A/N: This chapter has a bit of a lemon to it, so read at your own discretion.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Before the Dawn

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome cried out and then threw herself at the father of her child. Her arms were around his neck and her face buried in the hollow of his throat. He smelled like the outdoors — pine trees, spring water, and sweat. It reminded her so much of the Feudal Era she felt tears spring to her eyes. She could feel his pulse race where her lips touched his throat.

It didn't matter than he'd broken her heart, taken her innocence, and abandoned her bloody and sore in the depths of hell. As the priestess that was charged with destroying the Shikon no Tama she had a duty and regardless she would have had to leave him. It was her own fault for letting her feelings for him and her fear of losing him lead to her reckless behavior — but she didn't regret. She couldn't.

Tentatively she could feel Sesshoumaru wrap his arms around her, one clawed hand cupped the back of of her head and scraped her scalp gently while the other held her close stretching across her shoulder blades. There was such strength in his arms that she allowed herself to relax against him.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize when I wished upon the jewel that it would return me here. I had so much I wanted to say to you, to the others. I wasn't ready to leave," Kagome whispered.

"That's ancient past," Sesshoumaru said. She could feel him press a kiss to the crown of her head and then he pulled her back away from him far enough so that he could look into her eyes. "Today, what happened?"

"I have holy powers, greater than what they were when you knew me. They were sealed within me. That's why in the past I needed to use the bow and arrow to direct my attacks. I help one of the local temples to banish evil spirits. Where are all the youkai?" Kagome asked. She reached up and traced the colorful magenta stripes on Sesshoumaru's cheek, the crescent moon on his forehead.

"There was a treaty to keep the humans safe from the youkai and to keep the youkai's lands from being encroached upon by the humans. That's why I wasn't able to come to you before. The treaty forbad such interaction, however, I followed you tonight. What was that thing that threw you from the window?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"I believe she's my enemy, not just today, but the original enemy that created the Shikon no Tama," Kagome said. "When I faced Naraku I could see visions, memories even. The jewel was created so long ago. It returns because none of the previous champions have made the correct wish. I guess this means my wish wasn't right either."

"It came from ancient China, didn't it?" Sesshoumaru asked. "I spent many years researching it's origins. I believe the original champion was Emperor Wu of the Zhou dynasty and his enemy was the kitsune Daji — the favored concubine of Emperor Zhou of the Shang dynasty."

"I remember Wu, he was in my vision," Kagome said. "Shiro, he's a descendant of Miroku and Sango, he and I went to investigate a haunted jade bracelet. However, it was an elaborate illusion. It was all an attempt to introduce me to the Shikon no Tama so that our battle might begin once more." Where was the jewel? She'd taken half of it before she was thrown out the window. She began to look around frantically.

"It is here," Sesshoumaru said gesturing toward the small table between the bed and his chair. "I would release my hold on you, but I cannot sense you if I am not touching you. Do you know what kind of magic this might be?"

"What?" Kagome asked, she was relieved to see the half of the Shikon no Tama that she'd collected. She turned to look into Sesshoumaru's golden eyes. She was entranced by the depths of them. They were no longer the cold eyes of a youkai lord — they were the emotional almost human eyes of when she had first fallen in love with him. "What did you say?" she asked again.

"What magic keeps me from sensing you. When you first returned to this era I saw you leave your family's shrine. You went into town to collect food and then I could never find you again," Sesshoumaru said. "It drove me to the brink of madness."

Kagome thought back to that first devastating day. The moments of that day were ingrained in her memory. "When I returned Shiro was waiting for me. He gave me this," Kagome said. She held up her wrist with the rosary beads wrapped around it.

Sesshoumaru sniffed the beads and drew back with a cringe. "That would explain why I couldn't find you — it masks you from youkai. Shiro should have told me he was planning to do such a thing. But that doesn't explain why I was unable to locate the Higurashi Shrine again."

"You know Shiro?" Kagome asked. That couldn't be true. Shiro knew that Sesshoumaru was the father of her child. Why would he keep such an important thing from her? She had a right to know that Sesshoumaru was live in this era!

"Indeed, I am the reason you haven't wanted for money in these past few years. Your human friends started a small fund, but it was I that contributed to it over the generations. I adopted Shippo. He is the reigning Lord of the Western Lands — I grew tired of politics. I was the one responsible for enforcing the treaty. Shiro was the human liaison and I the demon representative between our two people." Sesshoumaru angled his head so that his nose was pressed against Kagome's neck and he sniffed deeply. "I can hardly believe I finally found you."

"So you can only see me if you're touching me?" Kagome asked. "I could take off the rosary perhaps."

"No, it is obviously protecting you from all youkai indiscriminately. I do not want Daji to track you here." Sesshoumaru nipped her neck lightly. "I can see you with my eyes, but there is a haze about you that my mind struggles to see past. Youkai see with more than our eyes — with sense the chi of others, we smell them, and we touch them. I will just have to not let go of you."

Kagome moaned under his gentle touch. He lifted her into his arms and settled her back on the bed. He braced himself over her with one hand on either side of her face while Kagome kept her arms around his neck keeping contact maintained between them. Sesshoumaru pressed a kiss to her forehead, the tip of her nose, her cheekbones, her chin — skipping her mouth, the hollow of her neck, the swell of her breast from where it peaked over her blouse.

"Let me just—" Kagome said as she slipped her arms out of her sleeves and lifted the shirt over her head. She tossed it to the empty chair. Sesshoumaru didn't answer, merely growled as he worked his way with his mouth from her breasts to her belly. He paused above her pants line. He gave her a confused sniff. He then moved one of his hands to trace around the flesh of her abdomen. Pregnancy hadn't destroyed her body, but it did leave a pair of stretch marks that had never quite faded no matter the amount of cocobutter she slathered on.

"Kagome?" he asked, his golden eyes questioning.

Kagome closed her eyes briefly and sighed at the loss of Sesshoumaru's mouth from her flesh. "Sesshoumaru, as much as I'd love to continue our reunion and reacquaint ourselves with each other I need to tell you about our son," Kagome said.

Sesshoumaru abruptly sat up, no longer touching her. His eyes went wide in panic and she felt him grasp her arm, his claws pinched her skin. He took a deep breath. She must have vanished from his senses the moment he wasn't connected to her physically. "That night, I left you with child?"

Kagome bit down hard on her bottom lip and nodded. "He's a precious boy. His name is Kilik."

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and lifted Kagome up and into his arms and cradled her in his lap. "Kilik. And I suppose he's about four years old now?"

"Yes," Kagome said.

"I want to meet my son, Kagome. But first, I want to make love to you. I took from you that time in the dungeons. I've spent the last five hundreds years wishing I had just a little more time with you. We will leave at first light. Tonight, let me make things up to you," Sesshoumaru growled as he clutched Kagome possessively. He traced his clawed finger across the marks on her stomach. "I put these here."

Kagome wanted to tell him that Kilik was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She didn't want him to feel guilty. Ever since she'd been trapped in the modern world and hadn't seen her old friends she'd thought that Kilik was her only link to the past.

"Will he be safe until morning?" Sesshoumaru asked.

She thought about how Inuyasha's spirit had been guarding over her family all these years. "He'll be safe until morning," she reassured him. Her brother Souta was also fiercely protective and Akemi and Shiro would no doubt go to her home when they are unable to find her.

Sesshoumaru pulled off his shirt and Kagome's eyes feasted upon his pale flesh. His body was littered with battle scars that he didn't have in the past. The last five hundred years must have been rough for him in more ways than one. She traced her fingers over a particularly gruesome knot of scar tissue over his right pectoral muscle. What kind of injury didn't heal on a youkai as powerful as him?

"Tell me what happened to you?" Kagome asked. She began to nibble on his neck.

"Hm, can we talk later?"

"I want to know what happened to you," Kagome said. She pulled back and forced his head down so that they could meet eye-to-eye. "Did you marry? Did you sire other children? I won't be mad. Five centuries is a long time. It was only four years for me and it felt like an eternity."

"No, I didn't," Sesshoumaru said. His eyes were drawn together in a frown.

"No, really, I won't be mad. A mistress maybe?"

Sesshoumaru sighed and brushed back Kagome's hair. "Are these human insecurities? You want to assess our relationship status?"

"It's a fair question. I just, I haven't seen you in centuries and I want to know what I'm getting into this time. I'm a single mother, I can't just sleep with a guy for fun. I'm not a teenager anymore."

Sesshoumaru's right eye twitched. "Have you? Slept with guys for fun?"

"Of course not!" Kagome said pushing away from him.

Sesshoumaru didn't release his grip on her and kept her close. "I remained celibate. I couldn't risk fathering a child that might contest Shippo as my heir in the Western Lands. Noble youkai women are especially cunning. They'd have killed me in my sleep as soon as one became pregnant."

"But, how did you release your pent up frustration?"

"I killed things. A lot of things," Sesshoumaru said with a cold smile. He raised one of his hands and wiggled his fingers. "And I now have two hands."

Kagome laughed and then she twisted out of his lap to lay back on the bed. She pulled Sesshoumaru down on top of her. "Let's see what these two hands of yours have learned," she said. She unhooked his belt and slipped it off from his waist and then shucked his pants down his hips. The same magenta strips that adorned his wrists and cheekbones were also found on his thighs.

She wondered what other surprises were in store as she had a chance to actually examine her lover. Their first time together was rushed, unromantic, and in a dungeon in the netherworld. Now, they were alone in a cabin in the woods and she had the whole of the night to explore Sesshoumaru's body and for him to explore hers.

The realization that the Shikon no Tama had returned and that she would once again be forced to fight evil hardly mattered. All that mattered was that Sesshoumaru had found her and he still wanted her. And she wanted him.

OOOOoooooOOOOO

Sesshoumaru held Kagome's naked body close to his and absently trailed his fingers up and down her side. She felt soft and pliant against his hardened flesh. They were wrapped in the fur blanket of his bed. He felt truly content for the first time — in possibly his life. His woman was back in his arms and she was relatively safe for the time being. He was a father. He remembered the dream from when he was a human of a four year old human boy that possessed the same physical appearance that he had.

The dream must have been prophesy. The last five centuries had been a challenge, but they were important in shaping him and honing his skills. Perhaps in the past he wasn't able to help in the defeat of the jewel and Kagome had failed in stopping the curse. Time had provided them both with experience and wisdom. He would help Kagome destroy the Shikon no Tama once and for all. And this time he wouldn't let her slip away from him.

He clutched her possessively against him. She was his now and he would not give up without a fight. He'd travel to the very pits of hell for her if he had to. He'd been there before. He wasn't about to let some disgruntled kitsune spirit from three thousand years ago ruin their lives.

Sesshoumaru sniffed her hair once again. She now smelled like him and he liked it. His thoughts drifted to his son, Kilik. What would he have done had he known that Kagome had returned to this world pregnant? If he had spoken with her before Shiro interfered could he have brought her back with him to the palace of the Western Lands? Would he have been present for the birth of their son?

Did Kilik have any special powers? It was unheard of for a priestess to carry the child of a youkai. Her holy powers would terminate the youkai fetus by inadvertently purifying it. However, Kilik was obviously alive. He was sired by Sesshoumaru's human form while he was cursed while in the depths of the netherworld. Exactly what kind of life did he and Kagome create? And was Kilik's special properties the reason Shiro kept Kagome and her child a secret from him?

"Are you going to sleep?" Kagome asked. Her fingers brushed lightly over his shoulder — they were calloused from her use of the bow. It would seem that despite her modern life she kept her archery skills.

"I'll sleep later, right now I just want to enjoy this," Sesshoumaru said. He kissed her softly on the lips and spread his palm across the small of her back. Kagome smiled against his lips and when he pulled back she snuggled against his chest.

He needed to think. If Kagome made the wrong wish on the jewel back in the Feudal Era they needed to dissect the wish for its faults and figure out what the right answer might be. He wouldn't survive losing her or their son whom he'd not even met again. He'd placed too many hopes and dreams upon his reunion with her. He could only hope that the fantasy he'd built in his mind would match up with the reality. She was only mortal.

He would contact Kouga and have him bring back a message to Shippo. They were the only two allies he truly trusted amongst his own race. He hadn't seen his mother in many years. Shiro said that she had been involved in the masking of Kagome's family shrine — why would she keep such a secret from him! With the loss of Inuyasha his faith in the youkai had significantly been reduced. Things were so much simpler in the past before Japan opened her ports to the rest of the world.

If he had his choice he would find a way to travel back through time and bring Kagome and their son with him. They deserved to live in the palace of the Western Lands. He'd wronged Kagome by using her in the past. He thought he was about to die so when she offered herself to him, who was he to refuse? It didn't matter now. Sesshoumaru clutched his arms around Kagome's light frame. He wasn't about to let her out of his life now.

The sun was rising too quickly for his tastes. It had been five centuries since he'd been able to touch and speak with Kagome. She was currently curled up and sleeping against his side. Her frail human body seemed so small compared to his larger frame. How did one make up for five hundred years of absenteeism? As an inu-youkai he considered Kagome his mate and as royalty he didn't have the luxury of sewing his wild oats as the humans these days did. He traced his clawed fingers over the skin of her shoulder and down the curve of her naked spine.

She moaned at his light touch.

Sesshoumaru leaned over her and kissed her just under her ear, then down her neck, and then he paused at her breast — paying particular attention to her perk nipple. Kagome's eyes flew open with a gasping breath and she arched her back. Sesshoumaru slipped one of his arms under her and while his mouth kept at her breast his other hand crept down her side and he slipped a finger into her lower folds. He would take his time. There would be no ramming into her unprepared. They'd already been intimate thrice that night, but the sun was coming and in the morning they would have to leave the cabin and welcome reality. And as soon as daybreak happened they'd leave the cabin hidden in the woods and meet his son, but for now he would take his time and enjoy their reunion.

A/N: Special thanks to serenityselena, sam-u-knw, LoveInTheBattleField, Blueberry Babe, llebreknit, Silversun XD, GiggleboxGirlie, alicemhale, wiiTneSs, and .10 I really appreciate you taking the time to review!

2/9/2014