Evolution of a Taiyoukai

By Danyealle

(FanFiction/MF/angst)

Chapter 6

As she packed all the supplies her mother had picked up for her, Kagome smiled.  For as long as she had been using the well she couldn’t remember ever so looking forward to going back to the feudal era.

Sesshomaru…

Even merely thinking his name made her smile bigger.  She had spent five days at the fortress and had loved every minute of it.  He had remained tender and attentive the whole time she was there and had taken good care of her.  Once they were no longer sequestered away in the chambers he had shown her so many beautiful things and had even taken her shopping to buy her some clothes, that he let her pick out, so she would have something nice to wear when she was at the fortress, something that told her he wanted her to come back in the future!  She had never felt so special in her entire life.

Honestly, she hadn’t wanted to leave but had forced herself to do so.  After all, she would only be gone for two days she assured herself.  He had escorted her to the well as he had promised and once more had given her a kiss that seemed to make her forget how to breathe.  Then, after a quick peck on the forehead, he had told her to hurry back.

Normally, she cherished her time at home because she didn’t have to be the shikon miko or have so many people depend on her.  She could be Kagome, ordinary teenager.  But this time all she could think about was going back.

Glancing up at the clock, she began to stuff things into her pack faster.  She had given him a specific time to meet her at the well and she planned to be there as close to on time as she could manage.  Once she had everything in the pack, it was so full it was practically bursting at the seems, she grabbed it and the bag that had the new tent in it then ran them out to the well house and dumped them with the other five bags already waiting there.  After a quick check to make sure she had everything out there that needed to go she dashed back into the house.  Making a run-through to ensure she hadn’t forgotten anything she gave everyone a hug and kiss goodbye then was off.

~~~~~@~~~~~

Sitting, cross-legged, on the edge of the well, Sesshomaru waited, albeit not very patiently.  No, she wasn’t late, as least not yet, but the mere act of waiting for her was agitating.  She had only been gone two days but he really missed her.  It felt as though part of him was missing and having her close to him had become a physical need like an addiction and if she wasn’t there he suffered.  In the two days she had been gone he had acted like a lion with a thorn in his paw, snarling and snapping at everyone.  Only Rin had been immune from his temper, everyone else had been fair game.

He was pulled back to the present when he had felt her presence suddenly appear.  Looking down, indeed there she was at the bottom of the well surrounded by bags.  When she saw him she waved and giggled, a huge grin on her face.  Jumping down into the dry well he ignored all the bags then scooped her into his arms and kissed her deeply.  When he broke it off he held her to his chest.  “I missed you,” he admitted softly.

Clinging to him, she rested her head on his shoulder.  “I missed you too,” she told him quietly.  “It felt like I was gone for an eternity, not just a couple days.”

“I know,”  he said, running his claws through her ebony hair.  Though he allowed himself the indulgence of holding her for several minutes he broke it off quicker than he would have liked.  By now he was sure a certain half-breed had sensed her return and was probably headed their way.  Holding onto her, they gathered up all the bags then he leapt out of the well with her.

After setting her, and everything else, down, he asked, “What’s all this?  You usually don’t bring this much back with you.”

Sighing, she shrugged, “I know.  Winter’s coming and it’s getting colder so most of it is stuff for that like extra blankets, a tent, clothes, stuff like that.  We can store most of it in Edo but we’re going to need to start lugging it all around pretty soon.”

Understanding, he nodded.  He had been around the previous winter so he knew what she was talking about.  He and Inuyasha weren’t affected much by the cold but the humans were.  Those supplies she brought, through bulky and took several of them to lug around, made it so that the weather was bearable for the ningens and made it so they could travel longer with fewer stops because of inclement weather.  Plus those portable shelters she brought ensured that they could camp out in all but the worst storms. 

“Oh!  That reminds me!” she exclaimed then began to rummage around in her pockets.  Pulling out a small, waxed cup with a lid on it, she grinned.  Taking the lid off, she stuck a plastic spoon in it then handed it to him.  “I brought that just for you as a treat.  It was something I thought you would like.”

Feeling the cold from it in his palm, he looked at it.  There were some kind of melting, pink blobs flecked with what looked like red chunks in the container. “What is it?”

“Ice cream,” she told him then explained to him what it was.  “It melts too easily for me to bring a bunch of it alone for everyone but I had some before I left and thought you might like to try it.”

After one small bite of it he found it to his liking then devoured the rest.

Once he was done she began to gather up her bags in preparation for the trip to Edo.

Smirking, he said, a twinkle in his eyes, “Leave them.  I have something for you as well.”

“Okay,” she said, wondering what he was up to.

Disappearing into the trees, he returned leading Ah-Un, the two-headed dragon demon that traveled with him when Rin was around.  When they were by her he loaded her bag on him while she petted the creature.  Once all her stuff was on its back he picked her up and sat her, side-saddle on the creature.  “There.  Now we can not only take all your supplies with minimal effort but you have a ride as well.”

“This is great!” she said with a giggle, petting each of the beast’s necks affectionately.  “Why did you decide to bring him along?” she hadn’t seen the creature since the last time Rin had traveled with them.  Since the child now stayed at the fortress all the time, it had gotten too dangerous for her and she was now at the age where she needed schooling, the dragon hadn’t been with them either.

“Several reasons actually.  It’s become apparent that we do need a pack animal of some kind for supplies and other such things.  He will also be useful as protection for you.  We do fine with that and you can defend yourself but extra protection is always useful.

“With what has transpired with Inuyasha when we need to move quickly you riding on his back is not something that will be happening any more.  Ah-Un can be used for that as well.  The slayer’s fire cat can easily walk with the monk and her on her back for long distances.  If Ah-Un carries you we can move faster as well.”  Yes, those were very legitimate and good reasons why he would bring the dragon alone but they weren’t the real reason.  Really, he felt that she shouldn’t have to walk the way she did.  She deserved and was worthy of being spoiled a little and he felt this was an area he should take care of.

Grinning, she was all for this one.  “Works for me!” she expressed to him happily.

After giving her another soft kiss, he began the journey to Edo with Ah-Un walking at his side.

~~~~~@~~~~~

As the demon lord had expected, Inuyasha had sensed Kagome the second the time rift had once more delivered her to the feudal era so he tore off towards the old demon-eating well at top speed to catch her alone so they could talk.

As it turned out Sesshomaru wasn’t the only one to anticipate this.  Both Sango and Miroku had figured the hanyou would do that and had found a place halfway between the well and Edo to park themselves.  They both assumed the little miko wouldn’t want to be alone with him so they planned to detain the hanyou until Kagome got to where they had planted themselves.

Just as they had thought, he wasn’t happy to see them or to be detained.  In fact, that detention led to a rather loud verbal altercation that rang off the trees.

Both Kagome and Sesshomaru could clearly hear the three before they came upon them.  In fact they were still shouting back and forth when the miko, dragon and taiyoukai came upon them.

When the trio saw the others they quieted down and greeted the little priestess enthusiastically like they always did. 

Tucking his hands into his sleeves, Inuyasha shot a glare at the demon lord then looked at Kagome, waiting for a quiet minute so he could persuade her to talk to him alone.  He wasn’t all that sure that he could undo the damage but he was sure as hell going to give it everything he had. But there was something bothering him and giving him a very bad feeling.  Something wasn’t right. 

Once everything settled down he stepped closer, ignoring the flat, angry glare from Sesshomaru.  “Hey Kagome,”  he said quietly.

“Hello Inuyasha,” she replied stiffly, eyes narrowed a bit.

“Let everyone head to Edo and we’ll head somewhere quiet so we can talk.”

“I don’t think so,” she said coldly.  “There isn’t anything we need to talk about.”

“At least give me a chance to explain, alright?”  he sighed, lowering his eyes.

“You’re mated with Kikyo?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, but…” he started.

“Then we have nothing to talk about,” she told him firmly.

“Look… Just let me explain alright?  I love you…”

“No!” she stated bluntly.  “You led me on and broke my heart.  There is nothing you can say that will change my mind on the topic!

“As far as I’m concerned you’re no better than someone who cheats on their wife and I refuse to be someones mistress!” she stated clearly, voice cold.

“It’s not like that alright?  Kikyo knew…”

“I don’t care!”  Kagome shot back.  “That’s not acceptable to me.  You’re mated so there can be nothing between us.  That’s final and non-negotiable.”

“You just don’t understand!”  he shouted, frustration mounting.  “Just let me explain and it’ll be clear!  It’s you I love Kagome.  It’s you I want to be with.  I mated with Kikyo for other reasons!”

That was all Sesshomaru could take.  There was no way he could stand by and listen to the boy yell at her.  Stepping between her and the whelp, he snarled.  His mokomoko stretched out behind him and wrapped around her, his way of trying to comfort her and let her know everything would be alright. “Silence half-breed!”

Immediately Inuyasha shut up but it wasn’t what his half-brother said but what he did that caused it.  Watching that long, fluffy thing wrap around the miko stunned him into silence.  Then the question of what the fuck was going on rode in on its heels.  “Back off Sesshomaru!  This has nothing to do with you,” he snarled more out of pure reflex than anything else.

“That’s where you’re wrong half-breed!  You will never raise your voice to her again.  Nor speak to her in that manner. She told you she didn’t wish to hear your lame excuses and that’s the final word on the topic from her.  If you chose to continue arguing the topic it will be with me.”  With his hand on the pommel of Tokijin he was making it crystal clear just what he meant by the word ‘argue’.

Just when everyone thought the situation was going to escalate to swinging steel Sesshomaru stopped cold.  A smile spread across his face, sending chills down the spine of everyone present.  Drawing Tokijin, he turned around and looked at the stand of trees behind Kagome.

Glancing over her shoulder, Kagome saw a couple of Kikyo’s snake-like soul collectors float through the trees.  Expressionless, she looked back, idly running her fingers through the fur on the mokomoko that was still wrapped around her, saying nothing.  This time she decided she wasn’t going to come to Kikyo’s rescue.  That was Inuyasha’s job wholly now, not hers.

About to step away and start towards the trees, Sesshomaru stopped.  The smile disappeared and his usual placid expression slid back into place.  Sheathing Tokijin, he looked back over his shoulder and Inuyasha.  “You’re lucky, she left.  Next time I see her Kagome will be getting the rest of her soul back,” he told him in a quiet, calm voice that did more to convey the truth of his words than if there was a physical action.

Quiet, Inuyasha nosed but said nothing, eyes locked on Kagome.  What Sesshomaru had done didn’t surprise him but what Kagome did, or didn’t do, did.  Any other time she would have tried to stop it so Kikyo wouldn’t be hurt.  She always rescued or protected Kikyo not for her but for him, so he wasn’t hurt emotionally. This time she did nothing.  That alone told him how serious she was about what she had said to him.

Once he was sure the message sank in to the whelp’s thick skull he turned his back to him and looked down at the little priestess.  Still sitting on Ah-Un, she was running her fingers through the thick fur on his mokomoko, not looking upset at all.  “Are you OK?” he asked quietly.

Looking up at him, she gave a small smile.  “I’m fine.”

Nodding, he didn’t understand it-he had assumed she would have more upset than she was, but let it go.  “You know, it feels good when you do that,” he explained softly.

“Yeah?”  she questioned, raking her fingers through the soft fur yet again.  “I didn’t know you could feel it,”  she knew the strip of fur became the ruff around his neck when he shifted into his demon form but didn’t think it had any feeling to it.  Wrapping it around herself tighter, she snuggled into it, one hand still stroking it.  “I like how it feels wrapped around me.  It’s like being wrapped in a fur stole, so soft and warm!”

“I’ll remember that,” he said, cupping her cheek, rubbing across it with his thumb.  Just as he was about to loose himself with her once more he remembered there were others around.  After giving her cheek another soft rub he dropped his hand and looked over his shoulder at the others that were there.  “Let’s get everything together so we can move out as soon as possible.”  When he saw them nod he started towards Edo with Ah-Un by his side, his mokomoko still wrapped around her.

As he walked, he allowed himself an internal smirk.  He knew he had stunned the trio with how he treated her and rightly didn’t give a damn.  There was no way he was going to stop doing what he knew she liked just because they were around.  Not only did she adore it but it made him feel good as well.  If they couldn’t handle it, that was their problem, not his.

When he knew they were out of ear shot of the hanyou, he stopped and slid an arm around her then kissed her softly.  “The half-breed didn’t upset you, did he?” he asked in a quiet tone.

Leaning against him, she shook her head.  “No, he just flapped his mouth, something I’m used to by now.  I said what I wanted to and made how I feel clear so I’m good,” she told him.

Nuzzling her softly he then kissed her on the forehead.  “Good.  I was worried he had upset you.”  Pulling away, he put a hand on the small of her back.  “Let’s move, shall we?”

“Lead on McDuff!”  she giggled.

~~~~~@~~~~~

As Kagome and Sesshomaru left, three sets of very wide, bewildered sets of eyes followed their progress.

“That had to be a hallucination!”  Sango muttered softly, bewildered.

“If it was we all shared it,” Miroku told her.  “Remember what Kagome told us about alien abduction?  That had to be what she meant because that cannot be Sesshomaru!”

“Will someone please tell me just what the fuck is going on?”  Inuyasha asked in a confused voice.

“It would appear that Sesshomaru has taken a liking to Kagome,”  Sango explained with a voice that had a bewildered quality to it still.

“Yeah, and that makes exactly no sense!”  Inuyasha said, ears twitching nervously.  Leaning back against a tree, he tucked his hands back into his sleeves.  “He has to be up to something, there is no other explanation for it.”

“I don’t think so Inuyasha.  As out of character as that is for him I don’t think he could fake it for an agenda of any kind, no matter what it may be,” Miroku told him.

“I agree,” Sango chimed in.

“Yeah, but that fucker’s always up to something,”  Inuyasha sneered then sighed.  “We had best get moving.”

~~~~~@~~~~~

Several kilometers away Kikyo’s soul collectors lowered her gently to the ground.  Relieved, she sighed.  In some of her encounters with Naraku he had frightened her a bit but what she had seen of Sesshomaru earlier had out and out scared her!  She was 100% positive that his intent was to end what passed as her life.  Nor did it appear he was going to wait for any explanation as to why she had shown up.

Her purpose hadn’t been to upset her reincarnation or to rub it in her face that she was mated to Inuyasha but to explain her relationship with the hanyou and hope that Kagome would forgive him.

Like he had repeatedly said, Inuyasha loved Kagome with all his heart and it was her he wanted to spend his life with.  Kikyo had accepted, an even encouraged, that.  Both she and the hanyou knew the mating mark wasn’t valid.  Not only was she dead but it wasn’t put on her during sex.  All that mark meant was he was committed to protect and avenge her.  Nothing more.  He had just done the only thing he could think of to honor and prove what he had promised her, nothing more.  Any love that had once been between them was gone.  It was Kagome who Inuyasha’s heart belonged to.

Sighing, she shook her head.  The hanyou could be such a fool.  From the beginning she had told him to tell Kagome what was going on.  No, she probably wouldn’t like it and would be upset but if she understood she would be able to deal with it.  But, for whatever reason, he hadn’t told her.  She had repeatedly prompted him but he hadn’t.  Now there were problems, big ones.  In fact, she wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t too late and that he had blown it.

Though she hadn’t been that close she had sensed something odd; Sesshomaru and Kagome.  Even from the distance she was at she could sense something powerful between them, an attraction of some kind, a very powerful one.  Plus a pure, raw power that seemed to radiate from them, one that had never been there before.  She wasn’t sure where it had come from but it was there.  It meant something but she wasn’t sure what it could be.

Aside from that, she had also felt a change.  She had been aware that there had been a friendship of sorts between them for a while but it seemed to have evolved into something else.  Could it be that the fates had predestined her breakup with Inuyasha for some reason?  Was there something that they intended for the two of them?  She wasn’t sure but it would probably be well worth keeping an eye on.

As she walked on she thought about Kagome.  Yes, Kagome was her reincarnation but she was so much more than that.  When she had just been brought back she had resented the girl because of the way she was with Inuyasha but no more.  Kagome was so much more than she had ever been in life, so much kinder and gentler, more giving, more caring.  It was no wonder that Inuyasha had fallen for her and softened.  She had been good for him.  She had given him what he had so needed, even if she had to sacrifice her own happiness to do it.  Being honest with herself she would have never done that.  Also, she was sure that was part of the reason Kagome had been pulled into this era.  But was that the only reason?  There were so many questions she needed answers to and things she wanted to know.  Perhaps a visit to Kaede was in order.  Maybe she would know some of them.  Changing directions, she headed towards Edo.  Of course she would wait until Inuyasha’s pack moved on but she had to talk to her sister.  There was something she felt she was meant to discover but she wasn’t sure what it was.

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