Sketch 11 - Familiarity

"So this one," Kagome said, leaning against Sesshoumaru's fur as she sat next to him, "is the one that won me the competition in the first place. "Inuyasha is only half dog but he always sits in that canine way, unlike you who are full dog, you sit like a human, no offense, seeming as you are likely to take that in offense." She turned a couple of pages, "and this one is him practising his wind scar with Kirara, using her demonic energy." She turned another page, "oh, and this one is of him and Shippou playing, well I say playing... it's more of Shippou pranking-"

Sesshoumaru stopped her by placing a finger on her lips, shutting her up instantly. "Are there any sketches that are not of Inuyasha?" He said that in a tone that was almost bored, well more bored than his tone usually sounded, it must be tiring to have a miko that never shut up show you picture after picture of your worst enemy. She repositioned herself so she was back leaning against the tree, she did not want him to behead her for touching his person without permission. She looked over at Rin who was sleeping soundly by the fire in the glow of the evening, so innocent and peaceful, it must be nice and quiet and peaceful in his pack.

"Yeah, I have sketches of all my friends," she replied, going back to one of her first drawings, the inu tachi. "Here I have one of Miroku, Sango, Shippou, Kirara, Myouga, and here are several drawing of my family, my little brother Souta, my mother, my grandfather and a good friend of mine called Kyo. I am compiling my pictures together to make an illustrated story, maybe I will say it to my son one day, which is Shippou by the way, I adopted him. But most of them are of Inuyasha yes, you see, to create a good picture; you have to draw something you are passionate about. What I am most passionate about in the world is Inuyasha."

She turned another couple of pages, surprised that Sesshoumaru was letting her do this, but in all honestly he did not have much of a choice seeming as he was not well or healed enough to get up and go. This is what one feels like when being shown a billion and one photos from another person's holiday and you just don't give a shit. But suddenly Sesshoumaru placed his hand on a page, keeping it open on a particular drawing. "You have a painting of this Sesshoumaru in your book," he noted, looking at a picture of him and Inuyasha fighting. He cocked his head looking at it from a couple of different angles, "it is not that bad, but the flowers on the sleeves of this one's haori," he said, showing her his sleeve, "are sakura, not daisies."

"Whatever," she replied with an eye roll, "this is what I was drawing right now." she had been working on it for hours so that Rin's skin looked correct in the light of the fire and Sesshoumaru's silver hair flowed the right way. It had been hard to draw Ah Un and Jaken without them there, but she thought she had handled it rather well. She labelled the picture 'Sesshoumaru's pack in the twilight'; she felt like she had had to draw it, even with two members missing, the night time background was just too good to pass up. "Do you like it?" He did not reply, he just turned the page, and his whole body tensed as he saw the fallen warrior, "you have drawn this one more than the once," was all he said, even as he read the comment written underneath the picture.

"So how did you end up in that situation anyway? It was not Inuyasha who managed to do that to you right?" It was not that she doubted Inuyasha's ability, he had beaten his elder brother a couple of times before, but as Inuyasha was getting better, so was Sesshoumaru. Furthermore, once the hanyou got the upper hand, it was unlikely he would have had a touch of mercy and let him live, Inuyasha probably would have killed him. "In fact why did you choose to tell him anyway, you must have known he was going to fight you for it? Why not let him find out on his own, he would have figured out she was dead eventually."

"No relation of mine should be so idiotic as to fraternise with the enemy, the clay pot passed information to Naraku, I simply wished to tell him and punish him for it with a beating. You draw well about what you are passionate about, Inuyoukai fight well for what they are passionate about. It would seem Inuyasha was passionate about avenging his dead bitch; he was prepared to fight for the death. He is a good alpha he is passionate about all of his pack and would die fighting for any of you, and for that, the Sesshoumaru was unable to hurt him further. He took this one's compassion as the sign of weakness it was and used the wind scar on me, this time, Tensaiga did not protect me and I took shelter in the woods in a comer to recuperate until you ad Rin found this one."

"Why do you speak in a mixture of first and third person?"

"This one trust no one but his pack, I speak with strict formality with anyone outside of the pack so much so that I do not use such pronouns and use my name."

"So why do you use a mixture with me?"

"You are an exception, this one owes you a debt for saving my ward and waking possibly a whole week before I might have done by warming me and healing some of my injuries, that is a whole week less I am in danger. Seeming as I am more familiar with you, this one is finding I am using third person in my speech less and less and first person more." What Kagome found funny was that his explanation was more or less consistent with Rin's, though she had not needed to explain it using so many words, once the little girl was comfortable in her presence she stopped saying Rin, and started to say 'I' and 'me' and 'my'.

"Well goodnight Sesshoumaru sama?"

"It seems backwards that once you become familiar with someone, you start to use the proper respectful terms for them, one would usually use such rules the other way around and drop the honorific once they are familiar."

"Was that you giving me permission to simply call you Sesshoumaru?"

"Perhaps, but I want an explanation first."

"Well, at first I hated you; you tried to kill me after all, and Inuyasha, and you shouldn't because he is your brother. But then you took in Rin which is an act of compassion, one I do not fully understand seeming as you always came across as such a cold blooded killer to me. Then there was just now when you did not kill me when I came across you like a feared you might do, and you told me you owe me a debt because I looked after a ward, something only a Daiyoukai of true honour would admit. Then there was you not killing Inuyasha out of honour too and I have come to the conclusion that I do not know you well at all."

She smiled up at him, "I do not know you well, this evening is the only real time we have spent with one another after all. I do not know you well enough to know all that you are, but I know you well enough to know what you are not. I do not think you are the cold blooded Daiyoukai you are at face value; I think there are so many more layers to you, you are a man, or a demon rather of honour, with a side that shows mercy and compassion, even love when it comes to Rin. You earned my respect Sesshoumaru, so now I pay it to you."

"So you did not respect me before?"

"No."

"Not even when I displayed my power to you by showing how easily I could kill you?"

"What do you mean?"

"That day when I almost killed you, were you not awed by my strength?"

"It was amazing."

"Did you not respect me for it then?"

"Not one bit. Awe and respect are two very different things after all. When you tried to kill me, I feared you, but I did not respect you."

"But you respect me now. Realize I am only being cordial and familiar with you because you earned my respect so I pay it to you in return."

"I know, I still respect you for it, because you are different to how I thought you were. So why are you not familiar with your brother, if you respect him."

"His hatred of me is justly placed, after all, I should have taken him in once father and his mother died, instead I chose to hate him as a constant reminder of my father's infidelity. Once he started to get too familiar with Kikyou my hatred of him increased, she never loved him, only tolerated him and wished for him to be human in order to be with her. When he met you, you are best thing that ever happened to him and through seeing his loyalty to his pack, which was you, my hatred of him dissipated slightly, and more with the addition of the monk and the slayer.

Then when he started to fraternize with the clay pot it came back full force, and I planned to punish him by showing him she was a traitor. Then I realized that he knew, he knew she was passing information along to the hanyou spider and he simply did not care, he loved her too much. He was risking his life and the lives of all his pack but he still went to see her, he didn't care so I decided to kill her to save him. I killed the parasite that was changing him ad I shall give him time, we will defeat the hanyou spider together and then I shall start on fixing the brotherly bond I should never have allowed to break and we shall be family."

"I have never heard you talk so much."

"It is like you said; there are more sides to me than originally meets the eye."

"Are we friends Sesshoumaru sama?" It was bold to ask she knew, but they were having such a nice conversation she needed to know.

"You may consider me a friend as long as you refer to me with the correct honorific."

"Of course Sesshoumaru sama. But while we are familiar with each other do not call me onna or miko please, call me my name, Kagome."

He nodded but did not make reply.

"Goodnight," she said quietly, she was asleep and did not hear the 'goodnight Kagome' that drifted on the night air back to her.