A/N: I'm assuming for the purpose of this story that it was InuYasha and Sesshoumaru's father who put the pearl that Hosenki made into InuYasha's eye….I'm not actually sure if that's right by the manga/anime/movies storyline, but oh well, I can take creative liberties here and there, tee-hee.

Rin and Shippo were playing tag, the dog bounding around their feet, barking. Annoyed by the repetitive sound in his sensitive ears, Sesshoumaru let his aura surround the small creature, demanding it be silent, and it obediently stopped yapping and continued its play more quietly. Instead of sitting on the well, as he normally did, Sesshoumaru sat in front of it and leaned back against it, closing his eyes. Kagura sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder, reaching up to brush her fingers through his bangs.

"You're in pain."

He shook his head slightly.

"Not so much now. In truth, putting a seal on someone by inserting a physical link to a powerful being into their body is incredibly painful, normally for the person being sealed. If the person doing the sealing chooses to, however, they can take that pain upon themselves. That is what Father did when putting the pearl into InuYasha's eye, I imagine. I merely did the same thing when sealing the baby."

Kagura moved to sit on his lap, facing him with her legs off to one side, and put her hands on each side of his face, tracing the stripes on his eyelids with her thumbs before resting her forehead against his. He smiled slightly.

"You're really not in pain anymore?"

"My head aches, but it will fade shortly. There was only true pain for a moment when I inserted the fang into the girl."

Her gentle hands seemed to know exactly where to go, soft, cool fingers rubbing gently at his temples, where the pounding pain still centered. He sighed and rested his head against the well, breathing in her sweet, soothing scent and enjoying the warmth of her. She kissed the crescent on his forehead, and he shivered slightly. She was always going after his markings; tracing the ones on his cheeks, licking the ones on his wrists, stroking those on his eyelids or kissing the one on his forehead. Did she somehow instinctively know, without him having told her, that those places were incredibly sensitive, and that her touch on his markings never failed to arouse him? Mischievous wench. Thank Kami he'd thought to put his armor back on earlier. Still, what better cure was there for pain than the touch of one's mate? He buried his face in her neck and scraped his fangs lightly over her collarbone, internally chuckling at the shudder that moved through her. Sweet revenge.

She moved away from him, rising and walking a couple of steps away. She seemed agitated, and she smelled of want. He couldn't help the slight smugness he felt at the way she reacted to him.

"Sesshoumaru, when will we be mated…really mated?"

"Impatient, Kagura?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes at him. He rose and embraced her, amused by the way she tried not to respond when he kissed her, even as her scent spiked, before she gave in and opened her mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He moved away after only a moment, well aware that they were not alone. Her eyes held a slightly dazed look, and he wanted to laugh at the way she blinked several times to come back to reality. Her scent was changing, and suddenly he felt his eyes widen just slightly. How was it that in the entire roughly ten or eleven months since her return, he'd somehow never been around her on her heat? Though, on second thought, he seemed to remember once catching the tail end of it. Now, however, her scent had gone from wonderful to completely intoxicating. This explained how she seemed even more eager today than usual…he recalled their passionate embrace in her bedroom earlier and realized he probably should have figured it out sooner. He could see the confusion and something akin to fear in her eyes.

"Sesshoumaru, I feel strange. I…I always want to be near you…I always want you…but right now I feel really odd…like I'd give anything to have you take me, right here and now…I've never felt like this before, not so strongly. Is something wrong with me?"

He took several steps away from her and locked his mind on Rin's innocent scent as a distraction while he spoke.

"It's only because you've never been around your mate while on your heat before. It's natural, it will pass with time."

"Heat? I thought only InuYoukai women would have that, or animal youkai at least?"

"No, it's a common feature of all mammals to some degree, even humans. It's simply your fertile period. Your body instinctively calls to males, and you become more willing to accept physical mating."

"But I've never felt like this before. I remember maybe feeling a little different now and then, but not like this."

She had walked back to the well and was gripping its edges as if for dear life. A gentle breeze brought her scent to him and he closed his eyes, breathing through his mouth and forcing instinct back.

"It's because of our bond, Kagura. Your body reacts much more strongly to me because it recognizes me as your mate."

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a weak smile.

"Does that mean you feel it too?"

He watched Rin do cartwheels and tried his hardest to focus on the girl instead of the way Kagura's body and his own inner demon were screaming at him to take her, heedless of the time, place, and witnesses. He could feel the familiar sensation of his markings becoming jagged and his eyes going red.

"Yes." He suddenly winced and pulled his claws out of his palm, holding his bleeding hand up to Kagura's view, a wry smile on his face. "I seem to be doing this with increasing frequency."

Instantly she was at his side, examining the cuts while he fought every instinct he possessed. He realized his other hand was bleeding as well, and lifted it without thought to his mouth, licking away the blood. Suddenly he caught the speculative light in her eyes and shook his head fiercely.

"Kagura, don't even think about…"

Too late. Her warm tongue moved across the cuts on his palm and he drove a fang into his lower lip to hold back a groan. He was contemplating the fastest possible way to rip all of her clothes off in one shot, when suddenly a young voice sounded from his side.

"Sesshoumaru-sama? Did you get hurt?"

He was torn between thanking whatever Deity there may be and cursing as strongly as possible. Rin didn't seem to find anything unusual about the fact that Kagura was still almost idly licking at the wounds on his hand. Instead, his adopted pup was examining the wounds on his other hand, which were already closing nicely.

"That's the second time in a couple of days, Sesshoumaru-sama! Maybe you should trim your claws."

He smiled at her childish logic. Rin's voice and scent calmed him considerably; she always had that affect on him. Kagura, meantime, had intertwined her fingers with his and was leaning against his arm heavily, breathing rapidly, her scent so strong it was almost smothering.

"Rin, why don't you and Kagura go for a swim? It's a nice day; the water should be warm enough. I'm going back to the house for a little while."

He escaped as quickly as he could, before Kagura contemplated arguing his departure.

………

InuYasha was sitting on the floor holding baby Kikyo, watching her every movement as if it were the most important move ever made. Sesshoumaru entered and sat down rather hard, slumping back against the wall, closing his eyes, and breathing deeply. InuYasha looked up in surprise.

"Sesshoumaru? What happened? You smell like…"

"Don't say it, InuYasha." He actually gave his younger brother a sheepish smile, which caused the hanyou's eyes to widen considerably. "Kagura's gone into heat, and I've gone into hiding."

InuYasha laughed.

"You can run, but I doubt it'll do any good. In that state she'll stalk you to the ends of the earth." He cocked his head towards the bedroom, assuring himself from her breathing that Kagome was asleep, taking a nap, before giving his brother a wink. "Trust me. Kagome seems innocent most of time, but check it out, I got her pupped like her first heat when we were married. You think it was my choice? Hardly. She attacked me, I swear it. And Kagura doesn't seem innocent anyway, so she'll probably be even worse. Plus, you're full youkai, so the whole instinctual thing really gets to you, I'll bet. Why are you avoiding it, anyway? She's your mate, ceremonies or not. I mated a human, so we had to get married like the humans do to make her happy. But you and Kagura, you're soul-mates. You don't need all that nonsense. Why don't you just sweep her off somewhere and get it over with?"

Sesshoumaru glared, offended by InuYasha's casual references to both of their mates, and his implication that Kagura and Sesshoumaru's first physical mating was something to be "gotten over with". Still, he answered his brother's question.

"The pups Kagura bears me will be the heirs to our entire line. Therefore it is imperative that there be no possibility of dispute over their legitimacy. True, we're not bound by human mating customs, but it is important to go through proper mating ceremonies nonetheless. It is best that any child of ours be conceived within the bounds of an official union. That way, should some dispute arise, nothing can be called into question."

"What kind of a dispute? Who would dispute the claim of your heirs? Not me, that's fer sure. Who'd wanna be a lord and responsible for all that territory and stuff?"

"We may not be the only two sons Father sired, InuYasha. Father was really rather promiscuous. Now, I was his heir, as the eldest. However, should another son appear, wanting in on the inheritance, and my eldest son was not conceived within an official mate-bond, that other claimant might be able to convince the court that he should be the next heir after me, rather than my son. Understand?"

"Yeah, I think so. But is it really that likely to happen? I mean, there's no way I'd let some vague possibility of another brother keep me from my mate when she's in such an alluring state."

"Well, you aren't the one burdened by the responsibility of keeping the territory intact. And yes, it is quite likely to happen. I've always thought it likely that I have more half-siblings, but of late I've heard rumors of another Inu Hanyou, like yourself; some idiot who goes around bragging that my territory is rightfully his. As it is, there is no loophole he can get through to claim anything, even a small portion of the inheritance. I must not create one by siring a child outside of official mate-bonds."

"Gosh, there really might be another? That's weird…I never really bothered thinking about the possibility. I mean, Dad only thought about the two of us, right? He left us the swords and stuff…"

"That doesn't mean there weren't others. He may have even been aware of the others. He had a duty to me because Mother was his official mate and I was his heir. As for you, he loved your mother. Thus he had an official duty to my mother and a heart duty to yours. The mothers of any others were just women he shared a bed with briefly. It's unfortunate, truly. You didn't know Father, but he was in most instances a man of great valor, honor, wisdom, and strength. Yet women were his worst flaw. I think perhaps it is better to have a multitude of small flaws than to have one great weakness."

"Yeah, that makes sense…"

Sesshoumaru rose.

"I think I'll go away for a couple of days. Tell Kagura I'll be back before the week ends."

InuYasha nodded in understanding. They shared the tiniest of wry grins before the elder brother left.