Among the Clouds

Miroku looked out the door of his hut as Sango was settling her twins in to sleep. InuYasha had just gone home, and the monk and his deadly wife were afforded a sweet moment alone. Sango came up behind him and turned him to her, then tipped her head back and grinned as her husband claimed her lips.

"Mmm, that's nice," Miroku said as his wife broke their deep kiss. He patted her pregnant belly and hugged her tight. "You think we got time for something a little more heated?"

She giggled against his chest. "Kohaku could come in at any time, I'd hate for him to walk in on something he shouldn't see."

Miroku chuckled as he nibbled on her ear. "If he's with the Lady of the West, he might not come back til the morning." He smiled against the skin of her neck as she shivered with his touches.

Sango gave him a playful shove. "He's too young to be thinking about such things, unless you planted those filthy seeds in his head."

"I give you my word I had nothing to do with it," came his mumbled voice as he licked low on her throat. "I was a little surprised myself when he mentioned it." Their conversation was ended when Sango jerked him back to her lips and began tugging at his robes, and Miroku was too happy to oblige his wife. "Perhaps we should concern ourselves with our passions and not Kohaku's," he said as he ground against her lean body roughly through their clothes. Moments later, Kohaku was all but forgotten.

*********************

Masami wasn't nervous at all about what she would be… instructing Kohaku to do once they'd finished their meal. She was eager; eager to mold this boy into possibly her greatest lover ever, eager to finally be… in the embrace of any male… after such a very long time of… handling things on her own. Though she herself wasn't nervous or apprehensive in any way, Kohaku was nearly in convulsions.

The servants came and brought food for both of them, knowing full well from the mixture of scents in the room what was going to be happening, but knowing better than to mention it. While Masami sat down and began eating as if nothing was out of the ordinary, Kohaku sat and fidgeted with his chopsticks and mostly pushed his food around on his plate.

"You'll need to eat, Kohaku. You're going to need your energy." She said this calmly and seriously, with no hint of sarcasm. "We're not doing anything until you finish all that's there in front of you." Above all else, it appeared Masami was still a mother.

"Yes, my lady," said Kohaku as he took a bite of the sashimi that had been prepared especially for him.

"I told you, it's Masami when we are alone, Kohaku." She smiled at him as she let her tongue play around the end of her chopsticks. She could see the effect she was having on him, watched as his mouth went slack and his gaze zeroed in on her tongue. She dabbed at her mouth with her napkin, a simple thing that seemed to break the spell she had inadvertently put on him. "Now, the quicker you finish, the quicker we can begin your lessons."

Without a word, Kohaku looked down at his plate and began to gulp his dinner down. Masami smiled as she continued to eat at a normal pace, watched her young friend stuff his face as fast as humanly possible. She giggled and said, "I had no idea your kind was so motivated by sexual release!"

"Forgive me, Masami," Kohaku said as he burped, "I don't believe most of my kind are, but I know I am at an age when most human males are overcome by their urges."

Masami's eyes glittered. "Good."

Once he was finished, he anxiously waited for her to finish, but was not nearly as nervous as he once was. It seemed his full belly and her assurance that she was pleased by his eagerness settled him immensely.

When she laid her chopsticks down, he jumped up, expecting her to lunge at him and overtake his body. She laughed genuinely and said, "Calm yourself, we're going to go slowly!" She took him by the hand and led him to her bathing chamber, where a large tub of water stood warmed and ready for enjoyment. "You need to relax before we begin. A warm bath is just the thing for tense muscles."

She stood before a series of kimono stands and began to unwrap herself from her many layers. Kohaku was mesmerized by her slow and graceful movements, though he closed his eyes before she opened her innermost layer. "Kohaku," she called softly, "You will be joining me, perhaps you should undress yourself before the water cools." He turned his back to her, listening to the gentle splash of water as she entered the tub, then began to peel off the armor and leather that protected his body. He stood in only his fundoshi when he dared to turn back to her. He looked at the ground and said, "I'm embarrassed."

"Don't be," came the purred reply. "I have seen male parts before; I used to be married and I did diaper my son a few times." She scented his nervous state and said, "Unwind the garment and then come help me with my hair." He heard her turn her back to him, and he found the courage to look up at her. Her pale skin glimmered in the low light, and he could see down into the water to the line that divided her beautiful ass into two halves. His mouth went suddenly dry again, but his hands reached down and began to unwind the linen at his groin. When he was completely bare, he slid almost silently into the water behind Masami, just barely missing her back with his half-erection. She said nothing as his hand came up to the ornaments in her hair, enjoyed his gentle touch as he removed them, and then how he ran his fingers through her mane.

"Use that small bucket there to wet it," she said as she reached for lump of well worn soap. She coated her hands in a thick lather and then washed her hair, letting the soapy lather drip down her chest and back, and then asked Kohaku to help rinse her off. As soon as she felt his hands on her, she leaned back into his chest, and heard the moan that quietly passed his lips. His hands came to her shoulders as lifted handfuls of water there, but it wasn't enough for the Lady, who was beginning to feel impatient. She raised her arms up over her head, clasped each of her elbows and said wantonly, "Touch me, Kohaku…"

Kohaku's heart began to race, and his hands began to tremble, but he did as she asked, knowing full well what she meant. His palms landed gently on her trim stomach, and he glided slowly up her soap slicked body to fill his hands with the soft mounds of her full breasts. Masami gasped silently as her head fell back with the bliss of his shaking fingers bringing her nipples to life. In a matter of seconds, she could feel his virgin flesh poking her from behind, making itself known to her by trying to indent itself into her left cheek. She lowered her arms and laid her hands over his.

"The first lesson," she breathed, "is that you always please your partner before you allow yourself to feel pleasure." He nodded, then as Masami turned to face him over her shoulder, he captured her red lips in a searing kiss, leaving her breathless and wanting more from the boy. She guided one of his hands away from her breast and down to where shining white hair guarded her femininity. "Explore, Kohaku. Tell me what you feel here."

Kohaku, who was very much a virgin, still had the benefit of having a lecher as a brother in law. Miroku had imparted him with all kinds of useful knowledge about the female anatomy as he sat with the boy smoking his pipe at night. He knew from what Miroku had told him there would be a hard little nub near the top of the split to concentrate on, and there would be an opening further down where he would enter, but that he could use his fingers there as well, that inside there was a spot that could send a female straight over the edge. It was these things he kept in mind as his felt blindly around in the warm waters.

Finding the tight bud of her clitoris first, he pressed and began to circle there, kissing Masami's pointed ear as he whispered, "I feel this hard little pebble, and it looks like you're enjoying my touch there…" A canine sounding whine escaped her mouth as his fingers now twisted the little nub and then went back to flicking his fingertips over the top of it.

Masami's mind was blown. How did her young and inexperienced lover know that's where he needed to go? She couldn't concentrate for too long on that, because he'd shifted himself so that he was almost sitting beside her, allowing his short arm better access to her the more private parts of her body.

Kohaku's tremors were fading as his confidence grew. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as he imagined it to be. Maybe Miroku's prep-talks had given him enough knowledge to wing it with his lady. He didn't know if maybe she had gone without any kind of physical attention from another that maybe his untrained touch was more than enough to set her off. Whatever the case, he was doing pretty well considering the sweet noises Masami was making in his arms. He slid his hand down further along her seam and felt her folds for the opening Miroku had told him of. He felt a slickness that wasn't water, and followed it to its source, finding the entrance he'd been seeking all along.

Masami's elegant hips bucked under the water as he slid a finger inside her. "Yessssss," she breathed. The boy didn't know what to do once he'd burrowed his longest finger in her channel, so she reached down and moved his hand below her, showing him to move in and out. "Curl your… fingertip… up," she panted.

Kohaku was forced to move himself in front of her so he could have better leverage with the pumping motion she wanted from him, and his breath hitched as he saw her fully nude before him. She spread her knees wider once he came around to face her, and she twisted and pulled at her nipples as she regarded him with lidded eyes. She licked her lips and bit her bottom lip, her fangs lying on the pale skin around her mouth, and Kohaku was suddenly at his end. He spasmed and shook as his orgasm overtook him without warning, and the trajectory of his cum missed Masami's face by mere inches.

Suddenly afraid that he'd displeased her, he stammered, "M-my lady! Forgive me, p-p-please!"

Without batting an eyelash, she grabbed his head and sat up, claimed his mouth as her own as she kissed him so deeply Kohaku believed he would choke on her long tongue. When she pulled back, she whispered, "Don't stop… Your iron will be back in a moment, it's to be expected. This is your first time after all."

She guided his hand back to her folds, instructed him to add another finger as he resumed his pumping at her entrance. She wiped his seed from her throat and breasts, brought it to her face sniffed of it like the dog she was. "It smells strong, you could sire strong pups should you ever choose to." She licked the essence from her fingers and then added, "It's a most delectable taste."

Kohaku worked his fingers diligently inside of Masami, trying like hell to make her find her release before he found another one. He concentrated on trying to force his hand as deeply as he could, and just as he thought his fingers weren't long enough to reach that rough spot deep inside her, he found it, and she gasped loudly in the small bathing room when he brushed his fingers on it. "Oh yes, Kohaku, right there!" she cried as she pressed her hips upward into his palm. He came back to the rough patch and concentrated on pressing and rubbing her there, stroking and circling and putting as much pressure as he could on her flesh there.

Delighted that he'd finally found the right way to make her crazy with desire, shifted so that he was on his knees and his mouth was right over her breast. Quietly, he asked, "Can I taste you?" He felt her hand thread up through his now loose hair and push his head down to her, pushing her chest out so he could wrap his soft mouth around her taut nipple.

Masami wasn't even trying to hide the sounds she was now making, whining like a starving pup, moaning and gasping, occasionally growling in appreciation. She was so close now… "Faster, Kohaku! Press harder and move faster!" The boy did as he was told, and even bit lightly down on her super sensitive nipple. She could feel her long awaited orgasm coming barreling down on her and before she was really ready for it, she threw her head back and offered a howl to the heavens as she coated Kohaku's hand in her slick wetness.

The boy felt her walls bear down and ripple around his fingers, looked up at her face and noticed the markings on her cheeks had darkened and lengthened a bit, then thought briefly about how wonderful it was going to feel when she made the same face and rippled around his young cock, and then wondered what her essence smelled and tasted like, if he would find the same enjoyment of her excretion as she found in his. When she had stopped shuddering and laid easily back in the now dirty water, he brought his coated fingers to his nose and found it was not a disgusting odor as he had expected, and when he ran his tongue out to lightly taste it, he found her to be tangy and slightly salty, not gross at all. He slurped her leavings from his hand and stood, getting out and handing her a towel so that she could get out of the tub.

Masami took his hand as she stepped carefully from the bath and then kissed him deeply. "You've learned your first lesson well, Kohaku. You didn't stop after your unexpected end, and brought your partner to heartbreaking orgasm as well. I will teach you the second lesson in my bed." She playfully grabbed his butt and licked his throat from his collarbone to his chin, his first inu kiss.

Kohaku trailed behind her to the silk covered futon that stood on a platform in the room where they'd eaten their meal that seemed like eons ago. She knelt in the middle of the bed and beckoned him to her with a long clawed finger. He got in and came to her, his dark eyes trying to figure out what she had in store for him next. Masami brushed his bangs from his eyes, and cupped his face. "The second lesson," she said as she kissed his mouth tenderly, "is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you." She pushed him to lie on his back, and laid down beside him. He began to tremble again, and she ran her claws gently over his chest and murmured, "Relax, let me make you feel good, koibito."

Kohaku's breath hitched at her declaration that he was now her lover, and he closed his eyes as he felt her hands slowly trailing further down his body. Masami's breath ghosted to his chest as she licked lovingly at his nipple, then let her hand grasp his rock hard flesh at the root. She smiled against the skin of his chest when she heard him whimper with the first stroke she made. She looked up at him and asked, "Does this please you, Kohaku?"

"Yes," he groaned. "It feels so good Masami… I'm so glad it's you that's doing it." He opened his eyes and found tears in hers. She was smiling and his hand cupped her cheek. "I think I'm falling for you my lady." She nuzzled his hand, then laid her head on his chest, and Kohaku wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she continued to softly stroke his now fully awakened member. After a few moments of this quiet and love filled embrace, Masami decided it was time to step things up a notch.

She moved from her place near his chest and nestled herself between his legs, now laving at the hard flesh in her hand, listening to Kohaku curse and cry out to the Kami as she took him in her mouth. The boy's hands found their way to her shining silver locks and held her still while he pumped in and out of her mouth and throat. She groaned around him as she reached down to fondle his sack, not even properly covered in hair yet. Masami removed her mouth from him and licked and sucked at his quickly tightening balls while she continued to stroke him quickly.

"Ma-Masami!" Kohaku cried out in an almost feminine voice, "I'm… I'm gonna…"

"It's alright, cum for me. Cum in my mouth and fill me up." She moved back to his nearly purple mushroom tip and sucked lightly.

"Gods, yes! Gods, unnnnnnnggh!!!" he grunted, exploding within the soft pinkness of her mouth, listening and watching as she greedily swallowed it down in audible gulps. He felt limp and lazy when he finally stopped, and as his chest heaved with exertion, Masami came up beside him and opened her arms to hold him. He snuggled up to her as she kissed the top of his head. Pulling a sheet over the two of them, she whispered, "Rest a little while. We're far from being finished, but I know you need to rest before we continue."

"I love you Masami."

She blinked, then said quietly, "We barely know each other Kohaku. You can't throw words like 'love' around so carelessly."

Kohaku's arm squeezed her tight to him, "I know you a lot better than you know me, and I know you are what I want in a mate."

Masami grinned. "Are you proposing to me boy?"

Kohaku chuckled. "I guess so… I never would have imagined it, but I guess I am."

She pulled him closer and sighed into his hair. "We will rest for now, and we'll think about such things later, okay?" He nodded and within minutes he was snoring softly as he began to drool on her breast. Masami stared into the dimness of her room for a long while before she found rest herself. This young taijiya, a natural enemy to most yokai, was head over heels for her… While she really liked Kohaku, and really wanted to explore such a possibility with him, she knew he was still young, and at this point in time, was likely attributing these new physical pleasures with love. As she knew from InuTaisho, sex and love were two totally different things entirely. She resolved to tell him that if they continued their relationship for a year, and that they couldn't have sex every time they saw each other, then she would accept his offer. Having decided that, she dropped off into sleep easily and quickly.

*****************************

Sango woke at the sound of one of her girls crying, and after she'd settled the toddle back to sleep, she wandered to the doorway and peeked out. It was well after midnight according to the stars. Miroku rose to go to behind the house and relieve his bladder, and chuckled quietly to himself.

"What was that about?" Sango asked in a whisper when he returned.

"I told you, if he's with the Lady of the West, he might not be back for a while." He chuckled again as his now ungloved hand came to her scowling face. "With any luck, they're rolling in her futon right now."

"Pervert," she said flatly as she turned and went back to bed.

"Have I ever claimed to be anything less?" he whispered as he snuggled in behind her.

****************************

Kohaku awoke and the memories of everything that had happened came flooding back in an instant, and as Masami stirred beside him, their naked flesh caressing underneath the thin silk sheet, he became instantly hard in anticipation of what else his lady had in store for him.

"Are you hungry?" she asked quietly, not really knowing how long humans went between meals.

"Only for you," Kohaku replied as he began to kiss her, licking lightly at those ruby red lips until she opened up for him. He wrapped his tongue around hers and sucked at her long, wet muscle. They broke for air, and he said, "I believe you said you had more things to teach me."

Masami ran her fingers though his unbound shoulder length hair. "So eager… I think you may be addicted. Maybe you've spent too much time around that monk," she grinned.

Kohaku feigned a hurt look. "I thought you liked doing these things with me. I could go home if you'd rather."

Masami pinned his shoulders to the bed and growled as he eyes faded to red, "Don't you dare…" She then licked the column of his throat slowly to the tip of his chin, then delved deep into his mouth. His weapon calloused hands came up and gripped her breasts as she devoured his lips, gently teasing her nipples into standing up in tight little knots. She gasped and spoke evenly but in a low and lusty tone, "Lesson three: you can have sex without penetration, and it is just as good as real thing, but without fear of procreation."

She positioned herself so that she was facing his feet and then straddled his body, her mouth hovering over his upright member, and her moist pink hollow over Kohaku's face. The boy groaned at seeing her sex so close up, and the scent of it stirring memories of the bath they took together. "Use your tongue on me; taste me as I taste you, koi."

Slowly, she lowered herself a little so he could slurp at her comfortably. She was now inches from his lips, could feel his quickened breath puffing gently against her wet interior. He wrapped his arms around her back and started softly licking at her folds, closing his eyes at her not unpleasant flavor, and grinning when he heard her sharp intake of air when he wrapped his lips around that pleasure bud and sucked hard.

Satisfied that he'd figured out what to do without any further instruction, she turned her own lips down to take his flesh deep in her throat. As they drove each other to completion, she would sometimes stop and beg for him to run his tongue inside her entrance, eventually begged him to use both his fingers and his mouth, and when she sent him over the edge, pouring his essence down into her stomach, he buried his face into her and ate like a man starved, triggering her grateful release shortly afterward.

Masami flopped to her back and Kohaku planted his face back at her still oozing pinkness, not having had enough of her scent and her taste. Her claws scratched gently at his scalp as he drove her to a second orgasm, one that she was sure she would stop her heart and render her completely lifeless.

"Fourth lesson," Kohaku spat as he grabbed her knees and pushed them back and open, "you can only tease a tiger for so long." Masami nodded, and with her eyes closed, she reached down and gripped his length, guiding him to the sheath he so desperately sought. She moaned his name as he threw his head back and slowly sank himself into her damp heat.

Suddenly his eyes flew open. "I don't want any kids yet, Masami…"

Her hips bucked up when he stopped his advance on her sensitive flesh, and panted, "I can only give you a pup when it's mating season. That's not for another four moons. Please don't stop…"

That was all Kohaku needed to hear, and with that he began thrusting inside her with reckless abandon. She shrieked as the swollen head of his cock brushed non-stop against that internal place that drove her crazy, and before long he had laid himself on top of her, mouth latched securely to one of her perky tits and simply driving into her with such force that she covered him twice in her tangy juices. Finally, he reared back and impossibly pistoned faster, all while pinching her engorged bud as he finally filled her warm womb with his sticky seed. Shortly thereafter, Masami had her strongest orgasm yet, and they fell together into a pile in the middle of her futon, spent, sated, and covered in their shared fluids.

After a long while, Masami stroked his back and whispered, "You were wonderful, Kohaku."

"I had a great sensei," he replied quietly. He raised his head and licked her throat to her chin, then settled himself again. "Will you be my mate, Masami?"

Masami stared at the ceiling. "Kohaku, I think it's too soon to decide something like that. I was thinking we should wait a year and see where this relationship goes."

Kohaku grumbled. Then he said, "Just say yes, and then we'll wait a year to go through with it." He looked into her golden eyes, touched her face and kissed her sweetly on the lips. "Say yes… Be my intended. We will wait, but say you want this as much as I do."

She fought against the sobs that wanted to come out at his declarations; it had been so long since someone wanted her this badly that it was hard not to be impetuous and let herself mark this boy as hers. "Yes, Kohaku. But we have to wait for at least a year. I won't let us rush into this just because how perfect we are for each other physically." Kohaku crushed his face into the valley between her breasts and cried. Masami continued, "We must find out if there is friendship and love between us in addition to the lust that we already have recognized. Do you understand that there is a difference, Kohaku-kun?" The boy nodded. "And you understand that when I mark you as mine, that even though I can extend your life somewhat, you still won't live as long as I will?" The boy she cradled in her arms nodded again, still sobbing in happiness. "Then it's settled. I am your intended, and if after a year what we feel now has deepened, we will have a yokai mating ceremony and I will leave my mark in your flesh and we will be one until death."

They laid in each other's arms until well after sunrise. Masami had the servants change the bath water and bring them a platter of food up for breakfast. That afternoon, Kohaku bid his intended farewell, and he made his way back to Kirara to go home.

As he touched down in the yard, Sango bombarded him with all kinds of questions, none of which he answered. When he caught sight of Miroku, he waited for the monk to make his way to the house. Miroku was beaming at the boy who somehow looked older overnight. "How'd it go?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Better than anything I could have ever imagined. Thanks for the hints and stuff, it all came in very handy." The boy smiled at his brother in law. "She agreed to become my intended. I must have done something right!"

"I knew you could do it, Kohaku," Miroku said as he clapped the boy on his shoulder and led him back in the house. "I suppose you'll be going to stay with her now?"

Sango listened as the two chatted near the fire. Kohaku peeled the armor from his leathers as he said, "Well, with another little one on the way, I think it's best I did. You guys need the space, and I want to be by her side." He glanced at his sister. "No offense sis, but… I'm a man now, and I shouldn't be a burden to you anymore."

Sango was livid. "Just because you went and laid with a woman, no, a demoness, doesn't mean you're a man Kohaku. You're still just a fourteen year old kid!"

Miroku cleared his throat. "I think what our darling Sango is trying to say is that no matter how old you get you'll always be her little brother. Of course, you have to do what you feel is right, but please don't forget about her, or the rest of us for that matter."

Sango's shoulders slumped as she realized that her husband spoke the truth. "Congratulations, Kohaku. I'm glad you found someone to make you as happy as that lecher makes me." Miroku gave her a soft smile.

Kohaku got up and went behind the privacy screen to change into his village clothes. When he was finished he went to his sister's side. "I'll never be far away. And I'll never forget about you, or the rest of this family." He hugged her tightly. Sango pulled away from him grimacing.

"Gods Kohaku, didn't you bathe afterward? You smell like… well, you smell like you… had relations all night long!"

"I did!"

Miroku laughed quietly to himself as his wife booted him out the door to go bathe. Sango watched him as he ran and jumped into the river, clothes and all. She shook her head and then looked at her grinning husband. "I wonder what Sesshomaru's going to think of having Kohaku as a step-father."

Miroku positively rolled with laughter at that thought, and his wife soon joined him as the two of them brought dinner together at their modest fire, all while surrounded by the little girl voices of their twin daughters.

*************************************

Years had passed. The miko from the future had returned, Rin had matured enough for Sesshomaru to take her as his mate, Miroku's house was bursting at the seams with five children, and Kohaku and Masami had been mated for almost three years. Sesshomaru and Rin brought their hanyou pup to see his mother for the first time, but were surprised to find Masami holding an older hanyou that bore the crescent moon that she and Sesshomaru shared on the little girl's brow.

"Who is this?" Sesshomaru deadpanned, thought obviously surprised that his mother would be holding such a pup in her arms.

"This is your sister," she smiled. "This is Mizuki."

Rin and Sesshomaru shared a glance. Her oldest child continued, "And who would you allow to sire a hanyou pup by you?"

"My mate, Sesshomaru. I have been mated now for nearly three years. I seem to recall you didn't respond to the invitation I sent you." She glowered at him, but Mizuki made a squealing laugh that broke the scowl. "Is that my grandchild?" she asked.

Rin nodded and stepped closer to her mother in law, comparing the two children, and admiring their similarities. Both children bore the Prussian blue crescent moon in the center of both their little foreheads, but Sesshomaru's son had a single magenta stripe on each cheek where Mizuki had no stripes at all. Mizuki's eyes were a honeyed brown where her nephew had the golden eyes of his father.

Sesshomaru scanned the front of the palace, "And who is the human who tamed my mother?"

Masami snickered. "Can you not scent him on your sister? You should know his scent as well as you know Rin's." She watched as Sesshomaru leaned in close to smell of both his mother and his half sister, and then was overcome with a shocked expression.

"Kohaku?"

Masami nodded, "But around here we call him Papa, don't we Mizuki?"

"Papa! Papa!" the little girl squeaked over and over as she jumped up and down on her mother's knees. There was the sound of two people talking from behind the Lady Mother's throne, and her human mate came around and dismissed the servant he'd been speaking to, evidently arranging for a feast to be made since they had royal company.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Kohaku said as he bowed before the taiyokai. "It's wonderful to see you again, and you as well Lady Rin." His eyes fell to the infant in Rin's arms. "What a fine looking pup, my lord."

"This one could say the same of the child you sired, Kohaku." His gaze was not friendly, but wasn't angry either. "How did you come to be the mate of this Sesshomaru's mother?"

"I asked her, and she said yes. The circumstances of how we got to that point, I'm afraid, are none of your business, my lord." Kohaku's eyes were soft as he replied, not threatening or rude in any way.

"Hn," Sesshomaru grunted, then turned his gaze back to his mother. "This one understands there's to be a feast in our honor. We will stay for the meal, then we must depart." With very little fanfare, Masami handed Mizuki to her father, and the small family led the way to the dining room where the first course was being quickly sent out. Some time later, Sesshomaru and Rin left the shiro in the clouds with their son, and Masami laid Mizuki to bed, then joined her mate on the balcony.

She kissed him sweetly as he put his arm around her. "You've made me happier than anyone has in my entire life. I'm so glad Sesshomaru knows now, about us and Mizuki."

"I'm glad he didn't kill me."

"Me too." They watched the moon rise as they contentedly held each other, still so very much in love, and still so very fond of the activities they first shared all those summers ago…