Falls On Me

A/N:

Huge love to my beta, lindajrjt. Love ya!

Anyway, thanks to all of those who reviewed. It really means a lot! I didn't expect to have many to be honest ^_^

MD

-----


Kagome was really beginning to like waking up in the arms of the man that presently held her. It was a completely new experience for her. Never had she been this close with Inuyasha. Sure, they had kissed a few times, and he did save her a lot (even though she was content believing that she could take care of herself), but rarely did he sleep by her side. If he did it was exactly that; by her side. No contact, just the knowledge that he was a few inches away from her was satisfying enough then. After everything that had happened, it was a totally different story now. She wanted that contact, that reassurance that only came from the touch of another person, another human being, feeling their skin on your own. Go figure that the thing offering that comfort wasn't really a human at all.

There had been no attempts to kill her, no attempts to injure or hurt her intentionally, just a feeling of acceptance and something that could possibly be seen as caring. There was no telling how the death of his brother affected him; she had no clue if he was affected as she. Just the knowledge that he saw the aftermath and he knew what she was going through was enough for her at the moment.

"I see that you are finally awake."

"How can you see when my back is to you?" she wiggled a bit to demonstrate her point.

Sesshoumaru groaned. "Your breathing isn't as even." He released her from his embrace and sat up. "I am going to shower." Quickly he got off of the bed and headed toward the bathroom, leaving behind a confused miko who was wondering what she did.

In the bathroom Sesshoumaru leaned against the bathroom door. Did the woman have no knowledge of how the male mind and body worked? He lightly massaged the raging hard on that was straining at his sleep pants, thanks in part to the miko and her wiggling hips. Their relationship was a relationship of dependency but that didn't change the fact that he was a male and he did have needs. A cold shower was the first order of the day.

Out in the kitchen Kagome was shuffling through the fridge to find something to make for breakfast. She should have known that the future would be different. The eggs that he had made for her sadly weren't real eggs. She examined the little carton the 'eggs' came in, immediately coming to the conclusion that it looked like a milk carton, and put it back. The bacon? Flavored soy strips. Most of the foods in there were meat free. That brought her to two conclusions; either Sesshoumaru was totally going against what she had learned of inuyoukai and their love of meat by going vegan or there was some sort of meat crisis much like the energy crisis that she had just learned of the day before.

Giving up on food she went into the living room and turned on the TV. She was completely engrossed in a drama called "My Brother The Queen" when Sesshoumaru came back into the room fully dressed for the day in slacks and a dress shirt.

"Shower. Today we go out."

Even though she wasn't sure that she wanted to venture out quite yet, wearing his clothes was getting a bit old. They were of excellent make, she couldn't deny that. Never in her life had she worn so much silk and it seemed that every piece of sleep wear that he had offered her had been made of the finest silk that she had ever touched. Maybe he would take her to the market too. She wanted some real meat if it was available.

Thirty minutes later they were walking through the busy streets of Tokyo. A bit uncomfortable in her old school uniform that he had found her in she clung to his side. Things had changed now that there were people everywhere. It was much busier than she had ever seen in her time. "Not soon after your time passed there was a large population increase. As you can see from many of the larger buildings, we had to build up since we couldn't exactly build out. Much of Japan is now one large city." He wanted to smile at her open awe at the much higher sky scrapers and the shy hint of relief at the familiar sight of smaller buildings like the ones built in her time.

Sesshoumaru tugged her hand and led her toward the train station. "Today you will be learning how to get around on your own if you feel the need to explore while I am at work." Once they reached the station she watched him as he spoke to a little man at the counter and bought her a card that he informed her was a pass that would allow her to ride the train as much as she needed to for the next year. He showed her where to swipe the card and she imitated his actions; then they were off.

The styles hadn't changed much. To be honest, she thought that they were yet again recycling styles from the past so her old clothes would fit right in, though now instead of being stylish she would be retro. She looked down at her old and worn uniform and then to a group of high school girls not too far ahead of her and Sesshoumaru, their uniforms crisp and clean, giggling and talking on cell phones. Then she looked at the super stylish clique girls wearing the latest fashions, which at the moment appeared to be super skinny jeans and heels that looked impossibly uncomfortable to wear no less walk in.

She couldn't wait to get some new clothes.

First he took her to a clothing store that would have been way out of her price range when she was in school. Why he was spending so much money on her she wasn't sure, and at this point she didn't care. Wearing the new black skirt, blue cashmere sweater, and loafers she felt great for the first time in a long time. A quick stop at the makeup counter, a bath and body shop, and then a shoe store and she was stocked up with the necessities of the modern woman. Like the perfect gentleman that she had grown used to over the past two days he carried all of her purchases for her. Unfortunately they never stopped by the supermarket, and she didn't want to ask him. She already felt like she was one big inconvenience for him, invading his home because she no longer had one, accepting all of the things he had bought for her (totaling out to about 300,000 yen), and taking his bed hostage in the invasion. To top it all off she had done nothing more than cry for more than half of the time she had been there. Never in her life had she cried this much.

Right now she was just happy to see his apartment complex come into view. Once comfortably inside he cleared out a drawer of his dresser and half of his closet for her new things, even cleared parts of the vanity and medicine cabinet in the bathroom. It was actually starting to look like a normal home for her. The only thing missing was a touch of pink, and she highly doubted that he would give in to her desire for those garish pink doorknob cozies that she used to have on her bedroom door back when she lived with her mother.

While she had been putting away her new things the sounds and smells of lunch snaked through the apartment to the bedroom, tantalizing her senses. They had skipped breakfast so a nice lunch was something that she would welcome with open arms.

She had just finished putting everything in its place when the horrible buzzing from the doorbell invaded the peaceful atmosphere of the apartment. She groaned when she heard his voice from the kitchen, "Miko, please answer the door."

Not wanting to anger him she went to the door and opened it. Fully expecting it to be the girl from yesterday she was shocked to see a woman who looked to be in her thirties standing there; she looked almost like an older version of the little girl who came by yesterday but had a sort of gleam in her eye that reminded Kagome of Shippou right before he was about to go do something mischievous.

"So you are the girl that Sumire told me about! Granpa Sess has great taste!" The woman nudged Kagome out of the way and walked into the apartment, wrestling with an enormous shopping bag. "Granpa Sess!" she yelled, her shrill voice making Kagome wince.

Quietly she shut the door and followed the woman inside to the kitchen, where she was currently throwing herself at Sesshoumaru. He happily returned her hug, turning back to whatever was in the frying pan as the woman turned to Kagome.

"I know how Granpa Sess doesn't have many female guests, so I brought you some things to make you feel at home! Sumire told me that you looked like you had made yourself at home." The woman went over to her bag that now sat in one of the dining chairs and yanked it open. "I know it isn't much, but I thought you might want to have your own bathrobe and night gown here. You are such a tiny thing! I hope I didn't get the wrong size!"

Kagome stood there in shock and let the bubbly woman continue. She would have been thankful if Sesshoumaru would have stepped in but it seemed he was having more fun watching the woman torture her. To be frank, this woman reminded her a lot of her three friends from high school all smashed into one being. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly, after the bag was emptied. She now had another night gown (though secretly she would have been happy sleeping in Sesshoumaru's clothes), matching bath robe, slippers, a girlie coffee mug (that informed anyone who could read that 'diamonds are a girls best friend'), a hair brush, a mini at home spa kit (so she could pamper herself, the woman informed her), and last but not least a nice pink throw blanket.

Whoever this woman was she unknowingly satisfied Kagome's craving for something pink.

"Oh, how rude of me!" the woman suddenly blurted. "I'm Mokuren!" She bowed slightly at Kagome. "So! How did you come to meet Granpa Sess? You must be a pretty special girl. He doesn't fall for just anyone, you know! As long as I've known him he's never brought a woman home!" The woman didn't seem to know the value of silence as she kept jabbering.

Sesshoumaru turned to glance at Kagome, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights, ready to turn and run away from the boisterous Mokuren. "Mokuren, that is enough."

She looked down in shame. "I apologize, granpa. I didn't mean to go overboard."

"You will learn what you want to know in time. For now, would you like to join us for lunch? I have prepared tempura." When she nodded he took an extra plate out of the cabinet and placed the fried food on the plates. Kagome took that time to clear an extra place at the table.

The three of them sat at the table and each mumbled a quiet 'itadakimasu' and began to eat. Immediately Mokuren was ready to break the silence. "So, Kagome! Are you from Tokyo originally?"

Before Kagome could answer Sesshoumaru jumped up to the plate. "No, she is originally from Kyoto."

Mokuren nodded. "I thought you had a bit of an accent!"

Even though she was ready to choke the older woman with her bare hands Kagome smiled and nodded politely. "I was raised on a shrine."

"Were you raised as a shrine maiden?"

Sesshoumaru snorted and Kagome added him to the list of people to throttle.

"You could say that," she replied, honestly hoping that it would be left at that.

"I met Kagome while I was at the shrine on a dig," Sesshoumaru informed her. Not quite a lie, enough to satisfy.

"I bet your parents just loved that one. Shrine maiden running off with a demon." Mokuren shoved another piece of the fried food into her mouth. "They tried to purify him, didn't they?"

Kagome shook her head. "My mother was fine with his demon heritage." She knew her mother would have been; she had after all accepted Inuyasha into the family and he was half demon, though she seriously suspected that it had something to do with his fuzzy little ears. "My grandfather on the other hand wasn't so kind, but I have more spiritual power in my pinkie nail than he did in his entire body."

Mokuren laughed loudly, and Sesshoumaru snorted in a way that Kagome assumed was a laugh.

"If it makes you feel any better my father would have loved you and my mother would have possibly killed you on sight." He didn't look up at her, but he felt the glare that she sent him. He moved his sights to Mokuren. "Has Sumire been completing her homework?"

Mokuren shoved the last piece of her lunch into her mouth. "Surprisingly," she snorted. "We have had to bribe her. You are the only one that can get her to do it and do it right the first time."

Kagome looked between Mokuren and Sesshoumaru. "Is Sumire your daughter?" she asked curiously. They did bear a striking resemblance.

The other woman nodded. "She is my youngest, though you would think that she is Granpa Sess's girl the way she acts towards us sometimes."

Kagome nodded. "Hero worship?"

"In its worst form!"

Both women laughed while Sesshoumaru looked confused. Kagome made it a note to tell him about her brother and how he idolized Inuyasha from the moment he met the hanyou. For now she would bend the truth. "My brother was like that with a friend of mine from school. If he did it, Souta did it."

"What was your friend's name?" Sesshoumaru asked curiously.

Kagome thought for a moment. Right now wouldn't be the time to bring Inuyasha up, for her or Sesshoumaru. "Hojo."

Sesshoumaru snorted. "I recall you talking about him. Your little brother wished to be just like Captain Whitebread?"

"Captain Whitebread?" Kagome's eyebrows shot to her hairline.

Mokuren just laughed. "Granpa Sess has a thing for the dramedy 'I'm A Vampire Killer' so lately he's been using some of the lingo," she looked over at him, "don't tell me you haven't!"

They watched Sesshoumaru turn a pleasant shade of pink and continued their light conversation.

-----

After Mokuren left, Sesshoumaru and Kagome cleaned up their lunch plates in moderate silence. He taught her how to use the dish washer ("This thing has more buttons on it than the television remote!") and saw him to the door as he left to go do some follow-up at the shrine. She felt almost like a wife seeing off her husband for work, the only things missing were the kiss goodbye and 'have a good day, sweetie'. For the first time she was alone in the apartment and, to be honest, it felt damn good.

For about an hour she channel surfed ("Nearly a thousand channels and there is NOTHING on! You've gotta be kidding me!"), then dusted his bookshelves with an old sock ("He will never know the difference."), and finally straightened up all of the papers on the table into folders by subject. She considered doing laundry but quickly changed her mind after seeing that the washing machine seemed to have more buttons on it than the dish washer and the television remote combined.

With the apartment now clean she was bored. She didn't see a computer around so she couldn't go online (though she highly doubted any of her favorite sites would still be accessible) or play games.

Another hour had passed quickly and she eventually decided on exploring. Yes, some may call it snooping, but she was learning about her new environment. So far she had already gotten around the apartment well, knew where to find most anything, even found the most comfortable spot on the bed. The only territory that was yet to be further examined was the linen closet across from Sesshoumaru's bedroom door and another door at the end of the hallway. She had never thought to ask him what was in there considering she was under a little more emotional stress than normal. 'Having your friends killed in front of your eyes will do that to you, Kags,' that ever present annoying inner voice told her.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied to the voice and walked down the hall. Never being one to back down, no matter what the voices in her head told her to do, she followed her gut instincts and went to the door. There was something in there that was calling to her, something that she needed to see. Her hand was on the doorknob when she heard the faint creaking of the front door. She yanked it away like a jolt of electricity had shot through her.

"Miko?"

Kagome turned at his voice from the entry way. "Be right there!" she called back. She gave the mysterious door one last look and walked back down the hall into the living room. "Find anything interesting?"

Sesshoumaru stood there and gestured to the large box in his hand. "There are some things I want you to see."

They both moved to the couch and he lay the box on top of the coffee table. "You cleaned today."

She nodded. "Yeah; the place was getting a little messy."

The box was huge and instantly Kagome was curious. There was a strange power coming from the box, a familiar energy. When she hesitated when she reached for the lid he nodded in affirmation, letting her know it was ok. She had to stand to actually look in the box once she had it pried open. With a shaking hand she touched one of the first items that caught her eye. "Is...is that..." her voice quivered and tears began to pool in her eyes, blurring her vision. Quickly she tried to blink them away to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.

He moved next to her and ran his hands down her arms and onto her quivering hands. Together they lifted the piece out of the box.

"It's tessaiga."