Nightmare
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.
~oOo~
Kagome thrashed in her sleep, dark dreams chasing her down endless halls. It had been months since Inuyasha's final choice of Kikyou over her, and she was healing, with help from a new suitor.
Sesshoumaru had stepped up a couple of months ago, showing interest in her, and slowly, a connection had been forged, but trust was something she had in short supply after what Inuyasha had done to her, and it was taking time for her to work her way through her issues.
The daiyoukai was understanding, and had been very patient with her on that front, and Kagome was grateful for it. Deep down, though, she couldn't help but fear that, he, too, would dump her for someone else, and she almost waited for it, fatalistically.
Or, if not completely dump her, expect her to be part of a harem of ladies. He was, after all, a Lord, and could have many wives and concubines should he so choose to do so. After all, hadn't their father had Sesshoumaru's mother as well as Inuyasha's?
But Kagome was a modern woman through and through, and she wasn't down with being part of a harem – you stuck with one wife, and one only. And if he couldn't, then that was all there was to it.
And so... here she was, stuck in yet another nightmare. Only this time, it wasn't featuring Inuyasha choosing Kikyou.
This time, to her horror, it was Sesshoumaru killing off Inuyasha and taking Kikyou for himself, because Kikyou was more of a woman than, she, Kagome, would ever be.
She woke up at that, sitting up in her futon, drenched in sweat and with a horrified cry still dying in the corners of the room, and shuddered, realizing in that moment that it wasn't Inuyasha's choice that had hurt the worst...
It was that she felt inferior to Kikyou as a woman.
That was the true nightmare.
She felt like she was an inverted, fading image of something that was once worthy...
And was no longer.
"You expect me to choose her because you think I will see what you do," came his voice out of the dark, and Kagome started, surprised that he was there in her hut with her, sitting against the wall – though she shouldn't have been. He always seemed to know when she needed him. "Only I do not see what you do. I wonder how he could have chosen her over you – because I see it exactly opposite of the way you do – to me, she is the pale copy of you. She is a mere forerunner of the glory of what was to come."
Kagome could think of nothing to say to that, but the warmth that flooded through her soul at his words stayed with her for the rest of her life.
In the end, she chose to live that life by the side of the one who chased those nightmares away, and saved her...
From her own fears.