It was dark when I woke, and I wasn't in my room. I froze as I tried to put together what had happened, where I was.
Sleep dragged at me, pulling me back towards its depths so I sat up pushing aside the blankets that weighed me down. My arms were heavy as I moved, and my muscles ached like I'd worked them harder yesterday than I have ever before.
The floor was cold against my feet when I stood up, and I let the chill wake me as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The room had only the bed and a wardrobe, the shape of which I could just make out on the far wall. Aside from me, the room was empty and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Safe for the moment I stopped to consider how I had ended up here. Shippou, I'd healed him – or tried to, and then Kouga had. Had what? Misunderstood? Had forced me into a panic attack unknowingly? I could still smell him on my skin, mingling with the lingering smell of Sesshoumaru. That was wrong it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't have happened. I couldn't let Sesshoumaru find out. I had broken, fallen to his charm, but if he knew what I had done with Kouga, what I had led the dark haired man to believe… I would lose Sesshoumaru.
I don't think I could bear that now, not after that taste of what I could have.
I am weak.
"I need a bath." I told myself, shaking the thoughts from my head. I walked to the door before I realized that all I was wearing was a slip. Someone must have grabbed it so that I would have something to sleep in, but that left me now without clothing. I could have cursed. I turned back to the bed, I could sleep more, I still felt the heavy arms of sleep beckoning to me, but that would put me back at the mercy of anyone who knew I was here.
I paced between the door and the bed, examining my situation. Kouga could be the one looking after me, he is the assistant to Mitsuki after all, and he would have easily been able to convince the others that he knew what was needed to care for me.
That would be bad. Here I was naked but for the slip someone had dressed me in, with the man who had almost – I couldn't even think the word, but it didn't matter. I couldn't stay here, not without knowing who might come to find me here.
How could I leave though? How could I wander the halls dressed like this? Inviting anyone to look, to notice that the scent of two different men lingered on my skin, and that if nothing else sounded like an invitation for trouble.
I turned to the door again, walking the same path as before, but this time when I arrived at the door it opened. I screamed then, a startled sound that faded to silence as I scrambled away from the door, tripping over my own feet in my haste and crashing to the floor.
My wings fluttered behind me, softening my fall without thought, but that didn't matter because even as I fell I realized my mistake.
Golden eyes met mine from across the room. He looked angry again, despite his disheveled hair and wrinkled pants. I couldn't help but stare at him. He had obviously been asleep, and that wasn't what surprised me. No it was what he wore, or rather didn't wear to sleep in that held my attention. His silver hair fell about his bare shoulders long and loose as ever, framing his body and drawing my eyes down to his hips where the low slung material of the pants he wore cut across his stomach – just barely revealing the v-shaped muscles on one side.
He ran a long fingered hand through his hair drawing my attention back up to his face rather than his body.
"This Sesshoumaru frightens you." I shook my head and he sighed, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him. Apprehension tightened my stomach, and quickened the pace of my heart. He lingered in the doorway a moment before settling against the wall one knee pulled to his chest.
"But you are frightened all the same." He propped his head on his hand, resting his elbow on his raised knee. The better to see me with, I suppose.
I couldn't argue with that. I wasn't scared of him, I was scared of what it would be to lose him.
"What is it that you fear so greatly if not this Sesshoumaru? This one can sense your terror from across the room."
"You startled me." I told him, which was true, but mostly because I thought he was Kouga. My heart was slowly resuming a normal pace, and I calmed down enough to realize that I was still sprawled on the floor as I had fallen. I was still mostly naked, too. I moved then, kneeling in seiza as I was accustomed to, though I kept my knees pressed closely together.
He watched me in silence, waiting until I was settled before he spoke again.
"Kouga wishes to take this Sesshoumaru's place looking after you until you are recovered."
"No!" The word burst from my lips before he was done speaking and I regretted it the instant that it was said. Just the thought of him coming near me again, of what might happen if he did… it sent me into a panic.
My heart picked up its rapid tempo once more, pounding against my chest as though it might tear free. I gasped for breath even as I realized I was over reacting, realized that there was nothing to fear in this instant. It didn't matter though, panic isn't rational, and I couldn't control it any more than I could control the people who caused it.
I was too weak.
That was what brought tears to my eyes. I was not strong enough to fight the part of my mind that replayed these horrible things over and over, that made my heart race and constricted my throat with fear that had no origin in reality.
"Kagome." The sound of my name chased the images from my mind but I pulled away from him anyway.
"Don't." He stopped moving his hand halfway to my face. I hadn't even seen him move away from the door. He spoke when I could focus on his face once more.
"What has he done to you?" His voice carried a threat, a foreshadowing of pain to come. It set my heart racing in my chest once more. He growled again and this time I did fear him.
"It was a misunderstanding." I murmured, reaching up to wipe tears from my cheeks, obscuring my view of him for only a moment. He was on his feet when I could see again and I flinched at the speed of his movement, scrambling to come to my own feet. Clumsy with fear I stumbled back falling against the wall behind me.
Sesshoumaru whirled around so that all I could see of him was the lines of tension in his back framed by the silver hair that settled back around him in the wake of his movement.
Something must have stirred the air around us because his head shifted and I heard him take a deep breath. I thought he had moved quickly before.
I was wrong.
"You smell like-" Suddenly he was in front of me pressing me into the wall, trapping me there as he sniffed along my neck. I stiffened, pulling away, pressing against his chest with my arms, but he didn't budge, intent on finding out what I refused to tell him.
My hands shook as I tried to push him away from me. Terror numbed me and I went limp, training my eyes on the ground to my left. Passive. Submissive. Empty. I knew how this would go, and it would be over sooner if I could hide myself away inside my head. My hands hung at my side. He growled as he found the Kouga's scent on the skin of my neck, pulling away to look at me, but I kept my eyes trained on the ground.
A flash of red caught my eye and I followed it to the red eyes glaring down at me. The over sweet scent of flowers and spice filled my mouth and I almost choked on it. Naraku.
Suddenly I knew what was wrong. I knew how to make his anger disappear.
Tentatively I lifted my hand to his chest, watching his reaction as I did. He was so angry; I could feel it in the tightness of his muscles, the quivering of barely held control. I traced the line of his collar bone with my fingertips.
He grew very still, his hands were still on the wall and not me, and I wondered why he didn't touch me. I rested my head in the curve of his shoulder wrapping my arm around him so that I could press my chest against his body. My other hand dropped down his torso, tracing lines softly into the flesh of his side, then his hip, and then tracing the path the material cut across his body.
He stepped back away from me, his body still tight with anger and I whimpered softly, wondering what I had done to displease him. My body shook more without him to support me, he would see my fear if I wasn't careful.
"Kagome, what-" I reached for him, and he stopped me with his hands on my shoulders keeping me at arm's length.
"I'm sorry." My voice only shook a little bit, but I hoped the apology would soothe his anger, would reassure him.
"You're trembling." He sounded so strange, I couldn't decipher his tone.
"I'm sorry, Naraku, I – Please don't be angry." I watched his body tighten once more, his grip on my arms tightening and I shivered with fear.
He took a deep breath, letting go of me as he did. A look of disgust crossed his features briefly, and then he turned and waked to the door. He paused there for a moment before letting himself out.
I sank to my knees. He would be back, and he would be angrier when he returned.
The sliding of the door woke me. I opened my eyes looking towards the sound, but something was wrong because my view was blocked by the bed. I was curled up on the floor in the corner of the room, but I didn't remember lying down. I had been scared, and then that damned Fae potion filled my head. I couldn't remember what had happened after that.