Chapter 30: Problems
Sesshomaru stared at her, waiting for Kagome to say something to him but she just looked shocked by his words. Then there was suddenly pain in her eyes like she couldn’t understand why he had said that. Was it so hard for her to believe that he found her to be the most beautiful being alive? Even Sakura could not compare to Kagome and demons from all corners of the human realms and hell had heard of his former mate’s beauty.
“You’re so beautiful, Kagome.”
“Don’t say that please.” She whispered to him.
“You’re beautiful, Kagome.” Sesshomaru said before putting down their son and moving closer to her.
She moved away and begged him, “Please don’t say that.”
“You’re beautiful, Kagome. So beautiful to me.” He replied as he moved closer and reached out to touch her face. But she slapped his hand away as tears came to her eyes.
Why was she having this kind of reaction to his words?
“Is It because I’m so beautiful that you did all this to me?” She questioned him with such rage in her voice. She wiped her tears away, her nails biting into the flesh of her cheek and drawing blood. Sesshomaru grabbed her hands, hoping to stop her from harming herself.
“I’m so sick of all this, Sesshomaru. I’m sick of the tears, of all the control you have on me, I feel like I’m your pet bitch instead of a human, I’m so sick of all this confustion that I feel. I just want all of that to end.”
It wounded him to hear her say that. He wished to take it all from her, to take back all the pain that he had given her over the last few years that she had been his. But he did not possess the power to go back in time and changed all that had happened between them.
He did wish that he could.
He longed to see the smiles that she would appear for no reason at all, he wanted to happy her voice sound happy and excited as it once did instead of lost in pain as it always was. There were troubles between them, but the past was in the past and all he could do was work with her to make their lives as well as their future happier together in the day to come.
“I wish I could go back.” He whispered to her, causing her to become still from her rant and pain. “I wish I could go back and court you like you deserve instead of mating with Sakura after the final battle with Naraku. But I had been a fool and couldn’t look pass the fact that I did not want to end up like my father.”
“Like your father?” Kagome said as calm seem to return to her.
“Yes, I thought that his new family had made him weak and I also felt the jealousy of coming from home torn in half. My parents loved each other but my mother never seemed willing to let me be around my father for long or alone. My father and I never truly had the chance to talk, and get to know each other.”
His childhood filled his mind and memories of wanting to be like his father and to be noticed by his father filled his mind. He was an only child with no others around but adults; he had been forced to grow up alone and isolated in a world that cared little for children.
“That has nothing to do with us. You thought if you tried to court me that it would make you weak? You know that I’m anything but weak, my friends and I make each other stronger! Inuyasha and I made each other stronger! You’re just making excuses, Sesshomaru.”
She turned away from him as if the sight of him disgusted her in that moment and he could not blame her for feeling that way.
“Maybe I am…Maybe I was just scared of you, Kagome and I took the easy way out of all this back then. But the truth of right now? I don’t care, you’re mine and I will protect you to my last heartbeat.”
A tense silence fell between them at his words. They stared at each other as if they waited for the other to say something about what Sesshomaru had just said. But neither of them did.
Sesshomaru yearned for Kagome to say something but her lips seem fused together like the broken pieces of a sword forged anew. But then the sword is broken anew and she looks up into Sesshomaru’s eyes, his breath is suddenly trapped as she speaks.
“I know, I know you’ll always protect me.” She whispered before looking down at their son.
“I always will, Kagome.” He told her before moving towards their children. “I have something important to talk with you about.”
“Can it wait? I’m feeling so tired right now.”
“No, It can’t wait. I’m sorry but we need to talk about problem that we can’t avoid. Takashi has demanded a female from our family for an insult that he feels has been inflicted upon him.” He informed her calmly, though the thought of Takashi taking Kagome or anyone else in his family angered him.
The other lord had no right to his family if Sakura had still been alive. The fool had ruined everything with her death, forcing Sesshomaru to give up a female under his care as compensation for the lost of life. His hand was forced on the matter unless he start the war before he and his allies were ready which, could end poorly for him and his family.
“What are you talking about?” Kagome whispered.
Her ocean blue eyes were wide with fear at his words. How he wished that he did not have to scare her with the truth but it could not be avoided if he was going to be honest with her about everything.
“I will be forced to give up a female of our family.”
Kagome stood up at his words and the fear turned to anger; he could not blame her for feeling so.
“A female? Like one of our daughters? You’re not going to give that lord one of my babies, Sesshomaru. NOT NOW OR EVER!” She shouted the last part at him.
He stood up and wrapped his arms around her. She glared at him but didn’t struggle in his arms. “If not one of them then it must be you or my mother, Kagome.”
“Then you send me or her but not one of our daughters. Never them for any reason, Sesshomaru. You have to promise me that here and now.”
Looking down at their children, he could not help but agree to her demand. He could not send one of his infant daughters to a monster like Takashi. He would die first before agreeing to such a thing.
“I promise, Kagome.” He promised to always be a father and to defend their children before being anything else.
Relief filled that ocean blue gaze that he loved so before Kagome rested her head against his chest. “Thank you Sesshomaru.”
oOo
Nori smiled at the words she heard from Kagome from behind the door. She could not help but touch the door that kept her separated from her family, though she knew the true separation had been done by her own hands. She had been such a fool to attack her half demon granddaughter before but she did not truly regret her actions because of her reasons.
Reasons that Sesshomaru would not be able to forgive in the end. She would never be able to see her other grandchildren again but she knew that she would still help her family in the end.
Moving away from the doors, she turned to go back to her chambers to prepare. Her handmaidens followed her as she walked away. “Have a thousand stuffed animals made for each of the children. Different animals and all of them made in different sizes as well as colors of course.”
“Of course, mistress.”
This would likely be her last act as a grandmother and wondered if Sesshomaru would allow the children to play with the gifts that she would leave behind for them. She hoped that the children would be allowed to play with them as they grew older.
The halls of her home were as beautiful as the day she had mated with her love. The walls were turned into masterpieces by the scenery painted upon them. The cherry floor had not aged a day; she would miss these familiar halls were she had raised her son. She would miss this place for the memory of his happy laughter when Sesshomaru had just been a little child still so new to the world.
The old halls around her needed that again.
The halls of her home had been to empty of children’s laughter and joy for too long in her mind. It needed to be filled with happy children as well as a secure future to see that more children would come in the centuries to be. Sesshomaru had secured their bloodline and their palace would have that happy future in the years to come. It felt bittersweet to her that she would not be able to see it.
Entering her chambers, Nori ordered her handmaidens to strip her of her junihitoe and to dress her in her bridal attire. The colorful blues and greens of kakeshita were the same as they been in her youth as the day it had been presented to her by her own mother. Time had not dared to touch it or her uchikake…see them both brought forth the memory of her mating night.
The night sky was alight with stars so bright that not a cloud dared to appear, allowing her the chance to see all in attendance of her mating. Her uncle and mother stood near her mate as the only living family she had left in this realms. The other great lords and their families stood there as well as the nobility of hell.
It was so overwhelming to her for there had to be at least a thousand in attendance of her mating.
“Are you nervous?” Whispered Rie.
Nori turned to her best friend and saw the smirk that was on Rie‘s pretty face. There was no way that she could admit the truth to her smug friend that she was nervous. But then she had never left her home in the hell realms before for more than a short two or three month visit.
She was about to state her claim in the new realm of the humans and mate with the demon that held her heart prisoner.
“I’m no more nervous than you were at your mating, Rie.”
“I was terrified of my mating to lord Hotaka.” Rie confessed in a whisper to Nori’s ear.
Nori looked at her friend, seeing the fear of uncertainty that echoed in her friend‘s eyes. Without thinking, She throw her arms around Rie and held her friend tightly until a little cry rang out between them.
The two women parted to look at the toddler held in his only sister‘s arms. His black hair and light brown eyes were just like their late mother but it was clear to all that the baby was Rie’s brother by the dark green scales around his eyes that were so like that of their late father’s.
Goro clung to his sister and released a baby‘s squeal in outrage when Nori moved closer to the siblings one more. “Well there went my hopes that he would sleep through the mating and the reception afterward. You just had to wake him up by touching me, didn’t you, Nori?”
“It’s not like I meant to…he’s a cute little bastard of a half demon. He looks just like your father except for the hair and eyes. How does Your mate like him by the way?” Nori asked. They hadn’t been able to talk much since Rie’s parents had passed away and Rie’s mating to the hell lord Hotaka.
“Well enough…lord Hotaka has taken to being around Goro as experience for when we have our own pups. But enough about this! He’s waiting for you, just look at him and no one else.” Rie informed Nori before her friend pushed her out into the starlit night.
Felling nervous about what was about to happen, she refused to show it and still walked down her mate. He smiled so brightly at the sight of her that her heart fluttered and she felt her cheeks heat up as she continued to walk towards him.
This was the moment she had waited for her whole life, to walk down and be mated with the one who held her heart.
Tears threatened to spill as she stared at herself in the mirror, seeing herself as the bride she had been once more. The handmaidens finished getting her down and curled just so that made her look innocent, and young like she had been all those centuries ago.
“You’re a vision, mistress.” The handmaidens said in unison.
Just she felt anything but as beautiful as her handmaidens proclaimed her to be. She was not a young bride going to her beloved groom. She was not a powerful lady killed her enemies with shadows and elegance. She was something so much simpler than all of that.
She was a mother.
She was just a mother doing the duty of all mothers. Her claws and fangs could not defend her family from the threat that was lord Takashi.
Nori knew that Sesshomaru would never give up his children. If he were to give up Kagome then he would die the moment that Takashi was done with her, which would be done long before the war her son was planning would beginning. Sesshomaru would be forced to begin the war before his allies could be of aid. So in the end, her son would die no matter the outcome and his line would fade with him.
Her and her mate’s bloodline would fade from the history of demons. This was not something that she as a mother could ever allow.
“Thank you. Please begin packing my things at once, I will be leaving soon.”
oOo
“The hell lord here? Why?” Takashi snapped at the figure before him.
Things were going just the way that he wanted and yet this would ruin everything if he was not careful then all his plans would turn to dust. He had worked too hard to lose everything like this by chance.
“The hell lord’s mate is an ally of the lady Nori, who is niece to the former ruler of hell and first cousin of the current ruler of hell.” The figure informed its master.
Takashi stared at the dark figure before him for several moments before turning to the little servant that was sobbing softly behind him. He stood her up and took her chin in hand, his face a blank before slapping her hard across the face. Rage changed his handsome face to something that was beyond demonic.
He was close. So close to gaining everything that he needed and wanted from this realm but now he was so close to losing it all; thanks to the connections of Sesshomaru’s bitch mother. But he refused to lose; the son of a lowly concubine would gain everything.
The little servant wept aloud, begging for help and mercy as fists, and claws rained down on her with such speed that it rivaled that of Sesshomaru’s.
“Why did you not tell me of this before now!” Takashi raged at the figure before grabbing and throwing the maid’s lifeless body at it.
The figure just stands as the maid’s body hit it, reacting as if nothing had happened at all. “You told me not to bother you with ‘troublesome things’, master.”
Glaring at the figure, Takashi walked over to it and stepped on the little servant’s head. Putting pressure down with his foot, it was not long before the head was destroyed under his bare foot. Blood covered his foot and leg. “This was important.”
It was frustrating. It was so frustrating that that his little spies were never afraid of him. He was a being built upon fear and yet, his most useful tools were never afraid of him no matter what he did.
“You did not deem it so.”