Chapter 21 – To Heal

Kagome woke up with the feeling that she was forgetting something.

As her eyes opened and she faced the yellow ceiling of her room, she got confused. The last thing she remembered was red and white and pink and so much pain, something went wrong and she frowned as she moved her face to look at the side.

Seeing a flash of white silk, Kagome thought that the red and the pain she remembered didn't matter, the white was the key. Following the silk, Kagome's eyes traveled through the pink and red flowers on the sleeve and she was close to remembering, painfully close to knowing exactly what she forgot, when her eyes found two bright golden ones and she completely erased from her mind what she was thinking a second ago.

''Sesshoumaru-sama?'' She asked, frowning as she sat up on her bed and looked around, confused.

''I see you finally decided to awake, miko.'' The daiyoukai spoke, his once narrowed eyes softening slightly and making Kagome wonder if the emotion that flashed on them was really relief or just a trick of her still sleepy mind.

''What happened?'' She asked, yawning as she looked around and saw that he was the only one there. Shippo would usually be by her side whenever she woke, just like Rin and-

''Rin!" Eyes widening, Kagome finally remembered why she felt pain. ''Where is she? What happened after I passed out? Did he hurt her? For how long have I been sleeping? Dear Kami, please tell me that I didn't purify half of the shiro and that's the reason why you're currently glaring at me!"

Sesshoumaru was indeed glaring at her, but it was simply an attempt to hide the relief he felt once she acted like her normal self. For a brief second, he was almost glad that the miko started firing questions at him. Almost being the key word because he was soon reminded of how annoying she could be when interrogating his person.

Still, he didn't have the heart to tell her to shut up and decided that she deserved a few answers, she had saved his ward's life after all.

''Rin is fine, as well as everyone else, though I cannot say the same about the youkai who dared to attack you.'' Sesshoumaru spoke, watching how the miko let out a relieved sigh and laid down again. ''I hope you are not planning to sleep again, you have been resting for a little more than a week and I do not think this behavior is normal for a human.''

''A week?!" Kagome quickly sat on the bed and stared at him with wide eyes. Touching the left side of her stomach, she felt the bandages through the silky fabric of her sleeping yukata and pressed her lips together.

Pushing the yukata away, Kagome slowly pressed a finger on the wounded side of her body and when she didn't feel any pain, she poked it with a bit more force. Shrugging when she didn't feel anything, she started to slowly remove the bandages, careful to not show anything since Sesshoumaru stood silent, simply staring at her.

''Interesting, it's gone.'' Kagome muttered once she threw the bandages away and ran her fingers where she remembered having a spear cutting her, noticing that there was not even a scar there.

''The kit said that it was common for you to sleep for so long, Rin only calmed down once he explained it to her.'' Sesshoumaru commented, secretly pleased that the wound was completely healed.

''Poor girl, I think I scared her to death when I pushed her to the ground...'' Kagome muttered, planning on bringing something to give the little girl as an apology for making her cry.

''Explain.'' Sesshoumaru simply said, making Kagome sigh before she started to tell him everything that had happened while he was gone. When she finished speaking, she could feel Sesshoumaru's annoyance slipping through the bored mask he wore and bit her lower lip, thinking about a way of distracting him.

Seeing him angry seemed wrong and as she looked around the room, Kagome spotted the small packages next to a pile of kimonos and had an idea. Getting up of her bed, she picked the silver one and walked back to where Sesshoumaru stood, sitting in front of him and smiling when she saw his raised eyebrow.

''I was searching for you when I felt the tug on my chest.'' She spoke, successfully catching his attention and making him forget about the incident. ''Do you remember when we met your half-brother and that arrow went straight to your heart?''

A nod was the only answer she got, and Kagome smiled at his clear annoyance for failing to notice the purifying arrow. ''I got really afraid in that moment, and I realized that even though I was immune to reiki, none of you were. What would I do if Shippo or you were hurt? I started thinking about a way to make a charm after this because even seeing Jaken being purified by a miko would make me sad, I'm the only one allowed to do this to him.''

Her last comment made the corner of his mouth twitch and he allowed himself to smirk, making Kagome giggle when she saw the amusement in his eyes.

''After talking to Sakura-chan, I had this idea!" She spoke, pushing the small silver package into his hand. ''We made this together, she gave it the form and I put the spell and – don't give me that look!" She narrowed her eyes when he raised an eyebrow at her.

''A flower, miko?'' He asked, eyeing the plant and remembering all the moments where he suffered in Rin's hands because of that thing.

''I wanted to give everyone something with a meaning.'' Kagome mumbled, crossing her arms in front of her chest. ''You know what the Tiger Lily means, and you can hide it under your haori so no one will see the mighty Lord of the Western Lands walk with an offending flower on his neck, tarnishing his aristocratic image.''

Her mocking tone made Sesshoumaru narrow his eyes, but as he eyed the simple charm, he felt traces of the spell and was impressed, the miko knew what she was doing. Noticing that she grew quiet and bit her lip as she stared at him, Sesshoumaru felt her insecurity in the air and his eyes softened, he could almost hear her thoughts of this being a stupid idea and decided to indulge her only this time.

''This Sesshoumaru is grateful for your gift, miko, your worry is touching though unnecessary.'' He spoke, feeling a strange sense of relief when she beamed at him, the faint traces of sadness completely gone.

''Thank you for accepting this Kagome's humble gift, my Lord.'' The miko said, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she took the necklace from his hand and kneeled on the futon.

Putting the charm around his neck, Kagome smirked when she saw herself forced to push his hair away to properly hide the charm. Sesshoumaru noticed her strangely satisfied expression but did not say anything as she opened his haori to hide the necklace under it, his skin seemed to burn as she brushed her fingers on his collarbones and Kagome fought back a shiver.

The tales of powerful youkais' skin being cold as snow and capable of freezing any being that dared to touch it always seemed wrong for her, but now that she felt how warm and alive Sesshoumaru was, the story was simply absurd and she wondered if who invented it had any contact with demons at all.

Probably not, she thought, positioning the flower so that it was completely covered. Pulling his haori back on, Kagome straightened the fabric and gave him a satisfied smile once she saw that there was nothing visible.

Her hands lingered on his chest for a second too long of what was considered appropriate, but neither of them seemed to notice it. She could sense the warm pulse of her reiki on the necklace as her hand rested there and felt something strange in her chest, almost similar to what she felt before she ran to see Rin, and pushed a little more reiki into the flower just to be sure that nothing was going to happen. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Sesshoumaru either didn't notice what she did or didn't think it was something worth commenting, since he stood quiet as she removed her hands from his person.

Sitting on the futon again, Kagome took a deep breath and tried to shake the strange feeling away, she had had enough surprises for a month.

''Is there anything else you wish to know, Sesshoumaru-sama?'' She asked, watching how he blankly stared at her as if he hadn't heard what she said.

''The kit spoke about your strange habit of passing out.'' Sesshoumaru spoke after a while, hoping she didn't notice how far he was gone into his mind.

In the moment the miko touched him, something felt different. He tried to grasp the feeling, tried to understand the strange warmth that took over his chest in the brief second her fingers directly touched his skin, but failed. It unsettled him, but not because her touch caused him revulsion, it was quite the contrary actually. The way his once dormant beast asked for more when her hands left her body left him confused, it had never happened in the past and before he could pay the proper attention to the strange demands of his beast, she spoke and he had to force himself to focus on what she was saying.

''Oh, I really don't know how to explain that.'' Kagome spoke, shrugging. ''Kaede said that it happens ever since I was a baby. The first time was when I was learning how to walk and ended up falling from the stairs and cutting myself, I slept for a whole week and the wound closed, but I still have the scar.''

Carefully opening her yukata, Kagome pointed at the only part of her own body that had a mark of her battles. On the right side of her stomach, the spot a little above her hip had a vertical scar that was relatively long, and Sesshoumaru tilted his head to the side as he examined it.

''I think that since I was really young my reiki was too weak to heal my body properly so I was left with the scar, but I don't really mind it.'' The miko spoke. ''Since then, Kaede said that any slightly serious wound I had would put me into a deep sleep and I would only wake when all the signs of injuries were gone. As time passed by, I noticed that I could sometimes control when it would happen, but if I'm drained spiritually, I can't do anything about it.''

''This is not normal.'' Sesshoumaru stated, making Kagome laugh.

''My life is anything but normal, Sesshoumaru-sama, you should have known that by now.'' She smiled at him, shaking her head. ''I don't know how to explain what happens, but I feel a tug deep in my soul and my vision starts to get dark around the edges. I can stop it sometimes, and when Onigumo used to torture me, I would force myself into sleep so I wouldn't have to deal with him. It became something common for me but I forget that everyone else will probably think I'm dead. Do not worry about me when this happens, I'll wake when my body is completely healed again.''

Sesshoumaru wanted to scoff, to say that the thought of him worrying over a human's health was stupid, but something kept him from saying that. It probably was the fact that it was a lie and lying was beneath him, but the Lord quickly ignored this thought and decided to remain as oblivious about what was happening as possible.

The miko's strangely bright blue eyes kept staring at him, making his chest burn in an unfamiliar way and he raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking if she wanted something. The miko simply smiled and when he was about to ask what was wrong with her, Rin and Shippo ran through the doors, screaming happily when they noticed that the woman was awake.

Deciding that she was safe enough with both Sakura and the children there, Sesshoumaru got up and moved to go back to his room. Just before he closed the door, he looked back and found those same blue eyes staring at him, giving him the impression that just for a second, she could look right through his soul.