Disclaimer: This is based on "Inuyasha" by Rumiko Takahashi. No copyright infringement intended or implied.
Danger
She had thought it was safe. She could not let herself be human. He was not allowed to be human. She set apart from her kind by power and responsibility. He was an outcast, born of two bloods and accepted by neither.
Both lonely: why not make common cause? He was not evil, though motivated with a foolish, dark desire: he was capable of good.
What harm, then, to her duty and responsibility to remain pure, to keep her ability to purify the Shikon No Tama? What harm, to reach out the hand of friendship to the outcast who had saved her sister; who had let a tiny girl pet his ears? What harm, to make a foe into a battle comrade?
But this--! She was a miko, disciplined in thought and deed to never to dwell on the thought that she was a woman. He was an outcast: repulsive, forbidden.
But, what she had seen in the early light, in the glow of silver and gold, was the figure of an incredibly beautiful, handsome, young man. A figure that had made her breath catch; that had made her skin tingle and had made her realize with a rush of blood to her face that she was not a girl, she was not a miko--
She was a woman.
And he was a man.
It could not be allowed.
The jewel glittered, as yet untouched her desire. She knelt before the altar, meditating, resolved to bury the dangerous and unworthy desire, before it became a danger. Purifying and keeping safe the Shikon No Tama was all and everything: nothing must be allowed to threaten her purpose. Nothing.
If her heart wept, she refused to hear.
If the jewel heard, perhaps it laughed.
Author's Note: This drabble was originally posted in the Wilted Rose community on LiveJournal, on May 15th, 2009. It placed first.