"Remember to stay with your father, moonbeam. If you're not there how will you protect him?" Kagome reminded Ichiro as she fussed with Sesshomaru's already impeccable clothes.

If someone ignorant had peeked into the Western Lord's room and saw their little group standing together they would say it looked domestic. And in a sense, it was domestic. Two "parents" and a child that came from them. Kagome was tying his obi after helping Ichiro dress and they all matched. Ichiro had an almost uncanny resemblance to his father with virtually nothing for his biological mother except maybe his nose and a few facial expressions that were distinctly Ichika (so far). Interestingly enough, people swore up and down that they could see Kagome in Ichiro. It wasn't anything overt, but they said it was apparent in the subtle softness of his features, the slightly blue sheen of his hair. Kagome didn't see it.

Today was a special occasion. Aside from it being Ichiro's first outing outside the Western or Southern Palace, they had arrived at Fujisawa the night before for a festival celebrating artisans and the civilizing of the ryuyokai.

According to legend, after Benzaiten tamed and married the five-headed Dragon, Gozuyru, she helped some of the other stronger dragons flow into their human-like form. She also taught them music and how to fight in their new forms before returning to seclusion on Enoshima (an island off the coast of Fujisawa) with her husband. Ever since Benzaiten left, Fujisawa and what would become the Kanagawa prefecture celebrated what she did by celebrating the artisans of the region.

The Lord of the future Kanagawa region was the one who invited her to be his champion in the music competition. Lord Ryuuko was there for her 25th birthday and had been thoroughly impressed with her skills. He believed that she had a chance at winning (which offended Kagome so much that even if she hadn't the motivation before they met she would now want to win if only to rub it in his face) and help him win a bet between him and the current defending champion. An actual siren.

When she received the invite, she hadn't recognised the name of the lord, but when she came face to face with him she realized that the dragon was Sesshomaru's dragon friend, Ryko who occasionally visited Sesshomaru and vice versa. Ryko (that's how she met him and she would continue calling him that) was the son of the dragon that killed Inu Taisho and who she considered to be Sesshomaru's best friend. The playful yet reserved dragon knew all of the Western Lord's secrets and strategically hinted at them when the two men sparred. Ever since she met him and nearly shot an arrow in his throat (he startled a pregnant woman during archery practice) his wine-coloured eyes taunted her with knowing. He knew something that she didn't and had no problem with letting her know the fact.

"Domesticity looks nice on you Sesshomaru. Makes you look more approachable." A deep rumbly voice spoke from behind her.

Sesshomaru simply hummed at him.

"Good morning, Ryko," Kagome said as she turned towards the pale-skinned dragon.

"One of these days you will realize that his silent broody act it's just a cover for his social awkwardness, Kagome." It was something that he always said and Kagome ignored it, as usual.

"'Gome," Ichiro said, pulling on her sleeve, "what does Lord Ryuuko mean by socially awkward?"

"Pay no attention to him, moonbeam." Sesshomaru had moved outside the room with Ryko to quietly converse. "Are you nervous?" She crouched down to his height.

"N-no!"

"It's okay to be nervous or a little scared. It happens to everyone."

"Father is never scared."

"While your father may be a freak of nature, he also feels scared, absolutely terrified at times."

"He does?"

"Mmhmm. He's scared that you or I can get hurt. He's scared of being rejected and showing how he truly feels to the person he loves." She left off there but her mind supplied one more: He's scared that he may not be doing the right thing by you and you would grow up resenting him.

"But, why would you reject him? Father loves you."

"Well, of course he loves me. I'm essentially his best and favourite friend." Ichiro looked as though he was going to object when he was interrupted.

"Keep telling yourself that," Ryko snorted as he walked into the room.

"If you want the spot maybe you should have a child for him and then the both of us can negotiate." She challenged laughingly. She had to choose her words carefully; they hadn't explicitly told Ichiro the entire story of his birth.

A mischievous glint entered the dragon's eye, "I can do one better right n-" he was cut off by a sharp slap to the back of his head by Sesshomaru.

"Right, children in the room." He said by way of apology (the dragon was shocked when they arrived with the heir to the West in tow). "Anyway, we have a situation." This caught Kagome's attention. "Your Alpha here has just informed me that his half-brother has caused your heart to be torn asunder-"

"Wh-"

Ryko barrelled on as if she hadn't tried to interrupt him, "and that is going to lower your chances to win. Once you start playing and release your aura all will be able to feel your pain and confusion. So you need to undergo a cleansing ritual."

...888...

A cleansing ritual? What's wrong with that? It shouldn't be too different from a purification ritual.

These are some of the thoughts that a human with little to no knowledge of demon culture might have. And these assumptions are completely wrong.

If you spend a friendly amount of time with them, one would easily realise demons are carnal creatures. They are kind of violent, sex is a big part of their existence (for some more than the others) and the pursuit of power (in whatever form they prefer) was their mistress. So a cleansing ritual that had to meet at least one of these criteria would be a good assumption.

Kagome knew exactly what a cleansing ritual is. Intimately. It met the sexual criteria of demons. The one being cleansed had to orgasm 8 times within the session, a ninth time for luck (even though nine isn't a lucky number) with someone they have a connection with after drinking a special sake. It is usually done physically or can be done with the use of aura's. After the rite is complete, it is supposed to relax the one being cleansed and route out any weaknesses muddying their aura.

She had first hand the cleansing ritual recently. It was the wintery months of last year and Kagome travelled to the Southern Palace as usual. The only thing that was unusual was that she had made the trip alone, with Ichika to follow later. She spent most of her days either with Takashi around the palace and surrounding towns or avoiding his hedonistic ways. Then...

The smoke lilies incident happened.

Somehow the fool got into his mind that he should sit in a room filled with smoke lilies, and ingest concentrated wine made with the flowers before going to an orgy. He couldn't even make it out of the room because he drove himself into a manic state. The only way to bring him back was with the cleansing ritual and she was the best bet. So they locked her in the room with him. She chose to use her aura, her voice and showed some skin for the ritual. Two hours later and several orgasms later (mutual) Takashi was back to normal... and Ichika had showed up and found out.

That was then, now...

She was standing naked in Ryko's private hot springs waiting on Sesshomaru to join her. Paralyzed. Sesshomaru was going to do cleansing ritual, Which was embarrassing in of itself. She has to get off with the aid of the love of her life that she has resolved to stay platonic with because he loves someone else and is going to die in 2 weeks. But that didn't paralyze her. as the door opened she tensed as she took in the site of him.

He insisted on physically doing it.

hi. as it turns out i will be lengthening the story. not by much just 2 or 3 chapters. I'm trying to end by 28 July because I'm going into CAPE exams (really important exams in the caribbean) and once i go into them i might not revisit this story until the end of July or August which isn't fair for you all. so if i disappear for a bit don't get mad at I am dedicating this story to Acb6293on Ao3 because of the extra stress i've added to her pregnancy with this angsty fic