Chapter 13: Kanshaku
When the guards had returned with a message from the Lady Mother that she was having tea with Nakoudo-sensei, and that her son could come to her if he wanted to talk, Kagome thought for a moment that Sesshomaru would actually kill the messenger.
Then he turned to her, and picked her up.
"Hey!" She squirmed and yelled, trying to get him to put her down, but then he moved, and the winds blew around her as he ran with the speed of the demon that he was. He set her down in front of his mother's door, and she glared up at him as she straightened her outfit. If he noticed, he didn't seem to care as he opened the screen to his mother's tea room and stepped inside.
"You set this up?"
"Set up what, dear? I'm getting a little senile these days, you have to forgive me," the Lady Mother asked, taking a sip of tea as she waited for his response. She was wearing a lovely formal kimono that Kagome couldn't help but envy.
"This is the miko, not the princess. You switched them."
"Ah, so you finally figured it out, then,"
"Wait," Kagome interrupted. "You knew I wasn't Kikyou?"
"Who do you think put the notion of running off with Kikyou into Inuyasha's head? That boy's been in love with her for several years now," Nakoudo-san said with a smile.
"And Nakoudo-sensei forsaw that the two of you were bound by destiny to be together. But my son has the stubbornness of a bull-demon, and insisted that he would never marry a human, let alone a miko."
The Lady Mother gazed cooly at her son.
"You lied to me. I should have you banished from the West," Sesshomaru snarled.
"And you were so adorable as a pup," the Lady Mother sighed as she set down her cup and faced her son. She released her aura, and a blast of energy howled through the castle, knocking Kagome back against Sesshomaru. Kagome didn't understand how, but she could hear words in the howl. "Your duty is to obey the commands of your ancestors."
"It's my duty to marry a miko and extinguish our bloodline forever?" Sesshomaru snarled back in the same language as he fought to keep his footing.
"The days of the Inu will not end if you take the aid of the miko. But if you do not accept her, all Inu shall perish. Is this what you wish for your people?"
Sesshomaru looked away. "No."
The Lady Mother's aura diminished and she stood and turned her son's head so that he faced her. "Why do you hold your father's love of a human against all of humanity?"
"He...choose them over us," he said simply, and for the first time, Kagome saw that Sesshomaru had his own weaknesses. Then he stepped away from his mother and wife. "I'm going hunting." He turned and left, leaving Kagome standing there, wanting to comfort him, but not sure how to tend to a wounded wild beast.
"More like he's going to pout," Nakoudo-san said and snorted, before finishing her tea. "You spoilt him, Hime-sama."
"Maybe a little," the Lady Mother admitted as she sat. "Won't you join us, Kagome?"
"I..." Kagome hesitated for a moment before making up her mind. "I want to know what's going on."
Author's Notes: Kanshaku was described as "passion, temper, or irritability; temper tantrum." Yeah... Sesshomaru, Lord of the West, is throwing a bit of a tantrum...