A/N: I lied. Sorry guys, I'm just on a role and figured no one would mind yet another chapter. So, here you go.

She had returned a different person.

Yet, when he had asked her how it went, he had become more bewildered.

"Fine."

A brief smile, and numbing look in her eyes, the miko proceeded to her bedroom without another word.

Confused at what had just transpired, Sesshoumaru did the only thing he could think out. Throwing out his Youki to her Reiki, he hoped it would provide answers.

And it did.

Instead of humming along with the pulse of his Youki, hers lashed back in warning. Eyes widening, Sesshoumaru stared baffled at the door that had just closed him off from the Miko.

She had tried to tell him her emotions. But she couldn't. The feelings that broke out like a dam were too much for her. So, instead of trying to make him understand her feelings of betrayal, she decided to back to how they began.

Letters.

Writing, she tried to push back the tremors she felt.

As words entered her soul, she wrote them. Glancing down at random parts of her letter, she let the tears fall.

There are types of happiness that will never come back.

Skipping to another portion, she gazed at the words.

I will carry and shelter our memories with fondness.

Turning her gaze to the end of the letter, she decided that it would do.

There will be storms in our lives, and I hope nothing but the best for you.

How she wished she had the courage to say such words to him in person.

But no, this was only right.

A full circle.

His family stood there, ensuring both the women were given a proper farwell. Sesshoumaru stared at the miko before him with more inquiries than ever before in his life. Allowing his half-brother and her sister to have their goodbyes, he turned his gaze to Kagome.

He had not managed to get another word said to her after what had happened the other night.

And now, they stood at the airport terminal.

So many questions unsettled.

"Kagome."

His tone asked for permission to speak. Staring at her hesitant expression, he was all too sure she would not allow such a thing. Yet, she stepped away from everyone and beckoned him to follow.

Without hesitation, he did.

"You are upset at me."

This much he knew.

But surely, she had not found out about his white lie. And even if such a thing did transpire, why had she reacted as such? Why had she not asked him questions about the misunderstanding? After all, they had spent an entire day ensuring all her questions were provided answers.

Well, almost all.

Her sad laugh suddenly caught him off guard.

"Upset? No, Sesshoumaru." Her voice was so different than he had grown unaccustomed to. Even now, he did not miss the hint of coldness and disappointment that it held.

"I trusted you for the truth—that is my mistake, not yours." Raising a brow at her explanation, he wondered what information could have caused such a change.

"Perhaps, you could inform this Sesshoumaru what it is that you thought he has lied about?" It was the only way to get such an answer. There had been only one lie, and even now, it was still only a partial one. Their Reiki and Youki were bonded, and so the truth was not so different.

To his astonishment once more, the woman nodded.

"Our arranged marriage. Knowing my father. All of it." For a brief second, he had pondered on if he had heard her accurately.

Yet only one of her examples had drawn his attention.

Arranged marriage?

Surely, she didn't mean.

Granted, he had told the priest that she was his mate in waiting, but an arranged marriage? His mind reeled at such a possibility.

Where had such information come from?

But before he could discuss it any longer, her anger interrupted him.

"You told him. Told him I was your intended, and that's why he accepted the alliance—because it had been agreed by him and your father before I was even born."

She took a breath while Sesshoumaru tried to piece together the information she threw at him while suppressing his emotions.

"Why not just tell me? Would my shock really have been such a horrible thing?"

Her words made no sense.

Everything she said had managed to confuse him more than before.

"I trusted you."

The crack in her voice hit him like nothing he could have expected. Never in his life had simple words caused so much emotion to surface without permission from him.

But her words did.

And his body stood frozen in both shock and uncertainty.

The sob that escaped her and the sorrow that was being radiated off in waves shook him more than he cared to admit. And for the first time in his entire life, Sesshoumaru understood what guilt felt like.

"Goodbye, Sesshoumaru."

Still trying to comprehend the events unfolding before him, he was unable to grasp the finality of such words. And before he could stop her, she had left him standing there in a position he had never found himself in. One that consisted of not being able to understand why so much pain soared through him without any physical wounds.