OMG 100 followers! I'm so stinking excited its unreal! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while. To be honest, I rewrote this chapter about 5 times, trying to decide how I wanted to proceed with this story. In the end, I figured it was time to answer some questions. Thank you everyone for being so patient! Please read and enjoy.

Chapter 7: Dreams of Mirrors

Is it possible to miss a person you've barely met? To miss their laughter, even though it was never meant for you? To crave their attention, when you had never once even tried to earn it?

It was a strange dilemma. One I was not sure I knew how to handle. It had been a month now of traveling with our new comrades, every day harder than the previous one. I had become addicted to sleep, and it had nothing to do with my aching feet.

His eyes shimmered in that fascinating way that I couldn't seem to stop staring at. Light trickled through the openings of the forest, casting shadows in a way that made him seem as if he was not of this world. As if his very being glowed and fed off the sun itself.

He was leading us through a deer trail, a small stream could be seen up ahead. It was odd, how familiar the setting was. As if I, Kagome, had been here before. Then again, our group travelled so much, I suppose it was possible.

Suddenly we stopped at the stream, a strong wind breaking through the area. If I had not been paying attention, I would not have noticed the tentative sniff he took of the wind, or his eyes widening slightly as the scent told him secrets I would never know.

"Jaken. Stay with Rin." It was always like that. One moment we would be walking without a care, the next, we were alone, his presence needed else where. It was always sudden. He'd just disappear, as if he were smoke.

"But milord, where are you going?" Jaken always seemed to ask this question. Didn't he ever learn that Lord Sesshomaru hated being questioned by silly imps? Perhaps he had been stepped on one too many times, his brain cells too far gone to regenerate?

Surprisingly, Sesshomaru walked around the imp, for once not punishing his minion for his impudence. With a gentleness that was rare even in these dreams Rin and I shared, Sesshomaru knelt in front of me, sharp claws stroking my hair in a comforting sort of way.

"This Sesshomaru is needed at the eastern border of the West. Rin, stay here. Do not leave this forest until my return. It isn't safe." I could feel my tiny heart clench even though I couldn't understand why.

It was normal for Sesshomaru to leave. He always came back. Always. So why did it seem as if this was goodbye. As I smiled and nodded my head wishing him well, why did it feel like I wanted to kick and scream and beg him not to go.

Why did it feel like I had once more lost my voice, right when it mattered the most?

I remember the way his eyes sparkled in pride when I behaved just as he had wished. The way the callouses of his palm felt against my face as he held it, his thumb caressing my cheek in a way that made my heart tighten with happiness.

The smell of his hair, which always carried the scent of spicy cardamom and smoky vanilla, its silvery sheen whipping around freely in the wind.

And then in a flash of light, he was gone. The world seemed to darken without his presence. The sounds of the wind moving through the trees, the cheerful cheeps of baby birds all of sudden vanishing. Looking around, Jaken and Ah-Un were no longer next to me.

Actually I was no longer me. No that wasn't right. Looking at my very familiar hands, clothes that were very much mine, I knew that I was in fact me again. Why was the thought strangely disappointing?

Had I finally got to the end of Rin's cycle of dreams? So why did my own dream suddenly feel so cold and terrifying?

It was as if I stood in a giant void, the darkness wrapping around me from all sides. Silence had never seemed so noisy.

"Rin?" I called out, wondering if she could hear me. Sometimes when I would dream of home, she would later tell me that she had watched through my eyes. Was she watching now? This didn't seem like a memory though. Would she be able to visit this dream, unable to invade this darkness?

A glowing golden orb of light was suddenly sparkling from the pocket of my jeans. Tentatively I grabbed it, holding it up to my face to look at it more closely.

It was small, no bigger than a marble really, but its light was so undeniably pure. Its scent, the incredible mix of flowers, honey, the sharpness of great pine, and that little whiff of wonder a dead give away to whom it belonged to.

"Rin?" I whispered. The only response I earned was the glow becoming impossibly brighter for a moment, before fading back to its normal radiance.

What a strange dream this was. Could Rin be having the same dream? Was I an orb instead? Strange dream indeed.

Looking around, a pink light in the distance seemed to respond to Rin's aura, and it pulsed in greeting. Unsure what else to do, I walked towards it, ignoring the strange feeling in my gut that I should turn around.

That I didn't want to know what the light would show me in this darkness.

It felt like forever before I finally reached the light. For a moment, it seemed as if it would blind me, pulsing in a beat that felt strangely familiar. It took me a few minutes to realize the cadence of the light was the very same as what was beating inside my chest.

This energy, so incredibly bright and brilliant in this darkness, was my own. It was my very soul, in its purest form.

"What are you doing here? Are you lost?" I joked, reaching out to touch it. It practically purred to life at my touch, as if it were a beast of my own making. Why did I feel as if I was suddenly reuniting with a piece of me that I had never known I'd lost?

Looking up, I saw a very familiar looking arrow, suspended in the middle of spiritual energy. It was shaking violently, as if someone was holding it against its will. I could feel my head tilt in confusion, trying to understand what was going on.

As if in slow motion, I followed the point of the arrow, realizing that the pink aura was being drawn from it.

The only thing I could remember was wicked red eyes, so full of soulful hatred and thirst for vengeance, staring right back at me. The force of it tore a scream right out of my throat.

It was the most terrifying way to wake up. When your body was trying catch up with your mind, your voice choking inside your throat, your nails digging into your palms so hard they bled.

The only thing more terrifying than waking up and thinking you were dying, was waking up to sound of Rin screaming, as if her very soul was being drawn out of her small body. Instinct took over, and I was holding her, my screams echoing hers.

I felt as if we had died together. As if that terrifying monster was slashing through me with his demonic energy.

Warm arms wrapped around us, familiar and strong, breaking through my terror with no effort at all. Desperately, I gasped for air, but the screams felt as if they were stuck inside my chest, needing release.

"KAGOME!" His voice was powerful, demanding, and oh so achingly Inuyasha. The fight suddenly faded out of my body, the rush of adrenaline finally released, and without another thought I fell bonelessly in his arms, oddly comforted by my hiccups, the burning of tears on my cheeks.

It wasn't real. It was just a dream. An awful terrifying dream. Rin's screams broke me from my relief, and with energy I didn't know I had, I hugged her tighter, my spiritual energy wrapping around us like a blanket, pulsing the beat of my racing heart beat.

Inuyasha only held us tighter. After all, he knew better than anyone, that my holy powers would never harm him. They only harmed evil after all. He would never be evil to me, never in a million years.

Rin's screams finally quieted, turning into choked sobs, before finally her eyes blinked tearfully. Soothingly I brushed her hair, whispering to her that things were okay. That we were fine. That we were safe.

She only cried harder, burying herself into my shirt. I looked up at Inuyasha, unsure what exactly to do. I could see the others coming over, wary concern masking their faces. Never had a nightmare felt so real.

Clawed hands gently stole Rin from my grasp, her small body barely seen beyond the safety of his fire rat robes. Raspy humming filled the air, a strange lullaby in a language that for a moment I didn't recognize.

Rin did though. Lord Sesshomaru had hummed a similar tune to her once. I dreamt about it last week. Loud cries soon quieted into gasping sobs. Before long she was snuggled deep under his chin, rumbling in tune as if she knew the song by heart.

It made me wonder how often Sesshomaru had hummed this specific melody to her. Or how Inuyasha seemed to know it too.

When the song ended, Rin begun to weep again, though now it was slightly more controlled.

"Lord….Lord Sesshomaru," her whimpering pulled at my heart. Unable to stand it, I went to her, gently rubbing her back and brushing her hair.

"I'm sorry Rin. That dream was really scary. You are safe here. We won't let anything happen to you. I promise." Beneath my fingertips I could feel her still before slowly turning her head toward me.

I couldn't help but take a step back at the look of angry contempt glaring at me from her eyes. Had I said something wrong? Rin had never looked so angry before.

"I wasn't scared. I was sad." I tilted my head, unsure what to make of her statement. Did we not have the same dream? Had I just assumed?

"Who do you think was the beast Kagome? Who do you think those red eyes belonged to? Rin thought you would know them well by now."

For a moment, I just stared at her. Trying to comprehend what she had said. She knew who the demon was? Thinking about those chilling red eyes, those blue green slits, the achingly familiar demonic aura that had threatened to smother me alive with its hate, I suddenly felt sick.

No…

Absolutely not…

I thought back to beautiful golden eyes, of sophisticated, silky silver hair, that baritone that could soothe me into peaceful dreams and happy thoughts. The clawed hands that had gently patted my head.

The shudder seemed to start inside me, practically making me convulse as it tried to break free. This was a lie. It was a nightmare. It wasn't real. What Rin had just stated was wrong. It was just the imagination of a child.

My feet were moving before I could think about it. All I could feel was this deep need to run away, to get away from reality. The moon was still bright despite how late it probably was. I followed the deer path in front of me, focusing on the branches as they whipped my face and legs.

The pain felt good. It was distracting. I kept running, ignoring how my thighs burned and my lungs felt like they would soon burst out of my chest. Those feelings were tolerable. I could live with them.

What I couldn't live with was what that dream had showed me. That Sesshomaru…that I… that he hated me.

Lost in that miserable thought, I didn't even realize how wet the ground had felt, until I tripped on a root and crashed into the cold stream, my scream ripping from me, so filled with pain and self loathing that I couldn't help but keep screeching. To give these feelings building inside of me an escape.

Gasping air into my sore lungs, I could only dig my fingers into the wet ground, scratching at it miserably.

He was in pain. That arrow, my soul, was it purifying him? Was I hurting him? It couldn't be. My powers could only harm evil. No matter how cruel Sesshomaru had been in the beginning, I had come to understand him.

Arrogant he may be, evil he was not. There was no way. It had to be a lie. I would never hurt him. Not now. Not ever. He had become like a spirit guardian to me in my dreams. Rin's dreams.

Our dreams.

As I thought of all those memories, of his lessons and patience. How over time he had become almost gentle. The beast that had once played a part in my nightmares, was now the man of my dreams.

Unable to hold the burning down in my throat any longer I retched into the wet dirt beside me, my eyes closing tightly as hot tears burned down my face. Why had Rin shared her memories of him with me.

Why did she make me see him as more than Inuyasha's ill tempered brother with a father complex? Why did she show me a Sesshomaru that was courageous and cool, when the only dreams he probably had of me was how he was going to kill me when he was released from his prison.

The prison of my supposed creation. There was no denying that the soul wrapped around the arrow had been mine. That something was pulling it out and enforcing its will on to him. That this whole time, all these months he'd been missing, it was somehow my fault.

That was something I could never live with. Desperately I went to that place inside me that my priestess power resided, mentally taking account of the amount of power that pulsed back at my call.

Let him go. Those red eyes flashed back at me. Let him go! That face that previously I hadn't noticed due to my own fear, those high cheek bones, the stripes, those large fangs glinting in the darkness.

LET HIM GO!

Yet nothing changed. My powers that I had come to know so well only reeled back in confusion. My command lost to it.

"Idiot are you trying to get yourself killed! What the hell are you thinking? Screaming your head off like some fucking lunatic!" Inuyasha's shouts were lost on deaf ears.

I could only stare at my shadowy reflection in the water, the madness inside me eating at my soul and mind.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" my faced snapped to the side, the sting to my cheek finally breaking me out of my inner torment. Inuyasha rarely smacked women. Had never smacked me no matter how much I may have deserved it.

I could only blink at the sensation. He had barely put any force behind it. If he had well…. I'm pretty sure I would have skipped across the stream like a stone. My mind temporarily cleared, the tears briefly stopping their flow.

"Inuyasha?" I questioned, my voice no more than a whisper.

Looking up at him, his dog ears pressed tightly against his head, his breathing raspy, golden eyes narrowed with worry, determination…and guilt.

"Are you gonna tell me what the hell is going on? Or do I need to beat it out of you?" He asked gruffly but his posture relaxed, obviously not going to pull through with his threat. At least not at the moment.

I could only sob quietly, suddenly feeling so small and powerless. So freaking stupid. I could understand so perfectly well what had caused Rin to break down. She was right. It wasn't fear that had me shaking. It was the helplessness of the situation.

Her hero was trapped somewhere. And I, whom she called friend, who she trusted only second to him, was somehow the warden of his prison. She had shared her deepest, darkest thoughts with me, and I, without knowing, had been betraying her this whole time.

The very thought made me want to throw up again.

A warm hand suddenly grasped mine, the heat from it causing a pin prick sensation. As if I had just come into a warm home after walking through snow.

"Kagome. I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong." When did he get so freaking mature. The thought made my lips twitch into a shadow of a smile. Without my knowing it, years had passed us by.

Suddenly our teenage years felt so long ago, we were no longer bickering children.

Why did growing up have to suck so freaking bad? Without thought I stood on shaky legs and trembled towards him. My legs, that only a short while ago ran with what felt like the strength and speed of a cheetah, were now as useless as a newborn calf.

The fire rat robe was wrapped around me in a heartbeat, the warmth instantly rushing through me. The next thing I knew I was in his arms, my soggy pjs dripping cold water off my bare toes.

Shivering, I snuggled deeper into his chest, his scent like a sedative, instantly calming my fears. There was nothing Inuyasha couldn't do. No foe he could not beat. No woman he couldn't win over. God he was such a jerk.

Instead of returning to camp, we traveled deeper into the forest, away from prying ears as he finally found what he was looking for.

A tall thick tree that forked out, more that roomy enough for the two of us. For a moment we just sat there in silence, listening to the rustling wind of the night. The nights had become cold, the hum of the summer nights no longer heard, all of mother nature's little creatures hiding deep in their homes to escape the brisk wind.

It was a lonely feeling. Winter would be just around the corner. With it, sickness and death. Famine. Then spring would come, bringing life and color back into our lives.

Taking a ragged breath in, I turned to look at Inuyasha's face, his eyes meeting mine boldly. Questions reflected in them, but I knew for once he was being patient. He knew as well as I did, that at times like these, that I would tell him what he needed to know.

I always did. He always listened. Longing for a moment clutched my chest. He made me feel so safe. The familiarity between us burned. I never did well with loneliness. Neither did he.

Suddenly his arms tightened around me, my face buried into his neck, his hair blindfolding me from the night.

"Don't do that Kagome. Please … just … don't." It felt like a rock had dropped in the pit of my stomach. Rejection, heavy and almost as familiar as his very presence. He may have matured over these past few years, but sometimes I still felt like the jealous 15 year old girl, wanting what I could never have.

I swallowed down my bitterness and nodded.

This night just plain sucked. I wanted to go home. Wanted to snuggle into my mama's arms and pretend nothing had happened.

Instead I started telling him about the dream I had. It was a well known fact in the group that Rin and I shared dreams. What they were about we usually kept to ourselves. They were private…sacred.

I'm certain Rin had seen as many dreams of our adventures as I had seen of hers. I wasn't sure how well that would sit with Inuyasha. Clamping down that thought, I continued to whisper about what I had seen in the darkness.

Who I had seen caged in it.

Through the whole tale he remained silent, never interrupting, even as I choked back sobs. The gentle press of his fingers circling my back was the only comfort he offered. I could tell he was thinking hard.

"Your sure it was your arrow? Your powers? There isn't even a shred of doubt?" he finally asked. I could only nod, my throat feeling swollen and sore. Lemon tea sounded really good about now.

"Do you know where you were? How your arrow got there?" The answer came to me surprisingly clear. If I hadn't been so ridiculously distraught over everything, it would have come to me sooner.

Every arrow I shot held a bit of my soul, each one had its own signature, as if it were a painting being signed by an artist. I knew exactly when I had fired that particular piece of my powers. It had been the last time I had seen the lord of the west.

It had been 6 months ago, on his lands, at a specific demon… at Kanna of the void.


Omg I am not kidding when I say I rewrote this like 5 times. I thought of so many directions that this fic could go. By chapter 3 I knew exactly how Sesshomaru would be reintroduced. I'm sorry if there is still some lovey dovey atmosphere going on between Kagome and Inuyasha. To clarify, Kagome is NOT in love with Sesshomaru...yet. At the moment she is just memorized by Rin's memories of him. I can't help but feel sorry for Kagome. For a month now, she has been enraptured of dreams of him, while on the flip side, Sesshomaru has practically been drowning in his hatred of his captor. Will he blame Kagome for it? Or will that honor belong to Kanna alone? Stay tuned and find out! Please make sure to favorite, follow... AND REVIEW!