Chapter XVII

The opening music of Anpanman playing in his living room and Kazumi singing along with it, had Sesshomaru pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. For the pass hour his house had been filled with the sounds of annoying kid music-both in english and japanese-out of tone singing, and laughter. While the laughter didn't bother him, in fact it brought a small smile to his face, the nonsense that came with any kids shows was slowly giving him a migraine. With an exasperated sigh, Sesshomaru looked down at the document in front of him and tried to read it, only to give up when he started reading the same sentence again and somehow ended up going up the page instead of down.

Pushing away from his desk, Sesshomaru made his way out of his office and toward the living room. Stopping in front of the living room entrance and shifting his gaze to the moving, dancing figure in front of his television, let out a soft bark under his breath. Immediately he had Kazumi's undivided attention. Silently noting that Kazumi knew the basics of inuyoukai, Sesshomaru calmly asked if she was hungry. A nod was his answer.

"What do you require in order to satisfy yourself?" Sesshomaru asked. When all he received was a confused tilt of the head, he reworded his question to, "What do you want to eat?"

"Food!" Kazumi exclaimed as she offered her Papa a brilliant smile. An inaudible sigh was her answer as Sesshomaru walked over to the kitchen and tried to figure out what to give a toddler. After looking through both his cupboards and fridge he decided on making rice hamburgers, something he himself liked to eat on occasion.

He was halfway through making making dinner when he felt Kazumi enter the kitchen. Looking at her through the corner of his eye, he watched as she dragged in her bag behind her and made her way to him. She came to a stop a few feet away from the stove and said in a loud voice, "Papa! Milk!"

"You want milk?"

"Hai!"

Turning the stove on low, Sesshomaru turned around to face his daughter and was about to say something, when Kazumi beat him to it by saying "milk!" again and slightly lifting up her bag. Guessing accurately that her milk was in there, bending to grab the offered bag, Sesshomaru brought it up to the counter and began zipping through the various compartments in there. He silently cursed the person who came up with the need to have so many pockets in one single bag.

"There!" Kazumi exclaimed drawing Sesshomaru away from his thoughts.

"Hn?"

"Milk in there Papa!" Kazumi said pointing to the pocket in the front. Pulling it open, Sesshomaru found that it was a cooler compartment that held several defrosting bags. Picking one up with the tips of his claws, Sesshomaru brought it up to his nose and delicately sniffed. The scent of Rin and milk drifted up into his nose, and slightly confused at its origin, Sesshomaru looked down at Kazumi and with a tilt of the head asked where the milk came from.

"Mommy," Kazumi stated as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Without having anything to say, Sesshomaru turned back to the bag and pulled out the list of instructions he had found earlier while looking through the bag's pockets. The only instruction he found for the Kazumi's milk was that he's supposed to put the milk in warm water and let it thaw and heat it up that way. With underlined and capitalized words saying that those were two different steps.

With bag in the water and Kazumi, for the time, satisfied on nibbling on a piece of fruit, Sesshomaru turned back to cooking dinner. No more than two minutes passed before Kazumi was garing Sesshomaru's attention again.

"Kazu-chan gotta pee!"

Withholding a sigh of frustration and a grimace of disgust, he turned the heat back on low before turning to Kazumi and asking if she could go to the restroom herself. When he received a nod as an answer he almost murmured a sigh of relief. Ordering her to follow him, Sesshomaru lead Kazumi through a series of hallways before coming to stop in front of an adjacent door. Turning on the lights to the room, Sesshomaru was about to leave when an innocent, loud command to "stay!" held him in place outside the bathroom. Cringing at the sound and smell that originated from the closed door, Sesshomaru held his breath and counted to ten, when that didn't result with Kazumi reappearing in front of him, continued to count until she came out with wet hands and an enormous smile splitting her face in half.

"Kazumi done!" she exclaimed as she ran past him towards the living room where she went back to her place in front of the tv where a new show was playing and by the language of the opening he could only guess that it was an English one this time. Sesshomaru was cursing his international television because no matter how annoying the Japanese songs and antics were, the English ones were worst. Refining from shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose to curve his coming headache, he walked back to the kitchen and finished dinner.

Placing the plates on the table along with the appropriate utensils, Sesshomaru called Kazumi to come eat. In an instant Kazumi was in the kitchen doorway looking up at her father with a curious look in her eyes. Wanting to test her to see if she understood inu, Sesshomaru let out a silent 'woof' which got Kazumi to tilt her head and look at him in wonder. Figuring she needed to hear it again, Sesshomaru quietly said "pup" in inu.

'Alpha-male,' came a small unsure bark from Kazumi's small throat. Nodding in approval, Sesshomaru mentioned for her to take a seat with a nod and a growled command to seat in inu. With quiet, small steps Kazumi walked towards the chair her father said was hers. She struggled for a minute getting up before she managed to get on, only to see that her head barely managed to reach the tabletop. A pout was just beginning to form on her lips when she was lifted by the straps of her dress and deposited on top of a huge pillow that made it possible so that she could be level with the table and her food.

Offering her Papa a smile in gratitude, Kazumi reached for her food, only to stop and point to the sippy cup that held her milk. "Papa!" 'Alpha-male.'

Humming to tell her he heard her, Sesshomaru calmly watched as Kazumi happily dug into her meal while contently going back and forth between inu and normal speech to tell him all about her day. And while she didn't do much in her eyes she went on an adventure and learned something new. While he never imagined himself being a father, it could be something he could get used to, after all he did need an heir to run his empire.

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