This is my first time writing and publishing in years! I hope you enjoy~
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Over the course of the past years, nothing went according to what was originally planned. At first, their attraction was taboo, and neither of them wanted to entertain the idea that such feelings were bubbling to the surface.
However, with Inuyasha’s visits to faraway villages becoming more frequent, and the time spent away from him became longer, she could not help her loneliness from affecting her heart.
Her lovers’ half brother began to visit much more often about a year after her return to the feudal era. Though his visits were few and far between, he always stayed for the better portion of a day, and brought gifts back with him for Rin. Kagome was always around, as she had begun living with Kaede and the child when Inuyasha was gone in order to combat the creeping sadness she felt at his absence.
She first felt the tendrils of temptation the fourth time he visited. Their eyes had met during a lull in conversation, the glow of the fire between them illuminating his face and reflecting off of his eyes. She had looked away almost instantly, blood heating her cheeks, and vowed to forever ignore the way her heart skipped a beat. That was not a line she would ever cross.
The first time Sesshomaru acknowledged his attraction to his half brother’s wife was on his seventh visit. A year had passed since he first noticed her cheeks flushing that one quiet night, and he had pondered over that instance quite often. There was no way a woman already betrothed would so openly admire another man; it was almost unheard of, and something that he had least expected from the small woman in front of him. It was on his seventh visit that he could no longer ignore the younger girl’s brief glances. He began catching her eyes in return, and, for the first time since meeting her multiple years earlier, began to appreciate the beauty she had become. No longer was she an adolescent girl who wore peculiar clothes and got angry over trivial matters; she had matured gracefully, and the miko garb that she now donned was much more fitting for a woman of her stature elegance.
She had no children of her own, and she took on the role of a mother to both the fox kit that had traveled with her party so many years ago, and to Rin, the young girl that he had brought back from the underworld. When her yukata became dirty, it was Kagome that washed them and hung them to dry. Kagome was the one to give the child advice when she had questions to ask. Though she had no blood relation to the young girl, Kagome treated her no differently than she would her own child. As Sesshomaru visited the village more, he took notice of her motherly tendencies towards Rin, and it sparked something in him.
His brother be damned, he would have this woman as his.
Glances turned into soft whispers. Whispers turned into fleeting touches. Touches turned into stolen kisses in the silence of the sleeping village. Kisses turned into secret trysts far enough away, and late enough at night, that no one would find them in such a compromising position.
Never in her life did Kagome think she would have to tell her husband that she had fallen out of love with him, let alone that she had fallen in love with his brother. She had pulled Inuyasha aside one day shortly before he left on another trip. For the better part of a year, they had been drifting apart; what remained of their adolescent love had been on the steady incline, and they were both painfully aware. Inuyasha knew that someone else had caught her attention, and though it pained him to acknowledge the fact, he knew he could do nothing about it. Once she broke the news that it was his half brother, however, he could not stop the anger that rapidly overtook him. He left that same night, and Kagome could do naught but remain in her silent hut and cry to herself. For the first time in a long time, she found herself alone.
A fortnight later, she found herself wound tightly in Sesshomaru’s arms, high above the village of Edo. A couple of fires were still visible, even from their height, and for a long while Kagome did not speak, her attention hyper focused on the small, glowing mounds below. He had known that she was going to talk to his half brother, and he had prepared for a bad reaction; what he had not prepared for, however, was how withdrawn his small lover would become. It deeply concerned him, though he would never say it in so many words.
That night, she spoke the one sentence he had been waiting to hear for what seemed like an eternity.
Take me with you.
And he did. For the first time in his long life, he considered himself truly happy. She made him vow to return to the village more often, in order to see her adopted children, as well as her friends; though living in the village would be painful, she still had duties to attend to, and she refused to give those up. Of course, he obliged.
Never again would they have to hide their true feelings. Never again would their love be taboo and shrouded in the darkness of a sleeping village. She would proudly wear his crest, crimson cherry blossoms, on her kimono, and he would proudly walk beside her. She was not a mere human, as many of his court believed. She was his human.
His.