It is the East, and Kagome is the Sun by Xenoky

But Soft,

The inspiration for this story draws very heavily on Chinese and Japanese web dramas, which is why there’s such a strong emphasis on them being single. Basically idol culture but for more random things.

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“Wow would you look at his form? And look at the way his movement looks so fluid. My dad has been trying for ages to get in contact with Sesshomaru and his family to set up a meeting about potential matings.”

These were the words that brought Kagome out of her own thoughts and into the present. She’d been studying for her next class, Creation of Youki. The threat of possibly failing a class that had to do with her very own biology kept her from interacting with the other two women at the table, in an otherwise empty cafeteria. While not the best place to study, it was in fact one of the warmer places on campus, including the frigid library.

Sango and Kikyo were watching the latest kendo competition stream, while Kagome tried her hardest to study, even as the light sounds of bamboo hitting bamboo traveled towards her, lulling her into a sense of calm, until Kikyo’s voice interrupted her train of thought. Instead of watching the video, Kagome kept her eyes trained on her two friends, belatedly realizing that she had stopped studying to listen in to their conversation.

“Yeah right, like you’d be able to mate with THE Sesshomaru Taisho.” Sango said, as she tapped the side of her phone to turn up the volume. “I heard that the Taisho’s have incredibly strict standards when it comes to who can mate Sesshomaru, and there’s no one in existence who’d be able to fill in the requirements.”

Kikyo hissed in annoyance, and her hanyou ears twitched accordingly. Kagome could feel the blush rush across her face as she looked back down at her textbook. “Well anyway, whoever he picks as his mate, they’d be the luckiest person in the world.” Kagome blushes even harder and tugged on the hem of her collar, ensuring that her neck wasn’t exposed.

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A loud, boisterous laugh was coming from Kagome’s phone, and she laughed lightly in response. Sango, her roommate, had a class, and this was the only time Kagome had the luxury of being by herself, which is why, every night at 6:30 P.M., she could be found in her room, FaceTiming.

She propped herself against her headboard, and smiled at the person on the other end. “Well why didn’t you tell them?” The male asked, still smiling but with a tinge of hurt in his eyes. 

“I was scared.” Even though Sango and Kikyo were her friends, her best friends, what would they think knowing that Kagome and Sesshomaru had been mates for years.

A sigh escaped from Sesshomaru as he rubbed his forehead, “They’re your best friends, they’re not going to disown you just because we’re mated.” Now it was Kagome’s turn to sigh. Of courseher friends wouldn’t judge or disown her, if anything they’d be happy for her! It was just the rest of the world that Kagome was so unsure about.

“Kagome.” She looked back up into the eyes that she hadn’t seen in person for months, far too long. “I miss you.” 

It was hard, really hard. They probably hadn’t seen each other in person for months now, and when they did it was just a few days here or maybe a week there, and it was never enough time, but it satisfied their demons, for now. Their bond wasn’t straining, but they did yearn for the other to be closer.

Kagome’s eyes began to tear up. “I miss you too.” She supposed that this is how it would be for the foreseeable future, Sesshomaru was becoming a rising kendo star, and beginning to get sponsors from companies, as well as more fans. In their society, athletes without mates were more sought after, with the thought that an unmated youkai would be better suited for traveling for competitions.

His management had been able to hide his bite mark well, outside of competitions, during interviews and press runs. Every time Kagome saw Sesshomaru without her bite mark, she felt an inexplicable sadness fill her, and her fox felt as if they weren’t good enough for their mate, even though they FaceTimed every single day. 

Sesshomaru was the alpha of the two, he wasn’t supposed to have a mating mark. No one explicitly looked for a mating mark, but Kagome did, every time a video came out, or every time a new picture was released, a mark that would never show up, even though it was made years before.

They’d just been kids, hadn’t even had their first rut or heat yet, everyone knew that mating bonds only happened after your first rut, your first heat, everyone knew that. So, when Sesshomaru and Kagome had been messing around, testing the waters and figuring out their own feelings for each other that it happened. Sesshomaru had only playfully nipped at her neck, but the feeling had been something Kagome had wanted again and before she knew it there was a large indention in her neck, right where she’d seen so many other people supporting the marks.  A mating bite was supposed to hurt, that was what everyone had said, that there was a bit of blood and that it hurt because your mate was giving you a scar that you were going to keep for the rest of your life. 

It didn’t hurt at all for Kagome, perhaps that was why she had done her own, Sesshomaru had asked her if she wanted to bite him in return and at first Kagome had questioned it, but they were both still so young and so curious that she’d agreed.  They hadn’t expected to end up bonded, the bites hadn’t hurt, but they had glowed and never went away. 

That was how Kagome and Sesshomaru had ended up mated, their parents had been confused and furious, and even the local doctor was stumped as to why they had been able to mate so young, after all they were still kids. There wasn’t anything anyone could do about what happened, and eventually the families got over it and accepted that that was just how things were going to be.  They weren’t however allowed to spend their first heat and rut together, no matter how much their demons had called for each other, how much pain they’d both been under, they were still too young for that, and their parents weren’t allowing the pups to have pups of their own any time soon. 

Five years had passed since then, and for 3 of those years, Sesshomaru had been a rising star, with more and more attention being thrust upon him every year that past, his notoriety superseding him as a force to be reckoned with. Sesshomaru had been training in traditional martial arts his entire life, so it was only natural that Sesshomaru began to do it professionally, and Kagome hadn’t been surprised once others began to pay attention. Sesshomaru had gone one way and Kagome had gone another, but they were still tied together, still bonded for life and no matter how busy either of them got they always made time for each other, even if it was just a call a day.

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“Are you seriously watching Sesshomaru videos again?” This time, it was Kagome who was laughing slightly as she walked into her dorm room after hours of youki practice. Sango was sprawled out on her bed as she stared at the man on the screen. It seemed She had finally figured out how to connect her laptop to the tv, to be able to watch Sesshomaru on an even bigger screen.

“Can you blame me?” a sigh escaped her lips as she looked from Kagome back to Sesshomaru’s interview.  “He’s so perfect, his voice, his movements, I’d die happy if he just said my name once.” A dreamy sigh escaped her lips and Kagome had to press her lips down so she didn’t laugh at her roommate, if only she knew that Sesshomaru did know of her existence, that Sesshomaru knew stories of Sango that she probably didn’t want him to know just because Kagome had found it funny, just like he was going to hear about this and how much she sighed over him.  Kagome wasn’t making fun, it was just amusing, she never thought her roommate would be such a huge fan of him.  Though, Kagome supposed, that was partly her fault, Sango had found her when she had been checking out Sesshomaru’s latest competition at the time and it had been history since then. 

It was at this time that Sango leaned closer to the TV before she tilted her head slightly, and narrowed her eyes. “Why does it look like there’s skin coming off of his neck?” It had only been for the briefest of moments, the fake skin they had placed over Sesshomaru’s mark had rose slightly from the back but in the next shot you couldn’t see it again, everything looked flawless.  “You saw it, too right?” Sango asked as she picked up the device and pulled it back to the section she was talking about.  It was plain as day but Kagome only shrugged lightly.

“Probably some dry skin.” If Sango saw it, how many other people were going to be talking about that later tonight and tomorrow?

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It was Kikyo that interrupted Sango and Kagome at the lunch table, the two had been eating rather quietly, which was a surprise when it was usually loud coming from them and Kikyo, both girls raised their eyes to look at Kikyo before she shoved a piece of paper in their faces, “The schools hosting a Party.” It wasn’t a surprise, the school did it all the time, usually disguised as something but it was just used to help them find potential mates, a lot of the time there were even questionnaires you could fill out if you were especially serious about a mate. 

“I’ll pass.” Kagome had already pushed the flyer away and the two girls looked at her, “What? I’ve no need to go to one of those.” Not that they knew the reason, they always just assumed it was because she was too focused doing her school work, too focused on the future, and while that might have been true there really was a whole other reason.

This time it was Sango who was pouting, “Kagome, come on, just this once, you never go to these.” Kagom gave a firm shake of her head as she looked at the two of them, “You could find your potential mate, or you could just have fun, you know you don’t have to find anyone.” She was trying to talk Kagome into it, she knew, but it wasn’t going to happen.

As Sango and Kikyo kept trying to talk her into it Kagome didn’t notice as the time slipped away, she was usually well on her way to the dorm now, after all her classes were finished, and this was the time that she always called Sesshomaru, the few minutes they had to spare every day just for them.

So, when her phone started ringing Kagome could already feel his eyes going wide, especially since she had left her phone in the middle of the table, all three of their eyes went to the caller id, and while Kagome was thankful she hadn’t labeled Sesshomaru in her phone, she was always terrified because she had labeled him something even worse.  So, as the facetime call from ‘Alpha

“Wait, Kikyo, no.” Kagome was glad Kikyo had missed the button to answer it as she tried to climb on top of the other to get back her phone, and to her horror she saw Kikyo click the answer button and with all her strength she climbed further onto Kikyo and quickly grabbed the phone from her hands before the picture could connect and show Kikyo who was on the other side.

“But Kagome, you didn’t even tell me you had an Alpha!” it was a whine from Sango and before she could answer she heard a voice flow from her phone, “Kagome?”

It was then she stilled, the phone call had connected and Sesshomaru could hear everything, even Sango and Kikyo were quiet as Kagome glanced down at his phone, nearly breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the screen wasn’t showing his face but instead it was filming his thigh.

Kagome quickly pulled the phone up to her face so she could see Sesshomaru, “Hi, yes sorry, I’m here.” She could see Sesshomaru’s amused smile, but Kagome was more distracted as Sango and Kikyo tried to move around so they could see who Kagome was speaking to.

“I want to see your mate!” Sango whined after Kagome moved away from them for the second time.

“No.”

“Please?” Kikyo begged as Kagome began moved further away from them to keep them from looking at the screen to see Sesshomaru, and while she thought maybe it would annoy Sesshomaru it seemed to just amuse him further.

“Is that Sango?” Sesshomaru leaned further towards the screen of his phone,  as if it would help him see Kikyo and Sango as well.  Kagome only gave a nod of her head at the question as she watched and moved away from their bodies as she tried to lean in further to see Sesshomaru, “Do I finally get to meet her?” it was Sesshomaru again and Kagome only shook her head.

“ Aw see! He wants to meet us as well.  Kagome don’t be such a hog!” it was this time Kagome reacted in a small growl, that surprised all of them, even Kagome herself, and as she looked back at Sesshomaru she could see the amused glint in his eye and could hear Sango’s snicker from in front of her.  “Okay, I get it.” 

Another laugh escaped her friends’ lips, “If you need me, or want to introduce me to your mate, I’ll be over here fawning over Sesshomaru.” At those words, Kagome couldn’t help rolling her eyes as Sesshomaru himself laughed.

Okay, baby, I’ll let you go, tell Sango and Kikyo I said hi. I miss you.” The conversation didn’t last as long as it usually did, perhaps it was because Kagome was still trying to hide her phone from everyone else who was around, or maybe something else, but it still didn’t stop Kagome from pouting slightly when the phone call hung up.

However as soon as she had set her phone down and raised her head she saw two pairs of eyes staring back at her, “Uh…. he said hi.” She didn’t want to talk about this, but she supposed since it was out of the bag, and she would have to talk about it at some point. 

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They had at least moved the conversation to her and Sango’s dorm room, so at least Kagome didn’t feel as exposed as she would have had they stayed in the cafeteria.  They’d all made themselves comfortable, except for Kagome who didn’t really want to talk about it at all, but they were her friends, she supposed it was time to tell them.

“Kagome, I’ve known you for three years, how come you didn’t tell me about him? I thought when you’d meet someone you’d tell me straight away.” It was Sango this time who was pouting even more than usual.  This was the moment she supposed to tell the story, the whole truth.

Every ounce of strength she had was going to be needed for this conversation, she already knew that. Where was she even supposed to start?  “Well, he’s the reason I don’t want to go to the party.” Kikyo brushed that off, sure to open her mouth and say something until Kagome pulled down her collar.  Kagome was known for wearing collared shirts, for always looking put together, looking casual but business like, they just thought it was her preference, to keep away the men away , to show she wasn’t interested in mating anytime soon. 

“YOU’RE MATED?” Sango and Kikyo yelled out, after seeing and recognizing the mark for what it was. It took Sango less than a second to process the information before yelling out, “How long? Why didn’t I know? Who?”

It was then she settled into their story, how she had met Sesshomaru, how they’d done all the firsts together and how it had been an accident that they had mated, the only detail she left out was Sesshomaru’s name.  The rest, the bulk of the conversation, was how they’d been keeping a long-distance relationship, she had also left out Sesshomaru’s job, instead saying how his job made him travel a lot, but they hadn’t questioned that bit. 

“So, what you’re saying.” Kikyo finally said after she had finished with her story, “Is that you guys have been mated for a long time? Before you met either of us?” Kagome gave a small nod, “How have we never met him? At all?” that was an excellent question, and even though Sesshomaru had tried his hardest to meet her friends Kagome had never allowed it.

Sango tapped her chin lightly, “Now that you mention it, when you left when you were about to have your heat, you came back smelling faintly like something else.” That caused Kagome to blush wildly, she hadn’t thought Sango would notice, “I pushed it off as your heat giving off a different smell.” 

A smirk pulled across her lips, “So does that mean, since you’ve been mated so long that your heat and his rut sync together? I heard sometimes they do that.” These were not the kinds of questions that she had hoped to get.

“They rarely do that Sango. Even with older couples who have been together for years and years” It was Kikyo that spoke and Kagome figured she’d have to give her answer before they continued to question her sexual experiences.

“Th-They’ve actually always been synced up.” She didn’t look up at either of their faces, hoping that the conversation would finally be put to bed. 

A grin escaped Sango’s face and Kikyo pondered for a moment, “I wonder if it’s because you mated before you fully matured.” At this Kagome could only shrug, that had also been one of the reasons their parents had kept them apart during those times.