For lack of actions in the last chapter, think of "calm before the storm". This chapter makes up for the actions.

Day Four:

SesshoMaru's eyes blinked open to the faint light misting through his window. Dawn was approaching and he knew, it was the fourth day since Kagome had been with him. He sat up and stretched, he flinched as he felt all of his muscles twinges with soreness before they faded away into nothing. He glanced to his side where Kagome laid.

He could tell by the scent that she was still in deep healing sleep and wouldn't be able to wake up for several more hours. Growling softly under his breath, he rose and went on about his morning ritual of getting dressed and all that. As he finished donned his day clothing, he went to the wardrobe and chose the kimono Kagome would wear for the day and laid it on the bed.

"My Lord?" Huro asked as he came to the bedroom after being summoned. He bowed and stood up, waiting for his order of the day.

"Huro, have breakfast brought here today. I will be staying here for the morning. And bring my work from the office." SesshoMaru said with indifference as he stood by the window, glancing out to his land. Huro bowed and left the bedroom. SesshoMaru turned to the bed and scowled as he watched Kagome sleep. "Bothersome girl." He muttered under his breath.

As the breakfast was brought, he went on to working on his documents, finishing up the inventory. Once a year, he would do the land's inventory and it usually took him three or four days to go through them all, since he ruled a very large and abundant land, it was a lot of work. He was glad he was almost done with the inventory; there were other things he had to attend to as well, such as dealing with the prisoners, overseeing his military and new recruits.

He glanced once again at Kagome, seeing that she had rolled over in her sleep, snuggling up to his pillow. He rested his chin on his fist, watching her. "I suppose, the good thing out of this situation, I get a mate, an intelligent one who might be able to help me with my burden." He murmured, knowing Kagome might as well do his inventory while he does the patrol of his land. Kagome had shown curiosity the other day about his inventory. He knew she could read and write very well and didn't find the task bothersome like most ladies of the court would find.

Kagome started to stir and stretch in bed before opening her eyes. She yawned and sat up. She glanced around and found SesshoMaru sitting at a small desk by the patio, writing on a scroll, appearing very intently focused. She stood up and moved about the room quietly as she could, to get ready for the day. Her muscles protested with soreness as she moved about and she realized her muscles had hurt from the pain she had forced upon herself and SesshoMaru last night, murmuring under her breath, "I am so not gonna do that again."

"See to it that you don't." SesshoMaru's cold voice rang behind her and she yelped, twirling around to find him staring at her with cold eyes.

"Well." She spat, glowering at him, "You banished me to the floor, which was unfair. I just had enough!"

SesshoMaru rose to his feet and walked over to her, towering over her. "It was your punishment for your defiance yesterday morning. I will not have such behavior coming from my mate."

Kagome seethed as she glared up at him, not allowing herself be imitated by him. "Who are you to say what I am to do and what I can't do? I am my own person!" She poked her finger into his chest rather hard as she could.

SesshoMaru's hand flashed before her eyes, quickly gripping her neck and raising her from the ground. Her toes barely touched the floor as she gasped. "You forget your place here. I am the Lord here, you are in my house, my land, and thus, you must obey me, wench."

Kagome gripped around his wrist, snarling as if she was a demoness. "My name is not wench." She grounded out, her nails biting into his arm, "My name is Kagome! In past few days I've been here, you have not called me once by my name!"

He snarled softly as he threw her to the floor. "My using your name is a privilege and you have yet earned it. You are being stupid and insane to think you could defy me." He turned and went to the bed, picking up the kimono and threw it at Kagome, "Get dressed. You have slept in this morning, therefore, missed breakfast. You will not have any food until lunch is served."

Kagome glared at him as she gripped the kimono in her hands. "I didn't ask for this." She said as she rose to her feet.

He turned to her, his eyes lined with tinge of redness, causing her to back up in fear. "Neither did I. I've been trying to be very patient with you and your little antics. Either you learn your place or I will make sure you do. Now, shut up and get dressed." He finally snarled before turning his back on her.

Kagome turned her back to him and started to get dressed. The kimono was beautiful and once again, had matched SesshoMaru's outfit. He was wearing white with yellow and gold and her kimono was overall pale yellow with gold obi and white design of phoenix in spread wing across the hem of her skirt and sleeves. It was breathtaking beautiful and she was sure it had flattered her figure, like the other kimono had done.

When she had finished slipping her slipper on, Huro came to the door, bowing before them, "My Lord, Lady." He handed the scroll to SesshoMaru, "Shinji is ready and waiting in the hallway." He then turned and left the room.

Kagome gaped, "Shinji again?"

SesshoMaru gave a small nod as he unrolled the scroll and took a glance at it. "You are not complete with your training. Come, we must see to the prisoners this morning." He left the room with Kagome chasing after him, trying to keep up with his strides. Shinji had caught up with them with a servant by him, holding several bowls.

"My Lady, that is rather undignified for you to run." Shinji scolded as he whacked her backside with his reed stick.

Kagome stopped and twirled towards him, glaring. "Then, how am I to keep up with SesshoMaru's pace without running?" She spat.

SesshoMaru stopped and turned to them, watching as Shinji looked down at her, placing a china plate on her head. "A lady is never in a hurry, if she must, she glide." He twirled the girl around and gave her a light shove. Kagome seethed and assumed position to walk properly as she could, her hands hidden in the sleeves across her belly and her head high.

SesshoMaru fought the urge to roll his eyes and resumed walking toward the prison section of his palace, which was on the other side of the military compound, south to the palace itself.

By the time they reached the prison section, Kagome had increased three bowls on her head and was struggling to keep it balanced while standing beside him. She looked utterly ridiculous, receiving strange looks from servants, soldiers and prisoners as they passed by.

SesshoMaru ignored her the entire time, pretending that she wasn't there. He met with the prison warden. "Bring the prisoners out and line them up." He said as he handed the scroll to the warden.

Kagome stood several feet behind him, standing very still as she could, listening and watching as the warden brought out the prisoners. They were variants of oni, humans and youkai, all of them appeared commoners and filthy. She figured it was another procedure that SesshoMaru had to do while he was at the palace each year. It was quiet a number of prisoners that had gathered over the year.

SesshoMaru glanced and saw the curious look in Kagome's eyes and brought his hand up to gesture for her to come and stand beside him. She moved and stood by him, tried to look at him without ditching the bowl off her head. He explained as the warden and the guards arranged the prisoners according to the list on the scroll, "Prisoners are gathered over in the year according to their crimes. They are the worse of all in the land. Usually villages handle their own criminals, but when it comes to rapist and murders, they are brought here."

"And you execute your judgment on them?" Kagome asked quietly as she watched the prisoners stand before them, their hands and feet bound in shackles.

"Hai. Today, I am simply listing their crimes to them and they will return to prison."

"What's going to happen to them, what is their punishment?" She asked, afraid she had already known what fate had befallen them.

"Death. There are various means of death that they will receive. I will see which types are more fitting for their crimes."

Kagome turned her head slightly to watch, trying to balance the bowls on her head. SesshoMaru stepped up, inspecting each prisoner as he read the scroll given back to him. She listened to him as he stated each prisoner's crimes and winced slightly, they were indeed the worse. They had killed, pillaged, raped and terrorized countless of times. Many did not show any remorse and SesshoMaru had ordered long painful death for those. Few did give remorse and begged for their lives, yet SesshoMaru did not relent. Very few were granted quick death. Little she understood, he would be the one who will be their executioner, after all, he is the Taiyoukai and he has the different mean to kill them, it was almost as if he were setting example for his kingdom.

"When will they be executed?" Kagome asked the prisoner warden who had stood aside near her. He was a tiger youkai, a burly looking one with scars marring his feature.

"In few days. In the village nearby, there's a large marketplace where nearly all of the Western Land gather once a month to trade and sell." He replied, watching with a surly expression.

Kagome gave a slight nod and sighed, "I never thought SesshoMaru had to do this."

"It's the best method; no other lords of the other lands do this. SesshoMaru-sama felt it was best if he give example to the people, which is why we have less of those prisoners than any other kingdoms."
"Oh." She said as the warden left her to take the prisoners back to their prisons and SesshoMaru joined her side. They returned to the palace in silence, yet Shinji kept whacking her for her missteps. As they reached the palace, she was already fuming, having received quiet amount of whacking because she kept tripping over rough ground.

SesshoMaru felt a tug and realized Kagome had stopped a quiet distance away and turned to find Kagome glowing bluish. He realized she was very angry, glaring at Shinji. She had taken the bowls down from her head and grabbed the reed stick, whacking him smartly across the face once before clenching her fist to cause the stick dissolve in her hand under her Miko power.

His eyebrow rose as she started to yell at Shinji. "That's it! I've had enough of you whacking me every step of the way. This is just downright humiliation! I know I walk just fine and surely, no one can walk like that all day without having a stick up their butt!" She yelled at him and started to throw the bowl at Shinji, causing it crash onto the wall every time he dodged. He noted that the instructor looked terrified despite his weathered experience in the battlefield. The ex-general of his decided to turn tail and flee.

Kagome saw she had no victim to express her rage, and turned upon SesshoMaru, "You!" She screamed and stomped up to him, she had two bowls left in her arm. He wondered if he should flee as well but realized, he is the taiyoukai and it wouldn't do for him to cower before a mere human. He stood his ground, staring stoically at her. "I can't stand this anymore! I had enough! Any more of this, you will have a doll for a mate and I am not going to be a doll!" She threw the bowl toward SesshoMaru, who had dodged as it smashed into the wall beside him. He kept his ground as she heaved for breath. "Four days! Don't do this, do that… shut up, behave. Whatever! I can't take it anymore! Why can't anyone accept me for who I am?" She started to break down, tears streaming down her face as she bolted down the hallway and turned around the corner, disappearing out of his sight. As she had turned corner, a small power exploded through the air, causing a shockwave.

He stood there, shocked from her outburst. Then he realized, he was actually expecting something from her and she had finally exploded. Blinking, he realized he felt no pain or any tugs. He had heard her footsteps running farther into the palace before stopping somewhere deep within the palace. She had broken the curse with her anger.

"Astounding." SesshoMaru murmured, realizing Kagome's Miko power was powerful enough to overcome the curse upon them both. Shaking his head, he followed her scent though several hallways before finding her in one of the large room he usually used for as a throne room. She was sitting on the tatami mat, crying in her hands.

He entered the room and knelt beside her, stroking his finger through her black hair. "Kagome." He said softly, feeling her hitch in breath. "It is expected for you to have manner of a Lady."

Kagome shoved her shoulder to get away from his touch. "I am sick of this. I didn't ask to be your mate. I didn't ask to search for the shards and fight Naraku. I didn't ask to be transported five hundred years before my time to be in the world of war, demons, ghosts and all that." She brushed his hand away from her shoulder, "InuYasha don't see me as Kagome, and he sees me as Kikyo. Everyone in Kaede's village looks to me as a Miko and here, you expect me to be a Lady. I am not any of those, I am Kagome, just Kagome." SesshoMaru frowned as he sat beside her, listening to her rant. She looked up to his golden eyes and found them soft with concern, "It's not fair that I can't control my own fate… everyone I know in my time, they choose what they want to do with their life, where they go to school, what they wear, what they eat or say and no one cares. Before everything, I expected to finish school, you know, my education. Choose whoever I want to marry, settle down, have children, however many I want and when I want them. But here, it's so different; you just don't know what you are allowed to have until you are given it. If you don't like it, too bad. It's not fair; it's not how I grew up." Her face was wet with tears.

He reached out and wiped her tears away. "That's how life is here, for centuries, I suppose until your time. From what I understood from your… history book…" She gasped at him and he gave a small smile, "Yes, I read it when you lost it some time ago, the world changed within less than a hundred year from your time. It had astounded me. But, Kagome, you are here, you are in my era, you have to live the way we live. Fate brought you here for a reason and that's where you should be."

She frowned at him, "But if I am to be here, why can't I be born in this time, instead of five hundred years in the future?"

SesshoMaru gave a small shrug, "I haven't truly thought on to the reason why until you showed me in the last few days, that it is not necessary to think of reasons. Perhaps…" He gritted his teeth and whispered softly. "I was wrong." He heard soft hiccup from her. "You are who you are and where you came from had given you that personality you have."

She looked up at him again, "So you are saying, if I were born in this era, I wouldn't be myself?"

"Perhaps. You are Kagome, and I will have it no other way." He said as he drew his fingers down her cheek, eliciting a blush from her.

She looked to her lap, "then, why do I have to learn all of those stupid manners?"

"For the others, you are to hold an image of a Lady; I will not have my mate insult the other lords. But in private, you may be yourself."

"I suppose I can do that." She sighed as she dropped her hands into her lap.

"However," he started, "you have broken the bond between us." He saw her look up at him with surprise. "In your anger, your Miko power broke the curse and now you are free. If you wish, you may go, go back to InuYasha, and go back to your time."

She gaped at him, realizing he was right. "But…" He rested his finger on her lips, stopping her.

"It would not be right for me to bind you here." He said softly.

She shook her head, taking his finger away from her lips. "I can't do that. I can't just go and leave you to those elders and the other lords. If fate brought me here, then I should stay here. I have seen how important your kingdom is to you and I wouldn't want that on my conscience that I was the one who was responsible for you losing your kingdom. I will stay; I will be your mate…" She swallowed hard and held his hand in her hand. "I will try my best to learn everything I can to be the Lady of Western Land."

He gave a soft rare smile, "Spoken like a true Lady." He rose and helped her up on her feet and drew her into his chest, holding her in his arm. "I am honored to have such worthy mate, a woman worthy of me. I still stand by my words; I will have no other, but you." He tilted her face up with his hand to stare into her blue eyes. She blushed under his gaze.

The silence was broken as her stomach growled. She gasped and giggled, grasping her stomach in embarrassment. "I suppose that was undignified."

"It cannot be helped." He led her out of the room toward the dining hall. "My Lady cannot go hungry."

For the rest of the day, SesshoMaru had banished Shinji from his lessons with Kagome and spent the day, showing her around the palace, explaining how the system of Lordship worked and what he expected a Lady to do around the palace. In return, she told him of her time, her childhood and her dislike and likes. She even told him of her adventure with InuYasha, what she had seen and who she had met during her journey.

The rest of the day went without any problems from the two. Rin was rather happy to be able to play with Kagome more and farther away from SesshoMaru. Kagome even went to put Rin to bed while SesshoMaru went to his chamber.

When Kagome joined him to bed, she blushed as she slipped into bed with him and turned to him, reaching up, she cupped his face and gave him a kiss on his cheek, bidding him good night and turned away to sleep.

He stared at her, surprised that she had given him a kiss and settled down next to her, drawing her close to him, his arm wrapped around her waist. Soon, he joined her in slumber land, sleeping peacefully. For the first time in his life, he was actually looking forward to life with her as his mate, knowing things would change from now on.

AN:

Thank you for your patience. I had this chapter edited, thanks to Crystal. Glad you all liked it so far and keeping up with me. I really am enjoying writing this story as well with Water and Fire. I haven't updated Water and Fire because I got stumped in writing it, call it writer's block. I am also currently working on two other stories for InuYasha series, one's called 'The Heir' I'm not sure if I should post it. I'm going to write it as far I can before I can post it. And I am supposed to be working on Road to Damascus but, it's pretty much on hold since I have a huge writer's block for that one.

Alien: my favorite pairings are InuYasha/Kagome, Sess/Kagome for InuYasha series, as for FFVII, its Sephiroth/Cloud (female). I am flexible in different pairing but these three tops it all.