Title: a night of memories and of sighs
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Pairing: SesshomaruKagura
Summary: A night consecrated to Kagura's memory.
AN: The title is a line from the poem Rose Aylmer by Walter Savage Landor. Also, happy new year - and hope you'll enjoy this piece.
It has been two years to a day.
Sesshomaru finds himself in the middle of a field of sleeping flowers, their little bell heads tucked in for the night. He stands alone, watching, waiting for the ghost of a memory. Who? What? Why am I here?
The wind is strong tonight; it rattles the branches of the shadowy trees and whips Sesshomaru's hair against his back. Sesshomaru raises his head, lifts his nose and quietens his mind. The air is fresh and clean; nothing dangerous slinks in the darkness for miles around. Humans are safe in their beds and animals are asleep, and here he stands, prowling, waiting with wakeful eyes for a glimpse of a woman long departed, a soul long at rest.
It was here, two years ago, that Kagura's very body dissolved into nothingness through the vicious alchemy of Naraku's miasma. The woman, fringe matted and hands clenched, had lain among the flowers, pale and sweating and trembling all over.
Sesshomaru had tried to save her with Tenseiga – and failed. He didn't like to dwell on that even now. And then she had turned into the wind itself, returning not to the dust of her physical form but to the element she had loved – she merged with the wind itself.
Sesshomaru had watched it all, had not allowed himself to grieve, had not erected a burial stone. There had been more pressing matters at that time.
But now he is here. Now he is holding a watching silence, now he is thinking of the life they could have built together if Naraku had not staked his power in cruelty.
At last, there is a change in the air. A dash of pale yellow appears along the far horizon. Dawn is coming; the vigil is over for the year.
Sesshomaru looks around the quiet field, and closes his eyes as the wind again lashes against his face. The wind is majestic and strong here tonight. Just like her.
He leaves - for now.