"I don't want to wake up," Kagome murmured into his chest, inhaling his heady hard to place scent. Strangely, it was tinged with another floral scent unnatural to him, but Kagome passed it off as a lingering smell of the gardens wafting in with the morning breeze.
In Kagome's humble opinion, morning came excessively early. The light prettily cast itself upon them. She tried to ignore it, she truly did. However, the demon lord under her always rose with its first rays-even when he didn't sleep (he would have to be seriously ill for anything to interrupt that). However, he did make certain allowances for her. He would lay there until the sun sat properly over the horizon.
It seemed that this morning was one of those mornings. Her pleas were falling in deaf ears. He simply hummed at her (although the sound was lacking an annoyance to it).
"Can't we stay here and have someone bring meals? We can stay here the whole day, you can rest, and I can monitor your condition. Don't tell me you neither need rest nor monitoring, you lost consciousness." Voice husky and thick with the sound of sleep.
She refused to open her eyes or turn her face towards him. To do either was a full acknowledgement of her awake-ness (talking did not count). Therefore, she stayed as she was. As per usual, the position she slept in was not the one she awoke. Her entire body was laying on Sesshomaru's chest, her head lay in the crook of his neck, both arms twinned behind his neck and her legs straddling his waists - basically, she was positioned for a front lift (or another type of lazy "ride" but Kagome quickly attempted to through those salacious thoughts from her head).
"Miko," his tail began drawing circles on her back. It was meant to wake her up but it only made her relax and sigh contentedly.
"Yes," she said around the sigh.
"We have plans-" He began
"Don't care. The West won't collapse because you didn't do the paperwork for one day. Have Jaken do it," She cut him off. There will be no plans today other than carefree relaxation with her.
She felt the warning growl rumble its way in his chest. She could just imagine him rolling his eyes at her. Well, tough. If she had to zap him into unconsciousness then she would (although she truly hated the thought of hurting him in any way). She may have turned her powers to more healing purpose but she was still a seasoned warrior (although Sango disagreed and blamed that turn for her "lack" of strength) and she would use them to enact her will-
Suddenly Sesshomaru sat up, secured her thighs around his waist stood, and walked straight out of the gazebo. There was no warning nor hesitation to his swift purposeful strides. In shock, Kagome twined herself like ivy around the redwood of a male strengthening his hold on her and carrying her higher up on him. She didn't even need to look down to know that if she were to shock him it would be a long hard trip to the ground.
A quick look around explained that the world was passing swiftly by, but not fast enough that she couldn't make out the semi-shocked and/or confused looks in any soldier, servant or court person that they passed (it was hard to be completely shocked by their antics after 7 years of Kagome's regular chaos-filled visits to the palace).
"Sesshomaru! Put me down, you need to rest!" she exclaimed, finally opening her eyes.
A moment later, Kagome found herself falling into warm water-clothes and all. She came up sputtering water like a dragon and barely heard Sesshomaru say, "You're up. Be ready in half an hour; we have plans."
He exited the hot spring quickly before her rage could be heard all over the palace. "SESSHOMARU!"
She hated yet loved when Sesshomaru got playful. It was usually when they were alone he would do it. But, it was usually to her detriment.
20 minutes later found her stomping to her room and swearing vengeance. Sadly, she had to leave her wet clothes on the floor and now had to walk naked with only a thin robe through the halls of the palace. What made it worse is that he purposely dropped her in the farthest guest spring from her room (which meant she received many heated looks from males who fought to keep their eyes off her).
Forget about not wanting to hurt him. She would knock him out and physically restrain him to his lavish bed for a week. She would write to his mother and ask her to visit... maybe that was too much.
She slid the door to her room shut so harshly that it rattled the frame. The closet was her final destination before outpouring her wrath on one daiyoukai who deserved it (sick or not). Upon opening the closet, she noticed that all her clothes (the simple village clothes that she came with or kept here, much to Sesshomaru's chagrin) were missing. Not that the closet was empty per se, it still held all the (extremely beautiful and expensive) clothes Sesshomaru gifted her over the years that she hardly ever wore (for fear of destroying it in her clumsiness). She turned around to her raised futon and noticed a folded blue fabric.
It was a new kimono. A dark, dusky blue covered in tiny silver moons that grew more concentrated the closer it travelled to her feet with a silver and black obi. He got her a gift (for what, she wasn't sure, but it was beautiful and quickly chilled the heat of her wrath to a simmer) and this must have been Sesshomaru's way of ensuring her wearing it.
That sneaky dog, he must have planned this since yesterday and if not for his fainting spell, she would have seen this last night. If she wasn't careful she would allow her heart to- it didn't matter. She was angry and she would on to her anger until she reached him.
Maybe she should write to his mother.
His mother. The journal. Her bath brought to mind where she hid it in all its smutty glory. She opened the draw with her jewellery and accessories and lifted the false bottom she had originally found it in. She sighed, it was still there, she would read it later. She placed the book back in its compartment and pulled out a comb from the draw before shutting it.
She moved over to her vanity and, to her surprise, there was a piece of parchment stuck in the corner of the mirror. Her heart quickened at what she knew it was another poem from her mystery writer with the flourishing kanji. This poem would be the 16th one she had received since being there (starting from the morning after she arrived). Her poet wrote her haikus, tankas, some hybridization and some non-Japanese styled ones. Today's was the fourth; a haiku mixed with a couplet.
Beauteous night bloom,
I choose to asphyxiate on you.
Thus, lies no regrets.
For the earth is hollow, and
I have touched the sky.
There was something different about this poem compared to the 15 before. It was tinged in the bitter-sweet tang of unrequited love. Too bad she wasn't a literary person to pull out its deeper meaning. So instead of hiding it away like the rest, she unfolded it and stuck it back where she had found it. Open. So that whenever she looked at the mirror she would see it.
The fuzziness stayed with her as she brushed her hair in a half bun with the delicate comb until she remembered why she was doing so.
Sesshomaru.
She would play his little game and dress to the nines then find him and kick his arse. These were the thoughts running rampant in her mind as though she was forever looping into a repeat sign at the end of the bar. It would have continued to loop into eternity (or seeing Sesshomaru, whichever came first) if she hadn't run into Kenta outside her room.
"Good morning, Kagome! You look lovely," he greeted.
"Good morning Kenta. Not to be rude, but why are you here?" She asked
"Sesshomaru asked me to bring you to him" he replied
"He did, didn't he? He hopes that you might soften my anger towards him for dropping me into the spring, or something?" she asked with a cynical sort of smile playing on her lips.
"He dropped you in the-?" he shook off the sentence, "I don't know what you do to him, but I'm just here to do my job and follow his orders. I am more scared of him than you right now."
"Oh really? Maybe I should beat you into the ground the same way I did 4 years ago," she threatened as she followed his retreating form. He glanced at a movement she made with her wrist and failed at suppressing his shudder.
They continued bantering like this until they reached the room Sesshomaru had been keeping her from these past few weeks. The doors were painted with a mural of a fluffy white dog burrowed deeply into a field of these black flowers and heavily asleep as a pale crescent moon shone upon it (although it was incomplete, it was missing the written phrase to tie it together). She had never seen these flowers before but couldn't help but feel familiar with it, like they had a significance to her.
"Are you sure you don't want to see me tell him off?" she pleaded
"As fun as that sounds, Ichika needs me in one piece. Can't have you killing me after all the work you did to have me where I am now: with her. See ya!" he said as he strolled back the way they came.
She waited until he turned the corner before facing the doors once more. She gathered all her courage and stepped through the doors, quickly closing them behind her.
"Sesshomaru" the ending syllable trailed off her tongue as she registered the new room. It was done in lush blues and greens with dark wooden furniture against the walls as if to deaden them. Most importantly, the room was filled with an assortment of instruments that appeared to be of the highest qualities.
"Miko," his voice slithered up her spine.
She whirled on him finding him standing behind her with Ichiro.
"Surprise 'Gome!" The child screamed launching himself to her. On instinct she reached down and caught him, placing the boy on her hip.
"You're wearing the kimono I picked out for you," he said pulling on her obi.
"You picked it?" she asked flicking her eyes to the quiet demon lord.
"Yes. I wanted you to look nice for this surprise so I asked a maid to take all your usual clothes to be washed. Are you angry with me?" He asked the last part unassuredly.
So it wasn't Sesshomaru. It was Ichiro who had gotten rid of her clothes not his father. That was one less transgression against him. "Of course not, moonbeam. I am very happy to have it."
"I did say that we have plans, Miko," Sesshomaru said. Sometime during talking to Ichiro, he had moved closer to them. "Allowing you to sleep would have gotten nothing done."
He had a point. When she slept, barely anything would wake her. If he had carried her to her room and folder to dress, she might have slept the day away (to spite him). Sad to admit it, her rude awakening is just what she needed.
"But all this... Did you forget my birthday is 8 days away?" She teased. It was the only way to explain the extravagant room (that was hers).
"This Sesshomaru knows that and has prepared accordingly." He seemed to boast.
"Why?" She asked simply.
"Think of this as a gift in advance for something you will do for me in the near future and onwards." He said with a blank face.
Why couldn't he give it to her when she did the thing?
"Also, Father thought that you have been sad so he wanted to return your smile to you. It's what an alpha does for his pack," Ichiro supplied. Seshomaru's turned his face away from her at Ichiro's admission.
Her smile? He thought she was sad so he built her her own music room. She thought back to the second day she was here, that's when she first noticed the work happening here. From the second day of her stay because she seemed sad (although she told herself she felt nothing). Even if Inuyasha's action made her feel alone and lonely, her pack-her family (no matter how mismatched) was in the West.
When he does things like this, her heart becomes traitorous and began wanting something she could not have. She would spend the rest of her unnaturally long life as his friend.
She launched herself (Ichiro and all) at him in a hug around his middle. Having grown accustomed to her, he reacted fairly quickly (after pausing) and reciprocated her action. She looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile that slowly spread to encompass her whole face.
They held each other for a beat too long and when he pulled away he took Ichiro with him. He found them a seat against a wall and said nothing. He stared pointedly at her and on a fundamental level she understood what was meant.
She picked up a shamisen, sat opposite the father and son and began playing.
I wrote this chapter about 3 times and i'm somewhat satisfied with this.
This may seem like a filler chapter but a lot happened in the details of this chapter.
Also, be prepared for Inuyasha in the next update, there will be a lot of questions to be asked.
And the ending for this chapter was inspired by Operation Smile by Chie. It's a one-stop and worth the read.