I'm dabbling in this fandom again. Another community, more stories. Go figure...
Written for the 100_fairytales community on LJ. Enjoy!
The fox as shepherd
The human mind is such a strange thing.
He thinks - as he watches her sleep ever so soundly - that he could reach forward and wring her neck at any given moment. It would be easy. She wouldn't probably feel a thing.
After all, he's had experience. Lots of it. His name isn't only an idea - it's a promise. He is the epitome of the perfect assassin - silent, knowledgeable, swift.
And the girl is so delicate and small. She pretends that they are old friends, instead of tentative allies - she bares her throat to him, allows him to guard her dreams, trusts him enough to overlook his past grievances against her and his foolish brother.
Kagome conveniently chooses to forget the fact that he tried to poison her once and Sesshoumaru idly ignores the fact that she tried to shoot an arrow at him a long time ago.
So he wonders what possesses him to just sit here, by the warm fire, and watch over a mortal's sleep. He feels daunted by the trust she - this Kagome girl - puts in him. It reminds him that there's another child, sleeping just as soundly, a few feet away who puts an equal measure of trust in him as well.
It reminds him that he is getting soft.
Sesshoumaru does not like it. He dislikes this willing state of servitude and the particular sense of petulance that accompanies it. He wants to shed this skin of weakness and the mask of humanity and rip into something.
Anything
Kagome.
But he doesn't...
He sits by the fire and plays the role of a protector.
The fox as shepherd.
Sesshoumaru is overthinking things. Oh well...