A/N: Prompt - "You are my love."

Kagome sat at the edge of the well, waiting for Sesshomaru's regular visit to the village by the well.

At first, his visits had been random, but they had begun to come with increasing frequency over the last few months. Sesshomaru had sought her company one day with a simple request for Rin's wellbeing but that had turned into conversation.

That conversation had led to another during his next visit and before she knew it, Sesshomaru had begun to seek her out with surprising regularity. After a few visits, he had begun bringing gifts with him. The gifts varied from visit to visit but they were were always practical so she hadn't seen a reason to refuse.

She had an assortment of gifts from him now, including a handprinted kimono for a recent local festival and new drying rack for her healing herbs and spices.

His visits were now at set three day intervals and today marked the third day.

There had to be a reason he kept seeking her out and today was the day she'd finally mustered up enough courage to ask him directly.

"Kagome."

That was something else she'd noticed. Somewhere along the way, he'd stopped referring to her by 'woman' or 'miko' and had begun to call her by her name instead.

She glanced up to see Sesshomaru had managed to once again sneak up on her. "Hello, Sesshomaru," she greeted him, lifting her hand to shade her eyes from the afternoon sun. "How've you been?"

She winced; it wasn't the question she'd wanted to ask, but she'd lost her nerve at the last minute. What if she'd been misconstruing everything? It had already happened once, with InuYasha—if it happened a second time, she wasn't sure she could bear it.

Older and wiser, maybe, but not any braver or stronger, she thought to herself sardonically.

"Well." To her surprise, he took the seat next to her on the wooden lip with a grace she could envy. "And you?"

"Good," she said, proud that she'd managed to keep the waver out of her voice. She took a breath and turned to him but promptly lost it as he turned his full attention to her. "H-have you already seen Rin?"

He gave a short nod of his chin. "Ah-Un is with her."

From that, Kagome guessed that Jaken was also with Rin, but Sesshomaru hadn't bothered to care enough to mention it. She felt a small smile tug at her lips. "What did you bring her this time?"

"A hair pin." There was an oddly melancholic expression on his face now. "She wished to begin pulling up her hair."

Kagome tucked a strand of her own hair behind her ear. "She's getting older," she said, guessing that was what he'd realized, too.

He gave her a short nod but said nothing else about the subject.

It was too raw for him, she guessed, and so she set aside the subject herself. It's now or never, she decided and lifted her chin. "Sesshomaru, why—"

He reached out a clawed hand and slowly pulled back his fingers to reveal a bone hair pin sitting in the center of his palm.

"A hair pin?" She was afraid to look too closely at the gift he offered but her mind could only come up with one reason as to why he might offer her a carved bone hair pin. "Why?" she asked quietly, her heart rising against the dread that tried to weigh it back down.

"It was made from this one's tooth," he said as if that explained everything.

Perhaps it did, she reflected, but she needed to hear the words. She needed to know he felt as she did, for over the last few months, he had drawn her further and further in with his conversation and his quiet care, with the way no need of hers every seemed to slip past her.

But she couldn't bring herself to say the words aloud first and risk breaking her own heart again.

She reached out with shaky fingers to trace the bone, feeling the grooves of the carvings under her fingers, but she didn't take it from him. "I don't pull my hair up elegantly enough to do this justice, Sesshomaru."

To her surprise, he pulled the pin away from her and sank his own hands into her hair, quickly and efficiently pulling her hair up and styling it before he slid in the bone hairpin.

"It suits you," he said when he was done.

With reverent hands, she reached up to touch her styled hair, following it back to the pin he'd tucked into it. "Sesshomaru—"

"No other will do," Sesshomaru murmured quietly. "You have my love, Kagome."

Kagome felt tears well up and she reached to wipe them away.

Sesshomaru's fingers were there first, brushing them away with a gentleness she never would have thought him capable of when they first met.

"You have mine, too," she replied, smiling as she wrapped her hands around his own. "I love you, Sesshomaru."

There was a pleased smile at his lips as he bent his head to kiss her.