The Snow Angel by SunsetMiko
The Welcome
Chapter 225 - The Welcome
This was written for Stella's Proverbial Challenge, Prompt: Look not a gift horse in the mouth.
The group landed just outside the front doors of the palace, and moments later Kagome was hit with a ball of orange fur. Shippo knocked her back a step with the force of his collision with the miko, and she laughed as she held him close.
"I told you everything would be okay, Shippo," Kagome chided gently.
"You're really okay?" he mumbled against her chest.
"I'm fine. I wasn't injured."
"And it's over?" he asked. The last thing he wanted was to be left behind again. Knowing his mother was out there somewhere fighting against Naraku had been torture. He had barely slept the entire week they had been gone, and he was exhausted.
"Yes, it's over. Naraku is dead," she assured him.
Shippo let out a huge sigh of relief and snuggled further into his mother's arms. Moments later, Rin appeared, followed closely by Aiko and Aika. The little girl threw her arms around Sesshoumaru's legs and hugged him tightly. The taiyoukai patted her head affectionately, and she moved on to Kagome, clinging to her new mother, who shifted both children so she could kneel and hug Rin properly.
"Did you two behave while we were gone?" Kagome asked in a motherly tone. Both children nodded their heads, and the miko glanced up at the nannies that did the same.
"Aika taught me a new trick!" Shippo exclaimed.
"Well, let's see it then!"
The small kitsune child held a leaf to his forehead and in a puff of smoke he disappeared. Kagome looked around curiously for a moment before seeing the shimmer of movement. As she looked closer, she realized that the area behind where Shippo had been looked distorted, as if she were looking through a glass of water. The spell had made him invisible!
"Wow, Shippo," Kagome said proudly. "That's impressive." She watched him puff back into sight, beaming about having impressed his mother.
"The hardest part is learning to make your clothing see-through, as well," Aika said with a grin. "That took some time."
Kagome nodded at the nanny with a smile, noticing, as she looked over the others, that Inuyasha was once again focused solely on the kitsune hanyou. She laughed softly to herself before rising to her feet once again.
"It's cold out here, and we're tired. Let's head in, huh?"
The first thing the miko did after entering the palace was speak with Hana. She wanted to make sure that Kagura got a comfortable room in the guest wing that Lucky hadn't destroyed. Hana agreed to make sure that there was a good distance between their rooms so that, hopefully, the former Lady wouldn't disturb their guest's rest. Kagome felt a little guilty sticking Kagura with Lucky, but she didn't really have another choice. As much as she believed that the wind witch was another victim of Naraku, and as such, innocent of her actions, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with her in the family wing, so close to the children. Besides, Kagura should be happy to have a warm bed to sleep in. She doubted she would even think to complain.
With the children sticking to her like glue, Kagome went with Hana to check on the progress of the repairs in the servants' quarters. The new Lady of the West found that though she was tired, she wanted to get things out of the way. She was impressed with the progress. Nearly half the rooms had been completed, crumbling stone walls and floors repaired, and it was a great deal warmer in the entire area.
"Wow," she said. "Our maintenance people do quick work."
Hana smiled. "They were quite happy to finally have been assigned the job."
"So, next will be picking out fabrics for the new linens. I'm going to be going away for a while, sometime in the next few days, so can I leave that to you?"
"I am honored that you would trust me with such a task, Lady Kagome."
Kagome blushed. "Aww, you'll probably do a better job than I would have anyway. You know the servants and their taste more than I would. But you cannot shop for fabric at the nearest village. We will not give that rude shop woman our business."
Hana raised a brow. She hadn't heard about the kerfuffle in the village.
Seeing the question on Hana's face, Kagome gave her a quick run-down of what had occurred and got assurances that the head servant would shop elsewhere. The miko was serious about never patronizing that youkai female's store again. She was the Lady of the West now, and she refused to allow people to be rude to her with no consequences. If she were to do so, she would end up making Sesshoumaru look bad, and that was the last thing she wanted.
With her chores taken care of for the moment, the miko headed towards her room to change into something more comfortable. She handed the children off to the nannies, who had been following along at a distance in an effort to give their Lady privacy to do her dealings.