It was getting colder here. The wind was tossing my overly long, white-purple hair around so much that it was getting annoying. As I was about to tie it back, I felt a sudden presence behind me. I whipped around, but no one was there.
"Great, now I'm freaking myself out. Why did Kagome have to leave again? Now I was alone! I should have just stayed in the modern world if I was going to be alone again…" I thought out loud as I kept moving. I crossed my arms over my chest so I could feel just a little bit safer, and warmer considering the intense breeze.
"You shouldn't be wandering out here by yourself, you know. I'm really not that scary." A sudden voice said from behind. I jumped about one hundred feet in the air and hid behind a tree. "Hey! Relax, Akira! It's just me, Inuyasha…sorry jeeze." He said while closing his eyes and putting his hand behind his head. I crawled out from behind the tree with narrowed eyes.
"Maybe you shouldn't sneak up on people like that! You just gave me a heart attack! I could have dropped dead right there! I oughta—
"Will you just shut it? I said I was sorry!" he threw his arms up in defense and I just tightened my mouth. "I asked you a question, yanno. What are you out here by yourself anyway?" he asked while putting his finger in his ear.
"I don't know you know I never stick around when Kagome isn't around. I just go off and do my own thing." I said while kicking a twig out of the way.
"I just heard you say that you didn't want to be alone! So don't even play that card." He said.
"Well maybe I don't, but I don't like being around you alone; I barely know you! The only reason I'm here is because I went in after Kagome when she fell down that stupid well." I said.
"Hello, what do we have here?" a sudden voice said from the forest. A man stepped out from the trees with a young girl on his heels. He looked incredibly similar to Inuyasha, just with a half moon engraved onto his forehead and with two red markings under each of his eyes. His eyes seemed empty of any emotion aside from a slight distaste when he looked at me. I leaned up and whispered into Inuyasha's ear:
"Who is that?" I pointed at him while Inuyasha just hardened his glare.
"That's my half brother, Sesshoumaru. We don't exactly get along just because he's jealous that I wield the blade, Tessaiga. He's pretty cocky and he hates humans, so don't get too close." He said as he took a step forward.
"Are you not happy to see me, brother?" Sesshoumaru asked as he walked forward leaving the little girl behind. She looked to be no more than 8.
"Am I ever happy to see you?" Inuyasha responded with a sly grin.
"I could imagine not. However, I need your assistance for the time being. I'm tracking down Naraku once again because he managed to escape. I want him dead more than anything. I need you to house Rin and I for the time being while we think of a plan." He said with no emotion at all. How could someone have zero emotion whatsoever?
"I guess I could comply…but you have to swear something to me." Inuyasha said while snarling.
"What?" Sesshoumaru said.
"Don't even think about touching my human friends Kagome and Akira. This here is Akira, and she's better than what you make her out to be." He said with pride. Wow nice one, Inuyasha, now he's sure to kill me.
"I wouldn't even dream of it." Sesshoumaru stated while the little girl, who I gathered to be Rin, walked up to him. Inuyasha turned back to me and signaled for me to follow.
"We had major differences in the past, even despised each other. He hated me almost as much as he hates Naraku. We kind of had a silent agreement and as you can see, we can talk to each other at least." Inuyasha said as we walked on.
"Well, do you have any idea where we're staying? You and I don't even have a location! Where are we going to hide him and his little friend?" I asked while taking a quick glance behind me. Big mistake. I made awkward eye contact with Sesshoumaru and I immediately started to blush. I couldn't stand being around people I didn't know, it made me so nervous!
"Quit worrying all the time will you? Where do you think Kagome went? She went to find us somewhere to make camp for a while because I got tired of hearing her complain that her feet hurt." He said while putting his hands behind his head and whistling. The four of us continued on in silence until dusk began to fall. I had no problem walking through the forest in the dark, but I had a bad feeling about our youngest visitor. When I was about to bring this up to Inuyasha, a demon leapt from a tree in the woods and was headed straight for Rin! It didn't seem that anyone else had notice so I whipped around and stabbed it in the head before it could touch her.
"Are you actually human, girl?" Sesshoumaru asked me. I whirled around and he was standing right behind me so I slammed my face into his chest and fell backwards. "Nevermind, that was answer enough." He said before reluctantly lending me a hand to stand. I took it and he helped me up.
"I'm absolutely a human. I can fend off the small fries, but I'm no grand master or anything." I said while nervously twittling my thumbs.
"I see." Was all he said before walking away.
"Well you're a step ahead of Kagome." Inuyasha said as he came up behind me while suppressing a laugh.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"He actually helped you up. She got taken out by a tree branch once and went flying into the dirt and all he did was stare down at her with disgust. She wasn't a happy camper." He said while laughing. I shrugged. I guess I was something special.
By this point it was pitch black out and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru didn't seem to have trouble though, their eyes adjusted to the dark better than mine and Rin's. I had dropped back behind Inuyasha to walk beside Rin and had gotten to know her a little better. Hearing a bit of her story showed that it was possible for Sesshoumaru to have a kind heart. We approached a clearing in the trees and saw a small cabin with the lights on.
"HA. I knew I would find it! She told me it was here and I FOUND it!" Inuyasha exclaimed. We all exchanged nervous glances and before we could move another step we heard the wolves. They were howling to each other and the moon was almost full.
"I love that sound." I said absent mindedly before I heard a little squeal. I opened my eyes and saw Rin run and hide behind Sesshoumaru. I gave him a quizzical look.
"She had an extremely complicated past. Wolves did nothing good for her." And he left it at that. I shrugged and walked up over to Inuyasha who was pounding impatiently on the door. An infuriated Kagome answered it with rage.
"WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF? I was clearly coming to answer the door!" she yelled in his face. He just put his entire palm over her face and pushed her inside and slammed the door in all of our faces. After hearing feet stomping, shouting, and something breaking; the door opened once again.
"Alright everything's cool. Come in." Inuyasha said. My light purple eyes were wide and Rin looked like she was about to crap herself. We all pushed through the door and Kagome jumped on me.
"I didn't think you were out there, Akira! It's so good to see you!" she said. I just smiled at her and nodded. I was still feeling pretty nervous around the other two, Rin not as much as Sesshoumaru though. Every time I looked at him I felt my face turn about twenty different colors and my stomach fall through my butt. He was different than anyone else; as cold as he appeared, he was much more pleasant to be around than someone like Inuyasha. Don't get me wrong, he was my friend and all, but he was always so loud and obnoxious.
"HELLO? EARTH TO AKIRA!" Inuyasha yelled in my face as he waved his hand past my eyes. See what I'm saying?
"Yeah, what?" I said calmly as I pushed his face away from mine.
"You're spacing out and your face is all pink. Are you sick?" Kagome asked while putting her palm to my forehead.
"No, I feel fine I was just thinking." I said as I let my hair fall in front of my eyes. I peeked through to see Sesshoumaru staring at me with something in his eyes. I couldn't tell but it looked more like curiosity than anything else.
Kagome set out whatever food she had prepared and I sat between her and Inuyasha while Rin sat next to Sesshoumaru on the other side of the table.
"Where'd you find this place anyway?" Inuyasha said as he slurped a noodle into his mouth.
"I was walking through the woods and it was just here, idiot." Kagome responded. Sesshoumaru, Rin, and I just sat there in silence trying not to get in the middle…too bad that's where I was sitting.
"Yeah, well I didn't expect you to see anything that's more than two feet in front of you." Inuyasha stated.
"I wasn't expecting you to be so daft as to not figure out that we're in the woods and that's where I found this place." Kagome retorted.
"Well you picked a crap shack. There's not enough space for everyone."
"I wasn't expecting more company, Inuyasha."
"Well they're here so what do you plan to do, Kagome?" He said curtly. I slammed my hands on the table and stood up.
"How about the both of you learn to do this somewhere else and not in front of the rest of us? I'm not really hungry; I'm going for a walk." I said before storming out the front door. Even as I was walking away I heard the two of them blaming each other for me leaving. They should just stop pretending and get together already.
I walked out the front door with my hands in my pockets. Once again, the wind was blowing my long hair around my face. I turned to tie it back again and someone grabbed my wrist. I let out a sudden gasp and saw Sesshoumaru behind me. My light purple eyes were wild and he just stared at me emotionless.
"You shouldn't be out here by yourself." He said coolly.
"Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here?" I said as I felt the pink returning to my cheeks. Thank goodness he couldn't see it in the dark.
"You're no grand master. You are a human. You should not be out here this late at night." He said. Just as the words left his mouth, the largest demon I had ever seen jumped out from the trees. It raised its claw and swatted me right from Sesshoumaru's grip. I flew into a tree and lay there with blood dripping from my mouth. I gazed up and saw Sesshoumaru unsheathe his sword and lunge for the demon, slicing it in two. I vaguely heard the footsteps of someone slowly approaching.
"Like I said, you shouldn't be out here this late at night." Sesshoumaru's voice rang through my head like one hundred silver bells as he lifted me off of the ground and carried me back into the cabin. I felt the light from the doorway hit my face and I cringed.
"WHAAA—Sesshoumaru what the hell did you do to her? I told you not to touch her!" Inuyasha yelled angrily while running toward us.
"It wasn't me who did this to her. A demon leapt from the trees and attacked when I was off guard." Sesshoumaru replied. "Excuse me, but I need to tend to her wounds." He carried me from the kitchen into one of the back rooms.
"You…don't need…to do this…Sesshoumaru." I said weakly between coughs.
"It was my fault. I will tend to your wounds." He said as he laid a wet cloth over my head. After a minute or so I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I didn't try to fight it, and the last thing I saw were Sesshoumaru's golden eyes staring down into my own.
"NYAA Akira-san!" I awoke to someone leaping on the bed and staring at me. When my eyes adjusted I realized it was Kagome.
"Morning." I said weakly.
"How are you feeling?" she asked as she helped me sit up.
"Better after Sesshoumaru-san helped me. I would have been killed if he didn't show up when he did. I must thank him." I said. She looked at me with remorse.
"I'm sorry, Akira he left this morning with Rin. He said something about having overstayed his welcome and something coming over him." She said. I shot up out of bed when she said that and bolted from the room. I looked around the forest and saw nothing. My heart sank. When he was the one to come after me last night my heart felt as though it would explode. I never thought I would feel that way about anyone, and now he was gone.
"Did I…love you?" I asked myself as I put my face in my hands and sank to the ground. My hair flowed over my shoulders and I felt someone pull it back out of my face and touch my shoulder. I raised my head up and saw Sesshoumaru staring down at me with his hand extended. I took it once again and nodded in appreciation. How was he here?
"How are you here?" I asked him with a shaky voice.
"I didn't actually want to go, I needed to see if you were alive or if I had failed the way I failed Rin that one time." He said while looking at his feet. Was he…nervous?
"Oh, well I'm fine thanks to you. I would have died if you didn't show up when you did." I said while blushing. He touched my stomach where I was wounded and without thinking I grabbed his hand. He flinched a little at first but his grip tightened into mine.
"You humans are so amusing." He said before pulling me closer. "I met you yesterday and I already feel a connection. This is so strange to me. I don't know what this feeling could possibly be." He said as he continued pulling me closer.
"I know what you mean all too well." I whispered when he bent down to my height. He lifted his free hand and put it to my chin. He was glaring into my eyes, but not an angry glare- a curious glare.
"Your eyes speak to me. They tell me stories." He said before bringing my face even closer to his. I was blushing madly now and it even looked like he was too. Emotion? This couldn't be possible!
"Your eyes intimidate me, but at the same time they draw me in." I said in an even lower whisper than before. He cracked a small smile for a short instance before closing the gap between us. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough to leave me speechless.
"The stories they told said that was what you wanted." He said before standing at his full height once more. I was star struck and shocked. I stared at him with widened eyes and he looked as if he were about to start laughing. I regained my composure and said:
"Your eyes told me a story just then, also. They said that was what you wanted as well." I responded with a sly grin. He immediately began to blush and looked away. I bowed down to him. "I understand I may have heard them wrong- tell Rin my good-byes." I said before walking away. He reached out and grabbed my wrist.
"You heard right. I'm confused about this beyond belief but I want you to stick by my side, human. No, I want you to stick by my side always, Akira." Sesshoumaru said before smiling for a split second.
"I will go with you on your journeys if you promise me one thing." I said. Man I was feeling awfully bold today.
"Yes?"
"Love me just as strong as I love you." I said before wrapping my arms around his waist. He didn't cringe this time, but simply returned the favor.
"I promise."