The next morning, Touga woke me up at an ungodly time. "We are leaving to take Kikyo to an abortion clinic in Tokyo. Your aunt thinks that we are taking her on a biking trip, and the story is going to be that she fell off and injured her stomach and had to have surgery. She might call you, so just act like you didn't know anything except that we went out biking. Kikyo will probably be in the clinic for several days, so I am going to leave you and Sesshomaru here."

"Okay, can I go back to sleep?" He chuckled at me, and granted me permission.

Just before he exited, he whispered, "Use condoms!"

The old man's jokes made me laugh, and woke me up slightly. I looked over at my clock, and it was 5:00 A.M.

I took a shower, and afterwards used some of the makeup from my purse. My hair would dry straight, so I would look like I normally did.

I went into the living room to find Sesshomaru flipping channels on the couch. "Demons watch television?"

"Not unless they are very bored."

"Hmm… What do you want to do?"

"Show you some family history," He got up, and grabbed my hand softly (I almost squealed!). He led me by hand up to their attic, and he pointed to three large crates.

"This is only about half of what we own, but the rest is in storage."

"What all is in there?"

He easily opened the huge wooden boxes, and started pulling out sealed bags with kimono inside them. "These are inside here like this because they are very old and fragile, except for this."

He pulled out a large piece of red cloth that turned out to be an ancient men's garment. "This was Inuyasha's when he was just becoming a man, not that he is a very responsible one," he let me feel the fabric, "It is near-indestructible material, and it will be a long time before it starts to decay."

"This was the sword that Inuyasha and I fought long and hard over… Until we had to band together as a family, I rarely saw Inuyasha, my father, or Izayoi until about a hundred years ago when the humans started annihilating the demons who showed themselves to the humans.

"Anyways, my father gave us each a sword; he gave me a healing sword. I used to be very… Cruel, and destructive. I did wind up finding the uses of it when I grew more compassionate."

"My father gave Inuyasha a very powerful destructive blade. I can't even touch it, watch," he put his finger near the hilt, and it sparked at him. "He designed the blade specifically so that I could not wield it, and it did its job. It transformed into a very large, better looking sword than that, but in its human state it is not much to look at," It looked like a chunk of rust in a sheath to me, but he insisted otherwise.

"This was my sword, Tenseiga. It can save the life of an individual only once, and then they are on their own. When my human ward, Rin, was killed a second time, my mother helped me to bring her back from hell. That is the only other way that I know of to keep someone alive."

"Is your mother still alive?"

He sighed, and said, "I lost track of her about two hundred years ago, but haven't seen her since. I never got word of her death, so I suspect that she is still alive."

I wanted to get away from the subject for his sake, so I looked in the crate for another topic. There was a bunch of chunks of jumbled metal, and I asked, "What in the world is all of that?"

"It is battle armor," he lifted a piece of it up and out, and I saw odd spikes all over it. "This was my new set of armor just before we started to have to blend in as humans. It was only in two battles," He sighed, and continued, "demons normally wore this to protect themselves, because the only real way to kill a demon is to take off their head completely or do extensive damage to the chest."

"Wow… sounds like things were rough back in those days."

"They were, so I am glad that I was one of the most powerful."

I didn't really know what to say to this, so I asked, "So… if you chose someone as your mate, they would live forever?"

"Yes, but it isn't really known until something life-threatening happens to the person. Like, my father thought he had chosen Izayoi as his mate when she gave birth to Inuyasha, but she aged until she was around forty. It is very tricky, and I hope to mate you one day."

"Does mating require…?" He got my point easily.

"No, it just affection for one another. I may already have chosen you, but we wont know for sure until something bad happens to you… which we wont test that out."

"Good… Has anyone ever written a book about all this? It really would make a great story."

"We have to be discreet… My father has loads of money, but we can't buy the houses that we would enjoy the most. We would live closer or inside Tokyo, but we chose this place because it is more remote."

I sat for a minute, and said, "If we get married, and all that good stuff, the next time you relocate I will have to do so also?"

"I… probably. I have a much younger female cousin, Haruna, who lives on the southern coast of England, and I think that we may relocate there. Souta may come with us, if he wishes."

"That would be wonderful… You said ten years?"

"Well, in about eight and a half from this point."

"That means that if I live for a long time, like Izayoi…. I will outlive him."

"Haruna is unmated; she is actually matured to about a 7 year old child. She might like Souta."

"Funny, are we really setting up my brother?"

"No, just a thought."

……

We sat around, I ate, did homework and studied, and we talked most of the day. It was so strange, looking at Sesshomaru with stripes on his cheeks, and a moon on his forehead. I hadn't seen it last night, but there were stripes on his hands and legs also. He was so much taller than I; I was almost scared of his ridiculous height.

We received word from Izayoi around dinner that Kikyo was fine and well from the surgery, and that Aunt Ami had been notified. They discovered apparently that they didn't have to remove everything as they planned, but only part of her uterus.

"I suppose that the baby was already dead, because it didn't ever attach to the wall of her uterus."

"Why is that?"

"When human females bare youkai demon offspring, there are some species confusion and the baby will attach itself to the wall of the mother's uterus. These normally cause the female organs to shut down and never work correctly again, so that is why we had planned on having to remove all of it. But, it seems that the baby died somewhere along the line, and either detached or never attached itself."

"I am glad; will Kikyo be able to have children later on in life?"

"It won't happen on accident; she would have to go to a fertility clinic and have it made and put into another mother's uterus."

"I see… That's much better. We don't need any more Kikyo's running around."

"Very true, Kagome."

……….

The next day, around noon as planned, I went back to be with Aunt Ami. She was actually joyous that Kikyo was spending part of the week with Inuyasha and his parents.

"Oh, this is just perfect, now they must like her for sure!"

My aunt had me catch up on chores again, and afterwards I spent the evening texting Sesshomaru. I asked him, "Are you faster than the speed of light?"

"Yes."

"Show me how long it takes for you to be outside my bedroom window."

I only had to wait about 30 seconds, because I saw fingers holding onto my 2nd story window. I opened it up, and he climbed inside.

"You think the neighbors saw me?"

"No, they are gone for the weekend," I hadn't even thought about what the neighbors would think, but I am sure that they had seen Inuyasha climb down a few times.

"So… what do you want to do?"

I was lying on my bed, and he was sitting next to me.

"Hold still…" he leaned down to me, and caressed my neck with his face. He kissed me on the lips, and I was practically in heaven. Sesshomaru's now-long hair tickled my chest, and I thought I might just die from excitement. I had never even kissed a boy, let alone a big scary demon.

I looked up to see him lying down beside me. He put his hand under my neck while we kissed, and massaged the back of my head. I scooted closer to his body, and found it to be very warm.

Suddenly, he jumped up from our position. "Your aunt is coming, see you tomorrow."

He was up and out of my room in a flash, and it was when he was gone that I heard my aunt's footsteps coming up the staircase. He really did have super hearing.

"Kagome, Kikyo just called and she wants to talk to you."

"Okay, Aunt Ami."

She tossed the phone on my bed before I could get up from my upside down book I was pretending to read, and I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Kagome?"

"Yeah, how is everything there?"

"I am pretty drugged up with medication."

I sniggered some, and said, "How does your stomach feel? Sesshomaru told me that they didn't have to take out near as much as they thought."

"Nope, I am still a girl," I couldn't believe what Kikyo was saying.

"Um… You get your rest, alright?"

"I feel like I am floating up in the sky…"

I hung up the phone, and handed it to Sesshomaru. "Could you hear that?"

"Yes, very similar to when you were in the hospital last weekend."

"Very funny, those drugs really make you confused and silly."

"Good thing I never have to do any of that."

"You have never had surgery, and you have been around for 2000 years?"

"Demons heal fast, and hardly ever get sick. I once had a human illness as a small child, and have not had any problems since."

"Really? Well, when you go in for surgery you have to take off all jewelry, so they would be looking at this," I gestured to his huge, ethereal façade. I sighed.

I jumped up about three feet, and said, "Wait, when did you get back in here?"

He laughed his first true laugh at me, and said, "It took you that long to remember that I left, Kagome? Maybe I should mate you now, so that I don't wait too long and you have gone crazy."

I playfully hit his arm, and he hit me back. "Ouch, Sesshomaru!"

It didn't hurt, but I wanted to make him think that it did. "I'm sorry, Kagome."

"Ha, fooled you!"

He gave me an unpleasant look, and said, "That was not funny. I could have broken a bone in your arm."

"Oh cheer up, I was just kidding."

He laid down next to me and said, "Go to sleep, we have school tomorrow."

"Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Maybe, I have an idea. What if I do your chores at night, since I will be up anyways, and then when you get up in the morning you just have to pretend like you are doing them? Your aunt isn't smart enough to know the difference."

I protested, but he said, "I will be able to hear your aunt coming, so go to sleep. She is already snoring."

I laid down next to him, and curled up against his back. "I love you, Sesshomaru."

"I love you too, Cinderella."

…..