In The House of the West by Silent Taiyoukai

In The House of the West

The last she remembered, she had been walking through the woods. She was enjoying the time alone, the peaceful forest sounds, the luscious greens and the complete and total  solitude. As sad as it was to say, it was the one place where she truly enjoyed herself. Ever since she had come back to the Feudal Era, she felt more and more like an unwanted third wheel as the days wore on.

Sango and Miroku were always busy with their growing family. Kagome would help Sango mind the children every now and then, but she more often felt like Sango’s babysitter than her friend. Though Auntie Kagome loved the rambunctious twins and their little brother, she couldn’t but feel a little sad as she minded them while Miroku and Sango went off to enjoy some time alone together.

But by far the most devastating hurt came with seeing Inuyasha.

She should have known what would transpire after she made her wish on the Sacred Jewel, but her heart had refused to give up on him. Sometimes she wondered whether or not she should have just stayed in the Modern Era. Maybe it would have meant less heartache that way.

Kagome’s wish on the Jewel had purified Naraku, and it had also returned the lives of the two humans Naraku had murdered. Kohaku’s soul returned to his body, and Kikyou was granted with a soul and body all her own. Then Kagome had been thrust back into her own time, only to return three years later and find that Inuyasha and Kikyou were wed, and Kikyou was with child.

It had taken months before Kagome managed to pick up all the shattered pieces of her heart.

Even with Rin and Kaede Kagome couldn’t quite feel at home. Kaede was always busy healing the villagers, and talking to the old miko while they worked on bloodied and broken people was hardly comforting. Rin had grown up considerably in the three years Kagome had been away, but nowadays she seemed more interested in her budding relationship with Kohaku than anything else.

And of course Shippo had started his new life with his friends at the Kitsune Inn. Even her little fox kit didn’t need her anymore.

So Kagome began to go off on her own. She would spend whole days lost in the trees trying to take her mind off of all she had sacrificed to be with them, and how little joy it brought her in the end.  

That morning, when she caught her foot on a tree root and tumbled down a mossy hill, hitting her head on rocks and fallen branches as she went, she wondered idly if the Gods had finally decided to put her out of her misery. She remembered coming to a stop with her left side in a cold, stagnant puddle, her right sleeve caught on a tree branch. Then the world had gone dark.

Now she opened her eyes to a spacious room with beautiful scrolls hung on the walls and pleasant sunlight filtering through shoji screens. She was dry and warm, albeit a little sore as she sat up.

The sheets fell away and pooled in her lap, and Kagome realized she had been sleeping on a very decadent futon. Instead of her usual miko garb, she was dressed in a simple blue yukata. Her right foot was neatly bandaged, as was a small cut on her forehead. Her initial fear of not knowing where she was increased a bit. If she had learned anything in their travels for the Jewel Shards, it was that benevolent Lords who rescued pretty maidens were not always as chivalrous as they appeared.      

Kagome clutched at the sheets as a figure stepped into view behind the closed screens. It made its way slowly down the hall, reading a scroll as it went. When it reached the door, it folded the scroll and turned toward her in a familiar swish of long hair. Kagome knew who her visitor was even before he opened the screens, walking silently over to stand at the foot of her futon.  

“Sesshoumaru,” Kagome said, staring at the white wraith looming above her. She had never seem him without his armor until now. He was dressed completely in flowing white silk. “Where am I?”

“You are in The House of the West. You were found unconscious nearby,” he said.

Kagome’s brow wrinkled. “I didn’t know you had a palace.”

“You thought this Sesshoumaru wandered around without any place to call home?” he asked, his eyebrow disappearing into his hair for a moment.

“Well yeah, actually,” Kagome said sheepishly.

“I do not stay here often,” he said with a slight shrug. “I have contacted my half-brother. He will arrive to retrieve you tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks, I guess,” Kagome said.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about Inuyasha coming to get her given their current situation. They were still friends, but he had started his own family now. She would only feel like a burden if she made him leave Kikyou for her sake.

Kagome swung her legs out of bed. “You know what? I’ll be fine. I don’t need Inuyasha to get me. I’ll just walk back myself,” she said, but once she put pressure on her bandaged foot she knew that would be all but impossible. It wasn’t broken, but she sure would be walking with a limp for awhile.

“I believe that would be unwise of you,” Sesshoumaru said, turning his back on her and making his way to the door.

 “Umm, you’re going to leave me alone?” Kagome asked.

Sesshoumaru may have known how to behave somewhat civilly around humans, but a miko staying in a house full of his youkai servants, alone and injured, was quite unsettling.

“I have much work to do, miko. If you require anything, call one of my servants. They will hear you,” he said, and closed the screen behind him. Kagome watched as his silhouette ghosted down the hall and out of sight.

Not exactly the words she wanted to hear.

Kagome slowly got to her feet, gauging how much pressure could be placed on her foot without hurting herself too much. She limped a few steps around her bed before daring to venture into the hallway. The castle was eerily quiet and rather confusing. After a few moments of wandering she had no idea which direction would lead her back to her room.

Her foot began a dull ache, and she was glad when she finally felt Sesshoumaru’s aura flare, guiding her toward him. Pushing open another set of screens, she found him sitting with a mass of scrolls spread out around him. She closed the screen behind her and took a seat opposite him, gently rubbing at her sore foot. He kept on reading, seemingly unaware that she had entered the room. His aura pulsated weakly, and Kagome could tell that something was bothering him. Most likely the ridiculous amount of reading to be done, by the looks of it.

“You should not be up,” he said, finally gazing up from his work.

“I feel fine,” she lied, picking up a scroll. Unraveling the delicate paper, she found it to be a contract of some kind. “What are you doing?”

“Reviewing land treaties,” he said, taking the scroll from Kagome’s hands and laying it back down on the floor.

“Oh,” she said. For some reason it was strange to see Sesshoumaru doing such a mundane thing as paperwork.  

“It is rude to stare,” he said, and Kagome blushed. She hadn’t even realized she had been doing so.

“Sorry,” she said and shakily got to her feet. “I’ll just go explore some more, if you don’t mind.”

She left him to his work, but got no more than a few steps down the hall before she felt his hand clutching at her elbow, gently turning her in the other direction. She guessed he was leading her back to her room, but after a few moments of wandering they turned down a corridor with a single screen at the far end. It was open slightly, washing the wooden floor in warm light.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Perhaps this will amuse you,” he said, and pulled the screen completely open.

Kagome was taken aback by the beauty of what she saw just beyond the screen. It was like stepping into a photograph, a work of art painted with an infinitely skilled hand. There were beautiful trees in every shade of green, and some with leaves of pure gold and gorgeous red. There were blooming cherry and apple blossoms with stone benches beneath their flowery veils. There was a pond with a red wooden bridge running across it, and Kagome ran to peer over the railing and at the koi that were swimming around in the water. A small waterfall connected with the pond, and the gentle babble was quite soothing.

“It’s beautiful,” Kagome said as Sesshoumaru came to stand beside her.

His claws pressed at her back and guided her off the bridge and to a smooth stone pathway hidden by the hanging branches of an apple blossom. The path seemed to wind on forever, but Kagome was so fascinated by the strange plants lining their way that she barely noticed her foot beginning to protest their little walk.

Some of the plants they came across even had their own tiny demonic auras. A certain breed of giant flytrap even closed its hungry mouth and seemed to bow as Sesshoumaru passed by.

The path came to an end at the side of the pond opposite from which it began. Kagome then saw a tree that had escaped her notice before. It was a citrus tree with ripe mikan mandarins hanging heavy on its branches.  She ran up to it, breathing deeply the tangy smell of the fruit. She reached up to pluck an orange, but the fruit escaped her grasp by a few inches.

She gasped when she felt the brush of soft fur against her leg. Sesshoumaru’s chest pressed against her back as he reached around her to pick the orange she sought, and Kagome felt herself flush. His claws made quick work of peeling the fruit. He handed the naked segments to Kagome, throwing the peels into the dirt.

“Thank you,” she said and sat on the bench beneath the tree to eat it.

Sesshoumaru sat  beside her, and Kagome could feel something awful creeping up on her. It rose a lump in her throat and blurred her vision. It had been so long since she had simply sat down with a friend and enjoyed the spring air. It was nice, even if the one she was with probably didn’t see her as his friend at all.

“You are troubled,” Sesshoumaru said suddenly, and Kagome popped the last piece of fruit into her mouth.

“No,” she said. She could feel Sesshoumaru’s eyes lingering heavily upon her. He could tell she was lying. “Well, it’s just that ever since I came back…never mind.”

She didn’t expect the words to come pouring from her in a tirade, a wave of anger she hadn’t even known she was harboring. The sadness had always been there, but the raw anger had been buried somewhere deep inside her heart, and it felt good to let all of it go.

“They learned to live without me, but I still needed them. Now I feel like I have nowhere to go. And you…well…” she said, but decided not to finish that sentence. “Don’t they realize how much I gave up to be with them?! My education, my family, my entire world!”

He probably thought she was an emotional fool. She suddenly wanted to be by herself to think over what she had said and come to terms with it. She jumped up from the bench, but the heavy pressure on her foot made it collapse under her. She went down on her knees in the grass, giving a defeated sigh. She put her head in her hands, jamming her palms into her eyes to block the flow of tears.

She could sense as he came to stand beside her. “Miko,” he said gently, and when she did not respond, he spoke her name. “Kagome.”

Kagome shuddered under the weight of her own name, and when he knelt down beside her, she was like clay in his hands. She allowed herself to be gathered into strong arms and lifted from the ground. She wrapped her arms about his neck and buried her face in his chest, and he did not seem to mind the tears soaking through his clothes. The easy rhythm of his gait soothed her, and by the time he laid her down on her futon she was nearly all cried out.

She curled into herself as he sat on the edge of the futon and covered her in the sheets.

“Sleep,” he commanded, and Kagome happily obeyed.    

Her sleep was mercifully dreamless, and when she awoke Sesshoumaru was still sitting beside her, looking as though he hadn’t moved at all. She was so wonderfully warm under the sheets she almost didn’t feel like getting up.

 Kagome stretched and groaned as her back gave a painful crack. Sesshoumaru peered at her with one golden eye.

“I feel better. Thank you for staying with me,” she said with a smile. “I’m sorry I made such a fuss. I don’t know why I did that.”

She was the Shikon Miko. She was better than breaking down and crying in front of a taiyoukai. She was made of tougher stuff than this, but she supposed even the strongest of men, and mikos for that matter, could only take so much loneliness and loss before they went mad.

“Your plight is unfortunate,” Sesshoumaru said, and Kagome was a bit shocked by his sympathy. “You have acquaintances other than those in the village.”

“Not many. There’s Totousai, and Myouga, and you of course…” she said, counting them off on her fingers. He raised an eyebrow and it slowly began to dawn on her. “Are you trying to ask me something?”

Sesshoumaru huffed and looked away.

When Kagome thought of their days hunting the Jewel Shards, and of all the danger she had faced from Naraku, she always thought first of Inuyasha and Tetsusaiga, Sango and Hiraikotsu, and of Miroku and his kazaana. They had protected her when she couldn’t help herself, but they weren’t the only ones.

Sesshoumaru’s journey during that time seemed so out of context with her own. He had followed his own path, and sometimes their separate ways had a habit of crossing. How rarely it was that she thought of him saving her from Mukotsu’s poison and defending her from lesser demons as she lay unconscious inside Naraku’s body.

Kagome looked downward as she felt color rising in her cheeks. She finally noticed the way his pelt was positioned around her. Over her feet and up her legs, along her left side. Just haphazard enough to be accidental, but Kagome didn’t think so. The long veil of his hair also fell across her legs.

Perhaps she could feel needed and loved in the last place she thought to look.

“Sesshoumaru…” Kagome said, and found herself moving closer to him. “It was you, wasn’t it?” she asked. When he made no move to look at her, she cupped his chin in her hand and turned him around. “You found me in the forest.”

“Hnn,” he mumbled, and Kagome could swear she felt her heart swell. He turned away from her and she smiled.

She kissed his cheek and he turned around again, brushing his lips against hers. Without thinking, she grabbed a handful of his hair and kissed him full on the lips.

*******

He could tell something was amiss the second he entered the palace. He could smell Kagome’s scent mingling closely with his brother’s, much too close to for comfort. It had been almost a week since his brother had told him to come and fetch Kagome. He would have gone to Kagome sooner, but he had to see to the needs of his wife first. Now his bastard of a brother had taken advantage of Kagome, and he could only blame himself. Clutching the hilt of his sword, he ran through the palace and threw open the screen from which the scents came, his eyes going wide with disbelief.

They were laying naked together, Kagome neatly curled atop his brother. They were wrapped in each others arms and in a swirl of tousled sheets. There was a small smile on Kagome’s lips as she slept. Inuyasha stepped closer and his brother opened one sleepy eye to peer at him.  

“Sesshoumaru, what the hell?!” Inuyasha yelled.

“Hush, little brother,” Sesshoumaru said, running his fingers through the sleeping miko’s hair. “You’ll disturb her.”

“What the hell did you do?!”

“Nothing she did not want this Sesshoumaru to do,” Sesshoumaru quipped, and Inuyasha growled. “And Kagome will not be returning to your village.”

“You--!”

Kagome began to stir then, and Sesshoumaru pulled the sheets higher to cover her breasts from Inuyasha’s view. Kagome clutched the sheets to her chest and propped herself up on her elbows. Sesshoumaru sat up as well, his hand claiming a spot on the curve of her hip.

“Inuyasha…” Kagome said sleepily, rubbing at her eye.

Inuyasha kneeled down beside the futon, and Sesshoumaru snarled. His mokomoko snaked around Kagome to hide her exposed back.

Inuyasha shot Sesshoumaru an exceptionally evil glare. “Kagome, what did he do to you?”

“I’m fine, Inuyasha. Calm down,” she said, and snorted at his thoroughly confused expression. He was acting so protective of her now even when she was not his to care for.  His place was with Kikyou, and Kagome was free to make her own choices. “And I think I’m going to stay right here after all.”

“Kagome…Here? With him?”

Kagome sighed and leaned her weight into Sesshoumaru. “Yes,” she said, and Inuyasha screwed up his face in what looked like a mix of confusion, disbelief and raw disgust.

“You’re going to stay here. With Sesshoumaru. ” he said, and Kagome nodded.

“Enough, little brother,” Sesshoumaru said irritably. “Go home to your wife and let us be.”

He watched for a moment as Kagome snuggled up to the taiyoukai. He took her into his arms with care, even though his eyes remained stony and concentrated on his brother.  

Inuyasha scoffed and got to his feet. “I will! After I came all the way out here for no reason…” he said.

He turned away and left the room, and neither of them saw the roll of his eyes or the small smile that touched the corner of his mouth. He closed the screen slowly behind him. Kagome seemed happy, and that was all that mattered.

Once he was gone, Sesshoumaru pulled her back down onto the futon. He nuzzled at her throat, and Kagome uttered a low chuckle.

“You haven’t left my side in two days. Don’t you still have a lot of paperwork to do?” she teased.

“There are more pressing matters to attend to,” he said.

“Yeah, like what?” she giggled.

Sesshoumaru nipped gently at her neck and grabbed a handful of her behind to pull her closer.

Kagome finally knew where she belonged, and it was right there in his arms, in The House of the West.