Kagome Higurashi was your average, everyday college student. She got average grades, lived in an average and affordable apartment, had an average cat and worked an average job at the local ice cream parlor. But there was one thing that was not so average about Kagome. She had a very not-so-average secret, a naughty one in fact, and this secret was something even her best friend Sango knew nothing about.
She has a crush on a married man.
He came in twice a week with his adorable daughter and bought her a large waffle cone full of her favorite ice cream; rocky road. He never ordered anything for himself, only for his daughter. They would sit at the same table by the window, while the little girl chattered away about various things until she had finished her ice cream, then they’d leave.
It was sad really. She didn't even know his name, but she found him prancing through her mind like he belonged there and in turn found herself day dreaming about the life they didn't have together. Well maybe not a life together, but she had definitely thought about what it'd be like to sleep with him. Long and thick silver hair, chilling citrine colored eyes, beautiful piano hands and a tall muscular frame that would have any woman with the proper working parts drooling after him like they were starving to death. Let's not forget to mention those sexy youkai markings he had as well.
Without a doubt he was a certified knock-out, as well as something else that made her 'tiny' crush just a bit more scandalous. He was a demon and Kagome…well she liked demons. Probably a little too much for her own good. However, relationships between humans and demons were pretty much frowned upon due to the result of such couplings. Hanyous. Now it wasan’t illegal for demons and humans to be together, but it was frowned upon by demon society. Humans really didn't care either way how you came to be or what species your parents were but, demons felt it was an insult to their heritage to dilute their regal lines with human blood.
Kagome's previous boyfriend, a mouthy, immature guy by the name of Inuyasha, had been a hanyou. A handsome thing he was, kind of resembled the current object of her affection, but lacked the grace and regality the demon she currently pined after posessed.
As she checked the goofy looking cat clock on the nearby wall to see if her break would be coming anytime soon, the bell above the door jingled happily, announcing the first customer of her shift, and she felt her heart speed up when she spotted who it was.
"Good afternoon! Welcome to Stack Em Up Ice Cream Parlor. What can I get you today?"
"Papa, Rin wants rocky road," the little girl said yanking on his suit sleeve, her brown eyes glittering as she gave him a gap-toothed grin.
She really was a darling little girl with messy midnight hair and chubby little cheeks. Kagome realized something as she smiled down at her though, something she probably should have noticed well before now. That little girl was human or mostly so, considering she didn't have any readily visible youkai features and that posed some very serious questions in Kagome's mind. Was her mother human? Was this beautiful demon's wife a human? Or was she possibly adopted?
Directing her gaze back to the handsome demon, she smiled. "Same order as always then?"
"Hn."
"Alrighty then. That'll be $4.95 please."
As she took the twenty dollar bill from his elegant hand, she noticed the silver band that normally adorned his ring finger was missing today. ‘Hmm…’ now wasn't that interesting.
After she had handed him his change, she reached for a waffle cone, and began scooping the child's favorite ice cream into it, her mind going over the latest information she'd obtained. The little girl was obviously mostly human, if not completely, which meant she couldn't possibly be the beautiful demon’s actual daughter. But Kagome however, didn't really care about the mechanics of who the little girl was or how she came to be. She was more interested in the fact that he hadn't been sporting the silver wedding band he normally wore today. Had he simply forgotten to put it on this morning? Kagome decided that probably wasn't the case. He didn't seem the type to forget anything, let alone to put his wedding ring on in the morning before he left.
Wrapping a thick napkin around the cone, she leaned across the counter and handed it to the grinning girl. She really was a cutie pie.
"Here you go sweetheart, enjoy!"
The little girl beamed up at her, accepting the delicious treat, her hands wrapping around it eagerly as she brought it to her lips and began eating.
The tall demon nodded in her direction as he placed a large hand on the small girl's head and lead her to their usual table. The child's happy voice echoed in the empty parlor as she informed her father of how delicious the frozen treat was.
Letting a small sigh escape her lips, Kagome propped her elbows on the register counter and rested her chin in her upraised hands. Her gaze focused out the large front window as she attempted to keep her attention off of the tall demon sitting with his back to her just off to the left of the counter. It really was sad, he'd been bringing his little girl in here for months now and the only thing she'd managed to find out was the little girl's name. What was even sadder was that she hadn't asked for it, she'd merely heard the tall demon say it on occasion as they left. Her name was Rin. A cute name for a cute little girl.
"Um……lady, Rin has a question."
Coming out of her thoughts she looked down at the little girl smiling up at her shyly and grinned down at her.
"Yes, is there anything you need, honey?"
She looked down at the floor bashfully. "Um, well you look kinda lonely and Rin was wondering if you want to come sit with Rin and papa until we leave?"
Kagome felt her heart skip a beat as she looked from Rin to the stoic demon sitting a short distance away, his back still facing her.
"Well that's a nice offer Rin, but what does your papa think about that?"
A bright grin lit up the tiny girl's face as she looked over at her father. "Oh papa doesn't mind, Rin asked first and he said it was ok for you to come sit with us, but only if you wanted to."
Glancing over at the quiet demon, her cerulean eyes clashed with penetrating gold and she found herself entranced. He was watching her closely, waiting for her answer to his young daughter's question. With great effort she broke eye contact with him to smile down at the young girl and nod in agreement.
"Alright Rin, I'll sit with you guys for a while, but only until I get another customer ok?"
"Ok!"
Pulling her apron off and hanging it on a hook as she rounded the counter, she made her way to the table the father and daughter duo were seated at, her mind screaming at her not to make an ass out of herself. What were the odds of this happening? She felt her heart speed up as she pulled a chair from an adjacent table and sat down, carefully crossing her legs and smoothing her skirt. Damn her hentai boss and his need for tiny skirts! She was seriously going to crack Miroku's skull if she ended up flashing the handsome demon her frilly undergarments while she was attempting to have a conversation with him.
Glancing at the silent youkai, she found his intense gaze weighing heavily on her and immediately turned her attention to the small girl, a smile lighting her face as she questioned her about her favorite flavors of ice cream.
"Rocky road is Rin's favorite."
"You don't like any other flavors?"
"No, Rin likes rocky road."
‘Oo~k’ well that conversation topic didn't last very long. Tapping her chin, Kagome decided to try a different route. If she couldn't bring herself to face the intense youkai seated next to her then she could at least find out some stuff about him through his child. Children tended to be blabber mouths about any topic that involved their parents.
"What about your papa, what's his favorite flavor?"
Rin looked thoughtful for a moment focusing on her father, as if the answer to Kagome's question were written on his face.
"Rin doesn't know, Rin has never seen papa eat ice cream."
"I do not partake of sweets very often."
‘Oh……God.’
Kagome literally felt her heart thump against her ribcage at his smoothly spoken words. His voice was simply....orgasmic. A rich, deep baritone that slid sleekly into her ears and raged straight to her core. ‘A voice like that should be declared illegal,’ she thought as she turned curious eyes on him, hoping she could hide the fact that a mere eight words spoken from his mouth had rocked her to her toes.
"Why not? Sweets are good to have every once in a while. Have you ever had ice cream before?"
He gave her a look that clearly stated he was far older than her and that he had, in fact, had ice cream before.
‘Well….’ That didn't go over as well as she thought it would. Deciding that maybe just introducing herself would start the flow of conversation, she turned her attention back to Rin and smiled. Becides, even if it didn't, she would at least be able to find out the name of her one-sided crush and stop calling him the handsome, married father who comes in twice a week with his daughter.
"My name is Kagome, by the way, it's nice to meet you, Rin."
"Kagome is pretty like her name!"
She blushed. "Thank you, Rin you're very pretty, too!"
"Do you think Kagome is pretty, papa?"
Ah, childish innocence. It never fails to make a situation go from awkward to completely uncomfortable.
"Hn."
Rin giggled. "That means yes, papa thinks you're pretty, too, Kagome."
Feeling her previous blush rush into her cheeks again, she immediately directed her gaze to the cream-colored table in front of her and folded her hands into her lap.
"Rin thinks papa is very handsome. Rin's mommy used to say papa was a sexy beast!”
"Rin," her father said in a commanding tone. "That is enough."
Oh Lord, could this get anymore agonizingly awkward.
Fighting the blush she was sporting, Kagome smiled comfortingly at the scolded child and patted her on the head. "Your papa is a very handsome man, Rin and I can definitely see why your mother would call him that, but there are some things only adults should say and that is one of them. You'll understand when you're older."
The young girl nodded and went back to quietly eating her melting ice cream cone, the shame of being scolded by her father making her fall silent for a while.
"Children can say the silliest things, cant they?" Smiling, she turned to lock her gaze with the stoic youkai. "Their innocence really can cause some awkwardness at the most inopportune of times."
"You speak as if you have experience with children."
"I do." Her voice took on a loving tone as she looked back at the small girl munching quitely on the edge of her ice cream cone. "I have a son."
Now that seemed to catch the demon's attention. Running his gaze over her relaxed form, he took a delicate sniff in her direction and found himself puzzled. She was not pure, she had been to bed with one male that he could tell, but she smelled nothing of a woman who had given birth. The only scent that clung to her was that of an apple lotion of some kind and a young kitsune.
"Your son is that of a kitsune bloodline?"
Her vibrant blue eyes showed her confusion as she turned them back to him. "Yes, how did you know that?"
"He has covered you in his scent."
Oh, well she should have known the powerful demon would be able to smell the young kit on her. The little furball did weasel his way into sleeping with her at night. "Yes, he is a kitsune, his name is Shippou."
"Kagome has a son? Can Rin meet Shippou?"
Smiling at the young girl, she pointed a thumb at her father. "Well, that's up to your papa. I take Shippou to the park every Saturday, if it's ok with him you can come and play with him there."
Rin's eyes sparkled as she turned them on her father in a pleading fashion. To Kagome, they were the perfect rendition of 'puppy dog eyes' and, as much as she hated to admit it, she was probably just as hopeful, if not moreso, that he would say yes to his adorable daughter.
"Please, papa, Rin will be a good girl for the rest of the week. Rin really wants to go play with Shippou!"
Kagome watched the demon gaze at his daughter passively, a sigh escaping his lips as he closed his eyes and caved to her demands.
"Write down the time and location and we will come."
Although, Kagome managed to curb her urge to whoop loudly at getting to see the stoic demon outside of the little ice cream parlor, Rin did not. She cried out in happiness and raced around the table to throw her arms around her father as best she could in his sitting position.
"Oh…..thank you papa, Rin is very happy!"
"Hn."
Pulling a napkin from the dispenser on the table, she plucked the pen from her bun and wrote down the name of the park and a time she thought would be acceptable, handing it to the tall youkai just as the bell above the door jingled, signaling she had another customer.
"I'll see you guy's there, it was nice to meet you Rin and...." Realizing she still didn't know his name, she said the only thing she knew him by. "And Rin's handsome papa."
"I am Sesshomaru."
The Killing Perfection…..oh Lord, now wasan't that just fitting.
"It was nice to meet you, Sesshomaru-sama."
"Hn."