Been working on this all week, twenty minutes to half an hour a day. I need a bit of relaxation, else the thesis would drive me mad. Today it was one full hour, because I wanted to get it finished.

And since many people have been expressing their puzzlement over my choice of pairing, I can only say that I simply go with the pairings that intrigue me. I'm not the type of person who needs to convince everyone else that their 'ship is the only one that should be allowed to exist. In other words, I'm not a 'supporter' of any pairings.

Sesshoumaru/Kagome just strikes my fancy for multiple reasons, in a way that Inuyasha/Kagome does not. Also, I attached a small drabble that goes with the pic, if anyone is interested.

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~ Victorious ~


Sesshoumaru peers through smoke and darkness, eyes still glowing with the last vestiges of his retreating power. Unmoved by the surrounding carnage, perhaps even slightly pleased by the thick copper reek of blood and death -- he is a demon, after all. So he barely feels the deep gashes combat has left in his flesh, the ebbing trickle of his own blood.

In his arms Kagome sighs softly, the first stirrings of returning consciousness. Her right hand moves up to cradle her belly where the Shikon No Tama has finally found an unburdened rest. To Sesshoumaru, nearly spent from what seemed like eons of battle, the weight of her is heavy and full, but he will not even consider setting her down on the bloodied grass. Not as long as he can still hold on, feel her skin, soft and clean and unbroken against his own marred flesh.

The spider is dead. The world has been remade. She has been remade, whole and pure.

She won't remain pure for much longer if he has anything to say about it. It's not as if she needs it anymore anyway. He smirks a little at the thought, wincing as his cracked lip protests vehemently.

The smirk turns into a smile, softer than he'd ever admit it to be, as Kagome nuzzles her face into his chest. Soon she will wake up, subjecting him to much mushiness and indignities like hugging and ear-rubbing. He'll bear it with stony-faced composure as befits the Lord of the Western Lands -- even when he is half-naked and his hair is a filthy mess.

He'll even survive her tearful reunion with her friends, her hugging the mutt and his anatomically correct clay puppet -- he's magnanimously decided to give her five minutes to get that pesky farewell thing over with -- and then they'll go home. To his human girl and her fox kit, who are doubtlessly frantic with worry althought they should know better than to doubt a warrior as great as he is.

A small fist curls against his chest.

"Sesshou...?" Kagome murmurs, and the sound of her voice makes him want to growl and purr all at once. Needless to say, he restrains himself. But he does bend down a little, managing to pull that off quite nonchalantly.

"Oi, dog breath," Inuyasha yells, ruining a perfectly good reunion moment, "She up yet?"

Ah. It seems her five minutes will have to begin a little earlier than planned. Pointedly ignoring his brother, Sesshoumaru takes Kagome's hand in his own battered one.

"I'm here," he says quietly, kissing her forehead instead of her mouth like he wanted to. And starts counting.

One. Two. Three...

"Oi, aniki, stop hogging her!" Inuyasha demands, not bothering to get up because Kikyo is fussing over him and that sort of thing doesn't happen very often.

Four. Five.

"Wha--?" mutters Kagome, blinking sleepily up at Sesshoumaru.

Six.

And time slips into a brighter future, taking the present with it.

Whack! "Not in front of my brother, you pervert!"

Seven. Eight.

Well, certainly brighter for some.

Nine. Ten. Eleven.

And Miroku kisses Sango anyway, because after one's been dead, mere pain just isn't the deterrent it used to be.


- The End