if he had momentarily traveled to a distant place in time. He smiled and looked back at Kagome, "I was blessed to have my precious Rin with me for almost two hundred years. You see, she had been snatched from death twice and so touched by the magic of the sword and the mediou. She never grew old, at the end she just seemed to fade, her passing was very peaceful. We had a son, you would have liked him, he was very much like Inuyasha. He lived four hundred years but in the end like Inuyasha his demon blood proved to strong for his part human body."
Kagome looked up shocked by Sesshomaru's words, "Inuyasha was killed by Naraku!"
"No," said Sesshomaru gently, "Naraku could not have killed Inuyasha, Inuyasha was too strong. No, it was when Inuyasha went into demon form to fight Naraku. He went too far too quickly. Your arrow destroyed Naraku but it was Inuyasha's demon blood that killed him I tried but I could not save him."
Kagome's hand went up to the golden comb in her hair, "He gave you that didn't he?" said Sesshomaru.
"He had nothing," said Kagome, "his whole life he had to fight, his whole life he was never accepted. Even his chance for love was ripped away from him. I can only hope that in death he found some peace."
Their food arrived, Sesshomaru filled her wine glass again, "tell me how you have been Kagome. What are you doing, have you married? I see you have become very successful as a writer."
"There is not much to tell," said Kagome, she suddenly did not want to discuss her life. "I'm not married I guess you could say I'm married to my job. I like traveling and that's what I do and I like being in the middle of things and that's what a journalist does."
Sesshomaru considered this but before he could ask her another question she changed the subject. Kagome was beginning to feel the wine. Sesshomaru kept filling her glass hoping perhaps it would loosen her tongue. It did but not exactly the way he had hoped. "How is your mother?" she asked, "I met her once, she was very beautiful."
"She is still beautiful in fact you would find her unchanged. She spends most of her time in the Demon Realm with my sisters."
"You have sisters," asked Kagome her eyes shining?
"Yes, I have two sisters an older sister and one who is much younger than I," said Sesshomaru filling Kagome's glass again.
"Did your mother remarry?" asked Kagome.
Sesshomaru thought perhaps he should not give her any more wine. He sat for a minute considering his answer. "You think my father abandoned my mother for Izaiyoi don't you." Kagome blushed deeply in embarrassment and Sesshomaru thought how lovely the blush made her look. "It's all right: for your culture it would be a natural assumption. You must understand in those days, and I am talking about the thirteen hundreds when Inuyasha was born, even in the human world it was not unusual for a powerful man to take many wives. I suppose my mother expected to be part of a harem when my father took her as his mate. He took no other wives though, he loved my mother."
"Then what about Izaiyoi?" asked Kagome.
"I had an older brother. He was quite a bit older than me and very powerful. My father was very proud of him. He was the heir to my father's lands. There was a great battle, I fought in it though I was still not fully grown. It was a furious battle and my brother was killed. My father was inconsolable, that's when he met Izaiyoi. She was able to sooth his grief maybe because she was not attached to my brother at all."
"What about your mother," asked Kagome.
"I suppose she was resigned to it. If he had lived my father would have brought Izaiyoi and Inuyasha to the Demon Realm and made her his second wife."
"One big happy family." Said Kagome.
"Hmm," said Sesshomaru, he really had given her too much wine. "My mother told me to wish Izaiyoi no ill will. "She is human," she would say, "her flame burns bright and brief. Someday she will die and your father will never see her again in this life or the next, I however, am his mate for eternity. My father still loved my mother to the end; my younger sister was conceived just before his final battle. She was born some time after Inuyasha."
Kagome sat back considering all Sesshomaru had said. Sesshomaru settled the bill; he did not want to leave Kagome until he was sure she was sober and well.
"Let's walk," he said, "It is a nice afternoon." He slipped his arm around her slender waist to help her up. There was a familiar stirring in his loins as his arm encircled her waist. He felt the softness and warmth of her body, her intoxicating scent. He remembered this feeling. Long ago, when he had finally dropped some of the insanity of his anger he had noticed Kagome's long shapely legs. She had always worn that little short skirt and her legs seemed to draw his eye up to the hidden delights beneath that skirt. She of course belonged to his brother. He smiled to himself, some things never change.
It was a crisp afternoon in mid November. The leaves that still clung to the trees were gold. The crisp, cold air as they left the Restaurant began to clear Kagome's head. They were near the Bridge of St. Michael. Sesshomaru supported Kagome's arm as they walked along the Seine River.
"Notre Dame Cathedral is not far from here," said Sesshomaru, "Construction was started on it around the year eleven sixty three. I think I was born around that year."
"What did you mean when you said your father would never see Izaiyoi again after she died in this world or the next?"
Sesshomaru sighed, he had tried to loosen Kagome's tongue and had ended up telling her too much in stead. "When humans die or any creature of this world dies they go to a shining place of great peace unless they are very evil. Demons like me and my father and mother even your friend Shippo do not go to this place. When we die, we go to Hell.
"That's terrible!" said Kagome.
"No, it is not bad really, Hell is a place like any other place, there is a dark part where those who have done evil go and there is a peaceful place where Demons and other creatures of our realm go. Our lives are very long so when we die we do not come back as humans sometimes do. The only draw back is when one of us loves a human. I will never see my Rin or my son again. Not in this world or the next."
"I'm sorry," said Kagome holding onto Sesshomaru's arm to steady herself. "I am the reincarnated soul of Kikyo, I guess I came back to finish the work Kikyo was unable to. Ever since I returned for the last time from the Feudal Era I have been waiting to be reunited with Inuyasha. I figure if Kikyo came back he must have too. I always think that some day I will meet a man and I will know immediately that it is him and we'll finally be together."
Sesshomaru was quiet as they walked along the Seine.
"Why are you so quiet?" Said Kagome, "Please, don't tell me Inuyasha went to Hell!"
"No Kagome," said Sesshomaru quietly, "He went to the shining place of the humans. When my son died the thought I would never see him again was unbearable so I used Tenseiga to open the gate to the afterlife. It was Inuyasha's spirit that met me at our father's grave and told me I could not pass. He was not cruel, he was compassionate. He told me that his life on earth had been complete he was now one of the guardians of the gates of heaven."
"Then he didn't come back?"
"No"
Kagome felt as if her whole world was giving way under her feet. Everything seemed to tilt and drop away. She couldn't breath and her vision began to close in around her. She was aware of Sesshomaru's arm around her waist as he guided her to a nearby bench. She heard his voice it seemed from a far distance.
"Someday, a very long time from now you will be together. You will go to that shining place but not for a very long time. I know Inuyasha would want you to live a full life, to love maybe have a family. He would not want you to pine for him."
"What do you know!" she said as she collapsed into tears. She was trembling her hands were as cold as ice.
Sesshomaru decided he needed to get her inside quickly so he could calm her down. It was a quiet afternoon and he didn't see anyone around so he decided to take a chance. Holding her close he was able to orb them to the door of his apartment.
Kagome looked up as Sesshomaru opened the door. "How did we get here? She said.
"I am Sesshomaru, after all." In the apartment he sat her on the couch. She looked around in wonder. His apartment in Paris was in a building that dated from the Classical Period. It was beautifully decorated in black and white, chic and masculine.
"You must think I am very foolish," she said.
"Not at all, I really do understand how you feel."
"I must look a sight."
Sesshomaru smiled, "you look beautiful." He made her some green tea and sat with her quietly as she sipped it. He could feel the despair and sadness coming from her.
"I have something that will cheer you up." He said. From a think black folder he took a magazine. "Do you read English?" he asked.
"Yes," said Kagome as Sesshomaru handed her the magazine. The banner said "People" and on the cover was a picture of Sesshomaru and the headline "Sesshomaru, sexiest man alive!"
Kagome began to giggle then laugh, "Oh Sesshomaru, they didn't!"
"You humans have a very strange world. When I go back to the Demon Realm Shippo will never let me live this down!"
"Shippo?" said Kagome.
"Yes, he's all grown up. You would not recognize him but he would recognize you! He is married to a little Kitsune and they have lots and lots of children. Someday I will take you to the Demon Realm and you can visit him if you like."
Kagome smiled, "It would be wonderful to see Shippo again."
Soon Sesshomaru called a cab for Kagome and took her down stairs. "Would you like me to ride with you?" he asked.
"No," she said, I will be alright.
As she rode to her apartment Kagome considered how different Sesshomaru was. How could he have changed so radically? She remembered a cold, cruel Demon. She was terrified of him back them. Then again, he would do something kind, or good never acknowledging it of course but still he would do it. He was sexy, even then she noticed that. Sometimes her heart would pound when he was near luckily Inuyasha and Shippo just thought she was afraid but she had always known the truth. Her heart was pounding now."
Sesshomaru watched the cab leave. He had sensed something just before she left that surprised him. She was pure, an untouched maiden. He had always supposed that she and Inuyasha were lovers. Then again they were children, their love was pure. He watched as the cab disappeared down the avenue. Human woman, so fragile, so beautiful.
