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Sesshomaru was the pinnacle of demon kind.
He was the strongest.
He was the biggest.
He was the prettiest (if his mother’s opinion had any merit, anyway).
And you’d be hard pressed to find someone better with a sword.
He was the culmination of millennia of careful breeding, trained mercilessly to rise above all weakness, frailty, and fear, to push through discomfort, passed exhaustion, beyond all limits of his mortal form.
And he could do it.
He did it every day of his life, countless years that have come and he’d do it for the countless years still to go, with naught but a flicker of a grimace that only his most intimate friends would notice.
Not that he had any intimate friends.
Sort “friends” under “weaknesses” next to “lovers” and “cravings for extra dessert.”
“Is something wrong Sesshomaru?”
He blinked, looking down at the unexpected little Miko staring up at him with sparkling blue eyes.
“Hn?” He asked, lifting one brow up just enough to convey his question, and she grinned, that big and blinding grin that he’d found turned on him more and more as of late.
As Rin grew and had less time for him he found himself continuing to return to the little human village, and a lot of the reasons were wrapped up in that grin.
Wrapped up in… Kagome.
“I don’t know, it just… seemed like you were grimacing. Is something wrong?”
He blinked again and ran his eyes across the field they’d been passing time in, schooling his features with all of his might against his instinct to squint against the way the sun reflected blindingly off the snow.
Snow.
Snow as far as he could see, miles and miles of it sticking to the trees, sticking to the stones, sticking in his hair as it piled up on the ground and slowed everything down.
Including him.
Sesshomaru was impervious to everything.
He would deny a single, solitary discomfort to anyone who dared to ask, anyone who dares to assume, anyone who-
“You just shivered!” Kagome cried, her mouth dropping open in shock. “Are you… Sesshomaru… are you cold?!”
Well. Almost anyone, it seemed.
Because deep in his heart of hearts even he could admit it…
He hated the cold.
The tips of his ears and the tip of his nose had gone numb, the bitter winter breeze blowing through mercilessly as he’d watched Kagome build her little “snow person,” internally marveling at how this tiny human woman seemed impervious to something that made him so miserable. He’d secretly determined to be more truthful about things with her, enjoying her companionship-and only her companionship, he’d swear it on his life. His attempts at opening up seemed to dazzle her, but still, admitting any kind of weakness stung.
So he dug up his usual, typical postering, all of his ‘This Sesshomaru does not feel cold as human do,’ every scoff and brush off of her needless concern.
But goodness, he was often so distracted in her presence.
His mouth fell open in shock when her fuzzy hat was suddenly being pulled down over his head, and she giggled when it slipped too far over his eyes.
Then her scarf followed, wrapped snuggly around his neck before she adjusted the hat so he could see.
He knew he looked ridiculous, but he was suddenly engulfed by her warmth, her scent, sweet and mild and tinged with cold, and then her eyes sparkled as her smile widened.
“Cute.”
Heat flooded his face, and he was glad the stinging winds had already thoroughly kissed his cheeks.