CHAPTER 21: I DREAM A WORLD
"I dream a world where
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn."
(I Dream a World, Langston Hughes)
"Lady Kagome, may I have a word?" She looks up, her face bright and happy, lowering her hand from where she had been cleaning out the wound on Sesshomaru's face. As soon as they had arrived to the manor, Miroku had not had time to explain his plan, for Kagome had whisked away her paramour to the lounge and began playing medic to his injury. Sesshomaru acquiesced peacefully.
"Sure, Miroku, what's up?"
"Alone, if that is not too much to ask."
She glances up at Sesshomaru from her spot beside him, one brow arched in question. He sighs and stands, seeming to already know it would be unwise to argue with her. "I shall check on my brother and make sure he has not destroyed a priceless artifact." Without seeming to care about the monk's presence, Sesshomaru leaned down to press a chaste kiss to the top of Kagome's head.
She smiled up at him, turned to Miroku as he walked away. "So… what's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, Lady Kagome, I merely had a question for you." He sat before her, idly taking in the splendor of the room around him. "You are aware, I hope, of Lord Sesshomaru's predicament concerning his need for a lady of the western lands before his thousandth name day?"
She shrugged. "Yeah, I told me that he had until then or the powers would go to Inuyasha." Her gaze sharpened. "Why?"
"I was wondering if you knew what his plan was?"
"His plan?" She repeated blankly. "Uh…" Her face began to bloom in a soft blush as he watched. "Well, he said he wanted me… by his side. So I guess maybe he'll ask me eventually."
While her blush is endearing, he obviously had not told her everything. "Did you know his name day is in just a few weeks?"
She paled, but not as much as he would have thought if the idea distressed her so. "What?"
"Are you also aware that it is not his intention to ask you, but, as he thinks you are too good for him, his plan is instead to let his title wither away and shift to Inuyasha, who, though like am awkward brother to me, could not rule a country if his life depended on it."
She is silent for a long moment, so long that he calls out her name questioningly, but her screech cuts him off before he utters the last syllable. "WHAT?"
He leans back in shock. Her aura flares out harshly, rattling pictures on the walls. "Um, yes, that's what he told me, anyway, but I had – "
"He told you?" There are electric sparks in her eyes and in her hair. She looks like a divine goddess of retribution.
"Um, yes? But like I said… I have an idea – if you cared about him like I think you do – " Her eyes are wild and he hurries on. "I think it will save him and make you happy," he finishes in a rush.
"Does he know you have a plan?" The words are hissed through gritted teeth. She's practically aglow with spiritual energy.
Well, he never really had the chance to explain himself, but he didn't want to say anything that might make Kagome lash out at him. Better Sesshomaru than a poor monk. "Sort of?"
She stands so abruptly that the chair she is sitting on slides back several inches. Then continues to slide back from the force of the pulsing waves of spiritual energy that she's emitting. Her voice, when she speaks, is barely more than a growl. "I am going to kill him." She stalks out of the room in a swirl of miko power and anger, Miroku scrambling to keep up. His pleas at her to stop and wait, he thinks are falling on deaf ears until he tells her that maybe she should calm down and she shoots him a look so full of venom and poison he almost soils himself.
After that he just follows along behind her quietly. It means he has a completely unencumbered view of Sesshomaru's face when Kagome slams open the door to the kitchen so loudly and violently that everyone inside jumps. Sesshomaru freezes mid-tirade at the mess his brother is making when Kagome begins to advance towards him.
"You," she hisses.
Miroku is shocked for two reasons. The first one is that, while her swirling spiritual energy is crackling through the air like whips, it is not injuring anyone, which is impressive, but the implication is clear. The second is that, Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, wielder of the demon blade Tokijin, is currently taking curried steps backwards, his eye wide in shock as a tiny miko stalks towards him.
"You arrogant, egotistical male." His back hits the wall, but she continues striding forward. "Don't you think I might have an opinion on the matter of you giving up your title for some stupid, idiotic reason?!" When she reaches him she shoves him with both her hands. Surprisingly all he does is hold up his hand in surrender. When he opens his mouth to answer, her hands are on his cheeks, stilling him. "Maybe you're too good for me, did you ever think of that?"
Before he can answer, and to the great uncomfortableness of everyone else in the room, she stands up on her tiptoes and pressed their mouths together. There's a moment of awkward silence. Someone coughs. Someone else scuffs their feet. Inuyasha mutters curses and death threats not quite under his voice. Kagome pulls back and Sesshomaru leans his forehead against her, his eye closed.
"I take it the monk spoke of our conversation." Miroku pretends not to see the golden eye open in a slit, glaring in his direction.
"You are the biggest idiot I have ever met if you think I'm going to let Inuyasha run a country when he can't even remember to brush his hair."
"What that fuck?" Everyone ignores the hanyou's outburst.
"I would not wish to force you into something you might not wish."
"Sesshomaru, I don't know if you know this, but you can't actually force me to do anything." Her aura, while calming down, flares once again in warning.
"Dully noted, little miko." He leans back just enough to look her in the face. "You truly desire this?"
There was really only so much romantic interlude a man who was currently not getting any could take, so Miroku chose this moment to interrupt. "If I may interject?" Everyone turns to stare at him, as if they had all forgotten that other people existed. "I mentioned that I had a potential idea, but no one will seem to let me voice it?" He pauses, waiting for another interruption, but there is silence. "Right, well. It appears to me that we have several problems. In a few weeks the title of lord will change hands to Inuyasha, which none of us want – "
"What the fuck is everyone talking about?"
Inuyasha is ignored.
" – and in order to prevent that Lord Sesshomaru needs to choose a mate and a Lady of the Western Lands. As he is… um, currently in a less physically complete state than normal?" A low growl curls through the room so Miroku hurries on. "He thinks himself unworthy of a great miko, such as yourself," a magnanimous wave at Kagome, who giggles. "But I have a theory. Lord Sesshomaru, the mating and the naming of a consort are separate events, correct?"
He blinks. "That is correct, but my father stipulated both must be achieved."
"Yes, well, I was thinking of the order they are performed in. If, for example, you were to name Kagome Lady of the Western Lands first, what would happen? Would she get a power boost?"
Sesshomaru cocks his head to the side. "Yes. She would become connected to this lands in the way that this Sesshomaru is."
Miroku nodded sagely. "Perhaps it might be different, since I assume this ceremony is usually giving a demoness a power boost, but I think that, with the power boost Lady Kagome gets, her miko powers, while usually not able to heal injuries that have already themselves healed naturally. I think with the added power boost will allow her, with some guidance from yours truly, to heal your face. Then," he said over Kagome's gasp, "you will have a few weeks to decide if she thinks you're good enough, or whatever it is you want to do."
Kagome turns to Sesshomaru with a blinding smile. "Oh, that would be amazing!"
No one can sense the way that his heart drops down to his stomach at her admission, her verbal acknowledgment that she would prefer him with his face whole and hale and beautiful again. He nods to her, somewhat sadly.
"Then you would be able to see, right?"
Sesshomaru stills, staring down at her in surprise. She's looking up at him so innocently, so happy in the knowledge that she can help him see again. He realizes with a start that she does not care about healing the scars on his face. All she wants to do is what she thinks will make him happy. And he comes to another realization with a jolt. It does not matter to him as much as he thought it did before. He glances over at the monk. "Might such a power surge be used to heal my arm?"
He frowned. "Possibly, but she couldn't do both. Your face and vision at the same time, sure. But to regrow a missing limb, a wound that's been healed for so incredibly long? That would take a lot of power. It'd be that and nothing else."
Nodding, he turns back to Kagome, who's looking up at him in confusion. "Would that be alright with you?"
She blinks, confused. "With me? Sesshomaru, I don't care, but what about you? I thought you wanted – "
"I find that I am continually learning new things about myself when I am around you. I find that," he reaches up to brush a stray lock of hair behind her ear, "what I care about the most is being able to protect you with the strength of two arms, to keep you safe in my embrace." There's another uncomfortable cough from someone in the room that he ignores. "I find that having two arms matters more to me than having a pretty face." He pauses again, tilting his head. "If the way I look does not disgust you."
She smiles at him, reaching up to place her hand over his scarred cheek. "Sesshomaru, your face is a part of you. But it isn't you. I would honored to do whichever makes you happy."
He leaned down, still heedless of their audience, touching their noses together. "You make me happy." The demon slayer sighs in the background. Kagome smiles at him, cheeks blooming with warmth, and nothing about her says she is second-guessing this, or that she wishes for something or someone else. So he straightens to his full height, tucks Kagome into the curve of his shoulder, and, turning to the monk, says, "Well, then show us how to begin."