He advanced toward her, and she knew that no matter how she moved, she would never be able to escape him. She could feel his breath on her face as he searched her eyes for... something.

There was the sound of the elevator door opening and closing, and Kagome knew that she had been abandoned. Her heart was beating so hard she wondered how it was still inside of her and she closed her eyes, trying once again to breathe in and out.

A clawed hand lifted her chin up, and her eyelids flew open to face piercing gold. There was a hurt look to them that she tried to ignore.

"You held this back from me?" he asked, and she looked away. "Tell me the truth."

"I didn't know where you were," she answered, and her eyes widened as they stared at where the wall met carpet. That came out unexpectedly. Her mouth opened again, although she fought to close it. "I thought that you wouldn't want to see me, or that you were dead. No one was there when I was pregnant, or even when Hiroshi was born. I thought you wouldn't want an illegitimate son, even if you did know about him." Tears were stinging her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. When her lips moved again, they were of her own free will, and her eyes met his. "Now you show up, and treat me like gum on your shoe, and what am I supposed to think? 'Oh, he's obviously father material'?"

The hand on her chin loosened before falling away. "I didn't approach you because I felt you needed space," he said, eyes locked onto hers. "You ran after our encounter." Well, that was one way to put it. Her clothes had been haphazardly secured and were falling off by the time she had climbed out from the well from sprinting through the woods like a hunted animal. "Yet when I felt that enough time had passed you were no longer in the country, causing me to rethink your motives and whether or not to come find you myself." Their eye contact broke, and his eyes narrowed.

She blinked at how direct he was. "Sesshoumaru-"

And he was back to glaring at her, as if saying his name was the worst offense she could commit. "My intent was not simply to mate you for power, Kagome. What Inuyasha said is true. I can only see you as my equal, no matter how hard I try not to." He took her shaking hand and his eyes softened as he led her to the couch, pushing her gently so that she would sit.

She smelled his scent as his warm hand still held hers- a scent that covered her son and brought her back to the feudal era every time she inhaled it. She stared at him, eyes wide and confusion evident in her body language as he let go, walking towards a closet and pulling out a coat. "I will call my brother and tell him to drive you home. He has the money for you in his pocket, last I noticed." He stuck his arms through the sleeves and his eyes swept the room before spotting something across the room. He stepped towards the island in the kitchen.

Kagome tried to even her breathing again. She could do this.

"Sesshoumaru, before you go-" She forced a smile. How was she able to keep her voice this even? He turned to her, holding a watch and staring at her with brown eyes beneath black bangs. "Would you like to see pictures?"

"I expected my son to practice swordplay, not soccer," he commented as he leaned over her shoulder, staring at the pictures on her phone. "How does he manage to look so human?"

She continued flipping through pictures, finding one that would help her. "This," she explained, zooming in on the necklace. "It's a five yen coin I strung up. I infuse my reiki into it. When I first tried it, I thought it might help any human genetics show. He wasn't changing the way Inuyasha does on new moons."

"And you were not scared of purifying him?" he asked, disbelief evident at such a simplistic idea.

She shook her head. "When he was born, I had released so much reiki that any youkai in the room would have been obliterated." She sighed. "They didn't know what to make of his hair, and luckily the markings didn't come in until around six months."

"Markings?" She felt the question more than heard it; soft breath on her ear. How did they get so close?

"He looks far more like you than me. The pointed ears and everything. The only difference is no moon and one stripe per cheek and not two." The words were beginning to string together, and she felt her stomach churn. She'd been wanting this moment for so long and now that she was experiencing it, it was going by too fast. "I don't take pictures of him like that because I'm afraid if my phone was ever stolen someone might find them." Which was true, although she feared she was creating self deprecation within him at the same time.

There was a stretch of silence, and when she looked over her shoulder, he was staring at her.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering if there was something on her face.

He leaned in, closer so that all she could see was him. He opened his mouth, and she could feel his breath on her lips. "You are a good mother," he stated, pulling away.

She felt her face heat up. "Thank you."

He nodded. "I am sorry." He stood, turning once again toward the exit. "For everything. I cannot undo my mistakes, but upon my honor I will do all I can to help you from now on." He began to leave once again.

And once again she called out to him. "Sesshoumaru, wait." He stopped, as if on command, and rounded back toward her. She stood, closing the distance between them. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you for awhile now."

His eyebrow quirked up. "And what is that, miko?"

She smiled, tears welling in her eyes. She was emotional, but what she would say she would mean every word of. "Thank you. You gave me Hiroshi, and he's the greatest gift I could possibly ask for." She embraced him then, pulling him into the tightest hug he had received in years.

He stood there, motionless until she let go, head bent over but not enough that he couldn't spot the red tint covering her face. She pulled back a lock of hair and he could see the color had spread to her ears. "Sorry," she mumbled, taking a step back.

He was smiling when she finally dare to look at him. It was soft, and nowhere near as broad as hers, but it reached his eyes. She remembered it from years ago, when he had gazed at her with that same smile from above before kissing her everywhere.

"He wants to know you," she blurted out so she could stop her train of thought. "He's asking about you more and more."

"Will you allow me to know him?" the youkai countered, moving a step closer and once again ridding them of any space between their two bodies.

She tilted her head to look him directly in the eye. "I remember you don't share very well, Sesshoumaru-sama."

His eyes glinted with an emotion she couldn't place. "For you, Kagome, and for our son, I will try."

I was hoping to explain a little about mates in this chapter, but I couldn't think of where to fit it in. So instead, I'll save it for future chapters.

And crap! I didn't mean to write physical contact, but whoomp! There it is! Oops!

Thanks for the reviews, guys. I'm definitely putting them in perspective of this story. Although, I'm surprised you guys are reading this at all. So many of you have favorited and followed it and I expected one or two at the most!

Thank you!