"Sesshoumaru, I beg of you, please don't turn me away!" She grasped desperately at the arm of his kimono, which he wasted no time in forcefully taking back. "I don't care how I'm supposed to live my life. I don't want Miroku, I want you." She spoke softly, the volume of her voice failing to mute the agony within it. Her tears poured down in waves, drenching the cheeks numbed by the chilled night air.

All those years ago, he had told her in that uncaring way, "Go stay with him." Though she'd listened to his cold words, he had haunted her ever since. She would dream about his golden eyes watching her in the moonlight, hair floating elegantly, much like the way he held himself. They were foolish dreams, she'd known from the beginning. Yet, that didn't stop them from slowly tearing apart her sanity, until she ran away to find him, the one that came to mind with each warm touch to her lips.

He looked every bit the way he did before. It was a given, him being a demon, but it sure didn't help. Unlike him, she had aged. They told her she didn't look a day over twenty. She didn't believe them. Not with all the stress in her daily life, the hardships of taking care of children, the burden of being reminded nightly of what you didn't have. And like she child she knew she still was inside, she ran away from it.

She was done talking, so tired of rambling about her thoughts. Her watery eyes pleaded to him silently to respond, even if he regarded her unpleasantly. The old her would have berated herself for groveling the way she was, but she wasn't the old her.

"I don't understand how anyone can stand you humans." He was staring straight at her now, his eyes holding a calmed ire about them. "You're all hypocrites. You think yourselves righteous because you believe in kindness towards others, yet you yourselves cannot achieve that. In the end, you spit in the faces of the people that stood alongside you. You prolong their suffering. And you'll cut down a demon just for being born that way. Is that not the kind of behavior you were trying to avoid? Are you really better than a demon? Humans are nothing but imperfect beings incapable of truly thinking of anything but their own self gain."

She leaned against the rock wall of the cave, defeated, crushed. Her eyes had fallen to the ground. She held her sore arm close to her, as if it would save her. "I know," she admitted. The regret hit her before she even left, knowing she was abandoning her friends, her children, and maybe most importantly, Miroku. The one that had dealt with her moods, and the days where she would do nothing but lay down. The one that had taken care of her. She'd hurt him. And she wouldn't deny that she'd do it again. But she missed them.

He stood, turning his back to her. By then he was highly annoyed, something not hard to tell. "Let's go." He started to walk out of the cavern, not waiting for her reaction. He too was imperfect, for following in the foolish footsteps of his younger brother, who, he so despised for reasons he had long ago questioned the validity of.