HAIL

He moved, slow and purposeful, and was met with a sigh.

It tickled his ears, fanned the warmth pumping sluggishly through his veins, a sort of calm he hadn't felt in a long time… one that wouldn't be dampened by the air working its way under his robe and kissing a chill up his spine. He'd begun to find that freezing caress almost comforting, even as it numbed his skin, lifted the hairs on the back of his neck and his fur… almost sweet, the way it stung his nose when he inhaled, trailed an icy line down his throat and into his lungs. It burned, but not nearly as much as the woman that surrounded him.

Beneath him, Kagura gasped―a soft little sound that he'd grown to crave―followed by another sigh. Her eyes fluttered, unfocused, her lips parted as she breathed in time with his slow thrusts. The cold hardly bothered her, engulfed in his fur as she was, her hips propped up to ease his access―he felt the pull when she inhaled, the wind moving, in and out, in time with them as he moved within her.

Kagura sighed, and the fingers loosely wound in the furs above her head tightened their grip, her hair fanned out in a mess beneath her head, her arms stretched when she craned her head back, baring her throat, along with her next inhale. It gave him a delightful view, one long line from the crook of her jaw to the place where they joined, that wet heat between her legs, open to him with her knees hooked over his forearms. The strength had gone from her legs hours ago, she'd given up on trying to hold them steady, but Sesshoumaru was more than willing to compensate, to press her back as he pressed in…

His hips stuttered and a gasp caught, he paused, watched the bob of her throat as she swallowed it down―her pulse fluttered, she blinked, her eyes rolled as she tried to focus on him, a furrow formed in her brow as their eyes met―she breathed out slow, gave him a look that he had begun to understand too well.

Don't stop.

He snapped his hips, thrust deep, and that delightful little gasp met his ears again.

The wind was ice at his back, but Kagura was warm and welcoming, far more than he would have ever thought her to be. Beneath him, around him, letting him in so easily, as if she was not a very force of nature, a storm trapped in flesh―

She sighed, and he breathed with her. Kept a steady rhythm, despite the heavy feeling in his limbs, a sweet sort of fatigue that weighed him down and slowed his thrusts. As loathe as he was to admit it, even he could tire, though it was a satisfied sort of numb, even as the pleasure coiled in his belly…

He shifted, brought a hand between them, a thumb at her core―her head rolled, half lidded eyes tried to focus on him again as her breath stuttered, she pulled her lips between her teeth, mouth swollen and stained with the remnants of her lipstick. She stretched her arms higher, swallowed, and this time he was met with a soft moan.

She twitched, squeezed around him, and he deepened his thrust, as far as her body would allow―his thumb stroked in a slow rhythm, his hand pressed down on her belly, hard enough that he could feel himself inside her.

Kagura bit her lip and raised her hips and when she inhaled he was sure the room grew hotter―that icy chill from the open doors replaced by something mistier, like the first kiss of spring―and then her hand joined his own, increasing the pressure of his thumb and speeding his circling, she bit her lip―and then she was spasming, arching her back as her legs shook, her chest heaving and her rapid heartbeat almost deafening―Sesshoumaru thrust hard, deeply, and in fast succession, fucked her through her spasms until she was boneless, limp beneath him… he felt the thread in his belly unravel, his own pulse quickened, so much so that he thought his ribs might crack with the sudden warmth that flooded him―

He inhaled, steadied himself, still deep within her. Kagura was quiet, one arm slung over her eyes as her chest rose and fell with each breath. He breathed and when he pulled away from her she let out a sound something like a whine, high pitched and low in her throat as she rolled to her side, away from him but deeper into his fur.

He could no longer tell where his scent ended and hers began, so embedded was it in his synapses, in his fur and the grooves of the tatami floor, something fresh and so at odds with the ice that dragged its way down his throat. He inhaled, let it linger on his tongue…

Her shoulders rose and fell with each deep breath she took, the lapel of her collar fell away from her shoulder when she shifted, and exhausted as she was she seemed in no hurry to replace it. While he could persevere in the face of the winter's cold, he much preferred the warmth of the hibachi, but Kagura… the wind flowed through her, around her, and while he knew she felt the chill, it hardly seemed to bother her. He'd tried closing the doors as the morning had worn on, but she'd only open them again when he turned his back.

Uncomfortable stuffed up in a room, it still shocked him that she allowed him above her.

Her collar slid further down, revealing the briefest glimpse of marred skin and stealing his gaze.

Four years ago, he hadn't recognized it for what it was, but now, covered in her scent and the remnants of their coupling, he knew exactly what the spider shaped burn that scarred her spine meant.

Maybe once, when she'd been a nameless youkai who'd sought to make use of him the same as her creator, such a thing would have curled his lip―there was a phantom ache, a sharp pinch in his belly, the ghost of a smile―but the woman beside him now, with a name he'd breathed into her hair enough times for it to be embarrassing… she'd wormed her way into his bed, and in spite of her past and the scars that proved it, he had little intention of letting her leave just yet.

He lifted his hand, lightly tracing the line of her collar. He hadn't touched her skin, and whether she'd felt his intention or had finally woken from her post-coital haze he wasn't quite sure.

"Again…?" She turned only a little, so that he could see the flutter of her lashes when she rolled a crimson eye in his direction, still a little unfocused. He shook his head. Kagura let out a relieved sigh and turned back away from him, but―

She tossed her hand back, let it fall across his chest as she gave him several small pats before her hand settled, over his heart.

Sesshoumaru breathed, and left it there.

…

A/N: short chapter because i thought y'all deserved some simp sesshoumaru in these trying times