Over the next couple of days, she continually saw more of him. He would join her for walks around the compound, which, despite being up in the clouds, as Kagome had been shocked to discover, sported some beautifully maintained gardens. When Sango was training her, he would sometimes offer pointers when he walked by. He would still give her a wide berth when she was lounging around with InuYasha and only hovered close when Miroku was her companion. If she was having tea, she would often be able to draw him in by offering him a cup, but never when she was with his mother.
"Petulant pup," Shizuka remarked as he retreated into the palace upon discovering her in Kagome's room, "I will not live to see my grandpups with him dragging his feet."
Kagome sputtered into her tea, nearly coughing up a lung as she inhaled half her cup. "Grandpups?!"
Shizuka looked at her mildly. "Of course, dear. Now that he has a mate, he will have to ensure the familyline continues."
"Doesn't his mate get a say in that?" she heatedly asked, "He told me mating bonds should not be forced!"
Shizuka briefly looked taken aback by that, eyes glazing over. "Did he now?"
When Kagome could only stare, the demoness stood up and motioned for her to follow. "Come, little miko, and join me. I shall regale you with the tale of my own mating bond."
As they went outside and walked over to the gardens, Shizuka told her how she had hated her mate on sight, and that the feeling had been mutual. She'd found him mean, coarse and unrefined on their first meeting, while he had thought her arrogant, conceited and accused her of having a most selfish disdain for the world. As they had both been the sole heirs to ancient families, however, they had been pressured into mating nonetheless. Kagome's face had been souring over the course of their conversation, and now she was tutting outright.
"Do not fuss, dear, we would come to tolerate each other in the passing centuries. But I fear mere tolerance does not foster a healthy environment for a child to be brought up in."
As Shizuka prattled on about how Touga would leave her and their son for months on end, flitting in and out of their lives without warning, Kagome's heart went out to Sesshoumaru as she thought about the household he had been brought up in. Despite the measure of fondness with which Shizuka spoke of her mate now, Kagome could imagine the cold ruthlessness of a mother scorned, and how it must have affected his view on his father. She better understood his reluctance in forcing their bond with the example his parents had set.
She listened with only half an ear as Shizuka went on, gushing about Sesshoumaru in his childhood, that he had been such a clingy child, that he would run away from every single tutor to come find her and that, when he was old enough to hunt, he would present his kill to her first, even when his father was at home.
Kagome's eye was drawn to the far end of the garden, where the subject of his mother's story suddenly loomed. As their eyes met, she could not stop the blush that spread at the wave of warmth that spread from her shoulder and settled in her chest.
Beside her, Shizuka fell silent as she regarded the human woman with a small smile and a knowing glint in her eyes. "You should stop dragging your feet, as well, little miko. The conduit only works when there is affection to begin with."
Kagome sharply turned her gaze to the demoness, perplexed. "From the bestower?"
His mother clicked her tongue. "That much is a given, of course. From the recipient, dear."