Drawl by WhyWhatShutup

Drawl

I find it to be a good exercise to pick the word of the day on dictionary . com and write for it. The word for today, June the twenty-third of 2013, is “drawl,” “to say or speak in a slow manner, usually prolonging the vowels.”

So here it is: Drawl.

Words: 645

It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a life. It was more that she didn’t have the time, working in an office.

After four years of hopping back and forth through it, she no longer had time.

The well was long-closed and as far as she knew, her friends were long dead, though so was their enemy. Demons may have existed, but if so, they were well-hidden. She had to escape Tokyo for that reason. It was a place she associated too much with time-travel, demons, and – dare she say it? – a better, more exciting life.

It wasn’t easy to admit that she’d rather leave her family behind than admit that she missed the danger and excitement of the past.

So there she was. Kagome, girl in Kyoto. Ten years after falling down an enchanted well, she walked around Kyoto, trying to find a new place to have dinner. She’d already lived there for three years, but on the anniversary of that momentous occasion, she always did something new. And since finances were currently quite slim, she couldn’t take herself on vacation.

It wasn’t until she sensed a menacing aura that Kagome realized it might not have been her best idea to wander into that part of town that late in the day. Sure, it was rush hour, but wasn’t that the perfect time for pickpockets to make some money?

“Miko,” came the low drawl.

Kagome’s heart pounded and she spun around to face the man that muttered that word.

He was tall, with high cheekbones. He wore a nice suit, much nicer than should be seen in that part of town. Kagome guessed he didn’t have to worry about such low criminals though. Even a mere human pickpocket would be able to sense that this man screamed “Danger!”

There was something familiar about him and Kagome took a moment to stare before she realized what it was. She used the excuse that she hadn’t seen him in six years.

“Sesshomaru-sama? What in the hell are you doing here?” she blushed as she realized she’d just cursed at him.

He quirked an eyebrow in a familiar way. His black hair was swept away from his forehead, coming down to a soft point at the back of his neck. His eyes were more aged amber than golden honey. “I believe that is a question more suited to you, miko. So, what the hell,” he drew out the word to watch her blush, “are you doing alive?”

Kagome’s lips went up slowly into a smile. “I’ve always been from this time.”

“Hn.” Sesshomaru’s eyes shot to his right and for a moment, Kagome saw the demon lord that she had known five-hundred years in the past. The weak but aggressive creature she had sensed, escaped. “This is no place for a woman to wander at this time of day.”

“I was trying to find a place to have dinner,” she told him, feeling a little foolish.

Sesshomaru approached her. She stood absolutely still and watched. He held out a hand to her. She stared at it, as if she’d never seen a well-maintained, calloused man’s hand before. “I will allow you to come with me.”

Kagome took that for the invitation it truly was. She slipped her hand into his.

It wasn’t until a year later, when Sesshomaru slipped a diamond engagement ring onto her left ring finger, that he admitted that he hadn’t been on his way to the tiny, hole-in-the-wall authentic Thai restaurant they had enjoyed that night. Instead, he had been on his way home when he smelled her scent. After five-hundred years, he had still remembered it.

He too, missed the excitement. But together, they could be themselves – the demon lord who still clutched onto his lands, through corporations and land-holdings and the young miko that had nothing but only needed her family.