Chapter 15

When Seishi was next aware of the world around her, she groaned inwardly… Again she found herself waking up in bed at Sesshoumaru's palace after falling unconscious from one reason or another… She really needed to stop making a habit of this… But the fact she was waking up to the familiar scent of Sesshoumaru's palace, meant that they both much have survived…

Forcing unwilling eyes open, she glanced around… she was alone… Not surprising… Rin was probably keeping vigil over Sesshoumaru… Some guilt hit her as she remembered the bloody gashes across Sesshoumaru's near flawless form, if you didn't consider his messing his left arm, that were because he had protected her instead of himself.

Now she owed him an apology and a thank you… again… another reoccurrence she needed to stop now before it became a habit. Well besides her body feeling sick and achy all over, Seishi sat up and slid her legs to the side of her futon, setting her feet on the ground. The wound from Sesshoumaru's claws had been tended to and since she was able to move and her body recovering, she must have been treated for his toxin.

Dragging herself to her feet, a little wobbly, but able, she moved to her door. She was glad to find herself in a bed robe and no longer in the buff… Just how many people in the palace had gotten a look at her before someone bothered to cover her up she wondered… oh well… she wasn't going to worry about it now.

She probably should have stayed in bed longer… but part of her wouldn't let her settle back down until she saw Sesshoumaru… It wasn't out of concern… parish the thought… she just… wanted to make sure he was in one piece and recovering… that's all… really…

She came to the dog demon lords door, and could hear low voices inside… probably some of the healers where in with their lord now tending to him… If Sesshoumaru didn't know Seishi was outside his door, then he really must have been hurt… in any case; she rapped her knuckles against his doorframe softly.

At the sound of the knocking Sesshoumaru turned his senses to the door. Sensing it was Seishi he quickly dismissed his servants. The servants slide the door open and quickly shuffled outside leaving the door open for Seishi. Even though their lord was in a recovering state he was still not to be trifled with.

Sesshoumaru sat up against the wall, his wounds bound. Since his servant had just started the process of changing his bandages he had his shirt off and a sheet covered his bottom section, underneath which he still wore his hakama pants.

Seishi hesitated… then slowly stepped into the room. Her gaze swept the room once before she turned and drew his door shut again for his privacy. "I didn't mean to interrupt…"

Sesshoumaru's emotionless was back in place, "If you had been an inconvenience I would have told you to leave and come back later."

Seishi managed the slightest of smiles… More likely he was tired of all the palace healers buzzing around him and welcomed a likely excuse to shoo them off a bit… Why was she here anyway? She had wanted to see that Sesshoumaru was in once piece and looking at the bare-chested lord now, he was obviously going to recover… But she found herself moving forward anyway, and taking hold of a loose length of bandage that had been left by the healers starting to remove one of the bandages around Sesshoumaru's upper right arm, "May I?"

Sesshoumaru watched Seishi for moment after her asking to continue changing his bandages in the place of the healer. Up until now the only time they had ever touched each other was when fighting or him carrying her, other then that they never had any physical contact. Allowing Seishi to change his bandages would put him in a vulnerable position if she should choose to attack him. But he felt that Seishi was not the type to do something so underhanded. Despite how he had treated her he couldn't sense any malice or anger from her and having a beautiful demoness change his bandages was certainly preferable to the old healer he kept around. He closed his eyes and relaxed a bit, "You may..."

Seishi's eyes focused on what she was doing as she gently started to unwind the bandage from around his upper arm… careful to smooth it away as she neared it's end, not pulling it away too quickly else any scabs his wounds had sealing them could have been pulled away by the bandage. She said nothing for a time as she carefully pulled the bandage free then she pulled away the simple cloth pad that was the last cover of the wound, setting both aside where some other used bandages waited to be thrown away or taken to be washed and sterilized. She took up the ointments that the healers had left behind, and started applying the new coat to the wound soothingly, not wanting to irritate it. Once that was done she picked up a roll of fresh dressings, smoothing a pad over the wound before starting to rewrap his arm with the cloth bandages. All the while, she tried to find the words she needed to say what she felt she needed to say.

Seishi paused in her work at his words… then finished the last few loops of the bandage around his arm before tying it off so it was firm but not too tight that it would cut off the blood flow… No sooner was it tied then Seishi had her head leaned forward, resting lightly against Sesshoumaru's shoulder just above the wound she just bandaged. "I'm sorry…" she didn't say any more then that… he would know why she was sorry, surly… She didn't move a moment, and then she drew back, not wanting to invade the demon lord's personal space.

Sesshoumaru watched Seishi as she finished her task put her head on his shoulder, uttering a soft apology. She soon pulled away, sitting back, not looking his way. He supposed it was to be expected. They had never had a moment like this before and neither really knew how to react. Still he had rather liked her having done that, and didn't mind if she wanted to do such things, "You... don't have to pull away if you don't want to…"

Seishi blinked at Sesshoumaru… for some reason his words made her feel flustered… she wasn't sure why she had rested her head against him like she had, or what exactly she was feeling right now… but… why was she embarrassed? She shook her head, thinking it best she be off now that she was sure he had survived… She stood up, looking back at him with an unreadable look, and then she sighed. "Thank you Sesshoumaru… Though I am sure I would have fine if you hadn't shown up in the first place, you ended up saving my life once again. But I do ask you never to do anything like it again… it… frightened me…" looked away… that had been hard for her to admit, "If I were killed, Rin and a few others may be saddened, but if you were to parish Rin and Jaken would be devastated and your lands would be left without a lord to warden them. I don't want to see that ever come to pass, especially not on my account… that last thing I've ever wanted, was someone to get hurt or killed because of me…"

Seishi's eyebrows frowned together as she fought back the rare sting of tears. She was such a silly dolt… why was she saying these things to him? Yet she found herself continuing, "This has been the first place that has felt anything close to a home I've had since I left the place of my birth behind me… maybe that is why I couldn't bring myself to leave… but by staying here… I've allowed myself to grow attached to this place and it's people, something I have not ever allowed myself risk doing since I started wandering… I made a mistake sticking around as long as I did… but now it's too late, and I can't fix it… So… just… don't ever pull another stunt like that one again… ok…" she had kept her face away from him, the last thing she wanted was Sesshoumaru seeing her actually teary eyed…

"Anyway… I probably should return to bed before the last of my recovering strength fades and decides to leave me to crawl the rest of the way." She didn't wait for him to say anything… she closed the last of the distance between her and his door, pulling it back to step out into the hall. She paused, now she had better composure of herself she looked back at him, "I will try to respect your wishes more often, but I do still intend to leave now and then for my own reasons. You can't expect me to just easily convert from being a free roaming bitch as I have been for more years then I have kept count of, to being a submissive female under an alpha male like I was when I was still young and under my father's roof. You might have saved my life and given me a home, but I don't tame that easily." Slid his door shut with that.

Sesshoumaru quirked a brow at Seishi's parting comment. She may not be living under her father's roof anymore but she was living under his, and in his house he was the Alpha. Anyone else there, visitor, guest or whatever came after him in the pecking order as far as he was concerned. She seemed more docile now however, so he did not feel the need to stand up and pursue her at the moment. Besides she was in fairer condition then he was at the moment. If he challenged her in this state then he might not be triumphant. No, he would wait and pick his battles... "Won't tame you that easily?" he muttered to himself after Seishi was long gone, "just try me bitch..."

Seishi was getting antsy… why now of all times? She was just out of bed for good after recovering from Sesshoumaru's poison for the most part. This always happened at the worse of times… It was because she traveled around and her body couldn't fall into a set season… She knew that was it… it still went by European climate since that was where she was born, raised, and spent the first parts of her adult life. If she stuck around Japan for a few years her body might fall into the same cycle as the Japanese female dog demons… but for now, Seishi suffered from her heat when it decided to make her life difficult… It was one downside of being a dog demoness… She had suffered another while in Japan, but it had been back before she was staying in a palace full of lesser dog demon males, as well as Sesshoumaru himself.

She had a little herbal supplement she could take to lessen and partly mask the heat scent, so she didn't have as many males dogging her, but that didn't help her when it came to her own feelings of need. She didn't trust herself enough to try and tough it out here at the palace… Instincts were a bitch, even more so then Seishi herself. But… if she just left, Sesshoumaru might come looking for her again like he had last time… That wouldn't do… if he came while she was in the worse of it, she might try something that would embarrass her to no end once it was over and she was back to her normal senses.

So after some intense consideration, she hunted down Sesshoumaru with Kitoiga in hand, "I need to leave… for a week or so…"

Sesshoumaru turned to where Seishi had addressed him. At the moment he had been watching Rin playing her rope jumping game with Jaken. The toad seemed to be bored out of his mind with the game, which he saw as an utter waste of time. "Rin! Confound it! Stop jumping so fast! How can I count how many times you've jumped if you keep jumping so fast?"

Sesshoumaru gazed at Seishi, "Why do you wish to leave?"

Seishi coughed, really not wanting to go into the 'why', "It's personal… I promise it shouldn't be more then a week… "

Sesshoumaru golden eyes scanned Seishi carefully as he took in Seishi's scent trying to decipher the reason as to why she suddenly had to leave. "If you leave, how can I be sure that you will return?"

Seishi sighed, she knew he wasn't going to trust her after her last little trip, "I'll leave Kitogia behind with you… You know I would never leave my sword behind if I did not intend to come back for it. It's the only thing I own that I would never part with."

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, 'she wants to leave so badly she'll leave her sword behind?' he thought to himself. Sesshoumaru considered her offer, 'She is mostly healed now. She shouldn't run into much trouble and if she does she is a demon and should be able to defend herself. I'll be on patrol as well in case Naraku…' Finally Sesshoumaru extended his hand for the sword, "I accept your offer..."

Seishi sighed inwardly… if he still refused she wasn't sure what she was going to do… she reluctantly passed her faithful weapon over to Sesshoumaru. "Then I will return in a weeks time…" she turned and started off… not a moment too soon… Sesshoumaru was looking extra good today…

She paused to call out to Rin, letting her know she'd be back in a week and for her to be a good girl and the like. Then she moved toward the gates to leave. She took off as soon as she was outside the palace walls, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the dog demon populated area.

To Be Continued…