Chapter 13
It was warm, like always; the soothing cosiness of his aura- her cocoon of baking warmth.
Never had she felt the terrible shudder of wincing cold when he was right next to her. The fur that he owned had a mind of its own, almost immediately curling around her waist, perfect, soft and smooth, pulling her a lot closer to keep her toasty. She smiled as the calm beats of his rhythmic heart sung her the sweet lullaby, her own symphony, her melody that defined home for her.
It was the birth of new day, the Sun was yet to rise and grace them with its golden grains that always escape the little woven threads in the dark drapes. She sighed in what could be traced as utmost content and turned to see him, her best friend, her saviour, her protector. His eyes were closed, his face devoid of the hints of anger and cold stare.
It was rare to see him like this, relaxed with his facade and guard down. The silver strands were still oddly perfect, framing his face, spilling on the silk cushions, unlike her mass of tangled messy ebony hair. She traced them, her fingers glided across the locks, wishing she had his perfectness. Seconds rolled by and her fingers begged, yearned to touch the magenta stripes, his royal lineage, his pride. It was so different from the rest of the texture of his face; more smooth and soft, almost like a lick of the velvet.
He stirred a bit when the tips of her digit graced them ever so slightly and she froze. She knew that she was not supposed to touch his mark. The Lady had once told her (warned her!) when they were having their usual evening tea. She pouted when she remembered that weird day. She had turned 13 last week and after the usual la-la-la fabulous feast that was thrown in honour of her birthday; the Lady had called her for a talk, a bizarre tête-à-tête about something in terms of losing a uterine line or so. She had zoned off in the middle of the talk, tuned out the science lesson and was actively revising the next day's prank plan that they have formulated.
'They'- being Inuyasha, Miroku and herself. It was the 'Convince-Myoga-to-drink-Kouga's- blood' plan, she almost had a hint of glee when the sketch was finalised the previous day. Sesshomaru had obviously heard of the plan (he has ears all over the palace) and had surprisingly not stopped them like he used to. Kagome had written it off as 'unusual' and pondered out loud, but Miroku had a smug look over his face. She had asked why (by asking, she had lured, threatened, dared and finally coaxed him) and he had said that Sesshomaru hated Kouga since he had the audacity to touch her.
She blushed, thinking about it. She had turned pink when Kouga had dropped in that one fine day out of nowhere and hugged her, whispering that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The blue eyed prince had then gone ahead, traced her cheek and pressed his lips on the back of her palm. Her traitorous heart had gone all loud, her insides went mush and Sesshomaru had given a growl, a threatening growl that had made her instantly to crawl under a tree.
She had mused about the reason behind that frightening growl, the dripping anger that had surged in the roar and Miroku had gloated around saying that she should figure it out on her own. She had asked Inuyasha about it and like always the hanyou was utterly clueless. He was more concerned in convincing the demon flee that the blood of the wolf would give a power 'beyond enormous'. Apparently Inuyasha was certain that the wolf smelled so badly that even the blood sucking demon flee needed a coaxing.
He was right though. Myoga had refused to suck the blood.
She giggled remembering the event that followed, Inuyasha's surprisingly creative way to threaten the flee. She could see how Sesshomaru's intimidating stares had rubbed on him and he was putting a good use of it. Years of being on the receiving end of the cold stare that screamed 'die now' had righteously helped him to master the look in to a perfect warfare, a skilful manoeuvre that had come in handy recently.
Her little giggle had stirred the heir of the West even more. The corners of his lips were etched with a slight curve, a rarity these days, even for Kagome.
"What are you thinking about?" Sesshomaru asked, his amber lit eyes had a free reign to her face. She instantly felt all warm and ducked her face under his fur. His chest rumbled with a light laugh that almost made her feel light, a tingle under her ribs and a flutter in her chest. Her cheeks lifted and she failed miserably in hiding the smile and the warmth that flushed her visage.
"Oh, nothing. Just about Kouga" She mumbled and instantly felt his muscles stiffening. She peeked out from the silver mass to see his eyes narrowed, his artful brow was raised in a perfect arch and the thin ribbon of the Sun had finally decided that it was the right time to let out it's spill of luminance, lightning his eyes in to a shade of pure molten gold.
"What about him?" He asked, the velvety deep voice was instantly lost and she could only hear the gruff tone underneath spiralling with an attempt to mask the anger.
"About how Inuyasha convinced Myoga to drink Kouga's blood" She said, her face was already tilted and sewed with flickers of confusion. She just couldn't understand why her Sesshomaru was so mad on the wolf prince. His eyes instantly relaxed, a small smile arched his lips and she forgot everything about the wolf. Her heart was working unusual these days, it would suddenly drum out loud; at times it would forget its only duty and skip a beat. And what was even stranger was that her heart tends to misbehave a lot when Sesshomaru was closer. It would then settle down with a final flutter, her frame would shudder and her cheeks would sting from the constant attempt to hide the edging smile.
'Hm, maybe the Lady would know what it means, I should ask her' She thought and snuggled closer to her epitome of warmth with a rather dramatic sigh of bliss and it was then she felt a pain in her midriff. (A/N: yeah, you all know this was gonna happen).
"What?" Sesshomaru asked, his eyes flooded with concern on seeing her slight wince. Her palm flew to her stomach and he sniffed. Panic flamed.
'Oh' he thought. Realisation hit him, he almost wanted to drop her in the bed and run away. He was a fifteen year old demon and while he had attended enough anatomy classes to know what exactly was going on, he had no idea how to deal with it. He vaguely remembered his mother muttering last week that it was time to give her a talk. He hadn't asked how the discussion had gone and now he was at a loss.
"Um, Kagome" He started. He was a warrior, a prince, born to rule and raised to lead, he could handle the situation. He grimaced. He could see how bad it sounded even in his mind. He was losing his convincing capabilities at an alarming rate.
"Sesshomaru, I need a moment" She whispered and trailed across the room towards the chamber of bath. He let her go without a hesitation and strolled across the room, paced for two minutes and had sniffed again. Yes, the change has begun. His rational side had quietly pointed out that he had to call for his mother. But the other larger part of his brain had gone blank, numb and empty, almost drowning in the pit of never-ending nothing.
Before he could take a step out of his sleeping chambers, he heard a scream from within. It took some thirty odd seconds to breathe out, he braced himself and then was promptly hit by a whirlwind. She hid her face in his chest, sobbed, whined and shivered. He instantly had his arms around her, her scent had changed in to an aroma of wild flowers, he could sniff out the blood and felt his cheeks burn.
"Sesshomaru, I'm going to dieeee" She whined, as usual no regards to his sensitive ears that her high pitch does. He winced and bit his lips. This was exactly the moment where he finally did understand the words 'I wish the earth would open up and swallow me'.
"No, you aren't going to die" He said, praying to all the Gods that she should have a miracle moment where it would all make sense to her. But he knew that the heaven cracks up to see him in this type of misery and so he let out a lung full of breath as a defeat.
"But Sesshomaru, I'm bleeding" She whispered and he winced. He could feel the dampness of her salt drops smudging through his robes and he pressed her closer to his chest. He was prepared with the science speech that he was about to give, but then the doors to his room opened with a creak.
"I smelled her blood! Is she dying? What happened?" Inuyasha came in with his half demon speed, pulled her from his brother and sniffed her again.
"Oh my god! She is gonna die" He yelled duely and sobbed with his palm raking through his dishevelled hair.
"I'm gonna die?!" Kagome joined in the whine and cried her eyes out, shuddering with painful whimpers.
'Great, I'm surrounded by idiots' Sesshomaru thought and rolled his eyes. His patience was breaking and it was then he spotted Miroku hovering near the door. While Sesshomaru hated the wits of the human child his brother was friends with, he respected the knowledge the kid usually showcases.
He could see the light of understanding dawning through Miroku's dark eyes. The hanyou had fled from their morning walks when he had smelled Kagome. Miroku had understood what was going on and had tried to stop the clueless Inuyasha, but he was of no match to the hanyou.
"I will tell him" Miroku offered and stepped in to pull the whimpering hanyou away from the human girl who still believed that this was the last of few moments in her life.
"Inuyasha, she is not going to die. Come on" Miroku had to use all his strength to pull him and drag the sobbing hanyou back to his room so that he could give a smack on his head and give a early science lesson.
"I'm not going to die?" Kagome asked in a silent whisper. Her face was blotched with huge streaks of tears. It broke his heart to witness her pain and so he knelt down beside her, gathered her into his lap, rocked her for almost ten whole minutes and gave her an answer.
"No you aren't gonna die. Do you think I will let the death to breathe next to you?" Sesshomaru asked and he felt a small smile that had managed to trail in her lips.
He could hear the footsteps of his mother and sighed in a relief. He gave Kagome a small kiss on her messed up tress, breathed in her new scent that was strangely addicting, the flavour of forest Lily and carried her towards the in-door chamber to draw a bath. He heard the main door crack open, felt his mother's pull and a small glee in her glinting eyes, a phantom of smirk was invading the Lady's lips.
'What was the smirk for?' Sesshomaru wondered before exiting the chambers to offer a promised slap to Inuyasha for his display of stupidity.
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A/N – They made me work on the weekends! I hate my new job.
I'm so sorry for the late update.
Love you guys!
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