I know, I know. I took forever to update, and I am terribly sorry (I seem to keep saying this in every chapter), but hey, I like this chapter, so maybe it's enough to forgive me?

Thanks to...

AllySan - Oh, Me da tanto gusto q te este gustando y que sientas lo que trato de transmitir!

XxBlEeDiNg BlAcK rOsEsXx - Oh, Kagome is going to learn a lot of things. ANd you'll find out she knows others. I will write a bit about her past (well, the one I invented, but I'm sure it'll fit...)

Trelweny Rosephoenixwolf - Oh, I'm a sucker for happy endings. Though you never know. Maybe I'll give you a surprise, hehe.

midnight - Oh, God, I can't stop blushing! That is such a nice thing to say!

zero-serenity - Uff, I passed all of my exams. But I seem to be a masochist and will be doing summer classes. I don't know what possesed me.

XOkaggyfanOX - They are very difficult characters, especially Sesshoumaru, so it's great when people think I understand them.

ancient-relic- I wanted to write a sad story. A story that showed the bad sides of living, so that the good ones would be extra especial. So that hope could shine better. I took the risk, and I am very happy with what I'm doing. Thanks for liking it, too.

amazinglychenille - Well, I do have some great editors, but the words...well, they come to me, hah, so it really is thanks to my muse, who hasn't failed me yet.


Fragments Of A Shattered Moon

Paths that shouldn't have been

Madness would be a sweater torture, an endless better end, a way out of this agony and delirium.

At least, if she was mad, she would not be imagining that warmth buried under his frozen gaze.


She doesn't deserve this.

Whatever she did in her past, all the horrible things she'll do in her future and the ones she partakes in the present will never be excuse enough for this punishment.

Besides, hasn't she had her fill of distress?

Isn't watching her friends die punishment enough for all her sins? Isn't being stuck in this era, away from her family, enough? Doesn't having to be Shard Detector again for the other brother reason enough to erase all ill things she has ever done?

Apparently not.

Kagome is getting tired of whoever thinks she has not had a good enough punishment; she truly does believe nothing justifies what is being done to her. She's already too…shattered. All the things that made her who she was are gone. She woke up, only forced to start training for whatever stupid thing Sesshoumaru has in his mind.

Kaede told her they had to find the last shard, complete the pearl, and kill Naraku. She told her they had to stop the lunatic and restore the world.

That was easier said than done.

She can't even save herself, how is she supposed to save the world? And with Sesshoumaru at her side and as her only ally?

This world is so going to end in a very bad way.

And then, why is Naraku not trying to kill them? If she was a crazy hanyou ruling over the world, she would be sending lots and lots of people to kill them, and she would demand the bodies, just to make sure.

Actually, she would probably follow the same path Naraku has. Get rid of the mikos. They could purify the hanyou if they all worked together, and they would never join him. Not the true mikos, loyal to their causes.

Well, she supposes if she was a hanyou, and a side of her was human, she would rid the new world she was trying to form from the side of him that makes him weak. Promise all the youkai power and the world at their feet. Except…Naraku will probably end up killing his strongest allies after he is in complete control, just so that no one can ever take that power away.

But why hasn't he sent someone to kill them?

Maybe he does believe that she is dead, but why wouldn't he send someone to kill Sesshoumaru? Unless he was scared of Sesshoumaru, which Kagome can't really blame him for, but still, to leave so much for chance…

Okay…Kagome shakes her head to stop thinking like Naraku. It's scary and creepy and she does not need this on top of everything else.

Having her only ally hate her is problem enough. What is worse than the hate is that…Sesshoumaru saved her, and like it or not, he brought her back to life. He trained her, made her sufficient, and keeps an eye on her. She is not a fool. She knows exactly why he does this. He needs her to find the last shard. It's as simple as that and nothing more. She knows Sesshoumaru very little, but what she does know is that he will never, ever, care for her.

All the care he was capable off was given to Rin. To him, Kagome is nothing. If she was nothing to Inuyasha at the beginning, then she is definitely never going to be something in Sesshoumaru's eyes.

And she…

Well, he saved her. She can't hate him. No matter how much she does not want to work with him, she can't hate him. She just can't abhor the one person left at her side.

Even if he isn't really by her side.

Even if he hates her.

Kagome suppresses the urge to groan. This is one big mess. How does she get into these dilemmas?

She has to be the only human of all eras with the ability to get trapped four hundred, ninety seven years in the past, break a stupid jewel, fall in love with the one hanyou that would never return her love, get attacked, lose all blood, and then…

Well, be stuck with Sesshoumaru, the coldest living being she has ever known, in a quest to save the world.

A quest neither one of them care for.

Sesshoumaru is in this for revenge. She is sure he would not even care about Naraku ruling over the world if it was not for the fact that he stepped over his boundaries.

Kagome is in this…because she doesn't really have an option. After all, what else is she supposed to do? She has nothing left, nowhere to go, and she doubts throwing herself over and over into the well will lead her anywhere except her death.

Kagome sighs as she once more trips over a rock. She doesn't remember being this clumsy.

Does coming back from the dead twice affect balance?

She is tired and she is hungry, and keeping her emotions under control and miko aura tight takes even more energy. They haven't stopped walking in hours. They don't even have a place to go. Sesshoumaru hasn't asked her to look for the shard. She doesn't have a reason to start looking for it. It's not like she can wish for Inuyasha to be alive. She can't ask it for it to take her back to her right time. She can't even ask it to eliminate Naraku. All of those things would make her happy, and the jewel would not be destroyed.

It would all be for nothing because the jewel would still exist, and that would just lead another youkai, hanyou, or human to try to get it, and it would be the same thing all over again.

Stupid jewel having to be destroyed by a stupid wish that will not make her happy. What kind of pearl works like that? Aren't sacred objects supposed to grant wishes and complicate no one's lives? Like a genie in a bottle?

Except even Aladdin had troubles with his genie granting wishes, and at the end they had to free the genie so no one could take advantage of him again.

Fine, she gets it.

The jewel has to be destroyed. Maybe she could ask it to forever get her stuck with Sesshoumaru. That would definitely make her unhappy. It should be enough.

Why is she doing this again?

She could just sit and wait for someone to take her away. She doesn't want to do this. She doesn't want to find the last shard.

She has nothing to fight for.

So why is she training and trying to control her miko powers and suppressing her emotions?

She doesn't have a reason, and yet she is giving it all she has and…

She so needs to find out why.

Another rock gets in her way, this one actually sending her to the ground. Kagome curses. Sesshoumaru stops long enough for her to pick herself up before continuing his walk.

The nerve of him. To actually walk ahead of her, as if she was his pet or something.

Degrading.

As soon as she gets some food into her mouth and some sleep, she is going to have a serious talk with him. He can't treat her like she is less, especially if they are going to help each other.

Kagome glares at his back.

She doesn't deserve this.

She's thought about it a lot, since she has no one to talk to, and she's finally come to the only conclusion.

This is some kind of nightmare, and eventually she'll wake up and Inuyasha will be alive and the well will still work.

Yeah. Right.

Sesshoumaru mumbles something about her slowing him down and Kagome wants to hit her head on a tree until she falls unconscious.

Except then Sesshoumaru would have to carry her, and wouldn't she have the fun of her life hearing him complain after she woke?

Maybe she could knock herself unconscious time after time so he doesn't get a chance to yell at her.

But she'd probably have permanent head damage, and her mom would not be happy with that.

Kagome can see her mother clearly, scolding her, telling her permanent head damage will do no good to her studies, which won't get her into a nice College…

And the well doesn't work. Her rightful time is forever closed to her. It doesn't matter if she knocks herself on the head until she becomes brain dead.

She's never going to see Mother again. Inuyasha is never coming back. Sango and Miroku will never smile at her again. Shippo and Rin will not grow up. Nothing she does is ever going to make this better. Nothing will make her whole ever again.

She fights to hide the wave of sadness that threatens to surround her. She needs to keep her feelings hidden form the world. She also needs to keep her exhaustion and hunger away. As if that is not enough, she has to keep her miko aura to the minimum. She supposes if miko are being target, she should not call more attention to herself. Doing all those things, however, are only making her more exhausted. It's just too much, with sensing and feeling, which she managed to perfect after the incident with the young youkai, but to have to hide herself…

She is used to be being an open book, and now she has to be a secured box.

What is she getting out of all this? Why is she doing this? Why does she get up in the mornings? What makes her keep following Sesshoumaru?

She has no idea.

She has no idea to why she is trying so hard to get something that will get her absolutely nothing except more tears and pain.

***

Sesshoumaru walks ahead of her.

He's always walking ahead of her. It is something he decided to do from the moment he stepped out of Kaede's hiding place and Kagome actually followed.

He will not walk behind her, no matter how much it makes sense, considering she's the one person that can find trouble standing in the middle of nowhere. Granted, nowadays, nowhere is the one place where you can find youkai trying to kill anything in sight, but still…

He will not walk behind her like her…dog, or servant, or guard. He is none of these things. The mere idea of being confused as one of those is just…

She is weak, human, and annoying. It took him a lot of effort to just get her to be the tiniest bit capable of defending herself. He can't believe he has sunken low enough that someone could confuse him as something related to her.

He will never walk behind her.

It's useful to have her for finding the stupid shard, and her chances of surviving would definitely grow if he were behind her, but he is not a desperate youkai. Sesshoumaru Taisho will never be a desperate youkai, no matter all the lands he somehow managed to lose, or all the people that died on his watch.

Or the little girl and green toad and his father's oldest servant.

Sesshoumaru's face tightens, his lips forming into a thin line as memories of times he now sees as happy flash through his mind.

Times when it was Rin and not Kagome at his side. Times when Naraku did not govern over the world and Sesshoumaru was still a Lord and chasing after his half brother for a sword he could not use and a revenge that didn't compare to this one.

Inuyasha's stain on the family's name was nothing compared to the one Naraku created.

How, exactly, did he manage to miss Naraku's growing strength? How could he let things get to the point where he had only a clumsy, weak human as his ally?

'She is not that stupid,' a small part of his mind tells him. 'And she is not nearly as weak as when she first woke up.'

Sesshoumaru mentally growls at the part of his self that has less sense. 'She is still a human.'

'Rin was a human'.

Sesshoumaru will not go there. He will not discuss with himself the obvious differences between Rin and Kagome. At the very top of the list, though, and Sesshoumaru makes sure to think this clearly, is the fact that Rin was not and would never have become a miko.

Clearly, being with Kagome is affecting his sanity because he does not recall ever having to discuss anything with himself.

What the world has come to.

The great Sesshoumaru with only a broken miko as his ally.

The Inu-youkai keeps walking ahead.

It's not like he needs to watch her to know what she is doing. He can feel and hear her. That is enough. Of course, if he could watch her on top of all the other things, he could prevent every fall she takes and they would actually move faster.

But that would require walking near her.

He still hasn't told her that is time to start looking for the shard. He has taught her all he could with what little patience he has. Besides, it is not like the world will wait for her to finish putting herself back together. For all he knows, it would explore before it happened.

Maybe Naraku would die of old age, and that would definitely not suit his plans for gory revenge.

Kagome trips again, cursing under her breath.

Sesshoumaru is about to just go find Naraku and beg him to end this torture.

Being with Kagome is one of the worst sentences he has ever experienced.

Kagome yelps, somehow managing to hit her face on a branch.

He refuses to walk with her.

He could never, would not ever...

He is not going to lower himself and actually pull the branches from her face and prevent her every fall.

He won't walk beside her.

It would put them on the same level. It would make them look…well, like allies, which he supposes they are, but a big part of Sesshoumaru still refuses to believe this is what his life of greatness and brilliance has sizzled to.

He refuses to walk beside the human that woke his half brother, the one human that is too stupid to fear him, died a couple of times, broken beyond the possibilities, probably never will mend, and is, regardless, going to fight Naraku. Help him destroy the hanyou.

He can't figure her out. She's a human, and that would have been enough, a couple of years back, to make him loathe her for just that. Rin, though, changed his view of humans, if just the tiniest bit, and he doesn't hate Kagome for being human, even if her species is far underneath youkai.

It's just that she still has the lingering smell of his half brother on her skin, following everywhere, as if by just existing, she is keeping the hanyou somewhat alive. She is alive when Rin is dead. Brought back from the undead with his very own hand, the one that killed his precious brat…

She is alive when she doesn't want to be alive, and Rin, Rin who was just starting to live, is dead, and she will never again be alive, and Kagome has so many gestures, so many things that are like Rin and not Rin at the same time. Rin died with eyes still shining with hope and trust in her eyes while Kagome lives with shadows in her eyes and a broken spirit.

'I have lost it all, too,' he thinks. 'Her excuse is not valid.'

His whole family is dead (even if he didn't care about most of them). His loss is as great as hers, if not worse. After all, he did fail in all of his responsibilities and lost everything his father worked to attain, and he still took the time to help the miko.

Even if he only did it because it was Rin's last wish and the promise he made to his half brother.

He rescued her, and now they walk without a destiny.

She is not ready for all they will encounter. He is not sure she has accepted her friend's loss. Yet, they need to find the last shard. This world will not stand more, and he feels like time has stopped. The world is not moving. His revenge is going nowhere. The miko will never be ready for what awaits them.

Sesshoumaru turns his head in the right angle to see her from the corner of his eyes, she's mumbling something, looking weird in her strange clothes, and stumbling every four steps.

He narrows his eyes. He has lived a fairly long time, but those clothes he has never seen. They do not belong to this place, to this time. Like her, they do not seem to fit anywhere, lost forever in their own web of complication. He walks faster, wondering where she is from.

Sometimes, when the edge of tension cuts through him for a few seconds, he feels like he's lost it all, but still has this world to conquer again, while she's lost all she knew.

Sometimes, this world does not seem like hers. That is stupid and impossible. He dislikes her for putting such absurd ideas on his head.

He keeps walking at a fast speed when he suddenly stops. She's not close enough. He turns around and doesn't see her, but he can smell her. He follows her scent, having to go back at least fifteen meters. He walks one more meter, stops dead in his tracks when he is about to step on her.

Sure enough, she is lying at his feet.

She's on the ground. Her hands are bleeding where they hit it. He doesn't understand how anyone can fall this much.

He sniffs the air, but it only carries a small scent of distress in it. He debates between staying where he is and waiting for her to pull herself up or just lifting her up and continuing their aimless walk.

He smells more, trying to feel her emotions in the air…

He doesn't get much of her. It's like she's hiding…

Her emotions and her real physical state, along with her miko aura.

She's been hiding so well that even he didn't catch on, and she only left the smallest amounts of miko aura around her for him not to suspect. It seems like she has been doing some training on her own.

He almost gives a satisfactory smile at the knowledge that she is not as useless as she seems. Almost. He decides to glare, instead, his eyes going a couple degrees lower. She's blocking everything she feels, all her emotions, which is great, except he doesn't know how she is, and they have been walking for hours without rest or food.

For a moment, and because she hid her emotions so well, he forgot humans didn't have the same capacity youkai did.

Reckless on his part. If they were attacked, she'd be too weak to be of any help. He sighs in resign and starts to lift her, but she surprises him by slapping his hand away.

He has never had his hand smacked away. Fury shows in his face. She needs to show him respect. No one dares turn down his help. Pathetic, good for nothing…

"Don't." She cuts his trail of thought. "Don't help me."

She puts her hands on the ground and tries to push herself up, but she falls again, groaning as she hits the ground. She is unable to raise her body. She is too exhausted. He starts to help her again.

"No!" she yells at him, blue orbs turning towards him, dancing with a fire he had not seen since Inuyasha died.

"You said it yourself," she bitterly spits. "I have to be strong. I have no one but myself."

Sesshoumaru, for one of the few moments in his life, is stunned. It doesn't show on his face, which is like a blank piece of paper, but the feeling of shock is in his interior, wondering what the hell is going on. He watches as she tries again and again to rise, but she can't. She keeps hitting the ground, and for the first time he actually wants to help her on his own accord…

Because she's trying.

She is not crying because she can't raise herself. She is not drowning in self pity or calling for Inuyasha or expecting someone to come help her. She's being strong, and something in him is…proud that she's trying, proud that she is finally doing something for her, that she is starting to fight back, to be a glimpse of the girl that once stood between Inuyasha and he without hesitation.

The stupid, careless girl he never paid attention to but was always an annoyance because of her will to do things she was not capable of, but still tried to do. Managed to do against all possibilities.

She's bleeding and starving, and he should have remembered how fragile a human is.

Finally, she's on her legs, but her knees are trembling. He's amazed she even managed to get herself up. He stays right where he is, respecting her wishes for the first time.

"I hid my tiredness and distress," she explains. Her blue eyes look towards the ground. Her face is red with all the effort she is putting into just standing up. "I am not weak. I can't be weak. I can't…can't afford to be weak."

Her legs are going to give away any moment now. She tries to raise her head, and it's as if that movement is the last straw and breaks her body. Her knees finally give away and the hard ground gets closer to her…

He catches her before she falls.

"You are exhausted." His hands are at her waist, steadying her. Her scent is starting to reflect her emotions. She is losing control of her careful composure.

"I'm fine," she says, a tone of annoyance reaching her voice.

His eyes get a hint of humor for the first time since this whole thing started. "Really?" He lets go of his hold on her, and she is quickly falling…

"Completely unfair," she says, trying to start a discussion even now. "That was so unnecessary."

"It was to prove a point."

"Aha, like I believe that."

He is amazed she has the guts to talk back to him, especially with how tired she is, and he is talking to her, helping her, holding her so she won't fall.

He has absolutely no idea of why he is doing any of these things, and he has no time to dwell on them now. He has to figure out if they should set camp or continue. Her blood is on the ground. It will attract youkai he can't fight without exposing her. Staying is not wise, but he does not see how she will manage to walk far enough to put a respectful distance between them and this spot…

Without thinking, he picks her up, bridal style, which of course he doesn't know is bridal style or he would let her fall on the ground and walk away. Kagome, however, does know, and her first instinct is to try to get away from his hold.

"What are you doing?" she says, turning red for reasons beyond him. He ignores her whines.

"This way we don't waste time." Not that they have anywhere to go, but he remembers that, in her condition, a confrontation will not be good. She will only make a nuisance out of herself and get killed while trying to help. He'd carry her on his back, but she is too weak to hold still.

He can't believe he is truly going to do this. Of all the situations he imagined he could one day find himself into, this is not even on the list.

Carrying his half brother's almost miko?

Most definitely not. He had plans to not even walk by her side.

Sesshoumaru has the sudden urge to roll his eyes at her and all her talking.

"But…"

He hushes her by lifting off into the air.

***

Of all the things Kagome expected Sesshoumaru to do, which go from him breaking the pact and killing her to simply walking away, this is the one thing she never would have thought could happen.

She didn't want his help, couldn't afford his help because Kagome knows herself, and the minute she took it, then she would start relaying more on Sesshoumaru, like she once relayed on his younger brother.

Sesshoumaru is no Inuyasha.

So when Sesshoumaru comes to her side and gives her his hand, she has to push it away. A moment later, she wonders exactly why Sesshoumaru is offering his help. Did he hit himself? No, that is just ridiculous. Did someone use magic on him while she was falling?

That is even more ridiculous.

Why would anyone make Sesshoumaru a caring person? Oh, God, maybe this is just one of Naraku's plans, and now Sesshoumaru is going to say something cruel and end what Naraku started…again.

Kagome looks through her bangs at Sesshoumaru's face. To her surprised, there is no malice in his facade, and his eyes are as cold as always. In fact, his face is blank, like it has been since, eh, always. Nothing is wrong with him. He does not move from where he is, and Kagome just knows his help is still there for her to take.

She won't accept it. She may not know why she is doing all she is doing, but accepting Sesshoumaru's help right now will only bring her back to self-pity.

She needs to start being strong for just…herself.

If she can do that, if she can start doing things just because, then maybe, just maybe, she'll find the reason why she is doing all this.

There has to be one.

Revenge isn't really one of them. She knows what revenge does to people. She watched it consume Kikyo. Naraku became a monster because of it. Sesshoumaru…

She has no idea of what vengeance will do to Sesshoumaru. The youkai is hard to read, and besides, nothing works the way it is supposed to when it comes to Sesshoumaru. All Kagome knows is that payback is not for her.

Sure, she will enjoy bringing Naraku down, if they ever manage to do that, but it is not the reason why she is trying. She is angry, scared, and dull, but revenge will not bring back any of her friends. It will not bring her love. It will not make the ache in her chest leave. The nightmares she has will not just vanish.

She will get nothing out of revenge.

Kagome fights her own body as she tries to raise herself. She is so tired and hungry. The control over her emotions is slipping. She can't feel her body. Her hands bleed, which is bad because it means they will have to walk far more just to get away from here.

'Great Kagome.' She silently scowls herself. 'Just look what you did. Couldn't you fall down without bleeding?'

"Don't," she tells him. "Don't help me."

She plants her hands on the ground and tries to push herself up, but she falls again, groaning as she hits the ground. He starts to help her again, and she is so surprised, for a moment she actually thinks about accepting his help.

Except she can't. She has to do this on her own.

"No," she says firmly, turning her eyes towards him. She is angry, now. And tired. She is so tired she could forget about the hunger. "You said it yourself," she says, locking away all thoughts of people always helping her.

Of times when the Feudal Era was dangerous, but not to this extreme.

Not to the point that every person they meet is a potential enemy and killing is beginning to become instinct in her. "I have to be strong," she says. It is the truth. Whatever awaits her, whichever reason she has for doing this, being strong is her only chance. "I have no one but myself."

Because, for the first time in her life, she truly is all alone. There is no one she can talk to at night. No one to lay her shoulder on and cry for the loss of her friends. No one to chat with at the fire. She has no companion because, really, Sesshoumaru doesn't count. He barely talks to her. He will never care for her. He is just… an ally, and they are in this together because she won't make it to Naraku on her own, and he will never find the stupid, last shard without her help.

She hates being a shard detector. She hated it when it was for Inuyasha, and she thinks she might loathe it more now that it is for Sesshoumaru.

Does he even have feelings?

Except he is looking at her with not-so cold eyes, but eyes that are intense and curious, almost…Kagome banishes the thought from her mind. There is no way, no way in this world, that Sesshoumaru will have warmth in those eyes, especially directed at her. He hates her, pure and simple. Kagome…well, she just…

Sesshoumaru is just someone she would never care for. Respect, of course, he is Sesshoumaru Taisho, Lord or no Lord, Sesshoumaru is just someone you respect.

Care for? Ha, right.

Kagome inhales deeply and goes back to the task at hand.

Some tries later, she is finally on her feet.

She can already tell it will not last for long. Her knees shake. They won't hold her. She suppresses the urge to groan. What will happen when she falls again? She knows she won't be able to raise herself once more.

Sesshoumaru is so going to kill her.

No matter that he offered his help, he is going to kill her the moment she falls again. Maybe she should have made him sign the pact with blood?

"I hid my tiredness and distress," she starts saying, not really sure why she is doing this at all. Her eyes stay firmly on the ground. "I am not weak," she says. Oh, God, why is she telling all these things to the one youkai that doesn't give a damn? Even Naraku would be more interested. "I can't be weak. I can't…can't afford to be weak." She raises her head to see Sesshoumaru, Kagome closes her eyes and lets her knees give away and finally bring her to the ground…

She never hits it. Instead, she finds herself with Sesshoumaru's hands at her waist. He is holding her close, keeping her from falling.

And isn't this a new turn of events? She should reconsider her theory of someone using magic on him.

"You are exhausted," he says in a low voice. She is so close to him she can feel the vibrations of his voice run from his body to hers. A shiver would travel through her body has she the strength.

"I'm fine," she says, annoyed. How dare he know how she feels?

His eyes shine with something Kagome does not like at all. "Really?" His hands are removed. The ground suddenly looks closer…and then his hands are once more securing her.

"Completely unfair," she mumbles, beginning to feel like starting a fight. Sesshoumaru so brings the worst out of her. "That was so unnecessary."

"It was to prove a point."

"Aha, like I believe that."

And suddenly, without any warning or anything, she is lifted into Sesshoumaru's arms. Bridal Style. By Sesshoumaru.

Maybe she has become mentally retarded and this is just her imagination. But why, oh why, does her mind have to play these kinds of tricks with her? And why does her body have to betray her and show her embarrassment? She just knows her face is beyond flushed. Maybe she did bang her head against a tree and forgot.

It was such a horrible idea.

"What are you doing?"

He ignores her, like expected.

"This way we don't waste time."

Trust Sesshoumaru to have a practical answer for everything.

"But…"

Her protests are lost in her throat as Sesshoumaru takes off into the air.

And Kagome…

Kagome can feel the memory of Inuyasha, memories she has tried to keep as far away from her mind as she possibly could, but now they comeback, hitting her full force. There's the memory of Inuyasha carrying her in her mind. His laughter, the way his eyes would shine, and the tremendous courage he had.

The way he never loved her, no matter how much she tried to be everything he could ever wish for.

The way he cared for her, put her safety above his.

She can almost feel his warm body and smell his scent. She wonders if it's worse to have Sesshoumaru carry her like this or if the memories would hurt more, make her burn, if she was at his back.

She has to fight back the tears, concentrate on keeping away, but…

The idiot always did have a tendency to annoy and make her cry, even when he wasn't in her presence.

Inuyasha, Inuyasha, Inuyasha…

Kagome closes her eyes, lets her sorrow surround her, and damn it all, it is not Inuyasha carrying her. It will never be Inuyasha carrying her. He is gone, taken away from her before she could completely stop loving him.

Kagome is consumed by pain, lost in desperation, in complete agony because it is not Inuyasha carrying her, but Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru, and not Inuyasha, and fuck irony.


Well, I'm getting them back on their feet. Ad they are interacting more, and of course they have a LONG way to go. But hey, I have a lot of things prepared for you (ok, some, because the story changes as I write it, but I do have some things planned out). So, keep reading, and review! You know I love reviews.