The Ice Bride

By: I Agree

From Kirai's Neverending Title Challenge on Dokuga

A.N. AU, set in the way past. Sesshoumaru is 17 in human years for a majority of this fic, he's also going to be more emotional… he's a teen; teens are hormonal. Also there are 4 parts to this fanfiction and each part is exactly 5,000 words. There would have been another part, but I thought 20,000 was a bit much as it was.

A big thank you to Kirai, both for the inspired challenge she's created and for the beautiful title she gave me. I had an idea instantly and was very eager to explore it. I hope I didn't disappoint!

I do not own Inuyasha. This is written not for profit, but for the sheer pleasure of it. The 'poem' before each part is lyrics from 'Love You to Death' by Kamelot, though I changed around the order a bit (Not a Songfic I promise!). I don't own that either.

-IB-

~*Part II*~

'What was summer like for you?'

She asked him with a smile.

'What's tomorrow without you?'

He silently replied.

Courting proved to be an entirely different experience than he had anticipated. No that wasn't right. Kagome proved to be entirely different than he anticipated. He could have attributed it to her humanity. Humans were forever making fools of themselves and toeing boundaries which even youkai steered clear of. Then again her being female could explain away. Females were creatures who did what they wanted no matter what others thought, no matter their species.

Yet he knew it was just because she was Kagome; a girl who was free from the usual restricted life of humans and youkai because she was dying.

Sesshoumaru stared down at the young princess of the north lands, wondering exactly how she had gotten so filthy, and why had she decided to pull up her kimono so high? Somehow working with pottery clay didn't seem like it could be that messy of an activity yet she was covered head to toe with the clay, her kimono hiked up to her thighs so she could be closer to the low stool she was working on. It was almost the same as when he had caught her playing in the mud in the gardens on a particularly wet day, though then her legs had been covered.

Sesshoumaru was speechless, unable to help himself from staring at those long, slender limbs. He felt no shame in looking, not when she presented them so freely. In fact she didn't even seem to notice how indecent she was displaying herself. She merely smiled up at him like a child who'd found a new toy, her fingers buried in the clay before her.

"Look what I found," said she needlessly.

With an effort he pulled his eyes away from her legs. "Indeed. I thought we had planned to take a ride on Ah and Un."

"We did," she affirmed with a curt nod, "but I got sidetracked."

He reached out and picked a bit of dried clay from the shoulder of her kimono. "Hn. I see."

A pretty smiled curled her lips and, after picking up a glob of the terracotta, presented it to him, "You want to join me?"

He sniffed distastefully, "No."

With a shrug Kagome dropped the piece back down onto the stool with a wet 'plop.' A smattering of the earth sprayed out, catching the inu youkai's pristine white hakamas. He looked down at it, his eyes narrowed as if he could scare the stains away. Of course, they remained blatantly on his clothes. When he looked up to the royal priestess, her eyes were wide, dirtied fingers covering her mouth in apprehension.

Sesshoumaru, instead of turning around and stalking away in anger, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was no use flying off the handle. Not when this was her lesser offense against his person. Within the first four days of their courtship she had managed to burn him, soak him, trip him, and poison him. Each incident was a mistake, and yet each time he wondered if he'd be able to survive the petite human. She seemed to radiate trouble, and it affected everyone around her. Especially, it seemed, him. Perhaps they shouldn't take a ride on Ah-Un. He was sure she would find a way to push him off and send him plummeting to the ground.

"I'm really sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama," said she from behind her fingers.

Having calmed himself, the inuyoukai nodded, "Shall we continue with our day?"

Her hands dropped a little bit in surprise. "Right now?"

"Yes."

"Like this?"

"Yes."

She glanced down with wide eyes, as if she was finally noticing all the clay on her person. With a blush she pushed her kimono down to a more modest level. "Maybe we should get cleaned up first."

"Hn, no need." He almost got a sick pleasure out of the shock on her face. Of course she would expect him to want to change immediately. After each 'incident' the first thing he would do was to go bathe, groom, and change into unsoiled clothes. He had an image he needed to uphold after all, and being filthy would hinder that. Now, however, he was not going to be anywhere he needed to make an impression. Right now he couldn't care less.

"But… but," she presented her hands to him like a child, an innocently devious look on her face. "I'm all dirty. I might get you dirtier."

He beckoned her with a hand. "Come."

Curiosity obviously piqued, Kagome rose from her stool and stood eagerly in front of him, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Where are we going?"

Her childish excitement nearly made him smile, but he bit it back in favor of grasping her soiled kimono sleeve and pulling her from the room. He walked with purpose, ignoring the looks of a few surprised court members as he passed them, not bothering to even slow when they called out to him. He didn't need to explain himself to any of them, especially not when it came to a prospective mate. Even if said prospective mate was covered in drying clay and being tugged along like a naughty child.

He glanced back and found her struggling to keep up with his brisk walk, her pale face scrunched up in concentration, and her kimono hiked up a bit to allow more freedom of movement. He slowed to a more leisurely pace, and was rewarded with a bright smile. Warmth crawled up his cheeks, but he ignored it and he escorted her out to the gardens where Ah-Un waited. He was not blushing after all, so there was no need to even think on it.

When she caught sight of the scaly beast she squealed in delight and streaked passed him. Quickly, so as not to have the beast attack her out of surprise, Sesshoumaru gave a low warning growl to his steed. Unexpectedly, not only did Ah-Un look up at him but Kagome stopped in her tracks and looked back at him with wide blue eyes. Slightly impressed, and curious as to how she knew what the growl meant, Sesshoumaru slowly joined her and guided her forward with a hand at the small of her back. The paleness of her face receded a bit to a more healthy hue, and he knew she was blushing this time.

"Kagome," said he when they reached the beast, "This is Ah," he rested his hand atop one head, "and Un," and nodded to the other. "Ah, Un, this is Kagome. You will treat her appropriately."

The two heads looked at each other before nodding and sniffing at the young woman. By her scent, and by the way she cooed at the two heads and petted them, Sesshoumaru knew Kagome was amused and very, very pleased.

But somehow he couldn't wait to get her in the air. "Shall we ride then?"

The priestess nodded eagerly and the young prince hid a smirk as he brought her to the saddle. It wasn't much of a height up, comparatively to the horse she'd ridden on her journey to the West castle, but he aided her up anyway. His mothers would have scolded him relentlessly if he hadn't.

Sesshoumaru had to suppress a shudder of revulsion at the coolness of her flesh when he handed her up into the saddle. It was unnatural, almost like touching a corpse. And if he acted like this when briefly coming in contact with her hand, then he didn't know how he would be able to go through with the mating.

"I'm sorry."

Sesshoumaru looked up as she pulled her hand away and hid it in her kimono's sleeve, an unhappy look on her face as she avoided his gaze. Before he could question her withdrawal she gave him a shaking, watery smile.

"Souta doesn't like it when I touch him either. Not anymore."

Understanding dawned on him, and silently Sesshoumaru cursed himself for his continued inability to hide his displeasure. On impulse his hand sought hers out, pulling it out of its silk confines to gently place a kiss on her knuckles. An act which surprised him just as much as it surprised her. It was done, however, and he was glad to find he didn't regret it. Her skin colored enough to look like a natural blush.

Wordlessly, and with a devious smile, Sesshoumaru slid into Ah-Un's saddle just behind her, ignoring the drying bits of clay which flaked off her and onto him, and snapped the dragons reigns smartly. The beast lumbered forward and with one more coaxing snap of leather, leapt into the air. The inuyoukai smirked at the startled squeak from the woman child in front of him, knowing she had not expected a flight. He had planned on telling her, however his silence was his revenge for the clay on his clothes.

"I hope you are not afraid of flying," he teased in her ear, nearly chuckling when all he received as an answer was a dirty look thrown over her shoulder.

He knew she was uncomfortable. Not only did he have her nervous scent in his nose but her hands gripped his thighs tightly like a lifeline.

Yet the discomfort eased, her clutch loosening, as they rose higher and higher in the air. Nervousness gave way to awe, and Kagome leaned so far forward to see the ground below that Sesshoumaru had to wrap an arm around her waist to keep her anchored. She gave him a bright smile and leaned more fully on his arm, allowing her to see more of what lay below them. It amazed Sesshoumaru to know she trusted him so fully.

Eventually, and thankfully, when he leveled off the dragon at a few hundred feet in the air she straightened and looked instead to the view before them. Before too long, her body began relaxing at the beautiful view and she leaned back against him. Sesshoumaru tensed for but a second, unused to contact from anyone, but finding it not unacceptable. Though he knew her to be safe, he kept his arm about her small form.

He took a route he and Ah-Un knew well, having traveled it when Sesshoumaru had been the one doing the carrying. It had changed as they years passed, yet its effect on him never wavered. Like always, the magnificence of flight took him away from his thoughts, enraptured him to something that was merely experience. He was more home here, in the air, than he was in the palace. Here he could be free of the confines of his station.

The comfortable, yet cool weight of the woman seating in front of him quickly brought him back to his mind.

This courting was perhaps the most unusual thing he'd ever been put through, not even barring the extensive scent training his father had demanded of him. At first he wanted to kill the girl. How could he not? The girl was brash, way too confident for a human female, and seemed to get him into more troublesome situations than he'd seen in the days before he'd met her. Only knowing his father would be displeased, and the entirety of the Northern Armies would be at their door, kept him from putting his claw to her throat.

As time passed, he couldn't help but discover was an interesting woman she was. He'd known she was kind, she would not have been at the manor if she didn't have a kind heart, however her intelligence and wit had come to a surprise to him. He'd thought, since she'd rejected the tutelage from a priestess so often, she was an ignorant little girl. Instead he was treated to almost mind numbing debates and dry, clever jokes he actually had to think about for a change. Not that she'd truly made him laugh outright, but every now and again he'd chuckled quietly, something even his father had not managed in years.

It had taken some time to realize it, and even longer to admit it, yet in the few short weeks she'd been in his home Higurashi Kagome had become the closest thing he'd ever had to a friend. That his only friend had come to him now and was dying was not lost on him. He wished, and yes he wished it, that he could find a way to free her of her curse entirely. Now, he just had to get used to the idea that he would be mating with his friend.

A sudden, cold wetness at his neck nearly made him jump, and he reached up to wipe it away. He brought his finger surreptitiously to his nose and gave the liquid a cautious sniff, and found it to have the bittersweet scent of tears. Slightly alarmed, Sesshoumaru looked down and saw that the girl was indeed crying. He wiped the nearly frozen wetness away from her skin, knowing it was not the wind whipping around them that was freezing her tears, and rested his chin on her head in an attempt to comfort her.

And on the wind, her soft voice carried beautifully.

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru."

-IB-

Perhaps it was because he couldn't smell the stench of death on her like he could on any other dying creature, or even that she didn't display the mannerisms of one who knew she was about to pass, but Sesshoumaru had a hard time remembering the lively Princess Kagome had a short time left to live when he was with her. He was given very rare reminders; when he felt the coolness of her skin, when the color of her blush faded to her 'natural' pale, or even when she merely stared into the distance, deep her in own thoughts. Then he was reminded of her situation, of how she was brought to him in the first place. Those moments however, were rare and far in between. He knew it was the priestess herself that made him forget, for she hid her fears and sadness very well.

When he encountered her small family, he felt the weight of her curse bearing down on him. Taunting him. He would have avoided her mother and brother, for that reason, but for one small detail. They were the West's only way of knowing if her conditions were worsening.

Sesshoumaru stared down at the young boy, Souta, wondering why he was forever coming to him to tell him about how slowly his elder sister was beginning to move in the mornings, or how she was complaining of warmth on the coolest of days. His mothers expressed more interest, even Kotone who seemed strangely maternal lately. Well no, he didn't wonder why the boy came to him. Souta wanted him to mate with his sister as soon as possible, to prolong her life, and so the boy came trying to guilt him into giving his blood. What he did want to know was why he kept coming after so many times being snubbed. Sesshoumaru had to admit though, his persistence was something to be admired.

Slowly blinking, the inuyoukai let the anxious boy stew in his worry for a moment. Before long however, knowing the child would faint from impatience, he spoke: "What news have you for me today?"

"Her lips are blue."

Shock shook through him, and he canted his head to the side, "What?"

Souta grimaced, mistaking the question for superiority, "I said 'her lips are blue.' We woke up this morning and she looked like she was dead."

Not for the first time, Sesshoumaru wondered what kind of curse the dark miko could have laid on the young human that could cause such dramatic affects. Cooling flesh, freezing tears, and now her skin was changing colors? This was unlike anything he'd ever even heard of. And yet…

Sesshoumaru swept past the boy, making his way to the guest rooms to see this phenomenon for himself, to make sure the younger child was not beginning to make up stories just to expedite their decision. He didn't think the child had, there had been no dishonesty in his scent, but he couldn't help but to want to check and make sure. He could help but hope the boy had been seeing things.

Without the courtesy of a knock, the Western Prince pulled open the door, his eyes scanning the room for the girl. He found her sitting on her futon, still in her yukata with her back towards him. Her mother hovered over her nervously, barely even registering his entrance. He didn't bother with her, instead he slowly walked the perimeter of the room, his eyes trained on her still form. When he was finally able to see her face his breath froze in his chest.

Souta had not been seeing things. Kagome's lips were a disturbing shade of purplish blue.

He approached the seemingly comatose girl slowly, as if she would suddenly come to and bolt like a wild animal. She didn't however, not even when he knelt on one knee before her and lifted her head with a finger under her chin. Her dulled blue eyes didn't even focus on him as she breathed shallowly.

A frown tugged at his lips when his keen eyes detected something human eyes could not. A slight, almost unnoticeable fog escaped her lips as she exhaled. As if her insides were colder than the air around them.

The curse was progressing faster than any had thought it would.

-IB-

"From being completely against the mating to wanting it done now, eh?"

Sesshoumaru ignored the jibe from his father, knowing that to engage would only waste precious time. He knew he had his father approval. His sire had all but demanded that he do the joining, there was no need to formally get his acceptance of the match. Except that Sesshoumaru wanted the older youkai's approval.

"She is dying-"

"We know."

"-much more quickly than anticipated. Should we want this union to happen the way it was agreed upon it must be now." He tried to sound as diplomatic as he could, tried to remove all emotion, to act like he usually would when confronted by his father. Yet, when his voice wavered, he knew he had failed this time.

Saitou frowned at him and leaned back, studying his eldest son. Sesshoumaru clenched his fists, waiting nervously for his father to speak, to reprimand him.

"Perhaps I've made a mistake."

The young demon blinked, his eyes wide at the unexpected admission. "I…"

The Inu no Taishou sighed, suddenly looking very old, "You were not supposed to become attached Sesshoumaru, my silly son."

He flushed hotly, "I have not-"

"Don't try to lie," chastised the elder, "I can smell it on you. You are worried."

Not knowing what to say, the prince remained silent. Anything he said now would more than likely be detriment to his wanting to get the mating done and over with. His father filled the quiet after a brief, but tense, hush.

"I agreed to this arrangement because I thought you would act your usual stoic self," he revealed. "I knew you would fight it at first, but when the logic of it sank in, I knew you would accept."

Sesshoumaru frowned, "You gave us time to get to know each other. I thought-"

Saitou shook his head, "Your mother requested the time for many youkai display a madness if they mate unwillingly."

"Lesser youkai-"

"It is your mothers worry," interrupted the Western Lord sternly, "not mine. If I had known you would begin caring for the girl I wouldn't have given you leave to adjust. Instead, it has complicated things."

"How?"

Saitou looked at him in annoyance, "Have you not been paying attention to your lessons?"

Bristling slightly, Sesshoumaru met his fathers glare with equal fervor. "You insult me."

"Then why has it slipped your mind that your attachment to her will strengthen the connection to more than a simple blood bond?" growled Saitou.

He searched his memories, but was unable to produce such a lesson. Had his teacher been lax, or had he not been paying proper attention? "Explain."

Again the older demon sighed, "A blood bond would not tie you together, but merely exchange attributes of each other. Your blood would eventually be able to destroy the attributes from the girl without continual exchanging. That you care for her…"

He sensed his fathers reluctance to continue. "Ties us?"

Saitou nodded.

This was an unforeseen problem, one he was faulting his tutor for completely. How could the old demon not tell him that simple emotion would give blood such power?

"It would kill me then?"

"Do you love her?"

Sesshoumaru started, unprepared for the question, but he rallied quickly. "No."

"No?"

He shook his head, "She is my friend."

Something flickered in his fathers eye, the same something he had seen in his mothers. "You will live. You will feel the loss, but you would live."

"Then I will mate her."

"Sesshoumaru-"

"Father," Sesshoumaru interrupted softly, "it is all I can give her."

-IB-

Her cold hands shook in his and he didn't know whether he should attribute it to nerves or something else. He knew she didn't shake from the cold anymore.

As ceremony dictated, he trailed a line of sake across the delicate skin of her palm with a finger, painting a crude Western crest on the hand he was to cut open. That they were performing the rites, no matter how many changes were made, for such a simple act was almost insane. It wasted so much time to go through the inane and superfluous rites, time they didn't have.

And yet circling them, laying down a ring of the sweetly scented wine, were a pair of young inu youkai girls doing their best not to stare at the pale, blue lipped princess. Sesshoumaru wouldn't have minded so much, he knew Kagome didn't, but the younger girl kept tripping over her own feet every time she looked at the priestess. He was thankful the two would be leaving soon, for he didn't know if he'd be able to resist eviscerating her.

He remained silent as the ceremony commenced, a strange mix of both a human marriage and youkai mating ceremony, yet he didn't pay attention to any of it. He just watched as Kagome took shallow breaths, the fog of cool air on her exhale so much more prominent than days before. Her flesh was colder than he'd ever felt it, cooler now than a corpse. It was as if she was turning into ice, and how she was living through it, he didn't know, and he wondered, not for the first time, if he was doing the right thing by prolonging her ordeal.

The sound of the door closing had Sesshoumaru looking up to find the young demonesses gone and Kagome gazing at him despondently. He met her gaze until hers dropped and, though he was surprised by her submission, he released one of her hands to pour a cup of rice wine for them.

"What was the sake for?"

Without a pause he handed her the cup, knowing that, though it was forbidden to speak during the ceremony, she wouldn't be able to handle no communication. "Traditionally, it is blood from both the participants, however in deference to human culture it was replaced with the sake."

"I thought biting was the tradition, and wouldn't drinking the blood do the same as a cutting?"

He shook his head, "A bite is a sign of disrespect, and I do not disrespect you. Drinking the blood does nothing as it would remain, in essence, outside the body." He glanced up at her, but found she had no reaction.

Instead she merely nodded, but presented no more questions, blindly going through the ceremony just as he did. She accepted the wine without a fuss, didn't blink as he wrapped a braid of his silken hair about her throat. Everything passed her notice, it seemed she was the very essence of calm.

It wasn't until he began pressing a claw to her palm that she stopped him with a gentle hand on his. Sesshoumaru looked up and was concerned to see the beginnings of tears.

"Kagome?"

She sniffled a little, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. "Should we really do this Sesshoumaru?"

His eyes widened slightly, "Are you not the mastermind of this whole circumstance?"

She nodded dolefully, but her hand didn't move. "Your father spoke to me the other night."

"To tell you of the mating ceremony, yes?"

Again, her head dipped in a nod, "That, and to tell me…" a tear dropped to the floor, a frozen crystal, and Kagome finally looked up, "I don't want you to hurt because of me Sesshoumaru."

Her sudden display of emotion after such calm brought him up short for a moment, but he rallied quickly. "Admirable, but it does not change my decision."

She grimaced and tried to pull her hand from his, but he used his superior strength to keep her in place. "He's right you know."

An eyebrow rose, "Who Father? Yes he has a reoccurring tendency to be. It can get annoying."

"About expecting you to be completely business-like about this," mumbled she, still tugging at her hand, though half-heartedly. "I'd heard that you were a cold-fish, didn't care about anyone, so I thought, mating with you would be best, since it wouldn't hurt you in the end." She sniffed again and more frozen tears fell to the tatami beneath them, quickly melting, "I don't understand why you still want to go through with this, knowing…"

Sesshoumaru stared at the dismal girl for a moment, before again looking to her palm. A second later and he gently sliced open her skin along the lifeline, purposefully lengthening it. Kagome gave a squeak of pain and surprise, but didn't move, her eyes wide as she stared at the dark blood gathering in her hand.

They both watched her blood begin to drip onto the floor before he softly admitted: "It is because I should feel something."

She tore her eyes away from the wound and to him, "What?"

He reached down and picked up the sharp knife made available to them, pressing it into her unwounded hand. "How could I not?" he asked softly, "How could this Sesshoumaru best honor you? You who caused nothing but trouble, who presented herself as nothing more than what she was? You are my friend, and I choose, selfishly, to keep you tied to this world a little longer. I choose, selfishly, to tie your life to mine so that you may always be with me in some fashion."

Tears dropped uninhibited to the floor as, for the first time Sesshoumaru had seen, she allowed her grief to overwhelm her. Careful of the knife, he pulled the princess to him, into his embrace. Kagome let go of the dagger and fisted her hands into his clothing as she cried into his shoulder. He closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms about her, keeping his own sorrow at bay.

He waited until she calmed to turn her in his arms and settle her back against his chest. Silently, he put the knife back into her hand and presented his own palm for her use. Shaking and hesitant, the girl pressed the sharp tool into his palm and made a short cut. Sesshoumaru stretched his hand, encouraging his almost black blood to well up and flow and when he was satisfied, he pressed his bleeding palm to Kagome's.

Immediately, a cold tingling began in his palm and began to travel up his arm as Kagome stiffened, her hand gripping tightly around his.

"Y-your blood is h-hot," she gasped, "I feel like I'm m-melting."

And he could feel his body accepting her icy blood, feel the coldness travel to his heart. Unconcerned, he kept their hands clasped together and kept his senses trained on the trembling girl in his lap. His body tensed at every little gasp, at every quiet whimper, and he wondered if what he'd done, what they'd done had been the right thing. They didn't know what the dark miko's curse was, perhaps she thought to make youkai blood make it worse. Perhaps she was dying now because he hadn't thought of this before.

But they couldn't turn back now.

He didn't know how long they sat there, covered in each others blood and absorbing each others temperature, but it wasn't long before Kagome fell asleep, exhausted by the heat now flowing through her. For Sesshoumaru's part, the coldness had come and gone; the curse set by the dark priestess had not been for him, his own aura already nullified it. And with the coldness went his insecurities for her welfare. If his body rejected it, his blood would hold the curse at bay in her body.

With infinite care he extracted his hand from hers, his wound having already healed itself. Raising her hand to his mouth he licked away the blood, examining the healthy pinked color of newly healed flesh. Satisfied her palm was sufficiently mended, he studied her carefully, searching for any signs of difficulties. He was pleasantly surprised to find there seemed to be none.

Her complexion was beautiful, a more hearty color than he'd ever seen from her, not even when she'd first come to the palace. The blue veins which had shown so horribly before were faded, and so had gone the deathly look.

And she was warm, perhaps not the same warmth as another, but that death-like frigidness had gone. Sesshoumaru held her closer, pulling one of the ceremonial cloths from the wall and wrapping her in it. Sesshoumaru leaned back against the wall, his new mates breath fanning his neck as she slept.

Soon, his eyes drifted closed as well, his body lulled to sleep by the reassuring sound of her strong heart.

-IB-

A.N. For those of you who question the 'outside of the body' part of the ceremony, medically and anatomically speaking, the gastric track is not the inside of your body but the way for the nutrients to get into the body.

ALSO, some shameless pimping from me. There's an author, Velvet Sometimes, who is absolutely wonderful and I honestly don't think she's getting enough love from readers. I DEFINITELY recommend her works, please go support her! ^_^ http:/www. fan fic tion. ne t/u/2086465/ (remove spaces)

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