Hello! Behold another story from myself. Sorry to thoseof you waiting on my other story. I read an Edgar Allan Poe poem and got so inspired I just had to do something about it. Don't worry, my other story will be updated for you all very soon. Promise!

Isanarya

Tears of the Weeping Willow

By Isanarya

Chapter One

Kind solace in the dying hour!

Such, father, is not (now) my theme--

I will not madly deem that power

Of Earth may shrive me of the sin

Unearthly pride that revell'd in--

I have no time to dote or dream:

You call it hope--that fire of fire!

It is but agony of desire:

Tamerlane- Poe

He stood there, watching. Unable to get his treacherous body to turn away, he remained frozen to that spot. Cold golden eyes stared transfixed on the creature before him. A pitiful creature really; its being constantly struggling against the harshness of the world. Pathetic. Yet something about the sight tugged at he conscience he would forever deny having. 'The child is making me soft.'

Before him was a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a large weeping willow. And hidden partially from view by the low swaying branches sat the hunched over figure of a girl, her back to the tree trunk. Her knees were drawn up with her arms and head resting on them. The soft sounds of quiet sobs and the salty smell of her tears invaded his senses. Though he wasn't too keen on paying attention to humans, he would know this particular human anywhere.

As if sensing his presence, her head shot up and her eyes scanned the area around her. Slowly he walked over to the tree till he stood just outside its branches. Using his hand he parted them and stepped into the shelter the tree provided. A soft gasp came from the girl as she realized who was standing before her. Her wide expressive blue-grey eyes taking in the silent form of the deadly demon. "Sesshoumaru."

The taiyoukai raised an eyebrow. 'She never did add the title my status calls for.'

"Are you here to kill me?"

Again the eyebrow went up. He couldn't help but be a bit astonished at how direct she was. But then, she certainly wasn't like any other human he'd been unfortunate enough to come across. From her indecent attire, strange mannerisms, even the way she spoke, this human was unlike any he'd ever known. Was he there to kill her? He didn't recall going into the clearing with that purpose in mind. But then, it wasn't like he hadn't attempted to eliminate the human in front of him before. Yet he couldn't bring himself to desire her death at this moment in time. The reason for this eluded him.

"Not tonight."

Silence filled the clearing. Neither really knew what to say to the other, or if anything should be said at all. Both parties merely looked at each other. One with a mixture of nervousness, sadness, and curiosity. The other with an unreadable expression on his face. When the silence finally was broken, it caused surprise to be felt by all.

"Why do you cry?"

"Why do I cry?"

The tall taiyoukai only nodded and the girl seemed to ponder this for a moment before finally answering. "I cry because I'm sad. And I'm sad because…because someone makes me sad. Someone I care for very deeply doesn't seem to notice or care and it hurts."

He watched her as she spoke those words and noticed how her eyes seemed to darken a bit and heard her shuddering breaths. He had observed her traveling group enough to know whom she was speaking of. One of the few things the taiyoukai could respect was loyalty, being the dog demon that he was, yet he still couldn't understand this human girl's loyalty to his half-breed brother. Something else about her that set her apart from other humans. His curiosity had set in and once that happened would never leave him alone till the mystery was figured out. Damn it he shouldn't care about such things! Yet his mouth was moving before his brain could stop it.

"Does this sadness come to you often?"

For her part, the girl was taking his line of questions rather well, but he could see the wariness and surprise in her eyes as she regarded him. "Yes, it does. That's why I often come here to be alone. The sound of the wind blowing the willow branches sooths me. I-I find I can think better here, by myself." The girl looked down to avoid his cold golden stare and drew patterns in the grass beside her. "Why…why are you here, Sesshoumaru? Why do you…"

"You shouldn't waste your tears on that hanyou."

"How…"

Again the taiyoukai interrupted the girl. "You should save them for something important. Something worth it." Slowly the youkai lord turned and left the shelter of the willow tree, leaving a very confused girl behind him. Before he left the clearing, his sensitive ears picked up some whispered words on the gentle breeze.

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama."

He paused, to acknowledge the words before he took off on the direction of his home where Rin and Jaken would undoubtedly be waiting for his return.

Several days passed with Kagome feeling strangely more at peace than she had in a long time. Inuyasha's betrayal seemed to hurt less and less as time went on. Though she had always known deep in her heart that Inuyasha could never truly love her, hearing it from his own lips had brought on a pain she had never felt before. So she ran. She ran until her legs couldn't take it anymore and had collapsed at the base of her favorite willow tree. The clearing had been her sanctuary during the many times Inuyasha had chipped away pieces of her heart. Yet on the night the hanyou had finally succeeded in breaking it completely, someone else had come into the clearing.

The last person on Earth she could have ever wished to see, besides Inuyasha at that point, had seemed to appear out of no where. And instead of killing her like she had expected, he talked to her. Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands, the most feared and dangerous of all youkai had actually had a conversation with her! Well, a conversation as far as he was concerned. To most people, his one sentence statements couldn't be considered an actual conversation. But she couldn't expect more than that from him and was surprised at how much he actually did say to her. It was certainly more than the usual killing phrases she had heard from him over the last two years. Yet it was not only that he was actually talking to her, it was what he was saying. It was almost like he was trying to console her.

Kagome almost started laughing aloud at that thought. Sesshoumaru consoling a human like her? Next she will be hearing about how Naraku has given up his quest for the Shikon Jewel and started cross-stitching. No, whatever his reasons were, consoling her definitely wasn't one of them. Not that it really mattered. The final words he spoke to her did just that and she had really meant it when she whispered thank you to the breeze, hoping he might catch it. And he did, or at least Kagome thought that was what the pause in his step meant.

Sighing once again at the strangeness in her life, Kagome shouldered her pack and continued following the rest of the group for their return to Kaede's village. Once there, Kagome made the excuse of needing a quiet place to study and took off in search of her secret clearing. She had never told anyone else in the group about where she went when she needed to be alone. But she assured them it was close enough that Inuyasha could hear her should she be in danger and they were all fairly confident in her raising miko abilities that she could protect herself from just about any youkai until the others could help her. Although she hated the fact the others considered her weak, she just shrugged their ideas off and let them continue with their misconceptions.

Upon reaching the clearing, Kagome automatically felt the peace of the area seep into her being. The weight of the world that had settled heavily on her shoulders before quickly left in search of a more receptive host. Kagome quickly walked over to her willow tree and settled against its trunk under the swaying branches. The sun had not yet set so Kagome still had some light by which to study. Searching through the pack next to her, Kagome soon came up with the book she needed. Her assignment was to read a novel and do an in-depth report on one of the characters of the book. The final draft of the report wasn't due for six weeks, but Kagome knew that she needed all the time she could get to get this report done. She looked at the title of her book, The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. The reports had to be done on suspense novels. Kagome had seen the American movie "The Silence of the Lambs" and knew anything with Hannibal Lecter was bound to be full of suspense. Besides, she faced real demons here in the feudal era everyday. Whatever human monster in the book she came across, she figured she could handle it. So opening her Japanese copy of the book, Kagome soon became engrossed in the words on the pages and disregarded the world around her.

What was he doing here? Why had he had the unexplainable urge to take a walk by himself, in this direction, to this place? Of all the places he could have, should have gone, he ended up here. And he wasn't alone. Again that one human was there. Again she was under that tree. Again she wasn't aware of his presence. 'How in the world had she survived this long?' He was angry. Angry that he was here again. Angry that she was here again. Angry that she seemed to be able to ignore him. 'This will not be allowed to continue.'

In the blink of an eye Sesshoumaru was under the willow's branches with the unsuspecting girl. She appeared to be reading a scroll unlike any he had ever seen before. 'I didn't know this human could read. Apparently she is educated. Interesting.'

It didn't take long after his arrival under the branches that the girl felt his presence. He noticed the instant stiffening of her frame and heard the sharp intake of her breath. Sesshoumaru watched as she slowly lowered her reading scroll and lifted her head to meet his gaze. Watched as her unique eyes widened as they recognized the form before them and waited for the fear to enter them. And waited. Emotions did leap from those expressive eyes of hers but fear wasn't one of them, or at least it wasn't the strongest of them. It was there, but buried beneath the surprise, confusion and curiosity. 'Strange human.' Sesshoumaru thought to himself not for the first time.

"Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here?" The creature in front of him asked. And if he hadn't been listening for it, Sesshoumaru wouldn't have heard the slight tremble in her voice.

'She is trying to pretend she is brave.' He thought to himself and to his surprise, found he was amused by meager attempts.

"This Sesshoumaru does not explain himself to anyone, least of all a human."

Delicate eyebrows drew together as if the girl were contemplating what he had said. Upon reaching some sort of conclusion within her mind, the girl shrugged her shoulders dismissively and muttered an O.K. before returning her attention to her reading scroll.

"Do you dare presume to ignore this Sesshoumaru?" He growled, angry at this mere slip of a human girl for such blatant disrespect of his person. Angry at himself for caring and for displaying it.

"If such a thing were truly possible I would have sprouted wings and saved my feet a world of hurt a long time ago."

With great reluctance, Sesshoumaru felt his anger slip away and amusement take its place. Surely this was the most outlandish creature he had ever come across. Not even high ranking youkai dared answer him with such sarcasm. This human was either very brave or very stupid. And because of her attachment to his hanyou brother, he was inclined to think it a bit of both.

"What are you doing here, human?" Sesshoumaru decided to mirror her question from earlier.

Again she raised her head to look up at him. "I came here to get away and be by myself."

"You are not sad this time."

It was a statement, not a question and for some reason it made the girl smile.

"No, I'm not sad this time. I decided to take someone's advice regarding that."

It was his turn to contemplate her words as Sesshoumaru studied the human before him. So different from anyone, human or youkai, that he had ever met. Sesshoumaru wasn't a creature of many emotions, yet when he felt something, he felt it very strongly though he always managed to hide it quite well. At the moment he felt curiosity coursing through him. A curiosity about the young human before him that he couldn't ignore no matter how much the knowledge of it displeased him.

"You are educated. What is that scroll you are reading before you?"

Those delicate eyebrows of hers rose up as she gestured with the object in her hand. "This? Oh, well it's a book actually. And I have to read it for, um, well my sensei back where I come from told me to."

"Go on." Sesshoumaru nodded for her to continue.

"It's called The Red Dragon."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at this. He knew she was a miko, albeit a clumsy unorthodox one. Perhaps this was a book of prayers and incantations. He told her thus.

She laughed, and the sound of it shocked him to the core.

"As much as I would probably need such a book, this particular one is simply about a story or a tale if you will. I came out here so I could read it in peace."

"This place you come from, is it common for humans to be educated?"

"Oh yes, in fact, it is mandatory."

Sesshoumaru stood there pondering over her answer. Mandatory education for humans? Well, he can't deny they don't need it, but surely they are only given a very basic sort of education. They couldn't possibly posses the higher thinking needed for understanding things like philosophy and mathematics.

"This book, you say its purpose is simply that of telling a story. Then humans where you come from read only for entertainment purposes. These books used for nothing more than recording stories." Sesshoumaru stated, clearly seeing the logic in this assumption.

Then he noticed the look of surprise and confusion on the girl and watched with amusement and curiosity as her eyes flashed with anger. 'Interesting.'

Kagome couldn't believe it. Here she was calmly sitting down having a conversation with Sesshoumaru. Strike that. There was nothing calm about the way she was feeling. She had not thought that Sesshoumaru would ever return to her special place and had considered herself lucky for having escaped his wrath the last time. And yet he did return and she was unbelievably, though she was eternally grateful for this, still alive and unharmed. But calm was certainly the last thing she was feeling at the moment.

To say she was shocked when she looked up and discovered him standing before her would be a gross understatement. And for some reason her subconscious was in the mood to tempt death so she had been less than respectful when answering his questions earlier. Her heart had very nearly stopped as she caught the deadly gleam in his golden eyes when she had attempted to ignore him. Why she had behaved like that she would never know, but Kagome hadn't been able to help herself. Hell, she had cheated death so many times; why not see if her luck could continue?

But soon her fear gave way to surprise and curiosity as Sesshoumaru kept firing questions at her. Why the sudden interest in her, Kagome couldn't say. But it certainly made her nervous as she tried skirting around the fact that this distant land she came from was actually in the distant future.

Though she was curious about this interest, his assumption that humans were still too ignorant to know what to do with an education made her angry. 'He's such a snob. Typical youkai, thinking he's so much better than the rest of the world.'

It was the devil on her shoulder that forced her to speak. "How arrogant you are! Believing only youkai like yourself are capable of deep thought. I'll have you know some of the greatest minds of the past few centuries happen to have been human!" As if suddenly realizing what she had done, Kagome quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

'Well Kagome my girl, now you've done it. You've really gone too far this time. Any last words? Perhaps your favorite meal before you go?'

And in her head Kagome could picture the chief warden of some prison passing some miso soup and tempura through the prison bars. Her mother and grandfather would be crying in the background while Hojo comes running with a therapeutic thermal pillow to make her coffin more comfortable. The dear boy really didn't have a clue.

'What the heck Kagome, why not go all out and make it that 12 layer chocolate cake your friend told you about when she returned from a trip to America. Perhaps Sesshoumaru can hold off killing me until I at least get to try it. I might even save him the trouble by dying of a heart attack from the first bite.'

A small smile spread across her face as she pictured what Sesshoumaru's reaction would be if she had asked her small request. Death by chocolate, what a way to go.

Perhaps this human girl truly had lost her mind. What else could account for her unbelievable behavior? To lose her temper with him was one thing, and though she quickly realized her grievous mistake, the fact that she now seemed to be smiling about it threw him off balance. Does she have a death wish?

But that didn't seem quite right as she exuded the aura of one who relishes it. In some ways she seemed like an older version of Rin. Or Rin was a younger version of her. But Rin wasn't as scatter brained as this human seemed to be. Sesshoumaru could tell the one before him was lost somewhere in her own thoughts. Ignoring him again. It could not be allowed to go on.

"Your own actions do nothing to prove your point, human."

He waited while she came out of her thoughts and returned to the world at large. Again he watched as anger entered those unusual eyes of hers and despite himself he was amused. Prideful little thing, wasn't she?

Though his first thought had been to kill her for her impertinence, he was glad now that he didn't. There was much amusement to be had from watching her.

Wanting to see how far she would go when provoked, Sesshoumaru set a challenge. "I have seen nothing these past centuries that could convince this Sesshoumaru that humans possess minds capable of deeper thought. Perhaps you wish to prove me wrong?"

Were it physically possible, Kagome's jaw would have unhinged and fallen to the forest floor. If Kagome didn't know any better, she would have sworn Sesshoumaru was baiting her. But, Sesshoumaru wouldn't do something like that, would he? No way. Then again, she had to be sure.

"Excuse me? Um, I don't think I heard you right…"

"So humans are hard of hearing as well as dim witted. This Sesshoumaru is not surprised."

Had it been Inuyasha that had said that, Kagome would have thrown her book at him. But as it was the one and only Sesshoumaru, Kagome could only sit there and steam. As well at promise herself the early death her mother had predicted since she first started this journey.

"What gives you the right to put others down the way you do? For one who claims to hate humans as much as you do, you sure are ignorant about us." Kagome had set her book down and stood up from the ground, marching over to where Sesshoumaru stood. "Ever heard of the saying 'Know Thy Enemy'? Oh I'll prove you wrong!" Quickly, Kagome spun around, grabbed her belongings and turned back to face him. "If you think you can handle it, meet me back here tomorrow night and I will have the proof you need."

And with one last huff she stormed off, counting each heartbeat as she waited for a clawed hand to slice through her stomach. She was back in Kaede's hut when she started to breathe a bit easier. Everyone turned to look at her and wondered about her labored breathing and flushed face.

"It's nothing. I just thought I would hurry back here before it got dark. Didn't want you guys worrying about me, you know."

At Kagome's reassurances, the group just shrugged their shoulders and continued eating the stew Kaede had prepared for them. Kagome helped herself to one and sat in a corner to be alone with her thoughts.

'You, Kagome dear, are one very stupid girl. And very lucky. Now all you have to do is convince him not to kill you. Yep, that twelve layer cake sounds pretty good right about now.'

Well? Tell me what you think so far! I really and truly must know!