Please read and review!
The gentle caress of warm hands on her face and in her hair was soothing. Shifting, moving closer to the wonderful feelings she moaned blisssfully in sleep thinking that it was all but a dream, then the smooth baritone of a voice that she was becoming more and more obsessed with called her name.
"Kagome, wake up," the dream faded, and reality stared her in the face.
"Sesshomaru," she mumbled, "I waited for you so long that I'd thought you weren't coming again," she said while half asleep.
He listened quietly while she'd spoken and then answered, "I would have come regardless of the time."
He really liked being with her just the two of them; she made him feel wanted, and she wasn't being nice or accommodating to him because of who he was. She simply did not care about those things.
It was fully dark now, and she stared out the window at a half moon covered by clouds. "It's late," she said on a yawn.
The first thing that her mind conjured up when she was fully awake was that she had not eaten, and pressed her hands to her stomach, it rumbled.
Today was rather tiresome making her fatigued, and when school had ended she'd taken a bath and went to bed. Waking up hours later she was mindful of the fact that Sesshomaru was suppose to come and visit with her, and so she'd made dinner and waited, but he never turned up, and with a twinge of disappointment she had left the meal by the fire and had gone back to sleep.
But now here he was sitting beside her by an open window, looking at her so intently that she knew instinctively that what he was going to tell her would not be pleasant. Oh my, she thought, and wondered what had happened at the meeting today, she sighed and yawned once more before getting up.
"Sesshomaru I will be back shortly, I need to eat something, I am famished," she said and walked away after he'd nodded and conformed to her wishes.
His body and his mind tensed as he thought about the happenings of the day, and how Kagome would react after he gave her an account of the meeting.
On her return she handed him a cup, he hesitated to accept it, she smiled nervously and spoke. "I made it for you, it is fruit juice," he took the cup and sat while she waited expectantly. He took a sip and she smiled.
"Do you like it?" she asked in curiousness.
The beverage was tangy and sweet and it felt good going down his throat, it was like wine but without the sting. "Yes," he answered after awhile, "I like it."
She laughed softly and then replied, "I am glad that you do."
He couldn't help but to feel lighter now that he was here with her. She had an endearing quality about her, light, pure and wholesome, she was like the sunshine after the rain, the feelings he was having were new. Could this be the beginnings of something very special, maybe love, he dared to wonder? Cause what else could it be?
She was sensitive, emotional and inherently kind. He was rarely, because he was careful not to be. She was comfortable with herself, easily amused and honest. But he wanted her because she was different, or in spite of it, he wanted her.
Forcing himself to keep his hands off her as she drew closer to him, he got up off the floor and from beside her. Everything was just too complicated; acting on his impulses would not help the situation at all. He had to stay focused. She saw the change from relax, to tense and serious, and took a deep breath, he was about to tell her what had happened at the council meetings today.
For a full minute he did not speak as he stood and occasionally glanced her way on the floor, his eyes shifted and his brows furrowed as if he was contemplating the best way to deliver the bad news. She wasn't foolish, she was very far from being the naïve love struck little girl she had been all those years ago when she used to follow Inuyasha around by the tail. Fifty years and many hardships in between had made her a wizened old soul.
He sighed internally and turned to the woman who had turned his whole life, his whole world upside down in a matter of days and spoke candidly.
"The meeting went exactly as how I envisioned it would go," he paused in mid sentence and took a seat beside her on the mat, and she was even more alarmed at his behavior because he seemed so troubled. she reach out a hand and held onto his hoping that he would understand and not push her away; she only wanted to comfort him because she knew how distressing the whole situation was.
He did not push her away, in fact he closed his fingers around hers, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Please continue," she said quietly and he acquiesce her.
"They are old fools and arrogant, they do not have the capacity to see or even believe that their time on this plane of existence could be short-lived."
"What do you mean," she asked a bit confused.
He turned and looked at her face. And then immediately afterwards he replied. "Your presence is required in two days at the council meeting to validate the truth of what I related to them."
She pressed her back against the wall, grateful for the support of its hard wood. But neither its strength nor her tightly closed eyes could shut out the magnitude of the statement that he had just made. And it was then in that moment that she felt the first twitch of anxiety; everything was moving too fast around her, and she cannot ever recall having told Sesshomaru that she would be a part of his quest to save his race.
He waited on her to say something, anything, but she remained quiet and he could see her chest rising more rapidly as she took quicker breaths of air. Gazing straight ahead, only half aware of the demon beside her now because she was seriously contemplating telling him not to come back, not to bother her anymore with the issues he had with his species extinction.
But when she turned her head in his direction to do just that, the eyes that met and locked with hers was pleading, begging her to understand with its dullness, its lackluster shine, and she faltered. She just could not do it.
The eyes were really the windows to the soul, she thought as they continued to gaze at each other, and in time her words of rejection died on her tongue.
Without turning away from him she asked. "What are they like?"
He raised his brows as if asking please clarify, and then she said, "I mean what are the council members like?"
He was relieved, and the fact that she had asked him about them gave him some hope; if she wasn't considering helping him she would not have wanted to know about their characters.
He turned away from her then, and straightened his shoulders up on the wall. He responded. "They are stuffy old fools who thinks that they know everything, arrogance is part of who they are."
His statement didn't worry her too much; it was something in his tone, the graveness of it that bothered her.
"Is there something else that I should know?" She asked him quite frankly, and he nodded in the affirmative.
"Lady Harumi who is my dam is the only one that concerns me, if you should agree and come, be wary of her, show her no fear Kagome. Stand your ground."
He watched her silently as she thought about what he had said. He could see how tense she had become. He felt remorseful, because if she should acccept his offer to return to the west with him, she would have a fight on her hands.
When she spoke her voice was low and devoid of all the charm and girlish qualities it had previous to this conversation. "I want to help…you!"
He understood clearly what she meant, she did not know or even care about them at this present moment in time, she was only doing it for him, and him alone. Then she added.
"I won't be bullied, and if they try my mouth will be sealed, they cannot do any of this without my help. I know my worth."
He was pleasantly surprised, she was tougher and smarter than he'd initially thought, and his fondness for her grew tenfold. He said very little after that and so did she. Kagome never lacked courage and she didn't now, the silence that followed was refreshing, she only wondered if she was doing the right thing.
"Sesshomaru please don't take this the wrong way, but I would prefer it if you did not stay here tonight…I would like it very much if you would go now." He was taken aback by the statement because her mood had changed and he was in the dark as to why.
She didn't raise her voice or sounded angry for that matter when she said those words to him, and for a few moments he wondered illogically if he had heard her correctly, but when she got up and walked to her door obviously waiting on him to follow her lead and leave. He understood that she was serious and he had heard correctly.
He got quickly after the comprehension and followed her lead, and when he was standing outside her doorway and towering over her, he responded in dull resignation.
"Alright, I will go as you have requested...I will be here at dawn the day after tomorrow for you." And then he walked away quietly.
She needed time to think. How much was she willing to sacrifice to give them a chance to fight for their existence, and at what cost? Was it worth it, could they somehow come up with an alternative, one that could change history so that a future where humans and demons prospered were possible? And were her growing feelings for Sesshomaru clouding her judgment? She couldn't reiterate it enough, she really needed time alone to think, and to think things through very carefully.
"I am sorry Sesshomaru, I didn't mean to be so blunt with you, but this is difficult for me as well," she whispered into the night as she watched the clouds rolled away, letting the light of the moon shine through.