Dreaming

His hands were all over her at once. Kagome was certain Sesshoumaru had more than two. Surely there were hands on both her breasts, another in her hair, and yet another between her legs and still one more holding her hips down to the grass. Maybe he could just move so quickly and smoothly that two hands felt like infinitely more. She didn’t care either way. His touch, absent from her body for three years, was just as wonderful as she remembered.

“Sesshoumaru,” she purred, arching under him. With him, when fire coursed through her body and she was bright like an industrial light bulb, it was alright to be wanton. Her few boyfriends through high school saw her as a sweet virgin. For them, she hadn’t been anything else. None of them set off her body quite like Sesshoumaru. She hadn’t slept with any of them anyway. Her learned dedication kept her too focused on her schoolwork, causing her to neglect the needy boys who consistently demanded her time.

His lips closed over one of her nipples as his fingers tweaked the other. Kagome groaned. Heat on one side and pleasurable pressure bordering on pain on the other. It made her head spin with desire. She might not have had sex with her boyfriends, but she had messed around a bit with them. They didn’t do this for her.

“How do you do this?” Kagome demanded on a breath she stole from him with a kiss.

Sesshoumaru watched her idly. “It’s not so hard for a youkai,” he replied, parting her legs with his thigh and sliding inside her. Kagome gasped beneath him. She didn’t know exactly why, but the fact that he didn’t have to guide himself into her was sinfully erotic. Then again, everything about Sesshoumaru was sinfully erotic. Kagome doubted the world would have it any other way. If Sesshoumaru was anything else, it would be a sin against existence. She laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” he inquired, and she could hear that she had pricked his delicate male pride.

“I was just thinking that—”

“You aren’t allowed to think.” Sesshoumaru shifted, drawing her over him, something he had never done in her previous dreams. With his hands on her hips, he urged her to move.

Up and down, Kagome rode him, her head tossed back. His lips found her breasts. He covered them, and her chest, with kisses and nips and licks that left her panting as his body in hers left her breathless. Pleasure building between her legs, she buried her fingers in Sesshoumaru’s hair, holding him to her breasts as she keened with desperation. He growled, and that undid her.

Crying his name, she came undone in a torrent of unspeakable pleasure. Her body shone with sweat and pleasured exertion as she dropped her head to his shoulder.

In a single, graceful movement, Sesshoumaru pulled Kagome against his body and rolled them so that her back was pressed to his chest.

“I missed these dreams,” she said softly, eyes closed. Her hands found his where they laced around her waist, holding to him. “Even if there were only a few to begin with. Still. It’s easy to miss something so wonderful.”

“Indeed,” Sesshoumaru agreed, nuzzling behind her ear.

Kagome rewarded him with a soft moan. She wiggled against him, pressing her body closer to his. “Don’t do that,” she gasped.

“I like to,” he replied, blatantly ignoring her to nip at her ear.

Kagome moved suddenly. Sesshoumaru could have stopped her, but he rarely did. He enjoyed it, she knew, when she surprised him. Leaning over his body, Kagome grinned, then lowered her face. She nibbled the lobe of his ear and proceeded to run her tongue around the shell of his ear. When she reached the tip, she paused, first kissing and then nibbling. Beneath her, Sesshoumaru’s breath hitched.

“I like doing that to you,” she murmured, her breath caressing the sensitive skin of his ear. His breath caught again and Kagome lowered herself, snuggling against his side. It was true—she did like touching him so that he made pleasured noises. He was usually too controlled for it, but when she found the right spot, if she touched it, kissed it, licked it, she could undo all that finely tuned control. It was something she had learned in all their times together in just that one night.

Tucking her against his side, looking up at the bright sky of the Sengoku Jidai, Sesshoumaru said, “It will be morning for us both, soon.”

Kagome nodded. “You know. We should consider building a relationship based on similar interests, not just sex,” she commented idly. She felt him shift to look down at her. “My mom said that’s why our dad left.” And then he got hit by a car. Her mother had been devastated. Kagome couldn’t remember him enough to feel anything.

Sesshoumaru was silent for a long time before he replied. “You and I are out of time, Kagome. It is doubtful that our ways will part soon.”

“I hope not,” Kagome said quietly. If he had been human, she knew he wouldn’t have heard her.

Sesshoumaru shifted her and, as they both began to fade from their dream world, he kissed her softly. “At least you’re not in your cage anymore, little bird,” he murmured.

Kagome smiled. “I don’t know about that. I’ll see you when you come by.”

“I will call first.”


Kagome threw the alarm clock against the wall, as if its ringing woke her. In truth, she woke five minutes before it went off at nine, after the dream with Sesshoumaru ended. Smiling, Kagome pulled her pillow over her face. A moment later, her smile turned into outrageous laughter. She was going to go dress shopping with Sesshoumaru, with Mahito Shuusaishi. She wondered if she ought to tell her family.

“I have to tell them,” she told the pillow, her voice still full of giggles.

When she skipped into the bathroom some ten minutes later with a nice skirt and blouse, Sota stared after her.

“What’s got you so exited?” he asked her before she shut the door.

Kagome grinned at him. “I’ll tell you in a minute.” She shut the door, humming to herself. She burst into song a moment later, a peppy tune Tamaki Nami covered for a Disney movie. She had no doubt that Sota was standing outside the door, looking at it like Kagome might have finally lost her mind, but she didn’t care.

“In a few hours, you’re going to go shopping with Sesshoumaru,” she murmured to herself in a sing-song voice. And then she was singing again, this time a ballad.

By the time she was washed, dried and dressed, her mood had dampened a little. She had started imagining all the things that could go wrong, and had wondered, if Sesshoumaru lived, did anyone else? Kouga was a full youkai, so he could still be alive. It pained her heart, but she figured Inuyasha was gone. Those thoughts led her to wonder how they had managed to integrate with human society so seamlessly. In the past, the youkai had been solitary predators. They would never demean themselves by integrating with human society. Perhaps it had been the changing times, she thought. The Edo period had changed a lot. Maybe it had been then. She figured that, by the time Japan became an industrial society, the youkai remaining had managed to find ways to hide who and what they had been in favor of disguising themselves to insure survival.

“That probably chafed his pride,” Kagome said to herself with a laugh.

With a few strokes, she applied a bit of blush, a pretty mocha eyeliner and eye shadow. After starting high school, Kagome had started wearing make up to cover up a bizarre outbreak of ache. Dermatologists couldn’t figure out why acne medicine wouldn’t get rid of it, but after her wisdom teeth were pulled and she took the antibiotics to prevent infection, the rash went away. As habit, she continued wearing makeup. Not much, just enough to accentuate what she already had.

Making her way downstairs, she waved to her mother, who was sitting at the couch in the family room, a subtitled episode of Oprah on television. “Morning,” she said to her mother.

Kagome’s mother lifted her hand. “One minute, sweetie.”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome helped herself to some cereal for breakfast, sitting across the table from Sota, who was dressed for a baseball game. He had joined a little league team since entering sixth grade. “When’s your game?” she asked.

“Eleven,” he replied. “You coming?”

Instantly, she felt bad. “I can’t… actually… I’m going out with someone this afternoon.”

Her mother muted Oprah and turned to her. Sota’s eyes widened a bit, and Kagome was honestly surprised that her grandfather didn’t come running into the room. Ah, no, there he was. Everything was still normal.

“Who?” her mother asked.

With her entire family staring at her, Kagome felt a bit awkward. “Well… You remember Inuyasha, right?” she asked. Collectively, they nodded. It was a strange moment, as if they were in some bizarre anime and the animators wanted to make a little joke. “Ah, well… I’m going to meet his brother.”

“You mean the crazy one who tried to kill you?” Sota demanded.

“He’s alive?” That from her mother, who looked only mildly surprised.

Her grandfather wasn’t perturbed in the least. Somehow, though, Kagome wasn’t surprised by that. Her family had always been supportive of her when she was in the Sengoku Jidai, so the fact that they weren’t too blown away by this announcement didn’t seem odd to her.

“Yes, he’s… alive. And yes, that’s the one who tried to kill us. Only a few times. And he did save me when I was poisoned on the way to Mount Hakurei. He also helped in the last battle.” She paused, shrugging. “I don’t know how he’s still alive. I ran into him at McDonald’s, of all places, yesterday. He… wants to take me out to dinner.”

“That’s why you look so nice!” her mother exclaimed, smiling.

Kagome flushed. “Actually, we’re going shopping first… for a cocktail dress…”

Her mother simply smiled, as if this was nothing strange. Her brother made a funny face. He was still too young to be too concerned with girls. Speaking of which… Kagome grinned at Sota. “Hey, Sota, how’s Hitomi doing? Are you still ‘dating’ each other?” she asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

Sota glared at her, finished eating quickly, and stalked off.

Smiling to herself, Kagome went back to eating. Her mom returned to Oprah, but her grandfather laid his hand on her shoulder. “I want to talk to you when you’re done,” he said, and he left the kitchen through the outside door. Kagome watched him making his way toward the Goshinboku.

A strange feeling came over her, so she finished eating as quickly as possible, put her dishes in the dishwasher, and hurried outside. It was late spring, and the Goshinboku was blooming. Ever since the well had closed, the tree had bloomed. Kagome’s grandfather stood beneath the branches, looking up at them. She approached him, a curious look on her face.

“Grandpa?”

“Ah, Kagome.” He smiled at her, indicating she come closer. She did so, standing beside him, looking up just like he did. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

She started, but then smiled. “Yeah. There’s a lot I could talk to Sesshoumaru about that I can’t talk to anyone else about. I told you and Mama everything that happened to me in the Sengoku Jidai, but Sesshoumaru was there. We fought Naraku together.”

“Is he the same?”

Kagome chewed her lip. “Probably not entirely. But demons are immortal.”

Her grandfather nodded. “No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it. But it can still be whittled away over many years.”

“And he’s called Mahito Shuusaishi, now,” Kagome added.

Solemnly, her grandfather turned to her and took her hands. “My dear, you have my blessings,” he intoned seriously.

Kagome stared at him, confused. “What… Grandpa! I’m not marrying Sesshoumaru! We’re having dinner!”

“But he’s rich,” he grandfather pointed out, arching his brows suggestively.

“You’ll never change, you old crock!” Kagome exclaimed, jerking her hands away and storming back into the house.

She passed the next few hours reading a bit about the University of Tokyo online. She had surprised her entire family by getting into the university despite all her hard work throughout high school. After the debacle of middle school, no one had really expected her to succeed. She was still miserable at math, but her English was excellent, and her passion for history was unmatched. Todai had actually contacted her with an inquiry. They wanted to know why she hadn’t applied to their school. Since they also threw a substantial scholarship in her direction, she filled out the application immediately. A month later, she had an acceptance letter. It was pinned on her bulletin board, reminding her of what she had done and what she was going to do.

The ringing of her cell phone startled her from her reading. She flipped it open, lifting it to her ear. “Kagome,” she said, since no one but her friends had her cell number.

“Will you be ready to leave in approximately ten minutes?” Sesshoumaru inquired.

Kagome started, knocking her mouse off the desk. Cursing, she lunged after it, only succeeding in knocking her head on a corner of the desk. She didn’t want to know what Sesshoumaru thought was going on in her room.

“Did I startle you?”

“I wasn’t paying attention,” she replied. “I didn’t look at the caller ID. But, yes, I can be ready. Do you need directions?” It didn’t even cross her mind that he was only ten minutes away and, thus, already had directions.

“Along with your name, Kagome, I found your address, your medical and dental history, and your rather outstanding application to the University of Tokyo. So, no. I have no need for directions,” Sesshoumaru said, and she noted a tone of smugness in his voice that made her want to brain him with a skillet. Male pride, sometimes, was almost insufferable.

“You’re really scary, you know that?” she asked.

“Then not much has changed, Kagome. But those are merely perks to being one of the most powerful and influential men in Japan. You now have seven minutes.”

“I’ll be ready! Goodbye!” She hung up on him, which was probably going to earn her a dirty look from him in the near future, if she judged his slightly more open personality rightly. As Kagome quickly retouched her makeup and hair, she realized she ought not to judge his personality at all. Deciding she looked fine, she grabbed a purse, stuffing her wallet and her cell phone inside.

As she hurried down the stairs, her mother called out, “When will you be back?”

“I don’t know—maybe ten tonight?” she guessed. “How about I call you?”

“Make sure you do,” her mother said, catching her hand.

Kagome looked up at her mother as her mother looked back down at her. She smoothed a lock of Kagome’s hair out of her face. Kagome felt her throat tighten. She didn’t know why, but this moment, for some reason, seemed very, very important.

“Why did it never bother you?” Kagome asked quietly.

Her mother smiled softly. “Ask Sesshoumaru,” she replied.

There came a knock at the door. Kagome tore herself away from her mother, freezing as her grandfather opened the door. He looked up at Sesshoumaru, who towered over him by at least a foot and a half. “You here for Kagome?” her grandfather demanded.

“Yes,” Sesshoumaru replied dryly, his gaze settling on her grandfather for only a second. Kagome watched him rake his eyes over her, wondering if he really was undressing her with his eyes. It felt like he was.

When she realized he was waiting for her, Kagome gave her mother a quick hug. She gave another to her grandfather. Sota was already gone for his game. Turning to Sesshoumaru, she smiled. “Let’s go, shall we?” she inquired.

He nodded, escorting her out the door to his car. He had a driver, which didn’t surprise Kagome in the least when she noted it. Once she was settled, he went around the other side of the car and slid in after her.

Before he could say anything, she asked, “How long do you think we’ll be out?”

Sesshoumaru arched a brow. “It depends on how much you wish to talk. Tomorrow is Monday, however. You have school. I will make sure you’re home by midnight,” he replied.

Kagome flashed him a smile, and quickly dialed home, telling her mother to expect her no later than midnight. Her mother didn’t mind, and she hung up, turning off her phone and tucking it into her purse.

“Have you eaten lunch?” Sesshoumaru inquired.

Kagome nodded. “Just before you called, yes. I was looking up some information on Todai and munching on a sandwich when you called.”

Sesshoumaru nodded. He leaned forward. “Shinjuku,” he said to the driver, giving him the name of a store Kagome had heard of but never actually set foot in—people like Hamasaki Ayumi shopped there!

“Sesshoumaru, I can’t afford to get a dress at—”

“I will purchase it,” Sesshoumaru replied as if Kagome was an idiot.

She stared at him. “That’s… you really don’t have to… I mean…”

The look he gave her shut her up in a heartbeat. The stoic, cold-hearted taiyoukai was in that glare, and she really didn’t want to tangle with Sesshoumaru in a snit. She fell silent.

When Sesshoumaru had proposed purchasing a dress, Kagome had figured they’d be going into a store, finding the first suitable thing, and then leaving. She was horribly, horribly mistaken. Sesshoumaru took her to at least ten stores, purchasing at least two dresses from each store. Each dress easily cost more than a mortgage on a house. He didn’t seem to care. The dresses they took with them to each store so that he could compare each dress to the new ones. When they finished, he said they’d take most of them back. That still meant Kagome was going to end up with two or three dresses that cost as much as a Porsche.

She also hadn’t expected a youkai male to have such an interest in female clothing. Kagome had figured dress shopping would be just as painful for him as it usually was for her. Instead, he seemed to enjoy having her dress up at each store they went to. When Sesshoumaru finally decided on his favorites—of which there were six—he then insisted she get matching shoes.

Once they returned the dresses of which Sesshoumaru didn’t approve, he took her to a shoe store that might as well have been a warehouse. As with the dress shops, attendants were on them in a second, and Kagome was more than happy to let Sesshoumaru do all the talking. He showed them the dresses as she sat down on a bench and the attendants fetched them shoes that would match. If Sesshoumaru was particular about dresses, he was anal retentive about shoes. Some were hideously uncomfortable, and Sesshoumaru noticed Kagome’s discomfort every time. Those were taken away. When they had the shoes sorted based on comfort, Kagome had to try them all on again, strutting up and down the aisle for Sesshoumaru and the attendants’ perusal. If he didn’t like how one pair made her walk, they were taken away. If he didn’t like how the shoes made her foot look, those were taken as well.

Kagome, far too practical to ever want shoes with three inch heals and glitter, was still quite happy to let him orchestrate the entire thing. She ended up with six pairs of shoes, one for each dress. She deliberately distanced herself from the register when he paid, unwilling to hear what the abhorrently high total would surely be.

Following shoe shopping, Sesshoumaru decided they would go jewelry shopping. Kagome had a small heart attack. As they walked through the crowded Shinjuku streets, which were far less crowded for them—people got out of Mahito Shuusaishi’s way without question—they had a brief battle of wills about the jewelry. Kagome insisted on the bare minimum, since he had already spent so much. Sesshoumaru returned that he wanted her properly outfitted. Kagome argued that she could be properly outfitted with a single diamond around her throat. Sometimes, she reminded him, less was more. Mollified, Sesshoumaru led her to the jewelry store at which he preferred to shop.

This time, only one person approached them, and only after Sesshoumaru indicated her presence would be needed. She obviously knew Sesshoumaru well, since she used his first name and he returned the familiarity. For a brief second, Kagome was jealous. Ioroi Kazuko seemed to notice her discomfort and conversationally mentioned that she was going out to dinner with her husband that night as well, and she was pleased to see Shuusaishi finally take an interest in the opposite sex.

Kazuko picked out a pair of diamond earrings for Kagome to wear with a diamond necklace. The necklace, a strand of silver that wrapped low around her neck, would drop the diamond between her breasts. Sesshoumaru expressed immediate approval and Kagome, who wasn’t so sure about drawing attention to the plunging necklines on most of the dresses, had to admit the earrings coupled with the necklace were simple enough. Kazuko picked out a pair of dangling earrings, ruby set in diamonds, to match the red dress Sesshoumaru had picked out, and then a necklace of sapphire for the sparkling blue one. Since the diamonds would match the other four dresses, Sesshoumaru decided they were done with jewelry. Kagome sagged with relief.

“There remains one thing,” Sesshoumaru said as they exited the shop. His driver, walking behind them, held Kagome’s dresses. They had stored the shoes in the car already.

She cringed. “What could we possibly have to do?”

Sesshoumaru smiled—actually smiled—and Kagome whimpered. That smile spelled trouble in so many different ways. “Your hair.”

“Is there something wrong with it?” she demanded.

Sesshoumaru took her hand, tugging her close to him. Thankfully, Kagome thought, paparazzi didn’t follow businessmen like Mahito Shuusaishi. His free hand settled on the small of her back, and he leaned down to murmur in her ear, “I want you to look like a goddess tonight, Kagome.”

She frowned. “You’ve changed,” she said.

“Not as much as you would think.” Sesshoumaru released her. There was a strange look in his eyes. “I owe you much.” Then the look was gone, replaced with placidity. “So you’ll get your hair done, and you can dress at the salon,” he decided, leading her toward the car again.

The salon, like every other place Sesshoumaru frequented, was expensive. Kagome didn’t even look at the prices when they entered. Instead, she hugged the dress she had picked to wear against her chest. The woman at the front desk found a stylist with enough free time to do Kagome’s hair, and she led Kagome into the back of the salon.

The stylist had Kagome dress in the bathroom before sitting her at her station. The stylist complimented Kagome on her hair and quickly began to work, curling it and piling it on her head. By the time she was done, Kagome felt rather like a princess. The stylist had insisted on inserting rhinestone bobby pins into her hair, so the pile of curls, which fell down her neck, sparkled and glowed every time Kagome moved.

“You look lovely,” the stylist said, smiling in the mirror as Kagome observed herself from all angles. “I can’t wait to see Mahito-san’s face.”

“It probably won’t look any different than usual,” Kagome replied, checking the clock on the wall behind her. It was almost six o’clock. She could hardly believe how much time she had spent shopping and primping. “Would you do me a favor?” She fished out her phone, turning it on. “Would you take a picture of me?” Kagome asked.

The stylist grinned, taking the phone and ushering Kagome to a decorative bench near a mirror and some flowers. She took the picture and handed Kagome her phone.

“Let’s go, then. I’m sure he’s waiting.” The stylist winked at her. “Mahito-san is ever punctual.”

Somehow, in Kagome’s mind, punctual turned into puncture, and she wondered how the stylists would react if they knew the suave businessman in their waiting room was actually a taiyoukai capable of killing them all without exerting himself. Somehow, this made her smile.

After he had left Kagome to the stylists at the salon, Sesshoumaru had made a quick stop at a nearby store, purchasing a new suit for himself. He had the money to spare, so it didn’t bother him that he had probably spent over five million yen on one girl in one day. In fact, he took a small pleasure from it. Sesshoumaru, having lived far longer than even most youkai, was well aware of the fact that one couldn’t buy affection, but he did enjoy buying little things for Kagome. Not that dresses that cost as much as a semester at the University of Tokyo were exactly little things.

Sesshoumaru handed his credit card to the cashier and, having decided to wear the suit from the store to spare himself the trouble of changing in his car, made his way to the salon. The stylist had said it would take about an hour to do Kagome’s hair, and he was running a bit behind. It had taken longer than necessary to get the proper suit.

When he entered the salon, he approached the counter. After paying, he leaned back, scanning the other people to see if Kagome was there. When he finally noticed her, standing with her head turned toward the window, something inside him lurched. The familiar feeling from the dreams, of heat boiling under his skin as something resonated in the distance, welled up inside his body.

She looked stunning. Her hair was piled in curls on her head, and rhinestones winked at him from the depths of the curls. Several tendrils fell along the back of her neck, making her hair look like a waterfall. She wore the ruby and diamond earrings, large things that fell almost to her shoulders. The red gown sparkled. Made from silk, it was spaghetti strapped with a cowl neckline. Because of the earrings and the sparkling rubies sewn into the dress, there was no need for any other jewelry. The bottom of the dress flared ever so slightly at the knees, and the train was attached to a delicate elastic band around Kagome’s wrist.

Sesshoumaru approached her slowly. “Kagome.”

Sapphire eyes lifted and met his own. “Sesshoumaru,” she said. She sounded breathless. An image of her beneath him filled his head. Her curls strewn across the pillow, her eyes were closed as she breathlessly cried out his name as he slid in and out of her.

Thrusting those thoughts to the back of his mind, he offered her his arm. “Come,” he commanded. She shivered, and he could smell her mounting arousal.

He led her to his car, which was waiting on the side of the road, and he helped her to climb inside, following after her.

Keenly aware of her presence beside him, Sesshoumaru inhaled. Her scent hadn’t changed much since she had left the Sengoku Jidai. Though he would never have admitted it, he had kept a small scrap of cloth that had torn off her uniform during the final battle. This he would inhale at night, memorizing her scent. He kept the scrap until her scent faded from it completely. Under the subtle floral scent from the shampoo, she still smelled fresh, like the air in morning after a cooling rain.

They traveled in silence for ten minutes. At that point, the car pulled to a stop in front of an elegant building in the traditional style. Sesshoumaru helped Kagome from the car, and she was surprised to see a crowd of reporters with cameras standing to the side of the walk to the front door.

“They’re not here for us,” Sesshoumaru promised her.

“Who’re they here for, then?” Kagome asked, not wanting to have her face plastered on some tabloid.

Sesshoumaru indicated another car pulling up as his own pulled away. When it stopped, Hamasaki Ayumi stepped from the car, followed by a posse of pretty girls and boys. Sesshoumaru lifted his hand to her and she smiled at him.

“Hamasaki frequents this restaurant.”

“You know Hamasaki Ayumi.” Kagome let out a heavy sigh. “Is there anyone you don’t know?”

“Doubtful,” Sesshoumaru replied with a quirk of his lips. With the media’s attention diverted to Ayumi, Sesshoumaru escorted Kagome into the restaurant. They were seated in a booth toward the far end of the restaurant, far away from Ayumi’s party, as per Sesshoumaru’s request.

As soon as they sat, a man offered them wine. Sesshoumaru ordered an old vintage that Kagome suspected was incredibly pricey.

“You do know I’m not twenty, right?” she inquired.

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “No one would wonder after your age,” he replied. “You look old enough. But you don’t have to drink if you’d rather not. I prefer a bit of wine with my meals.”



Kagome felt herself trapped between a rock and a hard place. Sure, he had said she didn’t have to drink, but she wondered how much of a difference it would make. She’d had alcohol a number of times with her friends at parties, but this was different. When the waiter returned, she asked for a glass of soda. He inclined his head, setting down a basket of bread and pouring wine for both her and Sesshoumaru. Then he departed.

“So,” Kagome said, suddenly feeling awkward.

Sesshoumaru lifted his eyes from the menu to her face. “Would you like an appetizer?”

“I wouldn’t have room for dinner, then,” she said, eyeing the bread with interest. She was hungry, but she knew after a piece of bread and an appetizer, there wouldn’t be space in her stomach for more.

“As you will.” Sesshoumaru folded the menu and set it down.

The waiter came back with Kagome’s soda, and Sesshoumaru asked for a modest appetizer for himself.

“This is one of those fancy restaurants with courses and everything, isn’t it?” Kagome inquired, glancing around at the other diners. Everyone was dressed in finery. She hadn’t seen as many people so dressed up since her last high school dance, but this was a more muted and upscale finery. People here wore reds and blacks and whites. Other than that, there were no colors, no huge skirts.

“To an extent,” Sesshoumaru agreed.

They were silent until the waiter delivered Sesshoumaru’s appetizer, a small salad, and again left them to themselves.

“Everything is so expensive,” Kagome muttered, staring at the menu.

“Do you trust my judgment?”

She jumped a little, looking up at him. “I suppose. Why?”

“To relieve you the problem of searching out the cheapest meal, and then simply resigning yourself to your water, I shall order for you,” Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome laughed a bit. “You’ve got a funny way of making a suggestion a command, you know that?” she inquired.

“Yes,” he agreed.

Shrugging, she smiled. “Go ahead, then. But, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you get to the point where you can just… throw money away like you do?”

Sesshoumaru’s eyes on her made her almost uncomfortable. He was intense and, as much as she enjoyed that intensity in her dreams, it was entirely different in real life. To be the singular focus of all his attention was unnerving at best and terrifying at worst.

“I have always had a great deal of wealth,” Sesshoumaru finally said. “As the son of the Inu no Taishou, I had access to his great wealth after his death. Youkai are just as vain as humans. He had a palace secreted away in the west where he kept his treasures. I still have most of those. Their equity is astounding. Other pieces, I sold to museums at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Most of my father’s trinkets meant nothing to me.”

“But you’re a businessman now,” Kagome prompted.

Sesshoumaru inclined his head. “Though my father’s treasures are enough to keep me quite content for years to come even now, I was not content to sit and do nothing with myself. It was easy to endear myself to military leaders before the industrial boom. At that point, I started a weapons company. I have always had a sense for the efficient, and there is nothing humanity learns that youkai do not grasp just as quickly. The art of manufacturing weapons is familiar to me, and you know well enough of Toutousai’s great skill.”

“Toutousai makes your weapons?” Kagome inquired, incredulous.

“He designs a number of them, yes,” Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome was silent for a moment. In that time, the waiter returned and Sesshoumaru ordered for them both. For Kagome, he ordered salmon. She quickly checked the menu and decided he was a good judge of what she might like. She ignored the price completely, not wanting to know how expensive the dish was, and handed the menu to the waiter. For himself, Sesshoumaru ordered a salad.

“Salad? You just had a salad.”

“It is necessary to adapt. I find I enjoy Caesar salads.”

Kagome grinned at him. “You’ve adapted a lot. You’re more expressive now. Of all youkai, I never imagined you would integrate easily with humanity.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Sesshoumaru admitted. “There are many things humans do that, even now, baffles youkai. For instance, your world wars. I lived through both of them, and was shocked equally by both. I have seen war and I am familiar with battles, but never had I imagined any creature capable of such cruelty and destruction as your race exhibited.”

Kagome pulled her lower lip into her mouth, chewing on it. She couldn’t think of a way to reply to that. He was right, of course. Over the years, human beings had come up with some spectacular ways of killing each other, each more vicious that the last.

“However, at the same time, I was surprised by those who rose against oppression and beat it back,” Sesshoumaru continued. “I met Winston Churchill. He was an inspired man.”

To say she was impressed was an understatement. Kagome took a minute to sip at her soda, thinking. “You said Toutousai is still alive, and that he’s working for you. What about… what about other youkai? Why can’t I sense their presence? I wasn’t ever particularly good at feeling youki, but I was never bereft of the ability either.”

Holding up his right hand, Sesshoumaru indicated the gold ring on his finger. “This was a gift from a miko at the turn of the century when it became too hard to hide. It dampens youki so it can only be felt in close proximity.” At Kagome’s perplexed expression, he continued. “As time went on, miko and youkai managed to develop a primitive understanding of each other. Youkai are spirits of the land, and, after a sense, the land’s own caretakers. Miko, on the other hand, are the caretakers of humanity. They began to realize, as the land died, part of that was to do with the death of many youkai. So they did what they could to keep the remaining youkai alive. Many wear a similar piece of jewelry on their person, though each piece is tailored specifically to the youkai wearing it. Those who do not wear such a thing have perished, considered rogues by the miko. It is an unspoken treaty.”

“What about my old companions, then?” Kagome asked, her hands wrapped tightly around her glass. “Shippou, the fox kit. Kouga.” She didn’t name Inuyasha. Not yet. She’d ask after him later.

“I know little of the kit,” Sesshoumaru replied. “Of Kouga, the wolf prince, I know much. Youkai, as you know, I’m sure, are immortal. Youkai are spirits, our lives tied to the land. Unless killed in battle, only the destruction of the land to which we are tied will kill us. Wolves are slightly different. Instead of being tied directly to the land, they are tied to vast expanses of land. Without great expanse, they wither. They need to roam.” Sesshoumaru paused here to sip his wine and accept his salad from the waiter.

Kagome took her salmon with a smile, picking up her fork and take a bite. It was delicious and later she would feel bad for taking only one more.

“When the land in Japan was lost to industrialization, it is my understanding that it hurt the wolf tribes severely. Many of them died. The wolf prince was always stronger than most, and he managed to live where others had not. But he did not thrive. It wasn’t until I went to Hong Kong in the early nineteen hundreds that I saw him. He was living in poverty there, a pitiful excuse for a youkai lord,” Sesshoumaru explained. “I found it reasonable to save him from destitution. He told me of his problem—how he didn’t have land to roam. I took him to the United States of America some ten years later and he works, to this day, as a park ranger. It still amuses me that no one realizes he’s still the same person.”

Relief swamped over Kagome to learn that at least one of her old companions was well. She wondered, though, how they managed to disguise themselves as short-lived humans when they could live for an eternity. “How do you do that?” Kagome asked. “Convince people you’re aging?”

Sesshoumaru sighed, and Kagome realized that was, perhaps, the hardest of all things he had to accomplish. The guise of human was easy to maintain, but living as a human was quite difficult.

“We pretend we are not ourselves,” Sesshoumaru finally replied. “It was easier, before the industrial revolution. Even then, it wasn’t so hard. But recently, with the internet, with the paparazzi, it has become far more difficult. Before, perhaps, the sixties, I would allow a select few to know who I was. Those few were carefully chosen, and they ran my businesses as my CEO, appearing when I could not because I was sick or dying. All of them were descended from old families, though they were not always intelligent. They were my figure heads, but I pulled all the strings.” There was a trace of amusement on his face, and Kagome could understand why. It probably thrilled him, the idea of controlling all those people, especially since he didn’t have the awesome power he once had.

“Granted, that has become far more difficult. People know Mahito Shuusaishi runs this company, and has a piece of that. They know what I look like, they think they know where I live. It becomes too tedious, then, to act as anything other than what I am. So I vanish from the limelight at the end of what would be a human lifespan. I wait until all mention of my previous identity has fallen away, usually fifty years, and then I take back what fools have lost me. It’s an amusing game,” Sesshoumaru concluded. “I don’t know how the wolf prince handles disguising himself from generation to generation. I imagine he uses contacts and dies his hair.”

“Does anyone ever figure it out?” Kagome inquired. “Does anyone ever get too close to the truth?”

Sesshoumaru inclined his head. “From time to time. But those people tend to be from an old family, one that has its roots in the Sengoku Jidai. They are also people who tend to have a small bit of power,” he explained. “They are accustomed to the idea of youkai. From the time they were little, their small amount of power would give them glimpses through the glamour we often wrap around ourselves. I had a secretary, an old woman who recently passed on, who told me that her dog was a base youkai. That, I find hard to believe. Most of the simpler creatures have been killed. However, the idea has merit, and it is possible, though highly improbable.”

“Your life must be complicated,” Kagome said softly. “About how many youkai do you think remain?”

“No more than five thousand.”

The reply was instantaneous, as if he had anticipated her asking it. He probably had, Kagome reasoned. It shocked her, though, to learn so few youkai survived. In the whole world, against six billion humans, there were so terribly few youkai. She imagined he was lonely.

“And you… don’t know anything about Shippou?”

“I said I knew little, not nothing,” Sesshoumaru replied, and he smirked at the annoyed look she gave him. She didn’t particularly like playing word games, nor did she like picking at the asinine differences between words.

“Well, what do you know then?” she asked, perhaps a bit more sharply than necessary.

“He is alive,” Sesshoumaru said. “I believe in the Americas, though I cannot be certain. At the advent of the Second World War, he became disillusioned with the Japanese government, and preferred the western Europeans and the Americans in the United States. I suspect he spent his time in Europe, and not in America, where he would have been made a prisoner of war.”

Kagome frowned. “Do you have a way to keep track of the other youkai, then?”

“There is a secure website, as a matter of fact. Every fifty years, we are required to enter our location. If one does not, a miko will be sent out to ascertain whether or not the youkai has gone rogue or is dead. His name is still in the register, as well as his location. Though we can include more, those are the only fields that are required. Some of us wish to preserve our privacy. Others, such as I, have little privacy at all.”

She picked at her fish, considering him. “Then… there are miko powerful enough to locate youkai?”

“Few and far between. Less each year. Many turn rogue. Youkai are sometimes asked for assistance in hunting their own,” Sesshoumaru said quietly.

From his tone, Kagome realized that he probably had been asked, and agreed, to hunt youkai a number of times. “Ah. That’s… terrible,” she murmured.

“It is life,” Sesshoumaru returned quickly.

Kagome picked at her food more. “Um… I do have one question more, really,” she said softly. “It’s about—”

“He died in 1803 on the night of the new moon when he contracted an illness while in human form. In the course of a night, that illness ravaged his system so badly that there was noting to be done.”

She bowed her head, closing her eyes. Her hands folded around her glass once more, tightening compulsively. “I see.” Neither had to ask of whom the other spoke. It was obvious enough.

“Are you going to eat?” Sesshoumaru inquired.

Looking up, Kagome wondered when he had finished his salad, when she had barely picked at her fish. She had talked far less than he. But he held her in thrall the entire time. “I suppose I should,” she replied. “How late is it?”

“Nearly nine.”

“We’ve been here for three hours? It hardly seems like it!” she exclaimed, incredulous.

Sesshoumaru offered a quirky smile. “Time flies.”

“Clearly,” Kagome muttered. “Can it be boxed?” She watched him as his brow arched. “I suppose restaurants of this caliber wouldn’t dream of boxing their food to be eaten as leftovers.”

“Rather,” he drawled. “It is no matter. If you would like to take it, I will make a special request.”

Shaking her head. “No, don’t worry about it. I just… I’ll have to repay you.”

Sesshoumaru’s brow arched ever so slightly. “You wish to repay me for a piece of fish that cost nine thousand yen?” he asked.

Kagome’s eyes widened considerably. “Nine thousand?” she gasped. “That’s insane.”

“Perhaps to you. You look like your mind is on something else, Kagome.”

She jerked the smallest bit, looking at him, her eyes full of consideration. “Actually… Earlier, I asked my mother why my traveling didn’t bother her. Speaking of which, why aren’t you surprised?”

Sesshoumaru looked impassive. “After you vanished, and because of our dreams, I searched out the monk and the demon exterminator. They told me your story. Continue,” he commanded.

Nodding, Kagome huddled over her glass of soda, as if protecting it. She took a sip, thinking she ought to eat more of her now rather cool salmon. “I asked her why my traveling then and why my meeting you now didn’t strike her as strange. She told me to ask you.” Kagome’s eyes refused to leave his.

He watched her as she watched him. He had been moving to call the waiter over to ask for their bill, but he had frozen. Drawing back, Sesshoumaru settled into his seat like a statue carved of marble: cold, impassive and frozen.

“Because this Sesshoumaru watched over the Higurashi shrine,” Sesshoumaru finally said. His spoke softly, reverting to a dialect long defunct. “Once I heard your story, I decided to wait, regardless of your race, regardless of change, regardless of the time it takes.” He held up his hand to silence her. “Do not ask. I didn’t ask. I didn’t allow myself to ask. This Sesshoumaru simply acted and reacted, and the path has led me to dine here, with you, this night.”

“But—”

“I came to your shrine to see your mother years ago, when she lived there as a teenager with your grandfather. She has some powers, where he has none, and she recognized me for what I am,” Sesshoumaru continued. “I told her, one day, she would have a little girl, a pretty bird trapped in a cage, who would exist in two times, with a sacred duty. She didn’t believe me. I left her with my business card in case she ever changed her mind. Several years later, I received a call. She was pregnant with a baby girl. So I told her everything, told her to be supportive.”

“Why?” Kagome cut in sharply.

Sesshoumaru looked back at her, a curious and unreadable expression on his face. “I would think it obvious,” he intoned blandly.

She was silent, but so was he, and both were content to remain quiet.

“Your bill, sir,” the waiter said, placing the folder down.

Sesshoumaru hardly paid him any attention, giving him only enough of his time to say, “Put it on my tab.”

Bowing, the waiter moved away from the table.

Kagome didn’t really notice.

I would think it obvious.

There were too many ways to interpret that, and she was afraid of all of them.

“It’s only nine,” Sesshoumaru said.

Kagome’s mind threatened to shut down. She didn’t try to think of a reply; she just let one fall from her lips. “We have plenty of time,” she replied. “To catch up.”

A slow, strange smile spread across Sesshoumaru’s lips. “Then let’s catch up.” He offered her his hand across the dinner table, and Kagome saw the stripes on his wrist. She flushed, but took his hand. It was an odd gesture from him, almost too human. But, at the same time, it somehow fit him. He was a taiyoukai, a great lord. In Kagome’s mind, it made sense that he would be regal and courtly.

Sesshoumaru led her from the restaurant, to his car, and they slid inside together. Before Kagome had a chance to fasten her seatbelt, Sesshoumaru had pressed her against the side of the car, which would have been uncomfortable but for the fact that she was far too distracted by his warm, hard body over hers as he kissed her hard, fast, and passionately.


Freaking one shots that get away from you.

So, there you go, all you who wanted to read about their meeting. And oh: there will be another chapter. Probably pure smut. Edited for fanfiction.net, depending on how bad it gets. We shall see. But after the next part? Yeah, it’ll be done.