Kagome watched as Sesshoumaru paced back and forth in the hidden room. It was as if the walls were closing in on him and he was searching for a way out, though she knew that not to be the case. His strength had almost returned completely. The wound was now considered paltry, and yet he stayed. She assumed that had more to do with the uncertainty of what was going on outside then wanting to stay hidden. If he chose death over being healed by enemy hands, she knew that he would not hesitate to walk into battle. His honour would dictate it.

The gunfire had increased, as had some of the shelling. Daily they were barricading themselves in the room waiting until the ground would stop quaking. The hum of airplanes flew overhead and she was unsure about whether or not she should duck and hide or go on with her business. They had no word over which side had the upper hand and if he walked out, would he walk right out into one of her village men. They would not take him hostage, she knew. They would kill him, and she refused to see all of her work undone.

"There has been no word yet on what has been happening," she informed him during one of the silent moments. She had been stepping outside daily to speak to some of the villagers. Their men had yet to return from battle and nobody had any news as to what was happening on the battlefront. The Japanese were trained with a skill that she knew would be hard to match, yet her men had been practicing guerrilla warfare since they were old enough to hold a gun, knowing they'd need the skills to survive. "Even the elders are having trouble deciphering the state of affairs. Everybody is on alert and watching."

"And waiting," he murmured, his ears pointed in the direction of the above hatch. "It is not safe in here, but it is safer than it is out there. Does anybody else know of your hide away?"

"Just my brother. And he would never share the information on it knowing that I'd be charged with treason. He'd die for me, just as I would die for him."

"They'd charge him with treason too, even if did share."

"Yes, he knows that too."

He remained silent for a moment, before sitting on the small futon. He allowed her to leave him for a moment, only to return with some rice and vegetables. The portion, while not large, was larger than hers. For once, he felt compelled to share the food with her, but he knew she would only refuse him with that small smile of hers. It disturbed him. "Your brother holds honour."

The smile returned regardless, though her eyes were startled at the praise offered. They were blue, he noted for the first time. A rarity for a girl like her, and one that made him wonder why she wasn't married yet. He scowled at that thought. While he didn't want to marry her himself, she didn't want the Kouga boy to either. He would clearly make her unhappy and for somebody who spent so much of her time giving to others, she needed something for herself. As it was he still wouldn't be able to guarantee her safety once his team marched in.

"He does," she confirmed. "His sense of honour is strong, much like yours. I'm sure that comes right down the line in your family."

His silence on the matter didn't surprise her, as his silence on many matters didn't surprise her. Over the course of his stay she had learned that Sesshoumaru kept many aspects of himself and his life guarded and secret from others, including her. In the beginning it didn't upset her, but as she grew to knew him and began to speak with him more, she found herself wanting to know everything there was about him. Her curiousity was insatiable. He was nothing like he had seemed when he first fell upon her doorstep, and she knew, that if at all possible, he wouldn't hurt her. If he had wanted to, he could have done it long ago. He could have pushed her to the ground, onto the futon, against the wall, anywhere, and taken what many soldiers believed to be theirs when they stumbled upon an enemy female. He did not.

Nor did it appear as if he were thinking of trying.

It seemed as if everything her mother had taught her was for naught. The more time she spent with him, the less she feared of Japanese occupation, though she knew it still wouldn't be easy, and she'd have to fight for what little freedom she maintained now. It seemed though as if her future was going too based on the next few days. Live in occupied territory under the rule of men she didn't know, or live as she has been, but under the rule of Kouga, standing next to his side as a show piece. Neither choice appealed to her.

"You cannot run," Sesshoumaru interrupted, as if reading her thoughts. "There is nowhere to run to. If your aunt's village is not under siege yet, it will be."

"And Souta?" she asked, turning to him with alarmed eyes. That didn't sit well with him either.

"My men do not harm children."

"Yet they will harm women," she countered, setting her plate aside.

"Not all men are honourable," Sesshoumaru replied, indifference in his voice. "Some will take what they want when they want to. Even you, with your agility, would find it difficult to fight against them. There is no security."

She heard his warning loud and clear. When he left, all bets were off and she'd be on her own again. He would do nothing to stop the coming onslaught. She only hoped that she would be spared. Yet his indifference to her and her gender didn't bother her. It was the way things were and she knew that even he, a high ranking officer, could do little to change it.

Not unless he held the ability to change the world in the palm of his hand.

--

She brought him flowers today. They were more like weeds, Kagome thought with a cringe, but she picked them nonetheless and carried them down in a vase. In reality, they were probably the only ones that weren't trampled by the villagers as they trained before they left, or ruined by the recent gun smoke. But it was the thought that counts. Sesshoumaru would probably see little worth in them, as he saw little worth in everything, but something was needed to bring life to the little basement. It was strange for a man to have such an outlook on life. She would have thought it was because one was lacking in confidence and esteem, but no, not Sesshoumaru. He was full of it. It didn't take a sharp eye to see that quality within him.

Most days he had an almost arrogant air about him, a sense of superiority that caused him to look down on others. Except maybe her. He saw her for who she was, though, he would do nothing to protect that. She was fine with that.

The bright yellow tops of the flowers did little to enhance the doom and gloom of the room. They would be dead in a matter of hours. What the room needed was sunlight, and she tried to offer it some at least once a day by leaving the hatch open. But with the turmoil of outside, recently she had feared doing just that. Her fear was proven right today when she heard the unexpected footsteps above. Both she and Sesshoumaru had pressed themselves against the far wall, she for her own safety, Sesshoumaru for both defensive and offensive reasons. He was braced for the fight she realized as she saw his yellow eyes narrow in anticipation. She had blown out the oil lamp, cutting off all light. Still, his eyes glowed in the dark. They stood out like a beacon.

Neither spoke and she was careful enough to control her breathing so it wasn't too heavy. The darkness surrounded them and perhaps for the first time since her mother had this little hideaway built into their house, she felt closed in. When she was younger it used to her own private sanctuary. She would run to it to be a girl, the child she wasn't allowed to be in public since she was not born of the right gender. Today she could only pray that it continued to be a sanctuary and not a cage.

The footsteps above them got louder. Kagome could feel her hand shaking against the wood of the wall. The other covered her mouth. She had always considered herself to be courageous, but in this moment she was terrified. It could merely be somebody looking for help. Or it could more Japanese soldiers. Or it could be Kouga and his gang. She hoped it was the first of the three. "Kagome?" she could hear her childhood friend call her name. Still, she didn't breathe knowing her friend would have no problems turning her in if she found she was breaking the law. Like every other woman in the village she had to fight for her position and she knew she would be looked upon with more favour if her competition were eliminated.

It would be even better for her if that favour came from Kouga. The girl had dreamed of marrying him since she was a young girl.

She turned toward Sesshoumaru to shake her head, letting him know that she did not trust the woman in the room above them. Though she couldn't see him, she knew his eyes had adjusted well enough to see her. He was trained for moments like this.

The footsteps above faded away momentarily and both heard the door to the hut slam shut. They waited a good thirty minutes before he stepped up the ladder to lift the floor board to peer out. Her palms were sweaty as she struck a match and reached for the oil lamp. Her whole body was high strung and tense to the point she found herself shaking and trembling. "Ayame," she whispered her pet name of her friend. "A nice girl but she would do anything to rid herself of the obstacles that stand in the way of her goal."

"And her goal would be?"

"Kouga."

The name said it all, as did her expression. She sat upon his futon, struggling to compose herself. In all of her years she had never had such a close call as today. Nobody knew of her hideaway. "She lives by a code that is not all together honourable as well," she explained, opening and closing her fists, attempting to relax.

"Most people do," Sesshoumaru murmured, taking a seat against the wall. She could see the way his body still stiffed slightly as he bent mid-waist. "My father and brother was amongst them. My mother too, to an extent."

Kagome looked up but didn't say a word, knowing that doing so would be the quickest to get him to stop speaking. "My parents despised each other at marriage and still do, though they maintained the illusion of a union for several years for political reasons. My brother was born of sin, an affair my father had with the daughter of one of his adversaries. Neither acts with honour."

"Where are they now?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"My father? Dead. Killed by the father of the woman. He was weak when there should have been no weakness."

"And your brother?"

"Off following the footsteps of my father. Rather than fight for what is his, he is off dallying with some woman, a Shinto priestess last I heard. While it is not the priestess I condemn, I do not approve of him setting aside his obligations, but then he is his father's son. No, there is no honour in my family. I refuse to fall into that trap."

Kagome glanced at the yellow weeds once more, noting how the petals had already begun to weaken and go limp, and the stem softened up, bending where it shouldn't. The lack of sunlight in the past hour had damaged it irreparably. It was as if the room was slowly sucking the life out of the flowers minute by minute. Why did it feel as if that were an omen of what was to come?