Kryptonite

By Danyealle

(fanfiction/MF/HC/Abuse)

Chapter 22

Snuggling up to Sesshomaru, Kagome turned he face away from the wind.  When she felt his arm tighten around her she slipped one of hers around him and smiled.  Being held by him was something she missed for the two days she was gone.  Resting her head against his mokomoko-covered shoulder, she sighed contentedly.

Glancing down at her, Sesshomaru gave an internal grin.  He too had missed this as well as many other things to do with her.  Feeling her pressed to him like this made it seem like everything was right in his world and that the sparkle and color had come back to it.  Her scent, a mixture of vanilla and wild cherry, that was fresh and clean filled his nose and made him feel relaxed and his beast all but purr, tail wagging lazily.

He allowed himself the indulgence of holding her quietly and just enjoying her presence for several minutes.  Then he asked, “Is there more that went on than just the scrolls you feel I should know about?”

“Yeah, there’s some other stuff,” she told him with a nod.  She then quickly organized her thoughts then started out telling him about the bracelets her grandfather had found. 

“Those sound like an excellent idea,” he told her with a nod.  “I most certainly want the houshi to look at the scroll that accompanies them.”

After that she told him about talking to the councilor, the stuff they had given her, going to the doctor and the other things she had done while away.

Listening closely, he felt the old priest rise in his esteem.  It seemed that he had known what she had needed and had ensured that she got it. Also, he was grateful that ‘her time’ was more advanced than his and matters such as these were understood better so there was help to be had in undoing the damage done.  Plus that she had been wise enough to speak about what she was going through with the healer so she could get medicine that would help her.

Beyond that, he was happy to note that she seemed to have allowed herself to relax and enjoy herself a bit rather than just dwell on all she had gone through and what may be coming.  That alone probably did her more good than any healer or medicine in the world could.

When she finished talking, she looked up at his face then slipped her hand into the one he was holding her with and gave it a squeeze.  “I really did miss you while I was away.  I found out that I’ve gotten really used to you holding me, especially while I sleep.  I missed that a lot.”

Feeling her tiny callused hand slip into his and hold it made his whole body tingle in a good way.  He hadn’t known that such a simple act as hat could feel so good!  Wrapping his hand around hers, he gave it a tight squeeze.  “I feel the same way.”  He told her quietly, looking down at her.

Smirking, he arched an eyebrow at her.  “You’ve been gone for two days, have you not?”  He asked.

“You know I have.  Why?”  She asked, curious as to where he was going with this.

“Hn… Now, if I remember correctly you, on average give me a least two hugs a day.  That would make four you owe this Sesshomaru for the time you were gone.”  He deadpanned, looking down at her, eyes twinkling a bit.

“Oh, I think I can handle that.”  She replied with a big grin.  “But how about this…  If you shed that spiky stuff you have on I’ll give you one really big hug and a kiss instead of just four small ones.”

“That’s an acceptable compromise,” he replied stoically with a nod  Releasing his hold on her hand, he deftly unhooked his armor and let it angel off one shoulder.

Leaning up a bit, she kissed him tenderly then wrapped both her arms around him and hugged him tightly.  Rather than let loose after a few seconds she rested her head on his shoulder and shut her eyes.  “I believe I’ll stay like this until the fortress is in sight.” she said quietly.

Slipping an arm around her, he held her to him.  “That’s acceptable.”

…ks…ks…ks..ks…

About 45 minutes later, they got the first glimpse of the fortress.  Reluctantly, she let go of him and sat up a bit so he could re-hook his armor.

Once he had it back on, he slipped his arm back around her and held her tightly while the dragon made it’s decent into the courtyard.

Seconds after its feet hit the ground and it was fully stopped he was off the beast and assisting her down.  Daoe was swooping around them, chirping madly.  Once she was on the ground, with her arm looped through his, he began ordering the assembled servants to unload the dragon and take the bags up to her room, then he led her inside.

In the entrance hall most of those who stayed at the fortress on a regular basis as part of court were assembled to welcome home the returning lord and lady. At the end of the line were Kagome’s friends who greeted her warmly with a hug and their usual giggles.  After she promised to talk to them the following day, Sesshomaru led her off to the family wing with an overly excited Daoe perched on her shoulder, his head all but swiveling all the way around to check everything out. 

“Is everyone else on their way?”  Kagome asked as he led her to their chambers.

“I imagine all of them are already here and getting settled in.  I sent them ahead several hours before you arrived,” he told her.

As he opened the door to the family wing they were bombarded by two happy children’s crying out their names.

Rin immediately attached herself to Sesshomarus leg with a happy cry of, “Lord Sesshomaru!” and looked up at her demonic hero with adoring eyes. 

With a smirk, the taiyoukai gave her an affectionate pat on the head.

Shippo had launched himself at Kagome and attached himself to her chest with a loud, happy cry of, “Kagome!”

Hugging him tightly, she smiled.  “I missed you Shippo.” she told him.  Kneeling down, she gave Rin a hug as well when she released the death grip on Sesshomaru’s leg.

Hearing the children’s happy cries, the other members of the pack stepped out of the rooms they were staying and greeted the two.  Once the taiyoukai sent one of the servants down to the kitchen to alert them that the meal was needed, he had the others head down to a small sitting room at the end of the hall where they would meet them shortly.

Stopping at her door, he opened it slowly, waiting for her reaction then smirked when he heard her squeal of delight.

Immediately, she dashed inside and looked around at the beautifully decorated room.  “This is great!  Just how I wanted it!”  She squealed as she took in the green and black furnishings.

Smirking, he watched her.  At that moment she very much reminded him of Rin and her enthusiasm.  “I take it you’re pleased?”  He asked, pretty much rhetorically from her reaction.

“I love it!”  She all but shouted, turning around looking at him, face alight, grinning from ear to ear.

“There should be a perch for Daoe in my room.  I sent ahead instructions for one.  Since you sleep with me I assumed that would be the best place for him.”

Hurrying over to him, she all but knocked him over when she latched onto him and hugged him tightly.  “Thank you Sesshomaru!”

Wrapping both arms around her, he hugged her back. “You’re most welcome Kagome.”  Though he was reluctant to end the bout of affection he pulled away.  “I’m sure everyone is hungry by now.  Why don’t you gather up what you have for everyone and we’ll go meet them to have a bit to eat.”

Nodding, she began to go through the bags that were in there waiting on her, talking with a loudly chirping Daoe.

…ks…ks…ks…ks…

A half an hour later the whole pack plus Rin and Shippo were in the sitting room eating and talking.

Once the meal was done Kagome began to pass out the things she had brought for everyone.  First, because it was almost time for their afternoon lessons, she gave the children what she had brought for them.  As usual she brought them art supplies and snacks but she had also brought each of them a stuffed animal.  For Rin it was a fluffy white dog and for Shippo it was a stuffed fox.  Of course they were deliriously happy.  Once that was done they were herded off to their lessons.

After that she began to pass out everyone else’s.  There were a few toys and treats for Kirara and Daoe.  For the others she brought the usual snacks they liked, plus bathing supplies and things like that.  Since Kouga, his men and Sesshomaru didn’t usually travel with them she brought them a small selection of what they needed and a pack to carry them in.  Plus, this time, she brought everyone pajamas for when they stayed at the fortress.  Though Sesshomaru had plenty of pairs she brought him some she had picked out special for him.

When the demon lord pulled them out he smirked.  Once again Kagome’s sense of humor had shown through.  The sleep pants were red with little white puppies on them.  The shirt was an over-sized red t-shirt with a big white snarling dog on it.  On it were the words ‘Kagome’s guard dog’.

Looking up at him, grinning, she said, “I had it customized just for you!”  Then she winked at him.

“I see this,” he said, eyes twinkling a bit.  When he showed it to the others it got a good laugh.

Once everything was passed out the miko handed Miroku his ‘homework’, the scrolls and bracelets.  Setting all of them but the one about the bracelets aside, promising to go over them that night he quickly scanned through it, followed the instructions then had the two put them on.  When they tested them out they worked.  That pleased Sesshomaru greatly.

Soon after that they began to break up.  The plan was that Kouga was going to show the monk and slayer around and introduce them while Sesshomaru and Kagome were going to spend the rest of the night alone.

…ks…ks…ks…ks…

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Sesshomaru alternated between examining the things Kagome was pulling out of her bags and doing what could only be described as playing with Daoe.  He had to admit that he really did like the bird.  Not only was he good at his ‘jobs’ but he found out, while she was gone, he was a good companion.  He had found out that the creature had an instinct when he was feeling a bit lonely or missing her and would come over and perch on his shoulder to ‘talk’ to him for a while.  Much to his surprise he usually felt better afterwards.  He liked him so much in fact that he had given Kouga the ‘assignment’ of finding out who all had been involved in giving him to her so he could send them a thank you gift.

Looking at the things she had just dropped on the bed, he grabbed the one that resembled a big, white fluffy dog.  Running his hands over it he found it to be covered with a fur of some kind and was filled with something very soft and pliable.  “What is this Kagome?”  He asked, examining it closely.

“A stuffed animal, a dog to be more specific.  I thought they would make a great decoration for my room.” She explained, dumping a couple more of them on the bed.

Picking each of them up in turn, he looked them over.  “Do they serve any other purpose other than a decoration?”

“Kids play with them but for me they’re nothing more than something to decorate my room with.”

“Hn… You like things such as this?”  he asked, hoping to file away another like of hers for future reference.

“Yeah, I do.  I think they’re cute.  I slept with a stuffed cat for a long time.”  She told him as she plopped down on the bed next to him with a couple more bags.  Grinning from ear to ear she said, “I got a couple more things for you!”

Setting aside the bear he was looking at, he looked at her.  “And what would they be?”

Leaning against him, she turned those big eyes of her up at him.  “That t-shirt didn’t bother you, did it?  I thought it was funny.”

“It was humorous,” he told her with a nod.  He would admit it to himself that it was funny and he liked it.

“Good.  I didn’t want to upset you.”  She said with a grin, clutching one of the bags to her chest.  “I saw these and about died laughing.  I had to get them for you!”  She told him then handed him the bag.

“This should be interesting,” he said looking at her with an arched eyebrow then took the bag from her.  With a bit of trepidation on his part he reached in and grabbed hold of two rather fuzzy things and pulled them out.  What he found himself looking at was a pair of fluffy white dog feet that could very easily pass for the feet of his beast.  Looking down at her, eyebrow having disappeared into his hair, he waited for an explanation.

“They’re slippers.  I saw them and about died laughing.  I had to get them for you!”  She hitched out between giggles.

Now he got the joke and smirked.  OK, he would admit they were funny.  Kicking off his boots he put them on then contemplated what he saw.  They were indeed funny.  “I like them,” he stated, looking at her.

Her gale of giggles morphed into laughter and she collapsed across his lap, clutching her sides. 

Smirking, he watched her.  It had been a while since he had heard her laugh like this and was enjoying the sound of it.

Once she was down to just hitched giggles, she swiped her streaming eyes then sat up and handed him the next bag.  “I got that because I thought you would like it.”

Nodding, he reached in and once more grabbed hold of something fuzzy.  Looking at her with an arched eyebrow, he pulled it out.  Shaking out the white bundle if fur he found himself looking at a very nice robe.  Standing up, he slipped into it then looked at her and nodded.  “I like it!  This is very nice Kagome.  Thank you.”  He told her with a nod. “You do not have to get me such things you know.”

“I know, I did it because I wanted to get you something special.”  She said, looking up at him.

Nodding, he understood.

Handing him the last one, a bulky package, she said, “That’s for your bed.”

Nodding, he took it then pulled out yet another white bundle of fuzz and shook it out.  This time it was a blanket that was of the same kind of material as the robe.  “Very nice!”  He admired with a nod.  Draping it over his arm, he put a hand on the back of her head and rubbed it.  “Thank you for everything Kagome.”  Then he leaned down and kissed her softly.

…ks…ks…ks…ks…

An hour or so later, after Kagome had put everything up that belonged in her room, Sesshomaru was sprawled out on his bed reading through the information sheets that came with her medicine.  Once he finished reading about the three bottles of pills he sat them on the bedside table then looked at her.  “Do these pills work and do what they say hey do?”  He asked.  From what he had read they did things well beyond anything drugs healers in this time made. 

Plopping down on the bed beside him she bent her legs and wrapped her arms around her shins.  Nodding she told him, “Yeah, they do.  But how well depends on the person.  It can take a while to get the dose adjusted right.  They also don’t work right away.  It takes time for them to get into your system and start working.”

Nodding, he lay back on the pillow and held up a flat, light pink box.  “What about these? There’s no sheet about them.”

“Ah… those are the pills I told you about to stop my cycle.”  She said with a grin.

Flipping the box back and forth in his fingers, he looked at it then laid them on the table with the others.  When he looked back at her she was gazing at him with an expression on her face that was fairly unreadable.  Taking her wrist, he pulled her over to him, sitting her with her back to his stomach then wrapped his arm around her waist.  “Is something troubling you?”

Shaking her head, she said, “No, nothing’s wrong.”  Slouching down, she leaned against him.

“What’s on your mind then?”  He asked, toying with her hair a bit.

“Well… it’s about my cycle last month…” she trailed off.

Giving a mental wince at his reaction to her at the time, he felt a bit of trepidation about where she was going with this.

Sighing, she pressed on, not really sure how to articulate what she wanted to say.  “With Inuyasha when that time rolled around he was like some kind of slobbering, out of control beast.  But you weren’t.

“Before it started I had been really worried about it.  I mean Inuyasha’s only a hanyou and his reaction was bad.  I imagined that the reaction of a full youkai would be worse.  I was wrong.  Yes, it obviously affected you but you kept it under control.”  Looking over her shoulder at him, she said, honestly, “I’m really not sure how to say this to where it makes sense…   I guess the easiest way to say it is that it made it easier to be around you without being so worried about what might happen to me.  But more so that what trust I have in you is well placed and that did help increase it.”  Smiling a bit, she turned a little bit then draped her arm over his side.  “I’ve kinda’ dumped so much bad stuff on you that I thought you might like to hear something positive for a change.”

Looking down at her he honestly didn’t know what to say.  From his end as far as he was concerned, when it came to what she was talking about, he had done nothing special or out of character for him.  Until she had said something he hadn’t realized how it had appeared to her or what she may well have gone through with the half-breed during those times.

Running his fingers through her hair, he looked down into her eyes.  “I will admit that part of me was a slobbering beast.  But, unlike the whelp, I can and do keep it under control and always will.  You won’t have any reason to fear me Kagome.”  He told her once more quietly.  But, really, he was glad she had said something.  By doing that not only did it let him know he indeed was making progress in the right direction but gave him clues as to what he should be doing.

“Though I’ve always know that to an extent more and more I’m rally believing it now.”

“Good!”  He told her with a nod.

…ks…ks…ks…ks…

As they were preparing for bed that night a powerful thunderstorm began to move in.  Once they crawled into bed, she laid on her side with her back pressed to his chest.  Normally, she slept the other way around but she wanted to watch the approaching storm.  Though she wasn’t a big fan of this kind of inclement weather while they were traveling, she liked to watch it when she was somewhere warm and dry.  The great power of such storms always left her in awe and no fireworks display by man could match the one mother nature put on with her lightning.  It was both fascinating and frightening at the same time.

Wrapping an arm around her, he followed her gaze to see what was drawing her.  When he couldn’t see anything that he thought it might be he asked, “What are you looking at Kagome?”

“The storm.”  She said, putting her hand over the one had had on her stomach.

“What is the fascination with that?”  He asked, genuinely curious.  Quite frankly, he didn’t understand how anyone could find that a draw.

Looking over her shoulder at him, she smiled.  “When’s the last time you actually watched one?”

“Never as far as I can remember.”  He admitted.

“Just watch and I think you’ll understand.”  She told him, looking back out the balcony door.

Still skeptical, he decided to give it a chance and followed her gaze.

Not long after it really began to crank up he understood what drew her.  The fury of the wind and rain tossing the trees back and forth, the almost blinding lightly flashes that lit up everything in sight for a brief moment with an eerie almost ethereal glow, the thunder so loud that it shook everything was a raw display of power that fascinated him and left him in awe at the same time.  Every time the lightning flashed he felt it’s electricity dance across his skin.  No, he was sure he would never see these kinds of storms the say way ever again.  She had shown him a new way to look at something and it had forever changed his view of something that he thought to be mundane.

As the storm reached it’s zenith he felt her small hand slip into his and hold it.  That small action made an electricity dance across his skin much the way the lightning had but in a different way.  Nuzzling her head with his he then rested it against hers and held her tighter to him, his eyes shut.

As the storm slowly moved on and the thunder grew more distant, she turned over and pressed to his chest, one arm draped over his side.  Shutting her eyes, she rested her head against the front of one of his shoulders.

Arm draped over her, he gently ran one calloused hand up and down her back.  Lifting his head, he gazed down at her beautiful, peaceful face.  When he saw her eyes open he leaned down and captured her mouth with his.

Putting a hand on his cheek, her eyes slid shut again and she felt that wonderful tingle, the same one that always engulfed her every time his lips met hers, begin to course through her body.

Though he intended it to be the same kind that they had shared up to this point, very quickly it evolved into something deeper and more passionate.  Holding her tightly to his chest, he devoured her mouth, his tongue slipping into her when she parted her lips to moan softly.

Entwining her fingers in his long, silky silver locks, she clung to him as he plundered her willing mouth.  That tingling had changed to something that felt like flames that not only danced across her skin but seemed to set her blood on fire as well and a deep throb began between her legs.  Pressing her thighs together, she tried to alleviate the pressure that was building there while she clung to him. 

When he began to sense her arousal and felt his own begin to spike, he knew it was time to stop.  Though he wanted to continue on to see where it led to he knew that wasn’t a good idea.  Breaking off the kiss, he shut his eyes and rested his head against the top of her head.  Mentally, he was willing himself to calm down.

Panting heavily, she rested her head against his shoulder, eyes shut.  Her whole body seemed to pulse and throb madly.  Licking her swollen lips she uttered and awed, “Wow!”

“I wholeheartedly concur.”  He mumbled, running his claws through her hair.  Opening his eyes, he looked down at her, eyes soft.  Giving her a bit of a squeeze, he shut his eyes again.  No being in his life had inspired such a strong reaction in him from a mere kiss.  Nor had he found one so arousing before.  Taking a deep breath, he inhaled the smell of her arousal and almost moaned out loud.  Intoxicating was the only word for it!  His beast was growling softly, tail swishing purposefully, licking it’s chops but he held it at bay.  This was not the time for that now.  It would have to wait.

Panting a bit, she shivered slightly.  That throb between her legs seemed to envelope her whole body now, making her skin prickle and flush.  Honestly, she couldn’t remember ever being this aroused with Inuyasha.  And, since she had sex and decided she didn’t like the pain involved with it, she couldn’t remember getting aroused by anything.  But she sure was now!  Maybe, she though, maybe Sesshomaru would be different like he said.  Maybe it would be better.  She hoped so.  Inhaling deeply, she smelled the scent that was uniquely the demon lord and smiled.  Giving him a squeeze, she smiled then slowly relaxed.