His heart skipped a beat and he felt a tremendous weight lift from his demonic shoulders when he saw her flashing that radiant smile. The trials of dried tears on her lovely face could be seen slightly when she happened to turn her head at the right moment so that the morning light filtering through the window could capture their outline, but ironically enough her luscious lips were pulled into a tired, endearing smile. Sesshomaru loved that smile, that simple, almost mindless, gesture that made his world stop. His mind whirled and wrapped itself around the thought of her smiling at him, and only him, for the rest of eternity. At that second in time he knew that here was nothing he would not do to see her in such a state.
Kagome had been sitting in the familiar room, reliving that horrible night once more. It seemed as if it was not enough for whatever god there might be to plague her dreams with such images, but now they found fit to her haunt her even into the world of the waking. Two years of love, trust and hardship had been abandoned in a matter of a few hours. Didn't he remember her holding him in her arms on the nights of the new moon, his constant promises to protect her from all that would cause her harm, the timid kisses they shared anything? She had been so sure that even if he did not love her in the way she had spent so long loving him that they would always have something. Apparently not, her tears and pleas had done nothing to stall his unwanted advances from the prior night.
Hearing the slight creaking of a door, she gazed up and couldn't help but smile. Her savior had entered the room, looking like a man drowning in his own consuming worry. His broad shoulders were sagging like she have never witnessed and his eyes held much plainly visible regret and remorse. Standing on weak, wobbly legs she slowly made her way over to his slightly less regal form and threw herself into his muscled arms.
The lord was so stunned that it took him a moment to regain enough awareness of his situation to wrap his arms around her petite form. Pulling her to his toned chest, his mind let go of a huge sigh of relief but his beast still growled crude things at his vulnerable mind about what a failure he was as a mate, a protector and simply a male in general. How could she ever take him back when he was such a weakness to her? Why should she even consider it? "My Kagome, this Sesshomaru…" he sighed, not used to what was this called? Oh, yes, apologizing. "This Sesshomaru is…is sorry for failing you. You had placed your trust in my, believing my promises of protection and they were not fulfilled." Never, in his hundreds of years on god's green earth had he ever done anything so difficult. He was practically proclaiming his weakness to the entirety of the world. A small part of him wanted to find some way to blame this on the female in front of him, to say that she was not strong enough. But, he could not do any such thing to a creature so pure and full of kindness. The great lord of the western lands braced himself, preparing to speak the hardest words of his long, infamous life. "Pet, this Sesshomaru will understand if you do not wish to let his suit be furthered. It is only to be expected that a strong female such as yourself would…would see…would see this Sesshomaru as we-we…we…"
Kagome knew what he was trying so desperately to tell her, and some part of her understood his inability to say the word. The demon in front of her held much more pride and honor than she would have ever thought possible in any one being. A usually dormant part of her knew that saying a word such a 'weak' would be admitting his lack of many more things than a simple promise to one such as herself. Pushing away from him, she tilted her head up and locked her electric blue eyes with his honeyed-amber orbs. "Sesshomaru, you are most certainly not, as you seem to be trying to proclaim, 'weak' in any manner. How could you say that you failed me? You saved me! If you hadn't shown up I would have lost so much more than a bit of my pride and dignity. Besides that I would never call off your 'suit' as you say it. I promised that I would stay with you for a period and I will."
Sesshomaru, meanwhile, was astounded that she could feel any pull or a need of any sort to fulfill her promise to him when he had so easily broken his own word. Any demon bitch would have most certainly walked out on him by now. Perhaps they truly were created for one another. Suddenly, he remembered his gift. "Kagome, I wish to show you something very special to this Sesshomaru." He eagerly watched her face for any negative reaction, but was once again stunned beyond imagination to find none.
She had sensed the need and hope in his voice, but could he possibly have to show her that was so important? "Alright," she smiled up at him. Before she knew she had been scooped up in seeming iron-made arms and flying towards an unknown destination. She felt her eyelids drooping from her lack of sleep for the past few nights and was soon asleep, snuggling into Sesshomaru's mighty chest.
Sesshomaru watched his beloved as she dozed off in his arms, thinking on how lucky he truly was. Soon, he landed in an empty field, filled with knee high blades of yellow, golden, light and dark green, brown and tan grass and reeds. Interspersed between the colorful pallets were hundreds of thousands of western wild flowers in vivid shades of purple, crimson, fire-orange and baby blue. His mind brought him back to a past time when he had also seen fit to inhabit the grasslands.
Flashback
Sesshomaru, a pup of only 50 summers, ran through the fields, protected by the watchful eye of his mother. The current lord of the western lands, his father, had dropped the pair off at the spot they currently dwelled upon as he was on his way to another one of his increasingly more frequent callings of the court. To the nobles of the land, a calling of the court was a way to come together when one of the members had important royal business to discuss. Of course, being the lord of the land, his father was the only court member would could personally call together a gathering and summon members.
He looked back at his mother and two tiny fangs became visible as they poked out above his little lips which were pulled into a grin. Because his father was always so busy, most of his time was spent with his mother. She had taught him how to read, write and was currently teaching him about the rules and ways of sums and the customary traditions of the court.
Skipping back to the female demoness he cried, "Mama, mama, mama!"
The woman gave her pup an endearing smile and swept him up into her surprisingly strong arms. Her son, her little Sesshomaru, was now and had always been the light of her life, especially under the current circumstances. She did not know if her mate thought her stupid, or was simply that daft himself, but for some months now he had been calling these court meetings or at least that was his excuse. The woman knew that he was breaking a most ancient dog demon rule with his unfaithfulness, but loved him too much to expose and dishonor him in such a manner. Each day she felt her once fiery soul die a little more. Soon her wonderful pup would be old enough and she could simply let go and end her own immortal life. "What is it my pup?"
The young inu had watched his mother's face and had smelt the sudden sadness radiating form her in powerful wave, tainting her normally beautiful scent. Burying his nose into the familiar crook of her neck, he spoke, "Mama, where does papa go all the time? He never used to have this many reasons to leave us."
She chuckled to herself at the unknown truth her pup had spoken, but this was only another problem. How did she tell her son that his father no longer felt fulfilled by this one life? Sighing she said, "Do not worry my pup. In time you will understand. But promise me one thing, son."
Little Sesshomaru would have, at that moment promised his mother anything to be able to sense her faint happiness again. Yes, even at his young age he had noticed how the woman, how his mama, was hurting. "What mama, anything!"
It was amazing and recently quite eerie how much her little boy looked liked the man that had once promised her his demonic heart. For a moment she wondered if her InuTashio had been as adorable in his youth. "When you find yourself a mate, Sesshomaru, make sure you do all you can to make her happy, do you understand?"
"But mama, girls are icky," was the only reply from the little boy before her ran back into the flower field to continue his games.
End Flashback
But this time Kagome was fully aware of her surroundings and waiting patiently for her companion to come out of his musings. When he golden eyes turned to her once again she spoke, "Sesshomaru, it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen."
"It was a favorite spot of my mother's. She used to bring this Sesshomaru here often during his pup-hood." Looking across the field, his mind conjured images of his own pups playing the tall grasses just as he had, the only difference being that he would be watching over them with his mate, unlike his father. At that time he felt a sudden need to ask Kagome if she wanted pups, more specifically his pups. "My Kagome…do you ever think about pups? Do you want to be a mother?"
Slightly taken aback by the forward question, it took a moment for her to regain some semblance of composure. In all honesty she had always wanted children, but she knew that his question was more specific than that. The man before her wished to know if she wanted to have his children, a thought that at one time never would have occurred to her. She weighed her words carefully and answered, "Hm, I have always wanted children, or as you say pups, but truthfully they were always fathered by Inuyasha."
Sesshomaru felt his demonic black heart drop to the bottom of his chest. Demonic instincts urged him to take the bitch here and now. 'She is ours! Our bitch! Get her with pup! She will be bound to us…have to stay away from others males! Pup her!' As he fought against his inner voice, his eyes bled a crimson red. The only thing holding him back was the issue of her trust. He knew that he could not live out his days with her hating him. Even her slightest discomfort caused him unbelievable worry and pain. Remembering how he had scared her with his demon for he turned away, not wanting to cause her fear.
Kagome watched the hurt flash across his face, followed by anger and then saw him turn away.
The questionably sane demon lord stiffened when he felt a hand a small hand resting on his face. Turning around he saw the compassion in the girl's eyes followed by the words, "But now I can't help but think about having pups with…you, Sesshomaru." The last two words were whispered so that it was heard, even for the impeccable hearing of the demon lord to pick out.
Deciding it was the right moment, Sesshomaru pulled a beautifully blooming rose from under his silk kimono top and held it out to his chosen, "Kagome, this was given to my mother by my father. There is no other in the world of its kind, for it will remain forever in bloom as long as the giver lo…lo…cares for the receiver. This Sesshomaru gives it to you so that you will always know of my feelings, even if I am not with you."
Mouth hanging agape, Kagome nearly fell over. Never, not evening her wildest dreams, had she pictured something so romantic. Throwing all rational thoughts out the window, she leaned over and was about to press her lips to his soft pale ones when they were interrupted by a maniacal laugh and she was pushed behind Sesshomaru.
"Well, well, well," they heard, "What have we here?"
Okay, first of all thanks for all the positive feed back. Secondly, 3 of you voted for Hiten, 3 of you voted for Bankatsu, 3 of you voted for Yoko, 2 people said not to include any and then 1 person said anybody except Yoko. So…if you seriously want one of these guys to be included please vote, all of your opinions on the matter are appreciated. Also, I would like to say that I was inspired with the idea for Sesshomaru's gift from a HP fiction story. It holds only a vague similarity, but I would like to give credit nonetheless. Also, I've had people ask for a lemon and people ask me not to write one, please tell me what you think. And lastly, just, did you like it?