Title: Seeking Answers

Author: Priestess Skye

Genre: General

Pairing: Kag/Sess, Platonic I guess

Rating: G

Canon/AU: Canon

Warnings: Implied Character death

Word Count: 511 – I really tried, I did, I managed to cut out 60 words!

Written for Forthright's Second Annual Halloween Drabble Challenge

Theme: Masquerade

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Watching her, he felt his lips curl up in a grin. Hiding in the shadows he went unnoticed as she wove in and out of the crowds, pretending to be inconspicuous. But he knew who she was. No disguise could cover up what she truly was.

An oddity.

A miko in a world of demons.

The others were beginning to suspect, as he saw their noses rise to the air indiscreetly to scent her out.

More stared as they followed the path she left behind.

Her pace quickened and Sesshoumaru slipped out of the shadows, ready to intercept her.

"Miko," his eyes bore down on hers and he smirked as he saw her pulse increase.

He allowed his hand to rest on the small of her back as he led her toward a small room in the back. "You are not wanted here," he growled low in her ear, so as not to let others hear lest he want to give her away.

Breathing quickly she turned to him. "I don't want to stay. I'm only here for answers and then I'll go."

"Answers to what question?"

"Simple. Why? That day on the battlefield you held in your hand a weapon that could have saved Inuyasha. And yet you stayed it. Why?"

The tears started to pool in her eyes as she looked at him, and he felt his heart crack just slightly. Steadying his emotions, he reminded himself as to his intentions at the time.

"You waited five hundred years and risked life and limb in a village of youkai, who could care less about humans just to ask me that question?"

"I do not call it a risk when I have taken precautions to hide my identity." She gestured to the garb she was wearing, causing him to snort.

"Your aura alone screams human. If it weren't for my intervention a moment ago you would have been dead."

"So then I'd get to join him," she snapped, her brown eyes flashing with fire.

Sighing, he gestured to a seat in the room. "You want to know why, the answer is simple. He didn't want to be saved."

"What?"

"The hanyou didn't want to be saved," he repeated. "He knew he could never choose between you and the dead priestess, so he asked that he not be saved at all to save him the choice."

Tears began to spill over her eyes and he resisted the urge to wipe them away. "Coward," she mused. "Where does this leave me?"

"Wherever you want to be," he advised, as he took her hand to lead her back out the door. "Learn from the past and grow from it. There is more to life than suffering fools. The best thing you could do now is live."

Opening a back door, he gestured to a safe passage out. Closure, he thought, watching her leave. It was remarkable the change it incurred in humans. Turning his back to her retreating form, he joined the festivities, knowing there were going to be questions to him later.

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Disclaimer: Kagome, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru do not belong to me, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi