Chapter Text
There are times when even gods are powerless.
Sesshomaru takes the steps to his temple two at a time, knowing his faithful white dog can keep the pace.
There is nothing for him here.
There is nothing for him anywhere on the planet.
Without care for those who have dedicated themselves to him, he takes to the heavens and swears he will never return to the earth again.
He does not know now but it is a promise fated to fail.
Fate has always been a fickle creature.
The words hit Kagome like one of the foundation stones of the mighty temple.
"No?" she echoes faintly in disbelief. "What do you mean, no?"
The older woman—still a paragon of beauty even though she is easily ten or fifteen years older than Kagome herself—does not so much as blink. "You may have the gift," she says levelly, "but the moon god does not accept tainted women."
Kagome flinches. The memory of that night last year, of soot and cedar, fur and blood, comes too mind too readily. It is why she sought solace amongst the temple priestesses in the first place—everyone knows they must remain chaste unto death and no one would dare assault one of the god's chosen.
She doesn't question how Kikyo has learned the truth. It's rumored she is both priestess and soothsayer and perhaps the rumors are true.
"Surely," she manages on a weak plea, "an exception could be made?"
Kikyo lifts her chin as she looks down at Kagome from atop the steps of the temple. "No," she says again flatly. "It well known that the moon god choses amongst us for his bride when he grows weary of being alone. I will not offer him soiled goods."
Shame heats her face as Kagome turns on her heels to flee, unable to see the look of disdain in the virtuous priestess's eyes a moment longer. She flees the temple and the surrounding village both, unable to bring herself to return home now that she has been rejected by the temple.
She can never marry now and she has been rejected by the temple. What else is left to her but to remove her shame from her family's honor?
Daylight turns to night but Kagome cannot find it in herself to leave the only home she's ever known just yet. She lingers on the outskirts, hidden within the trees that border the village, keeping an eye on her mother as she sings Kagome's brother to sleep.
One day, Sota will marry and claim his birthright in the small farm their mother is running for him after their father's death. His path and place have been clearly defined.
Kagome was always expected to marry and marry well, at least until—
A giggle stops her in her tracks. She is in her early twenties but she is no sheltered virgin. She knows the sound of sex when she hears it. Life in the village is many things, but modest it is not.
She makes to leave her hiding place for another further away when a familiar sight catches her eye.
Kikyo.
The very priestess who has turned her away because of her lack of chastity is in fact romping in the woods with a man other than her god. At the sight, Kagome forgets all of her good intentions and freezes, unable to do anything but helplessly watch as the priestess fornicates with the man she has chosen. The man is hidden in the shadows but he is far louder than his partner in his pleasure.
It is only after they've claimed their pleasure and their breath that Kagome finally recovers from the shock and moves to leave once more.
"You're beautiful," the man whispers against Kikyo's skin. "Have you told the others yet?"
Kikyo huffs loudly. "It is not that easy, InuYasha."
"You cannot hide it for long," he retorts in audible irritation. "Dammit, Kikyo, you're pregnant and it's my baby. Sooner or later someone's going to notice that!"
"Do not worry," Kikyo tells him gently, reaching for her partner. "When the time is right, I will ensure that I leave the sisterhood so that we may enjoy the simple life we have always wanted—all of us."
Pregnant. Kagome struggles to process the word. Somehow, that is harder than accepting that Kikyo is doing the very act she condemned Kagome for—even knowing that Kagome had not wished to participate in her own debauchment.
She flees, tears in her eyes, and ignores the man's sudden shout as he hears her footsteps. She does not pay attention to where she runs but it is not long before Kikyo's and her lover's voices fade away entirely, leaving Kagome alone with blissful silence.
Suddenly her hands encounter rock and blindly she begins to climb, uncaring if she falls to her death in the process. It will be one way to dispel her own dishonor.
But she does not fall.
Perhaps the moon god is watching over her, perhaps she has not earned his disfavor, because she reaches the summit just as dawn arrives with minimal injuries. She drops to the ground in a heap of exhaustion, wiping the dirt and tears as best she can from her face.
And then exhaustion and pain bleed into anger.
"This is all your fault!" she shouts down the mountain top, groping for a rock she can throw. A moment later, it whistles off into the air before clunking down the mountainside. "Why did you need virgin priestesses, anyway? Huh? What sort of stupid idea was that?!"
She ignores the little voice in her head that reminds her the moon god is not the one who assaulted her nor is he the one who murdered her father. There is only so much blame she can heap upon his door and yet Kagome finds herself reaching for anything she can try, regardless.
It is only when her voice is hoarse and her throat is raw that she finally stops shouting at the silent full moon looming in the sky above her. She supposes she could consider herself lucky that he hasn't already struck her dead for her insults but she cannot find it in herself to care.
"I bet you aren't even that shiny," she mumbles petulantly, folding her arms across her chest as she sulks. Somehow, she'd been expecting a huge reaction of some sort and it's a bit disappointing to be left hanging. "I mean, you're not the only shiny thing in the sky, anyway. You're not special."
"Am I not?"
She flinches at the low, impossibly deep male voice. It takes her a moment to find her breath but she refuses to back down. "No," she declares adamantly. "It's not like it's hard to shine, anyway. I mean, just look all around you. Even humans have fire and light of our own now."
The moon seems to glow brighter before her. "And who was it," he returns evenly, "who gave fire to humans in the first place?"
"Okay," she begrudgingly concedes that, "but humans make our own shiny jewelry." She shrugs. "You didn't teach us that."
He is silent so long she wonders if he's offended or bored and has left.
Finally, he says haughtily, "No human constructed jewelry could hope to hold a candle to this one."
Kagome snorts. "And how would you know? Have you even done a proper comparison?" She lifts her chin as she wraps her arms around herself. "Besides, I don't need to walk around telling myself I'm brighter than anything humans could make just to feel good about myself."
Suddenly clouds cover the sky, obscuring the moon from her sight entirely. When they disappear moments later, the moon has transformed from a ball of light into the shape of a man.
Only the god looks like no man she's ever seen. His long, silvery hair seem to glow like the stars themselves. A dark, purplish blue paints his eyes and lips and accentuates the markings at his cheeks. The black silks he wears seems to sparkle with starlight themselves, though his chest is bare to her gaze save for the silver armband around his left arm and a whisper of white cloth that is thrown over one shoulder. Earrings hang from his pointed ears, showcasing the phases of the moon from left to right so the half of the phases hang from each ear. A black circlet inlaid with sapphires and amethyst glitters atop his head, tiny threads of silver draping down to frame his forehead and hair around his face until it came to rest against a silver full moon at the back of his head.
But it is the golden hue of his eyes that captivate her, so different from the rest of him. They burn like a fire in the heavens as the stare down at her.
Kagome cannot help but wonder if humans received the gift of fire from his very eyes themselves.
"You speak of adornments and items of beauty, yet you wear none yourself," he observes, evidently studying her as intensely as she'd been studying him.
"Yeah, well, you try being a peasant farmer and see what you can afford." Kagome rolls her eyes but doesn't mention that she'd once had a necklace of her own. Nothing like his own adornments, but it had been a gift from her father and had been stolen from her during her attack last year.
He looks surprised, though whether at the vehemence of her words or simply because she dresses so plain by necessity rather than choice, she cannot say. "It does not suit you."
She stares at him. "What doesn't?"
"Being a farmer. It does not suit you," he repeats calmly. "Unless you seek to argue your crops into producing their yields."
"Hah hah," she grouses but a smile touches on her lips at the unexpected humor from a god. "I'll have you know they're bad listeners. Especially the carrots; they're the worst." She isn't sure what this mood is welling within her but she finds herself wanting to tease him in kind.
He smiles in turn. "Is that so?"
She lowers her voice to a loud whisper. "Do you know why carrots are so bad at listening?" she tells him, pretending to make a big show of looking around like she's about to whisper some grand secret.
"Because they do not wish to listen to nagging?" His smirk grows.
"No," she huffs. "Because they cannot carrot all."
Silence meets her joke.
Kagome gives him her most innocent smile. "I can explain the joke to you if you'd like."
"I understood it," he replies after a moment. "I simply wish I had not."
She sniffs. "I'd like to see you do better," she tells him, lifting her chin.
"I am not the god of jokes and mischief," he tells her seriously. "And I am afraid I do not want to know where Shippo has gotten off to to ask him for one."
Kagome resists the temptation to throw her hands up in the air, unsure if he's actually teasing her or being entirely serious. Finally, she decides to ignore his comment entirely. It seems the easier option. "I bet you don't even know one funny joke."
One brow raises at her challenge. "I know of several," he replies, squaring his shoulders.
Kagome waits with thinly veiled impatience.
"I simply do not believe a human would be capable of understanding them," he says after a pregnant pause.
"Seriously?" She gives into the urge and throws her hands in the air. "You could just say you don't know any, you walnut."
He snorts. "You are aware you are speaking to a god, are you not?"
"Yeah, why?" She shrugs her shoulders.
He looks amused as she suddenly yawns. "It is late for humans, is it not? You should sleep."
"I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea to fall asleep on top of a mountain," Kagome says seriously, studying her precarious perch for the first time. To be fair, she's simply fortunate that she hasn't fallen off already.
"I will watch over you while you sleep," he promises her and he says it so sincerely that Kagome can only nod in agreement. She curls up and it is not long before her yawns turn into a sleep, dreamless slumber for the first time since her attack.
She is not aware of it, but Sesshomaru reaches into the heavens themselves and fashions her a blanket from the stars to keep her warm while she sleeps.
