The sun was only just beginning to rise when Sesshomaru woke. Still cradled in his arms was the Miko, though some time during the night the children had moved to cuddle to her. Lying motionless he watched his small pack sleep. After a while the Miko's breathing started to change and she began to stir. It was then he realized he'd been watching them longer than he'd thought and the sun had fully risen. A quiet knock sounded at his door.
"My Lord," Yueyui's voice said quietly from the other side. "Lady Kagome and the children are not in their rooms, does My Lord know where they are?" she asked. Sesshomaru looked down at his pack before replying.
"Enter." Yueyui carefully opened the door to see Sesshomaru and his pack cuddled to him. Yueyui bowed and started to step back out of the room but Sesshomaru halted her.
"You may wake them." He said giving her permission to come near his sleeping pack.
Yueyui opened the door to the den, as usual she brought the children's breakfast and tea for Lady Kagome, but when she opened Rin's door she noticed she wasn't there. The process repeated with Shippo's room, figuring they probably slept with Lady Kagome she opened the door, but to her surprise the room was empty as well. She hated bothering her Lord but with his pack nowhere to be found she needed to know if they were safe. Quietly she knocked, hoping her Lord wouldn't be angry. She was surprised when he allowed her entrance, even more so when she saw all three asleep in his bed. Embarrassed she bowed and prepared to leave, but she was stopped and given permission to wake them. She bowed once more and set to waking the children. Once both were up and their food served she took her leave knowing her Lord preferred being the one to wake Lady Kagome.
Sesshomaru nudged at the Miko with his youki and she began to wake. As she stretched her body pressed firmly against his side before she rolled onto her back and began rubbing her eyes.
"Good Morning, Kagome." Sesshomaru said, causing the Miko to startle.
"Good Morning." She said shyly while hiding her face in her hands.
"Did you sleep well?" He asked intentionally making her squirm.
"We didn't intend to fall asleep in here, we were going to invite you to bathe with us." She said. It amused him that he could see her blushing all the way to her ears. He remembered long ago when he was just a pup and used to bathe with his parents, he'd always wondered if he too would bathe with his own offspring. When he'd first got Rin he used to assist he when she bathed, though only having one arm made it difficult to wash her hair. He thought back to the times he bathed the Miko, how soft her hair was between his fingers as he washed it.
"A bath?" he asked as she nodded with her face still hidden in her hands, "Very well, we shall bathe after the children have eaten." The Miko rolled away from him and sat at the edge of the bed, facing the door.
"I'll go get clothes for the children and myself." She said before standing and exiting the room. He could hear her telling the children his answer and excited chatter between the children.
Kagome could still feel herself blushing as she walked away from the children to her room. Quietly she closed the door and walked over to her bed, before falling face first onto it and internally screaming. She'd told him she wanted to build their friendship before agreeing to a relationship, but she'd gone and fallen asleep in his bed. "Way to say one thing and do the other.' She thought to herself. Kagome groaned into the bed before pushing herself up and gathering her clothes. The children were playing as she exited her room. Sesshomaru sat watching them as she continued into each child's room to gather clothes for them. Once the clothing was gathered she moved to stand next to Sesshomaru. Elegantly Sesshomaru stood and the children came running to his side. He reached out and took Rin's hand, as Shippo jumped to his shoulder. Silently Sesshomaru led them through his room and into his bathing chambers.
"Rin, would you like to come with me to get the bathing soaps and towels?" Kagome asked. Happily Rin released Sesshomaru's hand and ran to follow Kagome. When they came back from the soaps room Sesshomaru and Shippo had already entered the water. Kagome and Rin disrobed and entered the the water as well. Rin began playing in the water as Kagome called Shippo over to bathe. Once he was finished she called for Rin to bathe, though she ended up having to wade out and catch her. With some struggle she got the girl clean.
Sesshomaru watched as his Miko wrestled to clean the unruly child. With an inaudible chuckle he reached and grabbed bathing soaps for himself. In the time it took the Miko to get Rin clean, he'd finished bathing himself. He heard a sigh come from the Miko as she released the troublesome child. The poor Miko hadn't even managed to wash Rin's hair, so as the Miko bathed herself he called Rin over to him.
"Rin, hair." Was all he said, but she swam to him with a pout on her face and stood so he could wash her hair.
Kagome had just finished her bathing when she saw Sesshomaru washing Rin's hair. The girl was antsy to play with Shippo, but she stood completely still until she was told she could go. Kagome walked towards him as he wetted his hair, she'd enjoyed it when he'd washed her hair and she curiously wondered if he'd let her wash his.
"Sesshomaru," she said, calling for his attention, "would you let me wash your hair?" She really didn't think he'd allow it, but he nodded his head once and let her move to sit on the edge behind him. Kagome was both stunned and excited. She carefully gathered his damp hair to make sure it was wetted all the way through. Carefully she set about washing it, his hair was light and unbelievably soft, and as she ran her fingers through it, she realized once again just how beautiful it was. When the water ran through it as she rinsed it she was enthralled as she realized it looked like liquid moon beams spilling from her hands, it was mesmerizing. Once his hair was finished he turned and washed her hair, all the while the children played and splashed across the bath. Once everyone was clean Kagome called for the children to get dry and dressed. Once they were dressed she set about drying and dressing herself. Sesshomaru, dried and dressed, came over to her as she was tying her hakama and began toweling her hair. Thanking Sesshomaru, Kagome took the towel and finished drying her hair. Setting the towel aside she ushered the children out of the bathing chamber and into the den, with Sesshomaru following close behind. Just as Kagome was about to sit down the den door opened and Yueyui entered,
"Lady Kagome, you have a visitor." She said as she bowed and Sango peaked around the for frame.
"Thank you, Yueyui." She said politely as Sango entered. Shippo and Rin had already run off to play, when Sesshomaru informed them he'd be in his study. Kagome just nodded at him and he was on his way.
Sango grabbed Kagome's hand and drug her through the bedroom door. Before the door even finished closing she whipped around to face Kagome.
"You to will NOT believe what I just saw!" Kagome's eyes widened slightly in panic at the crazed look in Sango's eyes.
"What did you see?" Kagome asked drug her to sit on the bed.
"InuYasha," she said with a pause, "doing paperwork," another pause, "at Sesshomaru's desk." Kagome looked at her in disbelief.
"You're joking," she said incredulously, "he hates paperwork, more over, what paperwork could he possibly be doing?"
Sango's arms flailed slightly, "When I went in there he was stamping letters with a family stamp and wax sealing them. When I asked him what he was doing, he said Sesshomaru had asked him to finish the paperwork, and that the signet ring that he was using was given to him by Sesshomaru when he decided to claim him as pack." Kagome's eyes went wide.
"He accepted him as pack?" She asked in astonishment. To which Sango nodded furiously. "That's so wonderful!" Kagome said putting her hands excitedly on her cheeks. "He must be so happy." Sango looked at her a little confused..
"You're not mad?" Kagome took her turn with the confused look,
"Why would I be? He finally had a family to claim him."
"Your family, didn't you leave us to get away from him?" Sango pointed out.
"At first, I suppose, but I'm not mad at him anymore, and Sesshomaru is his brother, who am I to say he's not welcome?" Sango sighed,
"I guess you're right, by the way where were you earlier? I came by to tell you but no one was here."
"We were taking a bath." Kagome replied nonchalantly.
"I thought you were suppose to be building mutual trust, not getting naked together." Sango said in a teasing tone.
"It's not like it was just him and I, the children were with us too." Kagome said rolling her eyes at the woman she thought of as a sister. "Speaking of children, you should bring yours here too play with Shippo and Rin, I'm sure Yueyui wouldn't mind watching them. Having said what she came to say Sango nodded and the women went to retrieve the three young children.
When Sesshomaru arrived to his study he saw InuYasha was just finishing with his stack of papers.
"Morning, Sesshomaru, want your seat back?" InuYasha asked without looking up.
"Finish what you're doing, there is still many preparations This One must finish first. When you are finished go bathe and meet me in the training area." InuYasha made an affirmative sound and Sesshomaru turned to leave his study, but not before grabbing the list of fallen warriors. Upon finding one of his servants he sent them to gather the listed families. With that matter taken care of he headed out to the training area.
He remembered coming out the first couple weeks of the Miko's training, General Kaii had been riding her hard to learn the new fighting skills. Often he'd knock her down with his strikes and leave small cut, marks, and bruises on her. The Alpha in him wanted to put the General in his place for harming his packmate, but he'd restrained himself, every time she went down she'd push herself up and challenge him again, she never backed down from him, and for that his respect for her grew each day. He'd expected for her to put him in his place as he'd heard she did the first day of training, but instead she listened carefully to what he said to her, and used what he taught to better her skills. She used every failure as a reference of what not to do. The more he pushed her to quit, the more stubbornly she'd resist, and after a couple weeks he stopped belittling her, and taught her genuinely. Though because she was human, the General had a hard time respecting her, but he respected her skills and he willingness to learn, even if in doing so she ended up injured, and though he'd never admit it, he finally came to respect her when she'd faced off against Sesshomaru and bested him. Sesshomaru pulled himself away from his thoughts, though many lay before him, he knew by the end of this war many more will have laid down their lives to protect their land. A servant walked up to Sesshomaru and bowed before speaking,
"The families shall be here within the hour, My Lord." Sesshomaru nodded before returning to his study. Upon arrival the study was empty, the letters lay completed in a single stack. Sesshomaru picked them up and took them to the training area, where he weighed them down and waited for InuYasha to arrive. A little while later InuYasha arrived, he wore a fresh uniform and had his hair pulled up into a ponytail that made him resemble their father.
"The families of the fallen shall arrive soon, you shall assist with the letters while I assist with the release of the bodies to their families. Is that understood?" Sesshomaru asked InuYasha, who simply replied. "Yes."
A little while later the families arrived and the day proceeded. The moon had risen when the last family gathered their fallen family member, Sesshomaru was exhausted, he wanted nothing more than to hold his pack and sleep. Tomorrow morning would be for final preparations and once finished they would head out. InuYasha took his leave first, waving good night at Sesshomaru, who nodded as he turned and walked away. With one last look around Sesshomaru turned and went inside. When he opened the den he saw the Miko seated in the pillows asleep, with the children using her lap as a pillow. Sesshomaru walked silently before moving to crouch slightly beside her, gently he cradled her head in his hand and placed a small kiss on her temple, before sending a very light trickle of youki into her to wake her up. Her eyes opened slightly and she looked at him, her eyes were still heavy with sleep.
"Let us go to bed." He said to her and he felt as she nodded into his hand. Releasing her face he gathered the children and carried them into his room, once they were settled he gathered the Miko in his arms and carried her too, to his bed and tucked her in. When he laid down he gathered his small pack and pulled them close to him. Knowing this would probably be the last night they'd spend together before leaving.
