I own nothing from Inuyasha.


Sesshomaru blinked and found himself on his knees, staring at a tree trunk, breathing hard. He had blacked out seeing Ivanna catch herself from falling on that tree as he had asked her a question that he did not remember if she had answered. He noticed bark missing from multiple places where it looked like she gripped the tree so tightly that she broke the bark away. Frowning, he looked around and saw Ivanna crumpled on the ground as if she had collapsed from a kneeling position. Her clothing was disheveled and her obi shredded before him. Her body was shaking and her breaths ragged.

He could smell the remnants of an orgasm from both of them, but his cloths were only wrinkled until he got to the slightly dampness he felt in his hamakas. As he looked down at his hand he noticed some blood and a milky fluid coating his fingers, he feared what his beast had done. He looked back over at her crumpled form as she kept her face hidden but he could smell the salt of her tears.

'What have you done?' He growled at his beast who was quite content in his cage.

'Her body called to be taken, be glad I didn't take her where she lay. Though that thought alone, to mate this Onna, is quite enjoyable,' the beast purred.

'You are despicable, beast. She did not want this.' He snarled at the beast before focusing on the crying Onna. "Ivanna?"

"Don't," she snapped, her voice unstable but she did not try to move.

"Are you okay?" He asked, ignoring her attempt of avoiding having to talk.

"No..." she muttered as she propped herself onto her elbows, but kept her face towards the ground. "No, I am not okay. You lost control and I was violated. I was unable to stop this from happening and when your Youkai was in my body, I couldn't even budge your arm. Now, I need a bath, clean my clothing, and I cannot feel my legs, yet again! I fucking told you to lock all this shit away with that damn beast."

"I am..." He was at a loss for words and a little surprised at her vulgarity, but she didn't give him time to finish his sentence.

"You don't get to apologize, not for this," she hissed. "You are the fucking lord of the west. You lost control and have no excuse because the Inu mating season isn't until spring. Did you get the answers you wanted for that damn theory of yours or was this punishment for refusing to answer you?! I can say I honestly hate you right now. Summon Ah-Un and get away from me."

"This one cannot leave you alone," he reasoned, knowing that she truly did hate him in that moment.

"But this one cannot trust you either."

"This Sesshomaru lost consciousness, Ivanna," he tried to reason as he flared his Youkai to the dragon to bring the saddlebag of clothes and meet them, noticing that she didn't even react to the flare.

"I don't want to hear your excuses!" She screeched and he winced as it hurt his ears as Ah-Un came into view, one head holding a bag in his mouth and laid down beside her.

He watched as she sat up and gripped his halter before the dragon lifted his head and placed her on his back. She whispered her need for a bath to the dragon before he walked into the woods. He followed but kept his distance, unsure how to fix this situation.

"Why are you following us?" Her voice was harsh and as he glanced up, he saw narrowed violet eyes looking at him over her shoulder.

"Due to this one's beast, this one must bathe also," he spoke simply, admitting his issue.

"You realize that if you hadn't kept pushing like you always do and just let me be, this would not have happened in the first place," she muttered as she looked away again.

"This one is starting to realize that. It is difficult dealing with these thoughts and emotions that this one has never felt before. They... are overwhelming," he replied, struggling to find the right words.

"Welcome to dealing with useless emotions that you have deemed to be only for ninngen."

Despite the jab, Sesshomaru remained silent as they came to a hot spring surrounded by trees. Ivanna slid off Ah-Un, but kept a tight grip around his neck so she didn't just collapse and eased herself to the ground. Keeping a few feet between them, he silently struggled with the straps of his armor.

"You are so hopeless," he heard her sigh and looked over to see her watching him, her dragon skin top undone but was still on as she waved him closer. "Come here."

He obeyed, keeping his silence as it seemed to be the right thing and knelt before her so she could reach the straps. Once they were undone, he eased the armor off and returned to his feet to remove rest of his clothing and stepped into the spring. He heard her finish removing her own clothing before hearing her mutter a vulgarity and glanced over at her, her hair pulled up on top of her head.

"Seems we both are hopeless," she sighed, an arm covering her chest and her legs bent awkwardly.

"Will you allow this one to assist you?" He asked taking a step towards her.

"Can you promise you won't loose control or anything?"

"This one can only promise to not push boundaries," he spoke honestly.

His answer must have been sufficient as she nodded and held her free arm out to him as she shook from the cold air. He wrapped his arm around her, his hand slid under her thighs and her arm came around his neck as he brought her to him, flinching at the coolness of her skin. He lowered them both into the water near the center of the spring before her body could chill further. He half expected her to swim away from him once in the water but she did not move.

"Ivanna?"

"Why...? I thought that you, of all people, did not condone these kind of actions... That the cold-hearted western lord never lost control for anything..."

"The beast has chosen you. The primal nature of inuyoukai is to search for a mate and produce pups..."

"But I'm not strong... I am ninngen and even if my heart was not like this, our lifespans are minuscule compared to yours... that beast does know that I won't see spring, right?"

"What are you talking about?" He frowned and she flinched, seeming to realize what she had said.

"Oh..." she whispered as she slowly pushed herself away from him and swam a couple feet away, seeming to find something to sit on before turning her back on him. "Even though the timelines have changed... he said that I would not have lived until spring, even if I had remained in one place with no stress... I've pushed away because... the moments we have shared the last week were wonderful... but if I don't get to even see spring and we kept becoming closer, it would devastate you... I can't have that on my conscience."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He frowned as he took a step towards her but stopped as she spoke again.

"I couldn't..."her voice trembled and he watched as she wrapped her arms around herself. "It was supposed to be my burden to bear... I told Rin the truth... because Tooru said that she handled it the best... I needed her to understand why... to smile to lessen your pain..."

"Did you think that pushing this one away would lessen that?" He frowned.


"I hoped..."

"You are already this one's weakness, Ivanna," his voice was quiet as he spoke but as it came from right behind her, she heard it clearly and felt a sob escape her chest. His arm came around her shoulders and pulled her carefully back against him as her heart ached from his confession. "This one apologizes for loosing control. It is not the way this one would have chosen for you to experience that."

"Did you truly black out...?" she whimpered as she tried to stop crying.

"The last thing this one remembered was asking you about when you took in our blood then woke to see you collapsed and the smell of the previous events."

"Every time I had a conversation with him, you remembered everything about it as if you were consciously there..."

"The beast's primal urge overpowered this one completely."

"We should return to camp..."

"Hn," he agreed. "Your neck still bleeds."

"Go ahead," she sighed and tilted her head to the side, giving him full access to her wounded neck.

Feeling his hand move to her neck, she closed her eyes as his fingers held her chin gently. A sigh escaped her lips before she realized it as she felt his breath across her skin and bit her lip to try and keep quiet. Hearing a chuckle before she felt him lick her neck, she felt her cheeks flush. He went over the wounds a couple times before pulling himself away.

"In this one's opinion, if there was not much time left to enjoy the presence of one dear to them, this one would make the most of it despite how much it could hurt later. At least then, there would be no regrets," he spoke as he came around and lifted her chin to make her look at him. "To make the most of a limited time."

"I couldn't do that to you..." she frowned as she brought her hand up and rested it on his wrist.

"This one will be okay," he whispered before kissing her brow and stepped back, her hand falling back into the water.

She brought her hands to cover her face as she realized he was stepping out of the water, getting an uninterrupted view of his backside. She slid off the rock she had been sitting on in the water and turned so her back was to him, keeping one hand on the rock since her legs were no help to her. She washed herself the best she could before swimming back towards the shore where she was a little surprised to see that Sesshomaru had managed to put on his haori and hamakas and tie them properly.

"Progress, you can dress yourself," she teased as he held his hand out. "I'll have you being able to put your armor on too before too long."

"Hn," he smirked as she gripped his wrist as he gripped hers, bringing one arm across her chest as he pulled her easily out and set her on a kimono layer.

She pulled the other two layers over herself, letting the cloth absorb the water on her body. She started working on cleaning the bodily fluids off both of their clothing and hung them over Ah-Un beside her before finally working to dress herself. She pulled on a clean bra and purple dragon skin top, letting the kimonos pool around her waist. Grabbing her underwear and pants, she worked on pulling them on together, keeping the kimonos around her waist to give her some privacy to her awkward dressing.

"Do you need assistance?"

"Nope," she huffed as she managed to pull everything up past her hips. "This isn't the first time I've had to figure out how to dress this way. Just never had to do it with someone watching."

"This one has seen you naked multiple times."

"Doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it," she muttered as she tied her pants before wiggling off the kimonos and examined them for any mishap and found none so she hung them over Ah-Un so she could hang them up once they returned to camp. "Even if I was comfortable with someone watching me get dress from nothing I am allowed my privacy and when this paralysis happens, it makes it that much more awkward."

"This one understands," he responded as she gripped Ah-Un's halter and had him lift her back onto his back. "Are you not going to finish dressing?"

"You try putting on a three layered kimono with half your body being deadweight," she muttered and he came to her.

"It is too cold for you to go around in only your armor," he spoke gently.

He pulled out the kimono and placed each layer on her, making her have to cooperate. Once her arms were in all three layers, he leaned down and instructed her to wrap her arms around his neck. Warily she obeyed and he lifted her up so all the layers were straight before sitting her back onto the dragons back so she could tie each layer closed and tie her obi.

"Thanks," she mumbled and he hummed in response as he grabbed Ah-Un's reigns and guided the way back to camp. "It seems there is just as many disadvantages as there are advantages to getting me high off your essence to enjoy intimate moments. Guess that means I'll have to come up with something to explain this paralysis to Rin."

"More lies?"

"You want to tell her that you sexually violated me without my consent?" She rose her brow as she looked up at him. "Go ahead, try to explain the nature of sex to a seven year old. That would turn into question about where babies come from, to human puberty, and her eventual blood cycle..."

"Do what you think best," he spoke, visibly uncomfortable.

"Thought so," she mused.