Yeah, said it would be a while, not that it hasn't, but I was watching Inuyasha and was inspired for a new chapter!… wholly crap, is it really chapter 20 already? Jeebus! But yes, after this chapter I need to finish watching the Final Act. I was hoping it would be on tv by now, but nooo, so I watched two eps online, even though that's harder for me to get what just happened in the episodes but its better than nothing. Anyway, on with the chapter! Oh, and if you haven't watched up to episode 2 of the Final Act, then this chapter has spoilers.!

Disclaimer; I do not own the Inuyasha series. If I did, well… it probably wouldn't have been as awesome.

Chapter 20—

"Wow, it's a good thing we found this place!" Rin said as she looked at the abandoned mountain-shack they'd just found. "Or else we'd have to stay out in the rain," she said, closing the shutter on the small window. It was still raining; hard. Every once in a while thunder would boom from somewhere further up the mountain.

San rung the sleeves of her kimono out. "Rin, would you grab some of the wood in the corner for me, so we can make a fire?" she asked.

"Sure!"

After she'd gotten a good fire going, San leaned back up against the wall, accidentally dumping her bag over.

"Oops…" she muttered.

Rin noticed something silver poking out of a case that had fallen from San's bag. Out of curiosity, she crawled over and grabbed it.

"What's this?" she asked, holding the long silver object.

"Hmm, oh that, it's a flute that my mother gave me," she said. "I haven't played it for a while now…"

Rin's eyes lit up. "Would you play a song for me?"

San looked a bit taken back. "W-well I guess, I cou—"

"Yay!" Rin shuffled over on her knees to sit beside San, handing her the flute.

Sesshomaru looked on quietly from the opposite corner of the room, his arm crossed over his stomach, resting on his belt as he stood.

San licked her lips a bit nervously as she adjusted the flute to the right position below her lip, trying to get her fingers in the right spots, closing her eyes in concentration. Rin stared at her expectantly. Jaken just huffed in the corner, muttering about how this was stupid.

When she began to play, she filled the small hut with a soft, yet pronounced tune (think of something similar to Josh Groban's 'You Raise Me Up'). The music flowed peacefully through the room. Sesshomaru thought of the first time he'd heard her play. It seemed so long ago…

When the song was finished, San glanced down to see Rin asleep on her lap. She smiled kindly at the small girl, stroking her head before putting the instrument away. Trying not to wake Rin, she reached over to grab one of the old dusty pillows from the corner, patting some of the dust off be fore setting it on the floor and adjusting her self so she lay on it, Rin still cuddled up to her.

San glanced up at Sesshomaru, who was now staring out the window at the stormy night.

"Umm… g-good night…Sesshomaru…" she said quietly. He looked over at her, and she could have sworn for a moment there, his expression was almost surprised, but it went back to his bored look so fast she figured she'd imagined it.

He grunted in response, then returned his focus to the window.

San gazed at him for a moment longer, her cheeks getting slightly warm as she admired the way his silver hair reflected the gold light from the fire.

'Stalker…' the voice in her head spoke.

"Am not..!" she barked back at him, pinching her forehead. He screamed with pain.

'OW! Don't do that!' She smirked.

The girl glanced at the silver-haired demon once more, before her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

Sesshomaru sat in the silence, listening to the steady breathing of the sleeping people in the room around him. After a while, the fire burned down, so that only the smoldering embers lit the room with a dark yellow-orange glow. Sesshomaru stared a the fire pit, as the burnt ashes tried to re-light themselves with every small breeze that gave them power to burn a little brighter, and then die again when the breeze was gone.

San and Rin's shivering made him look over.

Both girls where shaking. He hadn't really even noticed that when the fire went out the hut had become far to cold for a human. He ignored Jaken who was also shivering.

Standing up from his little corner, Sesshomaru grabbed a blanket from the corner, shook out some of the dust, and gently laid it over the two girls, who immediately stopped shaking. He stared at them for a long moment.

Rin was gripping San's kimono top, and she in turn had her arm laid gently over Rin, in a protective way.

San took in a long breath and her eyes fluttered open. She slowly looked up at Sesshomaru who still hovered over them. Her face turned red. San reached over and grabbed another pillow and threw it at him. He easily caught it.

"Why the hell are you watching us sleep you pervert!" San whisper/yelled.

Sesshomaru thought for a second. He didn't know why he was watching them sleep. Throwing the pillow back to its dusty corner, he jumped over the fire pit and sat back in his corner, faced slightly away from them, fighting the heat that threatened to come up to his cheeks.

San laid her head back on the pillow, angrily, cuddling up to the blanket.

Wait… blanket? That hadn't been there when she'd fallen asleep.

She glanced back up at Sesshomaru, then at the blanket again.

''Oh… I guess he… was just putting the blanket over us...'' she thought.

'No, he was watching you sleep too,' the voice said frankly.

She pinched her forehead before falling asleep again.

The next morning, San walked out into the fresh air, stretching and taking a long breath of rain-smelling air.

"Storm cleared up nicely," she said to her self, as she walked down to the small creek near the shack to wash her face.

As she splashed the cool water on her face she heard something in the bushes in front of her. She tensed, ready to jump or fight, when two small children came running through the bushes, laughing. They both slid to a stop when the saw her.

San smiled at them. "Hello, I didn't know there were others this far up the mountain."

The younger looking of the two—a small girl with dirty blond hair—quickly ran and hid behind the young boy, who had black wavy hair; he stuck his arm out protectively.

San noticed the purple stripes under the boy's misty blue eyes.

"A-are you two…?" Just then she heard someone else coming through the bushes.

"Kenkotsu? Where did you two go?" a familiar woman with black hair stumbled out of the bushes. "Oh, there you are!"

The children ran and hid behind the woman.

"What's wrong?" she said looking at them. The boy pointed at San. The woman looked over at the girl with a surprised look on her face. "Hey, aren't you…San, wasn't it?"

San stood up. "Uh, yeah, and you're Mitsuki, right?"

"Yep," the woman said smiling warmly.

The small boy looked up. "Mama, you know this strange lady?"

"Ah, yes, I met her—"

Two more women stumbled out of the brush, one with long black hair that flowed elegantly past her waist, and the other with even longer silver hair that was back in a braid.

"Sin?"

"San?"

The children giggled.

Sin turned to shake a finger at them. "Hey, don't laugh at how similar our names are."

"So this is the famous 'San'?" the woman with long black hair said, crossing her arms. The small girl ran and latched onto the woman's leg through her elegant kimono. She smiled down at her. "I'm sorry, she's just a bit shy."

"You've heard of me?" San said surprised.

"Yes, Sin has told us much about you." That's when San noticed the small hourglass that hung on a chain from the woman's obi (big boelt/bow thing on a woman's kimono). Then she noticed that Sin had the same one around her neck, and Mitsuki had one hanging from her belt. "I'm Karada by the way."

"N-nice to meet you," San said.

Sin knelt down to the small girl. "Ozume, its alright, San is nice. She won't hurt you," she said soothingly. The small girl tugged at one of the braids that hung in front of her ears, in a nervous fashion. She looked up at the stranger.

San smiled kindly. "Hello there."

Ozume yelped, and hid her face in her mother's kimono. The small boy, Kenkotsu, ran over and stood in front of the small girl, a stern look on his face.

Sin sighed. "Don't you think you're a bit over protective of Ozume, eh, Kenkotsu?"

"I wont let anything hurt her," he said stubbornly.

"That doesn't really answer my question…" Sin stood up and looked behind San. "Aren't you going to say 'hi', Mr. Puppy-Pants?" she asked.

Every one looked to see Sesshomaru sitting on a tree branch behind San. His fluff dangled from the other side of the tree, swaying in the breeze. Ozume zeroed in on said fluff.

"Oh, so this is one of your baby-brothers!" Karada said, putting her hands together.

Sesshomaru shot her a death-glare.

"Oh, he is a bit cranky, isn't he?" Mitsuki said. The three demon-women giggled.

Karada looked down at her leg. "Where'd Ozume go?"

Everyone looked around, trying to find the small girl. They heard a giggle, and everyone looked to Sesshomaru's shoulder, where the child was latched onto his fluff.

Sesshy was caught so off guard that if he spoke much, he probably would have said something along the lines of; "WHAT THE F—?"

But no, Sesshomaru is too cool for that. So he just went wide-eyed and fell out of the tree. But don't worry; he's much to cool to fall on his face. So he landed on his ass.

But he moved so fast to his feet that no one really noticed.

He stared at the small creature that now sat on his shoulder. She looked at him and giggled.

"Fluffy!"

Everyone laughed, except Sesshomaru and little Kenkotsu. Sesshomaru carefully reached up and grabbed the girl by the collar of her shirt then set her on the ground. When she turned to try and attack his fluff again he held out his foot, keeping her away as her forehead ran right into his shoe. She reached out and still tried to run against his foot. She stopped and fell on the ground, looking up at Sesshomaru with a pleading look.

"…No…" he said coldly.

Ozume started to cry. Kenkotsu quickly ran over to her side.

"Jerk!" he yelled at Sesshomaru.

"Aw, Fluffy-kins, you made her cry!" San said, putting her hands on her hips.

"…What did you just—,"

"Well, its time we left. Nice seeing you again," Mitsuki said, picking up both children.

"Oh, bye," San said. After they were gone she stared at the same spot for a moment. "Well that was… random…"

Sesshomaru turned and started walking down the mountain.

"Oh, I'll be there after I've gotten my stuff," San said.

"We won't wait," he said.

"Pft, thanks," she said sarcastically. She watched him leave, and a smile crept its way onto her face as she bit her lower lip.

'So, when ya gonna tell him?' the voice asked.

''Tell him what?''

'Fine, act stupid.'

San just shook her head as she went to the shack to gather her things. It took her longer than she thought, seeing as some one –cough-Jaken-cough- had knocked over her back and scattered its contents across the floor. Once she was finished she rushed down the mountain path to catch up with Sesshomaru, Rin, Jaken and Ah-Un.

She found them sitting along the river bank along with someone else.

"Sesshomaru, why is there a half-naked woman sitting over there?" she asked pointing at the woman who's top half of her kimono wasn't on. The woman turned to reveal her red eyes. "You…were outside the village last night…"

Kagura smirked, then pulled out the feather from her hair and flew off with a large gust of wind.

San heard Rin say something about Kagura being secretly in love with Sesshomaru. She suddenly became very angry, but didn't really know why.

'It's called jealousy, sweetheart,' her demon-voice said.

She pinched her forehead to shut him up.

That night San tossed and turned in her sleep. Voices, not like the usual one, echoed in her head;

'…Those you love…'

'I c-curse you wretched humans…'

'..Forced to live alone…'

'…all of them…will die!'

'You're running out of time…'

She woke up with a start, breathing heavily, breaking into a cold sweat.

The small group walked down the path. Sesshomaru stopped in front of a cave. He was soon engaged in battle with the demon Moryomaru.

San watched along side Rin and Jaken, never taking her eyes off of Sesshomaru. The voices from her dreams kept echoing in her head.

''Please…not yet…'' she thought.

Sesshomaru defeated Moryomaru, breaking his sword. Instead of going back to Rin, San and Jaken, he flew off.

Without really thinking, worry clouding her mind, San ran after him.

''Please let him be alright..!'' she repeated in her head, over and over again.

It took her several minutes to catch up with him, but when she did, she found him standing in the middle of a field of flowers, in front of him was the woman Kagura. She was fading away with the wind. San walked up behind him, and reached him just as the woman completely dissolved away. Inuyasha and his friends came up behind them.

San didn't really hear what they said, she just stared at Sesshomaru, searching for any sign of a fatal injury. She found none, but still wasn't convinced. She followed Sesshomaru to the other side of the field, Inuyasha and friends already having left.

San stopped, and clenched her fists. Then she ran up and hugged Sesshomaru from behind. He half stumbled as the girl's arms wrapped around his armor-clad waist.

"Are you okay…?" she asked, her voice cracking a bit. "Just… just tell me you aren't hurt…" she said, digging her face into his silver hair.

Sesshomaru looked over his shoulder at the girl, a surprised look on his face. He looked at her hands which were balled up into trembling fists. He gently laid a hand on hers.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure…?" she whispered.

"No pitiful demon incarnation of Naraku's could injure me," he said.

San sighed with relief. Then she realized what she was doing. She quickly let go of Sesshomaru and took several steps back.

"Well, uh, should we go meet up with Rin and Jaken?" she said nervously, walking ahead of him.

Sesshomaru smirked. "Very well."

End of random chapter!

Well, that turned out a lot longer than I thought. Hopefully I can figure out what to do for the next chapters. I kinda have to rethink this next part, since the show ruined one of my ideas… -_-'' but I'll try and update as quickly as possible. This week is my last week of freedom before school starts, so…yeah. REVIEW!