Someone Who Completes Me

Sesshomaru glanced at Alithia’s
sleeping form as he made one final adjustment to his armor. His fingers brushed
against the spot where he normally wore his father’s red tassel, and he sighed.
He regretted so hastily leaving the mountain top where Alithia had run away
from him—the tassel had been missing since that day. He forced himself to stop
fidgeting and kicked Jaken awake. “Go find something for her to eat,” he
ordered his servant. After Jaken left, Sesshomaru knelt next to Alithia and gently
brushed the hair from her pale face.

He frowned and let out a sigh. He
couldn’t wake her just yet; she was still healing and was sleeping peacefully
for the first time since he’d been traveling with her. Besides, it had only
been a few hours since she’d run away from Akashino’s home. Jaken returned a
few minutes later with berries and mushrooms. He moved to wake Alithia, but a
frosty look from Sesshomaru stopped him. He scuttled over to his master and
handed him the food and then proceeded to pack up the camp. Sesshomaru placed
the food in a pouch and gathered Alithia in his arms, blankets and all. He
mounted Ah-Un and adjusted Alithia in his lap before beginning the day’s
journey.

Cool wind kissed Ali’s hot cheeks, making her stir. She opened blurry eyes and
blinked at the hypnotizing sway of Sesshomaru’s MokoMoko as it fluttered in a
breeze. “I was just going to wake you,” a deep, soft voice said. Ali tilted back
her head to gaze into Sesshomaru’s sad, golden
eyes. “You need to eat something, Alithia,” he said. The mere mentioning of
food had Alithia’s stomach twisting, and she wrinkled her nose. Sesshomaru
lifted an eyebrow at her as she burrowed down in the blankets and closed her
eyes.

“Not hungry,” she mumbled. A cool
hand brushed her hair from her cheeks and forehead in a soothing manner. A
moment later, Ali felt Sesshomaru’s lips on her temple. She blinked and twisted
her head so she could look him in the eye. He didn’t look sad anymore, just
somewhat annoyed.

“You are ill. You should not have
been traveling. Eat just a little,” he said, his voice becoming gentle at the
end. A small pouch was deposited into her lap a moment later. Ali forced herself to eat several bites and thought about the last
several days. She could just barely hear Jaken grumbling from somewhere behind
Sesshomaru. She couldn’t believe that she’d missed the annoying little imp. She
wanted to talk to Sesshomaru about his father—without Jaken hearing. She knew
that Sesshomaru trusted Jaken, but this was so personal that she was certain it
was something that he wouldn’t want anyone else to know. Besides, she wanted to
ask him about his reaction to Inuyasha licking her
last night. It was odd, considering that he’d also licked her once before the
cave incident.

Ali slid an arm around Sesshomaru’s
neck, ignoring the soft silk of his hair as it tickled her hand, and put her
lips close to his ear so Jaken wouldn’t overhear what she intended to say. “Sesshomaru? Can we stop for awhile?
I want to talk to you about something without Jaken’s interference,” she
breathed softly in his ear. Sesshomaru’s entire body went rigid, and his
fingers dug into her ribs where he was supporting her in his lap. She winced
and pulled back a little to give him some space. It was a good thing Sesshomaru
had unintentionally hurt her because she’d been tempted to kiss his throat. She
forced herself not to blush as Sesshomaru lifted a cool eyebrow at her.

Sesshomaru was glad he’d spent
centuries perfecting his mask of indifference as Alithia’s warm breath tickled
his ear and sent shivers of pleasure down his spine. It made him angry that she
had such an effect on him; she was merely a half-human after all. He was not
interested in any sort of sexual relationship with a human, half or whole. Reflexively,
he tightened his grip on Alithia. He ignored her wince and lifted an eyebrow as
she pulled away, her face an interesting shade of pink. “What do you wish to
discuss?” he asked her quietly. She bit her lip and peered over his shoulder at
Jaken, who was muttering sullenly behind him. Alithia’s next words left him
speechless in shock.

“I want to talk about your father,”
she murmured. “I think he saved me,” Alithia added quietly when he inhaled
sharply. Sesshomaru gave her a sharp nod of understanding and directed Ah-Un to
land. Half an hour later, he was alone with the girl and convinced that she’d
been hallucinating due to the poison that still laced her body.

“How could my dead father
possibly have saved you?” Sesshomaru growled out more harshly than he intended.
Alithia didn’t seem to be offended by his disbelief as she folded the blankets
she’d been wrapped in. Then she sat on a rock and chewed her lip for a minute,
wincing when one of her fangs pierced the tender flesh. Sesshomaru silently knelt
in front of her and gently brushed away the blood.

Sesshomaru’s thumb rested on her
lip, and his long fingers caressed Ali’s cheek, the scrape of his claws against
the soft flesh making the fine hairs on her neck stand up. To distract him from
the scent of her arousal, Ali took his hand and placed the bright red tassel
she’d stolen from him the day she’d misinterpreted the look he’d given her in
his palm, closing his long fingers over it. It had been a game she’d started
playing with him the first day they‘d begun traveling together. She called it
the ‘let’s see how long it takes him to notice I took it’ game; he called it
the ‘you’re pushing my buttons’ game. Sesshomaru seemed less than thrilled
about it but allowed her to practice her thievery skills on him.

As Sesshomaru’s gaze dropped from
her eyes to the object in his hand, Ali remembered the last time she’d lost her
little game. Well, she lost every time, but that morning had been a little
different…

Ali walked back from the river twitching her nose like a rabbit to get
the water out of it. As she entered the camp, she skirted a grouchy Jaken and
sat near the things Sesshomaru had left behind after his morning’s drill set.
Stealthily, she swiped the bright red tassel that dangled from his armor like
she had for the past three mornings and tucked it into the back of her own armor’s
neck, underneath her hair. Suppressing a smirk because Jaken hadn’t noticed her
taking the tassel, she quickly gathered her things.

A moment later, Sesshomaru returned from his bathing rituals, and Ali swallowed
hard as she watched a bead of water trickle down his arm. She squashed down the
flare of knee-melting attraction and quietly slipped away from the camp. Once
she’d traveled about 150 feet, she broke into a run. It wouldn’t take long for
him to notice she’d taken it again.

Ali let out a startled yip as a still-topless Sesshomaru appeared in
her peripheral vision, and she picked up her pace, a giggle escaping her lips.
Bands of steel wrapped around her waist, and she was tackled to the ground,
Sesshomaru rolling so he hit the ground first. Ali swallowed as her hands were
pinned firmly above her head with both of his. Sesshomaru sat on her legs,
trapping them between his own and making escape difficult.

Ali peered up at Sesshomaru’s unamused face
and blinked with all the innocence she could muster. “Can I help you with
something, Maru?” she murmured. Sesshomaru gave a low
growl and leaned in close to her face.

“You have something that belongs to me,” he rumbled, his warm breath
caressing her cheeks. Strangely, Ali didn’t feel afraid. She didn’t think he
was actually angry, just annoyed—and only a little at that. Mostly he seemed to
be amused that she’d actually managed to run any distance from him at all. Ali
cocked her head to the side in false confusion.

“Do I?” she purred. “I didn’t realize I had taken anything,” she lied
shamelessly. “If you find what you are looking for, then I’ll apologize,” she
added slyly. Sesshomaru’s eyebrow shot up to his hairline even as his eyes went
a molten gold color.

“And how, exactly, do you intend to apologize to this Sesshomaru?” he
growled out as one hand slid down her arm to cup her cheek. Ali felt a blush
beginning to ignite her face and desperately tried to bluff her way through…
whatever this was. She gave a casual shrug and smirked up at him.

“I’m sure you will think of something. But first, you have to prove I
took anything from you,” she stated sassily. A smirk twisted his lips sexily,
and he leaned closer, tilting her head to the side. Ali swallowed a gasp as his
lips claimed the side of her throat, his tongue and gently-scraping fangs
sending her brain directly into lala land.

“This Sesshomaru has all the proof he needs right here,” he said as he
pulled back and dangled the red tassel in front of her eyes. Ali pouted,
disappointed that he’d found it so quickly. Sesshomaru tucked the tassel into
the waist of his hakamas and returned his attention
to her with that wicked smirk still gracing his face. “You are correct. I have
thought of something you can do to—” he began to say. Ali used the moment he
sat up to put away the tassel to cool her rapidly heating blood, and when he
returned his attention to her, she flipped them so that she was straddling his
hips. A stunned look had replaced the smirk, making her giggle.

Before Ali could make a clever remark, she heard Jaken wailing for
Sesshomaru. She made a face and sighed before climbing off the still-stunned
demon lord. She began walking back to the camp, ignoring Jaken when she passed
him on the road. As she walked, she shoved the whole incident aside to analyze
later. Now was not the time to have her brain melt. She had a feeling his
revenge wasn’t going to be very nice.

“I thought I took this back from
you,” Sesshomaru said, clearly remembering the incident as well. Ali grinned
wickedly at him.

“You did that day, but the next
day when we stopped because Jaken wanted to eat, I took it from you again,
right off your armor. I was going to give it to you after we ate that night,
but, well, that was the night I got scared and ran away,” she explained, the
smirk only fading a little when she thought of her stupidity.

Sesshomaru stared at the blush
that stained Alithia’s pale face a brighter red than normal and wondered if she
knew she was blushing. He guessed that she didn’t from the way her head tilted
in genuine confusion, one ear tilted sideways and toward the ground. Normally
both her ears were upright or tilted back, not to the side. She only did that
when she was confused about something.

Sesshomaru refused to think about
how close he’d come to seducing her the day she’d taken his father’s tassel and
run. He seized onto that thought viciously and held on for dear life. “What
does this have to do with my father?” he asked in a grumbly tone. Alithia’s
face became serious.

“That tassel means so much to you
because it was your father’s, wasn’t it? It was
because of him that I was able to escape from Eddie this time. I had that
tassel, and I—I think I was very, very close to dying,” she said gravely. Ice
slammed into Sesshomaru’s chest at her words. Had she really been that close to
death?

“You are not leaving my side
again,” he said before he could stop himself. Alithia blinked in surprise and
lifted an eyebrow. “You end up in too much trouble otherwise, and I have duties
to attend to other than saving you or worrying about your wellbeing,” he added
more bluntly than he meant to. *Nice time
for your eloquence to fail you,* he thought sardonically.

Ali didn’t know what to make of Sesshomaru’s
statement at first but decided to take it at face value. She wasn’t strong
enough to fight on her own yet, but with his help, she would be. She was
getting really tired of being injured or in need of rescue. She wasn’t freaking
Snow White, she was Mulan. Or she would be if she had
anything to say about it. She gave him a sharp nod of consent and changed the
subject.

“Why were you so upset when I
said Inuyasha had licked me? I mean, you licked me
once before that incident in the cave,” she said, fighting another blush.
Sesshomaru’s eyebrow lifted in confusion.

“When did I do that?” he asked in
a tone that implied he believed she was lying. Ali hesitated—maybe she’d imagined
that he’d healed her. She did have accelerated healing. Her face scrunched
thoughtfully as she tried to assess whether or not it had actually happened.
She did occasionally have fantasies about Sesshomaru. She shook her head in
resignation.

“I apologize. I must have dreamed
it,” she murmured uncertainly as she rubbed her eyebrow. Ali hoped that she
wasn’t going crazy. Feudal Japan was not the place to be a complete nut job—not
unless you had a great deal of magical or political power. She had neither, so
if she went crazy here, she’d likely meet an unpleasant end. Her ears went flat
against her skull as images from years of history class invaded her brain.
Having a vivid imagination was overrated sometimes.

Sesshomaru blinked as he
remembered the incident to which she had to be referring. He’d been so annoyed
by the impulsive action that he’d forgotten it entirely. A small whimper drew
his attention back to Alithia. He had no idea what she was thinking about, but
it was clearly scaring her. He leaned in and kissed her eyebrow gently.

“I had forgotten about that. What
are you frightened of?” Sesshomaru asked as he cupped her cheek. Alithia shook
her head and went red again. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, so he tilted her chin
up until she did. “Do not lie. I can see something is bothering you.” Alithia
stared into his eyes for a long moment and let out a small sigh.

“For a moment, I thought I was
losing my mind and imagining all the things that could happen to me. I am
gifted with a vivid imagination. In my time period, history has many records of
people who went crazy and the things that happened to them. I don’t want that
to happen to me,” she said in a trembling voice. Sesshomaru snorted.

“I will kill you before I
allowed that to happen to you. I swear if you lose your mind and are a danger
to others, I will kill you. I already said that man is not going to lay another
finger on you—no one else will either. Do not worry yourself
any longer,” he said with a scowl on his face. Alithia flung her arms around
his neck and buried her face in his throat, sliding off her rock until she straddled
his lap.

“Thank you,” she breathed. He
smiled into her neck and wrapped his arms around her ribs to hold her close.
They remained that way until a breeze made Alithia shiver and cuddle closer to
Sesshomaru. He suddenly became aware of their intimate position and pulled
away, gently setting Alithia back on her rock. He stood up and faced away from
her so she wouldn’t be able to read his expression while she answered his next
question.

“Exactly what happened when my
father’s spirit saved you?” he asked coolly.

“I was lying in a pool of
blood desperately praying that you’d find me when I saw a bright light…”
Alithia began softly.

Two days later

Ali swallowed her irritation
as Sesshomaru knocked the katana from her hands for the fifth time that
morning. She was not a swordswoman by any stretch of the imagination, but this
was honestly pathetic. She dodged Sesshomaru’s next sword swing and kicked out
at the back of his knee. He swiveled away from the blow and threw a punch at
her chest. She dodged that blow as well, and for several minutes they exchanged
barely-missed kicks and punches. Sesshomaru sheathed his sword and began to
attack her earnestly. She purposely backed away from his aggressive stance
until her foot found her staff, which she managed to kick into her hands
without bashing herself in the face. She’d been practicing this move for
several weeks and three out of four times she’d hit herself in the face with
the staff because she had kicked it too high.

Sesshomaru smirked as she
shoved the end of the staff toward his stomach, easily dodging. He picked up a
thin branch that was nearly the same length as her staff and blocked the blow
Ali directed at his head. For nearly half an hour they fought with their
staffs, Sesshomaru landing more blows than she did.

Sesshomaru could see that
Alithia was getting tired and decided to end the practice. Alithia had nearly
finished healing but wasn’t quite her old self. He teleported behind her and
rushing her from behind, gave her a firm wack across
the lower back. He heard a yelp of pain, and then her staff end was whistling
past his ear as he dodged the blow to the back of his head. Sesshomaru felt his
eyes go wide as Alithia pulled back her staff, which had transformed into a
scythe with a wicked looking blade. He instinctively grabbed the handle of the
scythe as it arched toward his throat and tried to push it the other way as he
leaned backwards. A moment later he wiped a trickle of blood from his throat
with his free hand and bit back a smile.

“Are you alright?” Alithia’s
concerned voice penetrated his amusement, and he put his mask of indifference
back on. Holding her scythe with an iron grip, he turned and gave her an
evaluating stare. She didn’t squirm under it like most people would but met his
gaze evenly. “It would be foolish to reveal all my fighting secrets at once,” she
said in reply to his unasked question. He gave her a sharp nod and turned his
focus to the intricately carved scythe handle. When he attempted to pull it from
her grip, the scythe glowed brightly and a column of fire sent him flying
backwards into a tree.

Ali stared in horror as
Sesshomaru’s body flew backwards through a tree. She dodged the falling branches
and tossed aside the scythe and ran to his side when he didn’t immediately get
up. Swallowing a whimper, she gently cradled his head in her lap. “Maru? Maru,
are you okay?” she asked anxiously. He let out a grunt, and she breathed a sigh
of relief. She ran her fingers over his face gently as he pulled oxygen back
into his lungs. His eyes closed, and he allowed her to gently stroke his face
and throat. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and smirked up at her. Ali felt her
eyes go wide with alarm, and she shoved his head away and attempted to scramble
backwards but wasn’t quick enough.

Sesshomaru had not been so
humiliated in centuries. He knew better than to go about touching magical
weapons. He lay on the ground cursing his own stupidity while he tried to get
the air to return to his lungs. Terrified purple eyes blocked his view of the
blue sky. He could distantly hear Alithia’s anxious voice calling his name. He
grunted to let her know that he was ok. Against his will, Sesshomaru’s eyes
drifted shut as Alithia’s delicate fingers traced patterns over his face and
throat.

For a long moment after he’d
regained his ability to breathe, Sesshomaru lay with his head in Alithia’s lap
and inhaled her intoxicating scent. *I’m
doing it again—I’m letting her affect me. This is ridiculous. This stops NOW,*
he thought savagely. He wondered how he was going to get out of this situation without
upsetting her—he didn’t need her to run off and get herself hurt again.
Settling on a course of action, he opened his eyes and gave Alithia a wicked
smile. Her expression changed from concerned to alarmed, and she shoved him out
of her lap. He rolled to his hands and knees and charged at the retreating
figure.

“You should never let your
guard down,” Sesshomaru rumbled once he’d pinned Alithia to the ground. She
glared at him defiantly.

“I thought you were hurt. You
better not have been faking,” she growled. Sesshomaru chuckled at her outraged
expression. He smirked down at her and watched with amusement as she tried to
fight a blush.

“You still owe me an apology
as well,” he murmured sensually, caressing the bridge of Alithia’s nose with a
claw. Her face went crimson for a brief second, and then it was Sesshomaru’s
turn to be alarmed as a devious smile graced her lips.

“Is this a good enough
apology?” Alithia murmured before lifting her head up off the ground and
kissing him fiercely. Sesshomaru was shocked by the aggressive passion she
displayed—she was the one who always pulled away from his advances. It made him
angry; had she been faking her shyness this entire time? He returned the kiss harshly,
nipping her lip when she tried to pull back. A few moments later, he pulled
back to get some air and glared down at Alithia. She blinked dazedly at him,
making him even angrier. He kissed her again, putting all of his seductive
power behind it. For once, she didn’t pull away but met his kiss with equal
passion. At some point, her hands drifted from above her head where he’d pinned
them to tangle in his hair. Awhile later, she gave his chest a hard shove.

“Jaken’s coming,” she gasped.
He leapt to his feet and tried to calm his racing heart as Jaken’s voice
reached him.

Ali clenched her trembling
hands and tried to remember what breathing was. She hadn’t intended for things
to get so out of control. *Pretend it
didn’t happen. Pretend it didn’t happen,* she thought as Jaken chattered at
Sesshomaru. She gathered the weapons from their morning practice and began
cleaning them. She left her scythe where she’d tossed it; she hadn’t wanted to
attack Sesshomaru earlier—the scythe had done that on its own.

Later that day when they
stopped for a short break, Sesshomaru watched Alithia from the corner of his
eye. He hadn’t spoken to her all morning, choosing instead to just observe. He
came to the conclusion that she’d been bluffing when she’d kissed him so
boldly. She was a sneaky little fox, but not intentionally devious. Sesshomaru
snorted to himself. He was beginning to see why Edward had been fascinated with
her—she had the potential to be a perfect lover. Not that the self-centered
bastard would ever know that now. He shook off that train of thought and
frowned as Alithia rolled her shoulder for the fifth time. He also realized
that he didn’t see her elaborately carved scythe anywhere.

“Alithia, where is your
weapon?” Sesshomaru’s deep voice startled Ali. He had been so upset at her
pathetic attempt to surprise him that he hadn’t spoken to her all day. She
stopped rolling her aching shoulder and blinked up at Sesshomaru.

“Oh, I left it back there. It
attacked you when I didn’t mean for it to,” she said with a shrug. Sesshomaru
stared at her and then let out a sigh.

“Come here,” he ordered
softly. Ali blinked and, after a moment’s hesitation, took
Sesshomaru’s outstretched hand. She swallowed a squeal as he yanked her against
his chest firmly, and they were enveloped in a bright red light. “You can open
your eyes now,” Sesshomaru murmured into her ear. Ali opened her eyes and
blinked as she saw the tree Sesshomaru had destroyed earlier that day during
their weapons practice. “Retrieve your weapon and bring it here,” he ordered.

Alithia obeyed him curiously.
When she stood in front of him again, he held out his hands. “Now give it to me
willingly.” She placed the scythe into his hands gently. Sesshomaru inspected
the intricately carved staff closely for several minutes. It was a beautiful
weapon. “Show me how you release the blade,” he said. When she moved to take the
weapon back, he wrapped his arms around her and turned her the other way so her
back rested against his chest.

Ali forced herself
to remain calm as Sesshomaru’s strong arms encircled her. She wasn’t going to
allow there to be a repeat of that morning—she wanted to stay by his side for a
long time, and episodes like that morning were going to ruin any chance of that.
She wrapped each of her hands over his and showed him the way to twist the
staff so the blade sprang free. “Do not throw away this weapon again. We were
fighting earlier, and it was merely protecting you,” he said quietly. She
nodded mutely and held the scythe against her chest. “Close your eyes—we will
return to Jaken now,” he murmured and held her close again.