Kagome stirred awake. She blinked out at the gloom surrounding her, bewildered for a moment until the memories came rushing back in—the snowstorm, the cave, Sesshoumaru…
Against her side, she felt the heady warmth of him ebbing through her still. Flushing, she pulled away from his chest and pushed herself to her feet. His fur slid down from her shoulders and hips, slower than gravity alone would have dragged it. Not quite facing him, she tested her weight on her injured leg.
“How is it?” he asked.
“Better.” Kagome took a few steps, expecting stabs of pain but there was only an achy stiffness. “Much better, actually.”
By the cave entrance her belongings lay, buried in a spilled drift of snow. She walked over to the drift and dug her backpack out. Her thermos was inside. Taking it out, she shook it—slushy, but not completely frozen. Unscrewing the cap, she took a few icy swigs, then set the thermos aside and rifled through the foodstuffs she’d packed. She was halfway through a granola bar when Sesshoumaru approached her. His eyes flicked from her snack in clear distaste, as if she were munching on sawdust.
“I’ll hunt for you,” he said, as he started to turn away.
Around a mouthful of honeyed oats, she replied, “That’s okay, I’m not really hungry. I gorged myself on wild boar yesterday.”
“You’re not hungry,” Sesshoumaru said, watching as she finished off the bar and dug out some jerky next, “but you are still eating.”
“Well, yeah,” Kagome said, blushing a little as she chewed. “I kind of always am. Snacking, anyway.”
His eyes gleamed down at her. “How strange.”
“Tell me about it—oh.”
“What is it?”
Kagome set down the jerky, placing her hands to her belly. “Nothing,” she said, a bit awkwardly. “The baby—he just did a flip or something.”
Sesshoumaru knelt. “He does this often?”
“Only sometimes.”
She bit her lip, hesitating. While she was deliberating what to say, Sesshoumaru placed his hand just under hers. His clawed fingers curved over the swell of her stomach, pressing in slightly. Kagome’s breath caught. Her face flamed.
He was silent, still. Trained on her belly, his golden eyes were just as fixed, though the scant light that flickered over them gave the illusion they were moving.
“…What do you feel?” she asked him faintly, when she could speak again.
“He is healthy, strong. Fully demon,” he said, “and fully human.” His eyes caught hers. “And he is content.”
Kagome’s eyes pricked. “Really? You can sense that?”
“Of course.” Sesshoumaru’s gaze held hers. “Can you not?”
“I,” she began, swallowing, “I’d like to think so. I guess I don’t always trust what I feel these days.”
Sesshoumaru’s touch withdrew as he stood. “Perhaps you should start.”
Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi
Revised 3/20/23
This scene is so beautiful. There’s this chill type of peace between them. An acceptance in an almost awkward kind of way, but still this shadow of not wanting to be completely open about it… at least not verbally. They’ll be in each others lives and yet they are still trying to come to terms with how. Well done here Char!
So glad you enjoyed this tender scene 🙂 Thanks so much, Blackberry! <3
It’s moments like this, that you see how human and young kagome is compared to how ancient and non human sesshoumaru is. Sess is a wise ancient soul who’s experienced and lived for a very long time but he is still in a sense an animal who has that animal logic and instinct and it’s interesting watching him deal with the duality of that nature. Kagome in is still so young and very human, I just feel like it’s time for these two to have true communication. Sesshoumaru, being as old as he is, hes still at his core a dog, and it seems he believes that if he has sex with kagome enough times and provides for her, she’ll respond more favorably not taking into account that humans form connections first through mental and emotional bonding and not just physical. And Kagome clearly knows nothing about youki culture so she doesn’t seem to understand why sesshoumaru has claimed her, and clearly inuyasha does not know either otherwise kagome would’ve been caught chapters ago. (Although I feel deep down inuyasha has an instinctual knowing…)
“Sess is a wise ancient soul who’s experienced and lived for a very long time but he is still in a sense an animal who has that animal logic and instinct and it’s interesting watching him deal with the duality of that nature. Kagome in is still so young and very human” – so well put! 🙂 how humans vs youkai form attachments is certainly a source of friction between them, conscious or otherwise
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Maya! <3
Omg I am so happy he finally touched her belly, because it was hinted before that kagome yearned for that 😭
Yep!! This situation is unconventional to say the least, and uniquely difficult because of that 😢
Thanks for sharing, Pixie! <3