AN. Apologies for the shortness of the last chapter, things will start moving a little more purposefully from here on out.

Kagome woke slowly the next morning, stretching lazily she moved to sit up, only to find something around her waist restraining her. Lifting the blanket and looking down she found a fair skinned solidly muscled arm wound securely around her waist. Upon further inspection, Kagome also found a long white furry boa type thing wound around her left leg. After several moments of confusion, Kagome remembered crawling into Sesshomaru's bed and realized that the white thing must be what he had called his "Moko-moko". Apparently, it is a part of his true form that is leftover after his transformations, and he adamantly protested to her calling it a tail.

As soon as the weight of her current position settled in, Kagome blushed several shades of red. Apparently, her intended was more puppy-like than he preferred to admit. Kagome almost giggled when she felt him burrow his face into her bedraggled hair before she attempted to wriggle herself free of his hold. Her efforts proved useless of course, but she tried her best anyway. Just as she was giving up, she felt the inu behind her stir. Managing to turn her body onto her other side, she watched Sesshomaru wake up and come out of his sleepy haze. Honey gold eyes blinked open and gazed back into her smooth chocolaty brown ones.

"Good morning little Mate" He practically purred.

Blushing about three shades darker, Kagome stuttered out a tiny "morning".

"Mind telling me what you're doing in my bed this morning? Mate?"

Ducking her head under the pillow Kagome muttered out her answer, sounding defeated. "I had a nightmare..."

Sesshomaru's sleepy smirk didn't falter. "So you decided to crawl into bed with a demon." He stated rather than asking.

"W-well..." Kagome was so embarrassed she could hardly string any kind of coherent sentence together. "I kinda thought that... Well, I remembered what you said about a mates touch being able to help soothe an agitated partner, I figured it was worth a shot..." She pulled the pillow away from her face to shoot him a sheepish look.

Sesshomaru sobered. That did explain her crawling into his bed in the middle of the night.

"S-sorry. I didn't mean to be a bother..." Kagome averted her gaze to the mattress. Had his arm and Moko-moko not been restraining her still, she would have made a dash for her own room.

Had he not just spent two weeks with the woman, he would have been baffled with her apology. As it was though he knew she was still unfamiliar with the world she was now a part of. "Do not apologize for something so inconsequential. You acted well within your rights as my mate. Besides what man in his right mind wouldn't want to wake up to a pretty face like yours." He smirked again as he reached out a hand to gently brush some hair out of her face.

Kagome looked even more embarrassed. "Sorry."

Sesshomaru gave her a look that clearly told her the second apology was even more unnecessary than the first. "You do not need to apologize to me. If I hear you say sorry to me again today I'll be forced to reprimand you." He smirked wickedly.

After a moment Kagome laughed meekly. "Sor- I mean... um... okay..."

Eventually, the two managed to detangle from each other and the bed sheets and get dressed. Seeing as the only proper clothing Kagome had at the moment was covered in cheese sauce, she dressed in an oversized T-shirt and too large drawstring sweatpants.

At the breakfast table that morning, Sesshomaru received a call on his house phone. when he sat back down after answering he gave Kagome a strange look.

"What is it?"

"That was my stepmother just now."

"What did she want?"

"She wanted to know if she and my father could visit today."

Kagome looked surprised. "What did you tell her?"

Sesshomaru stood up and took Rin's cereal bowl to the kitchen as Rin herself went to her bedroom to get dressed for the day. "I told her I would ask you if you were ready to meet them before giving them an answer."

"Oh..." Kagome took her own dish to the kitchen. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He finished rinsing the bowls and turned to face the young woman. "If I give my mother the affirmative, you will be meeting them as my betrothed. I know you haven't made a permanent decision yet, so until then, I was hoping put that particular introduction off, if only for a little while."

Kagome could understand his reasoning. "How long has she known about me?"

"I had to tell them in order for arrangements to be made at the company while I was away. My family has known about you since shortly after I found you."

Kagome gave a nervous smile. "I think they've waited long enough then."

Sesshomaru gave her a shocked look. "You do know what you're agreeing to."

Kagome blushed a little. "I know. And I know that It hasn't been long, but even I feel the connection to you. I don't know if that means I'm ready for a lifetime commitment just yet, but I think I'm okay to meet your parents. After all, they can't be so bad." She gave him a meek smile.

He smiled gently back at her. "You know it might be good for you to meet Izayoi. She is a human too, so even though her experience won't be exactly the same as yours, it is similar. She might be able to answer some of the questions that I cant."

"She is? That's actually kind of comforting, she should understand some of the cultural differences and help me to adapt."

"Exactly."

...

Sesshomaru's family knocked on his door at about noon. They had a nice civil lunch together, and afterward, while Sesshomaru and Toga cleaned the dishes, Kagome and Izayoi sat in the sitting room watching Rin play with her dollhouse which she had pulled out of a cabinet on the wall.

Izayoi watched the young woman beside her for several minutes. She was so young, younger than Izayoi had been when she first met Toga Taisho. She had been at least 20 back then. Of course, she was around 80 years old now, though she certainly didn't look it. Perks of being Mated to a demon. "So You're the one the fates chose for our Sesshomaru."

Kagome looked abashedly at the woman beside her. "That is the way it would appear."

"Pretty crazy, isn't it. Once you know that youkai exist, suddenly there is a whole new world out there that you always just dismissed as myth or fairytale." The woman's eyes glazed over slightly, as though she were looking out far past where Kagome sat.

The younger woman chuckled slightly. "When Sesshomaru first told me what he was I accused him of trying to pull a fast one on me. It took him baring his very real fangs at me for me to actually contemplate the idea that he might be telling me the truth. I believe he almost transformed there in the patient room."

Izayoi chuckled. That was something Sesshomaru would do. "I imagine he did. How are you faring now."

Kagome took a deep breath and sighed. "As well as can be, I guess. I mean considering the situation."

Izayoi looked puzzled for a moment. "Situation? Sesshomaru sold us he was staying at the hospital with you the last couple weeks, what happened."

Kagome was surprised. She had assumed he had told his parents everything. "He didn't tell you?"

"No, dear. He only told us it wasn't his story to tell."

Kagome smiled then. "Did he?" Sesshomaru had been nothing but kind and considerate since she had met him, if a little stand-offish at times.

"He did. Not to be overly nosy, but what did happen?"

Kagome's face dropped. She looked down at the fluffy eggshell carpet and folded her knees close to her chest on the black leather couch on which the two ladies were sitting. After a deep breath, she answered. "I um... I tried to... I tried to kill myself. I almost succeeded. By the time Sesshomaru found me I had almost bled out in that bathtub." Kagome's voice was hushed as she recounted the details of how she and Sesshomaru met. Partially because there were young ears in the room, and Kagome didn't want Rin to hear this. The other part was the deep sense of shame that was brought on as she thought about How selfish she must sound to the woman in front of her.

Izayoi's bubbly demeanor shifted and sobered as soon as Kagome's explanation began. What could have driven this young woman before her to such extremes? Part of her respected her son for not telling her, the other part was a little miffed that he hadn't warned her. Had she known how serious the situation had been, she would have been more sensitive to the situation. She could have been more careful in her query.

Scooting closer on the couch, the older woman reached out to the fragile girl and tugged her into a warm embrace. "Come here, dear. I'm sorry to have asked so indelicately. I don't know what you've been through, but I'll be here for you to talk to, and our Sesshomaru's a good man, he won't let you down."

Kagome was startled by the sudden show of seemingly random affection. At first, Kagome stiffened, expecting just a brief hug, but the more Izayoi held her, the more she relaxed into the embrace. Pretty soon the tears were back, and Kagome curled up into the motherly woman's arms as she once again just let go.

"That's right hon." The elder woman crooned. "Just let it all out, you'll feel much better after you do."

A few seconds later Sesshomaru came into the room followed by his father, both bearing similarly worried looks on their faces. Looking down at his mate curled up in his step mother's arms bawling her poor eyes out, he walked back to the kitchen, coming back with a box of tissues, and sitting down on the couch behind the crying girl. After a few seconds of coaxing, and soothing, Kagome crawled from Izayoi's lap to Sesshomaru's and sat there enveloped in his strong arms until she had calmed down and taken the tissues offered by her soon-to-be mother in law.

At this point, Toga had long since taken little Rin to her bedroom to read some picture books, while Sesshomaru and Izayoi attended to the distressed young woman.

"What exactly did you say to her?" Asked the worried male.

Kagome giggled and hiccuped. "It wasn't her fault Sesshomaru. She was only curious."

Sesshomaru sent his stepmother a reproachful stare. "You asked why she was in the hospital, didn't you?"

Izayoi looked appropriately repentant. "I was curious. I suppose I should have waited, and taken the cue from you when you told me it was not "Your story" to tell."

Sesshomaru refrained from making the sarcastic remark that lingered on the tip of his tongue.

"It's okay. Honest" Kagome spoke up, the hiccups lessening now. "It's getting easier to talk about. They do say it helps to talk about your problems."

Izayoi gave a knowing smile. "Well like I said, You are always welcome to come talk to me."

Sesshomaru reached down and gave his mates hand a little squeeze, almost as if to say, 'I'm here for you too'. Kagome felt so overwhelmingly cared for at this moment, she almost started crying again.

...

Later that afternoon Izayoi managed to coerce Kagome into agreeing to go shopping with her that coming weekend. Her argument for going was reasonable after all, and Kagome couldn't wear Sesshomaru's clothing forever.

During this time Kagome had not had hardly any chance to get to know Sesshomaru's father, Toga Taisho, until Izayoi pulled Sesshomaru into a separate room, allegedly to give him some advice on introducing Kagome slowly into her new role as her mate.

After several minutes of sitting awkwardly in the silent sitting room Toga finally decided to break the ice. "So how has my son been behaving?" He inquired, as though she were a school teacher, and Sesshomaru was a misbehaving child.

Kagome almost smirked at the analogy. If anything it was the other way around, but she answered his question regardless. "Your son has been nothing but gentlemanly."

This time it was Toga who smirked. "Oh really? I would have thought that after waiting over 600 years to find you, he would have been overly anxious to complete the mating bond. Human or not."

Kagome looked puzzled. "Complete? I wasn't aware you had to do something. Is it like a wedding or something?" Kagome was genuinely curious.

Toga looked baffled. "Sesshomaru never told you?"

Kagome blushed, "I never thought to ask. Why? What else is there?"

Toga looked thoughtful, as though considering whether he should explain it, or let her mate do it. Eventually he decided to let his son handle that particular explanation, besides, this young woman probably did not want to hear that talk from her soon-to-be father in law. "I think I'll let Sesshomaru explain that one." He shot her a wry look. "Besides..." he continued "I suppose he has had some more pressing concerns on his mind."

Kagome then remembered what Sesshomaru had told her about demons having heightened senses, and supposed Toga ad probably heard her conversation with his Mate. "He has been very patient with me," Kagome said, sobering.

Toga gave her a compassionate look. "You two have a long road ahead of you, and it won't get any easier from here on out. You're just lucky you were paired with Sesshomaru and not my other son." He joked. "Inuyasha's is more of an immature pain in the ass than he is worth at this moment. Of course, to be fair, he hasn't yet reached Mating age."

Kagome's face blanched. Inuyasha? Now there was a name she had hoped to never hear again. Trying desperately to not let her panic show, she gave the Fatherly looking demon before her a nervous smile. "Haha, Yeah..." Kagome faked a laugh and hoped that Toga would let it pass.

Seeing her facial expression, the Inu looked worriedly at the young woman but was unsure whether to ask her about it or not. Just at that moment, however, Sesshomaru and Izayoi reentered the room, and the conversation took a more cheerful direction.

Eventually, Sesshomaru's parent's left the couple to the rest of their night, and headed home. in the car on the way to their home on the outskirts of Tokyo Izayoi smiled. "They'll be good for each other. I can feel it."

Toga, on the other hand, was still worried. What on earth would draw that sort of a reaction from the young girl at the mention of his youngest son's name? All toga could think of was 'What has that pup done now?'

AN. Bit of a cliffy, sorry. What DID Inuyasha do this time? hmmm...

As always, the next chapter will be up next week. Constructive criticism welcome, or just goofy comments, I wanna hear what you thought. :)

Thanks again to all of my faithful readers, Your comments never fail to make me smile.

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