Kikyo's Heart, Room of Angels, He Lives in You, Brothers in Arms

Wow, that was kinda nuts. Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter posted! My Tuesday and Wednesday are a little wild at the moment, but I'm hoping to get 22 online with a lot less fuss than 21 needed.

Thanks for your patience!

To Make Things Right

The Lady of the West

Sesshoumaru woke up waterlogged and cold. His feet and hands felt swollen from the moisture, the weight of his armour crushing his chest and a feeling of deep sleep clinging to his eyes as they struggled to open. It was awakening from the deepest of slumbers, a sea of white mists and a sense of imminent loss and frustration seeping out of his bones as he felt the sunlight pouring down onto his face and fur.

Sesshoumaru felt like stone. But somehow, unbidden, he was reminded of how much better that felt than being made of ice. Waking up to cold, autumn sunlight, and the sound of roaring water was not as horrible an experience as awakening ones-self into a world of intense pain and anguish, or with flesh invaded by spines of ice and divine malice. So it was easier this time, even though Sesshoumaru, deep down, understood that this time he had come back from death, not dreams.

It was an eerie, underhanded feeling. It quieted his pride, and he could find no power with which to chastise himself. Whatever shame he felt was dampened, not easily located in the drowsy sea of sensations feathering to him through the constantly moving air. It took him several moments to recognize the scent close by of something- someone he desired to have closer. She wasn't touching him, but as he stirred he heard nothing over the roaring water to tell him she noticed him, that she was drawing near.

'...This is not the first time she has saved me from death...' But it would, most likely, be the last. Being drawn from the precise moment of pain and defeat into a realm of dreams had calmed his spirit the first time it happened, opening a door for him through which he had passed into a deep, numbing sleep. But that had not happened this time. When he had heard the command to sleep he had obeyed again and given in to pain and a wish for comfort- only to feel himself slide helplessly into an abysmal white that his spirit had been incapable of fighting off.

Having the curtain of death peeled away from him by Tenseiga was something he couldn't describe. The two-fold sense of shame and disappointment had been overwhelming for a heart already scarred and rent to pieces by poison. His father's sword would only retrieve a spirit once from death, the disdain it felt when performing such an act on him was a suitable explanation as to why.

His father's sword had also never been known to take orders from one who was not him. It...

Someone else was here.

Sesshoumaru could only keep his eyes closed where the heavy lids had fallen shut. He heard the sword smith's clawed feet crunching over the pebbled ground, sensed Bakusaiga's muted presence as the sword was lifted and examined. Over the roar of the water there was the sound of idle splashing as the old demon waded into the pool and retrieved something, then calmed the killing blade by returning it to its sheath. Finally, Totosai's steps brought him closer to the Demon Lord, and the aged smith sat down on the pebbled ground, depositing his sword next to him.

There were several moments of silence, and then his father's friend spoke to him.

"For all the things that fang had to say about your courtship and love, Lord Sesshoumaru, I never expected that the last one to accept Lady Kagura would be your father." Was that the reason behind the poison then? Could actions like that even make a claim to logic? "I've seen your swords argue before, I don't think those two will ever really get along, but this time I heard them shouting from miles away."

Yes, if he listened now Sesshoumaru could almost hear- more like he could feel the enmity between Bakusaiga and Tenseiga. It was lessened now, just a memory of the argument. If Sesshoumaru strained his mind to think back, to make himself recall what had transpired through the night, he could almost place himself back within the white, parting mists of that other world. He could almost remember the sight of his father, the words of his voice lost behind the veil. But Sesshoumaru had answered them, obstinate in death as their blades argued in life. And so he was alive.

Sesshoumaru could have just opened his eyes, it would have been easier than what he chose to do instead. Both of his arms moved just enough so his palms were down on the cool, rocky ground, then he tensed. There was soreness in his limbs and spread throughout his entire chest, his armour an unbearable weight that restricted and thwarted his attempts to move. But he- slowly -forced his body to obey. Sesshoumaru's legs felt half-frozen from being submerged in water, a sensation he despised as the gripping cold had saturated his clothes and even clung to the fall of his hair. He made himself sit up, he refused to stay down.

His pride couldn't force him to acknowledge Totosai's docile presence as a threat, couldn't rile him to stand and make a show of power or apathy towards the wrinkled sage. All Sesshoumaru found himself capable of was forcing his eyes open against the glare of the sun and looking for his woman. It was impossible that the sword smith could have harmed her, but he looked for her and confirmed what he already knew: she was uninjured, she was nearby.

She was laying face down on the ground, her clothing tattered and her black hair damp and tangled around her shoulders and black. Her demonic aura had calmed but he knew something had happened to it, that something was now different. Tenseiga's naked blade had bit into the ground at her side and was holding itself up proudly, unconcerned with the woman Sesshoumaru could not get up and reach for himself. Kagura was not injured. She was just too far away.

"Rule well, my lord." There was a wheeze of a laugh before Totosai breathed the unusual words behind him, then came the sound of clawed toes scraping over loose stones as the smith walked away. It was several minutes of relative silence, the sun creeping up higher in the eastern sky, before the Demon Lord tried to move again, only to stop once more and stare at the woman next to him, and the sword standing over her.

Totosai's departing words had sounded strange to him. The smith had never been foolish enough to deny Sesshoumaru's status a Demon Lord, but the possessive had never been included unless the old smith felt his life was in immediate danger. It was strange...

But then he saw a stirring in the demoness laying beside him, and his concerns over the old man faded. Sesshoumaru's legs refused to work and bear his weight, and it was hard enough to force his arm to support him as he twisted onto his hip and leaned over to reach her. Kagura's eyes fluttered open a few times as he laid his hand on the side of her face, neither of them speaking as her gaze settled on him and he heard his mate stop breathing. Then she let a terse breath out through her nose, eyes on him until they started to glisten and shed tears silently. Finally she calmed, and still without a word to him Kagura was reclaimed by sleep.

He followed her.

By the time his mate woke again Sesshoumaru had finally moved them. He could stand being exposed without cover no longer and retreated with her until they reached the first of the trees within sight of the spilling falls. There was only so much grass for him to choose from, Sesshoumaru laying back down with his fur and arms around his slumbering wife the cold sunshine refusing to warm him or dry their clothes on its own.

The scar from his mother's whip was nothing but a smooth discolouration on his chest, and he assumed his back where the lash had punched directly through his body. Too close to his heart, which was where he found Kagura's comb as he explored the wound. The distance Inukimi had afforded him with her strike had only given Sesshoumaru time to leave the battlefield before the organ in his chest was rent and burned beyond all use. Tenseiga had repaired the damage, but the fatal wound remained visible to remind him of his restored life. Unlike the deep perforations Boreas' ice had rent through his skin, the round burn in his chest would never fade away into the colour of his flesh.

He had gathered his swords before lifting his wife off the ground, sheathing Tenseiga and leaving it on the grass where he brought Kagura, baffled by Bakusaiga's altered appearance. The yellowed sheath and torn bindings had instantly reminded him of Tetseiga's wretched appearance, the weapon only acknowledging and repairing itself after his hand settled around the spoiled sheath. It did not age again as he set it next to Tenseiga, but Sesshoumaru wasn't sure if that meant it was permanently restored: he had died. The sword's strength would not be impacted when he next chose to wield it in battle, but Sesshoumaru could already sense the change in Bakusaiga's temperament.

It had refused to harm his mate. It frustrated him to hear from the blade that Kagura had tried to abuse it like that, stirred his spent anger to the point where he almost decided to scold her for it later, but the resolve left him. Dead or alive, Bakusaiga would not tolerate the idea of its master casting it aside for harming one it was meant to protect.

Sesshoumaru removed his armour, both because it inconvenienced him and because he simply did not want it on his body. The weight was manageable the more he walked around, but he did not want to wear it. It was left sitting next to the swords before he finally reclaimed Kagura, his limbs feeling better for being made to move, but tired as the wind witch stirred and clung to him as he carried her back to the spot he had selected.

They were both awake now, but continued on in complete silence as the day drifted by. Sesshoumaru watched her clothing repair itself slowly where it had been torn and ripped apart, her comb held idly in his hand. His wind witch had changed, the wind had marked her, she was different... But she was still his, Sesshoumaru's arms wrapped around her as they shared warmth, her ear remaining over the left side of his chest as if she were scared to move. Kagura kept her eyes closed and didn't say anything, but he knew she was awake as he looked down at the sorceress.

New marks had formed on her. There was one on the inside of each wrist, and Sesshoumaru grazed a claw over the pale pink stain resting within her skin. A curling wind forming an open blossom was painted on her now, the pattern repeated again in the centre of her forehead. There was a silver shimmer across his wife's eyelids, like powder that had engrained itself into the delicate skin.

It had come from fighting him. From battling Ryokijin. From besting his mother and convincing Tenseiga to obey her will. Naraku's enslaved daughter had always been a powerful demon in her own right, competent and skilled with the wind- now his sorceress had climbed the ranks and been acknowledged for her power over and within the elements. Kaze-daiyokai, Lady Kagura of the Western Lands.

'My wife...' Lifting a hand, Sesshoumaru pulled his claws back through his mate's loose, tangled black hair. 'The woman who will conceive my heir, the mother of my child...' Had that not been the reason his mother had been so vehement about fighting Kagura in the first place? To test her fitness to bare his son? Inukimi's grandchild?

"Kagura..." He saw his woman flinch, felt her body tense and twisting against him- cold muscles warming after so long idle on the hard ground. Lowering his face down so the bridge of his nose was touching hers, Sesshoumaru allowed a low, rumbling sound to reverberate from deep in his chest. His eyes slid closed as he tasted her scent on his tongue and let the warmth of her breath flutter past his throat. "This Sesshoumaru wants to see his Lady's eyes..."

So they opened. It took time for her to collect herself in her mind, Sesshoumaru's heart distant from hers and allowing the door to remain closed between them until she was ready. Tears she couldn't shed clung to her eyelashes as Kagura stared past him, one hand pressing down on his chest while the other clutched his left wrist where the arm was draped around her back again. She pressed her ear over his heart and Sesshoumaru lifted his right hand so he could hold the side of her face, the pad of his thumb brushing over the silver of her closed eye.

"...Why did that happen?" Her voice was both soft and rough, as though her throat were raw. His fingertips traced down her skin, mindful of his claws over the soft flesh, until his touch was hovering over her voice-box. He couldn't do anything for the soreness, not like this, but he could acknowledge it before speaking.

"Would you not wish to test the intended mother of your grandchild?" Kagura tensed and rolled over in his arms, she pressed her face against him and rubbed too harshly for it to be a nuzzle- she was trying to wipe away tears and wake up at the same time.

"I wouldn't kill my child to prove it..." He kissed the top of her head, because he wanted to and he could.

"Fix your hair." She shifted and sat up between his legs, Sesshoumaru holding the white comb out to her as Kagura's tired red eyes watched him. He dropped his hand when he saw her move in, her touch spreading across both sides of his face before she pressed her lips to his and the Demon Lord let his eyes slide shut. It wasn't much of a kiss though, Kagura retreating as soon as he reciprocated and forcing him to take her chin in hand to bring her back. Once he was satisfied with the taste of her and had sensed her tears come and go again, then he let his woman pull away from him.

"My head..." She said softly, taking her comb from him as he offered it again, dragging the teeth through the tangled black strands until she could twist and tie the lengths back up behind her head. Kagura winced at a wayward flash of sunlight and Sesshoumaru lifted a hand up to brush his fingertips over the mark on her forehead. Her eyes snapped open and stared at him. "What...?"

She touched the mark on her face in shock, and in doing so caught sight of her own wrist. Sesshoumaru simply watched with a mingled sense of pride and amusement as she became more animated and climbed to her feet, Kagura's balance perfectly maintained as she found two more pale pink designs on the insides of her ankles. Her obvious confusion gave way to a thoughtful expression, Kagura slowly sinking back down to rest against him as Sesshoumaru sat up.

"I cut a piece of my own aura to use a wind scar..." She explained slowly, her back against his fur as Kagura drew his arm around her waist and held it there "The demon who lived here was too weak for me to use, but it hurt so much that I..."

"You could have killed yourself." His amusement faded, a slow, deep, unimpressed sound rising out of his chest as Kagura rubbed one of her ankles with a hand. "If you were not strong enough, you could have died."

"I became stronger." She had, and that was why the wind had marked her. Closing his eyes, Sesshoumaru nudged the back of her head gently with his nose.

"Should I die again before you-"

"Sesshoumaru-"

"Should it happen again, Kagura." He tightened his hold on her, squeezing up under her ribs intentionally so it would be harder for her to breath. His witch tensed and squirmed a little against him, but was quiet and turned her head towards him as his lips moved down over her ear, nuzzling the smooth skin of her cheek. "You will have every right to claim the Western Lands as your own, much as my mother has tried repeatedly to do." She snorted loudly.

"Hmph, then Inukimi should die before either of us." Listening to his mate's growing frustration, Sesshoumaru smiled and lowered his lips to her throat. She resisted him for a moment, then slowly shifted around in his lap and kissed him, her teeth grazing his lips before she decided to let him in. He had one hand behind her head bracing her neck, his other wrapped around her waist and holding her body, with his armour still resting next to him on the grass, Kagura's soft warmth easily penetrated the silk wrapped around his torso.

Kagura broke the kiss first, the bridge of her nose resting on his again as the marks on their foreheads touched for the first time. They weren't mating marks, they hadn't been placed by one on to the other, but Kagura still took a deep breath and Sesshoumaru kept his eyes closed as a short spark of energy passed between them.

"You are the Lady of the West." He stated, looking at her now as her face moved away from his. He tilted his head to the side for a moment, curious about her reaction to his next words. "Mother of my heir?" It should not have been a question, Kagura was his wife and mate, her duty wasn't just to stand by his side and warm his bed...

"Someday." She answered, a playful smile tugging at her dark red lips. This almost surprised him, he would have thought that the idea of being compromised for so many months would be revolting to her, the wind wasn't meant to be held down.

But even as Sesshoumaru considered that, a soft breeze came fluting through the trees and caused the topaz drops in her ears to swing. Her bangs moved slowly in the wind before his woman's attention was abruptly taken from him, the Demon Lord scowling down at her. She made a dismissive gesture with one hand and he almost mistook it as one meant for him, eyes widening indignantly as Kagura blinked up at him in confusion.

"Not you!" She laughed, sitting up and holding the side of his face as she kissed his cheek- his cheek? "They're coming: Kanna and Jaken and-" Hmph. That was hardly a reason for Kagura to sound so pleased, and to emphasize this Sesshoumaru made them both move very abruptly: testing his strength and speed at the same time as he laid Kagura down on her back and placed himself over her, growling at his woman to make her stop talking.

"Kagura-"

"Idiot! You're barely dressed and they're on their-" He didn't need his mouth to silence her, pressing his weight down over her hips and watching Kagura catch her bottom lip between her teeth. She insulted him but had her hands on his shoulders, fingers tangling with his hair and pulling down on him. Foolish woman, he wasn't going to embarrass himself with her, his senses already fanning out to locate the approaching party. He had a few minutes. "Get off!"

"Woman." She glared up at him, and Sesshoumaru lowered himself down until his lips were directly over her pointed ear, Kagura's body twisting under him as his deep voice moved through her. "When I take you home there will be no one to interrupt me." She froze and he heard her heart beat pick up behind her ribs, sensed her arousal and smirked as she unwillingly let him rise back up onto his knees, climbing off of her so he could fetch his armour.

Sesshoumaru was just replacing Tenseiga and Bakusaiga at his side when Kagura finally spoke up again, Jaken's caterwauling already audible on the winds.

"Home?"

"Home."

The river was powerful, loud and bathed in the mists of its fury. It came running through the mountains and then split itself at a dip in the highlands; the northern arm was powerful and strong, an untamed current of fresh water spilling rapidly in a race to the sea. The southern arm was shallow, calm, with banks no higher than the middle of the flow.

The lesser water came down from the highlands in a stepped cascade, creeping past a crumbled mountainside and passing idly along down the bends and slopes of the landscape. The current gurgled as it skipped and meandered along, a lake some miles off its destined end and contented fate. In the white autumn sunshine the clear water held no colour, the little silver fish no longer than a human hand as they fed on green rocks carpeted in algae.

'Why did he send me to check on this?' The wind skipped and moved along the currents as well, touching the waters were they bubbled up and reached like curious fingers into the air. 'There's nothing here, the river's washed it all away.'

The wind continued down and down until it reached the lake, then pulled itself around and sprinted back up the glittering trail. Over smashed stones and disturbed river beds, past quiet estuaries and along beds of polished stones.

'Oh... Who are they?' Until the elbow of the river came into view, the junction that shaved off the lesser stream from its mother.

Orange hair and hooked noses, pale eyes and dark, amber skin. The wind skated through the trees and doubled back on itself, plucking shouted words out of the sunshine and sky.

"Bring more rubble over this way."

"Careful! Don't touch the water!"

A frightened shriek and a burst of fire and feathers almost saw one of their numbers vanish over the tame falls. Even this lesser band of water was a dangerous place for one made of heat and air to work. Water splashed as heavy boulders, one by one, were rolled and carried and dragged from land into the river, a pile forming on the shore and creeping out into the shallow flow.

'Is this what he wanted to check?' Yes, the wind decided that this was what it had needed to see. 'Time to go home then.' This would bear watching... but for now...

The wind spread itself thin and raced up, higher and higher over cold land and sleeping wood. The remains of a scarring inferno slowly fading in the wake of wind and rain; spring would mend the gaping wound in the landscape.

'They did well, restoring the land...' Fujin would be proud.

*closes second story arc* What comes after this? Wouldn't you love to know!

Review, people. I'm gonna go to work for now and then spend the rest of my Tuesday working on finishing 22. =P