A TASTE FOR MUSIC.
Six weeks.
That was how long it had been since Akane had joined Sesshomaru and his group. And aside from the one moment of odd tenderness when he had licked her bleeding knuckles, and saving her from the panther yokai, not many changes had happened since day one.
Sesshomaru was still distant, still quiet, and still didn't seem to care whether she was there or not while regarding both her, Jaken and Rin as nothing more then entertainment. All he really did whenever they weren't traveling, and he was ACTUALLY around rather then disappearing, was watch them. That's it.
He just watched them. Almost always with that bored look of indifference. Yeah, a few times over the weeks there had been a few chuckles, a couple laughs and hints of a smile, but he always hid them away as soon as he caught himself doing it. Making it clear he didn't want to get close to any of them. So why have them around?
And whenever she tried to converse with him he just seemed annoyed by it, giving clipped short answers or just flat out up and leaving standing there. He had actually be NICER to her before the whole panther yokai battle, he at least tolerated her talking to him and carried short converstaions before all that happened.
Shen would pipe up whenever she mumbled these things to herself, trying to explain that she most likely made Sesshomaru uncomfortable because she was human, and that since Toran had pointed out a possible attraction he had for her, he most likely was in conflict about it.
And okay yeah, she could understand him in denial about it considering his hate for humans, but this was getting frustrating. Did he like her or not?
At times Akane pondered if this whole choosing accompanying him over Kagome and her friends had been a good idea after all. The only help she was to him really was at keeping an eye on Rin while he was off doing who knows what. Akane liked the little girl at least and had gotten very quickly attached to her, and was kept entertained by the bickering of Rin and Jaken.
But she wanted to be of more use to the Western Lord other then a babysitter and a thing to stare at.
And despite being annoyed by his constant indifferent attitude, something was making her stick around.
Something made those rare moments of the person under his cold mask worth waiting around for, and Shen kept telling her that if she continued to interact with the man, that mask would crack more and more.
So she stayed, wanting to see if the person she thought was inside Sesshomaru would ever come out into the light of day, and wanting to learn just why he thought to hide it to begin with. There were many mysteries about him that she wanted to solve, but how to go about it when he was so closed off to the world around him…?
These thoughts wondered around in circles in her mind as the song Don't You Forget About Me, by Simple Minds, blasted in her ears from her phone.
Akane was sitting against a tree and drifting in and out of sleep, pulling her black boys school uniform closer to her chin. She messed with the collar so that it was facing up, covering half her mouth. This was one of the many times she was happy to wear boy clothes, as she still did over half the time. How Kagome didn't freeze to death at night was a wonder in Akane's mind.
It was barely the beginning of June, and the nights were still pretty damn cold most of the time.
She glanced at the two smaller ones that had crashed a while ago, having given them her travel blanket, and both Rin and Jaken were huddled close together, making her smile at the sleeping figures.
Akane herself was getting tired, and Shen had stopped talking to her a while ago. Apparently even spirits needed sleep, but she was trying to wait for Sesshy's return and keep awake.
Like always, he did not say where he was going or when he would be back. Simply had walked off. Akane was gonna give him a piece of her mind when he returned this time. How was she to help him, and repay him for saving her, if she was always left behind when he went off to go, what, fight? Hunt?
She could fight, had even shown him what she could do. Yet still he left her behind most times, and even when she was there if a yokai attacked, he barked orders for her to keep away.
Akane was busy watching the dying flames of the fire, lost in thought and thinking of just how she would demand he let her fight next time, so when a hand gently removed her black earbud by the cord, she yelped and jolted away, causing the other earbud to yank out in the process.
Sesshomaru had somehow been crouching right next to her, and now was there staring at the earbuds in open wonder as the cord swayed in the night breeze. Akane shut off the music and quietly laughed at the baffled look on his face as he followed the cord with his eyes from his hand to the black phone in her own.
"You control the sound?" He asked, calm look returning as he collected himself.
"You scared me to death!" Was her response.
He stared with a deadpan expression, voice matching it perfectly. "You were unresponsive, and clearly you could not hear me. Now answer me, you control that sound?"
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for saying sorry for the mild heart attack... and yes, I control the music with this part." She waved her phone and pulled the cord from his hand slowly. This was the first time she had decided to bring her headphones with her, so he had yet to see them.
Again, as he did whenever curious, Sesshomaru tilted his head slightly. The action causing his long white hair to slide over his shoulder and shine silver under the flashes of moonlight coming between the tree branches.
"That high pitched noise was supposed to be music? It was horrendous. "
She grinned. He was a dog after all, so of course he could hear it like that when the earbuds weren't in his own ears. But the way he clearly disapproved of the noise was kinda cute."It didn't sound right to you because you weren't the one wearing the earbuds."
"The… what?" He did the slow blink thing, something she was starting to find adorable whenever he did it.
"Come here," she reached out and pulled him to a sitting position next to her, surprised that he had allowed her to do so, knowing that if he hadn't allowed it she wouldn't have made him budge at all.
But him allowing it didn't stop him from glaring at her actions though. Hating being forced into anything, even a different sitting position.
"Oh shush, don't give me that look." She teased and rolled her blue eyes. "Do you want to hear it or not? It's my favorite song EVER, so if you hate it don't tell me. And if you want it to stop or if it's too loud let me know okay?"
He frowned at her, but did not move away or say anything as she readied the song again.
"Well? Do you want to hear it the right way?" She asked while raising the earbuds up for him inspect before making a move.
Sesshomaru let out a deep breath, leaning forward a little before making his choice. "Hn."
Akane smiled at his trade mark response as he clearly wanted her to place the earbuds in for him. It was funny how she was learning his silent way of speaking with his body language…
She moved her hands up, eyes going to those cute ears, giving in to her curiosity enough to barely brush the pointed elf like tips. He stiffened a little at that ghost of a touch and locked eyes with her, seeing through her fake innocence as she tried to play it off as if she hadn't meant to touch them.
"Don't." Said in that orderly tone, not cold but definitely a warning as he stared into her eyes, clearly NOT wanting her to touch his ears like that.
Akane swallowed, and she was going to apologize for it, but being this close to his face made her pause. A flash of the other night, when he had leaned in so close to her like this, it made her insides do a little dance as the heat tinged her cheeks in a light pink. She just hoped it was dark enough he couldn't tell she was blushing.
"Are you going to do this or merely stare at my face all night?" His voice gave nothing away, waiting in patient curiosity for her to finish her task, her pause had only caused him to raise a perfectly arched eyebrow at her.
Feeling brave, she finished placing them in without touching him more then needed and sat right next to him, leaning in close.
"I'll just stay right here so I can hear it too, you did kinda cut in while I was listening before." She said in a nervous rush, hoping her touching his ears hadn't ruined the mood somehow.
But Sesshomaru didn't seem to care either way, so long as he got what he wanted. He stared at the device as she messed with it. Turning it down a bit, given his hearing, she replayed the song.
Akane was happy that he could speak and understand English so well. It would have a whole world of music for him to try if he was interested. And half of what she had was English music from the nineteen eighties, which in her personal opinion, was some of the best music ever.
He stiffened at the start of the song, eyes wide in shock, and she turned it down just a little bit more until he nodded in thanks. With a pleased smile, she placed her head on his shoulder, making out the lyrics just fine.
She could feel those golden eyes on her, but refused to look up at him in case he was glaring. Soon though, he leaned his head back against the tree and simply listened, relaxing some of his weight on her as the two leaned on one another. When the song was done, he removed himself from resting against her, turning so that they were facing one another like before.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting from him after sharing a hint of her time through modern music, but Sesshomaru's reaction was surprising. He removed the earbuds and, honest to goodness, completely SMILED.
It was a wonderful, charming, satisfied kind of smile.
She had never seen any kind of smile from him other then the death one he used to freak out Jaken, and that the teasing once whenever she amused him…
But THIS smile…
Just… WOW.
All it did was make her wonder how dazzling he'd be if he ever showed a honest joyful smile, since this simple one had her heart fluttering.
Now it was her turn to slow blink, and do her best not to react, else risk him realizing that in this moment his walls were halfway down.
"It is like nothing I've ever heard before. Do you have more like this?" Sesshomaru asked in what had to be the closest thing to excitement she had ever seen coming from him.
"Y-yes, there are hundreds more on here if you want me to show you how to skip past ones you don't like..." It took all she had not to ruin this rare moment, using every ounce of self restraint not to grin or blush at how… Normal he looked right now. Barely his usual indifference at all.
Her answer made his eyes widen in wonder as he looked to the MP3 in her hands like it was magic.
"Hundreds more, in that small device?" He was acting so different, golden eyes shining bright with curiosity, and the need to know how and why.
She couldn't help but smile at him just a little bit while offering her music player out to him.
"Yes, hundreds. Many different kinds too actually, you'll most likely appreciate the classical stuff."
"Is that so…?" Sesshomaru glanced over to the two sleeping members of the group for some reason, making sure Jaken didn't see his slip of emotion maybe?
His eyes then met hers, calm mask falling back into place on his handsome face except for the excitement in those golden orbs. "Will you show me?"
Her heart melted. This, this right here, these moments of a Sesshomaru that only she got to see. It made everything else beyond worth it.
And with that, Akane was awake for seven more songs, telling him the names, explaining different types of music and showing him how to skip what he didn't like.
Seemed to be any kind of rap and hip hop type music that he skipped right away with cute look of disgust crinkling his nose.
Soon, she drifted off to sleep on his shoulder, his warmth and rain like scent lulling her into a world of pure bliss that was the best sleep in weeks.
…
When Akane awoke the next day to find herself alone, it didn't surprise her at all. But what did surprise her was finding the phone and headphones gently wrapped up and set by her side, with a small blue flower on top.
She had stared at it, trying to figure if it had been placed there on purpose or accidentally when he had wrapped up the cord last night. But it was just too perfectly placed, as if on display for her.
Akane wore the delicate blue flower in her hair that day, never having thought herself the type to ever do something so girly, but Shen had dared her to do it for some reason and she decided to just go ahead and do it.
If anything it was to see if there would be some reaction
from the man who had taken the time to pick it for her.
Upon Sesshomaru's return his eyes instantly went to it resting above her ear, and there was no denying the pleased spark in his eyes, satisfied that she had accepted his little unexpected gift.
No doubt it was the only way he could think of to express his thanks without him having to actually say the words, and she completely loved it.
Akane would be waking up to a new flower every few nights after that, as listening to her modern music and talking about the curiosities of her world quickly became a late night pastime between the two of them. And always long after the others were sound asleep. Only then would he come to her with a new question about her time period, and the both of them would end the night with him looking through her songs.
As expected, he enjoyed classical music and movie scores, anything that didn't have lyrics seemed to be more his thing. Even some synthwave from the eighties as long as it wasn't too techno sounding.
He did listen to rock and a few pop songs with a look of enjoyment, having no clue she watched him so closely when his eyes were closed.
The flowers each following morning her reward for answering his questions about cars, movies, and technological advances as best she could. And she began to keep the flowers pressed into her few school books with the intent to frame them someday.
Who knew that the great Sesshomaru had a taste for music? And who would have guessed that it would be music that started to crack open the door to her getting closer to him?