Chapter 22
No, never in his limited existence did he ever think that there would be a situation where he would have to control his boiling anger so much, and that is something really remarkable when he has Inuyasha as a brother (he had of course, reached the level of anger where he had considered burning his half brother alive, but then, Sesshomaru had never really reached a point where he had wanted to scream, stamp and skin alive every single being in the line of his vision). Now all he sees is iron red anger, the one that almost makes him blind with rage, as if the waves of fury had made his blood its permanent residence.
But then, there was never a situation before where Kagome had decided to be such a petty spoiled evil brat.
He had to hold his fur hard, so that it wouldn't unfurl in wrath, so that it wouldn't blister in annoyance, so that he wouldn't strike the wolf and act like it was completely an accident. Now, wouldn't that be just too wonderful?
The whole of Universe was plotting against him when the mother of his had decided to just drape her in the finest of red silk and satin, that hung a little dangerously in her neck, the small curve of her waist defined the dips that he could write sonnets about, when the flowers in his garden had been used to scent her, to wash her nails, to pin her hair in infinite curls that remined him of art and beauties of all the worlds. Those strands of black shimmered, waiting to be tangled and how he would like to twirl them with his digits, to caress them with the gentlest of touch, to remove all those pins that prisoned them.
And then the stars decided to shine brighter, showering her in their light and lucks, because, the fates loved to tease him, to send him over the edge, just to see how he would blast like millions of nebulas. Never had he seen her being this sarcastic. Her tongue was sharp and her wit rivaled his and it nerved him to the core that she was not even affected by his charm.
He even tried giving her 'the look' , and all she did was to smirk back, as if he had no reign over her, as if it was next to normal to look down his eyes and not to swoon.
He hated the wolves and all he wanted to do was to punch the mangy wolf in the face, because- he had the audacity to conjure a wild flower and tuck them in her hair –' they were born to cherish the ebony strands, my lady'. (The moon heir felt nauseating on hearing them) Sesshomaru had to bite his lip so that he wouldn't just scream in frustration and give out a curse that would put all the words of obscenities to a shame.
After the weird encounter with Kagome, where she had left him in a state of despair and deep thoughts, he had walked back to his chamber and called the miko to have a session of practice, to which the miko had downright refused to indulge him. Instead the ageless girl had decided to prance around the streets of their empire with Inuyasha.
It was well late in the evening when he heard a tap in his door. A message from his parents to join them in the gardens to attend a small party didn't sit well with him. And now his guts where on the roar sighing the same line again and again, 'I told you so'. He noted down with enough ferocity to never doubt his guts.
His father was in the middle of a strategy discussion and his mother was in the process of dealing with the lists of diplomatic policies with the Wolf Royalties. Usually, Sesshomaru loves to pitch in a point or two of his thoughts, because, he is brilliant like that with a talent of a natural strategist. But then, his mind had decided to go numb when his eyes had witnessed the pitiful attempt of the wolf prince wooing his Kagome. He decided to ignore the whole of the scene, but then Kagome had gone ahead and laughed at one of his silly jokes and it was a straight kick to his belly.
Because, his Kagome giggles only at his jokes. Not that the young heir makes much jokes, but she giggles at his curses, at his sprouting anger and at his general irritation towards the existence of Inuyasha.
And somehow, seeing her cheeks smudged against her lashes, seeing her eyes shining like that of a moon for the wolf prince made him want to paint the world in the pretty colour of dripping red.
"So Inutaisho, it seems like your girl has blossomed in to a wonderful woman." The Wolf King said, for which the Moon lord had a proud smile on his lips.
"Yes, isn't our Kagome lovely?"
"She is the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, my lord" Kouga confessed, taking her palm in to his and giving a slight squeeze, for which Kagome promptly blushed.
A tea cup shattered in to pieces.
"Oh, sorry, I knocked them down" Inukimi covered for the broken tea cup that was nowhere near her. It took her a minute to convince everyone that she had slipped and it had rolled over near Sesshomaru. (No one believed of course!)
Sesshomaru couldn't care less. His eyes that usually had the hues of gold and mustard had edges of raw scarlet, his fur curled under the silks of the table to claim a spot on Kagome's ankles, because, doesn't the universe know that she is his?
She had given a jump when a soft brush of his pelt had circled her ankle. Her heart almost whimpered, to feel something so achingly familiar after what felt like millions of decades. Her insides went goo and woosh, there was something inside her, swirling like magic, like music in the streams of her blood and she could almost hear the roar of her powers growing in the pit of her stomach, as in, it had finally found its nesting place, as if every part of her suddenly made sense.
She was scared. Scared to look in to eyes and to get lost in to them like countless number of times like before, scared to get too used to this new found feeling of serenity that was bleeding in her. But she did.
She looked in to his eyes.
The golden ones that had always smiled for her, the ones that had always been the source of comfort for her, the ones that looked too much like a Sun, the ones that she could never paint properly-because a colour like that never exists, a hue like that can never be purchased even from the most luxurious markets, because, his are rare, not too dark like his father's , brother's and not too light like his mother's.
And every time she had tried to mix the essences of golds, yellows to get his picture right, she had failed. Because, his eyes were perfect, an art by the angels, Gods and Goddesses that no amount of time, concentration and ability could just get them right.
Now, she felt there was something that was too wrong with his eyes, because, it looked tinted, specks of rust kissed its corners, the light in his irises were off, as if they had been drenched with something foreign, something with touches of pain, something that she wished she could wipe them away.
She felt warm, with the ends of softness caressing her calves, as if it was next to normal to have the touch. It should be normal for her, she had grown up with him, she had always been next to him, slept in the same bed for most of her nights, cuddling and suffocating him. The happiness in her chest was almost threatening to burst, as if someone had lit a firework inside her, it was all colours, joys and confetti.
And then the moment ended.
His pelt uncurled from her ankles.
She felt lost.
Empty.
Cold.
Alone.
"So, Kagome. What's your favourite colour?" Kouga asked.
Gold. She wanted to say it. It was dancing in the tip of her tongue. Gold, like his eyes, the one that prisms under the mustard rays of the Sun, the ones that my poems are about, the ones that I dream at night, the ones that I wish would look at me differently, the ones that I try so hard to get it right and fail every single time.'
"Blue" She whispered instead.
"Oh, the colour of your eyes, my son" The wolf Queen gushed.
Another tea cup went to it early demise, and this time no one came to his rescue.
"Why Blue?" Sesshomaru asked and everyone looked up from the china pieces that was littered in the ground.
"Because, it is the colour of the sky. The one that is constant, the one that never change for million years"
"Oh, and why not black, the colour of night, the one that is constant, the one that never change for million years to come" The heir asked back.
"Huh, should there be a reason to hold something as favorite?" She asked, unable to defend her previous answer. Because, she indeed loved the colour of the sky, not the one that blushed azure, but the one that was bathed with golden waves of Tuscan sun, the one that lulled the Sun in the evening, the one that waits for the gold to set in, the one that welcomes the angel of the night, the one that swallows the fire ball and sprouts tiny glitters of gold, the evening sky that bled hazel and bronze.
"Of course. There must be a rational reason as to why something else is preferred over the other" He said, his tone sharp as ever.
She did have a rational reason, but of course, she can't say that out loud, can she?
"Well, I happen to like them without any reason" She retorted back, lied with an ease, praying that the demons wouldn't just sniff the bluff that danced in the tips of her tongue.
"You have changed a lot Kagome" He said, his eyes narrowing in the slit, believing her words, not using his senses to pick her lies that seemed to have hidden like thorns in the reds of the roses, like the blues among the blushes of violets.
"I wonder what made me to change" she whispered and it tingled the corners of his ears, like a sound that lingered in the back of his mind.
"And here I thought you liked things that were constant" he said back with a force that made her jerk back.
Because, no- she thought that he pushed her away because of Kikiyo, and shouldn't she be the one dancing in anger, shouldn't she be the one to belittle his choices. She looked at him, for real this time, without any inhibitions, without any insecurities, without any sense of cowardice, she looked at him, the way his brows were dipped down in a concentration, in an unspoked fury, his eyes were still tinted and too real, too gold under the lights of the sky. And in the clear sheen of his eyes, she could see herself looking in to him in an utter confusion, in a way that demands a solution, in a way that said she was lost and that she needed him to find her.
She was speechless, frozen, in a state of utter despair as she stared back in to his eyes, because if she looked away from the eyes that served as her anchor, she would float along the air. Because, he was someone whose eyes had the glimmer to swoon the whole of galaxy, whose hair could be crowned with halos of stars, whose lips painted all of the roses and whose cheeks could be in the line of rival with caramel.
Because he had silver curls that could be disheveled and it would still be an art worth marveling about. He had the smile that could end wars, his laughs were too rare, too deep, like a slow rumble of skies that scatters billions of rainbows.
All he had to do was to look at her, his gaze, his lashes and his stare alone could tumble her down, could braid her soul with his and could pin her with an unfathomable force of bliss that felt like flutters of butterflies in the ring of her navel.
Because, he was the one that looked after her when the lights were nowhere to be found, he was her anchor, her solid earth, her sense of meaning when she was lost, when she had no one to disturb he would come home to her, to make her smile, to make her giggle like a wild child, and she knew her eyes would have glittered like the littered glasses under the shines of candles whenever he rolls his eyes to one of her silly narrations. She was his and he was hers. It was an unspoken prophesy and she was never the one to question the acts of destinies.
She could hear the soft talks that were going around them, but it made no sense, no sense at all, because, his eyes were still too intense, refusing to budge even an inch away. It sickened her, in a way she had never felt before and a tiny voice from somewhere within her whispered, 'Maybe things haven't really changed' . The realization left her shaken and she wanted to talk, to ask what really went wrong with them, but she knew he was in the pool of anger.
He still had his gaze on her, the one that spoke volumes and she couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't just talked about the things that seemed to happen, why did they just turn their head away when they should have opened up about what was bothering each other? It seems silly now, all the heart aches and tears, all the curses that she had given to the skies, to the stars and to the moon for making them distant.
She was lost in her thought, never noticing that Kouga had moved forward and draped his long tail around her waist.
She heard a hiss, a growl and surprisingly it wasn't from Sesshoamru.
~.~.~.~.~.~
A/n: Thanks for honest reviews : )
Love you all 😊
