Benevolently Unbound - A Sesshomaru Romance
Hours spent locked up in this room. Passing like a caged animal; nothing satisfying the mind. The sun was too bright, the air too cool. Not even work dulled the sense of … something that had no word.
The human girl-child had taken up residence in my estate with no protest. I didn't even say she could stay. I didn't say she need leave either. Pacing back and forth I watched the sun move bit by bit across the sky. The woman had a way, some force to cause me to be uncomfortable. In her presence she waited like a doting child for orders to do something. Never impatient, always available and never still; The woman cleaned from sun rise to days-end and never missed a thing whether it was calling for tea or Jaken and his blasted pestering blabber. And worse, outside her presence I found myself off topic. Papers needing be signed ended up with thoughts of what that confounded woman was doing. If I dropped something I wondered what she her-self was cleaning and if a curtain so much as fluttered I wonder if she did the most mundane human chores like dusting. If I grew hungry I wondered what food she might create with her pale and nimble fingers and how she learned such things when her life was a secluded one.
"Secluded." The words felt like saw dust in my mouth. She had spent years in solitude and confinement. Her only experiences outside of her sheltered world were ended with death greeting her with open arms. Lords, demons and human we're her enemies. She was a human like no other and had no place. Humans would torment her and in their presence she would have no quiet in fear of her 'abilities'. Demons hated and ate humans. They were cattle to the slaughter and would never except her under any circumstance. Whether human or demon; people of status would seek only to abuse her further.
Solitude and impatience got the better of me and I made for the door, but my senses picked up footsteps from the next room.
'She is awake.' I stood a moment listening in silence. In my efforts to return her to the only place I could think of, I placed her in the room next to my own. It was convenient at the time. The sounds of something being tossed around, doors opening, closing and swinging made me wonder.
'What is she doing?' My ears picked up more sounds and then the main door opened and slammed shut. Jaken's voice entered my head and he muttered something in frustration.
Then silence.
'What am I doing?' I made for the door again, but then Rem's door opened. Footsteps in the hall faltered and then stopped. They were light as if she weighed no more than a few pounds. Silence again. I noted that I was talking only to my-self and in my own head. I admonished that I would not listen and cower in silence like a human thief. I opened the door and stopped again. Rem stood and glanced in a trance like state at a picture which hung from the wall; a picture like few others; my mother. More startling was what she wore. She wore clothing of mine from my youth. It clearly didn't fit her as she clutched it tightly to hold it up while the top was nearly falling of off her arm.
She turned after a moment of standing while my hand still rested on the door handle.
"Sesshomaru-sama!" She spun on her heel and her face drew blood from everywhere else and gathered in her face. An interesting human response. Onethat I did not understand in the slightest. It had no purpose what so ever, but was never the less interesting.
"I'm sorry. I didn't have my clothes so I put the ones on in the room there and they are too big and I was just looking for string to tie them… I-I'll be out of your way."
I was amused that she managed all of that in one breath. Even more so that she didn't think of who's clothes she might be wearing. Demons, a man's and what was worse, ones that even if tailored would never fit. The image was amusing and yet I found something else troubled my mind. Some thing I could not explain, place into words and hours later when I thought about it, would not be able to explain why or how.
"String... 'She is a seamstress as well...' That may be found in the room second from the end." I pointed down the hall with my eyes still on her. Did she not care what she looked liked? That she had dawn men's clothes? My clothes? Somehow that thought bothered me less that I would have assumed… She is wearing my clothes... Nothing. No irritated reaction at all... 'Interesting.'
"Hai… Did you need anything else of me?" I turned my thoughts back to the business at hand.
'Yes.' Belatedly I realized I stood staring absentmindedly at a woman in my clothes holding the door wide open. I shut the door and Rem passed by for the room I had indicated. 'You never did answer her.'
"Thank you, Sesshomaru-Ue." Not ever having been titled 'Ue' before. It startled me... and I found myself watching her as she walked away. Ue… meaning 'above'… a high amount of respect... garnered for a human woman. What had I done to deserve this honorific from her? 'Did it even matter, she is only human.' Something made me irritated with my own comment...
"Woman…" Suddenly I realized with growing curiosity and agitation that I'd stopped seeing her as a human girl-child and more as a 'woman'… What does it matter what I think of her or no? Years of her placement in a house with high rules had surely taught her this knowledge. Yet there it was; a word and level of humility she would never have given willingly considering her background of torment… and yet here he stood… honoured as Ue…
After an hour of pacing absentmindedly and avoiding such tasks as the running of my estate, I returned to my room and found myself instead at Rem's door. My hand moved without checking itself and rapped against the door. The sound startled me and I drew a step back wondering if I should just leave. Why leave...? It is my own home. My voice even in my mind sounded unsure as to what exactly I was doing. Was such a thing even possible? I am being foolish.
"Come in." A few solid heart beats and I opened the door, forcing a neutral tone to my face; it didn't feel composed.
A quickly inhaled breath made me step through the door with some amount of anxiety for some reason.
Has something happened? Could something be… wrong?