Standard disclaimers apply.
A/N: Gosh, I love Wisteria. But I love you guys more. The upcoming chapter is all fluff. Major subtle Sesshoumaru cuteness ahead, enjoy!
Title: Wisteria
Chapter 53: Heart to Heart
It had been two days since he saved her from killing herself in her chambers.
The memories of that fateful incident were still fresh in his mind; he could remember the way her scent mingled with the metallic stench of her blood and his, and the way her distress rolled off her in waves to crash into his mind.
His hand was almost fully healed, courtesy of his demonic healing abilities, though there would always be the scar within his palm. But that scar would always remind him of how he managed to save her, and that was a thought more precious than anything else to Sesshoumaru. He had not spilled his blood in vain, and the excruciating pain from having a blade cut deep into his palm had been worth it, for she seemed to have seen the light. Not only had she initiated contact by throwing herself into his embrace, she had not flinched when he wrapped his arms around her.
Then he allowed her to cry in his arms, and it was not the silent flowing of tears which he had been seeing throughout the entire period of her recovery. Rather, it was the therapeutic sort of crying, where she allowed her pent-up emotions to escape. With every sob, she grew stronger, and he prayed she would be well again.
So all he did was hold her, until her cries died down, before Koyama, Jaken and a few of the other maidservants came forward to help tend to their wounds and clean the place up.
Now, as he sat on his futon in his personal chambers reading idioms by the candlelight, he could identify the refreshing scent of Higurashi Kagome from the other side of the shoji door. She had been standing outside his chambers for a while, but for some reason or another, appeared to be hesitant about coming in.
Then her voice came from the other side. "Are you awake, Lord Sesshoumaru?"
He placed his book down by the side of the futon. "Yes."
A pause, before she spoke up somewhat timidly again. "Can I come in?"
"Yes." Instinctively, he rearranged the lapels of his sleeping yukata so that his chest was entirely covered. Kagome was most probably on her way to a full recovery from her inner demons, but he did not wish to take the risk.
So the shoji door slid open slowly to reveal her kneeling outside his chambers. Her wavy black hair was not tied up like it usually was, and they tumbled over her shoulders in a very attractive, feminine manner. Her eyes were sparkling, standing out from the shadows shrouding her face as her slender frame knelt against the backdrop of darkness behind her.
His eyes caught hers, and the familiar feeling of his unexplained affection for this woman returned to his heart. The eye contact was maintained for a moment or two, before she broke it, bowing such that her forehead touched her hands which were placed on the tatami mat in front of her. Sesshoumaru acknowledged it with an incline of his head, and Kagome took it as the cue to enter his chambers.
Sliding the door shut behind her, she inched forward awkwardly, unsure of what she should really do. Now that the cloud of depression had been lifted from her spirits, self-consciousness seemed to have set in and there was a strange sense of awkwardness which now existed between them.
No one said a word, and their eyes met again. He tried to smile to reassure her, but the smile would not appear on his stoic features, so Sesshoumaru did something that brought a small smile to Kagome's lips. He leaned forward to pat the area of the futon in front of him gently in invitation for her to sit, to which she complied, gracing him with a gentle wave of her natural scent.
Her sparkling eyes looked up into his as she positioned herself comfortably on his futon. "I need to talk to you. I have so much to tell you."
He nodded, and she continued. "I need to tell you about myself. It is a lot more than what you know, and you deserve to know the truth, especially you are such an integral part of my life here."
Then she did something which he had not seen her do in a very long time. She extended her hands, and he looked at them in slight disbelief before holding them in his own. The thin layer of gauze wrapped around his palm brushed against the bare skin of hers, and she was reminded of how much she had put this man through while she had been struggling with her own misery.
"There will be no more lies." Kagome said with a steely determination. "I am sorry, Lord Sesshoumaru. I should not have lied to you about my true identity and taken your kindness for granted. Please forgive me."
He did not know what to say, and instead, settled for a nod. "This Sesshoumaru seeks your forgiveness as well, for putting you through all the hardship you suffered."
She smiled sadly and shook her head, trying to hold a few tears of relief and sadness back. "It was never your fault. I have never blamed you. Let's start anew, shall we?"
He nodded, squeezing her hands gently.
Somehow, the atmosphere lightened considerably, and a new promise to the future was made. Kagome decided to continue.
"It is going to sound so absurd, but I hope you can believe me. I do not belong to this era. I came from the future, which is approximately 500 years from now. The world of that time is very different indeed, and while the system still exists, we no longer chart our history according to dynasties and eras. For example, it is now the Sengoku period, isn't it?"
He nodded.
"The next period, in chronological order, would be the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Five hundred years later, I would be born in the late Showa period, and it is currently the Heisei period in my time. Although most of us prefer to refer to it as year 2009, or 2010…I don't know, I sort of lost track of the time."
Sesshoumaru's eyes widened; he had always thought the girl who was travelling with his half-brother to be strange in terms of her dressing and mannerisms, but had never expected to hear that she was from the future. How was it even possible to travel through time? Or was it part of the Shikon Jewel's immense powers?
"The world there is very different from what we have here. Everything's more convenient because of something we call technology, and there are many new words and terms as compared to this era. For example, the word 'MacDonalds', 'refrigerator', 'car', 'kiss'…"
"Kiss?"
"Hm-mm," Kagome nodded and smiled somewhat bashfully. "Remember? I taught you that term back in Ezo-"
"This Sesshoumaru remembers it very clearly indeed." Then he turned to look at her with a gaze that left her insides churning in an illegally delicious manner. "Will the term come in handy if this Sesshoumaru ever visits the Heisei era and interacts with the ladies?"
Kagome feigned outrage and looked at him incredulously. "Don't you dare!" She laughed and swatted him playfully on the arm. "That serves as a reminder to me to not take you to the Heisei era."
"This Sesshoumaru would like to go, if the well permits."
Somehow he reminded her of an adorable puppy begging for a treat. "Very well, we will go to the Heisei era as long as you promise to behave yourself."
"By which this Sesshoumaru interprets as kissing only Kagome and no one else." He smirked almost playfully. "This Sesshoumaru would gladly comply."
"Wait till I drag you along on my shopping trips." She laughed, trying to ignore the warmth that crept up her neck to reach her cheeks.
He shrugged sexily, and the left lapel of his yukata slid slightly to the side to reveal the top of his chiseled chest.
"So, how did you come to the Sengoku period?"
Kagome shook her head prettily, looking at him with a blend of wistfulness and confusion. "Back in my time, I live in a shrine run by my family, with my mother, grandfather, younger brother and a fat cat named Buyo. One day, I was dragged into an ancient well on the shrine grounds by a huge centipede demon. Strangely enough, I found myself in the Sengoku period when I climbed out of the well. It is most probably part of the Shikon Jewel's powers, I guess. There seems to be no other reason. But to cut a long story short, that was how I met Inuyasha. He saved me from the centipede demon, and that was how we got to know each other."
She felt his grip on her hands tighten upon hearing his half-brother's name, but Kagome decided not to harp on it. "Then I accidentally broke the Shikon Jewel, and began my quest to recover every fragment and shard so as to restore it to how it used to be. We started travelling. Along the arduous journey, we met a lot of people and demons. I met Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Totosai, Myoga-jii and…you."
"It was not a very romantic first meeting, was it?" Kagome asked with mirth dancing in her voice. "I was terrified of you, to be honest."
"You were on the half-breed's side."
Kagome figured that even though Inuyasha had passed away, part of Sesshoumaru still held on to the memories of their sibling rivalry. Whether it was a good or bad thing she did not know, but she did not really have any right to judge either.
"Are you jealous?" She asked softly, nudging him gently by pushing her hands in his direction.
"This Sesshoumaru is not."
"Then why are you holding my hands so tightly?"
Caught red-handed, the demon lord's hold loosened almost immediately. An awkward moment went by for him as he watched her try to conceal her amusement, before she said, "There was never anything too serious between us."
His eyes met hers again, and she saw his questioning gaze. "Did you love him?"
"I admit I used to harbor a crush on him, and there was a period of time when we were really close. But unfortunately, there were too many obstacles between the two of us. Emotional baggage from the past," Kagome thought of Kikyou. "The fact that we had more pressing issues such as the recovery of the Shikon jewel…so we never really got to the stage where we could start anything."
She cleared her throat to distract him from the growing blush on her cheeks. "So…I've definitely liked him, but I've never loved him. Love is…a different thing, now that I can compare the feelings."
He was quick to follow up on that. "Are you saying…you love this Sesshoumaru?"
Kagome's eyes widened before those large, expressive orbs darted to the side as if in deep thought. "Hmm…I wonder who is this stranger named 'this Sesshoumaru'."
"Do you love…me?" He corrected himself, watching her lips curl into an involuntarily smile of bliss which she tried to conceal.
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not." She tried to evade his piercing gaze, smiling the entire time, before squeezing his hands. "It is for you to guess."
"You've told this Sesshoumaru before, haven't you?" He said, watching confusion take over her features. "You mentioned, at the cliff overlooking the Okhotsk Sea, how you wanted this Sesshoumaru to whisper your name as we…"
Her face burned with the memory of it, and she feigned playful annoyance. "Since when did this turn into an interrogate-Kagome session? It was supposed to be me telling you about myself!"
He smirked as he too, tried to conceal the smile that threatened to ruin his ice prince image, and decided he should let her off the hook this time. Her bashfulness was probably what made her so adorable, and while their mutual feelings were so obvious to themselves, she was still unable to voice it out directly.
"Alright, this Sesshoumaru shall not pursue this topic. You may continue."
She smiled and pondered for a moment, trying to think of how she should continue. There were just so many things she wanted to tell and ask him, and she settled for the easier topics.
"I remember Ah-Un, Jaken, and the sweet little girl travelling with you. Rin, that was her name." Kagome recalled as Sesshoumaru nodded in agreement. "Where is she? Is she well? Why haven't I seen her in Edo or Ezo?"
"Rin is well. In fact, she is living with this Sesshoumaru's honorable mother in Hakata. If you wish, that is, if you really wish to, we can pay them a visit."
He studied her facial expressions, and sure enough, Kagome was once again blushing like an Aomori apple in the fall season. The yellowish candlelight from the lamps in his sleeping chambers made her look as if she had two terra cotta pink patches on her cheeks. But she was not the only one; he had surprised himself with his proposal, though he had meant every single word of it.
Kagome could not believe her ears. In the Japanese culture, especially of this era and time, to pay a visit to the parents of the man with whom you share a relationship usually signifies marriage and commitment. It was clear that Sesshoumaru did not merely like her or enjoyed her company; he genuinely envisioned something more.
Biting her lower lip, she nodded blissfully. "We could."
Just like what she had expected of him, he simply nodded in return, typical of the feudal era demon lord he was.
"Anyway, where did you go after the battle with Naraku?" Kagome asked, breaking the blissful yet slightly awkward silence between them.
"This Sesshoumaru made a trip to Hakata, where Rin was left with Mother. Mother is a Taiyoukai as well, and would be capable of protecting Rin. Rin would be in good hands, especially with the strict upbringing which would undoubtedly prepare her well for the future. Another reason for leaving her in Hakata was because Rin would be put in constant danger as long as the Shikon Jewel was in this Sesshoumaru's possession. It would be easier for this Sesshoumaru to travel alone with Jaken."
Kagome could understand where he was coming from; leaving Rin behind had probably been a very difficult thing for Sesshoumaru to do, but the child's well-being came first. Living at Hakata with his mother meant that she would be safe, and also, she would be able to lead a normal life where she could learn and grow instead of having to lead a nomadic lifestyle which would be inevitable with Sesshoumaru.
"Where did you go?" He asked, and Kagome realized how Sesshoumaru had just unlocked another box of memories and mysteries in her life. "How did you end up at Hanaka?"
"I have no idea, honestly. This has to be the greatest mystery of my life till date. After everything in the feudal era had been seen to, I was prepared to leave this place forever and go back to the Heisei era to continue my life there. Unlike Inuyasha, who handed three quarters of the Shikon jewel to you, I kept a shard of my own, intending to bring it to the future so no one can ever wish to complete it. Part of the reason was because I didn't dare to trust you with it, especially since I did not know you well, and you were always trying to kill us. I believed keeping a single shard in the future would deter power hungry individuals from attempting to pocket the jewel for selfish desires, and the bloodshed from all that fighting would stop. So I made my way back to Edo, intending to go through the well again, before I fell unconscious…and found myself in Kyoto's Western Gion."
From Edo to Gion…? Sesshoumaru was confused; he understood the common practice of buying or illegally abducting pretty young girls into geisha and courtesan okiyas, but to abduct one in Edo and transport her all the way to Gion was simply strange. Not only would it be troublesome, it would also be expensive; too expensive for common abductors. Kagome was definitely pretty, and would fetch a decent price if she was sold to the okiyas, but the price would never be enough to cover the cost of travelling from Edo to Kyoto.
"Was there anyone else at Hanaka who was found and brought into the geisha okiya?"
Kagome shook her head. Yanagi had been born into geishahood, Hinagiku had been sold to the okiya, while Hasu and Azusa had been adopted from the local orphanages…there was no one who had been found on the streets, as Oka had claimed her to be.
This added more mystery to the picture. Kagome should not be the only one if Hanaka practiced illegal abducting of young, pretty girls, and this only served to indicate a deeper purpose for Kagome's presence in the geisha house. There was nothing special to her if one did not know she was the Guardian of the Shikon Jewel, held a single jewel shard and hailed from the future. Whoever abducted her must have had a purpose, and it involved one or more of the three reasons.
Furthermore, an okiya with so much history and reputation like Hanaka did not adopt maikos easily; they had standards to keep up to, and traditions to honor. It was not that Kagome made a dreadful maiko, but the truth is, she was definitely well past the age for adoption into an okiya. Girls were brought into the okiya and were made to undergo stringent training since tender ages of perhaps, six or seven.
"Are you saying there might be more to what meets the eye?" Kagome was quick-witted, and Sesshoumaru could not help but feel impressed.
"Yes. However, that is merely speculation on this Sesshoumaru's part."
"There was something else…I remember smelling a very sweet plum scent prior to losing consciousness, and when I woke up, I was in a room in Hanaka."
A plum scent…
Something was very wrong, and every bit of information was starting to tell Sesshoumaru how everything that had happened to Kagome so far might be a lot more than a string of extremely bad luck.
Comfortable silence settled in between them like a gentle aura, and the demon lord was once again caught by surprise when the young priestess moved forward such that their faces were merely inches apart.
Her face leaned in to close the distance, before drawing back by a few centimeters and eventually summoning the courage to press her lips against his fully in a chaste kiss.
Then she pulled apart, leaving him to savor the sweet tingling sensation left on his lips. Her hand reached up to caress his cheek, reveling in his masculine beauty, before whispering sincerely.
"But of course, if I did not end up at Hanaka, I would never ever have met you. There was no way I could have seen you again if I had managed to go through the well successfully. It has to be fate. Maybe the Shikon Jewel helped after all; I had one shard, and you had three quarters of it…"
"Perhaps." He said softly. "It is late; we should rest and you can tell this Sesshoumaru more in the morning."
"Yes, my lord."
"This Sesshoumaru will walk you back to your chambers." He made a move to stand up, but a small hand wrapped itself around his arm, stopping him effectively.
"Can I…stay?" She asked, looking down into her lap.
She did not know the extent of the havoc her words were wreaking on his mind, but Sesshoumaru would be respectful and patient towards her. Kagome was making progress in her recovery, and he has to be careful with her, though it was really testing his self-restraint on many levels.
"Yes." He replied. Kagome was a constant temptation, but he had more pressing issues on his mind.
As he gently drew her into his embrace, dispelling the wisps of melancholy that resurfaced in her mood, Sesshoumaru could not help but ponder over Kagome's words.
…was it really Fate at work, or was it something else?
To be continued…
A/N: Woohoo! Extra long for you lovely readers. Of course, our brilliant demon lord has begun to suspect. Please drop a review and make me a happy authoress!
