A/N: This came about because I had a migraine (for the second day in a row) and couldn't sleep because of it, and I wondered what might happen to give Kagome migraines. This weird thing kind of about ki was the result of that.

Kagome gritted her teeth, biting back a moan as pain shot through her. Not again. This is the fourth time this week. They're happening more often again.

Sesshōmaru-sama confronted Inuyasha and she squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't be bothered to care right now, especially when she was pretty sure he didn't even actually want Tessaiga any more. It didn't matter. Not when it felt like someone was drilling through her skull and into her right eye. Or maybe from her right eye into her skull – she couldn't be bothered to discern where the pain began and ended, not when it was so overwhelmingly excruciating. She took deep, slow breaths, trying to just breathe through it, trying to make sure that nobody knew what was going on, when Sesshōmaru-sama unleashed his whip, and suddenly her whole body was searing agony, and she screamed, no longer caring about anything so long as it stopped.

The scream of agonising pain coming from the miko immediately caught Sesshōmaru's attention, as her ki exploded out of her body in a five metre radius, causing his eyes to widen and him to grab his idiot half-brother to keep him where he was. "Unless you are wishing to become ningen it would be best if you stayed back, hanyō."

His half-brother subsided, shooting him an irritated and confused and worried glare, as Sesshōmaru strode up to the miko. He recognised immediately what was going on, considering it had probably been him that worsened the situation – the timing between him unleashing a yōki attack and her immediate scream was no coincidence, but… A ningen? Then again it was not like the indecently-clothed miko had reiryoku – her powers were pink, not blue, and obviously granted to her by the Shikon – so it was definitely possible. Still, he would double check before coming to a decision. He easily stepped into the sphere of her ki, shivering from the tingle of her purification abilities – she was not strong enough to do more than sting him at the moment, although that would likely change with proper training, which, if her ki was indeed reacting like yōki did when untrained for too long, he would be giving her. No matter how much anyone protested.

He finally reached her side with a few long strides and crouched down to her. To her credit, she was not even whimpering now; he wondered how long she had been hiding the symptoms from her tachi. "Miko. You have a headache."

"Migraine," came the strained reply.

Probably a future term for the kind of headache she had. "Describe it to this Sesshōmaru."

She inhaled and exhaled steadily and deeply a few times before answering – highly impressive that she could control her breathing despite the incredible pain she must be experiencing. "Shooting, stabbing pain. Feels… like… like someone is drilling from my skull to my eye. Or maybe the other way around. Hurts too much to tell."

Hn. Indeed. A ningen experiencing exactly what a yōkai did when gone untrained for too long. How intriguing. "This Sesshōmaru knows how to fix this situation, although it will get worse before it gets better, and will require you to separate from your tachi until you are better."

She hesitated – oddly enough not from fear or wariness, but with consideration. "Am I a danger to them right now, and will this just get worse and worse like it has been unless I do this?"

He responded bluntly, "Yes, to both, miko. How long has this been going on?"

She shuddered lightly, controlling her breathing again. His presence – the presence of a teacher and trainer – was likely worsening the pain, even though his yōki was suppressed at the moment. She answered after a few breaths, "T-three months. At first it was just once a week, then twice, then thrice, and now four times this past week."

It took a moment to translate – ah, yes; "month" was approximately a moon and "week" was a sennight. "This Sesshōmaru is impressed with your fortitude. Most yōkai do not last so long before losing control of their yōki."

That strengthened her resolve and she nodded, biting her lip as she did so. "I'll go."

Good. Eminently sensible. Sesshōmaru stepped away from the miko and out of the sphere of her ki, informing the group around him – who had not said anything about how he was acting, wisely enough – of what would be happening and why. "For some reason the miko is reacting as a yōkai does when they do not get training. This Sesshōmaru knows how to deal with this situation and will be taking the miko to his shiro until her abilities can be controlled to an extent that she will no longer experience headaches, debilitating or otherwise."

Inuyasha was scowling blackly, "You act like we ain't coming with the wench."

He glared at the hanyō, "Your presence would not be even remotely tolerated where I live, the majority of the residents of my shiro have been severely harmed by ningen. This Sesshōmaru's home is a refuge and he will not allow his subjects to suffer when it can be prevented. The miko will be bad enough; the rest of you would be far too much."

The monk stepped in before Inuyasha could retort something back to him, "Would you at least keep us informed as to her health and her progress, Sesshōmaru-sama? Shippō will be worrying constantly otherwise."

Sesshōmaru tilted his head. He had forgotten about the talented kitsune kit that viewed the miko as his mother. Hn. Bringing him along would be incentive for the miko to progress more rapidly and help his subjects remember that not all ningen were hateful of yōkai – Sesshōmaru knew for a fact that the miko did not treat yōkai with anything but the same respect she afforded anyone else unless they had previously harmed her, and even that could be gotten over. After all, he had attempted to kill her twice upon meeting her, and she still was willing to call him by name and afford him a respectful suffix. "This Sesshōmaru will write, but it would be cruel to separate the kitsune from his mother; this Sesshōmaru will take him as well."

The tachi was clearly surprised at this show of kindness, but Sesshōmaru was hardly bothered by it. Instead he walked over to the kitsune and informed the kit, "You will be allowed to watch the training once she has progressed far enough not to be a threat, but as you can clearly see, she would harm you if you went close to her now."

The kitsune – Shippō? Yes, Shippō – nodded solemnly. "Thank you for being willing to fix Kagome, Sesshōmaru-sama, an' thank you for letting me come along, but how will we get there when I can't go near her right now?"

Perceptive boy. That was a kitsune trait though, so Sesshōmaru was not surprised at his thoughtful words. "This Sesshōmaru is about to temporarily fix the issue."

Then, true to his word, he walked over to the miko and laid his hand across her forehead, sending his yōki into the channel that was forcing her ki out of her body and sealing it closed. The glow and tingle around him abruptly blinked out, and he picked the trembling miko up in his arm, cradling her small form against his body, before walking over to the kit. "Climb up mokomoko-sama, kit."

Then he addressed the group again, "This Sesshōmaru will send Jaken with a letter every sennight. Good luck and do not let things fester without the miko around or she will be displeased."

Shippō was situated on his shoulder so he curled mokomoko-sama beneath him and channelled his yōki into it, causing him to rise into the air and fly forwards towards his shiro, half a dozen plans simmering in the back of his mind. The most important of which was making sure he could see if the miko would return his interest in her when separated from people who would prevent it otherwise.

When Sesshōmaru arrived at his shiro the miko was feeling considerably better, and curiously looking around, sheer delight on her features as she observed his home. He dropped her off in a room in the family wing and gave her kit the room next to her, informing the two of them that once her training had progressed to the point she was no longer unable to tell when the headaches would come upon her they could share a room. It was a good thing that he stopped by when he did otherwise she might have accidentally harmed her kit.

Then he went and informed his subjects of the situation. They protested, but he quelled them, "You do not have to interact with the miko, but she needs training and is necessary for the fate of the world to smoothly unroll. Kira."

The yōkai he addressed was one of the servants who had deep indigo hair, amber eyes, and tanned skin. She was also one of the most affected yōkai he had in his shiro – her entire clan had been slaughtered by ningen. She would do for his plan to get the yōkai under his protection accustomed to the presence of the miko – he would listen to their inevitable confrontation. Not that the confrontation would be at the hands of the miko, but Kira would be unable to go more than a sennight before exploding in rage and confusion. "You will serve the miko whilst she is staying here. This Sesshōmaru expects you to treat her with the respect you would a yōkai who is powerful enough, with proper training, to harm this Sesshōmaru."

She bit back what was likely a complaint, before she bowed to him and left the room after being informed of where the miko was staying. Then he went to collect his new charge. His suppression would only last another candle mark or so.

When they reached the dojo he pulled his yōki out from her body, and the pink ki sphere was around them again, the miko gritting her teeth in obvious pain. "This will not be easy, miko, but you must control it. Feel, Kagome," the first step to getting her interested in him was to be respectful towards her, and whilst calling her "miko" was respectful for yōkai, for ningen it probably wasn't, "and tell this Sesshōmaru where your ki is."

She breathed in a controlled manner again, before telling him, "All through my body?"

He nodded firmly. Good. Her lack of training meant that she had no (or few) bad habits to undo. "This is good. It should be. Take the ki outside of you and pull it back inwards, to join the rest of your ki."

She did as he told her, and blinked in shock. "But- I- I didn't do anything! Why does it not hurt any more?"

"Your body is unused to holding your ki outside of it excepting in controlled conditions. It exploded outwards to relieve the pressure of being in the presence of a teacher and to relieve the pressure of the build up, but now that you are beginning to control it, it understands that you need to take small steps. Next time it will take more than just this to relieve the pain – and the pain will be more frequent from this point on, requiring training several times a day. My presence was necessary, but it will exacerbate the problem because now that you have a trainer your ki will demand that you be trained."

The miko tilted her head curiously, "So is it sentient, then?"

Sesshōmaru nodded, "Your ki very likely is, and yōki is; reiryoku and hōriki do not seem to be so."

"Huh. Wow. I wonder…"

Sesshōmaru watched as the miko concentrated, but nothing happened. Of course, this was expected. Until now she had been unable to call her power to the fore unless she was in danger, and couldn't reliably even do it then all the time, although she was much better than she used to be. "It will take time and training for you to be able to call it up as you please."

She blinked and looked up at him, "Oh! No, I was – thank you for letting me know that, but I was seeing if the voice I could hear comforting me and telling me that it wouldn't be long before the problem got fixed was my ki. It didn't happen all the time, only when I happened to have one and you were around, now that I think about it."

He raised an eyebrow – she could hear her ki? That was control an order of magnitude greater than most yōkai ever bothered with. Sesshōmaru could easily do it – he had had the best trainer possible, of course – but very few yōkai ever learned to get more than impressions from their ki. "That is indeed unexpected. You are very powerful, Kagome."

Kagome flushed deeply at the compliment – that was a good sign – and bit her lip in an adorable manner. "I… Um… Thank you."

Then she took in a deep breath and asked him, "Sesshōmaru-sama, do you have a suggestion for how I could ask Shippō-kun to call me "Mama"? I feel like he's been holding back because he doesn't know how I'd react, but I don't want to embarrass him either."

Sesshōmaru allowed his lips to quirk up into a small smile, which clearly surprised the miko, and said, "Just asking him straightforwardly would be best – kitsune are not straightforward and attempting to come about it in any other way is likely to end up with him misunderstanding your desire. This Sesshōmaru is pleased with your acknowledgement of the bond between the two of you."

Blue eyes darkened some and she said softly, her gaze wistful, "I couldn't before – I wasn't sure how Inuyasha would react… For all that he doesn't actually love me as anything but a friend, he's possessive of me and gets jealous really easily. But he's not here right now which means I can do things I never could before."

He rested his hand upon her head, and said to her, softly and seriously, "You are free to do whatever you wish here, this Sesshōmaru will not restrain you or hold you back from doing anything you please, Kagome."

He knew that she would not wish to hurt those in his care, so she could do whatever she wanted to do. "Do… Um, do you have a library?"

That earned her a small smirk and a nod, "Of course. Ask your servant to show you around and ask to be shown the library first."

Her return smile was brilliant. "Thank you, Sesshōmaru-sama!"

Kagome gritted her teeth in frustration and pain and asked Sesshōmaru-sama, "Is there no other way to do this?"

He shook his head and informed her, "You cannot call upon your ki normally, so the training can at this moment only happen when your ki is acting on its own."

She nodded, still in pain and frustrated, but understanding where he was coming from, "Okay so now what do I do?"

He hummed lightly and said to her, "Feel your ki again – this time notice everywhere it is, and work on intentionally channelling it how it should be properly channelled."

Kagome asked him, instinctively knowing that he wasn't telling her because he wanted her to ask, "And how should it properly be channelled?"

Sesshōmaru-sama responded to her query with ease, "First through your bones, then your muscles, then your veins, then through your blood, and only then pushing out of your body."

She did as he said, retracting her ki – which was surprisingly easy to do – and focusing on her body. First in my bones like this, then in my muscles, like this, then in my… veins? Oh, there they are! Okay now through my blood – that was simpler than I thought – and only now out through my skin and into the air around me.

Her ki formed a barrier around her, and she smiled vividly, exclaiming, "I haven't been able to make barriers, before now!"

He gave her a smile – Sesshōmaru-sama was certainly not what she expected of him – and nodded. "That is because your ki was not being accessed properly before now. You will find that you will progress more swiftly and easily now that you are getting proper training."

She nodded, and he ended the session, leading her to her room. Now that her session was done, she would spend time with her son.

Sesshōmaru smiled as he heard Kagome say to Kira, "Thank you for bringing me dinner, Kira-san."

He had known she would be respectful towards the yōkai he had assigned her care to.

And as expected, Kira was at the end of her rope, as she exploded out, "Stop thanking me! I'm only doing this because I have no other choice, not because I want to! What is wrong with you?!"

He could almost feel Kagome blinking and smiling. "Then you deserve even more thanks from me for caring for me in spite of not wishing to do so. You have been incredibly helpful, especially showing me around the shiro and teaching me how to dress properly."

Kira made a frustrated noise, and said, "What is wrong with you?! Ningen don't thank yōkai! They just kill us at any possible moment!"

The miko huffed softly and said, "Look, I'm not your average ningen. Yōkai deserve respect and cooperation, not being treated as if they are lesser beings. You have feelings – which are stronger than what we feel, and means you deserve more respect than I would give a ningen for the simple fact that even ningen have difficulty controlling their emotions and usually cannot manage it, but a large amount of yōkai are masters of controlling their emotions and expressing them properly. Maybe not how a ningen would, but you are not ningen, you are better than ningen and different to ningen, going all the way through your bodies and even flowing into your culture.

"Yōkai are people too, and deserve to be treated accordingly. Which means I give what I get, and forgive them of things they do to me like I would if they were ningen; hell, not even that, I do one better. Sesshōmaru-sama tried to kill me twice as soon as he met me, but he got over being irritated with my presence and so I forgave him – he was only responding as a yōkai would, which is obliteration of any opponent. As we are no longer opponents, this means that I need not hold a grudge over something which is, from your standpoint, the only sensible thing to do. I strongly doubt I would be able to forgive a ningen for trying to kill me."

He could feel shock radiating outwards through the servant, as she reeled from Kagome's speech. He smirked and held back a pleased growl. This was exactly as good as he had thought it would be. "I…"

Kagome responded to this attempt at speech by telling her, "You don't have to say or do anything, just know that I will continue to thank you and appreciate your service and aid, even if you do not want my thanks and appreciation."

Kira wisely did not respond to this – there was nothing she could do but apologise, and she was reeling too much to properly apologise and mean it, right now. Later she would give an apology. For now, she just left the room, not noticing Sesshōmaru, cloaked as he was, as she headed off to spread the news of Kagome's unusual view on yōkai to the other servants and residents of the shiro. Soon they would begin coming to Kagome in order to get to know her.

Shippō ran in then, and Kira paused, watching the kitsune dash into Kagome's room and listening to the interaction – she had not been interested before, but she was now. Good; this piece of news would lead to even greater acceptance from his people. "Good evening, Mama!"

He could feel Kagome's smile from where he was, and knew that she had embraced her son, "Oh good evening, my sweet boy. How was your day, love?"

Kira left, unwilling to eavesdrop any more, and Sesshōmaru left shortly after her, pleased that his plans were working how he intended them to work.

Sesshōmaru was amused – highly so – when at their next training session, the miko accosted him with a, "You gave her to me on purpose, didn't you? There had to have been other servants who would have been more accepting of me but you probably picked out the worst one! I've had five yōkai come to try to get to know me while I was reading in the library, and before now they were all avoiding me like the plague. You are manipulative, do you know that?!"

He simply smirked at her and began the lesson – she knew the answer already.

Kagome aimed her arrow at the target and infused her arrow with purification, until Sesshōmaru came in and huffed, not in amusement as was usual, but in irritation. Huh? What had she done wrong?

"This Sesshōmaru should have known things were progressing too smoothly. You need to learn how to do without the arrows as an anchor; they are a crutch and prevent your ki from working as effectively, as the arrows can be stopped by barriers, but if you only used your ki, barriers would not stop it."

She blinked, and tentatively offered, "But other miko can't do without the arrows…"

He made a sharp cutting gesture and spoke sternly to her, reminding her that Sesshōmaru disliked her comparing herself to anyone else. His insistence that she should only ever try to be herself, and never anybody else, was heart warming and she had to admit to nursing a crush on the only person besides her son who saw her for herself and accepted her for herself and wanted her for herself, completely ignoring any possible connection she had to Kikyō. Kikyō was a factor that even everyone in her tachi considered when it came to her. "You are not a regular miko, Kagome. You are far greater than other miko, and should adjust your view of your power accordingly. You should not be so limited. This Sesshōmaru is uncertain why ordinary miko and monks cannot use their powers without an anchor for them, but you are not so constrained."

Kagome smiled softly and teased her teacher, "The Sesshōmaru, not knowing something and admitting it? What on earth has the world come to?"

He gave her an amused but otherwise unimpressed look and said to her, confirming something she had to confront him on, just to see how he reacted. "This Sesshōmaru always admits his faults, as it is dishonourable to hide from your imperfections and not attempt to fix them."

"I knew it! Admit it, you haven't wanted the Tessaiga ever since you found out how it kept Inuyasha from going crazy! You just come by every week to teach him, not to try and take it like you let everyone in the group believe you are trying to do."

That got her a surprised blink and a soft chuckle, "You are very perceptive, Kagome. I admit that is the truth. Not the entire truth, but the truth nonetheless."

Kagome flushed a little bit and licked her lips, before looking away from the daiyōkai beside her. She was aware of Sesshōmaru's interest in her by now – he hadn't done a damn thing to try and hide it, but Shippō had been the one to inform her of what was going on – however she didn't know exactly what to do about it. Then again, Sesshōmaru was not pressuring her or expecting anything from her more than she was willing to give him, just letting her know how things stood on his end of things. It was promising for the both of them that she had a crush on him now, but she knew better than to act on anything until her feelings were deeper than just a simple crush. "Okay, so… What do I do to stop relying on the arrows themselves?"

He nodded, willing to let the subject drop as always. He really respected her feelings, which was a far cry from how Inuyasha treated her. "Feel the bow and draw it."

She did as he said, focusing on how the smooth wood and string felt in her hand and fingers, then pulling the string back as she would have if she had an arrow knocked. To her surprise, her ki was spilling out of her hands, and she said, "Huh?" before taking advantage of the situation and pulling her ki out even more, focusing on what her arrows normally felt like, remembering their shape and shaping her purification energy to match it. She was absolutely delighted when, after only a moment's hesitation, her ki did as she was asking it to do.

Kagome shot her ki into the target, which suddenly had a barrier around it and yōki surrounding it. Her ki slammed through the barrier like it wasn't even there, and then rammed into the yōki, obliterating it completely. She squealed happily and jumped into the air with sheer glee. "I did it! Thank you, Sesshōmaru!"

Screw not initiating anything at all until her feelings were more secure, this occasion merited some celebration – so Kagome hugged the daiyōkai, who only took a moment to return the embrace with his one arm. Thinking about that made her feel guilty, and made her wish that she could be held by all of him, not just the part that he had left. Sesshōmaru deserved to be whole and while she liked him just as he was, it wasn't fair to him that he was stuck missing half of his ability to do things.

Suddenly her ki was pouring out of her, and she yelped as it was greedily absorbed by Sesshōmaru's body, which began glowing crimson from his yōki. What the hell was going on?! His arm tightened around her and he hissed, then growled as a bursting sound entered the dojo, and when another arm wrapped around her she gasped in shock. "Wh-what?! How? S-sesshōmaru?"

She looked up and was reassured by the confusion and delight in his gorgeous golden eyes. Her ki returned to her body, humming with purpose and whispering "you're welcome" to her. Well, shit. That was unexpected. "Um. My ki just said "you're welcome" to me."

Kagome flushed as he gave her a look and said, "Oh?"

Just one word, but there were layers of emotions and demands beneath the word, and she complied with the demand to explain, "I… I was feeling guilty over your arm and wishing for both of us that you could hold me with your whole self instead of only what you had due to Inuyasha's violence towards you. I like you as you are – well, were, rather – but it felt unfair to you that you were deprived of so much, especially when you're doing your best to help us all."

He tightened his arms around her and whispered, "Thank you so much, Kagome."

That caused her to blush again, and she rested her head against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart as she in turn tightened her arms around him. "Thank you", she told her ki.

Sesshōmaru nodded firmly as Kagome concentrated on shaping her ki in her outstretched hand, immensely pleased when her efforts yielded a bow forming in her curved hand. It was not the first time she had been able to do this, but this was only her first attempt this session – previously it had taken at least two attempts to form the bow from her ki. This meant it was time to move on to his favoured weapon: versatility was key here, and whilst the miko could now do both long- and close-range attacks using her ki, she needed something that would give her mid-range attacks.

So this time he told her to dismiss the bow, informing her, "This will be significantly more difficult for you to do, Kagome, however it is necessary for you to learn in order to have a well-rounded defence."

Kagome frowned softly, easily divining the reason for his new lesson, and asked him, "Won't my arrows work even when people are closer to me?"

He told her the reasoning behind this, "Your arrows are, frankly, overkill for some situations, Kagome; not to mention even if you use your regular bow instead of forming a bow out of your ki, it takes more energy to use your arrows, as you send them away from yourself and cannot call them back to you. What I am intending on teaching you will not use any more ki than it takes to form it, and will still be able to purify multiple opponents with ease, once you have mastered it."

His student lit up, practically vibrating with excitement as she asked him, "Are you going to teach me to use a whip like your acid whip?! Oh, please say yes, because I've always thought your whip was extremely awesome!"

Sesshōmaru didn't bother suppressing a low chuckle at her excitement; her eagerness would benefit her in learning how to use this, as she would not get frustrated as easily when she actively wished to learn what he was teaching her to do. Not that Kagome had ever been anything but eager thus far, but one never knew – somebody could always take a dislike to something for seemingly no reason. "Yes, Kagome, I will be teaching you how to create a whip from your ki like my own. If you enjoy it so much, then I take it you paid attention to how I used it?"

She frowned slightly, "This is going to be hard, you always are so careful how you hold your body when you use your whip."

He nodded, "The slightest movement can throw the whip off target. Now, attend. For now, firmly place your feet apart in alignment with your shoulders."

Kagome did as asked, stilling herself in the process. Good. "Like this?"

Sesshōmaru made an affirming noise, "Exactly so. Pull your ki from your body and envision the correct shape, approximately two metres long and thin and flexible, narrower at the tip than at the base; be sure to remember to form a handle, the handle should be firm as your bow is."

Her first few attempts were shaky, but then she managed to do it correctly after breathing deeply and slowly for a few moments, which he took advantage of. "Shift your hand up just a few centimetres and watch how the whip moves. Keep your body still, that's correct, just like that."

She watched carefully, telling him, "It responds very swiftly even to such a small change! This is going to be difficult to learn how to predict."

Yes, it would be, but she could manage it. Kagome was far more driven and talented than she thought herself. "I have faith in you, Kagome. That is enough for now, we will continue after you have rested some and spent some time with Shippō."

She pulled her ki back into herself with a determined nod. He knew she would conquer this challenge.

Sesshōmaru watched Kagome and Rin as Kagome taught the little ningen female in his care a game, one that her son was clearly aware of and familiar with, as he was barely paying attention to the recitation. Rin smiled and began playing the game with Shippō, who eagerly participated. Sesshōmaru sat next to the miko as she watched the children play, and she leaned into his body, causing him to wrap an arm around her, flexing the fingers of his newly-regrown hand. He was still amazed about the miracle her ki had pulled off just because she had been feeling guilty over something that she did not even directly cause, over something that was not truly her fault.

Kagome had not told him she loved him yet, but her increase in affection was promising, as was the way she had only just this morning told Rin that she could call her "Mama" like Shippō did.

Things were progressing nicely.

Kagome zigzagged around the dojo, nimbly avoiding mokomoko-sama as she dashed for the first target, slapping it with a glowing, ki-infused hand and dispelling it, before forming a bow out of her ki and shooting an arrow at the next target, jumping over mokomoko-sama and avoiding landing on her face again.

The next hour continued like that, Sesshōmaru chasing Kagome and attempting to trip her up with mokomoko-sama (and frequently succeeding in his attempts) as she dispelled the targets he created either by shooting at them or hitting them (either with her hands or with the ki-whip he was teaching her to form and wield), depending on their distance from her. When the hour was up he grabbed her around the waist, spun her around, and kissed her, making Kagome giggle and kiss him back, twining her arms around his neck and lacing her fingers into his hair. Shippō cheered from where he was sitting, "Way to go, Mama! You did a lot better this time than last time!"

She smiled and Sesshōmaru let her go so Shippō could barrel into her, climbing up to sit on her shoulder after a hug. "I guess… This is it then…"

Sesshōmaru pulled her close again and kissed her forehead, "It is not the end, Kagome. This Sesshōmaru will visit as often as possible, and you can always visit when in the area; your friends will miss you once you are gone, after all. Once Naraku is finished, I would have you move here."

Kagome loved her yōkai friends here, and would miss them too. She was beyond pleased with Sesshōmaru's plan to have her move here. The first week the only person other than Sesshōmaru and Shippō she had seen was Kira, but after her little confrontation with the servant, the other yōkai had begun coming around her and Shippō, and she had made many friends over the past three months.

"An' it's not like Sesshōmaru is done teaching you anyhow, Mama, remember? He'll be teaching you an' me for years yet."

She smiled and nodded. "Right. Okay then, I guess it's time to go back then."

Kagome was looking forward to shocking her friends; she already had a plan and while Sesshōmaru was not privy to it, he had agreed that they should not be affectionate when he dropped her back off with her friends. They didn't need a confrontation the moment she got back, after all.

The confrontation could happen the next time he visited her.

Sesshōmaru was coming! Kagome could feel his familiar and comforting ki drawing closer and closer, and she squirmed in excitement, uncaring of the confused glances that Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha were shooting her. Shippō knew what she was reacting to, and Kirara seemed aware of it as well, as she leapt out of Kagome's lap just as he was drawing near the edge of the camp.

Kagome was up and running towards him before Inuyasha could do anything, "Sesshōmaru!"

She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a deep kiss, which caused her friends to all cry out in shock and surprise. Sesshōmaru pulled back to look into her wickedly sparkling eyes and his eyes were filled with barely suppressed mirth as he asked her, "You did not tell them, miko mine? How cruel of you to shock your friends like that. I approve."

She giggled happily and kissed him again. "I thought you might."

She would explain everything to them later, but for now it was time to train! Kagome was looking forward to her friends finding out the kinds of things she had been learning to do while she was gone, and she gazed warmly at her beloved as he pulled away and began instructing her.

Who would have thought that her ki would change her life so much?