They made an odd sort of entourage: Kagome, InuYasha, Rin, Jaken, Sesshomaru, and his dragon yokai she'd learned from Rin was named Ah-Uh.
InuYasha had insisted on carrying Kagome—he'd refused to let her go off with Sesshomaru on her own, even though she'd thought they'd both do better with some time apart—but that was one thing she wasn't willing to compromise on.
It had resulted in another argument that, to her surprise, Sesshomaru resolved by grabbing and dropping her on top of the dragon.
Jaken had squawked in protest but had ended up with naught but a large lump for his efforts.
Rin had scrambled onto Ah-Uh without a word, though she had a huge smile on her face. She hadn't even questioned anything when Kagome had told the teen to come along to meet up with Sesshomaru.
Traveling with Sesshomaru was a little odd. Though InuYasha had tried to dictate their travel in the three days it took them to reach the great inuyokai general's palace, he had little influence. If Sesshomaru wasn't ready to stop, he simply didn't, and the two-headed dragon who followed the daiyokai seemed as tireless as his master.
Of course, if InuYasha attempted to put his foot down, it inevitably resulted in a brawl. Sesshomaru, to his credit, didn't bother to stoop to InuYasha's level and fought only when the hanyo left him no choice.
Even then, Kagome had the impression that the inuyokai was holding back—which, predictably, only irritated her hanyo friend further.
Finally, Sesshomaru's patience seemed to reach its limits on the third day as they reached the foot of a large mountain. InuYasha had been complaining for the last hour straight—by Kagome's calculation, at least; her watch had broken the week before and she hadn't adjusted to telling time without it—and there was no topic off-limits for his complaints.
"Cease your complaining, InuYasha," Sesshomaru said flatly but Kagome could feel the irritation bubbling in his yoki. "No one would not be in this predicament if it were not for your lack of control."
"Fuck off, Sesshomaru," InuYasha snarled. "I ain't the one who started the fight!"
"Perhaps not with this one, but did you not first start the argument with the priestess that led to the altercation with this one, InuYasha?" Sesshomaru calmly pointed out, idly running a hand through his hair.
"That's it!" InuYasha stomped over to his half-brother. "I'm sick and tired of you acting like you got some right to tell me what to do. You ain't our pops and ya no right. We're settling this here and now, bastard."
InuYasha whipped out his sword and pointed it at Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru's gaze flickered over to Kagome and Rin and then up the mountain.
"If you begin your climb now, you will reach this one's father's palace before dark," he said levelly.
Kagome figured that was his way of asking her to get Rin out of the way so she nodded.
"Follow the path. Deviation would be...unwise," he cautioned.
InuYasha noticed her leaving and seemed to take offense. "Oy! Don't you take another step, Kagome. I'm winning this fight and then I'll take you there myself."
Kagome ignored him and his continued shouting as she rode Ah-Un after Jaken who had already begun to lead the way.
"What's the palace like?" she asked, ignoring InuYasha.
Jaken gave her a surprised look and then muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "I am Lord Sesshomaru's most loyal servant and even I did not know about his honorable sire's palace."
"Don't worry, Jaken," Rin piped up reassuringly. "I know how important you are to Lord Sesshomaru."
Well, I'm sure one of them is important to Sesshomaru, but I'm not sure about the other, Kagome thought and gave up and resigned herself to waiting to satisfy her curiosity.
.
Sesshomaru joined up with them sometime later, followed by a curiously drenched InuYasha.
InuYasha wouldn't meet her eyes or anyone else's and his attitude was surprisingly sulky, more so than she'd have expected if he'd lost to his half-brother.
Kagome eyed them both but decided against saying anything. She didn't want to give InuYasha the wrong idea and saying anything about his condition would give him cause to think she was interested on his behalf romantically.
But the silence was daunting.
She tried at first to engage Rin in conversation but the girl was dewy eyed and though she answered Kagome's questions, it was obvious her mind was elsewhere. Kagome didn't even bother to engage Jaken; the toad was too busy grumbling to himself over not being told about Sesshomaru's palace in the first place.
But unable to take the silence any longer, she encouraged Ah-Un to catch up to Sesshomaru. "How long has the palace been in your family?" she asked, reaching to find a question that she hoped he'd answer.
He met her gaze briefly as she looked up at him entreatingly. "Not long."
"So your father had it built?" she guessed. At his short nod, she pressed, "Why don't you live there now?"
"It is unnecessary." He sighed and seemed to come to the realization that she was not going to let the matter drop. "This one's father built it for his first wife as a gift to win her hand. Later, when she bore him a son, he built her a second, more opulent palace up high in the heavens and she moved there. This one's father had then intended to move the hanyo's mother into residence here."
Kagome had a pretty good idea why InuYasha's mother wasn't moved in before his father's death so she didn't even bother to ask.
"So you moved in with your mom then," Kagome prompted.
Sesshomaru frowned but he didn't tell her to stop talking. "This one was of age so he left. It is customary for our kind to wander until mating, though not all cease doing so."
"And you have no children or mate," she guessed and he nodded his head slightly. "People sometimes do that where I'm from—ah, my village, too," she corrected lamely. "Some people move around their whole lives and never stop, bringing their children and spouses along with them."
"And your women allow this?" he asked and for the first time she thought he seemed curious.
"Some," Kagome admitted, "but some women like traveling, too, and they never settle down."
Sesshomaru was quiet for a moment. "It is different for inuyokai," he said quietly. "It is very rare for a female to travel unless at her mate's or father's behest. They prefer to live more comfortable lives, pampered and residing in opulence."
Kagome shrugged. "I guess I can understand that. I like traveling but I like coming back home, too. I want some place to belong."
Sesshomaru inclined his head and she got the feeling that he understood.
"We've arrived," he said and she knew the conversation was over.
She looked up to see a palace hidden in the mountains that probably could have rivaled the emperor's own, tucked into the landscape at the end of the path. It was hard to imagine that there was another palace more grand than this one, for this one was hand-painted with gold, blue, and red overtones and so elaborately decorated it almost seemed to have a life of its own. The main building in the center was four stories but most of the palace seemed sprawled out, surrounded by elegant gardens and orchards.
"It's amazing," she said, struggling to take in the fact that the palace was bigger than her high school had been.
"The servants have left," Sesshomaru said, shrugging off her compliment. "This one is unsure about how maintained the inside is."
She waved off his concern. "It doesn't matter. We'll be here all winter and the least we can do is help you get it all back in order," she said, eying the gardens that were perhaps a bit overgrown. She didn't want to just sit around, anyway, so frankly she was happy to have something to focus on all winter than the thought of being cooped up with InuYasha and his brother.
"Jaken," Sesshomaru commanded and she was amused to see how the little toad came to attention, "take the dragon and procure supplies for the winter."
"Keh," InuYasha groused as Jaken did as he was told. The toad gave InuYasha a dirty look, but the hanyo ignored it.
"Don't worry about him," Kagome told Sesshomaru though she noticed he didn't seem especially concerned. "Or me. We'll get ourselves settled in. Is there a certain area you want us?"
Sesshomaru shrugged one shoulder. "This one cares not."
She got the feeling that he wasn't happy in the palace, but he didn't seem unhappy, either. She tried to picture him living here with a wife, but struggled to form a full picture. Sesshomaru didn't seem the type to be gungho for marriage and it seemed out of character to see him chasing after little children through the hallways.
But then she supposed it wasn't really her business so she focused on finding herself a room to settle into.
.
A few weeks passed and Kagome was lounging on a bench in one part of the garden she'd recently tamed.
"You seem content," Sesshomaru observed, walking up to her.
"I am, in a way," she replied, thinking about recent events. InuYasha still tried to win her over, but his attempts seemed more mechanical, like he couldn't quit even if he knew there was no hope. But Kagome hadn't paid much attention since they'd arrived, focusing on helping Sesshomaru with his palace in the hopes of allowing InuYasha to see that things weren't working out between them.
Surprisingly, the snow hadn't fully settled on the palace and she'd begun to suspect there was a barrier around it. She hadn't felt one, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. Instead, the palace got cold but there was never more than a few inches of snow on the ground, no matter how much it snowed beyond the boundaries of the palace itself—giving Kagome ample opportunity to work on the gardens like she'd promised.
Sometimes Rin worked alongside her, but more often than not she was out playing somewhere with Ah-Un or Jaken or both of the demons, lost in her own little world.
Kagome glanced over at Sesshomaru to see his eyes widen just enough for her to catch his brief moment of surprise. "Then you would be happy here?"
She considered his question. "I don't know," she said but she wasn't surprised he'd asked. Lately Sesshomaru had been conversing with her more often; in the beginning it had simply been him answering her questions but the more they spoke, the more it seemed like he sought her out for conversation.
If she didn't know any better, she'd have said he was lonely, not that that surprised her. He had a preteen, a toad, and a two-headed dragon for conversation and none of the three really excelled at it.
"I think the palace is beautiful," she continued lightly, sensing that this was important for him to know, "but it's kind of empty, you know? No one's here but us and we're all sort of spread out. Not that I need servants, but it's just...lonely, I guess. But I think I could be happy here if I was with someone I loved."
She didn't expect him to offer her permanent residency here, of course, but she got the feeling that he needed reassurance from her that his father's home comforted her.
"InuYasha's mother was not," he said as she stared at him in surprise. "She was here briefly before the hanyo was born. The palace was fully occupied when she resided here yet she was not content. She continually requested that this one's father return her home. Unable to bear her unhappiness, he agreed, hoping she would later change her mind."
"And then she was attacked," Kagome finished quietly, seeing where the story was going.
Sesshomaru's silence was confirmation enough.
"I'm not a princess, so I can't say for certain, but maybe she just found the transition too difficult," Kagome said, feeling a need to try and justify InuYasha's mother to Sesshomaru.
"Perhaps," Sesshomaru agreed lightly. "But you do not."
Kagome shifted on the bench, noticing that one of her feet had begun to go to sleep. "No," she admitted, "I don't. If I had been with the man I loved, I think I would have liked it here, with or without servants. It's quiet."
And after years of constant turmoil, studying, and battle, Kagome found that the quiet that would have once unnerved her, settled her down instead.
"Hnn." Sesshomaru seemed to consider that as they both relaxed in the garden. He didn't say anything else, but then again, nothing was really needed.