Standard disclaimer applies.
BTW... major twisting of inu youkai ahead. Why? Well... because I feel like it :)
...
Sesshoumaru's Holiday Romance
Chapter Twelve: Hope
By: Luna
…
Sesshoumaru hesitated, but he was encouraged by the fact she was actually talking to him, so he answered honestly, unwilling to tell a lie. "Inu youkai cannot survive very long without a mate. Our feral side takes over, and we are often hunted down by our kind as a mercy killing before miko's or priests get to us first."
He realized his error when she flinched, but forged on. "Inuyasha suggested a spell a few hundred years after the Sengoku period, when it became apparent that my beast was taking over. I agreed. Tying our lives together made it possible for him to live longer than his hanyou blood would have allowed."
Kagome had an odd expression on her face, like she wasn't sure if she should be appalled or intrigued. "Are you saying you mated your brother?"
"Yes." He said, nodding. He snorted at her expression. "Not in the biblical sense. I merely tied his life to mine. He was already safe, for he had found Kikyo. Now both of their lives belong to me."
"So they've watched over you, all this time? Where was your body?" She asked, intrigued despite her intention not to be.
"In the depths of Aokigahara. The forest is so thick, and the legends and suicides that have been haunting the forests have helped to keep most intruders at bay. The ones that do come close are only there to die, and so were left alone."
Kagome shivered at the name of the forest. No wonder his aura was cloaked in darkness; he had been hidden in an evil place to begin with. When she voiced this, the look on his face had her breath catching.
"No," he answered quietly. "My power is dark because I am dark. I am not a nice demon. I never have been. In the thousand years that I have lived, I have killed many, and many have tried to kill me. I will kill any who stand in my way, and will kill any who threaten what I consider to be mine."
Kagome wasn't touching that one. She may not know much about demons in the modern era she was born to, but she did know enough. Enough to know that demons – especially Inu demons, since that was their nature – attached themselves to people quickly, and tended to tie with them irrevocably. She may have thought herself in love with him… but he was so dark, and she needed to think about what an attachment to him would mean.
She pushed aside that little spark of hope that whispered he was talking about her, and smiled airily as if she hadn't understood the underlying context of his speech.
Prompt: Hope
Posted on: December 12, 2011
Words: 450
Sorry, summerbirdy and dream, for going over the challenges limits, but I couldn't bear to chop off any more.
