Hana’s sleepiness had long diminished, but the uneasiness caused by her nightmare had yet to disappear. She had thought that bathing in the hot spring which she’d found nearby would have helped to placate her unease, but images of her father’s men taking her still ran repeatedly through her mind. As she sat there in the water, she couldn’t help but become startled at every sound and every rustle that she heard. Hana felt that, at any moment, one of them would appear out of nowhere and suddenly attack her. Sulking, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the water.
Where in the world had Lord Sesshomaru gone off to?
Just as she had finished her thought, Hana’s ears picked up the sound of Sesshomaru’s barely audible footsteps. With her arms still folded over her chest (she’d finally learned to cover herself in time) she turned around and saw the dog demon walking towards her.
“So this is where you had run off to.”
She looked up at him, giving him a faint smile.
“We’re leaving here soon.” He turned away from her, about to leave in order to give her some privacy.
“Lord Sesshomaru, wait.”
Sesshomaru stopped, turning around slightly. Hana then paused for a brief moment, questioning what she was about to ask of Sesshomaru.
“Please……stay.”
He turned back to look at her. For a second, it had appeared as if Sesshomaru wore a questioning look on his face. She blushed, frowning a bit. The images from her nightmare still swirled about menacingly in her head.
“It’s silly, I know, but I…”
He looked down at Hana in the water with an understanding look on his face.
____________________________________________________________
Sesshomaru had never really noticed before, but Hana had indeed matured greatly over a short period of time, not only in the way that she acted and carried herself, but physically also. Her long white hair that once reached the middle of her back was now even longer and hung past where her tail should have been. Her figure had become slightly curvier. She also no longer became as flustered as she had used to whenever she was around him – this was obvious as she was now sitting naked in the water in front of him. He thought nothing of it at the moment. He supposed, though, that was partly due to the state that she was in – still somewhat shaken up from her seemingly realistic dream. She was afraid of being left all alone – or so she had told him.
It wasn’t until moments later that Sesshomaru realized that maybe - just maybe - Hana hadn’t really grown that much after all ( in the physical aspect, at least). Maybe it was his finally admitting to himself that he loved Hana that had led to him seeing her that way – seeing her as slightly attractive.
He had heard her scream and he hadn’t even hesitated in jumping to her aid, and when she’d rested her head on him, obviously traumatized, he had instinctively placed a comforting hand on the back of her head. The part of him that always wanted to protect Hana had caused him to quickly rush to her side without question. Similarly, this feeling of wanting to protect the girl was probably what had led to his feelings of “jealousy” when he’d heard that she had gone to fix things with the, now deceased, wolf yokai. A part of him had felt that, after Hana’s confessing to love him greatly, she was to be his and his only.
Never before had Sesshomaru ever believed that he would have been having such thoughts for a female. When he had kissed her, he had managed to convince himself for a while that he had only done it because he did not enjoy seeing Hana so full of uncertainty, but lately he had found that he could no longer deny that there had been more to it. Could it be that when he had kissed Hana, he had felt something, and now a part of him wanted more?
Nonetheless, there was something about Hana that was simply enticing to the dog demon, causing him to want her – to want to have her as his own.
Whether or not he wished to act on these feelings of desire was the only question that remained. If he did, he knew for a fact that Hana would surely not have a problem with it.
He looked at her wordlessly as she sat in the water, running a hand through her hair. A sudden thought came to mind, and Sesshomaru soon found that a faint smirk had formed on his lips
∞
When she had turned around, Lord Sesshomaru was gone. Hana wasn’t sure what to think of it. He had left her alone, but she supposed that he had given her the opportunity to get out of the water without feeling uncomfortable or self-conscious. She shrugged the matter off, quickly hopping out of the hot spring.
Hana soon found herself searching the ground for where she had thrown her kimono. She’d been in such a hurry to calm herself down after her upsetting dream, that she hadn’t paid even the slightest amount of attention to where she’d flung it after taking it off.
She’d been so focused on searching for where she’d left her kimono that she didn’t even notice Lord Sesshomaru appear. It was her bumping into cold, hard demon armor that had caused her to finally look up from the ground. She raised her head to find a pair of bright golden-brown eyes looking down at her attentively, and, strangely, for once, Hana did not avert her eyes
She tried her best at covering herself before attempting to speak:
“I hadn’t seen you there, Lord Sesshomaru. Forgive me. I was just about to…”
“Hana,”
Just as Hana was about to nervously step away, the sound of Sesshomaru’s voice had interrupted her. She felt his hand gently grab onto her upper arm, preventing her from inching away and instead drawing her a bit closer to him.
“You say that you love this Sesshomaru. Tell me. Is this really so?”
At this, Hana tried her hardest to prevent the blood rushing to her cheeks from showing, though it was to no avail.
“I, well – of course,” Surprised at Sesshomaru’s inquiry, Hana had not been able to say much. She loved him greatly, and had told him about two times now; on none of those occasions had Sesshomaru been the one to ask Hana if she loved him.
“And you wish for me to acknowledge your feelings if they are indeed mutual, do you not?”
Her reddening face had given away the answer to that.
As Hana stood there, curiously looking up at Lord Sesshomaru, it felt as if he were pulling her nearer to him, reminding her of an all too familiar moment. He removed his hand from her arm, instead holding her with his hands on her waist. At one point, Hana thought she’d felt her heart leap.
“Very well then,” he said, bringing her even closer towards him. And before she knew it, Lord Sesshomaru had kissed Hana once again, this time actually taking the initiative to deepen their kiss. And without any hesitation, she closed her eyes and kissed him back.
A part of Hana wanted to question what was causing Lord Sesshomaru to act so affectionately toward her, but the greater part of her – the part that loved him immensely – thought it best not to question.
Suddenly, she began to feel his clawed hands trailing up her body (her body, which she finally managed to remember was still nude). With the innocent part of her beginning to panic, she broke their kiss, her breathing rapid.
She looked up at him, her eyes widened.
“Lord Sesshomaru, I – what are you..,” She searched for the proper words in her mind which had been swirling with different thoughts and emotions. Though his face was emotionless, Hana could see a flicker of something else in his golden eyes.
Sesshomaru rested his head on Hana’s, looking down at her.
“Making you mine.”
Hana could feel the heat in her cheeks as blood rushed into them, and before she could question any further her lips had collided with Sesshomaru’s once more.
____________________________________________________________________
Had it all been a dream?
It had certainly felt that way to Hana.
She remembered that sometime during Lord Sesshomaru's kissing her, she'd given into her instinct and had wrapped her arms around him. He hadn't seemed to have minded, so Hana didn't complain - she had simply decided to go along with everything. Besides, hadn’t this been what she had wanted from the start? She had never imagined someone such as Lord Sesshomaru showing so much affection, but he did - and for her, nonetheless.
Somewhere in the midst of it all, she had found herself lying on the ground with Lord Sesshomaru above her; she could feel his breathing on her neck. It had been nothing like her nightmare with the men from her tribe, but a part of her had still been slightly afraid. She'd softly asked him to stop - or to at least be gentle, but he'd completely ignored her, a faint smirk on his lips. Lord Sesshomaru's smirks had the power to scare most anyone.
Suddenly she'd felt a sharp pain in her lower region, and though she knew that he had probably been the cause of it, she wrapped her arms even tighter around Sesshomaru, her claws slightly digging into his back , as she closed her eyes briefly, cringing. The pain, however, hadn’t lasted very long.
At one point she'd heard him whisper her name, and at that her cheeks had tingled.
Now she lay, still unclothed, on the soft grass, the sun beaming straight down on her. She hadn’t even noticed when morning had come, or even when she’d fallen asleep, though she knew that she’d fallen asleep feeling quite happy. She squinted, placing a hand over her eyes. At first, she had thought that it was a dream because although she had been lying naked on the ground, Lord Sesshomaru stood before her, fully dressed. But the way her body ached when she tried to get up had said otherwise (and so did the bruise on her shoulder).
Sesshomaru soon walked up to where Hana was lying, and she looked up at him just in time to see him reach into his haori and pull out something that she couldn’t quite make out at first.
Was that her kimono that she'd been searching for? But, how....
Sesshomaru kept a straight face as he dropped the piece of clothing onto Hana's stomach. He then began walking away from her.
"Where are you going?" she asked, picking up the kimono and flinching at the slight ache as she fought to sit up.
"To fetch Rin and Jaken," he said. "Stay here. Rest. And try not to get killed."