The Dandelion by Pretty

The Dandelion

Kagome wasn't sure where the little girl had come from, or what she was doing wondering around in the woods alone so late in the evening, but as long as she didn't attract any wayward demons then she was welcome to stay with her.

Besides, she was really rather cute.

The girl giggled childishly, continuing her self-appointed job of happily braiding flowers into the miko's hair. The moon, just rising into the dark, starry sky for the sentry's night shift, was full and round, shining down onto the two girls and casting eerie shadows beyond the trees. Silver light poured into the valley, splashing over the flower field with an iridescent glow, giving the scene a serene, magical aura. Tiny lights flashed on and off around them, the fireflies twirling around the newcomers in a welcoming dance.

Kagome gazed up at the glowing giant in the sky, its full belly seeming to steal the very beauty from the surrounding stars, making them seem dim and petty in its radiant glory. It was half way through the lunar cycle and in a little less than half a month the moon would simply disappear. It would be the new moon.

Her thoughts drifted to Inuyasha. Her love-struck hanyou was probably having a "talk" with Kikyo right about now. By "talk" she meant "snogging her pretty little face off." She'd known something was up when they'd stopped to set up camp at about three this afternoon, completely putting to waste the good four hours of daylight they had left. It wasn't an unwelcome rest, per se, but it was definitely unusual.

But then, Inuyasha had sat up in a tree, fidgeting and looking at the branch hanging in front of his face like it held the meaning of life and surreptitiously raising his nose to the air every few moments and sniffing. She knew he was gone before he even left the campsite.

Kagome was carelessly pulled from her spiraling thoughts by a light tugging on the back of her head.

"Oops! Sorry, Kagome-neechan! I ran into a little tangle," Rin apologized earnestly, smoothing her fingers over the older girl's hair.

Kagome smiled. Besides being absolutely adorable, she was also a wonderful distraction. "Are you almost finished, Rin-chan? I can decorate your hair, too, if you like," she offered the girl.

A brilliant, gap-toothed smile was her reward. "Oh, would you, Kagome-neechan?" Rin asked, eyes shining with hope.

At the young miko's nod, the girl squealed gleefully, finishing up the last of a dozen braids and tying it tightly with a pink ribbon she'd procured from Kagome's "Everything Bag." She twisted around so her back was to Kagome and, in return, the miko turned and began combing easily through the girl's hair, carefully taking down the little side ponytail (which actually turned out to be just a thick lock of her hair wrapped and tangled around another thick lock of dark brown hair: a Fuedal Era eight-year-old girl's idea of a fashion statement, she supposed).

Separating a fragment of the child's hair into three smaller sections for braiding, Kagome parted her lips and asked softly, "Where is your village, Rin-chan?" keeping her voice low in the quiet atmosphere.

There was a nervous pause as the younger girl fidgeted with the end of her dirty, checkered yukata. "Um, I don't really have a village. It was attacked by wolves and now it is no more," she answered sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rin-chan," Kagome said, letting go of the braid with one hand to pick a bright red poppy and weave it carefully into the thick queue.

"But now I travel with My Lord. He is very kind. He saved me from the wolves and he lets me follow him and Jaken-sama and Ah-Un," she piped, picking a daisy and holding it out behind her for Kagome to take.

Her hands slowed with distraction on Rin's hair. Absentmindedly, she reached out to take the white flower and stick it into the braid, tying off the end with a silky blue strip. 'Jaken... Where have I heard that name before?'/i>

"What is your lord like? Is he nice?" she asked.

She lost her grip on the girl's hair when she nodded her head enthusiastically. "Oh, yes! He's the best! He's strong, and beautiful, and he protects me from monsters and let's me decorate him with flowers and steps on Jaken-sama when he calls me stupid. My Lord is the bravest, strongest ever! Nobody can beat My Lord!" Rin gushed, her adoration even clearer in her voice than in her words.

Kagome smiled kindly, tying off another flower-laden braid with a gold ribbon. Oh, how she wished for the child's innocence. Wouldn't it be so much easier to be eight again, nothing to worry about but what dress she'd where today and how she'd wear her hair? "What is your lord's name, Rin-chan?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama," she answered without hesitation, reaching out in front of her to cup a glowing insect in her small hands.

Kagome stopped. Her eyes were wide, mouth agape. 'Did she just... did I hear correctly...?'/i> Shaking her head with disbelief, she said, "I beg your pardon?"

Turning back around to her, passing her another poppy and two blue lilies, she smiled for no other reason except that she could. "My Lord's name is Sesshoumaru-sama. Do you know him, Kagome-neechan?"

"Um..."

The little girl was quick to describe. "Sesshoumaru-sama is really tall and he has long, pretty hair and he has a fluffy tail and he's spiky," she said, eyes wide with certainty, searching her own for any sign of recognition.

She grasped on to the only part of the tirade she understood. "Spiky?"

"Mm-Hm! He has big spikes on his shoulders!" she turned back around so Kagome could continue on her hair.

'She must mean his armor... It sure sounds like Sesshoumaru, but why would he be toting around a little human girl? Didn't he say he hated humans?'/i>

They sat in silence for a few moments, Rin catching fireflies and Kagome braiding her hair distractedly, lost in her own confused thoughts.

Rin's girlish voice broke the hush. "Where is your village, Kagome-neechan?" she asked innocently.

"My village? Well, I come from a huge village, in a place very far away, called Tokyo. We have metal carts that don't need horses or cows to pull them and people with crazy colored hair, like pink and blue and giant steel birds that we ride on to get to places. And," she continued, crouching down to the girl's eye level and scooting close, as though imparting a great secret, "we have humongous, stone buildings so high they touch the clouds!" she interjected excitedly, stretching up her arms and reaching to the sky to show her how high these structures were.

The child looked dubious. "Kagome-neechan," she drawled, rolling her eyes in all the imperious know-how of a young girl, "that's just impossible." With that little avowal of infinite wisdom, Rin turned back around in a huff and crossed her arms, feeling very accomplished for not falling for another adult's tall tales.

"Oh, it's very possible Rin-chan," Kagome assured her, finishing the last braid and scooting up through the tall flowers to sit beside the younger girl. She grabbed a handful of assorted flowers and laid them in a pile in her lap, choosing them carefully one-by-one and beginning to knot and interlace them together in a flimsy chain. "You just," -weave- "have to," -tie- "know how to" -lace- "build them so that," -bind- "they don't fall apart. Aha!" she proudly held up her finished product.

Rin stared amazedly at the crown of flowers, watching with excitement as Kagome stood in front of her, holding the coronet in front of her like a gift. "I bestow unto thee," the miko began chiefly, barely holding a straight face, though a smile was quirking the sides of her mouth, her eyes dancing with mirth, "Princess Rin-sama, the Imperial Tiara of... Royal Beauty!" She adorned the crown onto Rin's head in a flourish, to the girl's never-ending delight.

Smiling warmly and taking her seat, she took a few more flowers and began showing Rin how to bind them together by the stems. "Like this, see?" she asked, tying a daisy and a dandelion together and then handing the started chain to the younger girl for her to finish, then starting on another for a bracelet.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, both weaving dutifully. A chilly breeze lifted Kagome's hair, the locks billowing out around her face. She was at peace for the moment, and that was more than she could have asked on a night such as this.

There came a childish squeal from the other girl and Kagome looked up, startled.

And she gasped in fear at what she saw.

There, stepping out from the cover of the trees was the Great Taiyoukai Warlord of the Western Lands in the flesh and looking as ruthlessly lethal as ever. Kagome's mouth went dry and her throat constricted in shear terror. She tried to swallow, to regain her voice, to scream for help, to run, to do anything, but she was frozen and the beautiful beast was stalking ever closer. She watched in horror as he glided as though on a moving pedestal, so breathtakingly surreal that not even the gentle night breeze seemed to touch him.

The world stood still and suddenly he was standing in front of her. "Miko." His voice poured over her like cool silk and she shivered. What did he want?

"Sesshoumaru-sama." Kagome mentally congratulated herself on her performance. Her voice had not wavered once.

He stared at her for a long while, his cold eyes piercing through hers like an amber sunset through the sapphire sea. Rin was standing and bowing to her, but Kagome did not notice. She was caught like a deer in headlights. Vaguely, she wondered if her death would be quick or drawn out. To Kagome, Sesshoumaru had always seemed like the sadistic type, but she desperately prayed she was wrong.

It wasn't until she realized that he was walking away, long, silver hair swaying with his elegant strides, that she released a pent up breath that she hadn't even known she was holding. And then her brows furrowed. Just who did this guy think he was, coming out of nowhere and stealing away her companion with barely an acknowledgement? Well, she'd show him!

Huffing in indignity, Kagome rose to her feet and stalked over to the retreating backs of the demon lord and his young human ward. Rin's excited tirade stopped short when the miko grabbed Sesshoumaru by his right arm and attempted to pull him around to face her. He didn't budge.

She continued heaving with all her might. "Now listen here, you. Who do you think you are just waltzing over and taking Rin-chan without-" she froze when he was suddenly facing her, staring down his nose at her like she was no more than an insect in his path. A particularly cumbersome insect which he would like to trample over in pure spite. Kagome squeaked and immediately dropped his arm and backed away. Rin's eyes were wide in fear, looking from the miko to her lord and back again.

"Um..." Kagome couldn't think.

One graceful silver brow arched.

"Forgive me, but, um, I just wanted to say goodbye to Rin-chan and, um, thank you for letting us play for a while!" Kagome said in a rush.

Sesshoumaru's eyes slid over to glance at the flowered braids cascading over her shoulders. "Indeed."

Kagome gave Rin a quick hug and kept her head, much to the relief of the little girl. She stood back up and looked to her feet in sudden bashfulness. She reached behind her and pulled a single dandelion from her hair. With just a moment of hesitation, the girl pushed the small flower into the demon's striped hand so much larger than her own. With a hurried bow and a rather squeaky goodbye, she turned heel and ran back to camp, snagging her overstuffed bag on the way.

Sesshoumaru watched the strange girl retreat into the cover of the trees in confusion, though his face revealed nothing. Slowly, he opened his hand and gazed in quiet contemplation at the small crumpled offering of the flower. There was nothing special about it. Some petals were missing and the stem was bent and crooked from less than fragile handling, but somehow... it warmed his heart and made his stomach feel light.

Was it an enchantment? No, he smelled no magic.

Perhaps it was a normal reaction, then. No one had ever given him a flower before, so he wouldn't know.

Sesshoumaru thought of all the times he had ever seen the girl. Always, her chin had been held at a defiant angle, the shoulders thrown back in pride, in bravery, in stubbornness, in foolishness. But for some reason, he could not think of a time when he had ever truly been motivated to kill her. The one time in his father's gravesite, her death had simply been convenient.

Rin was walking back to the waiting Ah-Un and Jaken, chattering about "Kagome-neechan's crazy tales." Making sure no one would see, Sesshoumaru slipped the worn flower in the lapel of his haori and began the journey back to his lands.

Slowly, unbeknownst to his companions, a small smile quirked the sides of the taiyoukai's lips.

The first true smile to grace his façade in nearly three hundred years.