"Thank you for the flowers," she said, leaning back against him. "Kagura thinks I'm imagining it, but I always feel better when you're around."
The beast placed his head in her lap, her fingers automatically running through his fur, and she was once again left wondering how she'd ever been scared of him.
Maybe it had just been shock, her mind unaccustomed to the sight of him or the sheer force of his youki, because they sat in content silence, the flicker of the flames softening the lines of his muzzle, Kagome knew there was nowhere she felt safer.
Her fingers soon slowed, eyes drooping as breath evened out, his presence allowing the exhaustion to take hold. Kagura eventually came by with a blanket, wrapping it around her still-frozen feet, ruby gaze never leaving her sister even as one of the beast's eyes cracked open.
"If you do anything to hurt her, I'll kill you," she said, a hard edge creeping into her voice.
"Kagura!" their mother admonished. "I think he's proven himself otherwise."
"By doing what? Showing up and nothing happening?" Kagura argued.
Emiko shook her head. "He would never—"
"You can't know that!" she hissed, glaring at him before getting to her feet. "He's affecting her powers somehow, and next time it'll be more than just a flesh wound." She stalked away, managing not to slam her door so as not to wake her sister.