Seasons by mythicamagic

Chapter 1

Tumblr prompt: "you make me feel alive. for the first time ever, I feel like I can breathe"

This one is inspired by overplaying Hozier songs.

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Spring

He's a taciturn creature by nature; always had been. Since silver inuyoukai were so rare, many assumed him to be a staple of his kind- a representative for how all demons of his species and calibre acted.

Kagome knew that wasn't the case, having gotten to know him. Having met the demons at his stronghold and witnessing their behaviour. Rather, Sesshoumaru was an exception to the rule, not the norm.

Sesshoumaru conducted himself rigidly in terms of confronting emotions. He repressed them. For everything else; killing, protecting, hunting he did so sharply, carefully. Perfectly. He was young and arrogant despite his age, unblemished white snow on red hydrangeas; unshakable in his beliefs despite the human children who adored him.

After coming to appreciate his straightforwardness and- most confusingly of all- befriending the unsociable demon, she'd sought to crumble that insurmountable wall. She wanted the glaciers to melt. To swim in those still waters that ran deep. Keeping himself at arm's length from everyone couldn't be healthy, she'd wagered. He was surely missing out on the rich flavours of life, deaf to laughter and cold to gentle touch.

So she invites him to dance at a villager's wedding.

Golden eyes narrow, flitting about the strangers making merry at the celebration. All so loud. All so human and abrasive in their display of feelings.

With a sneer, he dismisses her.

Summer

He is protective, even if he calls it by other, more respectable sounding names. Kagome feels his gaze on her back, warming it hotter than the blazing sun beating down upon her form. Sesshoumaru is a silent sentinel while children play, the reserved, standoffish presence at gatherings. Kagome comes to realise it's because he's always watching, observing. Listening for danger. It made people uncomfortable.

She labels it as something affectionate, which he does not appreciate. When her bare skin pricks with the awareness of a honeyed gold gaze, her form barely concealed by a swimsuit due to the hot weather- Kagome feels a thrum sing down to her belly. It's suddenly too humid, and that ice briefly melts, leaving something raw, passionate, fiery- until it's gone. The burning embers are snuffed out, mastered once more. He will not allow weakness in.

She invites him to dance at Inuyasha's wedding.

The Daiyoukai looked at all the happy faces of her friends, finally landing on her. She can't quite hide all the aches and pains of her failed first love; lingering there in her watery eyes, despite the brave face she's painted on.

Sesshoumaru declines to join her.

Autumn

Blackberry juices stain her lower lip and fingers purple like bruises. Brown leaves crunch beneath her boots as Kagome helps villagers prepare for harvest.

Sesshoumaru slinks on the outskirts of her vision, ever unchanging as her hands become rough with peasants work. Modern life seems so far away now. Cool air renders his immortal breath visible, and on more than one occasion Kagome discovers his true form huddled inside a cave, sleeping the days away. Battles have all but stopped- warring people and demons alike too preoccupied with preparing for Winter's bite to engage in needless fighting.

Without the bloodshed, the Killing Perfection is at his most vulnerable. Exposed to ridicule. Unnecessary. Purposeless. There is no need for him in peacetime.

Kagome makes a place for him. She requests a hut be built within Inuyasha's forest near the Bone Eater's Well and takes it upon herself to live outside the comforts of the village, if only to better bridge the divide between himself and others.

Sesshoumaru frequently haunts her doorway the second it's built. He stretches out by the fire to warm his chilled body like the domesticated dog he wasn't.

The children are all grown now. Kagome pines for some of her own.

She invites him to dance at Rin and Kohaku's wedding.

With a conflicted, confused look, Sesshoumaru quietly tells her 'perhaps another time.'

Winter

Getting snowed in by herself causes Kagome's heart to shake and horror to freeze the blood in her veins. She tries her best to cope with the conditions alone, preserving food and keeping wrapped up. But surviving alone isn't what she's built for.

Luckily, it's what Sesshoumaru excels at.

He finds purpose again through killing, though not in a way that he expects. Dead animals are dragged to her door, skinned. When their furs aren't enough, Sesshoumaru sighs and invites her closer.

They make love during a snowstorm, their auras rising. Inside his dome of youki, Kagome hears all the things he could not speak of out loud- like he knew foreign words but could not piece together the language.

'You make me feel alive,' he panted, teeth bloodied from burying into her shoulder in a hard bite. 'For the first time ever, I feel like I can breathe.'

He's gone by the morning, and she feels all the colder for it.

However, she finds he returns like the ebb and flow of the tide. With each glide of the surf landing upon the rocks, the wild demon lingers just a little longer in her bed, until her stomach is round with their child.

She invites him to dance at their wedding.

Sesshoumaru meets her gaze, as unblemished as the day she'd befriended him so many years ago. It's she who has changed- the proof of it kicking inside her. However, when he smiles with his gilded, golden eyes- she knows the insidious effects of change are there, hidden in plain sight like the coming touch of Spring melting Winter anew.

The demon accepts her hand with a tight grip.