"You, my darling son," Kagome chided Hikaru as she brushed his matted bangs aside, "are a mess."

He grinned at her, not the least concerned at how grubby he was, but he squirmed a little as she approached the large circular bathtub that had been installed in the ground.

She tried not to think too hard on what was about to happen. Though her room had shared a bathing chamber with Sesshomaru since her arrival, both had been careful to try and ensure neither had ever walked in on the other bathing.

Except, of course, when Hikaru had chased Sesshomaru down and violated that unspoken agreement between them by exposing Sesshomaru in the bath.

Her face heated at the memory and she tried unsuccessfully to push it away.

Sesshomaru would be here in any moment and, for her own sanity, she wanted to be safely concealed within the water when he arrived.

She reached for one of the yokai-made soaps, adding a small lump of it to the water for bubbling effect. Hikaru wasn't always the biggest fan of bathing but bubbles usually entertained him long enough to made the ordeal tolerable. "Look at all the bubbles, Hikaru."

He clapped his hands with delight as bubbles filled the tub. "Bubs!" he chirped, toddling closer to the edge.

She scooped him up with one hand and held him as he squirmed, unwilling to risk an accidental slip and fall. With her other hand, she awkwardly disrobed and then, for modesty's sake—though she doubted Sesshomaru himself would be interested in her that way—she grabbed a towel from the small rack by the tub and wrapped it around herself.

Kagome turned back to the tub and quickly removed her son's clothing and then stepped into the water just in time. A moment later, the door to Sesshomaru's room slid open and he stepped inside.

Hikaru had immediately begun struggling as soon as she'd entered the water and she was at once grateful she'd accepted Sesshomaru's help. It seemed that her son was less than pleased about the bath that awaited him.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly, unable to take her eyes off of Sesshomaru as he met her gaze.

"You are welcome, Kagome," he rumbled as he slid the door closed behind him.

Without looking away, he began removing his own clothing, draping it over one of the racks with greater care than she'd been able to do with her own clothing while juggling her son.

Hikaru immediately brightened when he saw Sesshomaru, though now instead of trying to escape to flee the bath, he began struggling to try and race to Sesshomaru.

She sighed and settled more fully onto a built in ledge so she could pull her son flush against her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Sesshomaru as he removed each layer in turn. While she blushed as his skin was slowly revealed, Sesshomaru himself seemed unperturbed.

It was only when he was down to his fundoshi that he paused and seemed to consider something.

She swallowed back a sudden lump. Is he seriously thinking about removing his fundoshi? She suddenly couldn't get enough air in her lungs.

His hands moved towards the end of his fundoshi and, if it had been anyone else, she'd have sworn there was a smug look in his eye as he slowly unwound and removed the fabric, revealing his skin inch by bare inch.

She inhaled but her lungs still burned as he pulled the fabric free of his body.

Kagome knew she shouldn't look, knew she should avert her eyes, but instead she stared right his bared flesh, scoping out every vein, every inch of smooth flesh from the tip down to his sack and the skin around it, swallowing as she noted that there was the lightest dusting of silvery hair right where his flesh met the base of his cock.

I can see all of him, she realized absently, both horrified at her audacity and at his apparent lack of concern.

No, not lack of concern, she realized, as that part of him stirred.

She heard his rumble and realized he was amused as he made his way into the bath, not bothering to cover or hide himself as he slipped into the warm water with a quiet sigh. His eyes slid partially shut as he settled back into the water next to her and she couldn't help but think that this must be how he looked when he was satisfied.

Oh kami, her brain needed to be purified. Her eyes needed to be purified. She was never, ever going to be able to unsee this.

He ran a hand through his hair, pulling some of the damp strands back from his face as he glanced down at Hikaru. At the same moment as he said, "Your son is trying to eat the soap," Kagome blurted, "You're naked."

Kagome felt her face heat as she jerked her eyes away from Sesshomaru and down to her son who was, as Sesshomaru had pointed out, trying to stuff one of the lumps of foaming soap into his mouth. Fortunately, the lump was larger than his mouth was or they'd have had a choking emergency on their hands, but she was grateful for the distraction nonetheless.

She pried the soap from Hikaru's hands as she admonished him. "No. We don't eat the soap, Hikaru," she said as he tried and failed to grab the soap back from her.

He screwed up his face and she recognized an outburst brewing when she saw one. With a heavy sigh, she readied herself to deal with it.

But to her astonishment, Sesshomaru reached out and pulled Hikaru into his own embrace so suddenly the boy stopped mid-cry to stare up at his idol. Sesshomaru rumbled at her son and Hikaru immediately forgot about the soap entirely.

"Thank you," she said, so relieved that she couldn't hold back her own sigh.

"The soap." Sesshomaru inclined the soap in her hand. "I will keep him occupied."

Kagome was so relieved she could have kissed him. She reached out and began cleaning her son, chuckling to herself as Hikaru snuggled into whatever strands of silvery hair he could reach. Sesshomaru kept up a quiet rumble, keeping Hikaru soothed as she gently cleaned the drying and clumping food from his hair and skin.

Kagome then reached out for the shampoo and conditioner and worked both in turn through the slight waves of Hikaru's shoulder length hair. She then cupped her hands to wash his hair clean without disturbing him from the snuggling hold he had on Sesshomaru.

She heard a short snore as she turned around for a towel and she turned back to see Hikaru had fallen asleep against Sesshomaru's chest. Sesshomaru took the towel from her and, with the gentlest look she'd ever seen on his face, wrapped her son in the towel and carefully tucked him into the small woven bassinet Kagome had kept by the bath when Hikaru was younger so he could sleep undisturbed while she bathed.

Hikaru was almost too big for it now, but he settled into the basket with a little sigh and, to Kagome's great relief, continued to sleep undisturbed.

"You have food in your hair as well," Sesshomaru observed as she turned back to him.

Kagome was hardly surprised by that, but she did heave a disgruntled sigh of her own. Hikaru had shoved his hands in her hair as she'd carried him, so it made sense that she'd ended up with food in her hair as well. She moved to check the strands herself, only to be stopped by Sesshomaru's own hands.

"Turn around," he said with an expectant raise of his brow. In his hands, she saw the bar of lathering soap she'd set aside earlier.

Kagome flushed. The commanding tone had given her traitorous mind other ideas. "I-I can wash my hair myself."

"It is unnecessary. It is normal and expected between those in our position and," his voice dropped lower, "it would please me to do so."

Kagome felt her entire body heat but she turned, hoping to hide the look on her face. "O-okay."

She felt his touch a moment later. His fingers, ever careful of his claws, started lathering at her scalp in a gentle massage, working the soap from root to tip. Occasionally, he paused to work out a lump of drying food, but before she would have liked, she heard him say, "Rinse."

She slid beneath the water and washed the soap free, ready to turn and thank him.

Instead, his hand moved to hold her still. "What...?" She trailed off as she felt his claws return to her hair as the faint odor of shampoo reached her nose. Like he had with the soap, he repeated the movements, cleansing her hair with the soap before he had her rinse and then, without a word, he conditioned her hair.

After she rinsed the conditioner from her hair, she turned to face him, biting down on her lower lip as she took a breath, hoping he wouldn't turn her down. "If it's normal and expected," she said, hoping if she explained herself, he wouldn't deny her the sudden urge she had to return the favor, "then I should do the same, right?"

He had rested one arm casually on the edge of the top as he'd watched her rinse but at her request, he turned and wordlessly offered her his back.

She did her best to return the favor, using her shorter, duller nails to scrub at his scalp with more vigor than he could have as she worked in the shampoo. His hair took longer than hers, partially because it was at least twice as long and partially because it was deceptively far thicker than it appeared.

"Rinse," she told him once she'd lathered his hair down to the tips.

Instead of sliding towards the center of the bath as she had, he leaned back and dipped his head right into her lap to rinse the suds free.

She couldn't stop herself from staring any more than she could have stopped her hands from moving to his head to help him rinse the suds free. There was an odd look in his eyes as she did so just before his eyelids dropped. A pleased expression crossed his face and, at the angle he was at, it was impossible to miss that his earlier reaction must have returned.

Kagome resolved herself to ignore his erection because she simply couldn't bring herself to address it. Instead, once his hair was rinsed thoroughly and he'd sat up, she began working the conditioner through his hair, taking pleasure in how silky his hair felt as it slid through her fingers.

Her voice was much shakier this time when she told him to rinse and she wasn't sure she was going to survive helping him rinse the conditioner free.

When his hair was rinsed, he turned to face her, a surprisingly gentle look in his eyes.

"Do people like us," she paused to swallow back her nerves, "um, do things like this a lot? Bathe together, I mean. And wash hair."

There was a small smile at his lips but it grew at her question. "Do you wish to make a habit of this, Kagome?"

She swore there was a seductive lilt to his voice but it seemed so at odds with the Sesshomaru she knew that she had a hard time processing it. "I-I'd like to," she blurted without stopping to consider the ramifications her words might have. "It felt nice."

"Then we shall," he promised her and for a moment, she swore his gaze dropped down to the towel she'd wrapped around her.

He looked ready to say something else, but at that moment, Hikaru suddenly whimpered in his sleep, turning over and grasping through the towel at nothing. He seemed to realize he was alone because he woke and began looking around as his face screwed up what Kagome knew would be the mother of all wails.

Kagome was out of the water before she could think about the possible embarrassment, scooping her son into her arms and rocking him soothingly.

It was only after Sesshomaru had reached for a towel himself that Kagome realized, in her urgency, her own towel had fallen away, leaving her entirely exposed to Sesshomaru's gaze.

She turned bright red, but there was little she could do to hide her nakedness from his gaze without alarming Hikaru.

Sesshomaru stepped out of the towel and wrapped the towel around himself before he reached for a second towel and dropped it around her. His hand then dropped to ruffle Hikaru's damp hair before he made his way out of the bathing room to wait for Kagome to join him to sleep for the night.

Kagome looked down at her son, grateful Sesshomaru had helped her settle Hikaru back down. But she couldn't settle herself back down as she dried them both off fully and dressed them for bed.

Suddenly, she was full of nerves at the idea of sleeping with Sesshomaru. What if he did something?

Did she want him to?

The questions went back in and forth in her mind as she dithered before she finally reminded herself that she was avoiding the issue entirely. She forced herself to reach out and open the door to the bedroom and with a calmness she hadn't realized she was capable of, she made her way to their bedding where Sesshomaru waited.

Yet he said nothing about the incident at all as she settled down beside him. Instead, sensing her nerves, he waited until she had laid down before wrapping an arm around her, using his claws to run through her hair in a surprisingly tender gesture.

And, before she knew it, she had fallen asleep with Hikaru in her arms and Sesshomaru wrapped protectively around them both.