This is one whopper of a chapter! Hello again and welcome to part 3 of this grand adventure. The path of true lust never did run smooth. heehee!
There's a lot of minor original characters in this part, which is to be expected considering there has to be people wherever the Inuyasha characters go. Minor Characters Rock, especially the random ones with too much information. Watch out though. I like to turn my minor characters into recurring nightmares of the main characters. or rather, I really like to annoy the crud out of my main characters and some of my special minor characters had awesome mad skills in that department so they get more text play than one might expect.
Thanks to all my repeat readers and to all my first time readers. Don't feel bad if you're a little lost. Just know that Aki's awesome, Fred is funny, and everybody else is scenery... I think! WEll excepting some of those characters that aren't mine, you know, the ones that belong to Rumiko Takahashi!
Ghostly Forgiveness
Aki kept running despite the acid burn in her lungs. Her muscles screamed for rest but she couldn't stop. If she ran fast enough, far enough, he wouldn't catch up. She had to believe that, there was nothing else she could do.
Her stomach protested its long emptied state loudly. She hadn't eaten in days, not even when her appetite had made one of its rare appearances to tug at her attention. She didn't have time for the frivolity of food when speed was the only thing keeping her from the evil chasing at her heels.
And what was this terror that drove her along before it? If you looked behind her far enough would you see it? Probably not, though it was there. Most people if faced with him wouldn't see him either, but she had seen him and that was enough. He showed his face to her infrequently, though his touch was too often apparent.
It was that painted detachment that hounded her. Every moment that she spent lost in the fields of her dreams was a moment that he would use to torture and fight her. So she avoided sleep.
But one couldn't remain awake forever. The need for rest would drive her into collapse and she would be trapped once more in the domain where he was at his most powerful. Her only hope was that he would be like Fred and would require at least a small amount of time to catch up with her across certain distances. Even with the ghosts ability to just "poof" himself places if the distance was great it took time to travel it.
So Aki ran as far and as fast as she could before she collapsed and prayed she would be able to wake before the detachment caught up with her. Unfortunately this left her without the companionship of her dead friend, so she was completely alone.
She tried to remember a time when she hadn't labored under the fear of her dream invader. Then she abandoned the recollection when it brought to mind the inu youkai she had willingly left behind. Strangely she had been able to sleep without disturbance in his company. But she refused to go back to spending time with the demon that was most likely very upset with her, she would keep her promises and continue to follow through with her decision to avoid him in the future. It was for his own good, even if she suffered because of it.
Aki paused to catch her breath as her legs shook with weakness. Her breath rasped dryly in her throat as she tried to ease the stitch in her side absently.
Whatever Sesshoumaru had done after her fall over the cliff had left her with a new understanding of her powers. They'd spent days, Sesshoumaru and herself, resting and awaking at strange intervals. According to Tama, He would always wake up just after she'd doze off. Fred had told her Sesshoumaru was always upset to have missed her with her eyes open.
She'd left as soon as she'd been able to, and without saying goodbye to Sesshoumaru.
At first Fred had been all for Aki leaving; then he'd discovered her new stalker. Everyone had pretty much forgotten about the painted detachment in the worry over more immediate problems. Now she seldom saw the ghost, he couldn't keep up with her.
Aki began to move again, sending her senses out to detect the life around her. She hadn't realized before staying with Sesshoumaru that what she could sense was the energy of life rather than the scent of it. She could more accurately determine what lay ahead because of it.
A lot of things had been different after what Sesshoumaru had done. Right after she'd left his estate, Aki had felt stronger than she should be. After she realized it was due to him pouring energy and power into her she did her best to block it using what he'd taught her. Every other change was small and reminded her of the inu youkai, so she ignored it.
Abruptly she stopped her forward motion as she sensed something strange. Not far ahead and to the east of her there was a village. Aki could instinctively tell the difference between human and youkai energy, and she could also accurately judge the age of a human from their energy. And from her sense of the energy, this village was being massacred. What horrified her all the more was the number of children that were being slaughtered.
Something inside her snapped at the death of the children. Aki could not standby and allow so many lives to be cut so short and not bring down some kind of punishment on the head of the one responsible. Her very soul, buried and half dead as it was, would not stand for it!
Before true thought could form in her head, Aki was heading towards the site of so much carnage faster than she had fled from the monster in her nightmares. She was so fast she managed to get there just in time to watch Naraku finish off the last villager.
Naraku reveled in the bloodshed of his own making. He rarely gave himself the opportunity to cause mass destruction these days, but when he'd demanded the townspeople hand over the shard he was looking for he simply couldn't resist. After all, they had stupidly denied him; they obviously deserved it.
And now he was apparently gifted with his prize arriving early. Naraku wasn't against absorbing Aki without bothering to follow the rules. Not that absorbing her before finding her name was stipulated in the rules of their contest; it wasn't. He knew that she was exhausted from his detachment constantly goading her into fleeing before him. She hadn't eaten or rested properly in weeks. Hopefully she was weak enough that he could pull off absorbing her right now.
Aki's eyes bled green at the sight before her. Blood was everywhere and she was pretty sure these people hadn't deserved to die like this. Her talons lengthened with her rage, her tail lashed the air behind her and she growled at him incapable of coherent speech.
Naraku could feel her youki pouring off her several meters away when she let it loose to swirl around her violently, damaging some of the closest huts in the process. He smirked at her before Musou called his appreciation for her beauty from the corner he'd been relegated to, some days the reabsorbed detachment was entirely too vocal to be ignored.
"Na-ra-ku!" Aki growled his name. Her voice had become impossibly deep with her anger. She charged at him without further warning.
Naraku answered her move with one of his own and soon they were both crashing through the village. Aki using speed to increase the power behind her blows while Naraku utilized cunning. At one point they both wound up tangled together in such a way that caused them to fall on the ground.
Naraku found himself hovering lengthwise over her body. Suddenly Musou's appreciation clamored through his head and his attention was drawn to notice just exactly what the bastard might be talking about. Lust flared through his body as he took the time to realize that he was hovering over a powerful female worth looking at.
The moment of unified understanding was short lived. Aki reached up and grabbed his shoulder as she let out a fierce kick that caught him in the groin and sent him flying end over end away from her.
They both scrambled to their feet to face off with each other. Naraku narrowed his eyes at her and Aki let loose a growl. He took stock of the damage that had been dealt to the both of them and realized that she would still win at this rate because she could ignore her pain and exhaustion better than he could. Time to regroup. He turned and fled from the village.
Aki let out an inhuman cry of outrage and followed him. She didn't even realize that she had won their contest. Naraku had evinced a feeling of lust and right before he left there was a flicker of fear. But she didn't care. This wasn't about that.
This fight had been about the villagers and the children he had massacred without reason. Some instinct told her that such a crime against children could not go unpunished.
Naraku's quick retreat took him directly between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. The two brothers were fighting again, with all the weapons and name-calling required for any loving family altercation. In other words, they were deliberately trying to kill each other. Feel the Love.
Normally, Naraku would be cursing his luck right about now, but for one thing. He'd ordered Kagura to keep watch on this rather troublesome group. Thus he had a manner of escaping both the inu brothers and Aki.
By the time Naraku had taken off on Kagura's feather Aki had landed in the clearing just as the two siblings released their attacks. How is it that she always manages to get caught between the two?
"NARAKU!" Aki screamed at his fleeing back as the smoke began to clear. Somehow she had managed to remain unscathed. Her blood still ran hot with anger and she would've continued to pursue the fleeing hanyou except Rin got in the way. More to the point Aki nearly ran the little girl over as she ran to hug her "nice lady".
Rin had been the only one to receive a goodbye from Aki when she left. It had hurt very much to see the former English tutor go. Rin had been even more upset when she found out that her beloved Sesshoumaru-sama had not also received a farewell.
When Aki realized that she couldn't avoid a collision with the child she pulled the girl against her and twisted so that the partial youkai landed on the bottom to save the girl from harm. The impact stunned her a moment as she saw stars. Aki quietly removed Rin's arms from her waist and quietly pushed the child off her.
Aki regained her feet only to be swept up by the very demon she wanted to avoid. Ah, Sesshoumaru. Why couldn't fate keep this guy away from her? Thankfully she wasn't so in danger of caring about him as she had been. Truly eavesdropping can be very helpful when you need to hear something hurtful to nip congenial feelings in the bud.
Sesshoumaru crushed her tightly to his chest and nuzzled her neck, trying to convince himself that she wasn't some hallucination cooked up by his loneliness.
Aki brushed him off. She didn't want him to hold her still. Her blood still raged for activity. Besides, comforting Sesshoumaru was too much like breaking her promise. So without further explanation or even a single word from her, Aki turned and stalked back the way she had come.
Sesshoumaru took a few minutes to go from confusedly hurt to angry and lesser feelings of curiosity. He was angry that she'd brushed him off. She was his mate. And she'd left without saying anything. He was curious as to what had happened to make her call upon the changes that were so painful and despised. He knew she hated looking like a demon and yet she'd shown up out of nowhere looking just like one. And wounded.
Wounded? Sesshoumaru took off after her prepared to heal and comfort his mate and to demand an explanation for her previous disappearance.
The rest followed after him in curiosity and a desire to "help" Sesshoumaru and his delinquent mate sort out their problems.
It didn't take them long to reach the ruined village, the smell of death having long since reached them. The first sight of the carnage had Kagome turning a little green around the edges.
Aki ignored them and kept walking into the village while Inuyasha and company stayed on the fringes. She did not care what they did so long as they didn't get in the way of her task.
Only Sesshoumaru followed her through the wrecked bodies that were strewn everywhere. He could see what had happened here and he looked to Aki as she approached the epicenter of the carnage. She'd been too late to save them.
Sesshoumaru watched as she ducked into a largish building backed into the solid rock wall to the side of the road. Before he got much closer she emerged carrying a small bundle of bloody rags that she placed on the ground some distance in front of the shrine. She stood back up and reentered the building.
Sesshoumaru moved to inspect the bundle suddenly noticing how the villagers lay in attempted protection of this place and whatever was inside. His mate reemerged and this time it was obvious what she carried. His eyes widened with the sudden realization that both bundles had been the ruined remains of children. Again she set the child to earth, laying it out to rest.
Sesshoumaru decided to help her, thinking that the sooner this was taken care of the sooner he could get her to answer his questions. He moved to take her latest "bundle" from her.
"Don't touch!" she growled at him ferally. Sesshoumaru was taken aback by her behavior. It was quite plain to him that she had meant he was not to touch her. He stepped into the shrine and was astonished by the sheer number of children inside.
Quickly he moved to pick up one of the larger, older children. Sesshoumaru took the child out to the others and returned to help his mate. Through it all Aki made certain he never touched her. He didn't even brush her by accident as he'd begun to hope for.
They finished up just as the sun was beginning to lengthen the shadows. Sesshoumaru was extremely frustrated and tired. Every attempt he'd made to draw her close had come to nothing. He was losing his patience. He wanted to hold her close as mates were meant to do.
He was so intent on his own internal strife he nearly missed Aki pull out the knife she'd found inside the shrine. She stood looking out at all the bodies of children and instinctively knew what to do. Aki drew the sharp blade across the skin of her arm. As the blood welled she allowed it to spill onto the ground scorching it.
"Aki what are you doing!" Sango cried, drawing attention to the blood dripping on the soil.
The bleeding female ignored all the commotion, preferring instead to focus on the circle she was marking out in blood around the bodies they had removed from the shrine. Everyone was too worried about the blood to notice Aki mumbling words with each step she took. When she finished walking her circuit she shouted an intelligible word and the ground moved disconcertingly in the circle. When the dust settled and all movement stopped, the bodies were properly buried under individual mounds and Aki was collapsed in a sitting position facing the center.
Aki refused to move from that spot. Kagome was forced to tend the former English tutor's wounds right there.
Inuyasha tried to coax her into moving away to eat something, Rin and Shippou tried to get her interested in their play, Sesshoumaru attempted to pull her away so she could rest, but Aki wouldn't budge. Neither would she talk with Miroku and Sango. She couldn't be conduced into looking away from the circle of dead that she kept vigil over, which everyone thought was rather strange considering she didn't know any of the deceased.
Eventually they gave up trying to get Aki to move and decided to simply clean up a place for them to stay nearby. The shrine building was declared in the best shape. (Mainly it was the size of the building that was the deciding factor. It was much easier just to clean out one building for them all to share than several to house them as Sesshoumaru's party wasn't leaving and neither was Inuyasha's group.) It was also the closest and most defendable building in the village what with being nestled in the crook of a shallow cave limiting the approach somewhat.
They puzzled over Aki's strange behavior while they worked, cooked their meal, and eventually settled down to sleep.
It was past midnight when Sesshoumaru finally gave up trying to sleep. It was all but impossible to sleep without Aki and he'd been suffering for it since she'd deserted their mating contract. In truth, this wasn't uncommon, this inability to sleep without the other half of a mating contract. The bindings were subtle and hardly noticeable so long as the two were together, but separate, it could be rather more than slightly annoying. His sleep would've been uneasy and pretty elusive without the added worry of just what Aki thought she was doing holding vigil over a bunch of strange dead children and in bad shape herself as well.
The fact that his situation was as odd as it was made him too wound up to even want to try and fake sleep just to uphold the illusion that he wasn't suffering from Aki's weird behavior. And since he couldn't sleep and couldn't even find any semblance of peace to help him just sit still where he was, he decided to go glare at the cause for his current discomfort.
Aki was easily viewable from the porch jutting off the front of the shrine. It was part of why it was chosen, but then this area was within sight of just about everywhere in the settlement. Her back was to him and she was gazing into the swirling fog developing inside the circle she'd carved into the ground with her blood.
Bits of light seemed to coalesce within the circle and Sesshoumaru rubbed his sleep-deprived eyes, surely he had not seen… He looked again to find the previously empty circle suddenly very full of pale inhabitants. The milky figures inside seemed to be pointedly fixed on his mate. They could not leave the confines of her blood though, he noted with relief, they were not a threat. Now if she were to take it into her head to enter that circle…
Before Sesshoumaru had even finished the thought he was halfway to the circle from the shrine. Aki was weird after all; she might do something like that and have a dementedly logical explanation for it.
Slowly he realized she wasn't moving, wasn't planning on moving. She was just talking to the tallest ghost in the circle with a rather regretful note in her voice. He was so relieved that he almost didn't catch all of the conversation.
"I'm so sorry!" Aki's voice was soft and tired. "I should've come faster. I should've been here to keep you from dieing!" She was making no sense, Sesshoumaru noted with alarm.
"We're lucky you came at all," the ghost of the shrine's priest attempted to soothe her. "You could not have known."
Aki shot to her feet, intending to protest his words and accidentally fell against the circle at the movement. The power of the circle arced over her skin, drawing her wings from wherever she hid them to help balance her.
"Shoko-sama," one of the ghost children gasped at the sight. "It's her! She came! She really came!" the surprised frenzy rippled through the children crowded in the confining circle. Apparently there was more going on here than either Sesshoumaru or Aki knew.
Aki looked inquisitively at the priest for explanation. The ghost priest attempted to cough before realizing he was a ghost and couldn't do it. "The children have all been having the same recurring dream," he tried to explained. "They claim that our patron god comes to them and predicts the coming of a winged stranger. They seem to believe you are the stranger spoken of."
Aki blinked owlishly at him.
"She also told us what the stranger would look like," one of the older boys declared firmly. He looked at Aki outside of the circle. "I'm Sou," he identified himself. "Most of us have been expecting you. You're everything I dreamed you were."
"Stupid Sou!" a slightly younger boy teased him. "Haku," he pointed to himself before he continued. "We all had the same dream excepting Azusa, hers was different."
"Yes, it was. Speaking of her, where is she?" Shoko-sama asked suddenly aware that the little girl was not among the children around him.
"She's right where we left her," Haku declared.
"Probably too afraid to come out," another child giggled instigating the rest of the group joining in and declaring Azusa to be everything from a coward to a flightless bird of little courage.
"Oh, as if none of you would be scared in her place," Haku hollered over the noise. "Azu-chan, you can come out now."
"Azusa-chan, it's safe now," the priest called as well.
Aki heard something behind her and whirled around, causing her shaking, exhausted knees to buckle underneath her. She ignored her abrupt gravity induced meeting with the ground, focusing instead on the sudden movement she'd detected under the porch of the shrine.
"Come on, Azu-chan," Haku cooed soothingly. "Look, she's here. The one from our dreams," he continued coaxingly. "You don't want to miss her do you?"
Aki gasped and Sesshoumaru turned to the side wondering what had caused the reaction. Peeking out from the dark space between the earth and the level of the shrine floor was a fairly dirty and small human hand. He started when he realized there was an entire living body attached to it crawling from that impossibly tiny space. The movement was slow and tired. He turned back to Aki and found her raptly fixed on that small movement.
"Good gracious!" Shoko huffed, "How'd she get under there?"
"I found it a couple days ago," Haku murmured. "We were checking it out when that bad guy showed up." The ghost boy shrugged, "She was already inside when you started ushering us into the shrine."
"What were you doing playing there?" the priest inquired, maintaining his calm demeanor.
"Azu-chan hid something there," Sou replied. "We were trying to retrieve it."
"You were harassing her for it you mean," Haku snorted.
"Shut up!" Sou growled menacingly.
"There you are Azu-chan," Haku stated like he'd been searching for her.
"H-haku?" Azusa asked in a small voice. He just smiled and bobbed his head. Her eyes were riveted to the crowd inside the circle. They were all there, her playmates, even the bullies. Like any child of the feudal age she had a healthy fear of strangers, ghosts, and demons.
Azusa would've bolted, would've dug back into her little hiding place had her eyes not alighted on Aki and her clearly visible wings. Tears sprang into her little eyes as she raced full tilt at the exhausted former English tutor.
"Oh," the girl sobbed as she clung to Aki. Azusa buried her head against the shoulder that presented itself and cried out her fear and anguish.
Aki wrapped her arms around the little girl and held on, despite the fatigued shaking of her limbs. Someone needed her; someone was in pain. Sleep would simply have to wait.
Aki rested a careful kiss on the child's head after the little girl eventually cried herself to sleep.
Haku called to her quietly, "Would you take care of her? She needs somebody and we can't help her," the ghost looked over his friend sadly. "Please make sure she's okay for a while?"
The ex-english tutor, almost full youkai, accidental mate to Sesshoumaru, lord of the Western lands, merely nodded in response. There really hadn't been a need to ask. Aki would've made certain the girl found her way to somewhere safe to live, where she would always be cared for and looked after. And quite probably, somewhere Aki could check in on her often.
"But that's for later concern," the priest declared. "First you should rest." Aki made as if to protest when he cut her off. "One cannot live on air alone, and from the look of you it seems you have been for much too long. You are tired and starved," he looked her over critically. "You're too thin and exhausted. Stay here, rest before moving forward."
"There is no need…" Aki growled as a beginning before Shoko reached out a ghostly finger and touched it to the back of Aki's head where it leaned against the barrier of the circle. She abruptly fell unconscious.
"Sometimes it is bad for your health to be so stubborn," the priest murmured. Shoko raised his piercing eyes to the audience standing beyond the woman and child. Sesshoumaru stood growling angrily at the already dead priest. The children shivered fearfully around him as he addressed the woman's…mate? "She's just asleep," Shoko attempted to placate the demon.
"Baka," a gruff voice sounded from the shrine entrance. "You shouldn't have touched her," Inuyasha was also growling.
"Can we please argue about should've's and Shouldn't've's some other time? Azusa and the winged one are still sitting in damp clothes in the middle of the night!" Haku hissed at them. Adults! Ugh!
Both inu males and the priest started guiltily. The boy did have a point.
Before any of the males could move, Sango and Kagome were out attempting to pry Aki's arms from around the little girl. "Ready, Kagome?" Sango asked, waiting to go into action.
"Ready!" Kagome responded, focusing on her task. "On three. One, two, Threeee!" and with a great flourish of movement and a soft thump as Kagome fell back all of a sudden at the lack of resistance, Aki and Azusa were separated. "Ugh!" Kagome grunted as she moved to stand while holding the little girl.
"Kagome-chan, you got her?" Sango asked quietly from the other side of Aki. She was holding Aki up gently.
"Yep, I got her, I got her," Kagome grumbled. Azusa stirred a little before settling in Kagome's arms.
"Okay then, you get her inside," Sango said needlessly.
"On my way," the sometime miko called back. Well at least she would've been if a certain Hanyou hadn't gotten in the way. "Move, stupid!" she growled at the dog boy in her way.
"Give her here," Inuyasha growled back. "You're gonna drop her!" He moved as if to take the child and Kagome shoved him away with a growl of her own. He was stunned for a moment before his mouth got the better of him. "Feh!" he began arrogantly, "I was only trying to make sure you didn't hurt her because you're so weak." Right after he said it, Inuyasha knew he shouldn't have.
"Inuyasha!" her eyes flamed at him. "Osuwari!" Everyone's favorite hanyou then had an abruptly violent encounter with Earth. They have got to stop meeting like this.
Sango shook her head and looked on as Kagome huffed her way into the extremely large shrine. She then bent to attend to Aki's unconsciously limp form.
Almost immediately after Kagome disappeared Inuyasha began his grumbled conversation with the ground. Unfortunately for him, she was merely out of sight, not deaf. Moreover it would be quite a while longer before Inuyasha could be out of range for everyone's favorite spell. "Osuwari" glued him to the ground for the second time.
"Argh!" Inuyasha yelled before he fell silent, to wait for the spell to rub off. Thus he was quiet enough and definitely present when Sango first noticed the youkai hovering at her elbow. Needless to say, she was thoroughly startled.
"Geez," Sango jumped and placed a free hand over her speeding heart. "Don't DO that! Sesshoumaru really!"
"Are they related or something?" the forgotten Haku asked. "They seriously don't know how to work with girls."
"Hush Haku," Shoko tried to subdue the boy. But the dead have no need for self-preservation.
"I mean really, it's not that hard," Haku continued, full steam ahead. "You cheer them up when they cry, apologize when you're wrong, and keep your mouth shut the rest of the time." He rolled his eyes; it was simple. "I'm eight years old and I know that!"
Both brothers growled at him in annoyance. Sango merely chuckled, "I like it, all it needs are a few amendments it would be a beneficial policy for males of all ages!" the girls in the circle giggled at him. Haku gave off a ghostly blush while Shoko simply sighed.
"Can you please settle before the lady wakes up to all your noise?" Shoko scolded them gently. This was not his day, er night. True darkness was slowly giving way to false dawn and the mists were starting to disperse. "I had a bit more advice to relate and our time is growing short."
It took them a few minutes, but they finally quieted down. Well except for the low grumbles given off by Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. Shoko cleared his throat, and then realized there was no point.
Sango, began to get impatient, Aki was still wearing dew damp clothes and would probably be shivering if her poor body wasn't so exhausted. "Priest I don't mean to be rude, but we're not getting any younger."
"Ah, right!" he seemed to flush a little. "Those two," he began deliberately, "need to stay here for at least a week." And immediately protest erupted from the peanut gallery consisting of Dog boy and rightey.
Sango glared them both into silence, or at least a quiet resembling silence. "Is there a reason for this, Shoko-sama? Is there something wrong with the little girl?"
"No, Azusa's fine. A little Shaken up, a bit hungry and tired, but nothing serious," Shoko quickly reassured Sango. "I merely meant that the young lady there is in desperate need of careful attention. Take a good look at her. She's too thin just for a start. She looks as though she hasn't eaten in weeks!"
"That's because she hasn't eaten in weeks," another voice piped up behind them. The three of them not facing that direction turned to see a very worried looking familiar ghost. "She hasn't stopped long enough to eat.'
Shoko nodded, "which explains much of the rest of her problems that I've observed. She'll need a great deal of care and rest to get back to where her health should be. As she is now, she's too weak to heal even her minor wounds."
Sesshoumaru turned his sharp eyes to his unconscious mate and realized that none of her wounds had closed. She really was in bad shape. A worried growl began deep in his chest, so low even his own ears could barely hear it even as it shook his body with intensity.
"Which is why I'm talking to you," Shoko continued, "You're going to need to make sure she stays at least a week. I'd say more, but by then it would be out of your hands," the dead priest sighed.
"You got that right!" Fred spoke up. "Hell! We'll be lucky if we can keep her here the entire week as it is!" Fred grumbled. "Anyway, lets wrap this up."
"You need to get that lady into some dry clothing, preferably sooner rather than later. Oh, and I suggest you avoid letting anyone other than the girls wake up Azusa. If she were to scream or cry out I doubt very much that you could stop our friend from rushing to her side immediately," the ghost advised.
Sango nodded, not too surprised by the advice. She leaned down and removed the ever-present bottomless seeming shoulder bag from Aki. She draped it across her own should and took a moment to wonder how the hell one could carry such a heavy bag all the time. Dismissing it, Sango knelt to collect the other woman in her arms.
A threatening growl stopped her movement.
Sango glanced over at the growling dog demon and swallowed. She should've seen this coming. Sesshoumaru, as Aki's mate, would want to be the one to tend to her. Unfortunately his being one limb short sort of put a crimp in his abilities to carry Aki without causing further injury. ON top of all that, Sesshoumaru's instincts were so close to the surface right now there was no reasoning with him.
So Inuyasha picked an argument with him. It was a superficial, run-of-the-mill typical Inuyasha/Sesshoumaru argument, nothing particularly stellar, but hopefully distracting enough for Sango to pick Aki up without further hindrance.
It wasn't. Sesshoumaru glared at Sango. "Step away from my mate wench!"
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Kagome cried newly returned from settling Azusa with Shippou and Rin. She'd been curious as to why no one else had come in after her. Now she was simply annoyed. "Really guys are so immature!"
"Butt out!"
"I will not! You're all being stupid!" Kagome huffed. "While you're all happily standing around arguing about stupid stuff, Aki's getting sick!"
Sango bent to pick up Aki under cover of this new distraction and was once again stopped by Sesshoumaru, this time with a clawed hand upon her wrist. She looked up into his golden eyes sympathetically, "You can't carry her as you are without giving her further injury. So unless you want Inuyasha or Miroku to do it, let me help you take care of Aki.'
The dog demon simply yanked her away from his mate. Some rational part of his mind wondered at how close to the surface his instincts were, how strong they'd become.
"And we're back where we started," Sou rolled his eyes as Aki softly fell to the ground. The ghosts looked on as a knockdown, drag-out argument ensued.
In the middle of all this, a pair of tired eyes opened quietly. She stared at the chaos surrounding her wearily. She was tired and cold, with her mind cushioned in the cottony feel of exhausted detachment.
"Aki-sama," a small voice called next to her ear. She turned her head slowly, not really caring if there was someone there or not. "I'm sorry they woke you up," Haku sympathized. "I don't think this argument is going to end until your mate can carry you inside and he can't do that with only one arm."
Aki nodded tiredly, she may not care one way or the other, really, but obviously the inu youkai did. And Sesshoumaru could be insanely stubborn about some things.
"I may be able to remedy that," Haku informed her. "You might have noticed I'm not like the other kids, but I need a link to the outside." He continued quietly, "if you could press your hand against the outside of the barrier, I should be able to fix this."
Aki shifted her hand slowly, finding herself panting from the minor effort. She was obviously more exhausted than she thought. Eventually she managed to press the outside edge of her hand against the circle just above the ground.
Haku brushed his translucent fingers along the contact area. The circle would cause his power to arc. If he aimed it right it would hit the dog demon and no one else. Just a little bit to the left and…there!
Haku's power arced through the air graceful as lightning. And about as gentle. "Argh!" the inu youkai bellowed. The ghost boy quickly broke contact, just because the dog demon couldn't kill him now, didn't mean anything.
"Phoenix," Aki mumbled as she relaxed and closed her eyes. Something told her she'd be seeing Haku again.
"What the hell!" Inuyasha jumped into a fighting stance.
"Sorry, my fault," Haku apologized. "I just thought it better to end the argument now, before Aki gets sick." He explained sheepishly.
"You thought zapping Sesshoumaru would resolve the argument?" Kagome asked incredulously.
Everybody looked dumfounded, except Inuyasha who couldn't help but snicker at his Half brother's misfortune. Sesshoumaru, being thoroughly pissed at getting zapped by a ghost he couldn't kill, promptly threw a solid punch into dog boy's nose with the arm that wasn't there before.
Inuyasha went down and the rest of the party blinked. Sesshoumaru now had two arms! The day was saved! Now he could carry his mate into the shrine himself and nobody could argue to the contrary.
Sango rolled her eyes, "Fine then, but I'm still helping. Your instincts are so high strung right now it's not safe for you to change her clothes." Sesshoumaru considered her for a moment before nodding. She was right, much as he hated to admit it.
Sesshoumaru turned to the shrine carrying his precious burden, trailing Sango. Miroku was just walking out as they moved inside, and he, of course, couldn't miss the opportunity to check Sango's behind. She dealt with it the normal way and continued to follow after Sesshoumaru.
The shrine was set up with a large common area and two smaller rooms accessed by two discreetly placed halls. The girls had taken one of the rooms with the children and Sesshoumaru had claimed the other, leaving Miroku and Inuyasha to sleep in the main room rather than staying too close to the western lord. This is where Sesshoumaru carried Aki
Sango cleared her throat discreetly, "um, why don't you try to find Aki something to eat? We'll need to feed her something when she wakes up." Sesshoumaru's blood rebelled at him leaving Aki, but he had no choice, he'd already agreed to allow Sango to change her clothes. Besides, Sango was right, Aki needed food and he would need time to calm down. If he lost control, it was Aki who would suffer for it.
It took a painful amount of will power to draw himself from his grip on Aki's body. Sango gave him an encouraging smile as she rummaged through Aki's bag. He was annoyed by how long it took him to finally let go. Once he got moving he found it easier to continue, not easy, just easier than the first bit.
He made it to the big room just as Miroku and Kagome came in from outside. Sesshoumaru found he couldn't move any further. Miroku looked at him quizzically before seeming to decipher a reason, or more likely reasons for his presence.
"Food for Aki?" the monk asked and Sesshoumaru nodded. Miroku sighed in thought, "We'll have to be careful what we give her, and she hasn't eaten in so long her stomach has probably forgotten what to do with food." He tapped his chin, an annoyingly human habit. "It'll have to be simple and somewhat bland. We also need to watch how much we give her as well."
"First thing's first, keep a steady supply of water at hand," Kagome broke in. "She's probably dehydrated and will need it. Besides, it won't hurt anything." She cocked her head to the side. "As for food, I have some crackers. They're not much, but they do help settle your stomach. We'd probably do well to put them in broth to soften them up though."
"Good idea Kagome," Miroku smiled. "Do we have anything to make broth with?"
"Not right on hand, but she's likely to sleep a while. I can send Inuyasha to hunt us up something to make stew with. We also have whatever's in the village since Shoko-sama suggested we take what we need."
"Ah yes," Miroku nodded again. "But first lets get some water." Kagome nodded in answer and they both latched onto Sesshoumaru and dragged him out to hunt up some water.
Luck was with him and they had no further than ten feet to find a rain bucket full of water to draw from, though he was willing to drown them both regardless of how quick the errand turned out to be. Kagome handed him a bottle to fill, which he did quickly before rushing back to the shrine and prowling across the floor of the shrine to his destination.
Sango had just finished with Aki when he slid open the door and walked in. The sight of Aki, looking so warm and dry, and in his shirt that Tama had given her, had him instantly feeling better. Sango snuck out so quietly he almost didn't get the chance to thank her.
Sesshoumaru gracefully settled next to his sleeping mate, studying her features. It had been too long since he'd been alone with her like this. He leaned over her wondering why she wasn't recovering more quickly now that he was with her. He moved to hover above her in the next breath, drawing just a bit closer. Aki should be able to draw strength from him through the mark, unless it was gone.
He turned her head to study the area of skin he had marked. The mark was still there; he rubbed his thumb over it absently, delighting in the shiver that ran down her body in response.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the mark. Something was blocking it, obstructing the flow of energies. It was her! She was blocking it! Sesshoumaru's confusion flared into anger. How dare she! How dare she even try to deny him!
His eyes filmed over with red. He could certainly see to that. Sesshoumaru leaned in, aligning his teeth with the mark and bit down, hard.
She was his, pure and simple. His teeth sank in until he put a hole in her blockade, then poured so much energy through it the barrier was torn away.
He collapsed over her, lapping at the blood he'd spilled as he curtailed the flow of energy. He had to be the one to look after her, and he couldn't do that if he was as drained as she was.
Taking a deep steadying breath, Sesshoumaru rubbed his cheek over her shoulder finally feeling the pull of sleep that was so elusive the night before. He slowly slipped into the invisible world of dreams ready to confront her there with this and other behavior he had issue with.