Song From A Secret Garden by Velvet Sometimes

Pearl, Mocha, Something Simple

Opening her eyes, Kagome already knew she was alone. If the empty space beside her wasn't enough to indicate it, the silence that rang through her small home was. The room was quieter than a mouse and Kagome lay there just as she did every morning; wrapped in nothing but silk sheets and her thoughts.

Slipping quietly from her bed, she pulled on her robe and padded through her empty house to the kitchen. Her stomach was on the verge of making noise. The house itself was elegantly furnished in accordance with his taste: with touches of whimsy, from the few things that were really hers. He didn't live here, not really, but for some reason, she felt the need to keep the place the way he preferred. What was it, Kagome wondered, that drove her to do such a thing?

Kagome skirted the breakfast island to reach the coffee machine. She was alone, as always. On the counter, she found a cup of coffee already prepared; its steam still drifting from the cup's rim. It sat next to a newspaper in a language she wasn't quite sure she knew, but it didn't matter as Kagome didn't bother to try and read it.

Not caring if it was his cup or not, as he had obviously left to go do something far more important than see her off, Kagome grabbed the coffee and made her way out to her garden. Like other mornings, it was lonely, but there was always her garden to cheer her up. It was made of colorful overgrown flowerbeds and old brick walls covered in vines. Ancient trees grew over steps and shaded the pathways around pools of water made from stones she had no name for but took in their shine with delight.

Wanting to watch the ocean, she passed by her usual seat at the old wrought iron table under the arbor, to stand against the crumbling brick wall that separated her from the swells below. The soft sea breeze lifted Kagome's hair gently as she sipped her coffee, making the wisps of steam dance in the early morning light. Just as gently as the wind had come so did a faint melody of violins that circled hauntingly through her garden like an old lovers touch. It echoed from the scuffed little radio sitting forgotten on the table next to her book; both still there from the night before.

Leaning against the low brick wall while the melodies danced through the air, she watched the waves crash gently against the cliff. She lost herself in her thoughts as the sun rose slowly over the horizon. Faintly in the distance, she could see land. It was why Kagome loved this view; if she didn't focus on it, the ocean was endless. So endless it circled forever around her tiny island home that contained only her, the house, and the massive garden surrounding it. Like an Eden no man could ever touch, and a prison no one could ever escape.

If you followed one of the outer walls and looked with a keen eye you could probably find the door that led to a stair case built into the rocky cliff-side. Kagome had stopped opening that door years ago. At the bottom no boat lay at the end of her dock. There hadn't been one since the day she came here; she didn't need one as she had no intention of ever leaving. If she wanted for anything, he brought it for her. Bringing groceries and more paper for her writing once every two weeks and left with her finished pieces and whatever trash she had accumulated.

Sometime during her musings she felt his presence at her back. Kagome knew the moment he had stepped into her garden; she always did. It was something like the way that a rabbit knew the moment a predator had come onto its territory. She turned when she felt the shock of displaced air as he changed from one form to the next between his steps. Unable to look away, she watched the vine covered pathway until he was in view, then turned back around and took a sip from the coffee.

After a moment, Kagome looked back at him and found that he was examining the cover of her book. The same one he had pulled from her hands the night before when he led her to their room.

"How do you like the coffee?" he asked, and she could hear the mild annoyance in his voice.

"Mocha. It is quite good."

"I would hope so; it was mine." She heard her book close with his reply and then the light clack of him placing it back upon the table.

"This is my house. Leave your coffee unattended at your own risk," Kagome replied flippantly. She listened as his soft footsteps grew closer, until his chest was nearly pressed into her back.

"I didn't mean to wake you. I went to fetch you a gift," he said softly. His fingertips traced their way up her arms, feather light, then her shoulders and came to rest at her neck. There, he secured something, then pressed a chaste kiss to the nape of her neck.

One of her hands flew to her throat, and she felt a length of beads. They were all so smooth and perfectly round and such a light pink like the sun.

"Pearls?"

The same warm hands came up and took the cup from her hands, placing it on the brick, before wrapping his arms around her firmly.

"Pearls are for thirty years," his deep voice rumbled softly at her back.

"Pearls are for your 30th wedding anniversary Sesshoumaru, and we aren't married," Kagome answered. She leaned her head back into his shoulder. "You just started coming to me one day," she explained while he bent his own head to bury it in her hair.

"Yes, this day, 30 years ago," he corrected softly, placing a kiss against her temple.

Kagome sighed as she watched the as ocean swells washed over the rocks below them. She decided to ask the question that had been burning in her mind for years. "How long are you going to keep coming to see me?" she asked in a self-conscious whisper. She buried her face in his neck, which was still somehow just as impossibly perfect as the day she first met him.

"I think grey looks good on you," he answered without answering, and kissed a lock of hair. "Come back to bed, love."

"It's foolish to try and keep a human. You know we die so quickly," Kagome whispered sadly.

"It is just as it is foolish to take an immortal for a lover, my pet," he agreed. She couldn't read his voice, but she knew that he had lost lovers before her, and would continue to do so after her.

They were quiet for a time, listening to the crash of the waves, and the violins crying faintly behind them.

"Why not take an immortal woman? You would never lose a lover to time again. She would be able to give you children that I cannot."

"For the same reason you did not choose a mortal man," he sighed, rubbing her arms in a comforting way.

She looked at him then with a brow arched. "Do you even know how to love?" she murmured, not quite believing him.

"I love the wrinkles at the corners of your eyes, just as I love the way you say my name." Kagome traced a finger down the side of his smooth face as he spoke, enraptured.

"But do you love me?" she asked slowly and bit the side of her lip, waiting for his reply to the question she had never been able to ask.

"What do you want from me, Kagome?" he asked after a quiet moment that was only broken by the gentle pounding of the waves beneath them.

Turning in his arms, Kagome wound her arms around his neck before pressing a soft kiss to his jaw. He let his arms wrap firmly around her waist in response.

"Something simple."

She pulled away from him then, looking up at his face and the deeply colored markings that adorned his brow. She'd never seen them by the light of day before. Kagome studied them; the two violet stripes on each cheek, and the sapphire moon on his forehead. Then she let her gaze fall down to where she knew the same stripes lay on his hips and wrists, not obscured by a shirt like usual.

"Are you going to stay this time, love? You know I hate it when I wake up and you've left before I could see you again."

He took her hands in his, pulling her along with him as he made his way back to their room in silence. Kagome didn't fight him, allowing herself to be towed while she stared into his golden eyes. They nearly smoldered, looking like molten gold in the dim light of her hallway. He closed the bedroom door behind them and pulled her into his chest.

He whispered into her shoulder as he pulled the robe back from her skin, "I always stay until the first light of dawn, my love. But even I cannot stay forever; not even in this hidden world you have made your home."

"Then why did you reveal yourself to me today? You've never stayed after sunrise before." Kagome ran a hand down the flat of his stomach.

"Because today is special. I wanted to make sure you weren't going to try and turn me away." He ran a finger over the pearls with a smile.

She returned it with one of her own as she moved forward to place a kiss against his palm.

"After 30 years? You think me so fickle?" There was bittersweet laughter in her voice.

Winding his arms around her, he pulled her close to him with a sigh. "I couldn't risk losing you."

"Ah, but my love, one day you shall. And my love, from that you cannot so easily win me back." She ran a hand through his hair as he pulled her with him on to the bed.

Nuzzling her hair, he whispered in her ear, "The path to hell is a treacherous one indeed, Kagome, but I have crossed it for your soul many times, and will do so many more. You never really escape me. In life, you sometimes choose another, but I always bring you back to try again."

Note: Oneshots! This one was a joy to write and has passed through so many hands to get to this point. Tangerine Dreams, Slightly Psychotic, and now R. have all played with it to get it to this point. Also, it was a gift for Itsy Bitsy Spider in MoMo's Christmas Exchange.