Chapter 21: Mirror, Mirror

WHUMP

Kagome slammed a large, bound book on the coffee table in front of Sesshomaru, her cheeks ruddy with excitement. Buyo, as everyone in the house had begun to call him to Sesshomaru's delight, jumped at the unexpected noise. Fur on end, the now not-so-scrawny kitten hissed angrily at the inu who'd named him as he smirked at the feline's undignified appearance.

"I finally found it, Sessho-chan!" Kagome exclaimed, tactfully ignoring the exchange between cat and dog. She knew from experience over the past week that if she pushed the issue things would quickly get out of hand, and that simply wouldn't do. She was on a mission, and was determined that nothing was going to get in her way of accomplishing it!

Not bothering to wait for the young youkai to acknowledge her comment, she hurried on excitedly, knowing that he'd be listening. Running her fingers lovingly across the dusty cover of the book, she explained, "This was the book of fairy tales I was telling you about- the one my papa had gotten for me when I was born."

She didn't notice Sesshomaru's gaze finally turn to her as she became lost in memories. Starry-eyed and hands pressed to her cheeks, she bragged, "Momma said I reminded him so much of the princess, Snow White, that he tried to have the nurse put it as my name on my birth certificate! He was so set on it that she had to threaten to leave his name off the birth certificate to get him to listen to reason-"

"Birth certificate?"

Kagome blinked, focusing once more on her friend and his confused expression. It took her a moment to understand what he was asking, and then she flushed lightly in embarrassment.

"Oh! In this time, whenever a baby is born, a birth certificate is filled out so that everybody knows the baby's name, and they were born and stuff! Like who the parents are, what hospital they were born at... it's very important and official," she explained, a hand on her hip as the other waved around with authority. Sesshomaru nodded in understanding.

"So it is a way to keep records for the lands." It wasn't a question, and so Kagome simply smiled in agreement. She had tried over and over to explain to him how the governments of the future were different, and that lands were now actually countries. However, the young inu still didn't fully seem to grasp the concept, and in truth, she didn't really see the difference either, deciding in the end it was easier to just go along with whatever sounded about right to the both of them.

"Yeah, well, that's not important right now anyway! The point I was trying to make is, this book is very important," the young girl insisted, her sapphire eyes dancing with her previous excitement once more. "Because fairy tales teach us important things! So... I'm going to teach youthe fairy tales!"

Her announcement was met with a deep, resonating silence. Smile still in place, she was undeterred by the skeptical look being sent her way by the silver inu. After thinking about it long and hard, she'd determined that there was no way she could prove to anyone that he was more handome than Hojo without showing them a picture, and that just wouldn't do. Because then they'd want to meet him and she still didn't want to share. So, instead, she was going to make sure that he understood that girls need to be told theyare the prettiest and most beautiful in order for them to know they are important to you. That way, he could "practice" on her, and thereby out compliment Hojo, who had rudely called her clumsy!

Clearing her throat, she turned her attention again to the book sitting on the table between them covered in a thick layer of dust. Moving around so that she was sitting next to Sesshomaru, Kagome briskly wiped her hand over the cover, sweeping it clean of the aging grime to reveal a brightly illustrated cover of a distant castle with spires reaching into the painted clouds. In the foreground was a artfully drawn knight upon a white steed, holding out a hand to a pretty maiden in a flowing gown standing in the center of a dirt road.

"Who are they?" Sesshomaru asked, his claws tracing carefully across the steed's flowing mane. Kagome was pleased by his curious nature, and couldn't help how it reminded her of a cat at times. She refrained from saying it aloud though, in favor of answering his question.

Pointing to the woman first, she said, "Well, they don't actually have names, but this is suppose to be a beautiful, graceful princess and that is her prince. Her knight in golden armor who has eyes for only her."

She took care to stress her words so he'd get the hint, but when the hand in her vision retreated, she looked up only to see a small frown on her friend's face. She was about to ask him what was wrong, but he beat her to the punch.

"He looks nothinglike a prince."

His voice was soft, but Kagome could still hear the doubt in it. Looking back at the image, she felt a matching frown of confusion eclipse her face.

"What do you mean? He's handsome, strong and brave. He's even wearing a crown!"

A scoff met her defense of the illustrated character, and she turned back to see Sesshomaru's eyes narrow as he responded, "He has no insignia showing the house he belongs to or the lands to be under his lordship. And that 'armor' is useless. Gold is too soft to provide protection from steel. Only a fool would go into battle wearing such. And a prince can not be foolish."

Point made, the regal lordling quieted, waiting for her to continue his "instruction" in fairy tales. Stunned by his answer, it took Kagome a moment to react, and , rallying herself, the small girl just decided to bite her tongue on the matter and keep going.

'Once I read him a story, he'll understand,' she reasoned to herself, flipping the book open with renewed confidence.

"Okay, we'll start with the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves—"

"What are dwarves?" Sesshomaru interrupted again, looking at her expectantly. Opening her mouth to respond, Kagome found she didn't have an answer. What weredwarves?

"Um... well, they're... little people," she finally answered, before turning to look at him. Pursing her lips, she made a decision. "Let's do this, okay? I'll read you the story, and at the end, you can ask me all the questions you have! That way, we can enjoy the story too! Alright, Sessho-chan?"

Folding his arms, the young inu nodded once, his lips pouting a bit. Knowing he hated to be kept waiting, Kagome jumped right into the story.

"Once upon a time..."

"...happily ever after. Bah!"

Kagome drew lazy circles across the surface of the pond, watching the ripples shudder and grow in the wake of her fingers. The soft reflection of her face was distorted and twisted, which suited her current mood. Because right now, she didn't want to look at herself.

'I don't want to see her...'

Today, Kikyo had finally succumbed to death for the second time, crumbling into glittering fragments within the cusp of InuYasha's embrace. A smile still on her pale lips; lips that the hanyou had kissed with all the love and longing Kagome had only ever seen for the undead priestess. But that hadn't been what bothered her. She had long since felt her feelings for the brash young man dimming into the embers of ever-lasting friendship, and she was content with that. Especially since she'd so recently begun to remember other feelings for another honey-hue eyed inu, although exactly what they were she hadn't decided yet.

What had hurt was that the rest of the evening, every time InuYasha looked at her, she knew he wasn't seeing 'Kagome'. And while she understood, it still stung her innocent heart to know that she would always remind him of someone she could never be. And it wasn't just him. In this time, everyone had known Kikyo first. Even Miroku and Sango had admitted to meeting the former priestess once in passing before they'd become part of the group. Before they'd met her.

'I feel so petty,' the young miko admitted to herself as more crystalline drops etched a salty path across her pale cheeks. It wasn't anyone's fault that they had met Kikyo first. After all, she'd been alive long before Kagome had ever arrived, in more ways than one. But a part of her yearned for someone to look at her and see 'Kagome' first and not Kikyo. For someone to look at her and not see a shadow of a dead woman.

Wiping at her running nose, the young woman allowed the surface of the pond to calm at last, gazing woefully at the tear-stained reflection with a grimace. She'd left the camp to get a little alone time, and no one had questioned her or come looking for her, much to her relief. Tucking her legs up, she wrapped her arms around her grass-greened knees with a melancholy sigh.

"Mirror, mirror..." she muttered hollowly, changing the poem to suit her needs. "Deep as the sea. Is there anyone who can see just me?"

"Thatis the wrong story, miko."

Gasping at the smooth, baritone voice whispering from just over her should, Kagome found herself frozen as Sesshomaru's moon-kissed face joined her own reflection on the surface of the water. The heat of his body was seeping through her thin cotton shirt even though not one part of him was actually touching her. Shivering at both his proximity and the unexpected contrast in temperature, she quickly tried to distract herself.

"What do you mean, 'wrong story'?" she asked nervously, her eyes never leaving his in the reflection.

For a moment he didn't answer, and she finally dropped her gaze. Part of her couldn't bear to think that, perhaps, even Sesshomaru saw only the memory of someone she was not. Tucking her chin under her arms, she was startled to feel a calloused thumb smoothing across her jaw. Warm, claw-tipped fingers exerted a gentle pressure that had her tipping her face back up to meet a warmer gaze.

"This Sesshomaru means, both thenand now, you were never Snow White," he stated softly, thumbs gently working to remove the grit left from her previous tears. Frowning now, because her father was the one who had always compared her to the raven-haired princess, she was about to protest when he continued, his words effectively silencing her.

"It was not your fathers fault, because he did not know then that there was another to fill that role, but in a different story. She was Snow White, miko, but you..." his eyes never wavered from hers as the tip of his claw lightly teased the edge of her lashes, mesmerized by the glittering dusting of salt that looked like a hallow of stars framing the deep blue of her eyes. Leaning closer, almost involuntarily, his face paused inches from hers, his hot breath washing over her lips as he continued.

"You have always been Rose Red. Except in this story, it is youwho were meant for the prince and her for the brother."

The words were but a whisper, and she almost missed them over the thundering of her heart. Sluggishly, her mind tried to recall the story he was referring to, tried to understand what he was trying to tell her. But the harder she tried, the more she couldn't remember anything except how to breathe. Part of it was the distracting feel of his large, strong hands cradling her face, and another part of it was how close he was to her, with no move to pull back.

But most of it was the way he was looking at her. Because as Kagome stared back, the only reflection she saw in the depths of his eyes was her own. Not a shadow of a miko, or even a shadow of the girl he had once known.

Just Kagome.

And she'd never seen anything so beautiful in her life.

... in which Kagome and Sesshomaru both have a list, and it's being check twice, but it's got nothing to do with naughty or nice XD From intelligence to beauty, Sesshomaru knows how to make a girl feel special.

For an idea of what fairy tale her was referencing: [link]

So this Chapter, along with the next 4 and the previous chapter are part of see03's Superior Sense of Smell Challenge. Because that's how I roll. No worries, it didn't change the plot at all... just rearranged a few bits and got you some fluff moments MUCH sooner XD

This chapter is NOT beta'd because I'm a lazy troglodyte!

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As always, feedback and comments are VERY appreciated

ENJOY!

All Characters Belong to Rumiko Takehashi
Plot Bunnies Belong to Me