Family Secrets by Tiegrsi

Sesshomaru Watches

Once again the Great Lord of the West was sitting in a tree, this time near an inviting hot spring. Earlier he had watched as his idiot brother had bested Kagome over and over, trying to drill her to hone her sense of smell by finding that little kit that followed her around. He had heard the bet, and after watching the pair's antics for a while, he had gone off to snoop around some other areas. He had even come here, to the hot springs, following the scent of the humans from his brother's strange pack. The one he liked the least, his brother's bitch, had been the first one he'd found. She was lightly sprinkling herself, still mostly clothed, with water in some half-assed attempt at bathing. She'd lost that incense and burial ground scent she'd had before Kagome brought her back to life, and replaced it with something far worse - sweaty, dirty ningen. He still couldn't understand how his brother could ignore that stink. The woman reeked, and she obviously wasn't putting too much effort into remedying the situation.

He had scented the other two humans, as well, and the nekko youkai with them. His first thought had been to go see what they were up to since they were out in the woods instead of by the springs, but the second whiff he took from the air told him all he had needed to know. The humans were hiding because they were off coupling somewhere. 'Disgusting.'

Back in the present...

There was a new scent on the breeze. Light and airy it reminded him of apples and cherry blossoms, but now with undertones of a light, musky scent that was akin to fox. The scent drew his attention back to the reason why he had made a second trip to this spot today; the little vixen laying languidly against a boulder in the warm, steamy water below.

It was the closest he'd been to her since that last battle, so long ago, with Naraku. Despite her humanity, he had found both her body and her scent pleasing even then. Now though, this little miko turned vixen was almost dangerously attractive.

He had watched her approach, beating her by merely a few seconds when he had overheard her destination. She certainly was a lot faster than he had expected. She had set out some strange little bottles and a cloth on a flat rock along the shore, and then disrobed leaving only a few small scraps of material cloaking her most delicate areas.

Long, shapely legs darted out from under the little white loin covering she wore; a covering that barely reached the middle of her hips. Hips, he noted, that seemed a bit wider since their last encounter. Her tiny waist and thin torso were adorned with a wonderful structure of musculature, stretched taught under her skin as she had raised her arms up while removing her top. Her breasts looked fuller than he remembered them, as well, and he had found himself wondering anxiously what shade her nipples might be as they hid away from him under the small strip of white cloth around her chest. Just looking at her, knowing he couldn't touch her, was torture.

There were two thick, sunset orange stripes of color adorning each of her thighs, ending in thin reddish lines around the inner and outer sides of her legs. Along her midsection and down over her hips danced a graceful orange stripe on each side of her body, turning down slightly as they reached closer to her soft belly, following the arc of her hips and ending somewhere just below that white cloth.

Above those were two smaller, thinner lines that followed the under edge of her ribcage, narrowly turning up near her middle and pointing enticingly towards the inner edges of her perky breasts. On her arms were three marks each, one across each shoulder, one on each elbow, and one thin, dusky red line across each delicate wrist. There was also a thin strip of color along her lash line. It deepened in hue from orange to red and became thin, double stripes gracing the corners of each eye and running out to her hairline. Along the edge of her ears was a light orange hue that melted softly into a cherry red flush at the tips.

'And that tail,' he thought, amused. 'As pitch black as the hair on her head.' It was very fluffy and hung almost halfway down to her knees from it's juncture at the end of her spinal chord, and had covered the split in her backside and the top part of her legs, hiding from him the area that made his mouth go dry at the thought of it when she had bent over to view her face in the waters near the bank.

His beast was crying out for her, demanding it be given it's desire. It had taken an enormous force of will to hold the beast back while his golden eyes had lingered over the vixen's body. He had nearly lost control when the sky had grown dark and she had removed the final two garments. The beast had cried out and an unconscious growl had emanated from deep in Sesshomaru's throat.

Alarmed, he had muffled the sound as best he could. His eyes had gone wide as he directed his clouded vision back to the little vixen in the pool, hoping she hadn't heard. She had turned at the sound and looked in his direction, even sniffed the air. Apparently she couldn't see or smell him, though, and had quickly relaxed again and lathered her private areas before rinsing and laying back against the boulder as she was now.

His brother was truly a fool. He knew she had looked pleasing before, but now...now she was downright sinful to look upon. And on top of everything else, she had that sparkling aura. It was pure and innocent and just begging to be corrupted; not that it was his intention to do so. Sesshomaru knew what he had to do, he had made up his mind that he would seek her out whenever she was alone; and here she was, quite alone. Battling his beast for control, he had decided to wait until she re-dressed before making his appearance, not wanting to have her become more skittish with the idea that he had been spying on her naked body.

Finally the vixen arose from the dark depths, and he could not draw his attention away. The little buds on her pert breasts contorted and hardened as the cool air met her heated skin. 'Sakura blossoms,' he thought. 'As pale pink as perfect sakura blossoms. Such an odd color. But then...everything about her is odd. Unique, but pleasing.'

She dried herself off in a hurried but meticulous manner, and donned a fresh set of clothing from the ugly yellow pack that she was continuously hauling around. She placed her dirty items and all the little bottles back inside it's confines and stood up to sling the heavy bag over her shoulder as he decided to make his move.

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A/N: Sorry for the short chapter and the little cliffhanger here! I promise to update again as soon as I can...just not tonight! :P