Chapter 10

Silence is a Virtue

The whole time, Shoji hadn't said a word as he carried Kagome and Shippo back to the palace and to her room, he couldn't. His inner demon was still bashing against it's cage to get out and go hunt down the mutt and his bitch who dared to try and touch her, and the kit.

He didn't completely understand his feeling, for the kit he did, it was only natural to want to protect one of your own kind, mainly when they was only a child, but her, he guessed he could use the excuse that these feelings came from the fact that it was his job to make sure her and the kid was safe. But he knew that was just that, and excuse. He cared for the little miko, already. He had only been around her for a couple days and yet not only him, but his beast was acting as if she was his long lost mate.

So lost in his own thoughts he almost didn't noticed the little strained sounds that came from the young woman in his arms but he looked down and saw that she was looking up at him with questioning eyes and opened her mouth to try and speak again only for the only sound to come out was one of pain and scratchiness. "Shhh, don't talk. You will only harm yourself more." He told her with a small reassuring smile to calm the worried look on her face.

But as she looked down at the kit in her arms then back up to him he realized that she wasn't worried for herself, but her kit. He didn't blame her, he had just told her that morning that when a demon went into their animalistic form without proper trainer it could be very hard for them to come out of it, and he knew that what she wanted to know was if he would go back to normal or stay like that.

"He will be fine. His inner beast came out to fight for you, now that it sees you are fine it will be calm and eventually go back in on its own and Shippo will take his normal form again. Right now his worry for you and the worry that he might come back keeps him like that, but it wont be long." He explained to her in a soft and caring voice and watched as she gave him a smile that he could almost read as a thank you.

Kagome hated the fact that she couldn't speak, but she supposed with demons who seemed to almost be able to read her mind it wasn't so bad, but she was the type that hated silence, and hated not talking when she wanted. So after giving him a little smile she sighed and rested a little more comfortably in his arms, her head leaning to the side to rest against his chest as her eyes closed just as they stepped in from the garden.

She felt so tired, though she supposed maybe thats what happened when you passed out? She did remember feeling almost the same other times she had passed out, only with the added annoyance of a super bruised and crushed throat.

It only seemed as though she had been resting her eyes for a second when she head a door slide open, then closed and soon she felt herself being put down onto the bed in her room. She opened her eyes as she felt him pulling his arm from under her to leave her there and as he freed his arm she allowed one arms to let Shippo go as he continued to lick and nuzzle into her neck and reached out to grip Shoji's forearm.

He had just been ready to tell her to get some rest and pull the blanket up over her and the kit when he felt her grab his arm and looked to her again. What he saw was a scared young woman who with her eyes, was pleading him to stay with her. He could have told her that there was no way that Sesshomaru would let that same mistake of the half breed getting on this land happen again, but he noticed right away that his beast settled down and a small pleased growl left him, rumbling his chest. And regretted that right away when she drew her hand away from him with a shocked and confused looked.

She wasn't a demon, she didn't know the difference between growls, he should have thought of that! So he gave her his famous sly grin and patted her hand to let her know that he was okay. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I didn't growl at you because of anything bad, was simply trying to comfort you." he told her.

Soon a smile came over her face and he turned slightly, not taking his hand from hers and sat beside her on the bed, instead of pulling the blanket over her and Shippo his long white tails came to rest on the both of them. "Get some rest. I'll be here." He told her and it wasn't long before she had drifted to sleep, snuggled up to Shippo, who he could already feel his inner beast starting to recede, and one of his tails that she had turned to use almost like a pillow, and he found that he didn't mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kikyo & Inuyasha~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That bitch!" He pretty much growled as he passed back and forth, Kikyo simply watched him from her seat on a cushion at a small table before calmly picking up the small cup of hot tea and taking a sip.

"Calm down, we will get her, don't worry yourself over it my love." She said in her sweetest voice, but it still seemed rather dead even to her own ears. But she knew it didn't matter, he knew she was happy with how things was going. As soon as they got the right chance, not only would Kagome be dead, as she should have been from their original plan, but she would have her whole soul back and could finally do the ritual to get a real, living body. "As long as they do not know about out secret weapon, they don't stand a chance."

She almost felt like smiling as he came up behind her and lifted her just enough as he sat down so that she now sat in his lap and could feel as he pressed his nose to her neck and breathed in deeply and seemed to calm right away against her back. "You're right. There is no way that wanna be copy of you could ever stand a chance against us." She couldn't help the laugh that came from her at this. It sounded so cold, and just wrong and evil, but she was just happy that she have him there with her and willing to do anything for her like a good dog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sesshomaru~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sesshomaru had spent some time just looking around, making sure that his half brother and his undead wench was no where around there waiting for another attack, and to his surprise they seemed to have just vanished, though he supposed that shouldn't have surprised him to much. With how Kagome told him how she started the fires before, he wouldn't be surprised at all if the former miko was now working in the dark arts of witches and dark mikos and had a trick like that up her sleeve.

But once he made sure they was really gone he made his way back and made sure to tell everyone his orders to not let anyone in without coming to get him first, and if any of them saw Inuyasha or his undead bitch they was to attack them on sight and have someone come and get him.

Once all this was over he made his way inside, he had planed to simply go to his study and get some work done, but something was still eating at him in the back of his mind to go and stay by the mikos side. So he instead went right by his study and to the guest quarters, the moment he came to Kagomes door he opened it without knocking and was greeted with a fiercely protective growl from his head guard before he seemed to realize it was him and calmed.

The sight he saw for some reason angered him, there was Shoji, sitting on the bed, with the miko sleeping with Shippo, but what got him was the fact his tails was laying on her like a blanket and she was even cuddled up to one as she slept. He knew for a fact that the tails was one of the more sensitive parts of a kitsune, and so they rarely let anyone even touch them, hell, some had been known to kill someone for even looking at them as if they wanted to touch them. It was a very intamate thing for them.

But he suppressed the growl that wanted to come forth, telling himself that this was what he wanted, he wanted them to get close so that he had a reason to keep her here and figure her out. But he still didn't like it. "Shoji." He stated simply, nothing different on his face or in his voice to show what he was feeling. "I need you to go and look within a twenty mile radius of here for any sign of them. I'll stay here with the girl and kit while your gone."

Shoji got a feeling within him to snarl and demand he stay there with his miko, she was hurt because of the last time he had let her out of his sight, but he knew that it was silly, he couldn't disobey a order, and there was nothing to worry about from Sesshomaru with her. He would watch after her. So he nodded and stood only to remember at the slight pull of his tail that not only did she have one of them, but he had promised her he would stay there with her. So bending over towards her he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a little shake. She opened her eyes almost right away and gave him a sleepy little smile.

"I have to go on patrol, I'll be back soon." He told her softly with a smile, but as her own faded and worry took over he felt as she held to his tail a little tighter, not enough to hurt him, but so he knew she didn't want to be left alone. "Sesshomaru in here, he will watch over you while I'm gone." He told her and watched as she looked over to him and then smiled and looked back and let go of his tail. He regrettably swished it away from her before turning away and leaving the room, not shutting the door on the way out, he didn't know why, he just didn't like the thought of Kagome and Sesshomaru in a closed room by themselves.

As she watched him leave she couldn't help but sigh towards the empty door, she liked having him around, he was comforting. And believe it or not, just as talkative as she was so even though she couldn't talk right now, she knew that had she been awake he would have been talking to her and even understanding her silent side of it.

But as the door closed her unfocused eyes came into focus and she saw that the great demon lord, instead of simply waiting outside the door or even in the doorway, he had closed the door to stay in there with her. And if that wasn't surprising enough he started to make long confident strides over to her before sitting in the spot Shoji had been in only moments ago, and she couldn't help the shiver that went down her spine as he looked down at her, his face still of stone but with something swirling in his golden eyes that she couldn't place. "Let me see your neck." He told her and she was taken aback again that day by him for not first referring to himself in a third person, it almost made him seem a little more down to earth and all she could do was nod her head to him and roll over onto her back again.

As she did this Shippo seemed to move right along with her, to continue the licking of her neck where the claws had gone in so Sesshomaru still didn't get a good look. Reaching his hand out he went to pull the kit slightly away from her and was greeted by a protective growl from him. She saw that the demon lord didn't seem to get angry about this, no growl came from him or a demand, at least not a verbal one. But she did feel his energy flare. It didn't feel threatening even to her as most demon energy did and after a small whimper to show that he didn't really want to, Shippo stopped his licking and moved his muscle away so that he could see.

She almost wished he hadn't when she felt fingers touch her and another shiver ran up her spine, making her shiver as if she was cold. It wasn't from fear this time though, she couldn't explain it really, but it seemed that he thought it was from cold, or his moko moko did... Did that thing have a mind of its own or was it controlled by him? She didn't know but it reached out to her from behind him and seemed to slither off of him like a snake and made its way over her. But she couldn't get her eyes off of his even as he looked from her neck to his fluffier half then back as it seemed to wrap around her.

The open wounds had healed completely, he was sure it was thanks to a mix of her own miko powers and her kits healing saliva, but even if it was gone the kit still wanted to make her better, it was just to bad that he wouldn't be able to fix anymore that way and was really only just irritating the area now, he was sure that at this point it was even starting to become somewhat painful for the little miko to have him do that. So he looked to the kit who was watching his hand carful, ready to go right back to what he had been doing as soon as he took it away.

"Kit." He said, his voice had actually come out a little different then normal, almost like it would if he was gently trying to tell Rin something. And once he looked up to him with only his eyes he continued. "You have done a very good job at healing her wounds, but if you keep on you will only be hurting her." He told him and had he been anyone else, he would have wanted to laugh when the fox growled at him, but since he was Sesshomaru he just let out a little sigh before moving his hand from her neck and onto the kits large head, with a quick shot of his energy he was able to do two things. He was able to get the child's inner beast back into its cage, causing his to change back to his child form in a blaze of foxfire that burned nothing around him, and put him to sleep.

Though as soon as the miko realized what he had done he could smell the worry from her as she pulled the kit to her. He simply looked back to her neck, looked at only that as he spoke. "He is just sleeping. That was the easiest way for him to change back. If it was up to his beast he wouldn't have until you was completely better." He told her simply in a calm voice that somehow didn't sound as cold as usual, and he wanted to kick himself for that.

What the hell was wrong with him! This miko was nothing to him. As he placed his fingers around her throat to see how tinder the area was he realized that he could just kill her now if he wanted. Who needed answers at the risk of ones own sanity? But said loss of sanity stopped him before he could even try. Well that, and the fact the miko had been brave enough to place her hand on his as she looked up at him.

When he looked to her blue eyes he saw there was slight tears from the pain he was causing, but that wasn't why she had placed her hand on his, it was only to get his attention, and as soon as she did she took it away and used it to act as if she was writing with something. He supposed she wanted something to write on, could she really be able to write as well as read?

He was just about to call for someone to go and get a blank scroll and a inkwell when she pointed to the corner of the room to her large yellow bag. When he looked back to her, her eyes was almost pleading with him to just bring it over to her. Maybe she had something in there to write with already? That seemed like a rather bad place to keep ink at, it could spill and that ugly yellow back could become spotted with black.

But he got up anyway and went to the corner, picked it up by the straps on the back and brought it back over. He noticed that as he had gotten it she moved herself around, moved the kit to sleep on the other side of the bed and sat herself up. He could feel that she had tried to take the moko moko off of her, but it wouldn't let her go so she had simply let it stay on her lap and wrap around her waist.

As he sat back down on the side he placed the bag in front of her and she started to dig through it right away, pulling out different things that he didn't really recognize. But he would ask her about it all, but first. He flared in energy and almost right away a older servant opened the door and bowed to him. "Bring some mint tea for the miko." He said simply without even looking to the woman and knew she would do as she was told as the door closed and he hears her steps heading away from them.

By the time she got everything she wanted out she had a text book and a notebook open on her lap and a pen in her hand ready to start some school work that she had put off much to long. After all, she didn't want to try and have a entertaining conversation with Sesshomaru, or maybe it was because she did and she was trying to run away from the strange feeling she had gotten with him there touching her and checking up on her. "What are these things?"

Breath caught as she looked up at him wide eyed, thankfully he was looking at her things and not her though because she couldn't help her reaction. He had sounded so much like a curious child just then, not the cold killing perfection. But she quickly caught herself and flipped her notebook to the back few pages and started to write something, once she was done she handed it to him with a little smile and watched as he took it and read it.

So the woman could write? And it seemed she was using it to answer his question, though he still didn't completely understood things. A textbook? Pen? Notebook he supposed was pretty self explanatory, it was something to take notes in, it was the thing he was holding now that seemed to be bits of a scroll cut up and put back to back like a book with lines to write on, so he guessed the other book was the 'textbook' and the thing she was using to write was a 'pen'? Giving her back what she called a notebook he looked to the pen then back to her. "How are you writing with that thing without a inkwell?"

A little more scribbling and no inkwell still, was it magic of some sort? As he was handed the notebook again he was also handed the pen and took both. So the ink was inside of this thing? He started to look at it, he could smell ink in it, though it smelled a little different then the ink he was used to and seemed to be thicker and stick to the paper much better. In the tip of the pen where the ink came out he could see that it didn't drip or anything, it would only come out when it was used to write and he couldn't help but to take it and write with it himself, nothing great, he simply signed his name to the bottom of the page she was writing on. It was smooth and much more easy to work with and his signature came out even more perfect then it ever had before.

This continued for quite awhile, he was kind of like a curious puppy she found out. And because of this her time wasn't spent in silence and she hadn't even noticed that she was smiling as she explained different things. The servant with the tea had come and gone and though Kagome normally didn't like mint, and she was sure it would hurt her throat, it actually helped to sooth it and took away some of the pain, though she still couldn't talk without it reversing it again.

Shoji sighed as he finally got back, it had been hours even though he wanted to hurry he knew he couldn't, not only because it was his job, but because he wanted to make sure Kagome was really going to be safe. But he was happy that he was back now, he could go back and watch his little miko sleep tonight, it was already dark and he had missed dinner but he hoped she had not, though he wasn't sure what she would actually be able to eat. Well even if she hadn't he was sure she was at least resting comfortably.

Or he figured she would be, but as he made his way closer to her room he could hear things moving around in there and see that there was burners going in there to light the room. "You mean to try and poison me miko?" He heard the voice of his lord, though he sounded weary of the girl, he seemed to be speaking more freely and he couldn't help but wander what he had meant by that. But what he really didn't like, was that the door was closed and they was in there alone.

Walking up he opened the door and what he saw... Well he really didn't know what to think of it. All over the bed was things he didn't know, his lord was sitting on the bed with Kagome who had his moko moko draped over her shoulders for warmth, and she was trying to put something in his mouth? He had never before gotten the feeling that he wanted to fight his lord and best friend before, but now he did. And what made it worse was he had ignored the fact he had even came in, both of them had, though he was sure Kagome just hadn't noticed him.

That may have been because she was leaning forward with a big bright smile, trying to put some sort of small brown piece of something into his mouth. Of course Sesshomaru didn't look amused by this at all, and he couldn't help but think that he could and would kill her if she continued. But before he could get his attention to him instead, Sesshomaru went to open his mouth to speak and the moment he did she quickly placed it in there and yanked her hand back as if she was scared he would take off a finger with it.

Sesshomaru could feel the displeasure radiating off of Shoji and was just about to acknowledge him so that maybe the miko would forget about trying to make him try something she called chocolate, but as he did he suddenly tasted something and his normally calm eyes went wide. He was ready to spit out the damned thing when he realized that not only would that make him look rather silly and childish, but it was actually pretty good. So instead he closed his mouth and let it melt in his mouth as he chewed it until it was gone.

And once that was done he didn't even have to say anything to Shoji because Kagome looked over with a big smile, waved at him and broke off another piece of the stuff and put it into her own mouth before offering him one too.

Stepping forward, a small smile now on his face now that he had her attention instead of Sesshomaru. He sniffed at what she was holding out to him before raising a brow to her. "What is this stuff?" He asked her but it was Sesshomaru who answered because of course she couldn't. "She calls it chocolate. Some sort of sweet food from her time." He supplied, and seeing as it hadn't killed him, nor had he killed her for making him eat it, he reached out, took it, and popped it into his own mouth.

He couldn't help the big smile that came to his face, it really was rather good for something that was human food. The only thing that made him even more happy was when Sesshomaru stood and walked towards the door, and without even looking back said, "We will talk more about your time when you can actually speak." And then just walked out shutting the door behind him. Though it would have made him even more happy had he taken his moko moko, he knew there was no way he forgot it, he could feel everything it felt after all.

Kagome just nodded and it wasn't until he had left and shoji sat down and started to help her put things away that she noticed that there was a fluffy white boa still holding onto her. She tried to take it off, she really did, but it just wouldn't let her go. Even Shoji, having seen her trying reached for it, but quickly yanked his hand back as if it had just shocked him and growled at it. He didn't say anything else about it but he didn't seem pleased ether. So she just shrugged her shoulders about it to try and show that it wasn't that big of a deal and gave him a smile, and he smiled back even though he still didn't like it.

Once everything was put away and the bag back in the corner she seemed to finally notice just how tired she was and rested her head on the pillow again. He couldn't help but feel a swelling in his chest as her eyes fluttered closed. She really was a beauty. He also couldn't help himself as he pulled the blanket over her and Shippo as he leaned down and placed his lips onto her forehand and as he pulled back he saw that she was smiling and had gripped his hand sleepily. "Sleep well little Kagome." He told her but didn't move to leave, instead he sat himself down and let her hold onto him as he listened for her breathing to slow to show she was sleeping.

AN:

Hey everyone! I'm SOOOO sorry it's taken so long, I've had no internet and the library wouldn't let me use a usb drive so I had no way to update for you! But I've been working on it even though I couldn't with the hope that I would be able to someday. Finally I was able to convince him to let me do it! So I've started to edit past chapters, mostly just spelling errors, but the first one dose have a little bit that was changed.

I hope you still enjoy the story and I hope you give lots of reviews!

Love you all! 3