Inuyasha 1. One

Kagome stood up quietly.

It was one of the only nights Inuyasha decided to sleep for a time, which meant, in a sense, freedom.

She slipped away from the camp and walked through the trees with soft footsteps.

She walked through what could have been an enchanted world, with glowing fireflies and moonlit trees everywhere.

Her mind wandered though.

She recalled when she was a small child and her father listened to music with her.

A particular song was in her mind and she hummed the tune, but couldn't for the life of her remember the words.

She remembered her time in the feudal era of Japan.

A little Kitsune pup jumping into her arms with a welcome warmth every time she came back from her own time.

A woman with a tragic past that somehow managed to still be the best friend anyone could wish for.

A monk, who, despite his 'hand habit', was a wise and caring friend that Kagome would never want to loose.

And lastly, a Hanyou who was never accepted, and had experianced hatred and betrayal like none of them.

But then she had to think of others she had met also, or it wouldn't be a fair evaluation.

There was Kaede, who was always trying to help and in the beginning, no matter how hard it was upon her, helped them out.

Naraku who seemed to have no heart and could only act upon the emotion of revenge, evil, and hatred.

Rin, whom Kagome had observed and seen that she was eager to please and pleasant to spend time with, what with her energy and fun nature.

Then Sesshomaru. What did Kagome think of Sesshomaru? She used to think he was just a strong, silent, cold blooded killer, but then Rin was 'adopted'. She could not say what she thought of the demon, because every time she thought she might have him figured out, he changed.

Then the people she had met along the way. All had a set purpose it seemed. Lucky them. Fate just loved to play games with her.

Kagome climbed to the top of a barren hill encased in fireflies before she realised she was not walking through forest anymore.

She looked around curiously, a few lights burned in the village below her but all else was quiet.

A wind picked up her hair and blew it about her face.

She smiled against it like an old friend.

Suddenly she heard running footsteps behind her.

Her smile vanished and she spun around.

Rin was running towards her, waving her hand around.

"Konbanwa, Rin-chan." Kagome said softly, her smile lighting her face again.

"Konbanwa Kagome-chan!" She replied happily.

"Aren't you tired? It's late out. Where is-" The realization shook Kagome and she stood up from her crouching position next to Rin.

Sesshomaru stood many paces away and Kagome put a fisted hand over her chest.

"Sesshomaru-sama." She said softly. Perhaps it was best to show respect, so she might live, what, a few more minutes?

He simply stared at her.

Kagome shifted.

"Ano. Inuyasha isn't here with me." Kagome said looking down.

"I see." Sesshomaru said with his monotone voice.

"Are you going to let me go back to him?" She asked, looking back up at him.

He looked at her and she couldn't read his eyes, except they looked calm as ever.

"Come Rin." He said finally and turned away.

Rin blinked and ran to catch up with him, saying a brief goodbye over her shoulder.

Kagome blinked again and when he was out of sight she sighed and dropped her hand.

"Does it serve me right? Why does destiny always like to do this to me?" Kagome said, getting the edge to her voice again.

As she walked briskly back to the campsite she couldn't help but think of their first meeting, "You tried to kill me didn't you!?" it echoed in her mind and laughed at her.

She had grown a lot from that time. It had only been one year.

She had taken an extra class on history, and read up. She learned how you properly resected one of higher class in this time and other things that might become useful.

She wasn't as quick to yell at Inuyasha and make him "sit", but they still had their squabbles.

Kagome still had her fiery attitude but it was under control, and she knew when she had met her match and when she should back down.

She insisted on visiting her time, but the periods between kept getting longer and the period there shorter, and soon the feudal era was more like a home to her and she found herself yearning for it while she walked the modern streets of Japan.

Kagome had respectively come out of school, and her mother made off that she was starting home school. Her grandfather still made crazy stories to ward off her curious friends but sometimes her mother would spare her and say she was seeing and old friend or relative for a while.

Kagome had also become stronger. Kaede had taught her even better how to use the bow and arrow and Kagome had next to perfect aim.

Kouga still obsessed, Miroku still touched, Sango still punished, Inuyasha still fought, Shippo still laughed, and Kirara still sat around watching it in silent amusement. It was a good life.

She re-entered the camp site and breathed a tiny sigh of relief that no one had woken up and she hadn't been killed on her trek there and back from 'freedom'.

She curled up on the ground and went to sleep then.

*** The Next Day ***

Kagome woke up along with the rest of the group.

Kagome smiled and began breakfast as they gathered themselves together and woke up completely.

Kagome no longer dressed in her school uniform, instead, she wore either modern, modest clothing if they were travelling, or a beautiful kimono Kagome's mother had given to her (passed down for generations) if they were passing through a village that day. Sometimes she would wear miko clothing, except with black pants with white kanji down one side instead of red, that was an alternative to either so she wore them when she chose.

Today, Kagome knew they would be travelling to the village she saw last night, but she also knew it was a very religious-based village because of the vague glimpse she saw of red and white, no doubt from a patrolling miko.

She wore her miko clothes and put her longer hair up in a high ponytail. Her looks had changed over that year, her glossy ebony hair now dropped just below her rear, and her brown eyes had strangely lightened to a light brown color. They all assumed it as from the ever developing magic that now freely flowed through her veins.

She was more filled out and her pale skin never tanned, it seemed to only get lighter with the sun. She had high, cheekbones and well defined features. Her red bow had been replaced by a sharp black one, and Kagome made it a hobby of making strange arrows, used not of the chipping stone but rather of hard black stone, rich brown rod, and beautiful feathers.

Sango sometimes said they were too beautiful to kill with and dispose of, but Kagome laughed and said she could always make more.

Emerald eyeshadow and shiny lipgloss was the only make up she ever wore.

Her hair always smelled of cinnamon sticks and dried cherry blossoms, and the same scent always hung about her.

Indeed she had changed.

As soon as they had finished the common favorite breakfast food, Ramen, they packed up and left.

Another change was when Kagome never carried around her yellow pack anymore, just a silken black book back that she slung over her shoulder and put the essentials in, also sometimes she would pick up little things to give to her grandfather when she visited.

They moved through the forest, Kagome and Sango chatted a little bit, while Miroku tried to find a quicker way to touch and run, which always ended the same way, and another bump to relay to his grandchildren, if he ever persuaded a female to have children with him.

Inuyasha walked in the front, quiet except when he tossed some comment back to either add to a conversation or start a new one.

Finally they made it to the hill that Kagome had stood upon when Sesshomaru had spared her.

Kagome shook her head and walked down the steep hill, which soon turned to a tumble, skip, jog, then full out run.

She caught her breath as she reached the bottom of the hill and strained not to fall over.

They walked the rest of the way in cautious silence, and continued as they walked through the village, past the market place, past prying eyes.

Nothing interesting or out-of-the ordinary happened surprisingly, they passed through the village without any trouble.

The busy sounds vanished behind them and Kagome grinned despite herself, "Congradulations comrades! We finally passed through a village without nearly bringing it to ruin!"

Sango laughed with her while Inuyasha glared and Miroku smiled.

They walked the rest of the day and by sunset they found themselves surrounded by hills and a very deserted, burnt up village.

"We could take one of them, just for shelter." Miroku suggested.

Kagome's eyes widened considerably and she practically yelled, "Somebody LIVED in one of those houses, and now they are DEAD and what if they still stay there to protect it or whatever? Dang it, I don't know bout you guys but the next to last thing I want is a vengeful ghost chasing us around this forsaken era."

"You know you love this time Kagome, don't try to decieve us." Miroku winked.

"Then I will sleep on the ground. I hope a strange mammal with large jaws died in the hut you decided to sleep in Miroku." Kagome tossed over her shoulder as she pulled a strained rectangular blanket out of her bag and tossed it out, curling up on top of it and bringing it around her.

Shippo joined her and Inuyasha sat cross legged across from her.

Miroku grinned and lay on the ground on top of the scrawny blanket Kagome grudgingly threw at him.

Kagome passed Sango another one to spare her sleeping with Miroku, and Shippo curled up with her.

They were all about to relax and go to bed when another cool silken voice was heard, "Inuyasha."


	2. Two

"Inuyasha." The cool silken voice said.

Inuyasha sprung to his feet automatically.

"Sesshomaru." He growled.

Kagome rose to her feet and backed away.

"You know what I want." It was between a statement and a question.

"Of course I do. You're never gonna get over the fact Father thought you were unworthy of the Tetsaiga." Inuyasha grinned, drawing the sword in question as he spoke.

Kagome winced at that comment. It was like when one would call Inuyasha a 'half-breed' or what-not. But Sesshomaru hid the emotion he felt better. Anger? Hurt? Who would ever know.

She picked up her delicately made arrows and bow and backed up the hill.

"Fate will soon enough decide who was worthy of the sword." Sesshomaru said, stoic mask unfazed while you could practically see the steam coming out of Inuyasha's ears.

Then the battle begun.

Kagome mused for a second, almost tempted to laugh had this been another's life story.

Two brothers fighting over a sword, in the middle of the night, as usual right after the warm-up verbal spar. It was truly priceless. Had it been another's life story. But, as it was her friend clashing swords with an enemy theoretically twice as everything Inuyasha was, the last thing it could be called was funny.

She notched an arrow but didn't pull it taught, kept it pointed at the ground. It was a fight that had to be between them. It always would be. Why? Heaven knows.

Kagome scanned the area as far as her eyes and ears could reach, then an extra bit with her ever developing miko powers, and concluded that nothing that could interrupt them was within a few miles radius.

Sesshomaru had left Rin and Jaken at his home then? Perhaps that was why he had not slain her, Rin was there at the time.

But why would he care for a child? A human child no less?

She looked quizically at the older of the two brothers.

Or perhaps it was honor that bound him to his descision to leave. To slay a woman with no motive.

As many times as he had tryed to kill her, there might have been many excuses.

Say it was the adrenaline rush from fighting Inuyasha? But Sesshomaru hardly seemed the type to excite.

Maybe because she had gotten in the way every time? His main target was Inuyasha and Tetsaiga after all.

What reason had he to maim a mere woman that supported him from a distance?

Maybe he just would have nothing to do with her because of her human heritage. He turned and left because he was disgusted of her? But then what about Rin?

Kagome shook her head.

Wondering about the mystery that was Sesshomaru would not do while she was watching in deepest suspense (and zip attention) as her first 'friend' from the warring era fought (to the death?) with an older brother whom he spoke no reason to hate him for.

The over sized white shirt flapped in the wind and goosebumps appeared on her legs.

She suddenly wondered why she hadn't nabbed the blanket up here too? Where was Miroku looking? But surely he wouldn't act that way during a battle that might loose them a number of their party?

Kagome tossed her head as her hair fluttered about and spyed Sango and Miroku standing on a hill on the right of her, weapons drawn but not poised to attack.

The wind howled, and an eternity seemed to pass while Sango, Miroku and Kagome waited for some sign to join the fray.

But that moment never seemed to come.

As a matter of fact, time seemed to slow down considerably as a scream was heard not too far off.

Flecks of white swirled about a young girl who sobbed hysterically in the midst of them.

Rin.

Sesshomaru spun towards her voice, silvery hair whipping in the wind.

Inuyasha shot Kagome a surprised look that was just starting to glow with triumph, Kagome knew what he wanted her to do.

Two distractions were better then one.

She shook her head and pulled the arrow taught and aimed it at Sesshomaru, who turned sharply toward the wirey sound of a bow string being drawn, while Inuyasha charged at him with an extra spurt of speed, brandishing his weapon with an almost crazy grin on his face.

But Kagome hesitated for a split second. Like a fastforwarded movie, images shot through her mind quick as lightening, but with full, undeniable meaning.

*Flashback*

"Are you going to let me go back to him?" She asked, looking back up at him.

He looked at her and she couldn't read his eyes, except they looked calm as ever.

"Come Rin." He said finally and turned away.

*End Flashback*

Kagome suddenly came to a descision.

She looked over at Inuyasha's eyes, the golden fire burning in delight at the thought of finally felling his next to greatest enemy.

Kagome's eyes brimmed with sparkling tears as she shifted her stance and felt her heart clench in self punishment at what she was about to do.

But she owed him something, and she was ready to pay it off. Rather that than always be in debt to Sesshomaru, that would stand between them forever, her unable to fight him at all, and Inuyasha would never forgive her.

She shook the thoughts away and finally let her arrow fly.

She blinked away her tears even as she knew she was doing the right thing.

The blinding golden flash eliminated the darkness for a split second then cleared away.

Sesshomaru stared up at Kagome, she could only barely decipher his sun-colored orbs, the previous anger and desperate (though indescrete) worry had turned to a barely noticable light of gratitude. Though he would never admit to it, he felt gratitude towards her, because even while she saved his life, in a way she also saved Rin's. But it was a questionable sight to Kagome, thinking that probably to anyone who didn't know how to look they would see a cold stoic mask of indifference, like always, so was what she saw real?

Inuyasha stared in disbelief as time seemed to come to normal again (yes, all of this happened in a span of about ten seconds), looking at his hands where there rested the rusty version of Tetsaiga. He looked up again and Sesshomaru had vanished.

The ghostly white spots had dissapeared, the little girl's screams had fallen silent, and the same girl was nowhere in sight.

Next Inuyasha looked up with betrayal burning slightly in his eyes.

The beautiful arrow stuck dully out of the ground not ten feet from where Inuyasha stood.

Kagome slid down the hill again, head bowed, bangs covering her honey colored eyes.

She sensed Sango and Miroku come up beside her, as she stood now about five paces from Inuyasha's still form.

"Why?" He croaked. Disbelief fading away rapidly as fury and rage replaced it.

"Would you believe me if I told you the truth Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, regret hanging on each word.

"Baka. Baka." Inuyasha said, anger building.

"Inuyasha-" Kagome began, worried.

"NO! YOU LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY NOW! YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FOR ONE YEAR, YOU HAVE ALMOST BEEN KILLED COUNTLESS TIMES BY THAT HEARTLESS BAKA, YOU'VE GONE THROUGH SEVERAL HARDSHIPS WHICH WERE EVENTUALLY COMPLETED BY ME, TO SAVE YOUR HIDE, AND NEVER ONCE HAVE YOU TURNED YOUR ARROW UPON ME! NEVER ONCE HAVE YOU PROTECTED THE ONE THAT TRIED TO MURDER YOU EACH TIME YOU FINALLY THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE IN BED! NEVER ONCE HAVE YOU BETRAYED THE LOT YOU SWORE TO JOIN TO GATHER THE JEWEL THAT YOU BROKE! SO ONE CAN'T HELP BUT WONDER WHAT'S CHANGED? WHY THE HELL DO YOU SIDE WITH HIM NOW? WHAT DID HE EVER DO FOR YOU!? THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO TEACH YOU HOW TO ACT SMART IN YOUR TIME NOT STUPID! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Inuyasha roared.

"Would you really believe me if I told you the truth?" Kagome repeated, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Inuyasha glared daggers at her, no doubt thinking if only looks could kill. He then stepped forward, and slapped her, hard. Tears poured down her face as she stumbled to the ground before he bounded off, almost glowing red in anger.

She gave a heart felt sob as she turned into Sango's comforting embrace.

*~*

"Rin. Wake up Rin." Sesshomaru said.

"Wake up stupid human!" Jaken screamed brandishing the Staff Of Heads at the unconscious child.

"Jaken." Sesshomaru said stonily.

"H-hai M'Lord?" He asked nervously.

"Leave." He demanded.

Jaken looked about to protest then scuttled off with one more look from Sesshomaru that said if he did not leave, Sesshomaru would make sure that when he did leave it would be to a place he could never return from.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes as Jaken dissapeared into the hallway, remembering Kagome's flitting look of inner turmoil before she turned her arrow upon the one she had sworn her loyalty to.

He narrowed his eyes if possibly more.

'Stupid humans and their unfailing emotions." He decided finally in answer to the unheard of question of why she was driven to divert her loyalty in the name of honor.

He looked back down at Rin, who was pale and sick looking.

He blinked down at her again. Then looked away, stood up, and left her to be cared for by more experianced youkai.


	3. Three

Inuyasha and Kagome weren't on speaking terms.

They weren't even on yelling terms.

They were about a day and a half from Kaede's village. It was an unspoken statement that for once, Inuyasha wanted Kagome to go to the future for a while. We all knew why.

Kagome thought it was a bit selfish of Inuyasha after they had just walked so far to turn around and go back, but not for the life of her would she mention it. She would not be the first one to speak to him. It was partially her readiness to step up to a challenge, her stubborn nerve, but it was also a fearfulness and a sadness that held her back too.

They walked all day, there was dead silence, Kagome never asked for a break, and Miroku kept his hands strictly to himself so whatever relief might come of that distraction had vanished also.

By the time night time fell, they were all exhausted but didn't speak as they got ready for bed.

As soon as everybody was asleep, Kagome stood. She knew it was different tonight, she felt Inuyasha's leering golden eyes on her back.

She wondered if he would ask where she was going. If she were watching herself and had just experianced what Inuyasha had, she would have thought she was going off to meet Sesshomaru right then. Kagome gave a small sigh.

"I'm going for a walk." She said almost inaudibly.

He didn't answer but she still felt his attentive eyes boring into her back as she tiptoed from the campsite.

She walked through the forest quietly, not knowing why she was driven to do so.

She came across a hot spring and debated whether to take advantage of it or not.

She finally decided it would be okay, even if she hadn't brought shampoo or conditioner et cetera.

She stripped and waded into the center of the relatively shallow pool and let the warmth sink in for a few moments before she dove under and swam for a while.

When her legs felt like led and she ran out of breath she resurfaced and just stood in the soothing warm water.

That was, until she heard barely audible footsteps gliding over the ground towards her.

She didn't spin around to look, if a youkai had just entered the clearing then that one movement would show him something, and then he might be tempted. She had heard tell of stories from Kaede of these happenings, when young woman of all looks and ages and station had spun to address the intrudor as they were bathing and such, and had been raped as a result.

So she stood still and tried to see if she recognized the pattern of footfall, which she couldn't, so she stretched out her senses to try to identify at least the species, which also failed, for this youkai was strong enough to withdraw his or her aura and conceal its form.

Kagome finally looked over her shoulder without turning to see whom had violated her limits.

Sesshomaru stood a few feet from the waters edge, looking at her eyes, she was surprised as his eyes held hers firmly and didn't wander, as she had expected any males to, but she should have remembered Sesshomaru's reputation of self control, and his dignity.

Her eyes narrowed a bit but she made no move to attack or defend, but to listen to whatever he felt he had to say.

She slowly but visibly sank a bit in the water, so she was concealed from her shoulders down, and turned to face him.

They had a staring contest for a few moments before Kagome finally turned her eyes and asked quietly, "May I help you Sesshomaru-sama?"

He continued staring at her with hard emotionless eyes, before they finally narrowed and he asked firmly, "What is your name?"

She was a bit taken aback by his question but then nodded slightly and said in her 'submisive voice', "My name is Kagome."

He nodded and turned away from her, his expression unchanging. She did not say anything else.

When she thought he was going to enter the cover of trees again, he turned his head just slightly and said in a monotone voice, "You saved Rin."

Kagome didn't respond, didn't add, didn't try to be modest.

She wondered why he did not add she had saved his own life- maybe he was ashamed it had to be saved? Or perhaps he found Rin's life more significant than his.

She blinked as he departed, his icy aura lingering slightly.

She drew in a slight breath.

She figured that was the closest to a 'thank you' Sesshomaru had ever given before, and found herself slightly pleased he had recognized the act that had harshly scoured her friends' relationship. At least one anyway.

She dove under the water again, and she couldn't help but think she had gotten him all wrong thinking him completely heartless, souless, and without compassion. He was quite different then what she had been led to believe, and jumped to assume. Perhaps this was Rin's doing?

He did not speak very much, but he might still consider himself above a previously nameless miko, too cowardly to do anything but watch as he and his brother fought.

Kagome finally emerged and wrung out her hair, then slipped on her clothes again as she walked slowly back to camp.

She felt the drips of water that never dried out of your hair unless with a towel trickle down her back and leave great water spots where her hair rested on her shoulders, front and back.

When she got back she still saw the alert eyes of Inuyasha, staring at the place where she had departed and now stood again.

Her eyes brimmed slightly with tears, she didn't think he would ever trust her again.

Curling up on the ground, she did not let the tears come. What was done was done, and she could not bring herself to regret saving Sesshomaru and his adopted daughter.

She remembered as she had redirected the arrow, she had had the illusion of herself in Sesshomaru's place, Shippo terrified of circles of ghosts that swirled about him as white hazes. She shivered at the thought.

She stared into Inuyasha's eyes, hoping the hurt would reflect visibly off them so that even the ignorant hanyou could read them, but his eyes were ice, he did not say anything to ease her obvious pain. If he could interpret her emotions anyways, he would have seen only hurt at loosing a friend, but no regret for helping the 'enemy'.


	4. Four

I'm just gonna add at the beginning that sentences and such that have *~* above and below them are flashbacks or dreams. And * is a change of setting.

* * *

The next morning they ate in silence.

They would be at the village before lunch time.

Kagome dressed in her modern clothes, consisting of pale blue bell-bottom jeans and a thin white blouse with drooping sleeves and where the neckline was a straight line underneath her collarbone.

She slung the black book bag over her shoulder and for once didn't even say good bye to Kaede before she headed for the old well.

The quiet, suspensful serenity of this forest sent both chills and peace down her spine.

She remembered when she first came here.

*~*

"Granpa? Souta?!"

*~*

She sighed as she dropped into the well for the first time in a month and a week.

*

"What happened to her? It seems she is able to wake up, but not motivated to do so." Said an elderly female youkai with hoopy grey hair and emerald (slightly faded) eyes. Her pointed ears perked to here his cold answer, which was so softly spoken nobody outside of five feet of him would probably be able to hear.

"She was attacked." He was always very short, or simply, spoken.

"By...?" The woman said, not pressing him, for even if she did not fear for her life, she had been serving Inutaisho's family since he was a pup, she still held a bit of caution towards the cool youkai lord, as did everybody else, no matter how long they had served faithfully.

"Ghosts." Sesshomaru answered, not taking his eyes off Rin.

"Ghosts?" The womans head snapped towards him.

He gave a faint nod but made no other motion or comment.

"She might be frightened they are still lurking, and therefor is terrified to open her eyes and supposedly meet them." The woman said softly.

He nodded again, faintly.

"Poor girl. What made her come to be attacked by the restless dead?" The woman again asked.

"She did not stay with Jaken as I had asked. When she came to find me, she found herself in the midst of them."

"Perhaps they enjoyed seeing the living fight to see one of them die. The girl interfered and perhaps for that they were angry, or desperate to keep her off." Said the woman quietly.

"The wench found injustice in what my idiot half brother was innevitably planning, and turned her arrow to untransform my father's sword."

With that, the taiyoukai left.

*

Kagome told her story to her family, leaving out certain parts, handed over a few choice items she had picked up for her grandfather, livened up the story for Souta's liking...

Kagome was exhausted really. For once she wanted to just be alone instead of being prodded by her parents... like some caged animal... And they wanted to know how it felt to live in the cage...

*~*

The battle continued between the two blood thirsty brothers, both were ready to kill.

Kagome stood alone on one of the hills, her legs going numb, and she suddenly wished she had nabbed a blanket when they had run from the battle.

Kagome knew Miroku wouldn't look while a battle was going on... Not when they could loose somebody.

She held an arrow loosely notched in her bow, pointed towards the ground.

Her head shot up as she, and everybody else no doubt, heard the blood curdling scream that belonged to Rin, standing a good distance away with ghosts swirling about her menacingly.

Inuyasha looked up at Kagome, as Sesshomaru's head shot towards the girl, taking his mind completely off the battle, and triumph was dawning in his eyes.

Kagome grinned back at him, their enemy would finally die.... And one less thing to deal with.

Sesshomaru looked back up at her in fury when he heard her pull the bow string taut.

She looked at him and smiled, letting the arrow fly towards him.

He automatically jumped away from it, and that was when Inuyasha's sword cut through his back, a look of intense pain flashed on his face but he hid it, he would die with his dignity.

His lifeless body hit the ground and the spirits trapping Rin danced and sung and cheered, the village seeming to come back to life.

Then everybody dissapeared. Inuyasha looked like he could have kissed her before, she thought she had been happy, but now in this deep void of her mind, she stood alone.

Then a tiny voice cried, sobbing, at her, "Why did you do it?! Why did you kill him? I loved him- he was my daddy!"

She looked frantically for the little voice, but there was nobody in sight.

She suddenly felt like she was waist high in freezing cold water, and she could see the faint red light up ahead, it was cold, but Kagome moved towards it against her will.

There, in front of her, Stood Inuyasha, over the dead bodies of Rin and Jaken. Tears streaked the little girls face, and the toads wide eyes looked on in abandonement, perhaps acceptance. With Sesshomaru gone he had no reason to live anyways.

"Why? Why!" She choked through her own sobs.

"Nothing my brother treasured or had to do with will live if I have my way!" Inuyasha cried, a mad glint in his eye.

"And you- you were close to that little girl..." Inuyasha stepped towards her.

She stumbled back, "No! No, I didn't!" She cried desperately.

Inuyasha suddenly dissolved into Naraku.

"YOU killed Rin and Sesshomaru and Jaken???" She asked fearfully but also angrily.

He smiled and approached her, leaning down to whisper, "No. I will tell you what did though."

She shivered but stood stalk still.

"It was. You." He said smiling.

She jerked back, "Iie! I would never do this!"

"Do you love Inuyasha?" He asked abruptly.

"Iie... Ano... As a friend..." She looked away.

"You do not love him, you wish for his praise though, for him to see you as an individual." Naraku said.

Her eyes darted to his for an instant then back to the ground.

"You are a dream." She stated quietly.

"My advice is true." He said, "I have come to tell you, that if you keep wishing for his praise, you will come innevitably to a horrible battle, because you will persuade yourself you love him, will do anything, it is easy enough to believe, but your love will never be true to him, because at the point of your highest love for him, he treated you like dirt, saw another through your skin. I have come to tell you, if you do not think for yourself, let the hanyou go, you will miss something in life, and it will be the same... As if you did kill the little girl, and Sesshomaru..." He cackled as her eyes widened until light consumed them, and she had to shut her eyes tightly to avoid blindness.

*~*

Kagome woke with a start and all of a sudden had a flash of a little girl on a futon, cheeks pale and eyes closed.

Rin.

"I'm afraid..." It echoed in her mind.

Kagome sprung from her bed, cold sweat trickling down her forehead as she wrote a note to her parents, what to say if Inuyasha came to look for her and where she was actually going (quite vaguelly), then she slung her bookbag over her shoulder and left the house in a frenzy, darkness of outside swallowing her as she spinted again for the old well..


	5. Five

Kagome's feet softly touched the solid earth of the forest floor.

She held her breath, thoroughly expecting Inuyasha to burst through the darkened trees at any moment and accuse her of being back too soon.

This fancy did not sting as it might have a couple of days ago, and she merely closed her eyes and took a soothing breath before opening them to reveal the stronger, more determined light cinnamon eyes of a girl who knew what she wanted.

She realized she might have acted rashly, perhaps from shock, by bolting into another time without a plan of defense, or any idea how she was to settle any of it.

She carefully withdrew her aura, Kaede had said it felt very suspicious, like the chill suddenly pulled from the night, if you snapped up your aura in too much of a hurry after it had had time to spread along the area where it could be felt.

She chanted an ancient rhyme that Kaede had also taught her once, a silly little spell that caused your scent to change according to what you wanted. Kaede informed her that it was not only useful in a child's game of hide and go seek, but also when and if you were hunted by youkai, you could change your scent to throw them off course.

She closed her eyes as she spoke the incantation and imagined the piney smell that coated the trees that surrounded her.

As she opened her eyes, she looked down at herself, half expecting to find herself not only holding the trees' scent, but appearance. But, as always, it was not so.

She looked down and sneered in self-disgust. In all her rush to get back to the warring period, Kagome had trudged headlong into a demon-infested forrest, not only without a plan but garbed still in her pajamas, without her bow and arrow, without food, and only a half-limp bag to speak for.

Kagome sighed at her own stupidity but felt a sense of coming too far to go back, so she knelt on the ground and pulled out whatever remnants of her last visit here were left within the silky black accesory.

She found within it the coiled up necklace on which dangled the Shikon No Tama. She had made it a habit to drop it there instead of on her desk in case she was in a rush to leave and incidently forgot it.

She brought up next the delicate cord binded around a pair of identical, halfway shaped black stones which she made her arrows with.

The wood was perhaps the last thing she gathered for her arrows, as if the incantation was not spoken immediatly, the wood would become brittle and rot before she could assemble it with the other necissary parts. And the charm usually only lasted around a week, and it took around two weeks to create a maximum of ten arrows. Not only that, but it took the same energy as keeping somebody young for a longer period then natural, so she usually had to channel it with her stronger emotions to stay concious afterwards, calm or anger, sadness, trust. And usually at the beginning of night, as it took hours at a time to recuperate.

She had the slightly crumpled 'spare blanket', in case it was called for.

A math book...

Kagome, with delight then, noticed the neat square of shimmering clear plastic that could only mean she had (like always) left a most endeared piece of clothing within her humble little black bag.

She carefully unfolded it, then brought it up to examine closer.

Beautiful as ever, the kimono her mother had given her shined in all its glory in the pearl moonlight.

It was obviously an inch or two too long for Kagome's rather average height, where the owner of this had obviously been a bit taller, but it fit her form perfectly, or so her mother said.

It was white as cloud, and the funniest thing about the kimono was it never seemed to snag, or crease, or rip, or even get stained. It could not be destroyed, burned, anything. Kagome's mother adored it and encouraged Kagome to wear it, not only for beauty, but protection.

Thick bands of pale gold wound about the edges of the flowing fabric, at the end of the drooping sleeves, to the straight neckline, exposing her shoulders and milky skin, even down to the flawless material inch that dragged along the ground.

Soft caramel colored cherry blossoms danced across the gorgeous display, and a matching golden colored obi was wound twice around her middle.

Kagome almost decided to drop the golden eyeshadow, clear shining gloss, pale pink blush, and golden decorative chop-sticks that would normally be woven into a half bun that complemented the authority of the dress, had she not stopped to think for a moment and decided it would be rather more repectful to look like she cared for Sesshomaru's rank.

After this she hurried off towards the Western part of Japan, knowing not what she would say, or do for that matter, only that she had to see Rin.

When she first felt tired, she whispered off the incantation that allowed her to expand her senses, surpass her limits, and exelerate to a level beyond human functioning.

Even before sun up she found herself at the entrance to Sesshomaru's home, she took a deep breath, and knocked on the great doors.

Nobody answered. Where was that insolent little toad when you needed him? Thought Kagome as she played with the length of hair that cascaded down her back from the bun that was looped so proudly about the chopsticks that protruded.

Kagome took a deep breath, aware that if she did what she was about to do in her time, she'd probably be arrested, in this time, she'd probably be killed... But that didn't matter after all! She HAD to see Rin!

She slipped the door open a crack and slipped inside, stopping immediatly to see if she had attracted any attention.

She closed her eyes and thought of the smell of blooming flowers in summer... perfectly matching this rooms scent, Rin's doing no doubt... Then she scouted the perimeter to see who all was there to witness her crime if she were caught.

Apparently, Sesshomaru along with a few other youkai were on the other side of the first floor, and Rin was a couple floors up, servants milled around and she caught their auras on the second and third levels. Apparently they were not allowed on the first floor while Sesshomaru was with these select other three?

Kagome's stomach lurched as she deducted whom the others he was with must be, as he did not seem the type to sit down and talk over tea with... normal... youkai...

She was well aware she had just painted if possible, even more white into her naturally pale facial color, and quickly darted up the staircase she spotted directly to her right.

She kept low to the ground, and only flew between hiding places after the servants who passed were well around the nearest corner, then she finally slipped up the next staircase, flat against the wall in shadow cover, so as not to attract attention.

Rin's aura was normally sunny yellow, but paled and faint after her most recent "accident".

Kagome slipped quietly into her dark room and over to the futon that was against the far wall.

She looked down upon the small child for several moments, listening to every strained, short breath that escaped the pale white lips. She leaned a bit farther over and removed the blanket that had been carefully thrown over her slightly trembling body.

Just like it was in her dream.

She kneeled staring at the small girl for what seemed an eternity, not noticing when the filtered dawn light had turned into a wide smiling yellow beam that flew unbound through her shut window.

She was silent, didn't notice when the auras of Sesshomaru and the other Lords seperated, didn't notice when she felt his aura fast approaching Rin's room...

She was transfixed by the little ill girl, was only brought to reality when a cold voice whispered icily behind her, "What, may I ask, are you doing, within my home?"


	6. Six

Kagome froze where she sat staring.

"Sesshomaru-sama." She said softly.

He did not answer her.

"I want to try to help Rin." She answered the question and her voice slightly cracked, "I'm not sure how to though, and when I saw Rin then I felt that I was so useless because I could not summon enough power to revive even a little girl. I came into your home without your knowledge so as not to disturb your conversation with the other lords, but I was hoping to help her before you could find me, and stop me. Please let me help her though! I want her to, to live..." Kagome swallowed a sob.

He again did not say anything, but stepped closer to where she kneeled.

"It will be your life if your spell fails." He said coldly, not looking at her.

"Hai." She said softly.

She put her hands over the deathly white Rin, and closed her eyes, relaxing her features.

Sesshomaru observed with hidden interest, could this human girl really revive his Rin?

Her hands began to glow with a warm pearl glow, colors racing through it, pink, blue, purple, green, strokes of colors shooting through and circulating before ebbing out.

Her face held the same relaxed expression, thouh he could see now, it was with effort.

Her hands were held a mere inch above the little girls frame, and you could visibly see the color begin to return as the white light ran the length of her body.

Kagome froze when her hands were held over the little girls chest, her eyes snapped open suddenly, and the room was engulfed in white light.

Kagome could see twinkling stars but she payed no heed of it, as she now stood in a completely empty white world, no edges, no beginning, no end.

In front of her stood Rin, clad in a white kimono with a green obi.

"Rin-chan?" Kagome asked uncertainly.

"I don't want to go back!" Rin automatically cried, their voices echoing even though there was no wall.

"Why not? We miss you." Kagome said softly.

"The mean people are there- they want to kill Rin! They want Rin to be dead because they are dead!" Rin said through tears and sobs.

"Sesshomaru-sama will protect you though, and the mean people are gone- they were scared away." Kagome said gently.

"But they'll come back- they can't find me here!" Rin cried desperately.

"They can find you anywhere- especially here because nobody can watch over you." Kagome said.

"They will?" Rin said in a high pitched voice.

"Hai- Rin, please come back with me and then Sesshomaru-sama will protect you from them!" Kagome smiled encouragingly.

"A-Alright then..." Rin said and took Kagome's outstretched hand.

The light suddenly vanished and Rin was sitting up holding Kagome's hand.

Kagome smiled relieved just before she was pulled harshly to her feet.

Sesshomaru gave a controlled growl, though Kagome could tell it was ebbing away fast.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked uncertainly.

"What did you do?" Sesshomaru asked.

"... I don't... know..." Kagome said truthfully.

He dropped her again and his glowing eyes fell on Rin, who smiled up at him tiredly before falling backwards with a departing yawn.

His eyes fell back on the only slightly disshelved Kagome.

"It seems I am in your debt." Sesshomaru said simply.

"It doesn't matter anyway, I didn't want her to die." Kagome looked away blushing.

He nodded his head only slightly.

"It is evening." He stated, walking away.

"Hai, I have to leave." Kagome said.

"Many dangerous youkai come out only at night." Sesshomaru said, ice in his voice, but Kagome thought it was more habitual then warning.

"WHat are you suggesting?" Kagome asked uncertainly , standing up and straightening the beautiful kimono.

"I am pointing out that you would be that much the wiser for a ningen if you stood here for the moment and left in the morning." He said coldly, before walking away.

Kagome stood up slowly, "Then you will no longer be in my debt." She said slowly.

"And I will be free of honor to kill my hanyou half brother without this laying between us." He said disgusted.

She looked up at him.

"I will show you to a room you may borrow." Sesshomaru said icily, but with no malice left in his voice.

"Alright. Arigatou..." She said before hurrying to catch up to his swiftly departing form.

She stood slightly behind him as they walked, and she looked curiously up into his face.

It showed no signs of emotion and she looked back to the ground, blushing slightly.

After trailing him downstairs and around the floor level, he finally stopped.

He suddenly stopped and she ungracefully stopped just short of falling into him.

"You will reside in this bedroom until morning." He stated, a command left with no room for arguement or complaint.

Not that she would.

The room was gorgeous.

It was a typical bedroom for a house in this time, but the feeling it radiated was both beautiful and high. The white rice paper door they stood at was parallel to another that apparently led outside, the rich wooden planks of wood that encirled the house were slightly visible through the nearly transparent 'door'. A futon lay near the screen, the bamboo stalks creating it only fit for a lord's house, so craftily done even in her time it would doubtlessly cost many hundreds of dollars.

On the wall opposite the futon, long white scrolls lining the wall bore beautiful ink drawings of dragons and griffins and unicorns, and other nameless beasts that would live only in myths hundreds of years later. The room held no candles or torches or other means of light, so Kagome supposed that this room during the daytime was usually in the direct light of the sun, and needn't a lamp or other such accesories, as there was already natural light shining in.

The wall Kagome stood against was made of rice paper, so people would be visible while they passed by, the door to the outside was also against a rice paper wall, and Kagome couldn't help but wonder what happened when it rained. The other two walls, on either side of Kagome, were made of rich red wood, that were darkened to a glossy brown in the decreasing light. It was simple and gorgeous, and Kagome felt love swell in her chest as she immediatly grew attached to the small room.

She turned her head to thank Sesshomaru but he was gone, doubtlessly bored of watching her gaping mouth and eyes full of wonder, ceasing to care for her gratitude. A small blush rose to her cheeks but she ignored it as adrenaline and a sense of excitement swirled in her previously frozen heart. She sprinted the feet that seperated her from the futon and almost laughed as she collapsed onto it giddily.

She fought with herself whether to take off the kimono, as she didn't have any night clothes to change into and would be left nude, asleep, in a suddenly not-so-phsyco, previously-equal-to-stranger man's house and home.

She finally decided she would face much more dire consequences if she went home with her dear mothers passed-down-for-ages kimono that she had, too, grown a distinct liking to.

It slipped off her body like water and she carefully folded it before curling up protectively in the provided rich silky blanket the color of the purest cloud.

She then fell asleep comfordably with a smile adorning her face.


	7. Seven

Kagome woke up slowly, blinking once in the blinding sunlight that was thankfully not directed at her eyes.

For a few moments she sat and tried to wake up completely, wondering to herself what she was doing in a gorgeous sunlit room in a quiet atmosphere without even Shippou slumbering at her feet.

She sat up and stood up with the blanket still wrapped around her, then her shining pale brown eyes widened in sudden realization.

"It must be mid morning. Sesshomaru-sama must think myself so ungrateful! Maybe he thinks I am taking advantage of his hospitality! Oh no!" Kagome whispered.

She quickly dropped the warm blanket and threw on her kimono as fast as she could without rumpling it or looking disrespectful.

She flew from the room and dashed between the rice paper doors, peeking in to see which one was Sesshomaru's room.

She finally found Sesshomaru's bedroom and through open the door breathlessly.

The figure that had been still on the futon snapped up and the blanket fluttered to rest around his hips.

She blushed and turned back around, almost hitting herself for being so careless.

"Gomen nasai, Sesshomaru-sama. I did not know you would be asleep." She murmured.

She could feel him staring at her back but did not speak.

"I rushed because I was afraid you would think me greedy or selfish for staying in your home for so much more time. I was going to inform you that I would leave now and trouble you no longer. Domo arigatou for letting me stay safely in your home- it is very wonderful." She said and began to descend the indeed pretty room, trying to brush out the picture of Sesshomaru's breathtaking figure that kept on fluttering into her mind.

"I will accompany you." He said suddenly, calmly.

"N-Nani?" She asked, flustered.

"I will ensure your safe return to your group in order to complete the dept I owe to you." He said.

She was about to protest but suddenly realized it unwise to argue with the offer of an even safer return, so instead she just nodded.

"I will leave, and wait outside for you." She said quietly, before finally descending.

He stared after her as she slid the thin screen shut and walked visibly down the hallway.

'A human that does not jump at the chance to take more? One who would think of anothers thoughts before her own? I thought it impossible.' He thought, a smirk almost lighting his lips at the thought. But he quickly froze the urge, 'It does not matter. But it is... Interesting.'

When he walked serenly down the hall until he stepped outside, he found Kagome leaning against the wooden border of the slight balcony.

He looked indifferently at her loose hair that flurled about her and the expensive kimono that was obviously, but not disrespectfully, put on hastily.

She looked back at him and smiled softly before walking over the neatly placed wooden boards, soon descending across the grassy plain that lay between his home and the gates.

He walked behind her, a look of indifference on his features as she just enjoyed the scenery around her.

She did not ask him to take any breaks, nor did she ask for anything to eat. It was slightly admirable for a human.

They walked in silence for most of the day, for Sesshomaru, it was natural, and the chosen alternative for risking becoming interested in whatever the human had to say. For Kagome, she was thinking happily about everything around her, her friends, her family, Shippo, Kaede, and everything else that might have seemed a lot to think about had it not been for the beautiful day around them.

At sunset, they continued walking.

"Because, even if you're here and I might be safe, if we keep on walking, I might save you that trouble because we can take them as they come instead of settling in one place and attracting all of the demons in the area!" Kagome said cheerfully back at him.

He nodded but showed no further emotion, though he found her behavior just slightly amusing.

When the sky was dark and their only light was the stars and the moon, Kagome would still not give up, not show weakness before him.

Finally though, exaustion and hunger got the better of her and she asked him, with a slightly tired look on her face and in her voice, if they could stop. She even offered to wake up extra early the next morning if he could remember to do so.

He nodded.

She sat against the trunk of a tree and put her head on her knees. Her eyes drifted slightly closed but she glanced one more time at Sesshomaru's alert face.

His eyes flew back at hers and and enchanting bond held cinnamon to gold before Kagome abruptly fell asleep, falling on her side and scattering the leaves a bit.

He observed her after she fell asleep. A small smile lighted her lips- she was cheerful even at night?

Then he remembered the difference between the way she spoke to him the before sunset, and how she spoke to him the first time they "met".

"Will you let me go back to him?" She had seemed like she would literally take his command (unless maybe had he said no), and then-

"Because, even if you're here and I might be safe, if we keep on walking, I might save you that trouble because we can take them as they come instead of settling in one place and attracting all of the demons in the area!" She had been cheerful and happy and ready to make his life easier in whatever way she could.

'Curious creature...' Sesshomaru thought almost exasperated before he returned to other thoughts.

He woke her up just as the sun rose above the Earth and she woke up sleepily, but did not argue.

She tried to straighten herself up and she smiled softly as he looked unblinking at her, waiting.

This time she fell in step behind him and they walked along a path way through a forest... Inuyasha's forest...

She slightly tensed up- What would Inuyasha say? How would he react if she told him she had stayed with Sesshomaru for two days in harmony?

She sighed a bit but then picked up her pace to walk next to Sesshomaru.

She stumbled a little out of hunger but still did not ask for food.

Sesshomaru noticed her weakened state but, to the bare eye, looked as if he would do nothing about it.

About an hour later, Sesshomaru put out his arm to stop her and she took one more unsure step before halting.

"Those," He pointed towards a tree which bared strange-looking fruit, "Are edible."

His tone was monotone, his face was still, but he could not help but observe as she mustered a bright smile for him and turned to take a few of the fruits.

Later on as they walked, Kagome cast another smile up at him and said happily, "Domo arigatou Sesshomaru-sama."

He nodded slightly and looked sideways at her.

Again, she was happily enjoying the scenery, unaware that they were only one short hour from Inuyasha's group...


	8. Eight

"Here is where I leave you." Sesshomaru said emotionlessly... Almost.

"N-nani- why?" Kagome said, looking at him. Afraid maybe she had driven him to making her walk the rest of the way because she was such an annoyance.

"You will find your group ten minutes straight ahead." Was all he said before he turned and started to leave.

"Demo- matte." Kagome said softly and dashed up to him and took his hand lightly, "Domo arigatou." She said looking down with a sheepish blush, withdrawing her hand immediately from the feather soft touch.

He looked down at her and she backed up a few steps.

"I- I think I misjudged you Sesshomaru-sama!" She smiled with an almost friendy twinkle in her toffee eyes before spinning and sprinting towards the direction he had informed her would lead her back to Inuyasha and the others.

He watched her depart and an unreadable expression crossed his face.

"I may have misjudged you also, human- Kagome." He said, with only the slightest hint of a companionable fondness behind his otherwise monotone voice.

*

"You guys!" Kagome cried as she burst through the trees happily, sprinting over to join them, as they stopped and glanced curiously back at her.

Inuyasha stood stock still and didn't utter a word. Kagome almost stopped too, had it not been for the smile that suddenly graced both Miroku's and Sango's face, driving her to run and embrace them both.

"Kagome-chan!" cried Sango.

"Kagome-san!" cried Miroku,

and "Kagome-chan!" cried Shippo.

Inuyasha still remained silent.

"Konnichiwa minna!" Kagome said energetically.

"Where did you go? We though you would come back from the well a day ago- l-like always, because you don't have tests or anything.... and you weren't here and Inuyasha went- went to your time and you weren't there and we were worried!" Shippo sobbed.

"It's ok Shippo-chan, I just had this crazy whim and I went to take care of it. Don't worry about it much, I would always come back!" Kagome assured him, but cast a weary eye to Inuyasha, who still had not looked her in the eye yet.

Shippo nodded and smiled, "Well, then, if you're okay, then Inuyasha probably wants to search for the jewel shards again." Shippo said happily, forgetting his earlier nervousness.

"Hai." Kagome said softly, happy to be back with her friends, but for some reason, she found herself yearning for Sesshomaru's beautiful, simple home that night, while they slept on the favorite; cold, hard, wet forest floor during a rainstorm, with no caves in sight and only a thin canopy of trees over their heads for shelter.

As Kagome reflected in the early evening, with a shivering Shippo under her arm, 'You spend a regular day ignoring it, and it gives you happiness and goodness and cheer and good weather. Then you spend a day praising it for treating you so well, and ife slaps you in the face for the thought. Talk about hard to get.'

That was before Inuyasha stepped up beside her form with a look like murder on his face, and told agome without words that he wanted to talk now that everyone but them were asleep.

Kagome almost wished she had gone to bed early.

She got up careful not to wake Shippo, and crept away with Inuyasha, blanket wrapped tightly about her grudgingly as she shivered desperate for warmth.

"Where. Did. You. Go." Inuyasha asked harshly as soon as she was yanked into a clearing a good distance from camp, where the rain slapped at the slight river beside them, as the river slapped at the annoying raindrops.

Silence was broken only by the countless little splashes of raindrops, thunder, and her breathing and heartbeat.... Altogether, it was deafening.

Why hadn't she fallen asleep early anyway?

"I- I" She started.

"Don't lie to me Kagome." Inuyasha demanded icily.

"I had to save Rin- I HAD to Inuyasha. You don't understand. You wouldn't." Kagome whispered. Maybe the surrounding noise would drown out her ice breaking answer. But she knew it was too good to be true.

"You went to Sesshomaru." Inuyasha said, eyes and voice growing colder by the second.

"I had to save Rin." Kagome said again.

"From what, Kagome?!" He demanded, his glare alone making her wince.

"In our battle... Rin could have- could have left forever... lived in a fake world... The ghosts frightened her- from the deserted village." Kagome knew her answer did not make sense. Maybe he ouldn't ask any questions and they would just head back to camp and forget it all. Thunder seemed to shake the earth itself, from the core.

"Did it take that long?" Inuyasha said, voice growing bitter with hate.

"No... But Sesshomaru-sama-" She stopped automatically.

His eyes. They stared at her and lightening flashed behind him, fire burned in his eyes.

He turned and walked away from her, didn't look back.

She burst into heart wrenching sobs and collapsed onto her knees, almost unnaware of the mud that splashed about her, obscuring her vision, she felt so numb...

/I'm tired of being what you want me to be

Feeling so faithless

Lost under the surface

Don't know what you're expecting of me

Put under the pressure

Of walking in your shoes/

The night was so cold, she couldn't feel anything it seemed.

Like her dream...

'You don't love him, but you want his affection... More then anything...." started in Naraku's voice, like the dream, turning into her own voice, echoed in her head.

She sobbed perhaps louder but the thunder swallowed the sound with ease.

"Inuyasha! I only wanted you to see me as me! I wanted to be your friend!" She wailed desperately into the hopelessly frightening night.

/Every step that I take is another mistake to you

I've become so numb!

I can't feel you there

I've become so tired

So much more aware

I'm becoming this

All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you!/

She curled up on the ground, tears rolled down her face as thunder crashed and rain fell harder.

An image of Sesshomaru came into her mind then.

"Why didn't you kill me?! Why do I think of you for comfort and not Inuyasha? Tell me why!" She screamed, hysterics making her dillusional and slightly crazy.

She felt herself suddenly being lifted into a strong, protective warmth, and she cried as she grasped onto it with all her might.

It was like heaven, she was being enveloped into softness, soft warmth that ceased her shivering, but she kept on sobbing.

/Can't you see that you're smothering me

Holding too tightly

Afraid to lose control

Cause everything that you thought I would be

Has fallen apart right in front of you/

She tried to open her eyes, but she felt heavy with sorrow, she felt absolutely miserable, like the world would never know love again. She had ruined everything. She could now imagine the day they collected the last jewel shard, she could imagine Inuyasha narrow his eyes betrayed as he turned and strode away amongst the villagers and Kaede and Sango and Miroku and Shippo... could see his dissaproving glare even as she dissapeared forever into the old well between their worlds...

No hope of living there, though the others might like it, and she could visit her family, and Kaede would take her in and train her, she could never bear to look into Inuyasha's face again... Never.

/Every step that I take is another mistake to you

And every second I waste is more than I can take

I've become so numb!

I can't feel you there

I've become so tired

So much more aware

I'm becoming this

All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you/

Wind rushed into her face, but just as quickly it was gone.

She was being shielded by something...

Was she flying?

Was she dead?

Was she going to heaven?

Was she going to... hell?

The thunder was so much louder up here...

Maybe when she got into the actual place she was going to... it would be quieter... She could mourn for all eternity in peace...

But.... Sesshomaru.... What about him and Rin?

What about her family?

What about Shippo and Sango and Kirara and Miroku?

Would they miss her?

What good did it do anyway.

She was a horrid person, she did not deserve to live anyhow...

/And I know

I may end up failing too

But I know

You were just like me

With someone dissapointed in you/

Kagome fell into unconciousness with millions upon millions of questions surging through her head.

She was barely aware of the lightening flashing before her eyes, as she dreamed again..

Dreamed of summer...

Dreamed of dancing through a garden...

There was a great gate in the distance, laughter rung about her... faintly...

Soft springy rain, dancing energetically to the ground...

She was standing.... On a balcony?

And Rin was talking to her... Standng beside her...

Arms around her waist...

Soft, silky... Something... She tried to look...

Who was it?

/I've become so numb

I can't feel you there

I've become so tired

So much more aware

I'm becoming this

All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you

I've become so numb

I can't feel you there

Tired of being what you want me to be...

I've become so numb

I can't feel you there

So tired of being what you want me to be.../

... Sesshomaru...


	9. Nine

She was surrounded by curtains of black, winds of snowy essence blew about her still figure.

A cool surface was beneath her, breathing with her every breath, reacting to her every movement.

She watched as the fragile edges of a crystal-like circle materalized under her and extended to the very limitations of its reach.

Water.

The deep, darkness below her did not startle her, she watched it with curious, shadowed cinnamon depths, the amythest pool drawing her attention like a light to a moth.

Her legs were encircled protectively by her own arms, held loosely in front of her, while she observed the icy liquid with enchanted eyes.

She arched her foot, and another silent circle surrounded it, dissapearing after gaining her utmost attention.

Every shallow breath she took startled the still water, and every slight movement encouraged the disturbance...

It was dark around her, and she was alone. Her obsidian-colored "prison" caught every faint light and reflected it with a purity that could be envied.

She wanted to rise, to move, but she was so tired, she did not want to do anything but stay and watch the heart catching ripples continue their dance...

A soft, thin strand of ebony hair dropped in front of her searching eyes, but her hands, immune to her own wims and emotions, stayed in their place, and she didn't care either...

She was looking or something... What was it?

She searched the rich depths of the substance below her, but nothing arose to show itself to her troubled eyes, and a tear fell.

But the tear made no endless circles around it, but rather was embraced by the water, joined it, did not complain...

Where?

She was barely aware this was a dream...

Then she saw it, she saw the drifting strands of silky silver hair, twirling about her, and her heart nearly stopped.

Her giggle resounded, echoed, bounced, deafening off the diamond walls, and she was able to move again.

She reached up, behind her, and took a hand, the claws sparking a faint pain as they slightly cut her extended palm, but the warm hand closed around hers and pulled her up onto her feet and did not spike her skin again.

The cold her body had previously embraced was automatically replaced by warmth and cheer.

But she could not see his face. She had to see his face or this happiness would not be complete.

But when she tilted her head back to look him in the eye, he dissapeared, their happy waltz falling away into a single, lonely girl spinning in wide, slow circles, ripples rolling over the waters where her foot touched the water.

Alone again.

Tears fell like rain but she did not care, her obsidian cage closed in around her, but when she looked up again, in her blurred eyes she saw comforting golden ones looking down back at her, dignified as he silently shook his head. As she blinked away the remaining tears, his form had already been pulled into blackness again, but she did not cry. He would come again. He could not let her be lonely anymore...

*~*

Kagome's perceptive eyes snapped open, almost audibly.

Two dreams.... Two dreams- she thought.

Who? Who was this man that haunted her dreams so recently?

Who had comforted her? Why did he not let her see his face...

Looking around her, she was again blinded by the bright sunlight, but she was only mildly surprised, this was slightly familiar... She had been here before.

She sat up abruptly and stared around the room, the rice paper walls, light flying in on invisible angels wings... The long pictures on the opposite wall depicting the most honored of demons of the feudal era... Unicorn, Dragon, Griffon... Demons... This was...

"Sesshomaru-sama." She barely whispered.

She looked down at herself, in place of the kimono she had worn on her last "visit", there was a simple white sleeping outfit, folded neatly beside her was a kimono...

After Kagome had gotten dressed, she observed herself as best she could from how she stood.

In the long shot, the dress-like piece was almost perfectly fitted to her, if not a little bit big in a few places.

A thin, transparent bolt of cloth served as an obi, cleverly tied in the back so that the bow was exceptionally big, and the excess material dropping down serenely, suspiciously depicting an overly large butterfly. The yards of white fabric was silky smooth and like heaven upon her pale skin and slim form. The draping sleeves fell like curtains to even below her waist, but the material itself was surprisingly not that heavy.

Two loops of pearl colored thread beamed off different colors as they circled the fabric very loosely encircling her wrist, and upon looking closer, Kagome discovered they were indeed not just lines of color but embroidered columns of butterfly's and leaves, spiraling around each other as they made a scattered line and a barely noticable criss-cross over the center of her hidden wrist. The same was evident around the low V-neck, and the pattern was followed along the edge of the dove colored fabric.

The layers of material folding over itself and piling slightly at her feet carried the same flitting images but this time there were at least five glinting thick and thin lines of the precious butterfly's dancing around the leaves, spiraling slightly but stopping where, if the material had been held up, would have been above her ankle. Kagome observed that the kimono was slightly inspired by the Chinese fashion, as a modest slit was carried to just above her knee on either side.

The spreaded V neck line was just narrow enough not to slip over her shoulders, her milky skin to her neck barren to whom ever chose to look. A small pile of beads that encircled her neck was what one would come to call a "choker", and the string of pearls would come to be much too valuable to allow a previous enemy to freely wear. She carefully ran the provided brush through her dishelved hair and twisted it up into a practiced bun, also using the irridescent decorative chopsticks to hold it in place, even as a few long tendrils waterfalled slightly down her curved back.

She put on soft make-up, light pink on her lips, that she was sure was also very valuable in these times, as she had only seen the higher ladies of this generation wear it, the shimmering silver eyeshadow contrasted with her lightest brown eyes and the small square of reflecting glass showed her she had put it on accurately.

She hesitated and stood for silent moments by the paper door, gathering courage to not turn and bolt through the door to the outside, making a mad dash back to her previously welcoming group.

When she finally persuaded herself, finding it skeptical that he would allow her to pass the gate anyways even if she did run, she walked as calmly as she could down the hall, trying to remember how he had come when he had led her...

She finally deemed herself lost and sighed.

She grudgingly extended her senses, swirling shots of pink thread resonating from her mind, pinpointing perhaps the one who could tell her what to do.

She spun around startled, which quickly turned to slight anger as she found a visibly (or maybe invisibly- she was finding it rapidly easier to find the emotion so skillfully hidden within his deep golden eyes) amused spark behind Sesshomaru's emotionless china face, where he stood not ten feet behind her.

But as soon as she saw the glitter of laughter behind his eyes at her foolishness, she found it irresistable and smiled happily, the anger that had spiked previously being yanked back into her loving heart. A giggle burst from her throat and she gave a sweeping low bow before dashing up to him with a bright smile, stopping just short of him.

"Ohayou gozaimasu Sesshomaru-sama!" She cried happily.

He could have smirked, were it not for his dignity. Only for a second did he forget and the corner of his mouth turned upwards. He quickly turned around and told her sternly, "You're going the wrong way, if you want breakfast- or, lunch." he could not help the barely audible smile behind his voice.

He did not like this girl, she was just amusing him in her own confusion...

He could not fully persuade himself.

"Lunch!? Nani?" She cried.

"I find it amusing how long you humans find it safe to sleep, how active you say you are, and yet you stay innactive a full nine to ten hours of the night..." Sesshomaru said to her.

"Nande-" Then she remembered full well what had happened and her clumsy smile drifted off her feet and she said solemnly, almost reverently, "Domo arigatou again, Sesshomaru-sama. You must think me such a bother, so weak, having to be saved so often."

Though he did not visibly show it, he was perplexed.

He felt as he did with Rin a couple moons after he saved her... He could not regret it. And it troubled him.

"And, arigatou for allowing me to wear your kimono..." Kagome blushed and smiled again up at him, shutting her eyes cheerfully, but mostly so that he could not see the still slightly visible pain behind them.

"It was my mothers." He said without thinking.

"Oh? She must have been very beautiful." Kagome smiled at him, finally opening her eyes, as, since she could relate to a loving mother, and could truly touch hands with this subject, she could not feel sadness in speaking of it.

"She was." He slowly agreed.

"Though, as a respectible youkai, she must have been taller then a human like myself, and I'm sure this dress was much more flattering on her figure." Kagome smiled at his back, hoping she had made him a bit happier to know she respected his parents.

As she had thought, he growled his approval.

"Where is Rin?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Outside. With Jaken." Sesshomaru replied.

Kagome giggled a little bit.

A smile barely touched his lips again, but he closed his eyes momentarily to rid the thought of his mind.

"Thank you Sesshomaru-sama." She spoke before he had noticed the dissapearance of her laughter.

"Hai." He said quietly.

He felt her smile, felt her longing to touch him, to draw and give comfort, a simple touch... Maybe to signify... a blooming... "friendship"...

Would he allow it? Could he? Could he control that descision at all?

He had for so long... could he now?

With her?


	10. Ten

"Inuyasha." Sango said softly.

He did not reply.

"She's not going to come back." she said.

"I-It doesn't matter." He said, barely keeping his voice steady.

Sango shut her eyes painfully.

Miroku stepped up beside her as they slowly made their way through the trees, towards the rising sun, a sorrow where joy used to be.

Shippo had dissapeared before they had woken up.

Kagome had gone.

Perhaps he had known she wouldn't return.

Sango fought the tears she swore she would never shed.

Miroku was silent.

Inuyasha walked on.

*

The sun was just rising, Kagome walked down the silent hallway, her hand trailing along the paper wall.

She walked down the staircase, the dreamlike quietness almost echoed, making a mystical surrounding.

Kagome moved as if she had no control over her own body, walked down the staircase, slid open the door, and finally stopped.

In front of her was a garden, a serene garden she could not touch, or look at even, not now.

She did not feel sad, nor regret, as she looked one last time towards the direction of Inuyasha's forest, as Kaede had so rightfully named it.

In the far distance, she saw only for a moment a bright blue flash, that, in the reaches of her mind, she silently identified, as Shippo's fox fire.

*

Kagome smiled as she ran down to meet Sesshomaru-sama by his bedroom door, as she always did, despite his sometimes cold silence.

Most of the time though he would stay in a regular silence while she told him about everything she could think of to talk about, and sometimes she would even think she saw a spark of amusement or contentedness in his molten gold eyes.

She felt strangely resolved, almost like the blue fox that hovered in the sky like a beacon, for only a fraction of a second, was the end and a beginning of something that was to come.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked suddenly, a new thought inturrupting everything else in an instant.

"Hai?" He asked, almost, almost amused.

"Are there really dragons and unicorns and griffons and all that in this time?" She asked.

'This time?'

"There are no Griffons that anybody has seen for a very long time. Most dragon clans are extinct, but they live on, I know not whether the Unicorns survive. Years ago they dissapeared, they parted saying they would find a new land. They were a heavenly being though, not demon, not human, not creature. I doubt they have died out." He said, pondering.

This being the longest thing he had ever said to her, a bright smile lit Kagome's face and she made a resolve to ask as many long questions as she could think of. Unfortunately, it was in vain.

"What about fairies and nymphs?" She asked hopefully.

"None." He said monotone.

"Speaking trees? Monsters?" Her resolve was getting weaker and weaker by the minute.

"Where did you hear tell of speaking trees?" He said.

"What about-" She started.

"If you intend to drive me to speak more then I will, it is not working." He said, glancing at her.

She looked down blushing but he noticed the faint, laughing smile on her lips.

It almost brought him to a smile. Again. He could almost sigh. What was causing this?

"Do you talk a lot with the other lords?" She asked, looking back up at him.

He looked slightly puzzled as he glanced down at her again.

"You should know the answer to that." He said simply.

"No? But aren't you one of the most powerful? Wouldn't they value your opinion? I think they would appriciate it- you can be really strategic and smart... You should speak up more!" She smiled up at him, encouragingly.

He blinked down at her, though she wouldn't see his momentary shock as her eyes were closed in a happy, upwards arc.

He didn't answer her as they entered the dining room, and she didn't bring it up again, but he saw her endless autumn colored eyes smile at him from her place beside him.

'Who is she?' He asked himself.

But she could not read his mind and did not answer as she carefully ate her breakfast, careful not to get anything on any one of the kimono's he provided her. She had a near full collection now, but her favorite was the one his mother used to so often wear.

After breakfast she was about to go into the garden when he caught her short, appearing as suddenly as a ghost in front of her.

She gasped as she stopped short and almost tumbled into him, had he not caught her and righted her.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked after she caught her breath.

"Kagome." He answered.

Her attention was automatically snapped from the slightly distant garden and he had all of her attention.

"Hai?" She said softly, smiling.

He had never said her name before.

"Before you came here, Rin, Jaken and I did not stay here very often, we travelled more." He said.

"Hai, like us, ne?" She said.

"Hai. I must protect my lands and I cannot do that here. I am assuming you do not want to go back with Inuyasha and the others you travelled with, so I have a proposal." He said.

She nodded quietly, looking at him with trust.

"Were you to travel with us, Rin would enjoy your company, and I would be tolerant, Jaken... But there is a consequence behind that decision, decide whether you would face it or not. Your other option is to go and do as you will, where you will, and we will not be friend nor foe." he said.

An eternity seemed to pass as she looked at him, eyes swirling with thought.

'Will she come?'

"I-I've decided, to go with you, Sesshomaru-sama. Despite any consequence, I don't want to... to be an indifferent annoyance to you. I want to be your friend. So I want to go with you.." She finished, looking down, but when she looked up she had a happy smile but salty tears lining her eyes.

He again looked slightly puzzled down at her, and she spoke a soft word then, his ears shifting forward a little to catch it.

"Arigatou..." She whispered.

He looked puzzled again when she hugged him all of a sudden.

"Thank you- for saying my name..." She then dashed around him and out the door, not waiting to hear any consequence for her decision.


	11. Eleven

Sunlight, filtered only by the thin paper barrier, shot golden beams through her closed eyelids.

She blinked awake and smiled at nothing in particular.

Pulling herself up, she found what she had been expecting.

An outfit much like Sesshomaru's lay beside the futon, but as she pulled it on she discovered the size must have been estimated, and she was not clad in armor like Sesshomaru himself. For this she was greatful. It all looked really heavy.

The pants were slightly baggy on her but were the right length, and did not slip of her waist. She put the top on rather loosely, as underneath she wore a tightly wrapped long length of white fabric, binding her breasts, but not tight enough to prevent regular breath. Unlike the red flower shapes that patterned Sesshomaru's, instead fat golden blossoms adorned hers.

She bound her hair in a golden ribbon, which was tied in a bow at the nape of her neck, as her hair tumbled down her back like water, till it reached its end.

Dashing happily to join Sesshomaru, wherever he was, she hummed a cute little tune she had learned when she was small on her way.

She half skipped, half ran around a corner but gasped sharply when she ran into someone else and tumbled over backwards. Or would have.

Sesshomaru caught her around the waist and watched her as she kept her eyes shut for another thirty seconds before finally opening them to gaze up at him.

She wasn't sure whether his eyes were laughing at her or worrying for her, so she just smiled, being caught between that and a scowl.

"Gomen nasai Sesshomaru-sama. I should have watched where I was going- but I did find you! Next time I'll try not to run into you." She said brightly, not moving from their position, which must have looked like a move from the tango on pause.

He could have grinned. But he didn't. He wondered if she understood his predicament, why he couldn't smile at her as openly as she? She was so cute sometimes...

He showed the smallest smirk as he righted her and said, half between emotionless and teasing sarcasm, "I'm sure an exceptionally graceful human like yourself could correct any clumsy mistake in one fell swoop. It's only natural of you."

She blinked once then looked caught between a growl and a grin.

"Well Mr Perfect, I've yet to see you do everything right." She sniffed with the same teasing air.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Like- um, like... You're shy!" She said with a safisfied grin.

"I am not shy." He said, leaning still closer with an almost-smile on his lips, "Maybe you're just too outgoing." He said.

"I am not outgoing!" She cried defiantly, twisting suddenly.

In a tumble of limbs and a vague flash of surpise on their faces, Kagome found herself in an even lower dip, her body pressed closely against Sesshomaru's, himself in an impossibly low battle stance, and their lips pressed together in a most suggestive way.

They stared at each other for a few moments before Kagome finally smiled against his lips.

She planted her feet on the floor and stood up, still in his protective embrace, in a less painful position.

Pulling back she smiled sheepishly up at him.

"Gomen nasai Sesshomaru-sama- I... I think I enjoy some of my mistakes all to much!" She plushed prettily at him before dashing off to the dining room with a parting giggle.

Laughter rung momentarily behind his eyes and a slow smile spread across his face for an instant, but it might have been a mirage because only moments later his face was of lordly indifference and he was walking calmly towards the dining room, where Kagome was sitting down fighting down the blush that had accompanied her earlier comment.

*

As they set off, Jaken watched grudgingly as Kagome chatted nonstop with a slightly amused, but stoically shown, Sesshomaru, who made no comments, and a busy Rin, who was dashing ahead to have time to pick her favorite flowers from the path.

Earlier, after breakfast, Kagome had picked out a weapon that she would use as they travelled.

As would have been expected from a woman and a miko, she chose out of all the swords, glaives, and other heavy weaponry, a bow and arrows.

'She has no talent with any weapon, so she chooses the 'simplest'. After she humiliates herself in front of Lord Sesshomaru-sama, he will see straight finally and kick her out to be a bother with her own group!' Jaken's thoughts echoed in his mind. Nobody had thought to tell Jaken about Kagome's heroics as she transformed Tetsaiga back to its original state with one enchanted arrow...

The bright sunny morning had changed dramatically by early afternoon, suddenly the earth was enveloped in steel gray and blue and silver, with pale yellow filtering through them.

This did not stop them however, and the slightly overcast day did not lower Kagome's high spirits.

Their garb blew about them with frequent gusts of wind, but no rain fell.

Everything seemed to be in order, and no signs of Naraku or Inuyasha's group could be found.

"Where could they be?" Kagome asked curiously, sitting down next to Sesshomaru that evening when they deemed it too dark for a human to travel in without the moon.

He didn't reply.

"I wonder if they went back to Kaede's." She said with a yawn.

Still he did not answer.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked.

He looked at her to let her know he was listening.

"If you could say one thing, and everybody in the world listened, what would you say?" Kagome mused softly, looking up at the black and gray colors that danced together across the evening sky like lovers in a dream world... without a care...

He did not answer, but stared up with her.

They sat like this for several silent moments before Sesshomaru's senses perked at the feeling of flesh agant flesh- Kagome had fallen asleep against him.

He surveyed her silently, debating whether to move her or not.

~*~

"If I could stare into his eyes for all eternity, I would never need the sun again..."

She was standing in the desert. It was so dark she could only see the shifting sand underneath her feet.

She moved forward automatically, towards a light far in the distance.

She was standing on water.

The swirling light flew over her figure once.

She stood on a branch.

She looked down curiously as they passed by underneath her.

She jumped down and walked with them.

A vacancy stood in place of their eyes, void of emotion, no purpose...

"One thing to tell the world..."

She was standing on the side of the well, dark depths beneath her.

One foot hovered over the edge.

She was falling, darkness swallowing her.

She stood at the top of the stairs, below her was her family.

"A Chinese proverb says, 'If you give a man a fish, you will feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you will feed him for a lifetime...'"

Mom.

Souta.

Granpa.

They looked at her and smiled.

She tried to move. She was frozen.

"A Japanese proverb says, 'Fall seven times, but on the eighth get up.'"

She now stood on a low balcony.

A garden in front of her.

A little girl running.

Arms around her waist.

Who?

Silver hair slides on the breeze.

She turns her head slightly.

Golden eyes.

Sesshomaru.

"Live!"

A child of laughter, waiting to be released from your heart...

~*~

Kagome's eyes snapped open.

She lay curled in Sesshomaru's lap.

His eyes were closed but she was sure he was awake, aware.

She rose slightly and Sesshomaru opened his eyes to look at her.

"Ohayou gozaimasu Sesshomaru-sama." She said softly.

He nodded in response.

She smiled at him.

He smiled back.


	12. Twelve

"Flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers!!!!!" Rin screamed in excitement that afternoon.

"H-hai Rin-chan. If you want you can go pick some- ano- ne?" Kagome asked nervously, trying to hold the child as she danced out of her grasp.

"Will Kagome-chan come with Rin?" Rin asked, pulling on her hand.

"If you want, Rin-chan." She asked, stumbling forward as Rin bounded off, still clasping her hand.

Sesshomaru followed emotionlessly, silently amused by Rin's enthusiasm and Kagome's response.

Off to their left was possibly the widest feild of flowers you had ever seen, over grown to the brim with splashes of color as if painted from an artist's hand.

Kagome was barely able to keep up with the little girl as she rushed to each small patch of flowers to pull one of each from the roots- to give to Jaken-sama and Sesshomaru-sama and Kagome-chan when she was done of course.

Kagome was finally able to yank her wrist from the childs tight hand and automatically fell yards behind the girl.

Rin seem not to have noticed her flower-picking companion's dissapeareance and continued to pull flowers from the ground as Kagome tried to gain back her breath.

Sesshomaru stepped up next to her and grinned slightly as she unceremoniosly plopped down on the ground, huffing from exhaustion. He gracefully sat down beside her and watched her movements from the corner of his eye.

"I didn't *huff* think it was possible *huff* for a child to have so much *swallow* energy." Kagome gasped out.

"Rin.... enjoys this." Sesshomaru said, slightly indicating the garden around them.

"Clearly." Kagome sighed.

He was silent.

Kagome found that he DID speak- but not a word more than was called for.

"When I was a little girl I didn't like flowers so much." Kagome started, smiling a bit.

He glanced at her questioningly, but she didn't pay attention as she continued.

"My father spoiled me and wanted only for my happiness it seems. I adored the flute and the piano, they sounded so pretty. I begged and begged to get those lessons, and finally he gave in, despite the expense. When I began learning, I sometimes despised having to practice or attend lessons, but as I got better, I liked it even more then at first, and finally when I dropped the lessons because I was good enough at it and it wouldn't do for the extra cost, I loved it so much. I played throughout my childhood, I didn't go out much. When I was eleven I tried my hand at watercoloring, and took an art class. My mom had to round together the money though because my father died when I was only six, two years after my first piano and flute lessons, and we didn't last very long like that, so I couldn't continue. I finally found out how much money I was making my mother shed, and that was when I decided I wouldn't try anything else. I would only help out. I got wonderful grades, I did whatever my mother asked of me, I tried to be a good daughter and be strong for her, and for my little brother Souta, and for Granpa. I never cried again. I in fact didn't cry since that time Inuyasha could have died. Then about half a year after that it became so everyday that I stopped crying again. I never had time in my childhood to pick flowers like Rin, and when I might have realized it wouldn't cost any money, still I didn't. When I thought nothing of doing what I loved, it was playing music, and afterwards, I would do apsolutely nothing for myself but only for others." Kagome said, looking at the cloudless sky.

He was silent for a moment.

"There has never been anything I have ever loved." Sesshomaru finally said, emotionlessly as the first day Kagome heard him speak.

"...What about your mother? Or your father?" Kagome didn't name Inuyasha.

"My mother died when I was too young to remember her. I might have loved my father- perhaps looked up to, but that was short lived as he deserted my mother for the human wench and had Inuyasha, my half brother." Sesshomaru spoke.

"You never loved Inuyasha, ne?" Kagome said.

"Hn." He said.

She guessed that meant no.

"Didn't you have a hobby?" Kagome asked.

"Iie. I only trained in fighting." Sesshomaru said icily.

"Oh..." Kagome said, smiling sadly down at her lap before slowly reaching out to touch his shoulder.

She blinked automatically, and her smile suddenly turned to one of delight.

"Ne- Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked excitedly.

He glanced at her curiously, no more ice evident in the endless pools of amber.

"C-can I touch your hair?" She asked.

He blinked curiously at her, then slowly gave a slight nod of consent.

She touched the fine threads of strong slver and smiled as it rolled under her fingertips.

Sliding her lean finger down the length of it, a gust of wind blew it teasingly out of her hands.

As soon as the wind died down she giggled again as she ran her fingers through it smilingly.

She spent the rest of that afternoon playing with his hair, as they watched Rin pick every flower within sight and touch of her greedy hands.

*

Finally night settled over the flowered plain and Rin slept in Kagome's arms, while she in turn slept peacefully against Sesshomaru.

He watched both of them, wondering how he had come across both of them.

Did Fate hate or love him?

He looked at Kagome, watched her still face, heard her steady heartbeat and even breath.

Slowly, but surely, he brought up one of his clawed hands, and touched the velvety smooth strands of Kagome's hair.

Blinking at the contrasting texture of her own to his, he removed his hand, but not beforehe caught Kagome's sudden generous smile and the soft name she called in her sleep.

He blinked as the girl once again surprised him, before closing his eyes in mock sleep, only to hear again and again, her echoed words, "Sesshomaru-sama!"

*

Meditation is stronger than sleep, thought few can achieve it.

The world at your fingertips, you could fly anywhere you chose.

See anything, hear, feel, smell.

The kiss of wind against your features.

A clear mind.

"Sesshomaru-sama..."

Reaching a place untouched by the unworthy.

No inturruption.

No diception.

No responsibility- no care.

"Sesshomaru-sama..."

Nobody can reach me...

No word can touch... My heart...

Surrounded in ice, senses more alerted to reality...

Nobody may touch me without my consent.

"Sesshomaru..."

No such thing...

Alone forever...

Neverending sorrow, pain, happiness...

What is it?

"Sesshomaru-sama!"

This girl plagues my mind with her whisperings!

*

His eyes snapped open, molten gold tainted with frustration.

For an instant Kagome stood in front of him, bracing her hands against her knees, smiling down at him.

Then the darkness before dawn illuminated the mirage and he sighed in surrender.

Kagome still leaned against his shoulder, sleeping without a thought on her mind.

When he turned his eyes up again, they were guarded, devoid of emotion.

"When came the time I had to remind myself about betrayal? Or duty? When did this girl taint me? Pick up where Rin left off. What is this emotion, why can I feel?" Sesshomaru growled under his breath.

"Betrayal?" a bodiless voice laughed at him from somewhere in eternity.

"Or duty, ne?" She spoke again, bell-like laughter evident behind her cheerful voice.

"I promise you, Sesshomaru-sama, if- if-" The voice started breaking up, the words becoming weaker as the cheer drained slowly from the lovely voice.

A spirit has some things it may not say. This one was dearly pushing its limits obviously...

"What?" He spoke quietly, breaking the rules was a freedom he loved to feel, he needed to hear this, displease someone...

"If you let me-!" She broke off again, her prescence bleeding into the regular atmosphere.

"If you let me, Sesshomaru-sama, I will show you a love worth.... all eternity..." It was spoken so softly, he fought to hear it.

Morning rays burst through clouds and smiled on the valley. But something was different.

It was just a valley, not a single rose was within his sight.

The miles of grass blew on the wind- no evidence of a weed or flower ever growing there.

A prescence......

Who...?

"Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome's sleepy voice sounded like bells next to him, music on the four winds...

His eyes widened.

It was.... her?


	13. Thirteen

The Earth seemed unusually quiet as Kagome woke from sleep.

She had had the strangest dream.

Looking up from her comfortable place against Sesshomaru, she saw that he was either faking really well, or very much asleep.

Rin still lay silently across her lap, sleeping peacefully.

Reaching up silently, Kagome touched his face.

She ran her feather light touch across his features, tracing the demonic markings he had engraved upon his face.

She almost jerked back when her fingers rolled quietly, as if with a mind of their own, over his soft, firm, set lips.

'Velvet over steel.' She thought silently, returning her straying hand back up to the crescent on his forehead.

Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, another closed around it, not painful, only firm.

Kagome gasped but couldn't jump back due to the hold he had on her wrist.

His molten gold eyes looked at her, and Kagome noticed with relief they were not frozen amber pools, but swimming beams of light, like the fire around the sun.

"Ohayou Sesshomaru-sama." She sid softly, smiling despite his grip.

He nodded.

"Ano- Gomen nasai..." She said quietly.

He stood up all of a sudden and Kagome fought down a startled yelp.

Rin slid off her lap but did not awaken as Kagome stumbled to her feet with him.

They did not move, only stood, Kagome staying behind him while his even breathing was the only sound.

Their hands hung limply between them, locked together lazily but refusing to be seperated.

Kagome took a slow step forward, so her chest barely brushed his back.

He turned slightly at her touch.

She stood up on her tiptoes.

A distant bird chirped and sun rays flickered across the ground.

Then, their lips met.

*

Rin walked in front of Sesshomaru and Kagome, who were both unusually quiet in back.

Jaken walked along side Rin and only mumbled every once in a while.

When Rin had woken up she desperately wanted to cry, the flowers had dissapeared.

Kagome had walked over to her and straigtened her out, as she was disshelved from sleep.

Rin had been about to sob out her new found tragedy when she had glimpsed Kagome's eyes.

Glazed over with happiness, she seemed not even to notice the horribly neglected girl.

Something strange was with Sesshomaru too, though you would have to be Rin or Kagome to notice it.

As he stared ahead, his eyes were cold as colored ice, but when they fell upon the softly smiling Kagome they would melt considerably, and a prouder air would overcome the whole group of travelers for as long as Sesshomaru had that pride about him.

Clouds flew about the skies, Kagome could only stare.

The white feathery things swirled around and around, creating a lovely havoc in the sky above them.

They were soon to figure out that it would not be the only one, minus the 'lovely'.

As soon as the spell had Kagome transfixed, it was broken, just as soon as Naraku appeared.

*

Kagome's eyes widened considerably, but she uttered no sound, and though she pailed, she showed a somewhat not-afraid outer appearance.

Sesshomaru set a foot in front of her and Rin, lowering himself into a fighting stance, just as Kagome bent to embrace and lift Rin in a protective gesture herself.

"Sesshomaru..." Naraku said.

"Naraku." His voice was monotone, but Kagome could sense the hidden venom in his words.

Kagome took an unsure step back, until Naraku's evil red eyes glanced over her with malice, causing her to freeze where she stood.

Sesshomaru noticed Kagome's fright, discomfort, and automatically let out a growl of warning, eyes beginning to glow red.

"Take Rin." He managed to growl out before, in a whisp of silverish blue light, he charged at Naraku.

Kagome spun and ran as fast as she could, Rin held tightly in Kagome's arms.

The sounds of battle faded softly into the background as she continued to run on unending adrenaline.

Kagome found herself soon within the forest that had enveloped them only half an hour before, as Kagome ran her heart pounded and she flew past slightly familiar landmarks and trees.

She eeped as she suddenly slipped on a slight hill and tumbled into an almost still stream.

Rin and Kagome breathed heavily, seeming to wait for Naraku to step out of some trees and grin evilly at them, but it never came, and soon they were both shivering in the shallow water.

Kagome lifted Rin again and they climbed unsteadily out of the freezing water, as Kagome kept her ears open for any sounds of the advancing enemies.

"Bakas! Humans!" Jaken cried as he rushed up to them, "Y---"

"I'm so glad you're here Jaken-sama. I need you to watch Rin-chan while I make sure Sesshomaru-sama is all right!" Kagome cried, and, not waiting for an answer, burst into a run back into the direction she came from.

She burst again through the trees, ignoring Jaken's fading screams about who knows what, mind set on only helping Sesshomaru in any way possible.

She drew her bow and an arrow, her hand tightly clamped around the weapon, worry pulsing through her veins.

When she finally slowed then stopped, she was only yards from the raging battle.

Kagome realized she couldn't fight either, because both of them were moving so fast they were hardly detectible.

Stringing her bow towards the ground, she waited for an opportunity to arise, praying Sesshomaru would be all right.

*

She was hidden in the cover of trees, but still I could sense her, as always.

Did Jaken not obey my command to tell her to take Rin away from here?

Naraku will not have noticed her though, like Inuyasha, only stronger, he forgets everything but the battle as he fights, letting all his senses dwindle except the fighting instinct.

He will not scent her if I do not give him the chance.

-

With those thoughts Sesshomaru fought with even more vigor, trying to down Naraku.

But in his fail to realize the situation, his eager energy boost, he had not noticed the glint of the arrow.

Naraku moved in to strike him just as Kagome's arrow cut through the air and cut his arm.

Naraku's face was overcome with surprise, and he incidently turned his head towards the direction it was shot from, consequently forgetting his pounce to victory and crashing into Sesshomaru dumbly.

Sesshomaru pounced several feet back and took out his poison whip (?), taking a protective stance in front of the space he knew Kagome stood.

Naraku growled in malice as his eyes flickered over the wound Kagome had bestowed upon him.

It stung like a knife had cut through him, and it wasn't shallow at all, which was surprising as it seemed the arrow had only slightly caught his arm.

'What is this girl?' He thought with malice, 'Who is she with so much power... Comparable even to the deciesed and raised priestess, Kikyou.'

Caught so deeply within his thoughts, he almost didn't notice the lash of yellow light that flew at him at incredible speed.

He tried to bound out of the way, but he was too late.

He was unceremoniously sliced in half, falling to the ground in shock.

Sesshomaru dared not feel any pride, even as Kagome rushed up to him asking him if he was okay, and for good reason.

Kagome looked up and some of her previous relief and happiness dissolved from her eyes.

"It was just another one of his dolls... Why is he such a coward? Why does he play with us.... He makes so many peoples lifes terrible!" She cried as she burried her face in his chest, sobbing as the image of when she first met Miroku and Inuyasha and Sango flashed momentarily in her head.

He said nothing, lifting her from her sorrows he took to the air, retreating to find where Jaken and Rin were.

Kagome calmed down considerably by the time they reached the others, and she hastily wiped the tears from her eyes, refusing to upset Rin.

Rin seemed relieved and missed completely the fakeness of Kagome's smile as she greeted with ease the returned two.

Kagome smiled shamelessly and listened intently to the girls ramblings, but she couldn't think.

As the rest of the day passed them by, Kagome smiled almost lovingly at Sesshomaru.

***

"Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome whispered later that night.

"Hm?" He said to signify that he was indeed awake and listening.

"I- ano... Do you regret letting me come with you?" Kagome asked quietly, desperately.

He was silent for a moment, but he could not escape this question.

"...No..." Sesshomaru said after a painful few minutes.

He glanced sideways at her, she wasobserving the stars.

'What is up there that fascinates her so?' He asked himself.

"Sesshomaru-sama...." She began quietly.

"Nani?" He asked, patiently but still reserved.

"What are the feelings you have for me?" She asked even quieter.

He snapped into attention.

Suddenly the stars seemed very interesting to him too.

He was silent for what seemed an eternity.

"Why?" He asked calmly, though he was sure his heart sped up only a little.

She lay down immediately, turning her back on him.

"Ano- oh, it's nothing really. It's just..." She trailed off.

He waited silently for her answer.

"Well, the thing is Sesshomaru-sama, I think I might love you." Kagome whispered.


	14. Fourteen

His eyes were shut to reality.

Nothing could touch him.

"Sesshomaru-sama..."

No one could tame him.

No one could bear him.

Not like his father's mistake.

"Sesshomaru-sama."

This is no dream.

I must answer.

Face a reality that will result in an imperfection I am unnocustomed to.

What should I answer?

Why did she ask?

She is waiting...

"Sesshomaru-sama!"

Consequences....

Dangers...

What I must tell her...

*

Molten gold stared at her back, her body tensed with worry.

"Kagome..." He said slowly, meaningfully.

She tensed even more.

"I am the Lord Demon of the Western Lands. I hold a title."

He could smell the tears that blinded her eyes, refusing to fall.

"My father fell in love with a human woman, and that was his demise." Still he pressed forward.

They almost dropped...

"It is considered unworthy for a demon to fall dormant to any emotion, love above all, and disrespect flows like rivers as a ruling figure is captured by such a feeling."

She understood.

"There are dire consequences... and many dangers that would resonate from an unwise descision."

Unwise meaning choosing her.

"But, despite all this, Kagome, I find myself... falling." His eyes swam with un-namable emotions.

She turned over so she could look at him.

"Falling?" She choked out.

"Kagome, you would forever be in danger..." He said slowly, as if she wouldn't understand.

"I- I don't care!" She exclaimed quietly.

"Don't you?" He asked her calmly.

She shook her head.

"I would protect you with my life Kagome." He said, his eyes flickering shut.

"Why?" She asked firmly. She knew what he had hoped she understood. But she wanted to hear the words. Longed to hear...

"Because I love you, also." He spoke almost innaudibly.

Silence followed.

Then a slight weight was thrown into his chest, causing his eyes to open and turn down, staring at the creature that clung to his chest now, a liquid substance burning through his clothing, wetting his skin.

"Kagome..." He murmured.

"Sesshomaru.... Sesshomaru!" She cried.

He found he did not miss the absence of the strictly formal title.

She embraced him happily, joyous tears rolling down her face, laughing a bell-like laugh into the still night air.

His clawed hands reached up to touch her back, which trembled with happiness.

"I don't care about the consequences, Sesshomaru..." She spoke, sensing his troubled thoughts swirled in with the hidden happiness.

He looked down at her, her hazel eyes shined up at him, shining in the moonlight.

He did not know how the space dissapeared.

He did not know how the walls broke the minute it happened.

He almost did not recognize the feelings that burst through his body...

As her lips softly touched his own.

He closed his eyes, feeling as if the world should not see the love that burned beneath his eyes- only her.

After what seemed an eternity, she slowly slipped into a huddled position in his lap, head aganst his chest, tips of her fingers slightly embedded in the silver strands of hair.

His eyes turned towards the shimmering sky.

Smoke blew across the lands.

What was in store now?

His selfishness could be harmful....

To this one, this one he decided to risk everything for, this one who's kiss calmed his soul, like sun's warm rays on a cold, dark Earth. He loved her... And even if she said she did not care...

They would indeed make it through the journey that obviously lay ahead of them, he was sure, he would make sure...

*

She felt the warm rays on her face, thin light shadows flickering also across her features... teasing her...

Opening her eyes, the sky was baby blue with fat white clouds swirling over it...

And silver shots of hair blew over her face peacefully, throwing slightly darker lines across her face.

Supressing a giggle she slowly and carefully pulled herself up in Sesshomaru's lap, observing his, for once, naturally emotionless face.

She reached out to touch a strand of his hair but his eyes opened on contact and his hand caught her wrist before she could run her hands thouroughly through his hair...

She smiled innocently and nervously as he stared down at her outstretched hand.

"Kagome..." He started.

"Hehe... Hai?" She asked with her closed eyes in an innocent arch.

"You... Always touch my hair." He said, his facial expression remaining blank.

"It's unresistable to me Sesshomaru! I love your hair, it's so beautiful!" She cried.

"You will wake up Jaken." He said, glancing towards Jaken, and Kagome giggled again to see a faint trace of embarassment evident in his eyes.

"I love you Sesshomaru!" She cried with cheer as she rose and bounced away from him, proceeding to make breakfast as Rin and Jaken slowly roused themselves from the between world...

"What are you so happy about human?" Jaken said disgusted during breakfast, he recieved and noticed the glare from both Sesshomaru and Kagome.

He grumbled as he shut up and looked back down in shame.

"We must go see Dyhatarr of the East today." Sesshomaru said monotone.

"Lord Dyhatarr!?" Jaken's outburst alerted Kagome.

Sesshomaru glared sharply at him.

"Who is Lord Dyhatarr?" Kagome carefully asked.

"My Lord Inutaisho's greatest rival was the Lord Kyhateriis' son- Lord Dyhatarr. Lord Sesshomaru and Lord Dyhatarr are not enemies, for they both have more important things to worry about, but they do dislike each other, for the sake of their lost fathers. They made a pact not to meet again unless---" Jaken automatically got quiet when he became the recieving side of Sesshomaru's "death glare".

"I must disguss something with him." Sesshomaru said coldly, directed towards Jaken.

"Oh." She said, though he knew she did not understand.

"We are going to leave now." Sesshomaru decided and everybody rose obediantly.

*

They all strove to keep up with his long paces, them all developing a slight pant.

"We must reach there by nightfall. The East, as you know Kagome, is not only covered in rouge demons, but also by your former friends." He said.

She nodded gravely.

"I am afraid you may not be there while we speak. It is a sacred matter." He also added.

She nodded again.

"Can I see my family again while you're there then?" she asked.

"Hai." Sesshomaru answered.

He then took both Kagome and Rin and burst into the sky, Jaken rushing to make it onto the cloud-like transport in time.

*

Kagome loved the feel of wind on her face, it was almost numbing.

Turning her face to the wind, she stepped partially out of Sesshomaru's protective embrace.

He looked at her with slightly hidden concern, but her smile eased him.

"Where is your family?" Seshomaru asked.

"Not too far from the tree that Inuyasha was pinned to fifty years ago." Kagome answered, trying to name landmarks.

"In the village?" He asked.

"Iie, there's a well." Kagome answered.

"Your familt does not live in a well." He said decidedly.

She shook her head.

"They live beyond it, in another time period." Kagome said.

He nodded his head slightly, though he hardly understood.

She was relieved he did not think her crazy.

The wind caressed her face as they continued towards the Eastern lands...

*

"This is near your home?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Hai." Kagome said softly, reaching out to touch the ancient (not-so-ancient) God Tree.

He nodded.

"Watch Rin, Jaken. It will be your life if she is hurt." Sesshomaru said evenly.

Kagome looked back at him while Jaken nodded fearfully.

Swiftly following Kagome, he was led to what he supposed was her "home".

When they reached the well, and Kagome stopped, Sesshomaru's curiousity was only slightly visible on his face to Kagome.

She walked up and touched the rim of the well thoughtfully.

"How long should I stay at my home Sesshomaru?" She asked softly.

"Come back... Tomorrow morn. I will be here to take you to lord Dyhatarr. He will want to see you." Sesshomaru nodded at his decision.

"Sesshomaru?" She asked suddenly.

"Hai?" He asked her.

"Aren't you the more powerful of the four lords?" She asked.

Surprised she had any knowledge of the feudal royal system, he nodded slightly.

"So... Whay do you need to ask lord Dyhatarr about anything?" She asked.

He looked reluctant to answer, but finally explained.

"Our fathers were rivals in their full time of living, they expected the same to be between their sons. We were both similar that each had a... troublesome younger brother, except Dyhatarr's brother shared his blood." Sesshomaru began.

"They were true siblings." Kagome nodded in understanding.

"Yes. But, after our father's died, we needn't live the pretense that we despised each other to the point of inturrupting our daily lives to fight the other." Sesshomaru continued.

She nodded wordlessly again.

"Honoring our fathers' names though, was important, whether we liked or disliked the man he was. So, though we agreed not to fight, we decided it would be too much against our fathers' titles to ignore the other, to show complete indifference. So, we decided there would be something more between us than the other lords, just for the sake of not having a void our fathers would be insulted by. Also a means of discomfort, making up for the years of silence. So, whenever one or the other found... Somebody to love, for eternity, we would confer, and I must... convince him. There was no reason behind this petty decision, except that it would ensure strength in the years coming of the East and Western lands... East and West, be us never to talk again, still have a closer bonding, a thinner border, a stronger truce, than any other land. So, it is duty to gain the others opinion on mate, to keep both sides strong..." Sesshomaru said.

"The West and East, when one falls, so does the other?" Kagome asked.

"That is correct. There must be a strong second in a time of need, for the West and East have been almost as one for so many centuries... To kill one would destroy the other." Sesshomaru said, turning away.

"I'll be here very early tomorrow morning Sesshomaru, waiting for you!" She cried out to him as he dissapeared to get Rin and Jaken.

Then she jumped into the well, knowing she would not get any sleep.

'What will the lord of the East think of Sesshomaru loving a mere human like me? I'm so weak...' She thought, fighting tears, but ready to stand by Sesshomaru forever.


	15. Fifteen

As soon as Kagome lost his prescence, she felt a wave of sorrow rush over her.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" She screamed into the bluish void.

'I love you...' She thought silently, as she felt the shifting of time and she was transported back to her home.

*

He heard her voice whisper distantly in his mind, 'I love you...'

He was almost inclined to turn back for her...

"Kagome..." He said.

Touching down lightly on the ground, he moved with practiced grace towards the space where Jaken and Rin stood bickering.

"Come." He said firmly, with a harshness that had not tainted his tone for weeks, and they immediatly followed his fast gait, awkward silence hanging over them.

*

A swirl of speed had quickly taken them to the domain of the Eastern lord.

"Dyhatarr." Sesshomaru said as they neared the lords home, only slightly belittled to Sesshomaru's own abode.

*

"Sesshomaru, lord of the Western Lands. We made a pact so long ago, so I have come to only one conclusion as to why you would be here." The mysteriously dark lord said quietly.

"Hai, I suspect you have guessed right." Sesshomaru said icily, he did not dislike the lord of the East, but his mystery and odd calm was unnerving.

"Whom then, is it that you have chosen?" Dyhatarr said slowly.

Sesshomaru could have growled if he had less self-control.

Dyhatarr always spoke always as if he was above all others, more intellegent... Even towards the higher of power.

"She is not here." Dyhatarr spoke indifferently.

'You two are not so different...' a little voice said in his head. He recognized it automatically as Kagome's, her soothing voice guiding him out of this shrouded darkness of Dyhatrr.

"If I were to conjure her up?" Dyhatarr almost taunted him.

"Dyhatarr..." Sesshomaru warned.

"Sesshomaru." He returned.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes visibly.

"May I conjure her up?" His smirk was evident in his voice, even if...

He was so shadowed... It was almost a bodiless voice...

That would have been Kagome's opinion.

Before he heard her voice.

His eyes snapped open to the reality of the situation before him.

'Kagome.' He was almost convinced but then he noticed how she did not have a scent about her.

One of Dyhatarr's trick images.

Kagome laughed softly as she regarded him from her invisible perch.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" She cried happily.

He narrowed his eyes.

Dyhatarr was silent.

"You have chosen a human?" Dyhatarr asked.

"It is my descision to make, I do not ask for your consent, only your opinion." Sesshomaru said evenly.

Dyhatarr's expression ould not be seen in the seemingly darker room.

"Do you love her?" He hissed.

Sesshomaru growled a warning.

"Do you know the feeling of love Sesshomaru, Taiyoukai of the West?"

Sesshomaru's claws longed to be tearing through the shadowed figure in front of him...

"Does she love you?" He asked the final question.

"Dyhatarr, I can relieve you from your throne." Sesshomaru hissed quietly.

"You were so protective, my dear lord Sesshomaru... I would like to see the outcome of this. You take after your father... so visibly." His voice seemed to be swallowed by the darkness.

Kagome's image flickered and vanished.

"Will the world accept your descision? Or will it be your demise?" A low cackle was heard.

Sesshomaru growled and drew his sword.

Lunging into the darness he swung his sword with a practiced elegance, but he felt the sword pass onyl through air, the laughter echoing softly off the walls.

For an eternity he seemed to stand in his fighting position, waiting for the appearance, the comeback of his fellow lord.

Then he felt Kagome's prescence enter once again into his world.

Heard in the distance the faint chatter of birds.

Morning. The crack of dawn upon the Earth's face.

He felt the air slash the side of his face and the lingering prescence of the Dyhatarr vanish.

'Kagome.' it shot like lightening through his mind, almost as quickly as he started running.

Racing against time itself, the first occurance perhaps in history an immortal was fighting against time.

He found himself then in a protective position in front of Kagome, right before he saw Dyhatarr stop just short not ten feet in front of them.

Kagome gasped and jumped back for a moment, taking in the unnexpected situation.

It was the first time Sesshomaru had ever seen Dyhatarr, in the sunlight, filtered as it was through the canopy of trees.

His black hair was pulled up into a high ponytail that swirled down to his lower back.

His cold, devoid black, navy-hued eyes were fixed unwavering on the frozen form of Kagome, his obsidian claws glinting in the sunlight.

His bared ivory bone teeth were deadly in themselves, and the markings that adorned his features were black and foreboding.

A black crescent scorched his brow, the twin points facing left, unlike Sesshomaru's, who's "pointed" left. The smooth, quick black lines slit across his high cheek bones, as well as his wrists.

His skin was deathly pale, almost white, unlike the fair skin of even Kagome, who's was only a pale creamy peach.

The black cloth that flowed over his skin was almost simple, but frighteningly elegant. A take off Sesshomaru's attire, but only silky black. His feet were bare, as he was known for his solitude and rarely traveled.

The picture of a silent, painful death.

Kagome stepped further behind Sesshomaru.

"I'm scared," She whispered almost below even Sesshomaru's hearing ability.

Sesshomaru unsheathed his sword and readied himself for Dyhatarr.

He could not remember when this ordeal had turned towards a physical fight, but Dyhatarr was acting differently from his cool, calm self, and he had a feeling it had to do with Kagome.

Dyhatarr was a feared mixed breed, and though the East lived in peace, all parts of it always felt that lowering chill whenever they thought of the one ruling over them.

Dyhatarr's father had been strangely opposite of Dyhatrr himself, he had had a fighting spirit and could not stay in one place for so long.

None of the lords but the West could stand up to the restless lord, so a rivalry had been formed between the two, silently.

It did not dominate their lives, but they would fight just to loose something from their systems.

Dyhatarr on the other hand felt he could solve any problem in the silent safety of his darkened "home".

"What do you want Dyhatarr?" Sesshomaru asked coldly, calmly.

"The girl." Dyhatarr whispered icily.

"Why." Sesshomaru forced out calmly before his storming rage.

"I can feel her power... yet she is human... she shall taint this world... she must... die."

But it was not hate in his eyes, Sesshomaru thought with disgust, 'lust'.

"Your self control is rapidly failing you Dyhatarr, but you will not lay hands on Kagome for a petty bed mate." Sesshomaru sneered. Almost.

Dyhatarr's eyes jumped then to hatred.

"If you take after your father, I can see why my father found a hobby on beating on him."

Sesshomaru growled and lunged.

He did not favor his father to a great extent, but it was an insult to the ones who had been ruling the West for generations, and Sesshomaru would not stand for it.

Dyhatarr vanished before Sesshomaru's eyes.

"Witchcraft is cowardly, Dyhatarr." Sesshomaru hissed.

"Is that so?" Asked a bodiless voice.

Sesshomaru growled.

"No matter, Sesshomaru, I will kill the girl, I will bring you to ruins. Wait for my, Lord Sesshomaru." And he competely dissapeared with a final echo of laughter.

Sesshomaru turned and saw a frozen Kagome, walking up to her, he gently embraced her.

"I apologize Kagome." He said softly.

She wrapped her arms around him firmly, burrying her head in his chest.

"I'm so glad you're ok..." She whispered hoarsely.

"Hai," He said quietly, "Hai."

It's a free ride,

When you've already payed,

It's the good advice

That you just didn't take

(Kag Pov)

If only we had known, right then, right there, after that hideously beautiful youkai had left, that neither of us were okay, and it would be such a long time- it would seem- before we were.

I'm not very good at telling things just the way they happened, but I will certainly try, because it would be too brief in the eyes of an onlooker.

After this fateful day, everything was a haze.

We proceeded to Sesshomaru's castle promptly, as we went Sesshomaru would not take his eyes off me, while I was busy worrying about Rin and Jaken.

It seemed as though Lord Dyhatarr's threat was an empty one, but everytime I looked outside at night, I felt chilled, as if someone was watching me, and suddenly the rice paper walls and doors did not seem safe enough for me.

I crept into Sesshomaru's bed chambers on that first night we were back, and slept not five feet from him, but even that was not a close enough proximity, so I found myself the next morning instead enveloped in a tight, safe embrace.

I am not sure if that was mine or his doing, because today (only one year later more or less), I know him well enough to know he does not sleep. Which leads me to wonder many times how he keeps his fair complexion- or if that comment about 'beauty sleep' was truly just a mother's way to coax her children into bed.

Anyways, after that day, more times than not was under Sesshomaru's closest protection, but nothing suspicious or straightforward at all happened in those tense weeks.

We had only first dared to lower the guns when something actually did happen.

Surprisingly, it wasn't in physical damage, it had nothing to do with me either, but afterwards we were able to see Dyhatarr's saluted figure, his evil grin, from a mile off. We knew his plan.

It was a rare day when I found myself alone, walking through a relatively crowded village. Sesshmaru did not come, because of the forboding scent we all carried. I will not quote his dismisal of the idea.

I wore his mother's kimono, which I have made a point never to grow out of, for it has equally become my most favored.

The spidery transparent obi with the defined edges and dignified waterfalls of fabric complimented and boasted me as I walked through the low-class village.

I gained a fair amount of stares, for on one hand, it had probably been since forever they had seen such a priceless piece of fabric adorning a woman in that village, but on the other hand, someone as fortunate to be able to wear such riches with no hesitance must be of high enough status, as to fit under such a stereotype, as to give off a message that says clearly "stare and the one providing me with this will kill you". Though I would say no such thing. Probably.

As you know, I was all the wiser even at the proclaimed 'beginning' of this saga, so I would know when to use such a phrase to my advantage, though it is not my first priority to threaten into obediance or respect.

But I stray so far from my story, that day as I walked through the village, I was the one who discovered the absolute end to the Eastern Youkai's madness.

His grand plan, was to hurt Sesshomaru ultimitly in his pride, honor, and ego.

Their softly spoken words as I passed still ring clearly in my mind.

"Lord Sesshomaru has apparently taken a human mate... Perhaps his emotions are weakening him, perhaps he is no longer strong enough to be our leader."

There could only be one source of this horrible gossip, one who could tell a lie in a way that would sound as a horrible truth.

My blood froze within me in the second I heard that, and I assume I stood staring, blankly, but when somebody did touch my arm to wake me, a startled hiss emitted from my throat as I turned and sped with all my agility back to Sesshomaru.

I was suddenly very scared.

My attitude was very changed, even at that time.

By standing beside Sesshomaru, I had learned to take my senses to the utmost height a human could achieve.

I learned to listen for what the mortal ear would not begin to notice otherwise, see to an extent no other would care to see. Move with speed and grace, I learned so much in the months before our love was shown.

My miko powers, which too were rapidly growing, boosted this, and perhaps that was what blessed me to hear what those woman were saying, because later I learned that those woman were standing not beside me, but yards from myself, whispering.

I do not know how I was able to hear such a distant whisper. The wind perhaps aided me.

As soon as I returned to Sesshomaru, I felt safer automatically, but my state of histerics did not calm him.

He listened with a cold silence I was un accostomed to, as I restated the words I had miraculously heard.

As you can imagine, this dilemma only spread.

More people became less hesitant to defy Sesshomaru's worthiness.

Dyhatarr was no where to be found.

The cold darkness was so foreboding, it elt as if he was breathing down my neck all the time.

I will never forget Dyhatarr's strange black eyes, the preserved gloss he possessed.

I was never more afraid, Naraku was greatly belittled to the evil I felt from this Dyhatarr.

I supported Sesshomaru, and watched out for him.

I was so worried, I could have died.

Rainstorms frightened me, I always sought his embrace.

I lived in the constant fear that Sesshomaru would be overthrown, loose his pride, his life because of me.

When I sobbed out this confession, he quieted me, dismissed my fears.

He never killed anyone who stood up to him though.

I'm not sure if they took this as a sign he truly was becoming weak, or if they might respect him more because he was so prone to show mercy.

I do not know which he wished for.

Maybe he recognized it was all Dyhatarr's doing.

They did not deserve to be punished.

But even I did not deny the uncharacteristic longing for Dyhatarr to disspear, at all costs.

A long time ago I felt this towards Kikyou, but it never heightened to the point I would have bathed my hands in her blood with pleasure.

Never.

Soon enough, this became a two way evil, how ironic that Dyhatarr and Naraku should meet, at this time of times, and agree. A common enemy they both had, and a common target they both took.


	16. Sixteen

Kagome stared mournfully over the balcony, a few tears escaping her eyes.

'This is all my fault.' She thought sorrowfully.

A flashback of a dream appeared in her mind; in front of her Rin dashed happily with Jaken in the garden, and suddenly she felt a pair of strong, firm arms encircle her lithe body, protectively.

Turning her head expectantly she saw, with no surprise, Sesshomaru smiling slightly down at her.

Then she witnessed again the vision, Shippo's foxfire flickering desperately, briefly, over the dark forest.

Burying her head in her arms, she fell to her knees.

Then she saw with a sob her family, smiling back at her, trustingly.

Sesshomaru, staring down at her dissapointed.

"No, no, no, no.." She chanted slightly hysterically.

The sunsets pastel colors of yellow and pink and misty blue announced the end of the day.

Looking back up, she fancied she saw a red forest fox with vibrant green eyes staring at her from the edge of the forest...

As the last light dissapeared from the sky, she backed slightly into the room, the familiar white kimono dragging on the ground.

Sesshomaru had not spoken to her lately, cold and distant.

She knew he did not hate her, but the frightening change in his facade and voice startled, confused, and hurt her. His silence pierced her.

She backed away from the thin door as if being possessed or driven by some demon.

Her small hands hastily found the spidery thread of the butterfly-like bow of the obi, yanking the knot loose as the kimono fell, with the obi, to the ground.

Her pale nude form spirited across the room, searching for some form of clothing, some unimportant piece of cloth.

Her nymph-like form danced, pale, in the moonlight, eyes glittering with madness, though a sane distress and determination.

Finally finding possibly the most innexpensive thing, though it would still prove priceless in her own time, she padded quietly across the room and out the door, unnaware of the silvery tears that marked her path. It was as if she were numb.

Bursting into the strongest run a human could accomplish, she covered her path slightly with her miko powers, hiding her scent and aura, hiding it and replacing it with wind and water and fire and earth.

She did not know how long she ran, if she got hurt, if she met or passed anyone or anything, she was not sure how long, how many days, or years, or centuries, even eternity's it took for her to reach the well, except that she was suddenly curled up, sobbing in complete hysterics, at the bottom of an old well, at the time of dawn, some day...

*

'Where is she?' he thought, worry etched slightly on his face.

His figure was a blur. After the complete rounding of his fairly large residence, he finally began making increasing bigger hoops around it, searching, in vain.

'Where could she have gone?'

He remembered clearly when she had tearfully confessed her guilt about being a burden, a distraction, and above all, a nuissance. He had refused, not so warmly.

'Dear Kami...' His mind hissed in resentment and regret for his seemingly cold words, or silence, towards the girl.

"Where had she to go?" He whispered.

*

"Mama?" She whimpered, opening the door quietly.

Her head snapped back, "Kagome?!" she cried.

"I came back Mama, I'm sorry..." Kagome threw herself into her mother's arms and sobbed, her blood beginning to rush again.

"No, no Kagome." Her mother comforted, not asking any questions.

"I loved him so much Mama! But I made his life completely miserable!" She sobbed as her mother led her to the couch.

Sota and Grampa appeared in the doorway groggily, both snapping awake upon seeing their "lost" family member, but quickly departed due to the firm stare the older woman fixed them with.

She stroked her hair, comforting words slipping past her lips for what seemed an eternity. Finally Grampa and Sota came in again, the kind old grandfather touching his grandaughters head briefly before leaving to tend to the shrine, and Sota softly calling goodbye to his mother and older sister before leaving to meet up with a friend.

Kagome slowly ascended up the stairs some time afterwards, slipping despairingly into the bathroom and starting a bath.

The water was scorching hot but she didn't care as she lowered herself into it, her soft sobs echoing off the walls.

Half an hour later she was in her room, staring depressed into her mirror, dressed in her pajamas, brushing out her hair.

Her mother came in shortly and softly but firmly urged her into bed, giving her a bowl of warm soup and a cup of tea, before leaving her alone.

Staring into the cup of tea, Kagome didn't believe anything of this was happening.

The girl in the cup was not her, she decided; it was a girl she did not even know, a horrible girl who brought bad things to everybody.

See what she did? She betrayed her first "friend" in the feudal era, she destroyed a victory he had been fighting for, for so long. She abandoned her friends, her "sister", her "brother", her "friend" and her "son". She sided with a demon, and fell in love with him, destroyed his silence, his void of darkness. On top of that, she destroyed his honor, her prescence would have taken away his position, his dignity, his status.

"I cannot go back.." She said softly.

Outside the sun was suddenly blanketed with a thick gray cloud that stretched across the universe, it began to snow.

*

The weather suddenly dulled, white flakes drifted down from the heavens, touching the earth briefly before melting onto the semi-heated ground.

Sesshoumaru lifted his face to the sky, and he felt an invisible trickling down his face. Reaching a clawed hand up to touch it, he realized they were tears.

*

Dyhattar grinned broadly.

'Seperated by time and place, hm? The girl thinks I would stop this hideous rebellion upon Sesshoumaru if she was eliminated, but no. I shall rule the four corners, I will be above all. With.. The help of Naraku. I will kill him in the end, when he is no longer of use to me, the foolish half breed...'

*

Kagome stayed in bed for three days, scarcely eating, staring into the tea cup and pondering.

This wasn't happening to her.

Only the girl in the tea cup.

Nothing more.

Her friends called.

Hojo came to give his comfort to Kagome, as she found out she suddenly had some unknown virus that probably wouldn't kill her but would keep her out of school for a good long time.

Kagome sighed.

The snow had formed a thick layer of ice on her window, as well as gathering up along the sides, so as to trap her seemingly.

She got up and walked down the stairs. She came back up. She thought about Shippo and Inuyasha and Sango and Sesshoumaru and Rin.

Slipping on a sweater, hardly appropriate for the weather, as it was loosely knitted and fell over one of her shoulders, she walked outside into the freezing cold.

Walking into the well house, her breath still became mist as it blew out of her mouth, it was hardly warmer then outside, but Kagome didn't care.

Hugging herself again, she sat heavily on the side of the well, so that her slippered feet hung down the other side, into the well.

The tears froze on her cheeks before they could even travel to her chin.

One slipper fell in, then the other. Kagome looked down emoionlessly after them, refusing to go after them.

Her bare feet began to get numb from the exposure.

Then her grandfather ran in, gruffly yanking her back to the ground.

She did not speak as he lectured her, a little more gently then he normally would. Kagome seemed so fragile and weak nowadays, nobody knew what to do for her.

He tried to carry her, but not only wouldn't she cooperate, but he couldn't at all, so he helped her walk through the snow, scolding her about really catching pnemonia.

She sat in bed, she did not eat, she did not sleep. She sipped hot tea for days, staring into space, not making a single sound except soft sobs. Kagome's mother visited her a lot, dropping her life to tend to her daughter.

Then Kagome returned again to the well house, returning to the position she had before, when her Grandfather found her.

Again, the soft slippers fell of her feet and into the depths of the well.

This time Sota came in.

"Sis.." He spoke unlike any time he had to her before.

She turned her head ever so slightly to indicate her attention.

"You need to go back." He said.

She turned her torso to look him in the eye, still she did not speak.

"You need to go back to that life, because, you like it more, you'll die here! We don't know what to do Kagome! You used to be my sister, now you're like that woman Inuyasha likes, you act like you're undead! You won't speak to any of us, and you hardly eat. You're turning ugly because you never sleep, and you always look like you're about to cry or something! Mom would rather have you gone for months on end then see you like this! Please Kagome, I just want, I just want..." He began to cry.

"What about that little kid you adored so much? Shippo. Why don't you go back for him? Or Sango, or Miroku, or Inuyasha at least!" He continued, but, with no further argument to press, he finally turned and ran, his thickly layered clothing blowing as he half stumbled, half ran back into his home.

She stared after him with a dull look, unlike the cheery they used to hold, she turned her gaze back to the well.

"You're father's favorite song, Kagome, did I ever told you about it?" another voice spoke, a while after Sota left.

Kagome did not move.

"How did the words go? 'I feel something falling from the sky, I'm so sad I made the angels cry, tears from the moon, fall down like rain, I reach for you, I reach in vain...'" she hummed the tune softly.

Kagome turned her tear stained face to her mother, her lip trembling.

"An English song. He loved it. Especially when he learned what the words meant." She walked over and halfway sat on the edge of the well.

"I do not know what happened to you back there, my dear Kagome, but I have the feeling I know. I'm fairly positive this is how that person... demon is feeling at this moment." Kagome's mother spoke softly.

"It could work for me as well.." Kagome said softly, her voice slightly hoarse from not speaking for a week.

Kagome's mother inclined her head curiously, but gave no comment.

"You need to go back to that time Kagome, and end this. You are wise, my beautiful daughter, and I will not be hurt if you wish to stay on that side, if you will return.. Only once in a while.." Kagome's mother began to cry softly, "You must return to that time. I support you always."

Kagome looked at her mother in surprise.

"I said something like this when you first went on your journey, but I will repeat it again, as you are about to begin another important journey, Kagome, I wish you the best of luck." With that her mother rose and walked back into the snow, her casual clothing whipping around her in the strong wind.

However later, Kagome also rose and silently followed the path her mother had taken.

Climbing the stairs, she entered her room and looked about it.

Her hair had grown, she realized suddenly, randomely.

In the almost-year she had lived with Sesshomaru, her hair grew until it nearly touched her knees(*).

Blinking her eyes, she cleared her thoughts, knowing she was tricking herself as a distraction.

Pulling on the miko clothing she had kept, she didn't put back her hair, but stepped out of the room.

Surprisingly, her family was all standing at ther bottom of the steps, smiling up at her. Just like in a dream.

She flew down the steps and embraced them all, murmering "I love you," over and over again.

They finally released her and she walked slowly to the well house.

'Does he still love me?' The thought burned her heart, nagged her mind.

She inched closer to the well, the silence of the snow heavy about her.

Finally she opened the ancient door. The place seemed depressing in itself, eerily quiet.

She walked down the steps, across the floor, until she stood before the well, finally.

Her heart seemed to stop, she could feel the spirit of the snow. Closing her eyes to the world, she felt as if she were ascending into a freezing heaven as she stood on the edge of the well, breathing silently.

Then, she fell.

Falling, falling, never to end, never to stop.

'This will never end, unless I make it.' She thought absently, falling into the dark abyss of the dry Bone Eaters Well.


	17. Seventeen

It was cold.

Kagome's first thoughts as she shrunk against the inside walls of the hidden well.

Looking up, the sky was white, gray streaking through it shamelessly, marring the pure silver essence of it.

She climbed quietly out of the well, the deadly silence around her nerve-wracking.

She studied her surroundings surprised, covered in snow.

She climbed hesitantly out of the well, realizing she would have to walk back to Sesshoumaru's home herself as

she wasn't sure if he could sense her this far off, or even if he could sense her at all with the thick fog

and snow that hung on the air.

She moved towards the village first, she did not know why. She could not turn away though, she was being drawn

like a moth to a flame.

Gusts of snow and wind swirled around her feet and filled in her footsteps, but Kagome would never know, she

could see only as far as her outstretched hands would allow.

"Sesshoumaru.." She whispered hoarsely.

*

He could feel it, feel the new feeling that was the presence of a new light.

Her aura.

His golden eyes lifted, eyes opened from his silent reverie that replaced sleep.

"Kagome," He said softly, before rising, stalk still, to confirm his guess.

*

"She came back." Dyhattar's voice was laughing at him, taunting.

"What did you expect?" Naraku sneered back.

"Get her." Dyhattar ordered.

"I will not take orders." Naraku returned with venom dripping from his voice.

They shared a cold stare, ruby against graphite. Neither turned.

*

'So cold..' Kagome thought again.

'I can't... make it..' Kagome continued.

'Sesshoumaru... sama... please..'

Tripping forward in the silver haze, she felt as if light was literally surrounding her, threads of shine

pulling her from her fall, sent from heaven.

The light was forming..

Beautiful..

Rising from the cold liquid ground, she tried to follow the ethereal body.

It was flitting just ahead of her.

Reaching for it, she stumbled forward, caught herself, grabbed for it, fell..

"No." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Do you need help... Kagome?" The cold voice carried strangely across the winter air.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" She asked uncertainly.

His white form was saluted against the still whiter sky, barely distinguishable through the clouds of snow

thickening the air around her.

Bursting forward, she tried to plunge into his awaiting arms, but he seemed to float away from her.

As she ran forward, he moved farther back, like in a dream, chasing an untouchable thing...

Two hands closed around her wrists suddenly, pinning them firmly but gently to her sides.

She cried out in confusion, the comforting form of her Sesshoumaru turning again, taking the new shape..

Black waving hair, bright red eyes, sinister grin. Kagome paled.

He walked up to her, touching her face.

Had she more energy, she would have fought, kicked, cursed.

She was so tired though.

The edges of her vision dimmed, she fell into the chest of whomever was holding her, slid to the ground

unconsciously.

Dyhattar smiled as the traces of black magic wisped away, Naraku raised an eyebrow.

His claws dug uncomfortably into the delicate skin of their prize, but she did not respond.

"Do not kill her. She's much better... bait.." Naraku said, bittersweet malice tainting his tone.

Dyhattar gripped Kagome bridle style, pulling her up into his arms.

He saw the jealousy slightly pooling in Naraku's eyes, but he made no protest.

With no last words, no malicious laugh, no action further, they disappeared into the veil of silver-white

flakes hiding the world from the evil.

*

'Gone?' He thought, racing through the harsh winds.

'Taken..' Another voice commented in the back of his mind.

"You should not have come back at such a time as this." Sesshoumaru said softly, the chilling cold air gusting

away his distant remark. Almost as if she had heard him, a sweet laugh resounded in his imagination, answering

his tired and exasperated whisper, and he could almost make out the glint of her fizzing, light-root beer eyes

at that moment, taunting him- 'I will not stay away!'.. But then her image dimmed a bit, and a worried frown

marred her features, she turned her head... 'Ne, Sesshoumaru-sama... I love you.. I miss you- I'm scared..'

Almost as if she was speaking beside him. His eyes widened a bit. She disappeared and he regretted his aloof

treatment of her more then ever at that simple moment.

"Kagome.." He growled.

No laughter this time, no words- only the memory of her small smile, full of trust and love.

"Kagome." He spoke with confidence and determination, barely audible anger and hate painting the edges of his

words with malice.

*

"I heard he mated with a strange human girl."

"Is that why they all hate him now?"

"I think it's unfair- he's very strong and capable."

"He's becoming soft- we need a ruler who.."

"You used to complain about his cold heart!"

"Yes, but-"

"You're probably just jealous that he chose a ningen- and not you!"

"No."

"If that's you, imagine what the female youkai are thinking!"

"It's very rude to interrupt so much, you know."

"I know, but I can't believe you!"

"Why not?"

"She seems like a kind enough person."

"How so?"

"She never threatened anyone, and she seems... Special."

"You've met her?"

"No, but... I've seen her!"

"You have no right.."

"Nor do you!"

"Why do you defend him?"

"He's served us faithfully-"

"We've served him you mean."

"I thought you said it was rude to interrupt?"

"..."

"Anyway, we trade our loyalties to him for his fighting for us and keeping peace- somewhat, and all."

"He mated with a ningen."

"You- we're human! How dare you use such a cruel word? She's like one of us!"

"We've never met her, why should we side with her?"

"She conquered Lord Sesshoumaru."

"..."

"Yes, yes, and-"

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"There... Lord Sesshoumaru."

*

Through the village, through the snow, soon he stopped where he was positive Kagome was last standing. Then

her scent melted into two who did not care to hide themselves. The wetness of the snow almost covered it, but

he could still pick it up- the most unforgettable scents he had ever breathed.

A feral growl escaped his throat.

Turning in that direction in which the trail progressed, he saw in the corner of his eye two poor working

woman. He stopped for an instant.

"Why do you work on such a cold day as this?" Sesshoumaru asked just loud enough for the humans to hear.

The elder of the two- in her twenties it seemed, gaped in his direction, the younger one, not older than

fifteen, jumped to answer him.

Bowing low first, she dropped the basket she had been carrying and clasped her hands in front of her.

"My Lord Sesshoumaru, we work in such conditions because we are obligated to, and because we feel it is our

duty! We were sent today to gather the still alive herbs before they died with winter's early coming, and,

Milord, if we did not, then sickness would remain and plague our village in the coldest and harshest of times,

and it would be our fault. You protect us from evils such as physical enemies, but we must be strong enough to

defend ourselves from mere human weaknesses that can be avoided! Sometimes we must stand strong against the

wind in order to survive, and if we fall, we must rise, because, though we are inferior to the demon race, we

are indeed independent enough and full enough of love to survive through anything! And we will, My Lord

Sesshoumaru. Just like you!" The young girl stated in fascination and excitement.

Sesshoumaru studied the girl with dignity, and nodded slightly at her figure, standing still in the onslaught

of unnatural winds.

Making a sudden decision, Sesshoumaru began to glow. Running his claws through his silken silver hair, his

body shined a camouflage white, like he was but a spirit in the snow.

As his body began to change from humanoid to true demon, the heaps of snow blew rapidly away from the area

beneath his feet, great tidal waves of soft snow flying every which was until the place in which himself and

the two humans stood was almost cleared of snow, only the icy tips of leaves and flowers remaining. Bowing his

head slightly, he turned and bounded towards his decided destination.

The girls looked on in amazement.

Before them they could see the forest reborn, see clearly the ruined and healthy herbs and roots, without

freezing their fingertips.

The older one took a few gulps of air and then looked on in the direction Sesshoumaru had departed in, then,

with a sudden smile, dropped into a low bow.

*

'Where am I?' She thought drowsily.

'Sesshoumaru...?'

'No.'

'Naraku.'

'And Dyhattar.'

'Sesshoumaru.'

'He is not here.'

She argued with herself inside her jumbled mind. She tried to open her eyes, but regretted automatically even

lifting her head. Colors burst behind her eyes and she groaned loudly, squeezing her eyes shut again.

"You are awake." A cold voice stated.

She forced herself to open her eyes, even when the shock of wakefulness nearly made her gasp, and looked into

the ember red eyes dancing in front of her.

"So you're currently on guard duty?" Kagome asked, an aloof but concentrated expression on her face.

"Guard duty?" He asked amused, raising an eyebrow.

"That's good at least, you're not nearly as frightening as Dyhattar." She spoke absentmindedly again, and

Naraku felt anger swell inside himself at her remark.

"What do you want with my anyway? Inuyasha and them have the jewel shards you know." She said, wavering in her

sitting position.

"Dyhattar should explain. It's personal." He spoke with a mocking and slightly hateful edge to his voice,

surprising Kagome out of her daze.

"Why don'cha jus' kill 'im?" She said, her voice beginning to swim, almost drunkenly, her words slurring as

some spell again took effect on her.

"Because he cannot, little miko." Another voice spoke from the shadows.

"Get out of here Dyhattar." Naraku said stiffly.

Dyhattar regarded the other demon with a dangerously tight glare, his pupils dilating in anger, but he kept

his control.

"Do not think you may command me, Naraku. When it ends, you shall die." Dyhattar spoke coldly, departing the

shadowed, empty chamber.

Naraku glared down at the still Kagome, collapsed on her side with her hair fanned out beneath her, murder and

pure hatred dancing across his eyes as he looked through her.

'Dyhattar.' Venom was evident even when the word was not spoken aloud.

'Dyhattar..'

*

"Where have you two been? It is getting colder by the mere second! Oh, my! You found many good herbs- I would

have thought many less when I considered the time it would take digging in the snow. I am proud of the both of

you. But there are matters to attend to! One of the woman of the village- Shiraha, has come down with a

horrible sickness that must be attended to immediately! She is chilled and her breath is labored, as well as

coughing and other symptoms. Makokoro-san, please take these herbs to her and cure her. I have faith that I

taught you well, and for now I cannot aid you- there are more matters perhaps worse then Shiraha-sans- do not

fail them or me, please young one! Harsh times these are, and unexpected, early. Many will die this year.

That dear woman though, Shiraha I mean. She was carrying her first child as well. How disappointed the father

will be. She was so kind and generous! So unlike so many.. Do your best work and do not let her pass!"

"Alright sensei, I'll try my hardest to keep her of the living!" the younger one- Makokoro- cried as she

dashed from the hut with a few choice herbs clutched in her hands.

"Hazumi-san." The older woman again said, but not as distressed. She regarded the quiet girl- no older then

her early twenties. She was not truly attractive- her fine black hair had been carelessly cut so that it did

not pass her chin, hacked and chopped to a point, each small handful of hair a different length than the next.

Such was expected from a more developed healer--- in training. Your hair would either be bound atop your head

or cut to the point where it could not drop before your eyes. The girl had chosen the latter when she had been

chosen to success the woman after she died. Her gray-purple eyes were dulled with pain and sorrow that nobody

but herself knew about, her skin was tanned from so much outside work gathering herbs and such. She was thin

from a lack of food and too much rushing and working- but so much was inevitable. There was no wealthy

individual in this little town. In the Western lands it was stationed, and, though they were perhaps the

safest of all the four kingdoms, they were not particularly well in other places. They were naturally hard

working and survivors- but you would not expect much less from those who had been disciplined under the strict

eye of the swiftly declining- in social class- Lord Sesshoumaru.

The older girl sorted the herbs absent mindedly- she rarely showed emotion.

"Hazumi-san." She repeated- a slight reverence in her tone.

"Hai, Saiki-sama?" Hazumi spoke softly.

The old woman shook her head and began to help the girl silently sort out the assortment of leaves, roots, and

other such things.

Hazumi deftly brushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear and looked up at the old woman. Death was

almost upon her- it was sadly evident. The woman was only in her early fifties at least, but it was expected

that people should die at about that age. It was life how they chose to live it.

"What do you think of our Lord Sesshoumaru?" She spoke suddenly, quietly. Her voice was like wind between

grass.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, eh?" the woman asked kindly.

"Hai." She answered.

"He was once as cold, deadly, and reliable as winter, right? He has melted though." Saiki spoke and then gave

a little shake of her head.

"So you disagree with his method of ruling now?" Hazumi said quietly, emotionlessly.

Saiki regarded her for a moment, then took a pair of large, silver-liquid green colored leaves with delicate

hands, and crushed them. A thick silver liquid riveted through the curves and crevices of her clenched

hand, and then gathered in a droplet at the opening.

Grabbing one of Hazumi's hands, she guided it to her clenched fist until Hazumi was holding the strange thing

in her own hands, then guided her up so that her thumb traced the thick liquid under each eye, a smear across

her forehead, under her mouth, across her neck.

When she finished the silent ritual, Hazumi lowered her hand and looked at her elder in question.

"Everlee... you will not die this coming winter." was the old woman's only explanation.

It was silent for a short while, then..

"He's off to claim his mate." Hazumi spoke suddenly.

Saiki regarded her from the side with curiosity and surprise. Routinely, she would teach the lesson, then

silence would follow until naturally broken. Never once had Hazumi automatically broken the peace.

"Who?" The older woman asked.

"The Lord of the Western Lands." Hazumi spoke softly.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Saiki's voice was shocked beyond compare.

"Hai." Calm laced her voice.

"But.." The older woman was not one of Sesshoumaru's true 'loyalists' at the time, rather agreeing with those

protesting against his continued rule.

"He is not weak, but strong, he is not fallen, but among heavenly classes, he is above demons, and standing

beside her, he is stronger than anything." Her short but powerful speech struck Saiki like a slap to the face,

and her wide eyes watched in astonishment as the young girl continued to pluck leaves and medicine's with a

practiced ease and a strange calm.

Saiki was affected by these determined words, believing suddenly that Sesshoumaru was more than he was taken

for as of late.

"Tell me, child, what has influenced your strong opinion?" Saiki asked weakly.

Hazumi sat lady like with her legs folded neatly beneath her, body leaned forward slightly as she sorted the

herbs.

She pulled back the black locks that fell flat in her face, and smoothed them behind her ear, her violet gray

eyes peeking up at the woman with a knowledge and belief in them that almost made Saiki tremble.

*

Sesshoumaru continued running, running, running. The snow flurried about his surroundings, but he was guided

by his instincts, and he was aware of where he was going by now.

'Kagome..' He though. The now desperate longing tugged at him almost as though he could feel her frightened

tears.

'I love you..' He thought with a dull ache in his heart.

*

'Sesshoumaru?' She asked softly.

'Sesshoumaru!?' She remembered this.

He would always look at her with an annoyed expression, try to dissolve back into his meditation. She would

laugh.

'You can't try to disappear now, okay? I need you..'

Dyhattar watched silently from the shadows.

*


	18. Eighteen

They walked through the strangely silent little village, barely glancing around- hardly seeming to notice even the world around them. The snow blew colder, it seemed, around this broken trio.

"Has Naraku been here?" the woman asked quietly. There was nothing in her voice, only cold- like so long ago.

"No." was the quiet, withdrawn reply. He had never been gruff or disagreeable or selfish- not since her.

The third was silent. Before he had been cheerful; easygoing. Now the death his curse promised him indeed sounded welcoming rather than foreboding.

She had been the one that held them all in place. They each had had their squabbles; they each had had a close relationship with another. Without her, the tiring fairytale was only a burden- there was no true meaning. Perhaps she had shown light on their plight- the thing which all had been fighting desperately for. Now, in the end, Inuyasha would get his demon, Sango her revenge- her brother? And Miroku free of his curse. No goal seemed worthwhile anymore though. In actuality- each knew the importance of the end result… but the journey was almost too harsh.

They continued to walk through the village soullessly. The snow continued to blow.

*

His feet pounded the ground easily- he made no further noise.

He ran sightlessly, remembering a few things every once in a while.

'I think I have misjudged you…'

'I might love you…'

'Sesshoumaru-sama!'

Why had he allowed her to nest so closely to his heart?

He blinked quickly- running away from the Western border, running away from a home that may never welcome him again.

*

She rose as the chains tightened. She followed rather than be yanked forward. She looked outside at the brewing blizzard.

Dyhattar and Naraku studied the girl- not broken, a fire burned hopefully in her shadowed eyes.

They stood upon the wooden patio- a mocking clone of Sesshoumaru's beautiful home.

Kagome's hair lifted with the winter breeze, but Kagome did not blink.

The clothes were tattered and hung shamefully on her body- she did not notice. She felt his comforting presence drawing closer, and closer, until she could almost feel the cold aura about him with her bound fingertips.

And then in the distance she saw, one from each direction.

From the West; a large looming figure- the foggy snow clouded her vision even as she recognized the light shadow against the white sky; Sesshoumaru's true form. How beautiful, she mused.

From the East, a sagging group, looking like a small shadow that could easily be shattered forever by the mere gusts of wind. As they came closer, Kagome sorrowfully recognized the trio. Her friends- long lost and soon to be found.

Naraku and Dyhattar's hands tightened around the chains, but Kagome was past whimpering at the pressure.

From the North, another figure approached, Kagome realized. An animal it looked like, a demon she was sure. Smaller than Sesshoumaru, still with a startling presence. Blue fire burned about his slight figure. Shippo. Kagome almost sobbed into the nothingness around her.

Kagome gritted her teeth to restrain from crying out to them all, her friends.

'I love you all. I love you all.' Her heart cried out, bursting with happiness even as the chains tightened- again.

*

They had all stopped for an instant; they had all stared.

It was her.

Had they thought her dead? Her presence had been forgotten except for the comfort and joy it had brought with it.

She was decked in chains, standing on a wooden patio, her gaze flickered over them for an instant and she looked as if she could have cried.

A name came to their frozen minds then, and they jumped back into reality, finally.

"Kagome- sama." Miroku murmured, his staff clanging in agreement.

"Kagome- chan." Sango cried out then, Kirara bounced off her shoulder and transformed with a burst of red fire into her larger form. Sango and Miroku mounted and promptly sped toward her. What was their Kagome doing in chains? Who was holding her?

Inuyasha lifted his head and emotions flew and danced across his eyes.

"Kagome." The familiar name tasted sweet on his lips, and he ran his tongue through the cracked seam before a weight was magically lifted from his worn shoulders.

Bounding forward with an old fire he used to possess, he quickly surpassed Kirara and his other team mates.

'Kagome. Who dares chain her?' The silent question was deadly in his mind.

Perhaps he loved her. He felt a clench in his heart that told him that he should not try to convince himself; something told him he was too late.

'Kagome.'

*

Sesshoumaru saw her- his demonic senses soared with her distant presence, and yet his speed seemed to fail him though, and it felt like lifetimes before he came within distance to see the color of her clothing.

The pads on his feet absorbed all the cold wetness of the ground, and his teeth were bared in anticipation.

A wildness overtook him as he realized in full his love for this chained little creature, and he tossed his head as he ran full on out towards her solute against the day's skies.

*

He did not run, did not lope, and did not go faster then a walk towards his "mother".

The blue fire glowed about him, warming him and creating a path for him.

His reddish fur bristled when he noted the chains, but still he kept his calm.

This was when the powers would join to save the spirit of their Earth and world.

She was not always strongest, Shippo mused, she was never the first to learn and sometimes she would make a horrible mistake, but she somehow spun us all about her finger, and that was when we all realized she was the center of the known universe- for us.

Because you see, were it not for her, the search for the shards might not have been so good, and there might not be so many friendships, and there might not be as many fights resolved.

He blinked his emerald green eyes; he looked to the crystalline sky- feeling the snowflakes melt upon his nose, feeling her eyes survey and recognize him.

When he had run away- he was only a child. One and a half years later- he felt a bit more grown even if he was still considered only an orphaned pup.

He had gone back to the place where they had fought the Thunder Brothers, had sat on the memorable battleground. He thought he had spoken to his father- but maybe he was just dreaming about that particular part.

He hadn't eaten for many nights and days, had only stared at the sky and the ground and the marks that remained of their time there.

One day, it seemed like a spirit had possessed him- he rose from the ground and began to glow. Then he took upon a new form- a rebirth of the sort, and became the form passed from his family, a fox. He had spent days then, learning about himself, speaking to many on his 'journey', and finally stumbling upon Kagome.

She had changed- definitely. She wore a beautiful silk kimono to make you assume she was royalty, and Sesshoumaru was with her, and Jaken and Rin in front of her. She had found a family. He took it upon himself then to be a back-up protector, though he knew Sesshoumaru would suit her well. He had never shown himself, had only presented himself as a common forest fox, but sometimes he thought she knew. Now he would finally speak with her again, embrace her even. After he and the others saved her.

Then he would see how well his new, good friend had handled the village. They would have such a celebration. Shippo smiled a bit as he finally picked up his pace a bit, the blue lights swirling like fireflies around and in front of him.

*

Kagome stared almost happily as the familiar figures raced closer and closer. She took a hopeful step forward but was almost tossed back when both demons on each side of her reacted instantaneously to her supposed attempt at escape.

She bit her lip and considered crying out to them, yelling out cheerful greetings as if it were the olden days again, calling encouragement as if the praise would not get her killed and she was in fact not bound by two of the world's strongest demons who wanted to kill each other.

Finally, they were here.

*

Sesshoumaru pulled up as soon as he came within two bounds of Kagome, looking spitefully at her two captors.

His body again began glowing and he took upon his other form, cold, strong, swift, and silent Sesshoumaru.

A cruel grin threatened his lips as gory visions of their deaths filled his mind with red, but he, as always, kept his strict control.

Beside him, a fox like creature trotted up, began to glow with a molten red light, and returned to what Sesshoumaru assumed to be his humanoid form. How was this pup related to Kagome, though, he wondered?

The bluish lights he had spotted from the corner of his eye glowed and swirled about the kitsune cub who had a solemn face and an expert stance.

The boy had long orange-red hair that was pulled into a high ponytail, dropping to his waist. He had narrow green eyes and fine white claws. He wore brown clothing and was not shod. The boy looked to be nine or eleven. Yet… It was not true. This boy had somehow altered his age and physical looks- he could feel the magic crackling in the air as he was accustomed to Kagome's strong magic even still. This boy was hiding behind this older more experienced body, but it did not matter after all. Across from him almost directly stood Kagome's old friends. The youkai exterminator seemed in a way broken- or previously broken, a protective fire burned in her eye all of a sudden for her brutally bound friend. The monk also had the air of a lost soul just found- he had his hands on his staff and his brows were furrowed with fury. The fire cat was crouched low and snarling, it's flames licking its body were glowing with a persistent fire he had never seen on it before. Then as for the half breed himself, a lost and sorrowful yet vengeful light was within his wild golden eyes. He was looking forward to the physical exhaustion, but his emotional interior had been somehow chipped down to a mere stone where the column of pure ego used to stand tall. Probably lost because of the many decisions he could have made himself that had been ripped away as a result of his foolishness- now he was out of control of the situation and thoroughly confused. As for the sorrow… Sesshoumaru almost smirked… Was prideful Inuyasha regretting his betrayal and rejection of Kagome? And then the vengeance… He would always feel the need to protect Kagome, even if he somehow knew she was no longer in the need of his attention or protection.

Sesshoumaru turned his eyes from the present towards the two demons holding his Kagome.

Dyhattar had changed little from appearance, probably had the same wretched mind and personality also. Naraku, if anything, looked only a bit deranged, frenzied? Jealous? The almost playfulness had been yanked from his aura signature and replaced with a nasty black snake with poisonous, horrible coils, strangling the mind of some other that he hated beyond play. Perhaps Dyhattar had shown him a taste of his own medicine… Possibly? For once Sesshoumaru could not read the grossly familiar man- demon.

"This girl will only be a distraction." Dyhattar's cool voice cut evenly through the gusty air.

Naraku through the thing an evil and hateful glance.

"The girl will stay and watch her loved ones fall." Naraku said stiffly, his voice again seemed to constrict an otherwise invisible specter with pure hatred like none Sesshoumaru had ever felt or witnessed before.

Dyhattar sent him a challenging but quieting glare, the words displayed in his eyes said seething, 'Fool, she'll escape or be rescued while I'm fighting.'

Sesshoumaru suddenly understood. A small and cruel smile curved his lips. Now he understood.

Both were used to total and complete control, both thought themselves unbeatable, and both hated the other for thinking so.

Sesshoumaru drew his sword and got into a battle stance, slightly pleased when all the others in the 'party' followed his example.

"Do not dally, I haven't all day to stare at such revolting figures as the day wanes and other issues go un looked upon." Sesshoumaru spoke coldly towards the two evils and the electricity flowing between them.

That seemed to start it. Naraku and Dyhattar took all the hatred for each other out upon the ones they had allied to fight.

'Amusing they do not break and take it out upon each other.' Sesshoumaru thought, emotionless expression still is place as he jumped clear of the dark beam of black magic…

*

The raw, immortal sound of blade meeting blade pierced through the heavy air. Nothing could be seen through the curtain of white that veiled the earth, and yet they still fought. The thick leaves of pink cherry blossoms floated from the heavens and swirled about the vacant atmosphere. The trees softly sighed in agony as their roots creaked and searched for water inside the dry and cracked earth. There had not been rain for many moons it seemed, and the sky would only taunt and tease them with it's pure whiteness- promising the lightest sheet of snow only when every living thing was on the brink of death. The wind blew lazily, as if even it was running out of will to live on. The strict words of a wise youkai merged with the air and passed onto the apprentice, who looked silently at his master. Life is cruel and harsh, vengeful and childishly unpredictable, yet in the end it was but a test. If you become one with life, fight with instead of against, yet always endure, you will live to see many tests of strength and courage, yet if you yield or fall, then you are just as well born for hell, because you would not be fit to rise to the long and tiring journey after death. Remember this as you see the weak dieing around you, no matter what, live.

*

Inuyasha charged toward the dark demon, sword raised with his reckless pace. The thoughtless downward swing of the blade though, was useless, as Dyhattar disappeared from under it like a black spirit descending from life. It seemed Inuyasha had kept his consistency to lack a plan or strategy, and only lunged forward with the intent to kill at whatever cost… Save his friends perhaps.

Inuyasha spun around as Dyhattar materialized behind him, and again took a thoughtless swipe at the magic- user. The said demon vanished again from his direct sight and Inuyasha caught his sword mid swing, looking about frantically for the quick eastern lord.

Sesshoumaru appeared beside him, but just as soon disappeared again as he leapt towards an empty corner of the sky, monotonously putting his weight behind his movements as he used Toukijin to slice through the said area.

The previously invisible Dyhattar turned again into a mist of black threads and shot down to the earth, taking shape into a slightly wounded Dyhattar.

He looked at the wound curiously, but as he touched it the cut immediately restored itself and he was whole once again.

Sesshoumaru showed no sign of surprise, disgust, or discouragement as he silently blurred toward Dyhattar again.

"The issue with using black magic to disguise your figure with air is that your own senses are lowered considerably from effort and nature, for to take invisibility onto yourself is to see half as well as your opponents see you. Every curse has it's draw-back, Dyhattar, and some demonstrate more risk then gain. With every spell you cast, there will always be a weakness in the magic itself, as was written by the gods." Sesshoumaru spoke softly, Dyhattar becoming annoyed by Sesshoumaru's understanding of the dark arts unlike he had known.

"And for further explanation's sake, this spell you have just cast to protect yourself from a blade… It will sustain only a blade." Sesshoumaru swooped backwards as the boomerang shot unexpectedly by his form and struck Dyhattar squarely in the chest.

They both dropped to the earth, Dyhattar regaining his composure as Sesshoumaru lowered his sword slightly in honor for his opponents defenseless state.

Sango caught her boomerang again and turned it again toward the new arrival of Kagura, Kanna, and Kikyou. Miroku stood against her back, absorbing every incoming arrow as Sango matched every wind blade with her boomerang. Shippo nor Kirara were anywhere to be seen, but Sesshoumaru had a good idea where they were heading. Inuyasha, in the mean time, had turned his wrath upon Naraku, throwing aimless swings at the other hanyou as he dodged and fought back equally.

Sesshoumaru turned lazy eyes toward the now standing Dyhattar, sheathing his blade as he prepared to fight in a different manner now that this restriction had been placed.

Dyhattar lunged for him and he quite naturally let his poisonous whip fly at an equal pace right back at him.

Dyhattar jumped from his path to avoid the snake-ish blade, but was surprised as Sesshoumaru, with his usual dignity and speed, raced in front of him and swiped him vertically with his claws.

Dyhattar hit the ground hard but immediately pounced again to his feet. His black top was slit down the center and the darker maroon blood oozed from the cuts over the growing bruise Sango had inflicted. He looked up at Sesshoumaru's looming figure through his bangs as he fought to regain his breath.

Sesshoumaru said nothing as he approached slowly, no more mercy evident in his eyes. If Dyhattar wanted to live, he would have to fight up front despite injuries.

"You are becoming sloppy. Perhaps you overestimated your own abilities, Dyhattar? For each [spell] a consequence you did not realize." Sesshoumaru spoke softly, coldly, even from his distance of several feet.

Dyhattar heard him though, with his enhanced demonic senses, and growled as he struggled to right himself.

Sesshoumaru took his time approaching the weakened demon, bringing a claw to face level as it began to glow emerald with poison.

With a sudden burst of speed, Sesshoumaru streaked toward the demon, bringing his armored claw down upon the space Dyhattar had been crouching.

The demon was no longer there, though, when Sesshoumaru appeared before it, but he had not jumped high, due to the deep gashes on his breast that had slightly chipped the bone of his rib and had dug almost into his black tinted heart. The bruise was turning a deep blood red, making it indistinguishable upon the splashes of crimson liquid riveting about his chest.

He crumbled on the ground with self disgust, how had he assumed to great the extent of his powers? Why had they finally failed him after so long a strong rule? If only he had not bothered himself with the half breed, not gone half blind trying to bring his nerves to the surface. He would die without one scratch upon his enemy because of his own foolishness.

He tiredly allowed the spell repelling the blade upon his skin to disperse and felt his vision become hazy as the small demons of death began to lead him to a new place below him.

His last coherent thought was only a feeling, yet it seemed to speak many words as the strong demon blade of Master Sesshoumaru-sama of the West's… Slid through his back, and he felt he was being pulled into a painful oblivion and screams of pain sliced his ear drums… And his body became numb, and he was suddenly surrounded by unbearable heat… And red, and purple, and he lost all his senses and sanity and logical thought, and he was nothing more then a crazed, stupid demon in a torture chamber full, strangely, of red.

*

Sesshoumaru steadily pulled the blade from the corpse of Dyhattar, only a flicker of regret for killing passing through his eyes before it was behind him. His master had taught him to be that way. On that day that was so like this… With raining cherry blossoms… The world thought it would wither and die yet a newer, stronger generation was produced from it.

Turning his eyes back to his group of… Temporary acquaintances, he observed as they took vengeance upon the demon that had probably destroyed what could have been their normal life.

He shook his head only slightly, he would not participate in this battle. He looked down on the fallen black thing at his feet and closed his eyes for but an instant. Naraku had not damaged him as much as he had the others, so he would not take this away from them. Only they should see his dieing face to be at ease.

He turned his eyes to the exotic-looking house- little less then a palace, to the wooden porch where Kagome had been standing helplessly in chains.

She had not watched the battle, was instead backed against the wooden frame and holding her ears to keep out the painful battle sounds, tears streaking her face as she could not help but hear it.

He approached silently as he could almost hear her thoughts, it seemed.

He soured flawlessly over the perfect wood of the border, landing softly and observing Shippo's and Kirara's desperate attempts to save their friend.

Kirara looked anxious to return to the battle so, catching the large cat demon's eye, he bid it leave of its mission.

It forgot it's blight to protect Shippo and was immediately gone, standing where she belonged next to the determined Sango and her houshi, and the half breed, and whomever else was within that mass of fog…

Shippo was trying as best he could to break the strong metal links, using mostly blue tinted fire to melt the unyielding material.

Kagome had not heard his approach- he was silent as the grave and she did not care to hear anything anyway, but Shippo had- strangely, and his head snapped up to meet the emotionless gaze of the stony yet gentle demon lord.

The bluish lights withdrew from Kagome as soon as Shippo moved back, and Sesshoumaru took his place beside Kagome.

He touched her arm and she jumped to life, staring at him shocked as he cut through the chains with razor sharp "talons". Her eyes again brimmed with tears as she fell into him, the raw red skin around her body where the chains had been burned as she sobbed softly into his silk clothing.

"I'm such a… coward… my friends have been… striving… for this battle since… forever… it… seems… And when the time finally… comes… I am not… strong… enough to… watch… it." Kagome hiccoughed and sobbed in between her broken words as she leaned sorrowfully into Sesshoumaru's comforting embrace.

"You are not. You are a strong person, Kagome. Do not doubt yourself." His words were so firm, so filled with sincerity, Kagome thought that should she not abide he would forever be disappointed by her decision. So she stopped and looked up at him. He took her up in his arms and a flicker of discreet and disguised love ticked across his eyes… Kagome smiled. Shippo looked on.

*

'Thank the heavens above… the witch is finally out of her arrows…' Miroku thought, distressed.

The undead miko glared at the offending monk, slowly approaching.

'What will she do now?' He thought despairingly.

Sango cast the houshi a concerned look but it lasted only an instant as her attention was called back to the reckless Kagura. Kohaku had appeared next to her, but the vacant eyes of his did not spark at all so Sango assumed he was being used only for a cautionary figure in the game.

True, it did persuade her to look twice at how she was aiming her boomerang, but her hate for all of Naraku AND his offspring had inspired her not to be daunted too greatly by what had used to be her brother. She had to have faith that she could not kill what was already in between death and life, and she could not kill a person so close to her if there was not magic involved, so with a lift of heart and spirit, she fought staring only straight at Kagura, not her brother, not the others. She had decided, that even if she lost her brother, she would have at least freed him from somebody that was even worse then his own death.

She released her boomerang again and it sliced perfectly through the air, beaming each blade of wind off its course and in the mean time edging closer to her target.

*

"Kaze no Kizu!" Inuyasha yelled, the golden streaks shooting towards Naraku at a breakneck speed. Naraku barely dodged, taking a shallow cut to the ankle before landing again, grinning as before. He had sensed Dyhattar's death, and it somehow made him feel if anything more powerful.

Kagome was erased from his mind and he thought only of playing with his new enemies. Would they tire first or die?

Inuyasha rushed Naraku and threw his blade into him… Or so he thought. Naraku again jumped around the blade, missing death by a hair.

*

She came up to him and he tensed automatically.

"Kikyou." He acknowledged her cautiously.

"Tell me, honored priest, was I meant to be in this world?" Kikyou said firmly, her eyes glinting hatred yet her voice was only calm and cool.

Sango glanced over her shoulder quickly when she heard vaguely the question asked the monk- priest.

"Eh… Kikyou-san…" Miroku was still anticipating her surprise attack and so he was taken aback when she asked him this question.

"Tell me, why doesn't Inuyasha love me anymore?" Kikyou spoke with her usual cold voice, yet there was something in her eye…

"Your time is up… miko… Inuyasha's utter love for you died when… he made a new friend… And she taught him how to let impossible things go… And more, I admit… And she helped him back into the world, Kikyou… san. Your time is… up." Miroku murmured, looking quizzically at the miko standing in front of him, wondering how she would react to his answer.

She stared into his eyes for a while, and then nodded almost regretfully.

"I will give up this folly reason I am still alive then, for I daresay I can no longer look into an old woman's face that used to be my dedicated younger sister." Kikyou spoke, then turned on her heel and walked away silently.

"A fox once was passing by the base of a tall fruit tree, and he looked up longingly at the delicious fruits to be found there. The fox wanted nothing more then to have a single fruit from this single tree, but no matter how high he jumped or could climb, he could not even reach the first branch. After starving for days for this incredible prize, the fox finally gave up, but because he was so proud he only laughed as he walked away. 'They're probably all rotten anyway.' He said arrogantly, 'I shall only eat meat from here-on, all fruit is cursed and bad. That is the reason I jumped, I only wanted to destroy it after all.'"

"Houshi…" Sango spoke softly as she caught her boomerang once again.

"I suppose anyone would want to do something before they die…" Miroku said.

"Hai…" Sango agreed.

It was then Sango realized the electricity in the air had ceased, and her mild stupor had not gotten herself killed by bright blades of air…

She looked curiously back to where Kagura was standing.

Kagura was looking coldly past her, staring after Kikyou, then turning her eyes to the suddenly popular Miroku.

Her deadly fan was held tightly in her hand as she glanced over at Naraku, who spared her a passing glance. It threatened her, commanded her. She looked back at the slightly dazed houshi and blinked.

"And tell me, monk, what of me? What of me, fortune teller?!" Kagura demanded shrilly.

Naraku paused at her outburst and Inuyasha followed suit.

"What.. Of me?"

*

Kagome watched dumb founded as Kagura asked the heart shattering question, "What of me?" Wasn't that the same question she had been asking herself since she first fell through the well? Had her friends and defeated enemies thought of the same? Doesn't everyone?

She watched Miroku, waiting for his answer to their foe's plea.

"I…" Miroku looked up at Kagura, knowing not what to say.

"Death will soon be upon you." The answer was offered by a different party as Naraku swiftly appeared behind Kagura, and, jerking her back into him, she was gone. He had reabsorbed her, he had stolen her from the world… Just like that.

Kagome put her hand despairingly over her mouth, for even though not seconds ago they had been enemies at war, the punishment was too brutal…

The look in her eye when she had 'died', a question that would likely taunt the trembling houshi- "This… Is what is to become of me…" A declaration, she had known it would happen. Kagome buried her face in her hands, why do things have to be like this?

*

It was then the insane chuckle escaped Naraku's lips.

He reached forward and tore Kohaku's flesh, taking forth the shard of the sacred jewel.

Kagome's eyes widened considerably, Sango's eyes momentarily filled with tears, Miroku gasped and hatred quickly replaced the pity for Kagura's death, and Inuyasha's eyes narrowed to slits as he stared down Naraku.

Sesshoumaru furrowed his brow, feeling Kagome's distress and sorrow but not understanding. He then smelt the faint and brief smell of salty tears- so distinct on any wind. He turned his eyes to its source and saw the demon exterminator, tears filling her eyes then leaving instantaneously. She closed her eyes and took a shaking breath, he could also feel the waves of sorrow rolling off her as well… How very strange… How was this boy related to any of them?

Naraku stepped back, surprised greatly by the immense surge of pure magic consuming the air.

Kagome climbed over the wooden railing and approached her friends sorrowfully. Then, without any warning, she suddenly stumbled and let out a strangled gasp, throwing her hand out and catching herself on Sango's shoulder.

To a random onlooker, it might have appeared as thought she was only rushing forward to comfort her friend, but the ones standing there saw the strong streak of white light join her soul and make her whole again; there was no question about what had happened in some other part of Japan as the white and black interlaced birds burst into the sky from a distant piece of forest.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed with sorrow and Miroku closed his eyes. Naraku's own eyes widened a little then reverted back to their previous size, and when Kagome recovered, she looked up tearfully toward a particular white bird that slowly approached the fighting band.

Inuyasha's eyes seemed to drown into an unemotional pool of safety as he realized that his first love had died and his second was taken.

Sesshoumaru stepped up behind Kagome and placed comforting hands on her shoulders, slightly firm to remind her of their predicament they were in.

The white snow drifted silently around them, matching the coldly quiet world that always seemed to encase them in sadness.

Inuyasha seemed to have to draw the strength of the world into his hands for the motivation to draw at the same time his sword, but he did so, staring at Naraku with no look in his eye.

Around them Kagome could even feel the death, the still air screamed of it, as it always would.

Far off, Dyhattar's body lay unmoving in its decline from life, Kagura was perished and without a soul to proceed her, Kikyou was dead and had rejoined Kagome's body, and Kohaku's hot blood still dripped from Naraku's stilled fingers, melting the snow and riveting through it aimlessly.

So much death.

Inuyasha walked toward Naraku, he no longer had any aura. It was different the first time she died. He for one wasn't there to actually see her fall, and even if he had, he would have been joyful for it was in his mindset that she had betrayed him. This time, he again had not seen her death, but he could have heard the shriek of her soul even if he had no hearing and she had made no sound.

Kagome watched the numb Inuyasha approach Naraku, who looked at him with the same soulless look… Only with an emotion over it. Kagome's eyes became half closed as tears welled up within them. Their fight had begun. The white bird strove to reach the battle site from its far away location in the air.

Clang.

"It's a boy… Is he sleeping?"

Clang.

"Kikyou?"

Clang.

"My name is Kagome, Ka-Go-Me!"

Clang.

"Feh."

Clang.

"It wasn't my fault!"

Clang.

"Go back to your own time Kagome."

Thud.

"Don't cry."

…

"Don't cry."

"Don't cry."

The tear slipped from her eye even as she heard his words in her mind.

In front of them Inuyasha lay, dead, before Naraku.

On top of him, through his sword, was Naraku.


	19. Epilogue

After he died, the world became a torrent of darkness, and the waves crashed in her ears, and she was blinded by the water streaming down her face.

But he was gone.

It was not that she still loved him- though she once did. She had shared too much with him, she wanted only to be his friend.

There is perhaps nothing more I can say after the death of this character, for some lives were woven about him. But 'life goes on'.

As for Kagome, she locked herself behind a well, and smiled at the memory of two lives which she had lived before. Her childhood- with her family. Her adolescence- with her best friend. Her maturity- with her mate. Perhaps you can guess, perhaps you cannot. After Inuyasha's death, it was as if she were freed- and enslaved as well. Her love grew for her mate, and she protected him with a wrath nearly exceeding his own. She loved him fervently, along with her two small friends Shippo and Rin. She drew magic from her heart, and fed the soul of Midoriko that was within her. This is the ending of her story.

As for Sesshoumaru, he earned back his honorable title because of a generous young woman- or two, and he became resolved. He fell in love with his mate over and over again, and he kept her happiness as close to his heart as his own, and strove to reach it with her. After his brothers death- did he feel released, or suspended… He had never foreseen past his little brothers death, what he would do afterwards. He had not predicted the half breeds final day- final breath, to be spent fighting across from another being but himself. So he respected him. And he loved Kagome, and he loved Shippo, and he loved Rin. And he learned how to love in completeness. This is the ending of his story.

As for Sango and Miroku, the burden was lifted from the first, the curse from the latter, and so they became happy. They learned not to depend on much but each other, and they left someplace. Whether they holed in with Kaede or vanished somewhere else has not been recorded. I suspect a far off place where they could be left alone, and in peace, and in happiness- though they dearly missed a life they had left behind.

As for Inuyasha- and Kikyou… Perhaps they are suspended in the time and space or the dark abyss of eternity, caught in the pose they had longed for- bound together by threads of fate, but darkened, for fate had not expected such a thing. And one was supposed to have a second chance, and his craze rubbed his heart raw and he could not move on. Perhaps he was younger- or older, than fate had intended. But that is the end of their story as well.

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Drip… drop… drip… drop…

The familiar scene lay evident before her eyes, the ending of winter curling against the waning winds.

One more winter past, she thought as the heavy snow slid down and off the thin, weak branch before her, meeting the ground with a 'plop' and denting the once perfect sheet of snow that for now swept the ground silver.

She leaned against the sturdy wood guarding Sesshoumaru's fine home, watching the quiet morning sky begin to lighten slightly with the promise of the coming sun.

Earlier, much earlier, back in the spring- the beautiful spring… She had leant against this wooden border with the same ease as always, staring in contentment as Rin and Shippo hopped about the flowered garden (which was the world) around them… And laughed in joy at their childlike games, and seemed ignorant to the harshness of life that balanced its scale. A million pounds of happiness weighed the one side; and the cold snow of sorrow a million pounds matching on the other…

Snow was such a thing that cannot be described. Like the moon, it is mysterious, and beautiful- which is horribly ironic because of the mean things that crawl from the darkness surrounding its luminance… Snow shined in the dark, and yet blocked the sun from its target, it clouded the world, and if it snowed enough, you could get sick or die. And you could be blinded by staring at its purity, and you could be cold by its intensity. But the snow never stopped coming- it was winter every year.

But spring as well.

Spring was when snow was banished, and Inuyasha forgotten from her heart for just a little while.

Spring was when Rin and Shippo would hop about the valley of the world and dance and laugh and be ignorant to the sorrowful bliss of the coming winter. And they would forget that life was a rusty golden scale, and on each side the same weight… And then somebody would scream, far in the distance, and the scale shifted for a moment, and lovely life groaned, and then it all fell back to the way it should be.

*

Once upon a time there was a normal girl who lived a normal life. She was then pulled into an enchanted world by a horrible demon that wanted to kill her if only for a troublesome jewel that was supposed to have been destroyed. Upon landing in this world, she met a boy- who was asleep. And her tale begun. Much later, when the winter tolled again in sweet wisps of snow in her face, she stared at the sky, and a silver haired demon who had been asleep… Stood behind her, and embraced her, and comforted her, and soon the scale was balanced again.


End file.

Inuyasha, Angst, Romance