The Shikon Princess

17

"That's okay," She says, "I'm closer than the thunder, so you can hear me better right?" He nods slowly and she just carefully brushed his cheek, "So just listen to me and you won't have to worry about that pesky storm bringing up the scary memories, okay?"

"Will you sing to me?" Shippo asks and Kagome just giggles.

"I can try, though I'm not very good at it," She admits, "Is there anything specific you want me to sing?"

"Do you know any lullabies? Papa always told me that mortal princesses know all the best lullabies, since they are usually taught to be good mama's when they marry."

"Well I don't know about that," She says, turning a little red, seeing as she was quite often given music lessons when she was young, and taught many lullabies for that exact reason.

"I think you'd make a really good mama someday, Kagome," He says, making her turn redder and she just shakes her head as she holds him a little tighter. He lets out a small yawn and she just chuckles.

"Shhh," She says quietly, "Just close your eyes and I'll try to help you sleep." He nodded, his eyes already drooping as he cuddled into her chest.

The mortal woman thought a moment before a soft melody came to her, one written on one of the song scrolls from her castle library. Humming for a moment and carefully tucking him against her, Kagome began the soft lullaby.

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

*****

Inuyasha ducked into the chamber and out the storm. He was soaked all the way through his clothes and upon setting down the load of relatively dry wood he'd found in a sheltered place, he crouched and shook himself, splattering drops of water on the open floor. He could hear Kagome singing softly to the fox child in the dark, well protected corner behind the tapestry where she must have tried to set him up.

"Stubborn Wench, he needs to learn to cope with it, not be babied about it," he thought as she continued her song, moving the wood a little closer to the fire so the heat might dry it out before he needed to use it. He felt a calm washing over him as the melody of the lullaby rang in his ears and he lifted his head to glance at her back. he could see the small tuft of red hair and the blue ribbon tied in the kitsune child's head as he rolled a little in her arms and she shifted her bundle, and he couldn't help the vision that creeped in.

The tattered skirt she wore was replaced with that pale green yukata she often wore to bed and her curls were more defined and less matted in the firelight. The tattered, musty ram's pelt was a thick, midnight blue swaddle with stars embroidered in it, familiar and warm. The child's hair was instead a dark black, sheened in silver and the tie was the red of fire rat fur, a totally different child from the one who knew she currently held close to her warmth, whose scent was a milk laced, soothing mix of Kagome's and his own.

He quickly scrunched his eyes shut and shook his head to try to get the image out of his mind. He could never have that. He had promised himself, and her nearly each night, that he would never tarnish her by getting her truly involved with his life. She deserved better and he wished each night he could have taken her up on her offer of trying to dissolve the marriage and allow her freedom back.

Inuyasha damned the fact that his human heart had decided for him to make such a thing unthinkable. That he could never trust her with such a dangerous lure as that damn jewel to be able to live out her life somewhere else, somewhere she could be happy. That he was so severely drawn to protect the young woman that he couldn't let anything happen to her, let alone let her out of his sight.