Thirty-Nine

Sesshoumaru's gaze slanted to the side, nostrils flaring. Her scent was strange; a variant of Naraku's but less miasma infested and more sharp, like the overpowering tang of perfume.

Ruby red lips curved upwards as Kagura rested her fan against one shoulder.

"Why are you here?" he asked, short and to the point.

Kagura sighed, gaze becoming flat at his less than impressive response. "Such pretty faces are wasted on men with dry personalities," she grumbled to herself. "Naraku is distracted right now and I have information for you, so here I am."

"Ah," Sesshoumaru's claws twitched near his thigh. "Another attempt to sway me into killing him?"

The wind sorceress' expression tightened, "I'm doing you a favour. It involves Kagome. Since you've taken a shine to her, I figured you'd be interested."

This could easily be a trap devised by Naraku, using Kagura in a flimsy attempt to try to mask any evil intentions. Sesshoumaru inwardly smirked. Let him. He felt willing to step into any pathetic scheme, just to see how things played out. He'd always emerge victorious. Kagome's words briefly came to mind, warning him to be more mindful of his pack's protection.

Stifling a sigh, he inclined his head.

"Go on."

Kagura shifted, eyeing the carnage behind him a touch warily. "He plans to interfere on the night of the New Moon. He's obtained...something. Its incense. I'm fairly sure he's going to use it to boost Kikyo's powers, as I can sense they'd been blessed, infusing them with some sort of holy energy."

"He seeks to aid the dead priestess?"

For what reason?

She nodded, "I imagine it's to keep you away, locked behind her barrier like last time. If you don't want to be separated from that woman, I suggest finding a way to break through holy powers. That's all."

"How very illuminating," he uttered, golden eyes sliding away. It wasn't like she'd told him anything he hadn't already expected, though admittedly time was running out to deal with the dead miko's barrier and he'd been...distracted as of late.

"You could sound a little more grateful. I risked my neck coming here!"

"No one asked you to, and your motivations are self-serving. This one owes you no thanks."

Kagura bristled, removing the feather from her hair with dissatisfaction pinching her lips, "forget it," she snipped, throwing her arm up with an explosion of power. Her elegant form burst through curling smoke, riding atop an enlarged pink feather and gliding away upon it.

Sesshoumaru tossed his head, rolling one shoulder and deciding to take to the air, heading in the opposite direction. Despite his unruffled words, the gears in his mind began to turn. It would do no harm to prioritise finding a way to break through the priestess' barrier, lest Kagura's warning come to fruition.

His brows drew down slightly. It had been a few days since Kagome had left. She'd promised not to tarry.

Was she hindered from returning?

Thinking about the miko automatically drew his thoughts to soft lips upon his flesh- and Sesshoumaru growled. Enough, he shook himself.

She'd done nothing. Absolutely nothing to merit such a strong reaction. He could sense Kagome's confusion and hurt towards his newfound distance and attitude, but the Daiyoukai simply refused to allow her near again until he regained control of himself.

Until he could firmly bury the spike of rapture her mouth had elicited. Pleasure had sung down his spine from the unexpected sensation.

The action meant nothing. She'd merely deviated a little from her intended mark upon his jaw and planted her mouth on the underside of it. What had rattled Sesshoumaru, shook him to the core- was the unexpected discovery of a sensitive area on his person not previously known to him.

He knew his stripes to be sensitive. He took care to allow lovers access to certain areas- and restrict them from others. Sesshoumaru kept control during sex. Always. He decided the pace, the pose. If they had a problem with it- then they could get lost. He never surrendered as much as an inch of access to vulnerability.

He'd allowed the miko close- because he hadn't thought of her as a potential lay. She was Kagome. She was needy- blisteringly warm pieces of a broken, sharp young woman. She required closeness to sleep, but admittedly he'd taken it further. Sesshoumaru had indulged in inuyoukai language; something he'd witnessed but rarely expressed with others.

He could remember witnessing Mother and Father standing upon a porch, brushing cheeks quietly, tenderly- so very clearly.

Sesshoumaru shook himself, lips thinning. There was a kind of safety in Kagome's ignorance. He could experiment with little brushes, nudges, caresses, and she accepted them, was comforted by them. It had been mutually beneficial, as it satisfied something primal inside him to communicate in such a way.

But in his lack of caution, she'd broken through his carefully crafted persona and touched him. Reached him.

As only a potential mate could.

Sesshoumaru did not know how to feel about it, only that it was preposterous. He would bury these 'feelings' and go back to normal. She was pack now.

That was all.

His brow twitched, slightly troubled- for he could not remember when he'd started thinking of her as pack to begin with.

After spending a few hours gathering everything she'd need for an extended trip, Kagome panted, lugging her shopping up the unending stairs to Higurashi shrine. Souta noticed her struggle and hurried down, helping her carry some things.

"Why do you have all this stuff? Mom wants you to stay here, you know."

"I know, squirt," she grunted, heaving her heavy backpack. "But I have to go back."

Souta fell quiet, "you're gonna make her upset..." he mumbled, his voice almost lost under the distant noise of a hammer continually striking into something hard. Kagome dimly figured construction work must be going on somewhere close, though she hadn't seen any. "She's worried about you. We all are. What'll it take to make you stay? You can have my Game Boy if you want?"

Kagome paused, glancing at him with a hint of guilt. "No, Souta. That's your prized possession, I couldn't do that," hefting the straps of her heavy load up on her shoulders, she continued climbing the stairs.

"Then take my walkie talkie!"

She snorted. "You lost the second one. I'd just be talking to myself on it."

"My furby?"

"No one wants that demon spawn."

"My-"

"Souta." Kagome stopped and looked down at him. "I'm going. There's nothing anyone can do to change my mind. There's stuff that has to be fixed, and if I don't do them...that means Naraku won. I worry that'll impact the future. It'll affect us here."

Brown eyes widened, dragging down to his shoes as he considered this, seeming to understand the gravity of her words. "Oh..."

A slight smirk touched her lips. "Hey, but if you can beat me in a fight, maybe I'll reconsider and stay here."

"Wha-!?" Souta gaped, looking up at her. "That's not fair! You're way bigger than me!" he whined as she cackled. His expression changed, morphing into something complicated and assessing as she laughed. "You know, you've changed Kagome, you don't usually talk like that."

"Huh?" blinking, some heat touched her cheeks. She faced the path ahead, speaking a little softer, "I guess someone's bad habits have rubbed off on me."

The 'clank!' of a hammer seemed to be getting louder.

Kagome frowned, unease inexplicably niggling at the back of her mind.

The hammering lured her closer, until Kagome and Souta reached the top of the stairs, facing their wellhouse. Dread hooked low in her stomach. She dropped her things to the ground and burst into a run, stopping in the open doorway.

"What are you doing?!"

Pausing in his work, Grandpa glanced at her, hammer and nail in hand. A large wooden slab covered the top of the Bone Eater's well, hammered down and covered in white sutras. "It's for your own good, Kagome! I've decided it's much too dangerous for you to leave again. Now stand back. After this, I've got to enchant the sutras."

"What the heck?! No!" she seethed, hurrying closer and pushing herself between him and the well protectively, though it was a little late for it. "You don't get to decide that!"

"You're my granddaughter and I decide what's best for your welfare," he grunted. "I should've done this months ago!"

"Yeah, maybe!" Kagome barked, her bruises aching. "But it's a little late for this now! I've got important stuff to do!"

"Geeze Gramps..." Souta muttered, leaning against the threshold and wincing slightly. "Not cool..."

Mama Higurashi joined him in the doorway, eyes wide. "You told me you were just tending to something in the workshop! Grandpa, this is not what we discussed!"

The old man faltered, looking a little conflicted now that everyone was ganging up on him. He lowered the hammer, shoulders falling.

Kagome stiffened as he looked at her, concern brimming in his expression.

Her anger fell away.

"Oh Kagome..." he mumbled, voice shaking a little. "I just...can't bear the thought of you not returning here one day. I was so happy you were venturing into the past," he admitted quietly. "Because you were finally taking an interest in history! We had things we could talk about together for the first time."

Kagome shifted, before stepping closer and sighing. Leaning down, she wrapped him in a gentle hug.

Grandpa quivered, suddenly feeling much too thin in her arms. "I overlooked the danger, please forgive me. I should've insisted you stay here, where it's safe."

"It's okay," she mumbled, rubbing his back as he returned her embrace, holding her tight.

Drawing away slowly, she swallowed. "But...we messed with time travel, Grandpa. Things are messed up because of me. This is just the way it has to be. I have to do this."

"You don't have to do anything, Kagome," Mama repeated the same words she'd uttered last time, gripping Souta's shoulders as though fearful to let him out of her sight too. Her gaze softened, voice gentle. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

Kagome blinked, finally understanding something. They'd started thinking of her as a suffering martyr. Someone forced into the role of playing superhero in the past, having to do her grim duty as the Shikon Miko.

A lightness touched her battered and bruised face, before Kagome smiled outright, laughing a little. "Oh Mama..." she breathed, shaking her head. "I want to. I want to go back."

Surprise filled Mama Higurashi's expression, followed by uncertainty.

"Look, facing Kikyo and Inuyasha isn't going to be fun," she acknowledged, "and neither will fighting Naraku. It's dangerous in the past, life threatening. But it's been that way for months- and only now do I feel like I understand it," Kagome pictured the unlikely group she'd begun travelling with. "However, I'm not alone in facing it. I've got people waiting for me, and they make it worth it. They make me happy again, when I never thought that would be possible after hurting so much. They're...waiting for me, and I want to be with them while doing all these impossible things. Because with them, I feel like I can."

Slowly, her mother's eyes saddened, seeming to dim a little with the inevitability of it all. She opened her mouth- only for wood to groan- bursting open with a loud blast.

Kagome gasped as air rushed up behind her from the well. "Get down!" she cried, covering Grandpa in her arms and ducking to the ground with him as debris fell- nails sent flying and sutras ripping off to lash in the mini cyclone.

Lifting her head carefully once the commotion died down, Kagome looked up, finding black boots resting on the rim of the well.

Sesshoumaru met her startled gaze, tipping his head to one side as though wondering why she was laying on the floor, as it was not a sensible place to be.

"You were taking too long," he uttered flatly.