#skw2020

“You stole something of mine. I have come to take it back.”

“I didn’t steal anything!” Kagome retorted.

“The child you removed from the woods belongs to me,” he persisted.

Her eyes narrowed. “The child you abandoned, you mean? I don’t think so, buddy. Rin’s staying with me.”

“Rin?”

“That’s her name,” Kagome informed him. “I’m going to find her family and reunite them.”

“Her family is dead. The wolves of the East slaughtered her entire village,” Sesshomaru told her tersely.

She gasped, staggering backward a step. Kouga’s wolves were the reason Rin was alone. They had destroyed her town, stolen her home from her. Kagome fought hard to swallow her tears. She refused to cry in front of Sesshomaru.

“I revived her with Tenseiga so her life belongs to me,” he stated resolutely.

“What? What could you possibly want with her?” Kagome asked, her sadness giving way to rage. Who was he to claim a life? Rin wasn’t property. She was an innocent child.

“What could you?” Sesshomaru countered.

“I told you. I am going to find her family.”

“Her family is dead, miko.”

“Then I’ll find a family to take her in. I’m not handing Rin over to you,” Kagome snarled.

“I will take her in,” Sesshomaru proposed.

“No way! You don’t know the first thing about raising a baby, especially a human one.”

He frowned. Kagome waited for him to unleash his poisonous claws or change into his true form. Sesshomaru could tear through her in a single bite. Yet, he did neither.

Approaching her, Sesshomaru said, “You will teach me.”

Kagome’s eyes widened in surprise. “Huh?”

War Paint

It had happened by accident while Kagome had been sitting upon a certain Daiyoukai's lap, enjoying a lovely make-out session. Their first, really. After clumsily navigating their feelings in an awkward exchange of confessions they'd ended up tugging each other close, starting to caress.

So Kagome had brushed her thumb across his elfin ear, his soft lips, his exotic stripes-

Only to find the magenta had smudged under her touch.

Kagome stiffened.

"What is it?" a content voice rumbled, Sesshoumaru very much occupied with kissing her neck.

"Your- um…I think I broke your markings?"

Sesshoumaru's lashes tickled her skin in a slow blink. "If they have smudged it is fine."

"B-but-" Kagome gaped, leaning back and hesitantly touching his crescent moon, finding a similar situation. "They're not permanent?" she rubbed her index finger and thumb together, noting the colour and substance on them. "Wait, is this makeup?"

He snorted, "if you wish to call it that. Demons refer to it as war paint."

Kagome rose a brow, holding onto his shoulders and peering closer. "No way, this is crazy!" she breathed, eyes wide. "I don't know how to feel right now...I mean they're such a part of your identity!"

"Hn."

"But they enlarge and become all jagged when you get angry- and they stay on your face even after you've transformed!"

Sesshoumaru idly kissed her ear, teasing the shell between sharp teeth and rather wishing she'd focus on their forgotten canoodling. "Some clans feed youki into war paint, fixing it to their skin. When youki fluctuates, such as when I am angered, it causes the paint to change, as you mentioned. It is because this particular paint combines so well with youki that we use it in humanoid form. It then stays on even after transformation, though it changes slightly in appearance."

"Wow," Kagome hummed, catching his wrist as he attempted to grope her, studying the stripes. "You apply them here too. Are they anywhere else on your body?"

Golden eyes glittered wickedly. "Allow me to show you the full extent of them, miko."

Kagome blinked, confused for half a second before she yelped, reading the warning signs.

Too late. The demon pounced, sending her to the ground in a tangle of limbs and breathy giggles.

---

A week into their relationship, Kagome lounged on a nest of furs, heels kicked up behind her. Ignoring the strands tickling her bare skin, she watched with rapt attention as Sesshoumaru sat half-naked before a mirror. She had witnessed his beauty- er- war ritual a few times now, memorising how he applied the colourful paint. He always started the day with them, touching up his markings within the privacy of his chambers.

Rolling off the bed and grabbing a robe, she tugged it on loosely, approaching. Sliding her arms around broad shoulders from behind, Kagome kissed a pointed ear.

"Can I try?"

Sesshoumaru paused halfway through starting his eye shadow-esque markings. Raising a thin brow, the demon shifted long claws up, handing her the brush.

Beaming, Kagome grabbed a pillow and knelt on it as the Daiyoukai turned to face her. Delicately holding his jaw with one hand, she coated the brush with paint.

Slowly and gingerly, she swept rich magenta over his closed eyelid. Her heart melted at the display of trust, pausing to gaze at his placid expression and closed long lashes.

"You're so pretty it should be a crime," Kagome sighed, carrying on.

"Hn."

Cutting her eyes to the ceiling, a grin wormed its way onto her mouth. What an impressive ego. Shifting up on her knees, the miko's tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth while she focused. Drawing the stripes on proved harder than first assumed. Her fingers shook a little. The magenta line wobbled and Kagome huffed, grabbing a rag and wiping it off. Sesshoumaru cheek twitched. A golden eye cracked open.

"No peeking," she huffed, fluttering a hand.

Thin lips curved, but he obeyed. "This one does not understand your initial reaction to them. You seemed confused, though I have witnessed you in war paint before."

"My eye shadow? I don't wear that for going into battle though- turn this way, please-" she guided his head to turn left.

Sesshoumaru felt a wet trail cut across his cheek, a twin, lower stripe gliding over the contours of his face. "I do not see the difference. You were fighting with it on."

Giggling, Kagome gently bid him to turn the other way. "I guess you have a point, but let's just say the intention behind it wasn't to mark me or intimidate any enemies. Girls in my time wear it for themselves or to appeal to boys."

"Only women wear it?"

"Well, some men do. Especially models, but it's usually to do with fashion or to give people confidence."

Sesshoumaru's mouth turned down at the edges, mulling over this information as she painted the stripes onto his right cheek. "Confidence to...slay their enemies?"

Kagome giggled, "no. I told you we don't do a lot of that in the modern era," she smirked, holding either side of his face and moving it so that he looked forward. Kagome then lay his arm over her knee, carefully painting his wrist.

"This one was hoping you'd been joking," he snorted, blindly lifting it when the miko shifted to try and draw the second line that licked under his first. "Tell me, what was your intention when wearing the 'eye shadow' that day?"

Kagome's cheeks flushed red, heart tripping a little before catching itself and returning to its usual rhythm. Shifting her touch to his restored left hand- she squeaked when he used it to grasp her wrist and draw closer.

"Sesshoumaru," she whined, grumbling when he dragged teasing lips over the racing pulse within her neck.

Sharp teeth scraped in a nip, causing a squeak to caress his hearing. "Tell me the reason," he purred.

"F-fine, alright already," Kagome glanced away. "I wore it for you, obviously. I wanted...to get your attention a little."

The smoke of a smile ghosted his lips, chest rumbling with satisfaction. "And now you have it, miko."

"Mhm," squirming, she gently batted him away. "And I'm very happy about that but I'm almost done, so control yourself, Mr."

Sesshoumaru's hands settled possessively on her waist, resting his elbows on his thighs, lingering close. With his eyes shut, the scent of her smelled that much more intimate and strong, twined with his own. Finishing the stripes on his arms, Kagome's chest bumped an aristocratic nose as she rose up, moving silky bangs slightly aside on his forehead. Changing brushes for a thinner one and dipping the end into a light, powdery blue, she held her breath.

Long fingers roved, wrapping around her waist to hold her steady. Squinting, Kagome ever so gently touched the paint to his skin, curving the brush down in a gentle sweep.

Exhaling in a rush, the miko nodded with satisfaction.

Setting the brush down in favour of the mirror, Kagome settled on the pillow and smiled. "Okay, I'm done. You can open your eyes now."

Inhuman eyes slid open like a lazy predator interrupted from a nap. Sesshoumaru blinked, drinking in the image of himself within the mirror. It was almost ideal, especially impressive for her first try. The only slight imperfection was the crescent moon, but he remembered his own frustration with it as a pup. Drawing it on was especially difficult.

Flitting a warm gaze up from his reflection to the miko peering out from behind the glass, he gentled. "It is almost perfect."

"Almost?" dark brows drew together, worried she had made a mistake.

Removing the mirror from her grasp and setting it aside, Sesshoumaru lifted the woman onto his lap and hummed, kissing the available flesh of her chest that remained uncovered by her loose robe. "As you have discovered before, Kagome, those are not the only markings needed on my body."

Tugging on his obi and loosening white hakama pants so that they slackened, falling low on his hips, Sesshoumaru gave a devilish smirk.

"You will apply the rest."

Kagome burst into giggles, eyes glittering with mirth. Picking up the brush and dipping it in magenta, she dutifully returned to her task.