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He holds his breath as her eyes flutter open. Achingly slow, her blue gaze sharpens and snags on him. His name is a sigh on her lips and his heart leaps.
“Sesshoumaru.”
Her trembling, knotty finger reaches out, presses against the spot between his eyebrows, smoothing out the burrow. “Don’t be ruining that pretty face with a frown. You always worry too much.”
He clasps her hands and kisses her knuckles. “My apologies, dearest Kagome,” he tells her, the corner of his lips curling up. “I promise there will only be smiles for you from now on.”
The laugh lines in the corners of her eyes deepen. “Now that sounds more like it.”
"Did you get a good rest?” he asks her.
“My rest was fine. But what is this about? Not much of a lord, are you, if you have nothing better to do than sit there watching an old woman sleep.”
“Do not disparage my mate so,” he admonishes her gently. Then, unable to help himself, Sesshoumaru steals a lingering kiss.
“Bah!” Kagome huffs as he pulls away, but she blushes just as prettily as she did that first time he kissed her, all those decades ago.
Where did they all go? Why did the years pass so quickly?
There’s a twinkle now in Kagome’s beautiful blue eyes and a soft smile playing on her lips. “Do you remember when…”
He listens to her reminiscence on the sweet, shared memory. He holds her hand and laughs with her. He revels in her teasing and teases her back. He murmurs into her ear, recounting another kind of memory altogether and coaxes that lovely blush into full bloom once again.
And all the while, Sesshoumaru’s heart beats in loud, swelling gratitude in his ears. She’s here. His heart, his home, his everything.
His Kagome is still here.
She grows tired, after a while. As she struggles to keep her eyes open, he tells her to rest. She gives her token protest but succumbs to his fussing. The sun dims the moment her eyes fall shut and Sesshoumaru watches her settle into a shallow slumber again.
He remains there, sitting by her futon, guarding her sleep as he has done so many times before. He is still holding her wrinkled hand half an hour later, when her lashes start to flutter again.
He waits with a bated breath, as the eyes slowly open. As the clouded blue gaze travels the room and settles on him. She’s frowning at him as he runs his thumb over her knuckles.
Her words are halting when she finally speaks. “Who are you?”
Sesshoumaru releases her hand, his grip suddenly slack. His own fingers shake as he pulls in a deep breath to push down the tears strangling his throat. She’s gone again. Lost to him, in the mires of her ageing mind that has turned against her. Lost to herself, and that is the greatest tragedy of all.
But he made his vows, all those years ago. He remembers, and he still means every word. He made her a promise.
And so, though it’s broken and brimming with grief, Sesshoumaru smiles.