Chapter Text
Kagome Higurashi was no damsel in distress, and she took a lot of pride in that fact.
She was the eldest child in her family, and possessed a lot of the characteristics typical of her position; she was a strong-willed, and reliable girl with a good head on her shoulders, and she made sure that everyone knew it.
A lot of her personality could be credited to the usual tear-jerking troubled childhood: Her father had died when she was seven, leaving his wife heavily pregnant with their son, strapped for cash, and with her father’s shrine in Tokyo as her only refuge.
Luckily for Kagome, Satsuki Higurashi was a pragmatic woman, who had painstakingly carved out a life for herself and her two children. To help with money she worked odd jobs in the neighbourhood, and took over the duty of caring for the shrine from Kagome's ailing grandfather, heedless of the condescension that followed her.
Seeing her mother’s efforts, practical little Kagome had then and there vowed to herself that she would never burden anyone.
Eight years later, she'd broken her unofficial oath. Since arriving in feudal era Japan, she had only ever been a liability to the people that she cared about. Naturally she had issues adjusting, and her fair share of insecurities to deal with. She was flung into life-threatening situations on a daily basis, not to mention she had no idea how she'd arrived in the past in the first place.
If she died in the feudal era, would her family know? Could the Bone-eater's Well simply stop working? Would she be trapped there forever if that happened?
Taking in account her misgivings, it was plain to see, at least to her, that she was the weak link in the admittedly very badass chain that consisted of herself and her feudal-era friends.
Kagome understood and accepted that she had been born in an era where expectations of her were drastically different. She had never had any need to learn self-defence, and easily admitted that her only exposure to violence was through the television and what she had faced since falling through the Bone-eater's Well, to a Japan eight-hundred years in the past.
Kagome didn't hold on to any illusions with regards to her role in their little rag-tag group, but it still stung that she seemed to be the relegated non-combatant by the others. She was reduced simply to how useful she could be. Her primary purpose was as a treasure map to the shards of the Shikon no Tama, and while that was all well and good, there was always a little voice in her head that said that the others only protected her because she was an asset to their quest.
Had she not had the power to sense the jewel, she thought that Inuyasha would have had no qualms about leaving her behind.
So call her crazy, she wanted to mean more to the boy she loved than just being a glorified metal detector, but she knew she had little to offer when the rest of the party was so much more well-versed in their setting: Inuyasha was combat savvy and free with his temper and his sword, Miroku carried his cursed wind tunnel, Sango had her Hiraikotsu, and even little Shippo had his fox fire – but Kagome? Kagome wasn’t made to fight, she was there to offer platitudes, and when she was particularly unlucky, desperate cries for help when she was captured.
She perpetually battled, the nagging in the back of her mind that made her seem like she was missing something - despite the months she had spent with Inuyasha, she wasn't sure that this place- no this time, could every really be her home. After all, the clue was in the name; the feudal era was in no way misadvertised.
So when the opportunity arose, on a clear autumn night while the others set up camp, she seized it and called to the others that she would set off into the surrounding forest to find a tree for target practice.
“Good luck!”, Sango looked up and smiled, then resumed her brushing of Kirara’s fur, as the little feline chirped happily.
Inuyasha opened his mouth to make a snide comment, but was silenced when Miroku slapped a palm over his mouth, glibly.
The monk gave a guileless smile, “Be back in time to make us dinner, Kagome! I’m excited to taste your more of your strange future foods.”
Kagome nodded. She couldn’t be bothered to re-explain the logistics of making instant ramen with him. It would only eat into the time that she could spend practicing, so instead she grimaced determinedly, and slung her bow and quiver over her shoulder.
An hour or so later, Kagome was ready to call it quits. She was tired, sweaty, and ready to go back to the others to wallow with her bruised pride. Most of her arrows hadn’t hit their mark, and the ones that had, weren’t embedded in the trunk as she had hoped, but simply fell to the ground upon contact. The contents of her quiver littered the forest floor or were lost in the darkness that was creeping through the gas between the tree-trunks. If anything, her aim seemed to have gotten worse during the course of her practice.
She sighed and let her knees give out, wiping the sweat off of her brow, so that it instead dampened the sleeve of her school uniform. She let her thoughts stray to her family, musing over how they were doing in the modern-day Japan that she had left behind.
In the recesses of her memory, she thought distractedly that Sota had a baseball match coming up soon, and she badly wanted to be there to support her little brother. She had missed his birthday last month, and the guilt she felt signalled to her that she had to make it up to him. It was the first year that he’d made it onto the middle school team, and he was ridiculously proud.
She was broken out of her reverie minutes later, when one of the bushes behind her rustled. Willing to give the occurrence the benefit of the doubt, Kagome stood up and began picking up the arrows that she had lost.
The bushes rustled again.
Kagome tensed in alarm, reaching for her bow and holding it with an arrow notched in a trembling hand in front of her; she took a step back, bracing herself for what she was sure would be an oncoming attack. Given her lack of progress and the fatigue that was sweeping over her limbs she wasn’t sure that she would be much good in a fight at the moment.
She debated calling out for help, but she had strayed away from the campsite, and she didn’t want to signal her position to any other attackers, assuming that there was more than one.
Kagome had thought that she would be safe in the glade she had found, and so hadn’t bothered to check the surrounding area for lesser demons, or to search for nearby pieces of the Shikon no Tama. The cool dusk air, and the quiet buzz of fireflies wings had lulled her into a false sense of security, and she hadn’t paid much mind to how low the sun hung in the sky, or how the quiet chirp of Cicadas had amplified as the world darkened.
A cool breeze whistled through the grass, and Kagome shivered but didn’t waver in her stance. Soon enough the the undergrowth quivered again and a startled rabbit burst out of the undergrowth. Kagome yelped, but when it disappeared on the far side of the glade she gave a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon. She had only just put the arrow back in her quiver when the bushes gave another sudden tremble and a little girl in an orange kimono tumbled out.
Kagome started, and then relaxed if only marginally, taking in the sight of her would-be attacker. The girl was all of four feet tall, and very slim. Her skin was pale and sallow, and caked in dirt.
Kagome smiled; the girl’s ruddy apple shaped face was endearing. She couldn’t have been older than Sota, and she seemed harmless enough. Still Kagome was hesitant to get much closer.
She changed her mind when she noticed the lost expression on the girl's face, and the large brown eyes framed with impending tears- the face around them melted away and without meaning to Kagome was staring into the face of another round-cheeked child: a little boy who looked up at her as if she held all the answers to everything.
A warmth appeared in her chest. This little girl could be someone's little sister too, and if Souta was ever in a similar position, she hoped that whoever found him lost and alone in the woods, would be kind enough to take care of him.
Throwing caution to the wind, Kagome cautiously approached the girl, who gazed up at her warily under thick lashes, and matted black hair that fell over her brow.
“Hi, there! Are you lost?”
The little girl stared at Kagome with wild frightened eyes at the sound of her voice, and didn’t open her mouth to answer. Instead she seemed to shrink into herself, curling up and hugging her knees to her chest fearfully, as if hoping that Kagome’s gaze would pass over her entirely if she made herself inconspicuous enough.
Immediately, Kagome felt sorry. She dropped into a crouch and tried to make eye contact with the girl, holding her palms up to show that she wasn’t armed.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. I just want to help you find your parents.”
The girl didn’t look up at the sound of Kagome’s soothing tone instead tucking her face further into the crook of her elbow and trembling. Still, she unconsciously inclined her body slightly towards the older girl to show that she was listening.
“Will you let me help you? My friends are nearby and I’m sure they’d love to get you back home safe and sound.”
The girl recoiled in fear, and made as if to scramble back into the bushes and Kagome quickly backtracked, “Okay nevermind that! No other people, okay? I promise. I won’t force you to come and meet them.”
Seeing the little girl’s distrustful stare, she added, “My name’s Kagome. I’m not from around here. I think you could tell, but I could help you get to the nearest village, and we can get you some help from there.”
The younger girl shook her head hesitantly, and ad lifted her gaze to meet Kagome’s, but did not uncurl herself. Kagome waited patiently as the seconds ticked by, wanting to give the little girl some time to calm down.
“Rin”, Kagome was pulled out of her thoughts.
“I’m sorry?” she cocked her head to the side.
“My name. It’s Rin.”
Kagome beamed, “It’s nice to meet you, Rin.”
Now that the girl was a little calmer she edged slightly closer to the frail body.
Rin smiled back shyly, and her features rearranged themselves into the carefree expression of a child, as opposed to the haunted look of a cornered wild animal. The difference was palpable as she dropped her shoulders and jolted herself upright to stand on her bare, scratch-covered feet.
She stepped daintily towards Kagome, and stared at her face, tilting her head to the side like a puppy. Self-conscious and somewhat taken aback by the change in the girl’s disposition and the appraising eye that was on her, Kagome shifted from foot to foot, raising a hand to scratch awkwardly at the back of her neck.
“You’re pretty!” said Rin.
Kagome spluttered and choked slightly, “Uh...Thank you?" but the girls attention had already slipped away from her and instead settled on something or someone behind her right shoulder. Rin grinned wider.
Stiffening, Kagome spun around to face the intruder only to be met with an annoyed amber glare and a the graceful flow of long white strands of hair in the wind.
Sesshomaru, stepped gracefully out of the shadows at the edge of the glade and into full view. Inuyasha’s older half-brother stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking unimpressed as ever. The fur he wore dragged across the grass behind him and Kagome absently wondered how he kept it so clean when it made contact with the mud and leaves on the ground.
She instinctively cowered away from his intimidating form, dragging her eyes along the razor sharp claws that he wielded on his remaining right hand, and down to the two swords that were sheathed and belted at his hip.
Before he could be stopped, and heedless of any danger posed to her, Rin immediately sprung forwards and seized the dog yokai's sleeve in her tiny hand . Sesshomaru stared down at the top of her head, and his eyes appeared to soften slightly, losing some of their intensity and melting instead into a warm honey-like gaze.
“Rin. This Sesshomaru told you to stay with A-Un. Why did you run off?”
When he spoke his voice was as clear and apathetic as ever, but Kagome was sure that she wasn’t imagining a note of warmth in his intonation.
“Sorry, Sesshomaru-sama! I didn’t mean to worry you. I was hungry, so I went to find myself some food, and then I saw a rabbit, and I wanted to play with him, but he ran away because Jaken-sama wanted to eat him, and I followed him because I wanted to be friends, and I even named him Usagi-san, but I couldn’t catch him because he was so fast, and then he ran into the bushes and I thought I could trap him and keep him so that he could be my pet, just like A-Un is your pet, but he escaped and I fell over and then this kind lady found me. She says her name is Kagome and she’s really pretty!”, Rin gabbled without pausing for a breath.
Kagome blinked, and even Sesshomaru seemed to have a hard time processing what Rin was saying. But then he shook his head and his apathetic expression clouded is fine features once more.
“Even still, that is no excuse to run off into the woods. If you do it again this Sesshomaru will leave you behind.”
Kagome wasn’t sure why, but from the way he hesitated slightly when he said so, and looked away from Rin, she could tell he was lying. Then Sesshomaru looked up again, and this time his gaze fell onto her. She flinched slightly, and considered calling out to Inuyasha, but her instincts told her that it wouldn’t be wise, and she didn’t want to terrify Rin, as any ensuing fights would be sure to do, so she held her tongue, as the dog-demon eyed her calculatingly.
It seemed that they were of the same mind as Sesshomaru murmured to Rin.
“Rin. Go back to A-Un and tell Jaken to ready himself. We will leave this forest shortly.” He kept his eyes on her while talking to the kimono-clad girl, and Kagome shivered worriedly.
Rin nodded and skipped off further in the forest, then stopped and turned back briefly.
“Bye Kagome-san! It was nice meeting you!”, she said and waved at Kagome before disappearing entirely into the forest.
Now that the full weight of his attention was on her, Kagome didn’t know what to do. She could call the others. She knew that Inuyasha would jump at the chance to have it out with his older brother, but she didn’t relish the chance to be the damsel in distress yet again.
If she was fast she might have time to get an arrow or two out, but there was no guarantee that they would hit him, and even if they did, knowing Sesshomaru, the arrows wouldn’t do any harm. They’d probably bounce off his armour, and make him angry, and then there was really no accounting for what he would do to her.
She pondered briefly over the nature of Rin’s relationship with the demon. There was no way, Sesshomaru had an illegitimate child. She had trouble picturing him being intimate with anyone, and after all the crap he gave Inuyasha about her circumstance, she doubted the demon would stoop so low. Rin seemed human enough too - which meant that they weren't related.
Floundering slightly, she considered the demon’s uncharacteristic softness in dealing with the little girl. Would Rin be upset if she tried to fight him him? Probably, judging by the way she'd looked to him when he had appeared in the glade.
Sesshomaru didn’t seem to have any particular quarrel with her aside from the fact that she was a human who his brother associated with. But Rin was human too, and Sesshomaru hadn’t seemed disgusted. If anything he’d seemed quite fond of her. Where did that leave Sesshomaru? He’d expressed no interest in the Shikon no Tama, and so he would have no use for her if he captured her – unless it was to lord it over his brother.
“Miko.”
The sound of his voice snapped Kagome out of her frantic thinking. She opened her mouth to shout for Inuyasha’s help and-
“Thank you.”
Kagome’s thoughts sputtered to a halt, and without thinking she raised her head and met the demon’s eyes. They were narrowed appraisingly, and she could tell that he too was deep in thought. Strangely, he didn’t seem to be angry.
“You found and helped my ward when she was in trouble. This Sesshomaru is grateful to you. As a reward, I shall spare your life. You may return to my half-breed brother, on the condition that you do not tell him that I was here.”
By the time he finished speaking, Kagome was sure that she had raised her eyebrows so far in surprise that they had disappeared into her hairline.
Immobilised by bewilderment, she nodded her assent without stopping to think.
Sesshomaru relaxed and looked slightly pleased, before his eyes narrowed and hardened once again.
“Be warned, Miko, this is the only time that this Sesshomaru will be so merciful. If I find you again, I will kill you.”
Kagome blinked at his sudden aggressiveness, and then he was gone. The only sign that he’d been there at all were the leaves that he’d stirred up in his departure falling to the ground once more.
Making her way back to the camp-site in the swiftly encroaching darkness, Kagome’s thoughts were buzzing.
Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were bitter enemies and she’d never really stopped to think about it in great detail. From what she knew of the half-demon Inuyasha hated Sesshomaru because of his opinions on humans.
She was aware that Inuyasha’s mother had been a human, and that Sesshomaru had hated her, and resented her relationship with his father Inutaisho, but she hadn’t ever considered how his hatred had evolved to include Inuyasha, aside from his prejudice towards his younger brother’s half-blood status.
Kagome sucked on her bottom lip, as she trekked back. She was so wrapped up in her musings that she didn’t notice Sango until she walked into her friend.
She stumbled back, and Sango quickly reached out to grab her forearm, helping her balance. The assassin grinned.
“What were you thinking of, Kagome? You seemed pretty out of it.”
“What? Oh! I-nothing. I guess I just tired myself out today.”
“You must have done! You were gone for ages. We were about to go looking for you. Inuyasha was panicking.” Sango smiled and tossed the hair from her fringe out of her eyes.
Kagome looked dubiously over at their half-demon teammate, who was reclining on his side and picking at the skin between his toes.
“If you say so”, she muttered.
“Kagome! You’re back! Thank the gods! I was sure you’d had it with Inuyasha, and left us to deal with him.”, Miroku exclaimed casting an irritated glance over his shoulder at Inuyasha who huffed and rolled over so his back was to them.
“Kagome, can you make us dinner? I’m starving”, Shippo interjected tugging tearfully at the hem of her skirt.
He had a suspiciously large lump on the back of his head, which she suspected Inuyasha likely had something to do with.
Kagome smiled, “Of course, Shippo. I’ll get right on that.”
The rest of her evening was spent in the chatting and playful atmosphere that dinner time usually brought over the group, and Kagome put the strange events of the day in the back of her mind.
It was a couple of weeks before Kagome saw Sesshomaru again, but in that time, she couldn’t help but replay the strange events of their last meeting in her head – to the extent that even the usually oblivious Inuyasha had begun to cast her suspicious glances.
Their next meeting had an entirely different tone from the previous one. For one, it wasn’t an accident, and for another it was in battle. With one another- although to be fair it was battle by proxy, with the younger of the white haired brothers fighting on behalf of Totosai, while the elderly sword-maker watched with wide eyes.
Sango and Miroku similarly stood a ways away from the fight, their respective survival instincts telling them it was prudent to avoid getting in between the two furious dog-demons.
Kagome stood next to them, wary, but at the same time she couldn’t help admiring the fluid movements of both men. Their speed and agility was dumbfounding, and she couldn’t help but feel a little awestruck, gazing at their back and forth dance.
The two brothers circled each other, sporting matching grimaces as the tempo of their fight increased .
Inuyasha leapt forward, charging Sesshomaru, and letting loose his Blades of Blood. Sesshomaru recoiled and darted to the side to evade the errant blades.
In retaliation, Sesshomaru dashed forwards without hesitation. With a flick of his wrist So’unga was unsheathed and being driven towards the vulnerable skin of Inuyasha’s throat.
Before it could break his skin, Inuyasha whipped up Tessaiga, and Sesshomaru’s blade glanced off of it. Moving with the momentum, Sesshomaru dove past his brother spinning and easily dodged the Wind Scar that Inuyasha threw his way.
As the brothers continued, Sango crept towards her.
“They’re pretty good, huh?”, she remarked.
“Yeah.” Kagome answered distractedly watching as Inuyasha created a chasm in the earth with his Wind Scar.
Sango smiled knowingly, watching the younger girl’s face.
“Kagome?”
The high-school student turned her attention onto her friend.
“Yeah?”
“What happened between you and Inuyasha that day?”, Sango probed gently.
Kagome’s attention snapped over to the assassin. “What day?”, she asked her expression becoming blank.
Sango sighed, “Kagome, you don’t have to tell me, but I hope you know that we’re a team here.”
She paused.
“No- more than that!”, she amended, “We’re a family, and we want to be there for you. So if you ever want to talk about it…you know where to find me.”
She backed away.
Kagome nodded appreciatively, thinking back to the events of last month. Seeing Inuyasha kiss Kikyou had been a wake-up call of sorts for her.
In retrospect, she should have realised that Inuyasha’s impulsive personality meant it would be difficult for him, waking up one hundred years later to realise that the woman that he had fallen in love with was dead.
Kagome wasn’t afraid to say that she was a romantic, and with all the time she spent with the caustic Inuyasha and the growing strength of their bond, she had eventually become attracted to him. The more he opened up to her, the more she hoped for their relationship to evolve into something else, so her sudden introduction to the softer side of Inuyasha’s personality, had completely thrown her.
On a logical level she knew he was far, far older than her, and she didn’t know him all that well, but at the same time she was hurt and slightly envious to see that the only person with such insight into Inuyasha was Kikyou.
Her status as Kikyou’s supposed reincarnation, only confused her more. Maybe Inuyasha’s feelings towards her were just remnants of his affection for Kikyou. Kagome was afraid she would never know exactly how much what he liked was her, and how much of it was because he only considered her an extension of the late priestess.
What had truly thrown her for the loop, was how betrayed she felt. She tried to rationalise it, but her resentment and jealousy festered, and she became bitter and snappish. That was what had led her to return to her family.
Kagome was a kind girl with a good heart; she made friends easily, and was loved for it. Her hatred and anger horrified her, and she knew that if she continued to feel the same way she would be no better than the shade that Kikyou had become. She wanted nothing more than to hurt Inuyasha, as badly as he had hurt her, and she was disgusted with her selfishness and pettiness because of it. In the aftermath of her little misadventure, she had done something entirely uncharacteristic: she turned tail and fled.
In the weeks that followed she devoted her time to school, and her friends and family. She settled herself into domesticity, and the life of a normal teenage girl. The life that she should have had. At the same time as it was rewarding, her guilt ate her to the extent that she thought often of going back if only to see Sango, Miroku and Shippo again.
Talking with her mother had changed that. It had been as if a burden was lifted from her, and she was quickly able to differentiate between love and the possessiveness she had felt. Of course it didn’t mean that she had stopped loving the her half-demon companion, but she at least felt secure in the knowledge that she could keep fighting for his affection, without compromising her values.
It just so happened that her fighting spirit presented itself in the form of making herself useful. It was true that Kagome loved being domestic. She loved having a home and a family. And although there was no physical structure to ground her in the feudal era, the friends that she had acquired in her adventures more than fulfilled her. She cooked for them, bringing back the modern staple foods that she was accustomed to for Miroku and Shippo to gorge themselves on, and bonded with Sango over how different things were for women in the modern era, and the friendly chatter that girls her age usually engaged in, teasing her friend about the assassin’s violent reactions to Miroku’s constant advances, and her relationship with her younger brother. She fit in well. The only thing she couldn’t do with them was fight.
So perhaps it was a misguided sense of rivalry with Inuyasha’s old lover, or maybe it was her love for her friends that led her to her current predicament, watching the two demon brothers duel ferociously a few yards away.
She knew that Inuyasha would be furious, but even still, she couldn’t help feel sympathy for Sesshomaru.
Having seen how he acted around Rin and seeing the complex feeling he had for his father had humanized him in a way that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
Inuyasha had always made him out to just be a malicious person, and Kagome had always thought of him abstractedly as she would any other villain – at this point they just became a part of the furniture. However, she was coming to realise that his motivations were a lot more complicated than he let on, or than she saw.
His flawless handling of So’unga, and the ease with which he moved, spoke of years and years of practice, and ferocious dedication that she could never hope to match during her measly mortal lifespan.
His motions only brought more questions to mind about who he was and where he had learnt to fight like he had. The concentration he had, was something that was often borne of desperation or urgency. Kagome could tell that the older dog-demon had suffered through a lot.
She was proven right about his experience when he quickly swiftly disarmed Inuyasha, and made to move forwards. Kagome jumped to the ready with an arrow notched in her bow and a frown on her face.
This however, seemed to have the opposite effect than she had wanted. Sesshomaru merely raised his eyebrow, unimpressed.
“Little Miko, If you really think you’d do any harm to me, after what I saw in the woods, then maybe the world would have been better off if I’d simply killed you that day.”
Kagome deflated a little at his words, and tried to come up with something rude to say to him, which gave Sango just enough time to chuck her Hiraikostu at him distracting him from Kagome, and for Inuyasha to save the day.
The words rattled around in her head, and she couldn’t help but alarmed. He seemed to imply that he'd been watching even before her surprise encounter with Rin. She spent the rest of the day feeling a confused.
She was even moreso, when later on in the evening, she was approached by Totosai. The blacksmith smiled gently at her, and crouched down near to where she was sat.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, as he talked.
“He wasn’t always like this you know. Sesshomaru, I mean. The first time I met him he was young. He came to me with his father, the day that the Tessaiga was made.”
Kagome listened with interest.
“He was such an eager young pup. He asked me so many questions. Though he may not know otherwise now, I saw how deeply Toga-sama loved him, and how proud he was of him.”
“So, what happened?”
Totosai shrugged.
“Toga died.”
Seeing the crestfallen look on her face, he smiled again reassuringly. The cloudy lenses of his near-blind eyes shone under the moonlight, making him appear eerie and almost omniscient.
The effect was negated by the weathered clay-coloured skin on his face creating lines, when he moved, and the thinning silver hair receding over his scalp.
Kagome stayed looking at the night sky for a while after he retired for the night, thinking over what she had learned.
Their next meeting, three days after the battle, was exceptionally weird. Even for Kagome. At this point encountering Sesshomaru was beginning to lose its shock-factor. The surly demon seemed equally disenchanted with her appearance, when she literally ran into him in the forest during her search for a river to bathe in .
What stopped her in her tracks wasn’t the scowling dog-demon’s surprisingly mud-covered appearance – honestly what did he think would come of wearing that much white? – but the absurd looking creature that was frantically thrashing around behind him.
It looked a bit like a horse, but also a lizard, only…it had two heads.
It was scaly and green, with a wild mane, and bulbous yellow eyes, that rolled alarmedly. The creature had four legs, that ended in bird-like feet with wicked talons, and a massive swinging lizard tail, that bowled over the trees behind it. Its shoulder was several heads taller than her, and at full height it towered over her menacingly.
Had she mentioned it had two heads?
Rin and the little gremlin creature called Jaken stood a little ways away, tucked in the relative safety of the low- hanging branches of a large tree.
Jaken screeched at the sight of her, whipping out his two headed staff, and waddling towards her as fast as he could, and Kagome took a step back, ready for a fight-
Right into Sesshomaru’s willowy figure. Two sets of wickedly sharp claws dug into her shoulder as she struggled for balance, and righted her before being snatched away as if she had some kind of contagious disease. Kagome traced their path as they were raised to rake through the demon’s uncharacteristically dishevelled hair.
“Jaken, shut up and stay with Rin.”, Sesshomaru grumbled, his eyes pointed downwards in distaste at the sight of the soiled hem of his kimono.
He looked up and eyed Kagome frustratedly, as Jaken scurried back to the relative safety of the tree and away from his master’s ire. Seeing Kagome, Rin’s eyes lit up, and she beamed, waving so furiously that she knocked Jaken to the ground, and almost fell off of her branch.
Kagome laughed and waved back, acutely conscious of Sesshomaru’s eyes on the back of her neck.
“Miko, now is not the time. Run back to my brother before This Sesshomaru smites you.”, Sesshomaru sniffed aloof.
Kagome glared at him out of her peripherals, miffed at his dismissive tone. Then, she focused on the animal in front of her.
Inspecting it more closely, she still couldn’t see why it was so agitated.
“How long has it been like this?”, she directed her questions towards Rin, obliquely ignoring the affronted look on Sesshomaru’s face.
Sesshomaru stiffened and furrowed his brows, offended that she hadn’t asked him, at the same time his remaining hand grazed the hilt of So’unga, as though he were readying himself to attack her if she hurt the little girl.
“He’s been like this since this morning, Kagome-nee! I went to pick some berries to cook for breakfast, and I took A-Un with me. I turned around, and he was like this. I asked Jaken-sama, but he didn’t know what was wrong.”
The green-skinned demon gave Rin the stink-eye, muttering under his breath “We should just leave the stupid beast behind. If is truly as loyal to Sesshomaru-sama, as I am he’ll stop this foolishness right now.”
Rin stared at him appalled, “We wouldn’t leave A-Un behind! He’s our family!”
Kagome turned leaving them to squabble between themselves. Cautiously, she edged closer to the Lizard-Horse-Hydra-Demon-Thing. Something about the agitated creature’s countenance reminded her of Buyo when Souta squeezed him too hard or pulled on his tail.
A thought occurred to her.
She turned to the white-haired youkai, “Does he eat plants?”
Sesshomaru nodded, not taking his eyes off her, and keeping his arms crossed haughtily over his chest.
Kagome continued to approach A-Un until she was within touching distance. The creature reared back, and she managed to grab his bridle, gently guiding his heads downwards and slipping off his muzzles. She kept a hand on his wither the whole time, stroking it calmingly so that the beast was soothed.
“Hi there,” she said looking directly into the two sets of lantern-like eyes, “Would you mind opening your mouths for me?” she enunciated clearly, feeling a little foolish for talking to the creature.
For an agonisingly long moment, A-Un just watched as her cheeks heated up and Sesshomaru’s travelling party looked on with interest, and in Jaken’s case derision.
Then, slowly ever so slowly, the beast opened both his mouths, until his maw hung open. Kagome leaned forward, trying not to be intimidated by the way his jaws dwarfed her, and holding her breath against the onslaught of halitosis. She narrowed her eyes, and peered closely at A-Un until she found what she was looking for. Then ever so slowly she began to extract the thorns that were embedded in the roofs of his mouths.
To his credit, A-Un stayed very still throughout the whole process – the only sign of pain he showed was the violent swishing of his tail.
After ten minutes or so, Kagome was sure that she had gotten all of the thorns, and had a palmful of tiny spikes to show for her work. Stepping away from A-Un, she was very quickly approached by Rin who stood on her toes to look curiously at the thorns that Kagome had extracted.
“Wow! Kagome-nee! You’re so clever! How did you know that they were there?”
Kagome shrugged abashed.
“I just guessed. I mean you said you went to get berries, right? I figured that you got them from a blackthorn bush, because you said that you were going to cook them, and blackthorn berries taste better when they’re cooked. Then I remembered that the plants have thorns. You could have guessed from the name though, huh?”
For the duration of her explanation, Kagome could feel Sesshomaru’s gaze on her. When she looked up and made eye contact with him, she thought he almost looked appraising. Something flickered in his eyes, and it took her a few moments to realise that he was impressed.
When he noticed her looking, he quickly looked away, raising his chin and clearing his throat, uneasily.
“In any case, Miko, you have my thanks. I am in your debt.”
Jaken jumped to his feet outraged, “Lord Sesshomaru! If anything she is in your debt! Being in your glorious presence is reparation enough.”
Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed with the demon’s brown-nosing.
Kagome however, noticing the demon’s uneasiness opted to make light of the situation as much as she could get away with, wondering in the back of her mind whether his sincerity endure for an interaction that lasted longer than half a minute.
“In my debt, huh?”, she rubbed at her chin mockingly ponderous, “I don’t suppose I could ask you to get rid of that pesky Naraku, could I?”
Sesshomaru looked at her; he seemed to realise that she was being facetious and quickly readopted his cold demeanour once again.
Kagome sighed, exaggerating how put out she was “I didn’t think so.”
Sesshomaru frowned slightly and again raised his hand to So’unga, as if debating whether or not to simply rid himself of her and go about his day.
Seeing the movement, Kagome was ready to back-track her way, out of the sticky situation that she had talked herself into, when her mind flashed back to the events of days ago, when she had watched the white-haired siblings fighting.
She played back the moment when Sesshomaru had flicked his sword out of his sheath, allowing the beautifully tempered steel to catch and reflect the late day sunlight. She contrasted the easy confidence – verging on arrogance- she had seen in his stance compared with his loss of composure in the last few minutes.
The precision that she witnessed and the grace and fluidity lit her up with a sudden daring inspiration .
“There is actually one thing you can do.”
The dog demon tilted his face towards her again, as if bracing himself for whatever she might request.
“You could teach me to use a sword.”
Well, whatever he had been expecting it hadn’t been that. Kagome couldn’t help but feel that she was going to regret the decision, but in that moment she couldn’t really bring herself to care.