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Learning to Love	By : Ikaru Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 22062 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 34
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Disclaimer: Me no own Inuyasha, me make no money either…T.T

::Author Rant:: Ok so a few people have left me some reviews that lead me to have a small rant…Forgive me and know I have no ill will and appreciate all my reviewers who take the time to express their views to me. Now onto my little rant.

Several reviewers have pointed out that my focus as of late has been very much on my OC Ikaru. I am VERY aware I have done this. It is by design. I have in mind for this story to go on for a long while yet, especially with how slowly I’m rolling out these updates :(, so I see this as a sort of story arch. Something to fill the time while I have sort of sidelined Kagome while her pregnancy progresses. This fills my need to expand my OC’s story and fill in some things for later in the story. Please be aware it is still very much a Sessh/Kag story. I will be making a conscious effort to make them have a more prominent presence while I finish up my character arch. Hopefully this will appease the worries of my faithful readers. Thank you all for reading this and I hope this explains to a certain degree why I am going about things the way I am at the moment. ::End Rant::

*dodges angry mob*

*gasp!* Ok so I’m evil….you’ll forgive me right?....Right?...*crickets chirp* *sweatdrops* guess not….well here’s the next chapter hope you all enjoy it! On with the show!!

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A maid had been sent to help Ikaru wash the blood off her and help her tend to her injuries. As the maid entered the princess’s room she was struck by the strong scent of the princess’s blood. When she looked down she screamed as she saw Ikaru lying unconscious in a pool of her own blood.

Someone came running in behind the maid. The panicking female had to be slapped to get her attention away from the scene. Heero sighed in relief when he finally got the maids attention.

“Don’t just stand there screaming…go get Lady Hanaka and Lord Inutaishio!” He ordered then shoved the maid in the right direction. She stumbled the first few steps before picking up the pace and disappearing quickly down the hall. He called to another maid who was scurrying by. “You go gather as much fresh blood as you can manage and bring it here as quickly as you can!”

“Yes I’ll kill a fresh steer right away sir!” The maid called as she hurried down another hall.

Heero hurried over to Ikaru’s side. He pushed the heavy mass of her hair out of the way to assess her injuries. It was worse than he thought. Four deep gouges were cut out of her back. He could clearly see the bone in some places, and some places where the bones had pieces broken out of them. Heero was amazed that her spine hadn’t been severed.

“Milady?....Milady? Please you must wake up!” Heero urged while gently shaking her shoulder. She didn’t respond at all.

A few moments later Sesshoumaru and Inutaishio came bursting into the room followed closely by Kagome and Izayoi. Inutaishio’s face blanched when he caught sight of Ikaru, Kagome and Izayoi gasped and Sesshoumaru growled. Heero quickly turned and bowed to the royal family. The next instant a pulse of power came from Ikaru. Everyone looked at her in shock.

“Get back!” Sesshoumaru ordered a second too late. Heero was in the process of jumping away when Ikaru’s arm shot out and ripped into his side leaving a gaping wound. Heero managed to land next to the farthest wall away from her and was using it to support himself as he tried to stem the flow of blood escaping from his side.

At that moment a few maids carrying heavy buckets of still warm blood came rushing into the room. Against the orders of their lord they approached Ikaru who was trying to pull herself up. Her eyes were glowing red with a silver slit in the middle of them, and her fangs had grown incredibly long. If her hair hadn’t been weighed down by the fresh and drying blood all the onlookers knew it would have been floating around her on the waves of energy rising off her body. Her beast had taken complete and totally control of her.

The maids took a submissive stance and slowly approached Ikaru. Inutaishio was just moving to stop the maids when Izayoi stopped him.

“Let them near her. Her beast knows what they have and that her body desperately needs it. We need only watch and wait.” She said watching the scene carefully. Inutaishio didn’t like putting his staff in danger but Izayoi was right.

“We need to try getting Heero out of there.” Kagome said going to make a move to try and do just that. Sesshoumaru’s arm shot out and stopped her.

“Right now she is little better than a wounded animal. She can and will attack anything that moves. That is why Heero has not tried to escape. Her beast is seeking to ensure its survival. That will require the intake of a great amount of blood. That is the only reason the maids are able to approach her. You and I have fresh injuries from giving our blood to Rin. I’m sure her beast would prefer fresh blood from a warm body to cooling blood in a bucket. We cannot approach her at the moment.” He explained.

At that moment Ikaru had just drained the last bucket. Two more maids came in and set the fresh buckets barely with reach of the princess before retreating. Ikaru managed to move over to the buckets and started to drain them as well. Fresh blood ran down her front as she greedily drank from the bucket. After she drained the last bucket she growled at the next set of maids.

The cooling blood in the buckets was not satisfying her hunger…She needed something fresh from the source…Something that still had a pumping heart… Her eerily glowing eyes roamed the room and finally landed on the prone form leaning against the far wall. Heero had moved enough to lean his back against the wall he had landed against. He was the perfect target. He was already weak from his injury and would likely put up little resistance. The beast had not used her venom when she had attacked him the first time, but a wicked smirk crossed her features when she thought of the delicious screams he would produce if she did use a little bit of her venom while she was draining him of his lifeblood. A little voice cried out from somewhere within her not to kill him, the beast squashed that voice without a second thought.

In the blink of an eye she had moved across the room and had pinned Heero to the wall by his hips. As she suspected he put up very little resistance, she liked that, because she liked that she decided not to use her venom on him. Instead without any warning she viciously bit into his injured side and began suckling on the fresh flow of blood.

“If we don’t stop her she’ll drain him dry!” Kagome pleaded, still she was held back.

“It is alright milady; if it takes my life for the princess to be able to survive then I will gladly give it.” Heero whispered with a hint of pain filtering into his voice when Ikaru adjusted her jaws to get a better grip on his side.

“You are a fool.” Sesshoumaru said in a bored tone.

“I suppose I am…” Heero smiled sadly before reaching down to gently cradle the princess’s head to his wound. She growled viciously at his first touch, but quieted down when she realized he wasn’t trying to pull her away so she adjusted her grip again and began drinking more of his delicious hot blood. Soon he began to sway, and his face had taken on a deathly pale color. It was clear he was close to passing out.

Kagome had been watching closely and knew she had to do something before Ikaru took Heero’s life. She knew that Ikaru would never forgive herself if she took his life to save her own. Pushing Sesshoumaru out of the way she yelled at her.

“Ikaru stop! You’re going to kill him!!” She yelled before Sesshoumaru pushed her behind him again.

Everyone turned to look when Heero groaned. Ikaru’s eyes had closed and she had begun to growl. The next moment her eyes shot open, not a sign of red in sight, and she ripped her mouth away from Heero’s side, throwing him away from her toward Kagome and the others.

“Get him….out…of here….NOW!” Ikaru gasped before collapsing again. Sesshoumaru and Inutaishio rushed forward and hauled Heero out of the room. Izayoi and Kagome rushed to Ikaru’s side. “Don’t….stay…away…still…too…dangerous…” Ikaru said before passing out again.

“Let’s get her to the bath and get her cleaned up.” Izayoi said helping Kagome lift Ikaru into her bathing room.

They sent a maid to get medical supplies and fresh clothes. More maids were called to come and clean up the mess in Ikaru’s room. When they got into the bathing room they lowered Ikaru gently to the floor and began quickly peeling the sticky layers of clothing away from her body. She was completely covered in blood from head to foot. When she was finally bare Kagome and Izayoi stripped and changed into bathing kimono and as Kagome lifted and held Ikaru up Izayoi began bringing buckets of hot water over and rising the blood off her body. When they finally had the front of her clean, it took both of them to flip her over; Kagome was covered in blood by this point. Ikaru’s back had begun bleeding again, but much more slowly than it had before.

They began the laborious task of rinsing out her hair; it seemed to take forever before her hair was finally silver again. They began washing her with scented soaps and soft cloths, taking special care when they made it to her back. Her back continued to ooze blood after they rinsed off the soap, but they lifted her into the baths to soak for a while. The maid had previously brought them herbs to put in the bath to help stop the bleeding. They both slipped into the bath after letting her soak for a while to pull her out. After drying her off they applied healing salve to her back and tightly bound her chest in linen bandages. They then laid her on a bench and proceeded to quickly wash themselves.

The maids were still cleaning the room when they exited the bathroom. Sesshoumaru and Inutaishio had come back after delivering Heero to the medical wing, but had been locked out of helping in the bathing chamber. When the women emerged however, Inutaishio quickly lifted Ikaru from their grasp and took her to her bed. He hated to see her so weak, all the blood had brought back unwanted memories. As he tucked her beneath her covers the others came into the room.

“She’ll be alright won’t she?” Kagome said, worry filling her voice.

“She’ll probably sleep for a few days, but she should be fine given time.” Inutaishio whispered before kissing Ikaru’s forehead gently and ushering them out of her chambers.

“Why did she hide this…it’s like she wanted to die…” Kagome said sadly.

“For as long as I have known the lass she has always been like that.” Lord Dagley came around the corner. His negotiations had kept him in the western palace longer than expected and now he was stuck there until the spring at least. “How is she doing?”

“She will recover.” Sesshoumaru said coolly.

“Ah good then. How about your wee one?” He questioned further.

“She is being taken care of by Hanaka.” Kagome said, her worry shown clearly in her every movement.

“Then she is in good hands lass, relax.” Dagley smiled encouragingly. Sesshoumaru wanted to whip that smile off his face.

“What brings you this way Lord Dagley?” Inutaishio questioned, Dagley’s quarters were in another wing so he had no business in this wing.

“I merely came to check on the lass, Milaird, I am her friend and wanted to check on her wellbeing. Now that I know that she is recovering I shall take my leave.” He bowed before tuning and doing just that.

“Inu he is her friend, you treated him rather poorly.” Izayoi said.

“My daughter is hurt; I will not allow an unmated male near her in during her time of weakness.” Inutaishio growled.

“He wouldn’t do her any harm milord.” Kagome said kindly, patting his arm in a reassuring way. Inutaishio just huffed and walked away.

“Do not take it to heart dear.” Izayoi hugged Kagome gently.

“He is reliving memories. This situation is quite similar to the time when she lost her parents and came to live with us permanently.” Sesshoumaru said. His fist was clenched in a white knuckle grip. Inutaishio was obviously not the only one reliving such memories.

“I’m going to check on Rin and Heero.” Kagome said breaking away from the comforting embrace and leaving Sesshoumaru and Izayoi behind.

“She needs your strength Sesshoumaru. Don’t be tied down by the past. Instead look toward your future.” Izayoi patted his clenched hand.

“Once again I was unable to help her. If I cannot even help my sister, how can my mate look to me for strength?” Sesshoumaru growled.

“Because she believes in you, you should know that. You and Ikaru were far to old when I came into your lives to really need a mother, but allow me to impart some motherly advice upon you. Most mating’s start for political reasons; very few ever have true emotions involved. You and your father were blessed to have such feelings involved in your mating’s. Do not doubt those feelings; embrace them for they are what will get you through times such as these. Now go and comfort your mate, on a normal day she might have been strong enough to handle something like this on her own, but she is pregnant, which makes her emotions far more unpredictable.” Izayoi pushed Sesshoumaru in the right direction. But before he could make it around the corner he turned back to her.

“Thank you.” Was all he said before disappearing.

“Lady Serenity you certainly left me with two interesting, but extremely stubborn children.” Izayoi chuckled as she walked back into Ikaru’s room to watch over her. She paused before entering because she swore she heard someone chuckle, but she shook it off assuming she had imagined it.

In the infirmary Sesshoumaru found Kagome in a chair beside Rin’s bed. Tears were silently streaming down her face as she held little Rin’s hand. Sesshoumaru felt her despair through their link, he was surprised that the link the gods had put on them hadn’t been dragging him to her side with how often he had been screwing up recently. He silently slipped up behind her and pulled her back into his chest. He rested his head on top of hers and held her tightly. He could hear the weak but steady beat of Rin’s heart, this gave him hope that she would eventually pull through.

“She will recover Kagome.” Sesshoumaru whispered, kissing the top of her head and absently rubbing her extended belly.

“I know…I can feel it…like our blood is giving her strength…but it will take time…and she will be in pain…” Kagome whispered as more tears slipped from her eyes. Most of her tears were of relief that Rin would recover, but some of them were born from the pain she knew her child would have to go through.

“Our blood is giving her strength. She will endure the pain and become stronger because of it. Come let her rest, the nurses will come fetch us if there is any change in her condition.” Sesshoumaru said gently pulling Kagome away from their pup. Sesshoumaru had already begun to see subtle changes in Rin and truthfully he was excited to see the changes their blood would continue to have on her. He felt a weak link with her now that his blood flowed within her, a link that would become stronger as time went by. She was now truly his pup and his beast purred in contentment at the knowledge, it watched the link closely monitoring the pups’ health while its master dealt with their mate.

Kagome was reluctant to leave Rin’s side but Sesshoumaru finally managed to pull her away. His first task was to see his mate properly fed. She was once again forced to drink a huge amount of blood to replace what she had given to Rin. Then Sesshoumaru forced her to their chambers where he stripped her down and made her lie down to rest.

“I wasn’t able to find out anything about Heero…Hanaka was still working on him when I got there.” Kagome whispered as she snuggled into Sesshoumaru’s embrace. She wasn’t happy about being forced to rest but she couldn’t deny her body was exhausted.

“We will check on him in the morning…why are you so concerned about that solider?” Sesshoumaru questioned, the slightest bit of jealousy filtering into his voice. Kagome chuckled and patted his arm reassuringly.

“Ikaru would never forgive herself if she took his life.” Kagome explained.

“You’re probably right.” Sesshoumaru said relaxing against Kagome. With that they both soon fell asleep.

Back in the infirmary Heero was just waking up. His side was killing him and his head was spinning.

“You had best not move any time soon young man. If you ruin my stitches I’ll be adding more bruises to your list of injuries.” Hanaka said washing the last of the blood off her hands.

“The princess…how… is she…” Heero managed to cough out. Hanaka brought him a glass of water and let him sip a little before answering.

“I have not been to check on her myself yet but from what I hear she is resting.” Heero relaxed at hearing that news. “You realize you are lucky to be alive don’t you boy?”

“If I had died I would have rested easy knowing that I managed to aid in saving the princess.” Heero said quietly.

“That is not what I meant, you are lucky the princess didn’t use her venom on you. Then there really would have been no saving you. It will take time for you to recover from coming into contact with her blood, but given some time I feel certain you will recover.” Hanaka said straightening his bed sheets. Heero had gone very quiet, he had forgotten about the princess’s venom. He shook his head to dispel the images of the painful death he apparently narrowly avoided. It was a well-known fact that Hanaka and the princess had been working on an antivenin for years, but as of yet they had not had any success.

“Go Lady Hanaka, tend the princess. You have done all you can for me, I promise I’ll be good and rest until you return.” Heero smirked at her. He could feel the pull of sleep his body was demanding. Hanaka raised her eyebrow at the solider before her as his eyes slipped closed and he let sleep claim him. Hanaka had been downplaying his injuries to keep him from fretting but it would take quite a while before he could return to duty, not only had he suffered extreme blood loss, but contact with the princesses toxic blood had caused extensive damage to his right calf and hands. Not to mention the gaping wound she had carved out of his side. Hanaka knew that the powerful medicine she had given him was the only thing keeping him from being in agonizing pain and allowing him to gain the recuperative sleep his body desperately needed. She shook her head at the unconscious man and proceeded to gather her supplies to tend to the princess.

Lady Izayoi was still standing watch over Ikaru when Hanaka made her entrance.

“How is Rin Hanaka?” Izayoi asked first.

“The young one is acclimating to all the blood that was shared with her. I am still uncertain what effects all their blood will have on her human body. I will tell you this, it is a miracle that she managed to survive the princess’s blood. The princess must have been suppressing the toxic nature of it as she gave it the little Rin.” Hanaka said as she, with the help of Izayoi, turned Ikaru over and undid the bloody bandages that had been wrapped around her before.

Hanaka frowned at the damage on Ikaru’s back. Like a well-oiled machine Hanaka got out the necessary items to treat the princess and began washing away the old salve, sewing up her back, applying fresh salve and finally binding her chest with fresh bandages.

“This girl will worry me to death one day.” Hanaka chastised the unconscious woman as she laid Ikaru on her side. She adjusted Ikaru’s bangs out of her face with a tenderness that contradicted her harsh words.

“You care for her?” Izayoi said disbelief in her voice.

“Yes I have cared about her since she came to live with us here in the west. You never had the chance to know her or the young prince before the tragedies came into their lives. Lady Ikaru was such a bright and happy child before her parents were ripped from her by the fates. She had only just begun to recover when Lady Serenity was taken from us. Neither she nor the young prince ever truly recovered from that. Though with his mate I am beginning to see traces of the boy I used to know. Lady Ikaru is slowly opening up again around Lady Kagome. I have seen her laugh more since Lady Kagome’s coming than in the past century. Lady Ikaru became an ardent student of medicine after she came to the west permanently. Now she is an even better healer than I am, so yes I hold a great deal of fondness for this child and wish for nothing more than her to finally find true happiness and smile like she used to when she was young.” Hanaka smiled kissing Ikaru’s temple gently as she rose from her side.

“So you were the one who took over the maternal figure in their lives.” Izayoi said smiling.

“You misunderstand milady. While I care for the princess she sees me as nothing more than possibly a friend and previous mentor. As for the young prince, I assisted in his delivery; he holds no special attachment to me other than as the palace healer to my knowledge.” Hanaka said packing her supplies.

“Hn…” Izayoi said not entirely convinced by the healer’s story. She had a sneaking suspicion that Hanaka underestimated the importance she held in the minds of the two she obviously held such affection for. “Have a good evening Hanaka, I’ll be sure to send for you if anything happens.” She said to the retreating healer.

“Thank you milady.” Hanaka bowed before leaving the chambers, and Izayoi to her silent vigil over the sleeping princess.

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There see I didn’t kill anyone off! You all forgive me now right? Right?...guess not T.T

If anyone has any concerns or questions you are welcome to message me on Dokuga, I will be happy to answer what questions I am able to and address any concerns I am able to as well.

See ya next time everyone….

Ja Ne
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Learning to Love