A/N: It's been some time since I wrote a new fic but I hope I haven't quite lost my touch.
I may write a part two to this. I haven't decided yet.
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Kagome stopped short at the prone body of Sesshomaru laying at the base of a tree in InuYasha's Forest, covered in blood.
At first, she thought perhaps he was asleep and the blood wasn't his own.
But as she cautiously stepped closer, she realized he had several wounds that were slowly oozing blood beneath his damaged armor.
He also wasn't unconscious.
"What happened to you, Sesshomaru?" she demanded as his gaze met hers. His pupils were dilated with pain he was likely too proud to voice. "And where are your swords?!"
He chuckled dryly though he winced at the movement. "Left them."
She put her hands on her hips. "You left them?" she demanded. "Are you an idiot? Why would you leave your swords behind?"
He shrugged one shoulder, ignoring how that motion caused one of his wounds to gape wider and bleed even faster. "A challenge," he said, licking a drop of blood away that had been rolling down his face from a cut on his forehead.
"You left your weapons at home for a challenge?" She gaped at the daiyokai, wishing she had something to throw at him. "You are an idiot, Sesshomaru! What would have happened if I hadn't found you? What if you'd been killed? Seriously, who leaves behind their swords just because they're bored?"
He began chuckling again. "As if the bears could have killed me." He seemed thoroughly amused at the notion and kept laughing.
Kagome took a deep, steadying breath, and decided Sesshomaru was probably just delirious from his wounds, blood loss, and a possible fever. He was lucky she'd gotten cabin fever in winter and had gone out to forage for what food and medicinal supplies she could find. Only the kami knew what would have happened to him if she hadn't.
She wished InuYasha was around to help, but he'd gone to help Miroku with a yokai slaying to help replenish their low winter stores, and then thought better of it. The last thing she wanted was her best friend and his brother bickering in her hut.
Especially with Sesshomaru in the odd mood he was in now.
"Well, I'm not going to leave you here. You can come stay with us until Jaken inevitably finds you," she grumbled, gingerly helping the daiyokai to his feet. Wherever the retainer was, he clearly hadn't been allowed to tag along to the fight, given that he was nowhere to be seen now.
He seemed bemused by the gesture. "Why not simply leave me here?" he asked as he teetered on his feet. "Jaken will no doubt show his face eventually."
Kagome scoffed. She had the feeling Jaken had all the bedside manner and finesse of a two ton safe. "I'm not leaving you here to freeze," she informed him, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She had to admit, she was surprised at how docile he was acting. "Where is Jaken, anyway?"
"He would have interfered," Sesshomaru said with a sniff.
"Yeah, well, I don't blame him," she said, taking a slow step forward to test his balance. He teetered but she was able to keep him steady enough that he didn't fall over. "How many yokai were there, anyway?"
"I did not bother to count." He sniffed in disdain as they began walking back down the path Kagome had come. "Nor did I count the bodies after. Only a fool feels the need to do such to brag."
She bit her lip but couldn't stop her retort. "And challenging them without weapons wasn't foolish?"
He somehow managed to glower down at her, his expression haughty, even as she supported him. "I have still have my claws. It's a pity they weren't more of a challenge."
She almost dropped Sesshomaru in astonishment. "Any more of a challenge and you'd be dead, you bloody idiot," she hissed.
"I held back." He brushed his several locks of hair haphazardly out of his face.
She stared up at him, incredulous. "What?" She wanted to shake him. "What did you do, try to fight them with only one hand or something?"
He raised his chin.
"Oh heavens help me," she muttered to herself, though she was aware he could hear her. "Find some other way of entertaining yourself that doesn't involve getting beaten up for fun, Sesshomaru, or people are going to think you enjoybeing hurt."
"As if those bears could seriously hurt this one," he said imperiously. "These wounds will heal by the end of the day."
She glanced up at the sun as her hut came into view. "Somehow I doubt that," she grumbled, noting that it was already midday. She managed to open her door without dropping her patient and then gingerly helped him over to one of the beds.
She offered up her own, not wanting to hear InuYasha bitch about having to smell his brother in his bed later.
Sesshomaru relaxed against the bed as his eyes curiously studied the hut. "You never mated the hanyo," he noted as he inhaled deeply.
She flushed in surprise, not sure if he'd scent the lack of intimacies or if he'd simply noted how far apart their beds were. "No, we never married," she said with a shrug. "We figured out pretty early on that it wasn't a good idea."
She'd been back for almost a decade but her relationship with InuYasha remained platonic. She wasn't upset about that now, though she hadn't found anyone else she really wanted to marry, either, since InuYasha.
He studied her intently. "Why not?" he probed. "I was under the impression you found him a fitting mate."
Her brows raised in surprise. "You didn't know? InuYasha and I haven't been together in that way for almost ten years. There's someone else he's interested in now. I thought you knew."
"Why?" he asked, looking surprised.
"Rin." She shrugged as she turned to her medicinal supplies. "She means well, but she cannot keep anything to herself to save her life."
His expression clouded. "You do not mean that Rin—"
"What?" She dropped a roll of bandages. "No! Rin has someone else in mind."
"Then who?" he pressed, his lips thinning.
She picked up the bandages and turned back to her patient. "Another hanyo," she explained succinctly. "Now this is going to sting," she continued, indicating the disinfectant, "but it'll ensure you don't get any diseases or anything from your wounds."
"Yokai do not get sick," he scoffed.
"I wasn't asking," she replied, matching his haughty tone as she began to liberally apply the disinfectant. "Don't move too much or you'll reopen the wounds. I'll remove as little of your clothing as I can, but I am going to treat you."
He didn't so much as hiss as the disinfectant was applied to his skin. She wasn't sure if that meant he wasn't bothered by the sting or if he was simply too proud to show his pain to a mere human. In the end, she decided, it didn't matter so long as he allowed her to treat him. She worked quickly, cleaning and then bandaging his wounds to prevent infection or contamination. She doubt that anything could really harm him, as he'd said himself, but it made her feel better to try and help so she didn't bother to stifle the urge.
Once done, she quickly and efficiently righted his clothing.
"Such small hands," he observed as she tucked her supplies back on the shelf InuYasha and Miroku had built for her. "Yet these hands destroyed Naraku."
She glanced down at him in surprise. "I should check you for a kitsune tail," she said, suspiciously looking him over as he lay prone on her bed.
He snorted. "As though one would dare impersonate me."
She chuckled. "I suppose that's true." She fussed with the bedding, trying to ensure he was comfortable. "Feel free to stay here until you're better," she offered with a warm smile. "InuYasha left this morning and he won't be back for a couple of days, so take all the time you need."
He didn't say anything as she got up and made her way to the door. She figured she should probably let Sango know of her guest in case her friend decided to visit with her growing brood.
"Why?" he asked as she opened the door.
She turned to find him studying her. "Because I want to help you," she said simply and then left to head to her friend's. There was another reason to visit Sango; the slayer had the recent kill InuYasha had made to hold them over until the men's return and Kagome wanted some of the bones with rich marrow and some raw meat for Sesshomaru. She wasn't sure if he'd be thrilled about eating it, but if he wasn't, she could always make a stew for herself.
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She returned to find Sesshomaru how she left him. If he'd moved at all, she saw no trace of it.
"I brought you something to eat," she announced as she closed the door behind her.
He sniffed the air and then rolled his eyes. "What is it with human females and their desire to feed this one human food?"
She shrugged. "If you don't want it, I'll eat it." She wasn't about to let good food go to waste simply because Sesshomaru had a penchant to be dramatic. "I just thought it'd help you regain your strength and speed up your recovery."
He had an odd expression on his face then, one she couldn't quite read. "Why?"
She rolled her eyes then, uncaring that they were both too old to be doing that. If he could do it, so could she. "What is that, your favorite question, Sesshomaru?" She set the wrapped meat and bones down next to him in case he changed his mind and then began to build her banked fire so she could cook with it. "Not everyone has ulterior motives."
"Perhaps not in your world, Kagome, but in mine, they do."
She turned to see his flat expression. "In that case, I feel for you," she said evenly, moving her cooking pot over the fire. "Everyone deserves to have somewhere they can go and be themselves. Besides," she added with a shrug, "I like to think we're friends."
"You are an odd human." Despite the terseness of his words, he chuckled. "Perhaps I am odder to be grateful for that."
She didn't press him to explain the oddly cryptic words, sensing he wouldn't bother to explain even if she'd asked. "You're welcome here anytime, Sesshomaru."
She saw him raise a brow as she began gathering ingredients for a stew. "And what of InuYasha?"
"What of InuYasha?" Kagome shrugged again. "I think it's about time you both learned to get along, don't you?"
"Hnn." She heard him rustle and then he was at her side, reaching for a bone and chomping into it with a loud crunch that made her feel a bit ill. It was too easy for him to break through the bone and she was reminded again of how he wasn't human. "And what of you?"
She blinked, taken aback, as she grabbed her cutting board and knife. "What of me?"
"Do you wish me to return, Kagome?" Sesshomaru somehow managed to look rather seductive saying that, despite the fact that he was currently in the middle of extracting raw marrow from bones with his long tongue.
"Sure," she said with an indifference she didn't feel. "I said you're welcome here and I meant it."
He set aside his bone and eyed the cutting board as she began to chop a cabbage for the stew. "Hnnn. Your knife is rather inefficient, isn't it, compared to claws?"
Just how bored was Sesshomaru? She was beginning to suspect quite a lot if he was willing to attack other yokai without weapons and armor, insinuate he'd be visiting her more often, and now was sitting around evaluating her kitchen preparation skills.
Dubiously, she asked, "Did you want to cut something for the stew?"
She'd fully expected him to say no, citing that such tasks were beneath him, so she was astonished when he simply grabbed another cabbage from her pile of vegetables and mushrooms and chopped it straight into the pot with neat, clean movements.
"Wow." She had to admit she was impressed. His pieces were all uniform in length and had been chopped in the fraction of the time it would have taken her. "Do another one."
She probably should have stopped to think about the wisdom of ordering Sesshomaru around, but evidently he was bored enough not to mind. He ended up reaching for a mushroom and dicing it. Without her biding, he continued his way through the pile, even chopping up the chunk of venison she'd brought with her for him and then dumping it into the pot.
He raised a daring brow when he was done, as though expecting her simpering praise.
"Okay, I'm impressed," she said, seeing no harm in giving him the praise he'd obviously wanted. "Everything you cut looks perfect."
"Hmm. Of course." He shrugged off the praise but he seemed pleased as he watched her add the broth and then move the pot directly over the fire. "When will it be ready?"
She wondered if he was planning to stay for dinner after all and was glad she'd thought to prepare more. "Not until after the sun sets, at the earliest."
He nodded and then reclined back on her bed. "You will wake me," he said and then without another word, fell immediately asleep.
Kagome could only gape at him.
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When the stew was ready, she dutifully woke Sesshomaru, though the entire experience seemed surreal. She handed him a bowl of stew wordless, which he accepted, and to her surprise, he ate without complaint.
"Let me see your wounds," she said once they'd both finished eating.
He simply shrugged out of his haori and allowed her to see that he had, in fact, healed.
"Well, you look healed up," she said, noting his smug expression. "Did you want to see Rin before you go?"
"Go?" he echoed, raising a brow. "Did you not offer up the usage of your home to me whenever I desired?"
"Uh." She swallowed. "I did, yes."
He settled back against the wall by her futon. "Then I will not leave. Rin is, of course, free to visit if she wishes," he dictated as though this was his house and she was his guest rather than the other way around. "I would like some tea."
Great, she thought to herself, preparing a kettle to brew tea for both of them. Well, they say no good deed goes unpunished.
She wondered if she should find another bed for their guest or if he would leave before it really became an issue. She could always sleep in InuYasha's bed for now, but that wouldn't last once he returned.
The kettle whistled and she poured two cups of tea before handing him his.
"This is acceptable," he announced, taking a sip.
It was then that she fully realized what had happened. Sesshomaru, in his infinite boredom, had found something new to amuse himself with: Kagome herself.
Well, shit, she thought to herself as he grinned at her, his expression smug. InuYasha is going to have a cow.
And then, How am I going to make it through winter cooped up with the two of them together?