I have been in a complete hurry this past few months, with a lot of traveling, and a lot of changes. However, I leave you with this...

Fragments of A Shattered Moon

No Rest For The Miko

Humans are inferior beings that seem to be put on Earth with the only goal of making his life miserable.

Fine examples of this can be brought up at any time. In fact, Sesshoumaru feels it would probably take him a month to tell them all. They seem to accumulate over the years, and he has lived a very long time. His memory is so sharp that he remembers all of them.

Unfortunately. There are some…episodes he wishes to forget.

Kagome, currently, is very high on his list of 'nuisance humans'. Mali is very close, but at least with her, he can fathom ways of killing her, and maybe, if life smiles at him, as he believes it always should, perform them.

It is, to his horror and grudging acceptance, different with Kagome. For one, he does not wish to kill her. It would…He just…Killing Kagome is not an option. Also, Kagome is also on his list of 'Humans that are acceptable'. It is, contrary to the other one, a very short one. It includes Rin and Kagome.

Ah, Rin…

That was a human that didn't give him any troubles. Except the occasional kidnapping, making him weaker in his enemies' eyes, and the annoying following, she had been an example for all humans. 'Rin…' Sesshoumaru stops that thought. There are things that are still too fresh, too painful, and Rin, he suspects, will always be a scar ready for opening. It's just that when Kagome is close…when her smell fills his senses, her laughter his ears, and her eyes his pupils, he can think of Rin, and it doesn't hurt so much.

Kagome…

Sesshoumaru takes her out of his mind. Not now. It is not the right time to think of her. Soon, she will be back at his side, where she belongs, and he will happily teach a lesson to the youkai that dared take her.

This brings him to his other list. The 'youkai that are in this Earth to make his life miserable'. To his surprise, it is even longer that his human one. Even worse, a significant number of the youkai are still alive. At least in his human one, only Mali and Kagome are still breathing. Ah, but youkai…although not really difficult to kill, do tend to live much longer. There were also hanyou, who seemed to just not be able to stay dead. Exemplary examples of this were Naraku and Inuyasha. He really had to make sure this time he got them. Maybe burn their bodies and throw their ashes all around the world? That seemed like a good solution to keep them dead.

Sesshoumaru turned to look behind him. Just like he suspected, the mikos had not been able to keep his speed. He also had not made an effort to allow them to keep up. He reduced his speed before finally coming to a stop. He would give them enough time to feel a little of him and keep tracking him. When he was closer to his destiny, he would stop doing this. Sesshoumaru was, first, a brilliant mind, and his mind was trained to think of winning, especially at war.

The miko could be left near enough but not close enough. Although good at hiding their trace, Sesshoumaru does not wish to bet on their abilities. He needs…and he hates the very thought of needing anyone, but he needs them. Needs the youkai. Needs them both to win this war.

Needs Kagome to keep him from killing all of his allies.

Though an exception to Koga could be made.

The wolf youkai dared to take away his Kagome, and it's about time people start remembering who Sesshoumaru is, and exactly what kind of pain you can get into for messing into his affairs.

Or just passing by.

"What do you mean no one can track us?"

Koga is not entirely certain on how to react to this. In truth, he has never been certain on how to act when faced with angry women, of any species, but he certainly didn't expect Kagome to go livid because he just brought her to the most secure place ever.

"Eh…" He tries, "you're safe here?" Kagome glares at him, which is certainly not the reaction he expected. "Are you sure you're not with Naraku?"

Kagome's whole body hums with her miko powers, and the air is dense with her anger. Koga, being a survivor before anything else, takes a step back.

"How the hell is he supposed to find me now?" Kagome says, more to herself than to him. She is walking from side to side, and Koga is worried she'll burn a hole into the ground. By the looks she's giving anyone who comes near her, Koga should stop worrying about the floor and start worrying about his people suddenly being purified.

Kagome is one scary woman. Koga has almost forgotten.

"Ugh, he'll make my life a living hell. I can just hear him, 'why didn't you stay right at the river?', and how am I suppose to answer that, 'I was kidnapped by wolves?' Kagome keeps ranting.

Koga frowns. "I didn't kidnap you."

Kagome gives him one hell of a scary look, but Koga is, well, Koga, and this is Kagome. He's not entirely certain of why she is so angry. Still, he'll try his best to calm her. He'll always try his best to make her happy.

"Kagome…" He says softly as he walks towards her, ignoring the glare sent his way, "Kagome," He says, and he can feel her sharp intake of breath as he surrounds her with his arms. "Kagome, calm down." He says into her ear. She's gone completely still, but that is nothing to Koga.

This time, no that there is no Inuyasha between them, she will be his, and he will be hers. Just like it should have always been. Just like it almost was on those two months back at her time.

Koga closes his eyes as he breathes Kagome's scent. He remembers the feel of her body against him, and the way she would laugh and bring him closer to her. Their hands always entwined perfectly, and nothing was ever as easy.

"Kagome." He says again, and for one single moment, he feels her almost relaxing against him.

Koga hopes.

But Kagome removes herself from him in the next second. They stare at each other, but Koga can't read what is in her eyes.

"Koga…"

And Koga knows, like he always knows, that Kagome is once more going to walk away from him. Only this time, he won't allow it. He did it once, when they came back from Kagome's time and Koga let her go back to Inuyasha. There is only them now, though. Only Koga and Kagome, and he won't, he can't…He promised himself, if he ever got another chance like this, if he was ever allowed to be with Kagome again, regardless of everything, he would take it.

Because losing her twice almost killed him, but losing her a third time…he would not survive a third time. Especially now knowing that there is just them.

It's never been just them.

"Don't." He lays a finger gently on her mouth, shutting her up. "I know what you are going to say. You've said it to me once to many times."

Every time she looked Inuyasha's way instead of Koga's. When she forgot all they had and went after all she never had. After he smelled her blood all over the place where she fought Naraku and had thought she was dead…

Kagome whispers, "Koga", and buries her head in his shoulder. It almost feels like an apology, and Kouga doesn't understand why.

'She has changed.' He thinks, hugging her closer to him. 'But so have I.'

"No, Kagome. It doesn't matter. We've both been through horrible things in the past, but that is behind us, and there's nothing else to put us apart anymore."

"Koga, you don't understand…"

Koga hugs her closer when he feels her trying to escape his grip. "Just let me make you happy. I know I can."

"Oh, Koga…" And his name sounds like a lament in her lips. "Ko…"

Something shifts in the air. Something dangerous.

Koga tries to put Kagome behind him at the same time his youkai are coming his direction. The air feels wrong. Something powerful, a youkai, is coming his way, and not only that, are those…but why would miko come here? They don't feel as close as the youkai, but…

How the hell did they track him down? He turns to look at Kagome, to tell her to run, but Kagome's expre ssion is not worried at all. In fact…

Is she smiling?

Right now?

When they're about to be attacked?

Before he can stop her, before he can even process what's happening, Kagome is running past him, into the danger, and Koga is paralyzed where he is, can barely find the strength to look at Kagome's running figure.

He already knows he won't be fast enough to save her.

'Not again, not again, I can't lose her again…'

A figure, a youkai he thought was gone, materializes in front of him, all power and strength and legend, and it's not possible. Can't be possible. Why does he appear until now, after almost two years?

Kagome runs directly towards him, Koga opens his mouth to stop her. It is him, who disappeared, who tried to kill her, who was as much her ally as her enemy, and… Kagome runs straight into his amrs, her own arms going around his neck, hugging him close to her, and to his utter shock, Sesshoumaru wraps one arm around Kagome's waist and brings her closer. As if it was natural. As if he had done it a thousand times.

As if Kagome belonged to him.

"Sesshoumaru," Koga hears Kagome whisper against Sesshoumaru's neck.

"Why didn't you stay by the river?" Sesshoumaru asks her, reproachful and yet soft, and Koga has a hard time believing the words, or the tone. It is not Sesshoumaru. The proud youkai would never talk like this to anyone, least Kagome. Koga waits for the spell to end, for this delusion to break.

Kagome laughs and presses closer against Sesshoumaru. "How did you find me?"

Kagome sounds relieved, and Koga can't comprehend this either because Kagome is not supposed to feel ease because Sesshoumaru is here. She should be…scared and seeking protection from him.

Sesshoumaru's intense golden eyes fix on him. Koga suddenly doesn't feel like a predator, but rather like prey. It is not a nice feeling.

"I smelled a wolf." The silver haired youkai says simply.

Kagome keeps smiling at golden eyes, and the feeling that starts to grow in his gut is entirely too familiar.

Sometime later, after Koga manages to make his youkai back down, and possibly save them from a fast death, he sits in front of Sesshoumaru and Kagome in his tent.

The wolf youkai is still waiting for the image to break, for Kagome to suddenly snap back into reality and scream and come to his side, away from the danger that Sesshoumaru is to...anything that breaths. He is still waiting for Sesshoumaru to push Kagome away from him in repulse. None of this seems to be happening, to Koga's utter annoyance.

"Kagome." Sesshoumaru's voice says, low and soft, almost careful with the name and Koga is still left in that horrible place that is uncertainty.

Since when did Sesshoumaru do soft?

"Yeah?" Kagome looks up from her tea with a small smile on her face. In the past five minutes, Kagome has smiled much more than on the whole time since he rescued her.

The two are sitting too close to comfort. Kagome occasionally grabs something to eat from Sesshoumaru's plate. The youkai doesn't even bat an eye.

The most powerful youkai, and possibly the one that hates humans the more, is letting one of them take food from his plate. More than that, he is making it seem…normal.

Koga can't help the feeling of doom that courses all over him.

"Could you go… look for the mikos? I'm afraid I left them…behind."

Kagome sends him a brief look of reproach. "A few as in…close?"

"A few as in…kilometers."

"Sesshoumaru!"

Koga swears he can see the tiniest of smiles on Sesshoumaru's lips, which is impossible. Sesshoumaru's facial muscles don't allow him to smile.

"I do not like their leader."

Kagome sighs. "Well, Mali is, uh, perhaps such a long time alive has left her, you know…"

"Please go bring them here."

"Hey!" Kagome suddenly yells, and this, at least, is familiar. Though it was usually Inuyasha who was at the receiving end of her lashing out. "You can't order me around, you know?"

But she is already at the tent's door. "Ugh, you two", a glare sent to both youkai "behave while I'm gone."

Sesshoumaru decides to ignore that last sentence. Instead, he says "Be careful."

Kagome nods.

Koga is in an alternate universe. That is the only explanation.

Koga looks at Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru looks at Koga.

The air between them begs for a knife to cut between it, but the task would probably require something stronger.

"Why," Sesshoumaru starts, words precise and cold, expression blank and yet…Koga can feel the fury in that golden gaze. "Would you think that taking Kagome away and here be a smart move?"

Koga snaps. "What the hell? I found her, and she fainted. What was I supposed to do? Leave her by the river? Anyway, since when do you care? Kagome is free to go wherever she wants, and I can do whatever I please." Koga is, he reminds himself, the leader of the largest group of youkai rebels. He is a nuisance to Naraku, which pretty much defines power now a day, and most importantly, he is stronger than he was two years ago. Much stronger. He is not intimidated by Sesshoumaru.

"Kagome is mine."

Koga gapes at that answer, at a lost for a complete minute, and then recovers. "Really? Because I remember clearly that the two of you did not get along, and if Kagome ever belonged to someone, it was Inuyasha."

Sesshoumaru snarls, Koga growls, and the moment remains terse until they both calm down.

It is, they think at the same time, true. Kagome was, is, will always be, Inuyasha's. Didn't Sesshoumaru see it, when he saw the pain in Kagome's eyes when she attacked the hanyou? From the haunted look she got in her eyes when his half-brother was mentioned? Didn't Koga know, from years and years and years of experience? From all the times he was put second? All the times he was not enough for Kagome?

"I thought she was dead." Koga finally says. This, at least, is a save point.

"Yes." Sesshoumaru says simply. Koga's anger returns.

"Would you care to explain?"

"No."

"Arrggg!"

Koga is about to launch himself at Sesshoumaru, but catches himself at the last nanosecond. He may be strong, he may be a leader now, but this is Sesshoumaru. He has a whole clan to look after, and if this war has taught him anything, if Kagome has taught him anything, it is patience. Sesshoumaru is starting to look bored, which is the only expression he lets show. "She is…Kagome is…" Koga swallows his pride. He has to know.

Because his mind has been thinking about this ever since he saw Kagome run to Sesshoumaru, and even more surprisingly, when Sesshoumaru returned the affection. He has a feeling that Sesshoumaru did not disappear, he simply was with Kagome, and the mere though makes Koga want to throw up.

This can't be happening. Not again. Definitely not with Sesshoumaru.

Kagome smiles at him, accepts his hand, and does not look for golden eyes. Koga takes what he can, for he fears that as soon as she sees Inuyasha again, she'll go running to him.

Koga looks into Sesshoumaru's eyes, but he doesn't really see the youkai, because he is seeing Kagome in his arms, safe and happy, as if that was exactly where she belonged.

She presses her body against him, gives butterfly kisses to his jaw, and Koga moans, wants more, so he presses her even closer, and for once, Kagome whispers his name and sees him.

Koga thinks of Kagome by the river, small and fragile, but still standing. He thinks of the smell of her blood all over the earth. Sees the strength, the rawness, of this new Kagome, stronger, more confident, not so naïve…

Kagome laughs with Shippo and offers him candy. Koga watches them from the distance, and wonders how she can be so innocent and carefree when death awaits her at every corner. She's just like a child.

And Koga looks into the Sesshoumaru in front of her, the Sesshoumaru that is unfamiliar territory, just like Kagome, and has to ask.

"Was she dead?"

"Yes."

"You brought her back?"

"Yes."

"And you've been with her ever since?"

"Yes."

"The whole two years?"

"Yes."

Koga analyzes Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru analyzes Koga.

It hits Koga like a bucket of ice.

"You…" Koga has trouble finishing this sentence. It would have never occurred to him that this could actually happen. But it was there, wasn't it? In Sesshoumaru's acts, in the way he talked to Kagome, and the way he saw her.

Koga had known Sesshoumaru before he knew Inuyasha. Once, long, long ago, when both of them were young, he had even been…friends with the youkai. It meant nothing now, but Koga could still read Sesshoumaru to some extent. And if there was one thing he was certain of, is that Sesshoumaru, not even with that little girl he had taken under his wing, had looked at anyone the way he looked at Kagome. There was no glacial expression, no blankness in that look.

It was warmth, and Sesshoumaru was not warm. Ever.

"You care for her." It sounded so… odd. So unlike Sesshoumaru. Koga didn't completely believe it, but with Sesshoumaru, there could not be any maybe. Not when it came to feelings. The youkai didn't have them, and if he did, they were unquestionable.

Sesshoumaru did not love. It was not in his nature.

And Koga would not lose, not to him of all people. He had waited, had loved Kagome from a distance and close by, had always been there. A part of him had died when she died. If anyone was good for Kagome, could give it all up and give her everything, it was him. Not some stupid youkai with a God complex.

Sesshoumaru's voice was dangerously low when he answered back. "I…" Sesshoumaru stopped for a moment. Knowing he cared for Kagome was one thing. In the interior of himself, it was acceptable to care for her. He could live with that. Voicing it aloud was a completely different matter. He could still run from this. Deny it. Pretend it didn't exist, and maybe then, it would go away.

Except Sesshoumaru doesn't want it to go away. Kagome is like an extra limb to him now, and while he is able to live without a limb, he rather finds he prefers not to. He wants to kill Naraku, for Rin and Jaken and the offense the hanyou gave him. Sesshoumaru wants to see him burn, but more than for the revenge that lives inside him, raw and powerful and still fresh, for Kagome. He does not wish to see Kagome fight to survive, even if she has become very good at it.

Sesshoumaru wants to build an easier world for her, and to deny her…

He is not a coward, and he will not run from something that lives inside him, spills from his every pore for the outside world to see, for Koga to catch on so fast. Denying her, he reflects, is cowardly, and he won't accept this.

"I care." He says simply.

Koga narrow his eyes. "I love her."

Sesshoumaru glares at Koga.

Koga glares at Sesshoumaru.

"You can't make her happy."

"I already am".

"She is not for you."

Sesshoumaru merely raises an eyebrow. Koga stares at the expression something familiar on it. He's seen it on someone else…

"She still loves Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru suddenly says, and Koga can hear the pain in it, not because it's obvious, but because Koga is too familiar with it. After all, he's felt it for what feels like forever.

"She can't love a puppet."

"But she can love Inuyasha."

And Koga, once more, remembers Kagome slipping her hand from his as they finally managed to make it back to Feudal. Remembers looking at her looking at Inuyasha. Still feels all his hopes crash with just one look from the hanyou.

"Yes, she can." Koga, though, is nothing but stubborn. "I will fight for her."

"She is mine." The bastard says.

Koga is about to say something nasty when someone enters his tent. Two angry youkai turn their attention to the interruption. The poor youkai pales a considerable amount and looks like he would rather go turn himself over to Naraku.

"What?" Koga barks and the youkai has to try several times before getting the words out. It has to be bad news. Messengers always forget to talk when it's bad news.

"It's, it's…"

"What?"

"He's…he's back."

Koga has no time for riddles. "Who?"

"Shi…Shippo, sir."

Koga feels the world freeze. In front of him, Sesshoumaru merely raises an eye-brow at him before standing up and leaving the tent.

It takes Koga some seconds to follow after.

Kagome is not even a hundred meters from the youkai camp when everything goes to hell. Again.

In the far away future, when all this is but the past, she's still not going to think this is funny. In fact, even if she was to go back home, and this past was centuries away, it would still not be funny,

Ever.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kagome manages to spat out. This is not possible. It's not happening. Bloody can't happen, and she needs, she needs to sit down, to close her eyes, to fucking…

She needs Sesshoumaru. Where the hell is that bastard?

Emerald eyes stare at her with equal surprise, widened in what could be comical, but this lasts a second, before those emerald eyes blink. When they open again, all the emotions are masked. Besides him, another familiar face stares at him, brown eyes fixed on her while his left hand holds tight on the fox's shoulder, as if ready to stop him at any millisecond of movement.

Kagome takes one breath, opens her mouth, tries to speak again…

Nothing comes out.

She closes her eyes, tries to concentrate, tries to not care, but that is, that is…

"…how?" The word finally escapes from her mouth, and it sounds so weak and pitiful that she wishes to take it back.

Shippo is not answering, and neither is Kohaku, and she wonders if maybe she is hallucinating them. That would make more sense. The three of them stare at each other. Kagome feels a lump in her throat, acid in her stomach, her lungs are not taking enough air, and she thinks she is about to faint…

"We should take this somewhere more private." Sesshoumaru's voice washes over her, fills her with calm, but this, this..."Now." Sesshoumaru's voice says, and she feels herself been dragged towards a tent. She can sense Shippo and Kohaku following, and Koga is somewhere in the background…

Sesshoumaru's hand keeps her grounded, but Kagome knows it's just a matter of time before shock passes and she once more despairs.

That is all for now! Sorry I'm not leaving long notes of thanks like I usually do, but I'm in a hurry. I just thought it was only fair to update this, even if it was fast. Love you all for keeping with me!