A/N: Well, here goes my first attempt at writing this ship! I wasn't sure I'd ever actually try my hand at writing them xD but I really hope this short story (for my standards, anyway) will be enjoyable for everyone who reads it :D (the next chapters will be longer for sure!)
Thanks to everyone who planned and prepared the Sesskik Weekend event! You guys are amazing!
"Lord Jaken, does Lord Sesshomaru have other children?"
The question was casual, inane, easily answered with a straightforward 'no', but the imp demon ever proved incapable of exerting any manner of restraint when it came to personal questions about the great demon lord he served. He gasped, as though the young girl's attempt to learn more about the stoic demon was unacceptable, and he eyed the child with pure outrage too, as though the implications of the possibility of Sesshomaru's offspring were too affronting a concept to be conceived.
"What sort of question is that, Rin?!" Jaken exclaimed, shaking his two-headed staff inn her direction.
The child walking next to him, clearly, saw no threat in the imp's actions, perfectly comfortable around his explosive reactions that were always more bark than bite. She marched next to Jaken as they followed Sesshomaru, with A-Un behind them as they progressed across a pristine forest, untarnished by the dark forces of Naraku's taint. It was a beautiful place, of the sort Rin most enjoyed marauding through with her two companions. But as the child never held her tongue whenever any thoughts crossed her mind, it became clear that their perfectly peaceful morning would be disturbed by one of Jaken's usual rants.
"Lord Sesshomaru is a great demon lord, and one as grand as he would never waste his time in innocuous concerns such as procreation with lesser beings, for no one in this wide world could ever hope to measure up to the greatness of Lord Sesshomaru! What could you possibly be thinking by asking such a question, you foolish girl?!"
"Lesser… beings? Procreation?" Rin repeated, puzzled. Jaken, unconcerned with the propriety of discussing such subjects with a human child as young as Rin, failed to understand that all such subjects were utterly foreign for the girl.
"No woman in this wide world could ever deserve Lord Sesshomaru's attention, let alone his affection! He is far greater than any other great demon lord, and has no need to concern himself with petty, meaningless matters like offspring to further a legacy!" Jaken declared, proudly. "For a woman to become his wife, she would have to be a graceful, elegant, well-mannered and reputable maiden, competent on the battlefield and not getting in his way clumsily! She would have to share his goals, to earn his respect and prove herself a grand lady worthy of calling herself Lord Sesshomaru's consort! In short, she would have to be… as regal, as dignified, as magnificent as Lord Sesshomaru himself!"
On and on he rambled, praising his liege lord with every breath he took… until Jaken's feet, powering ever onwards, found him bumping face-first into Sesshomaru's leg. He winced as he realized Sesshomaru had stopped walking abruptly, and Jaken froze on the spot: was he offended by his words somehow? What had he said that could be worthy of offense? He had praised him, as he ever did! There was no reason for Lord Sesshomaru to react adversely when…!
"Jaken," Sesshomaru's deep, stern voice rang in the meadow, his empty sleeve swaying in the wind. "Take Rin and hide."
"E-eh?" Jaken blinked: were they in danger?
On cue, the perfectly peaceful forest saw itself disturbed immediately, deeply, by the arrival of a dark miasma: Jaken yelped, dragging Rin to hide behind a tree while Sesshomaru stepped forward, his hand on Tokijin's hilt.
The creature entered his field of vision before long: the miasma that accompanied it, pouring from its open jaws and nostrils, seemed to rot the world around it. Its hide was thick and scaly, of a purple hue, while its eyes glowed red. Spikes protruded across its limbs and back as it crept towards Sesshomaru on all-fours, leaving a trail of rotting slime in its wake.
It was but vermin, easily disposed of. Sesshomaru clasped Tokijin firmly…
The sound of a bowstring snapping froze him on the spot.
He was familiar with the sound… though not quite as familiar with the sudden outpour of pure energy that accompanied the arrow.
The projectile flew seamlessly, striking the creature through the neck: on impact, the creature collapsed, its corpse's corruption dwindling and fading under the extraordinary powers of purification that had struck it. Even the forest, temporarily marred by the corrupt energies of the creature, returned to a pristine state in a matter of instants as the powers of that single arrow smoothed over the dark energy until it faded from existence.
Sesshomaru frowned, lowering his hand. This presence… it wasn't unknown to him, not entirely. He had sensed it before on occasion, typically if Inuyasha or Naraku were nearby. But as the latter had vanished beyond detection and there was no sign of the former, let alone of his rambunctious group, it seemed their encounter had been entirely casual: had they chosen to travel through the same locations in their respective journeys to track down the elusive, festering demon conjunction that called itself Naraku?
She stepped forward then, and his golden eyes met hers. She lowered her longbow, regarding him with her deep gaze, not hostile, not friendly either. Whether she had overstepped boundaries without knowing it, or if her choice to cut down the creature had been fair game in the great demon lord's mind, she waited for Sesshomaru's next move to decide her own.
He stepped towards her, unafraid, unyielding, unrelenting. The priestess didn't draw another arrow. Instead, she studied him intently with her dark, intelligent eyes until he reached a halt, still at a safe distance from her, but now facing her directly.
"You seek Naraku," Sesshomaru stated, without the necessary inflection in his tone to signal a question.
"As do you," she answered, her voice serene and deep. "This should not be an impasse between us, should it?"
"The demon you've slain is vermin. It was not my quarry," Sesshomaru answered, firmly. She nodded in his direction.
"It seemed unlikely that it would be. You would have slain it to protect those who travel with you, but perhaps it is for the best this way."
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. The priestess didn't seem to expect him to take her words as insulting, trusting him to set aside his pride when it came to the slaying of that single demon: the voice of a laughing child reached Sesshomaru's sensitive ears as Rin raced towards the area where the arrow lingered, still purging the area from the dark energies of the corrupt demon.
"Is it your nature to cut down every demon in your path?" he asked, not knowing why the question had spilled out of his mind and through his lips. The priestess studied him intently.
"Isn't it yours, as well?" she inquired.
"I am a great demon. You are a priestess," Sesshomaru remarked, simply. To his surprise, she smiled slightly at his statement.
"How odd," she said. "Perhaps there is more purity to a great demon than I ever thought possible. You are the first of your station I have come across, after all."
"Purity?" he repeated, with a skeptical scowl. She smiled and closed her eyes.
"I don't aim to offend. There is less purity to me than there should be, ideally. One of your kind… surely you can sense my true nature, can you not?" she said. Sesshomaru frowned. "Pure has become impure, impure has now become pure. Good now has become bad, bad has become good. To live is to die, to die is to live. Such is the fate I have been burdened with"
She bowed her head in a display of respect in his direction, and she stepped away. Sesshomaru's heart lurched as he felt the urge to raise a hand and reach for her… an urge he couldn't comprehend. His sharp eyes fell upon the priestess's figure, following her as she marched through the forest anew, purposeful, calm, unafraid. She knew her own power, just as she knew her vulnerabilities. She seemed to trust her strength... just as much as Sesshomaru trusted his own.
"L-Lord Sesshomaru, sir…!" Jaken squealed, rushing up to his liege lord at haste. "W-was that…?! Was it foul Inuyasha's priestess, Kikyo?!"
"Do not utter that name before me, Jaken," Sesshomaru snapped, and Jaken winced before clumsily covering his mouth with his hands. "One like her… belongs to no one."
With that, Sesshomaru began walking too… on the same trail the priestess had vanished through, moments ago. Jaken froze, jaw dropped as Rin approached, beaming happily.
"Did you see, did you see, Lord Jaken?!" she exclaimed. "It was like you said! She was regal, like Lord Sesshomaru!"
"W-what did you say?! It's… a priestess! A common-born human woman brought back in a vessel of…!"
Jaken fell silent instantly upon sensing a sharp glare from Sesshomaru, shot in his direction. The imp glanced at Sesshomaru warily a mere instant before hearing the words that always sent a terrifying, cold chill through his body:
"Jaken: be quiet."
It almost felt as though his soul had left his body: why on earth had that woman showed up exactly when she had?! It was bad enough that Rin would be so nosy, attempting to find a mate for Sesshomaru that he never had needed… but now, it seemed that Sesshomaru himself deemed this woman worthy of not only a longer conversation than any he'd held with Jaken across the past months, but of far more attention and respect than he'd granted anyone else. That untrained priestess who traveled with Inuyasha only seemed to annoy him, so what was so different about this one…?
He wanted to tell himself there was no difference, that Sesshomaru's choice to follow on the woman's path was but a coincidence, and he would continue to tell himself as much across the coming days… but there was something in the air when, a mere few hours later, the footsteps of the great demon lord and the holy priestess brought them to march side by side, in respectful silence. It chilled Jaken to the bone, much as it overjoyed Rin… for, perhaps, Jaken's words had been prophetic: it seemed that the woman walking beside Lord Sesshomaru now was, by Sesshomaru's own judgment, as regal as he was.