Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.
Sesshomaru watched with a raised eyebrow at the training session. His daughter had tired training with swords but the practice had disintegrated when one sword turned into a snake and another pooled into a pile of beetles. Yuzuki just smacked her hand to her forehead and tried once again to get the attention of the girl and the man squealing atop the table.
"So...why are you hiding?" The miko asked, stepping out from behind the shrubbery. Blue fabric rustled when she moved and when she cocked her hip on a bush so she could watch the group train. She snorted. "Where did you find them?"
"I found the lowest ranking then sorted out the most worthless." He stated, never letting his eyes stray from the perfect form his daughter was trying to teach to the bickering crowd of six.
"Surely you would not give her such untrainable men." She jested, letting her head rest on the bush and he watched as the wind caused it to catch on exposed branches. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for his answer.
"She has no confidence in her leadership abilities. This will test her resolve to lead the West." He explained, confused as to why he would tell her his plan when he wouldn't even reveal it to his closest advisors.
As she glanced at Yuzuki, he watched her. He noticed the slight twitch in her upper lip when Yuzuki made a particularly pretty move with a sword and was taken back by the warm coiling feeling that was building in his lower stomach.
"What?" She asked when she caught his curious gaze and glanced down at her clothing to make sure he wasn't pointing out a stain or something equally mortifying. When she looked back at him, his eyes had wandered back to the girl corralling her rambunctious group of mighty warriors back to the practice dummies.
She shifted her stance and he could tell from the slumped set of her shoulders that she felt dejected. His beast shifted in its cage, swatting a large paw in the miko's direction, like it wanted to stop the oncoming tears which he could smell in her ducts.
"I do not like the scent of salt." He tried but she only glanced up at him to convey confusion and when she sniffled, a blush clouded her cheeks and she understood he meant not to cry. She hiccuped out a few 'I'm sorry"'s before turning around to leave.
"But I might just tolerate it." He felt the words fly from his mouth without his consent but he was rewarded with her sniffling a few times and raising her head high before standing next to him. Her heat was comforting in the overbearing chill of the day and the scent of laundry cleaner drifted between the few feet between them. It smelt like cherries.
"Her mother must to something." Kagome murmured, more to herself then Sesshomaru and blushed when he tilted his head in question. She rushed out an explanation. "I mean that to catch your eye, she would have to be exceptionally beautiful."
"This Sesshomaru puts very little thought into material looks." He corrected her and felt a satisfied smirk tug up to corner of his lips at her slightly shocked expression. "Mind over matter."
"That is really deep. You must just love poetry." She asked, leaning forward to get a better look at his face. When he tilted his head to catch her eye, she maneuvered away from him. He nodded once and she continued with her train of thought. "I like a bit of poetry but sometimes it seems as if the author is more picky about the sound of the words then the correctness of their statement."
"You are educated?" His surprise seemed to anger her and when her cheeks grew rosy with hostility, he stopped the instinct to make her submit.
"No, all those books I was reading during our travels were for childbirth, yes I'm educated!" She huffed and neither noticed the seven pairs of eyes all trained in their direction, nor did they see the sly curl of Yuzuki's mouth when their argument caused them to lean forward a bit. "I was doing fine until-"
"Until?" He questioned, tilting his head.
"Until I traveled here." She finished, huffing and marching off in a different direction then Sesshomaru. She could feel the anger cloud her mind and was even more furious at the heat consuming her tummy. She stomped her feet on the ground a few times and then moved on to crossing and uncrossing her arms.
This did little good because every time she so much as blinked, the damn mental image of a smirking Sesshomaru was imprinted into retinas. This was like her crush on InuYasha all over again, and look how well that had ended up, with her broken hearted and with her best friend and worst enemy together.
She felt guilty for thinking bad of the miko who gave her life to kill Naraku but didn't retract her statement. She decided to pay a visit to InuYasha, the only member of the group to not recharge and recuperate in the beautiful palace, who refused to leave his room besides to grab the meals from outside the door and to point Yuzuki's six lost fighters in the right direction.
As she navigated the halls, she caught the detached end of a conversation. She slowed her pace and started moving quietly over the floorboards like Sango had shown her until she could pop her head around the corner.
InuYasha was in the hall, crouching besides a small girl, her red hair seemed to be on fire. Kagome wanted to make her presence known, but both demons seemed oblivious to her. She cleared her throat and InuYasha jumped up followed shortly after by the girl.
"Hello, I'm Kagome, who are you?" She asked politely, holding out her hand to get her name. The girl just shook her head and shot off down the hall in the direction of the kitchens.
"Good going, it took me a whole week to get her to sit with me, let alone talk to me." He scoffed, planting his hands on his hips before sliding to the ground across from her. She followed suit and both sighed at the same time.
"Are you ok?" She finally built up enough courage to ask and when she looked into InuYasha's eyes, she could see how pale he had gotten. His skin seemed to sag and the once healthy glow of brown to his skin had faded along with his apatite. His silver hair had lost its luster and stood limp at his sides and looked as if it hadn't been washed in a while.
She stood up and grabbed InuYasha's arm before dragging him up and down the hall. The public bathhouse was around here somewhere. Once she located the correct door she pushed him inside and right into the pool, completely dressed.
"What the hell woman?!" He yelled, pushing the dripping locks of hair from his face. His red fire rat robes clung to scrawny arms and tight skin. With the added weight of the water, he appeared to fold in on himself. To her, he seemed like a shadow of his former self.
"Bath time." She whispered, moving forward to tug at his robes. When he was left only in his undergarments, she grabbed soap from the rock shells and rubbed it into his scalp. He rested his head back and let her ministrations lull him to sleep.
While he was still very handsome and very naked, she felt no attraction to him. Right now, he needed a friend, not a silly teenage girl. Never mind she was both.
"Thank you." He whispered, letting his head rest on her knee. She had placed her feet into the pool and he had sat between her legs in the water. The gurgle of the natural spring caused his head to dip before he finally slipped into oblivion.
Her muscles were tired and through the narrow cracks in the wood paneling, she could see it was getting dark. She wondered if she would stay here all night with a sleeping puppy in her lap.
She was almost unsurprised when Sesshomaru came in less then an hour later. He carefully plucked his brother from the water and vanished through the door. It was a few minutes later that her reappeared and held out a hand for her. She didn't take it right away but looked at the dark ripples in the bath instead.
"Do you think he will be ok?" She asked, glancing up.
He didn't respond right away but instead waited a few seconds, as if he was thinking. Once he seemed to settle on a single answer he opened his mouth the answer.
"He will live." He decided and that caused a small smile to grace her lips but it was not a happy smile, it was sad and twisted, not real. He didn't like it.
"Yes, I suppose he will. But that doesn't mean he will be alive." She replied with the cryptic comment and this time he was only slightly taken back by her insight. Kagome blushed wildly when he squatted and picked her up.
She pushed at his arms but he was much to strong. She didn't want to hurt him with her miko powers, so she fell back, limp in his arms. The hall was empty and the only time they saw another soul, the maid gasped and quickly dropped into a low bow.
"You don't have to be so nice." She informed him when they reached her door. He just refused to meet her eye and instead focused on the courtyard her room overlooked.
"This Sesshomaru understands emotions often tax their human counterparts." He explained, glancing very briefly at her face before staring back down the hall.
"Goodnight." This time her grin was rueful and made her rich eyes twinkle. He watched as she slid the door closed. Her heavy breathing could be heard through the thin wall and he knew she was leaning on the door, listening for his retreating footsteps. He granted her wish with a rueful smirk of his own.