Catch the Wind

Kagura blinked fiercely forbidding the tears that stung the corners of her eyes. Deliberately, she rubbed the sores on her neck reliving the pain and hoping to revive the anger. Anger was better than pitiful, weak sadness. Naraku didn't crumble at tears – she scrubbed knuckles across her face – at least rage is what that creature deserved.

"You've been doing your job well," a silken voice drawled from where the slimy tentacle retreated. "Why the attitude still?"

Kagura stiffened. How badly she wanted to show him a real attitude, this sadistic bastard who got his kicks abusing her.

"Smile, dear," came the mocking tone. "You're so much the prettier when you do."

It was no small effort to sculpt her mouth into a flat line, but when she heard the tentacle slither across the floor again her lips curled more readily.

Just picture his slow, agonizing death, Kagura thought. Imagine how he'll be the one to go down screaming.

"There's a wench." Broken-glass laughter tinged her spine. "You may go now, dear."

Slow and screaming was her mantra as she made for the exit.

Naraku smiled cruelly, watching Kagura soar off.

How much longer could the treacherous little witch provide amusement?

He stroked the pulsing organ fluttered in his clutch like a frightened, helpless bird.

Indeed, how much?

--

The demon's burning ocher gaze cut through the darkness and fell upon his retainer's sleeping form. Making slightly less noise than a night owl, Sesshomaru retrieved the jyaki detector. He fingered it pensively, was this little crystal to be trusted? Kagura had given it to him and, no matter her voiced abhorrence, she was Naraku's underling. In the daiyokai's logic that meant the woman would do as told.

But she is rather persistent, continuously going to such great lengths; does she need my aid so desperately?

He remembered asking her if she wanted to use him.

"No one else is strong enough to defeat Naraku."

Kagura's response had been roundabout but – Sesshomaru tilted his head – honest. In all his years, few who knew better had ever been straightforward with the daiyokai.

Or so coy with flattery.

Often any praise was heaped upon the Western Lord in nauseating bulk. They usually wanted something – favor, protection, alligiance – and the stench of their pretenciousness made his nose crinkle. Yet Kagura's scent had never wavered with her adulation.

So then she really believes her own words?How can she be so naïve?

Sesshomaru remembered Rin's innocent remark after their last encounter.

"But I think she likes Lord Sesshomaru!"

"A child's talk." The daiyokai prepared to drop the shard back into Jaken's lap when a sudden magnetism compelled him to wrap his fingers more tightly around it. The jyaki detector gleamed with the approach of another demon.

Summoning his own shimmering nebula of power, Sesshomaru took to the skies. He knew this yokai – and her piquant scent.

Kagura didn't need eyes in the back of her head to tell her that there was company. "Get lost," she huffed.

"I, Sesshomaru, take orders from no one."

"Wish I could say the same," Kagura grumbled to herself, almost completely absorbed in some sort of past conversation.

The daiyokai was grateful that she never saw the rare disbelief that distorted his features. No one could ever tie him down. They could try to deceive him, but they would never coerce this Sesshomaru. Surely this lady with that rebellious flare in her eyes felt likewise. Only one means to find out; Sesshomaru would have to test it.

"Hey, you've been awfully quiet back there," Kagura said, the gruffness ill-concealed. When there was no response, she swerved on her plume only to stare at Sesshomaru's billowing hakama. "What the hell?" She looked a little lower and saw the expected swirling cloud of yoki. Was he trying to outdo her? Kagura increased her altitude until she was the one leering down. She scoffed. "You're such an arrogant dog."

Sesshomaru's reply wasn't with words, he just flew higher.

"Hey!" She scaled the air again only to be overtaken moments later.

Kagura wasn't sure how long they went on like that; she soared above him, then he ascended enough to make her smaller. She smirked and fired off her mouth and Sesshomaru…just kept that damn, phlegmatic expression. But then, no matter how many times this odd dance repeated, he made no inclination to stop either.

The wind witch cruised below for a bit, then climbed slightly, subtly until she was just one head above her competitor. Sesshomaru didn't seem to notice this time, but when Kagura glanced back he was right beside her and met her eye to eye – not higher or lower.

"Well, this is better." Kagura turned to face the dog-demon, but he simply stared straight ahead. There might have escaped a soft "huh" from his throat or that could have just been her desire for some kind of response or another from the statue with fur. She couldn't stand the silence much longer and blurted, "You could at least stop looking at me like you want me."

Slowly, Sesshomaru turned his gaze to rest on her. Amber eyes slid from her face and wandered lazily down to the wisps of her plume. Looking back up, he spoke softly and carefully. "I should be man enough to state what I want."

Kagura's jaw crashed to her chest and Sesshomaru seized the opportunity to fly higher.

"So…what…you actually…?"

"I never said anything so specific," trailed the reply from somewhere above.

Collecting herself, the wind sorceress' eyebrows crossed together in willful defiance. "But you just said – "

"Believe what you will," Sesshomaru cut her off.

Kagura brooded in her own space of the stratosphere for a minute. When she looked up…He was so close! Those warm, smoldering eyes peered close with slitted pupils dialating wider. His hot breath smelled delicious and Kagura dreamed to suck it in. She felt the base beneath her shrink, like the world was falling away. And it was. Kagura gasped realizing a second too late she'd lost all control of her feather!

She yelped, but before she could squeeze her eyes shut the solid support returned. Surprise suspended all coherent thought; the strength in that one arm was tremendous.

Sesshomaru jostled his load a bit, she was clutching too tightly to his mane, but the perplexity of her scent bid him closer. Without warning, he buried his nose into her stomach and Kagura was terribly aware of how her breasts rested on his head. Somehow the wind witch doubted anyone had ever gotten this close to Sesshomaru before.

"Hey, whoa there! What do you think you're – ?"

Before she could protest further, Sesshomaru resurfaced, impassive as ever and her feather between his teeth.

"Uhh…thanks," Kagura mumbled, plucking out her plume. She sat there awkwardly for a second until Sesshomaru curtly ordered, "Get off."

Quickly the wind witch conjured her feather to full-size again and scrambled aboard, anxious to escape his suddenly stern gaze.

"It's getting late," she abruptly stated, staring off to the sinking moon in the west.

"Hmm," Sesshomaru droned distractedly.

"I'm going." Kagura had perfectly composed by now. "Later."

"Take care."

A disconnected pulse skipped a beat and hands clutched for the feather. "How's that?"

Sesshomaru glared at her askance. "How's what?"

Kagura made a speedy recovery. "Nothing. Must be the wind."

A mistral howled dolefully over the dog-demon. Went it died he stared in the same direction. Sesshomaru's gaze didn't waver until Kagura was a speck among many stars, but the scent he'd tried memorizing tingled his nose again. He snorted.

Of course, it could only be the wind.

--

A/N: Updated at last, I swear I'll finish this set by the end of the year! So how was the chapter? Dear reader, you have no idea how tempting it was to write a kiss scene into this chapter. As it is I think I was pushing the envelope with the physical contact; did that work out or was it too out of character even for Sesshomaru? Does anyone want a kiss in this? Critique always appreciated.