Chapter 22 – To Protect

Kagome was being followed.

At first she didn't notice, her stalker was too quiet and inconspicuous. No one realized what was happening but her, everything seemed like a coincidence in the brief moments her stalker allowed himself to be seen, but she knew there was something wrong.

''Can you please stop doing this?'' The miko sighed, exasperated.

''This Sesshoumaru is not doing anything.'' The inuyoukai spoke, raising an eyebrow as she glared at him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

''You are following me, stop!" Kagome groaned, making Sakura stifle a laugh and Akio hide a grin.

''This Sesshoumaru is simply walking to his room, miko.'' He answered, making Kagome bit back a frustrated scream.

''No, you're not!" She groaned, glaring at him. ''You have been simply walking to you room for two whole days if that's how you call stalking! Your room is not in gardens, where I'm currently going, nor anywhere near me so please, tell me what exactly is wrong with you!"

The only answer Kagome got was another raised eyebrow and the laugh of her friends, who she was starting to hate too because it was their fault that she found herself in this situation.

Kagome had had her first encounter with Naraku two days ago, while she was calmly walking to the dining room and suddenly felt a shard close to her. Not one to waste time, she quickly ran to the direction she felt the tainted aura and after leaving the shiro behind and standing on the border of Sesshoumaru's private gardens, she found a man dressed in a baboon's pelt.

She met Naraku without even knowing it was him so she didn't really feel threatened by the freak dressed up as a monkey that stood in front of her. Maybe she should've been smarter and recognized him when he said that it was nice to meet her again but hey, Kagome was tired that day and she had never been the brightest star in the sky when it came to realizing the obvious.

The things the hanyou said absolutely made no sense to her that time and she just shrugged, making an arrow of reiki appear in front of her and dash forward before the man could even realize what was happening. She thought he was psychologically unstable and leaving something like the shikon with someone who couldn't form a sentence that made sense didn't seem right to her, so she simply attacked him.

The strange hanyou was in the middle of asking how the life in the West was when his eyes widened and he felt the arrow piercing his chest, purifying his body and making him disappear.

Kagome muttered something about weird people and kicked the baboon's pelt away to get the three tainted shards. After purifying them, she put the shards together with the other one and moved to go back to the shiro, only to see Akio gaping at her as if he couldn't believe what she had done.

If she thought his reaction seemed a bit exaggerated, Sakura's one when Akio told what he saw was completely over the top, making Kagome frown in confusion. She tried to ask what was happening but both youkai ignored her and dragged the miko to Sesshoumaru's study, where the daiyoukai had a similar reaction to Akio's one but less dramatic and much more Sesshoumaru-like.

His eyes had widened and then narrowed after a second, making Kagome wonder if she had done something wrong because the inuyoukai seemed ready to kill something. Once she asked what was wrong and who that man was, everyone turned to look at her with an expression that was nothing but offensive, as if she had just said the dumbest thing in the world.

Their reaction only made sense when Sakura told her that she had killed one of Naraku's puppets and stolen his shards, and by the way Sakura said that, it sounded like Kagome had just spit on death's face and it was coming to get revenge. That made the miko get a bit scared, Naraku was Onigumo in a way and that explained why he spoke about meeting her again, the fact that she completely ignored him and destroyed his puppet as if he was as weak as an ant only made her fear grow.

Naraku had found her, she had stolen his shards and Kagome knew he would come to retrieve them. Akio's worry about her safety only made the miko think that she was completely fucked up, the way Sakura bit her lip in worry also didn't help, but as frightening as the situation was, when Kagome saw how annoyed Sesshoumaru looked for Naraku invading his territory, her fear somehow disappeared.

Naraku was only a hanyou, and even if he had a few shards of the shikon with him, Kagome doubted he was powerful enough to kill Sesshoumaru. She had never seen the daiyoukai in a serious battle before, the humans weren't really a challenge and their brief encounter with InuYasha couldn't be classified as a proper fight, but she had the feeling that he wasn't one to play with.

Kagome had tried to say that Akio's idea of putting a guard with her all the time was too much, Naraku had just found her because she was reckless and ran to get the shards, she doubted he would be idiotic enough to enter the shiro, but everyone completely ignored her. She knew they were worried about her safety but damn, she promised she wouldn't run away again, so why couldn't they just leave her alone?

Using all of her persuasion skills, Kagome managed to convince Sesshoumaru that she didn't need a guard, only to be stuck with the daiyoukai himself. She admitted he made the way he followed her seem like a simple coincidence, if you didn't pay enough attention you wouldn't even notice what he was doing, but Kagome wasn't that stupid.

She noticed she was being stalked and now she was annoyed, even more because when she asked for her friends' help, Sakura simply said that it was the best for her and Akio told her she was imagining things.

''You know what? I think your lord-ish duties are stressing you, you need to rest!" Kagome said, suddenly having an idea. ''Tell me, when it was the last time you had a day to relax? Are you even sleeping at all?''

His silence was the only answer she needed and Kagome smirked, then turned to point at Akio and Sakura. ''You two are now in charge of taking care of Rin and Shippo, don't let them put Jaken's clothes on fire again and make sure they finish their lessons. I'm going to take your annoying Lord here to rest, I bet he's only like this because of the lack of sleep.''

Grabbing Sesshoumaru's wrist and dragging him through the halls with a fierce determination, the miko left two amused youkais behind.


''Release this Sesshoumaru right now, miko.'' An annoyed daiyoukai spoke, but was completely ignored by the tiny woman that refused to let his hand go.

''Stop whining, we're almost there.'' That was the only answer he got, and he honestly couldn't see where she wanted to go.

The miko had led him through a side of the garden he barely went to, the only thing he could see was grass and a few trees and he was starting to think that the human didn't really know where she was going.

''This Sesshoumaru does not whine.'' The daiyoukai grunted as the miko kept pulling him along with her.

His beast was not pleased, which meant he also wasn't.

After the realization that the miko was pack, things started to get a bit more frustrating for the Lord of the West. His beast kept reminding him that he had failed to protect her not once but twice in a spam of only two weeks, this wasn't acceptable and Sesshoumaru found himself fighting to keep his most feral instincts at bay.

It was already bad enough when he found out that the woman had been hurt while protecting Rin, now that she met Naraku, things only got worse. Naraku was indirectly the main cause of her pain and since he couldn't kill Onigumo because he was already dead, his beast's rage was directed to the hanyou and Sesshoumaru was left with a blood lust that just wasn't bigger than his need to keep the miko under his watch.

He shamelessly admitted that he was following her, though most wouldn't be able to say that, but it was only to appease his beast, that refused to fade into the depths of his mind and leave him alone. The irrational part of his being refused to believe that the woman was safe, he agreed with every argument she used to say she didn't need a guard but his other side refused to believe on what he was hearing, leading Sesshoumaru to the undignified point of becoming a stalker.

''We're here." The miko's voice brought him out of his musings, and his eyes widened slightly when he saw where he was.

The miko had brought him to what used to be his mother's favorite place in the whole shiro when she still lived there, and he found himself reminded of the many times he would walk through the gardens and see his mother simply sitting next to the small lake with her feet on the water, humming a happy melody.

The small clearing was hidden from the other parts of the gardens by a few trees, he could see many flowers from where he was and the lake that stood right in front of the mountain he remembered climbing when he was nothing but a pup. The sun shone through the trees and Sesshoumaru felt strangely at peace, not even the miko's constant tug on his hand seemed able to annoy him now.

''Come on Sesshoumaru, sit here." She spoke, and it was only then that the daiyoukai realized she had dropped the formality with him, simply calling him by his name.

He wanted to get annoyed and order her to give him the respect he deserved, but his name, when said by her, left a strange warmth on his chest that he did not want to go away.

Looking at her, he saw that she was pointing to the edge of the lake and sighed, deciding to indulge only this time for his own benefit. Maybe if the miko was happy, his beast would shut up and leave him alone to finally have peace again.

''Good boy, now put your toes on the water.'' Kagome spoke, ignoring the glare he gave her. ''Don't make me take your boots off for you.''

A second passed by before the daiyoukai grunted and Kagome smirked, pleased that he was following her orders.

''Now, I can see from here that you are tense,'' The miko said as she poked his stiff back. ''Is it because of Naraku? Are you having problems with the other Lords? Did someone invade your personal space like I'm about to do right now? I don't care, I'm going to make you relax so you can let me breathe again!"

''Miko, there is nothing you can do to-'' The girl had the audacity of shushing him up.

Sesshoumaru now had the absolute conviction that she was prone to random moments of insanity, no human in their right state of mind would dare to do this.

''Stop looking at me like I just murdered your favorite pet,'' Kagome said as she rolled her eyes before moving to sit behind the daiyoukai. ''And before you think about killing me because I touched your pristine self, let me remind you that we are friends and we do not kill friends, okay?''

''Friends?'' Sesshoumaru scoffed as he felt the miko moving his hair out of her way. ''Do not lie to yourself, girl.''

''I'm sorry, I forgot that the high and mighty Lord of the West does not have friends,'' The miko said, and Sesshoumaru could almost taste her sarcasm in the air. ''Acquaintances then, call it whatever you want, just remember that killing me is wrong and Rin will be sad if she discovers her father brutally murdered her tutor and friend.''

''Rin does not need to know about this, I could simply say that you drowned after tripping on a pebble and falling into the lake.'' Sesshoumaru said, thinking that this was actually a very good plan. ''She knows about your clumsiness, it will not be a surprise to anyone if this actually happens.''

''Why are you so mean?'' Kagome muttered under her breath before she allowed her reiki to surface and concentrated it on her hands. ''I'm not trying to purify you, trust me, I did this all the time when I was at the shrine.''

Moving her hands to touch his shoulders, Kagome allowed her reiki to slowly embrace his body, repeating the steps she remembered so well from helping Kaede back then. The miko was old, Kagome had always noticed this, but she seemed to get more and more fragile as the years passed by and one day, Kagome asked her if there was anything she could do to help.

The miko that raised her as her own daughter had smiled that day, saying that a massage would help. Kagome thought that it was a normal one, but Kaede showed the young girl how to manipulate her reiki into finding the tense spots of the body and after a while, Kagome knew how to make a person relax with just a few seconds of exposure to her holy powers.

Kagome was right, Sesshoumaru was too tense and as she slowly moved her reiki from a spot to another on his back, he seemed to relax into her touch until the point she thought he was sleeping, his head now tilted a bit to the left. ''See? It's not that bad to take a break from your duties every once in a while.''

''Hn,'' His pleased hum was the only thing she got as answer and she smiled.

It was strange to see Sesshoumaru so relaxed, but she found out that she enjoyed seeing him like that. He was often too serious, too stiff, she was glad she managed to make him get a break, even if she forced him to by dragging him away from the shiro.

''Now that you're finally relaxed, care to explain why you were following me?'' She asked, and after a long period of silence where she thought he either fell asleep or was ignoring her, he spoke.

''This Sesshoumaru protects his pack.'' His voice was barely louder than a whisper but it was enough to make her concentration falter and her reiki almost fade again.

Kagome had never been the brightest star in the sky, she knew this, but it was impossible to ignore what he had just said.

He protected his pack.

He was protecting her.

She was pack.

Shippo had explained to her the concept of pack when she asked why he put himself in danger by throwing pebbles at InuYasha's face. His answer to her question was that she was pack, and pack was to be protected at all costs, not mattering how powerful the enemy was. She had then asked what pack was, and when he answered that it was similar to what humans called family, Kagome had almost cried.

She had never had a family, her own parents left her at the shrine when she was nothing but a baby and Kaede had been the closest thing to a parent she ever had, the other priestesses never really cared much about her. To think that someone like Sesshoumaru would consider her as family was almost insane, and yet, it had happened.

A strange warmth took over her body and she smiled brightly even though he couldn't see it. His words destroyed any fear left in her of him and Kagome moved forward, her hands moving from his shoulders to his waist as she embraced him, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

He smelled like the ocean to her, almost always calm but capable of destroying anything that underestimated its power. His hand moved to stay on top of hers and Kagome sighed happily, he didn't reject her and her reiki danced happily around them, warmer than ever.

''Thank you.''

For the first time in her life, Kagome felt like she truly belonged somewhere.