When Kagome had returned, she was not empty-handed. She had five water-skins slung over her back.
"What took so long?" Inuyasha snapped almost immediately. Kagome closed her eyes for a moment, feeling a little exasperated.
"I had a hard time finding water," Kagome said as she began to pass the water-skins out. Inuyasha's eyes lingered on her for a moment, at first critical and then softening. His ears swiveled forward and she almost felt uneasy as he seemed to look her over. She watched his nose twitch and she practically held her breath. Cold he smell Sesshomaru's scent on her? She hadn't even touched him.
"We were worried," Inuyasha said as he visibly relaxed. Kagome's annoyance melted. She gave him a small smile.
"Well, everything is fine," she said as she took a seat by him. She noticed some crud on her shoe and peeled it off while seeming to be caught up in her mind.
"Are you sure everything is okay? I'm not stupid ya know, your limping," Inuyasha crossed his arms and closed his eyes, as if he were the one annoyed.
"I mean, I tripped over a rock, but I'm fine, really Inuyasha," she said, but it was a lie. Sesshomaru had told her, or rather, thought to her, that he would speed away as fast as he could. So far, no amount of distance had broken their connected thoughts. She wasn't exactly fine with that. He didn't seem to think often and she was sure that it was because she could hear his thoughts, but she couldn't stop thinking. That her mind was on display was terrifying.
At first she had thought maybe she would tell her friends, but the more she thought of it, the more anxious it made her. She would have to explain that she not only saw him, but that dark priestess too, and that she tried tried to save Sesshomaru, and walked right into a fight that could have went very differently.
She knew he wouldn't hear her out. He wouldn't listen when she tried to tell him that she had actually been a total bad-ass and killed that woman… But now that she thought about that again, she felt like she might be sick.
She killed her. Killed her. It wasn't right for her to do that. She took the life of a human and she had no idea really of what was actually going on. But Sesshomaru wasn't normally one to go gallivanting around doing evil, or well, she didn't think he was anyway. He only did things it seemed that served a sort of purpose to him. She was sure that she had figured that much out.
Either way, to go into details of her most recent solo adventure, it was an argument just waiting to happen. If she was being honest, she was just too tired for all of that right now.
'If you are tired, why not sleep?' Sesshomaru's words came to her mind, and she wanted to brush it off.
'What does it matter to you?' at this point she was definitely getting snippy. Everything was too much, clouding her mind and making it hard to decide her next move. She felt like the world was crashing down around her and being reminded of his presence didn't make her feel any better. She received no reply for several minutes.
'Okay, fine, be that way!' She huffed inwardly.
'Do you already so easily forget that I can hear your every thought?' he asked her. A frown formed on her lips. She had done nothing but grumble inwardly. It probably was annoying. She would probably be annoyed if it were the other way around and she had to hear him complain nonstop.
'I'm sorry...' she felt bad though. Which was even more annoying. She never asked to have shared thoughts with him.
'Sesshomaru, why was that priestess after you?' She couldn't help wondering. She killed that woman. She hoped it was worth it.
'This Sesshomaru is not entirely sure, but if you truly are doubting my motives, this one is not the kind to plot nefariously,' he answered her and it made her heart stop. How stupid could she be!? Stupid, stupid, stupid! She had questioned his morals as if speaking clearly in front of him and to his face. She felt awkward, and her skin crawled. How could she constantly and so easily forget that he could hear her every musing and whim that flitted through her mind?
'Quiet your mind Miko, it is my turn to think,' his voice came to her. Her eyes narrowed. What did that even mean?
'I do not expect a human to be disciplined enough to be constantly aware of my presence. As I have allowed you to chatter on this entire time, I would ask that you soon sleep and allow me the time to ponder this predicament,' his words quickened her blood. She couldn't explain it. He was basically saying that she was so beneath him that she couldn't even be polite!
'Well, maybe if you would say something every now and again I wouldn't forget that your peeping in my mind!' Kagome thought back. The annoyance that rolled from the tone of his next thought only heated her blood more.
'Human, you will calm yourself and sleep, I will not ask again.' He spoke inwardly as if commanding some servant. Well, she was no servant, and she wouldn't be made to feel less for what she was.
'Human!? For real? Ohhh… You are—A piece of work Sesshomaru, you know that?' she was so flustered at his ability to cast her below him. He didn't answer, and she didn't give him time to.
'I saved you! Saved you! You didn't even thank me. That's what, twice now? I could have let Naraku absorb you, I could have let that Priestess have her way with you!' Kagome bit into her mind with anger. As long as he was in her mind, she decided he could not treat her like that. She was a person, a good person she liked to think. Sesshomaru, well, as beautiful as he looked, this proved he was pretty much an asshole. And that was not a term she used lightly.
A sound hit her mind that she could never imagine the demon lord making.
'Did you just scoff at me?' Kagome felt even more infuriated, if that was even possible.
'Do not act so surprised miko, you yourself are peeping into my mind, does it shock you to learn that I too have emotion?' His tone mocked her.
'I—,' Kagome didn't even know what to say. He was right, it did shock her.
'And that is my point exactly miko, I have the discipline of restraint, where as you do not. I do not see where you take issue with this truth,' he stated.
'Where I take issue? Maybe with the way you're talking to me! How would you like if I just called you a demon and said I was better than you?' Kagome practically yelled inwardly.
'The strength of a demon far exceeds that of a human, so you may call me that if you wish,' she wondered if he was trying to purposely torture her now. His words were harsh and callous and if this went on like this, she didn't know how much longer she would be able to take it.
'Fine miko, I concede. I will refrain from calling you anything than miko, and will not point out your obvious weaknesses, and in return you shall sleep now and give me the night,'
'I have a name you know!' she thought.
'Kagome, it is time that you sleep,' it angered her even that he was trying to force her to bed. She was exhausted, but this whole argument made her want to stay up if only to piss him off.
'I am to see one who is wise very shortly, likely I will need to make use of my mind,' he explained.
'This Sesshomaru would very much like to sever this link between us,' he added. Kagome felt hurt, but did her best to shove it aside. She didn't want to be caught thinking that. He'd probably eat it up that he could hurt her feelings.
Kagome let out a sigh.
"What's wrong Kags?" Inuyasha's voice made her jump. She had been so in her head, she forgot her friends were all still there, although Inuyasha was the only one who was really awake.
"Inuyasha, I, it's nothing," she muttered.
Inuyasha shook his head.
"You've seemed like you got something on your mind all night," his eyes lingered on her. She frowned at him.
"I'm just tired is all, long day," she muttered.
"Look, I know I complained all day," Inuyasha looked a little nervous as he spoke for a moment.
"And I know I've been pushing us to find jewel shards, but—," Inuyasha was saying, but Kagome interrupted him.
"I know that we have to because one more we have is another that Naraku doesn't," Kagome said. Inuyasha frowned at her, looking almost a little stunned.
"Well yeah, but lets take a break tomorrow. Sango and Miroku seemed upset at me earlier, I forget that humans can't just suck it up like I can," he stated nonchalantly. Kagome frowned and grumbled under her breath.
"Inuyasha! Just because I'm a human doesn't mean I can't keep up! I'm good too! Okay? I'm not weak," this just wasn't right. How could even Inuyasha say things like that? He never said it as harshly as Sesshomaru she supposed. But even so, it was a blow right now.
Inuyasha seemed a little startled at her outburst. He shook his head as his ears flattened to his head.
"I didn't mean it like that. Kagome, I know you're not weak. I just meant that you guys gotta heal," he gazed at the ground as if it were real interesting, looking worried that she would scold him further.
Kagome softened her eyes as she looked him over.
"Sorry Inuyasha, I guess I'm just on edge," She explained. He slanted his lips at her.
"You wanna talk about it?" He asked. She shook her head.
"No, I'm gonna lay down soon I think, a day off tomorrow sounds nice though," She slipped him a somber smile through the wary look on her face. Inuyasha gazed at her for a moment longer.
"Alright, well, g'night," Inuyasha tore his eyes away finally to look at nothing in particular. Kagome gazed away too, towards her pack and she slowly crawled towards it to yank out her sleeping bag.
'Okay, I'll try to sleep, but if you treat me like that again I will not comply to any of your stupid requests ever again!' Kagome thought as she smoothed out the most obvious wrinkles of her sleeping bag..
'Then sleep Miko, and quit thinking of it,' was his reply. She grumbled under her breath as she began slipping into her sleeping bag.
She closed her eyes and although she felt annoyed and angry, she also felt exhausted. Before long she was already in that state of being in and out of consciousness. Her thoughts were all over the place, not that she could help it at the moment.
Half asleep and mostly unaware, she commended herself. She had done her best all day not to think of home. And she would do her best to continue not thinking of it until this little problem was solved. She had done a wonderful job so far of not blowing the cover of the fact that she came from the future.
She hadn't meant to think it, rather she hadn't even realized she had thought it as sleep already began to take her and drowsiness had her mind drifting. She was so tired after such a long day of walking and fighting and listening to Inuyasha and Shippo complain all day. Her mind drifted far very quickly after that small thought that she hadn't meant to have.
One inudaiyokai stood still in the darkening woods, eyes only widened the slightest, barely though, you would not be able to tell as another person. Yet, Sesshomaru knew, because it was his own face.
She must have been half asleep to think such a thing. Time travel was impossible. A time-travelling human? Even more preposterous. Yet... His mind kept replaying her words over and over. What if she really was from the future? And even so, what did it really matter? He tried to convince himself that he didn't care, or rather that she was lying. Yet, at the same time, his curiosity began to get to him.
If she really was from the future, what magics were there to behold? Perhaps the answer to their problem didn't lie with his resources, but with hers? Yet he shook it away. He would still see what Bokensenou had to say about all of this, and go from there.
To make matters worse, when the human had left, he had went back to the body to see what information he could gather. The body of the dark priestess was gone, vanishing without a trace, without even a trail of scent. Had she evaporated into dust? Similar to demons? Impossible. Only demons turned to ash and that was only when purified. Things only grew more and more curious, and so he sought wisdom and perhaps answers.
He was close to the old tree. His steps brought him closer, and now his mind wandered to his ward.
He often left Rin with Jaken and Ah-Un when he attended business. He was glad that he had left them on his most recent journey to attend to business. He was unsure how he had been ensnared by that dark priestess. He had been on his way to meet with the northern lord, but his memory went fuzzy at the part when he neared their rendezvous.
Yet, something about the circumstances made him almost positive that something wasn't right. There were only two possibilities. The northern lord had betrayed him, or both of them had been ambushed, or did the northern lord go unharmed to their rendezvous to be met with no one?
His mind danced at the notion of worry, it seemed so silly. Normally he would inwardly scoff at the notion. Two daiyokai taken on by one little dark priestess? Yet he, himself, had been ensnared. It was a possibility, albeit one that he didn't like.
When such a thing was possible, it would be foolish to completely throw out all of the possibilities though. That dark priestess had a magic so powerful that it brought him down, and his memory of it was blotted and blurry. He could not make out the events that transpired just before or during. That dark priestess, she very well may have done away with another lord. Yet... His pathetic half-brother's wench had saved him.
He was a lord. A daiyokai! His father's pure demon blood flowed through his very veins and his heart pulsed with the fury of his power. And that Miko... She had to be the most inadequate Miko there was. It wasn't like she really seemed to know what she was doing. Sometimes she pressurized her arrows with her energy and sent them at her target, other times though, she stood there mouth agape in the middle of danger as his brother swooped in to save her.
A Miko defended by a half demon. He almost felt bad for her. How low one must stoop to live like that. She had talent, raw power, and the ability, but she did not have the training, the discipline, or seemingly the common sense that any other Miko had. Yet she saved him. Somehow... This completely undisciplined Miko saved him. Well, he didn't say she was without talent.
He brushed the thoughts away. It was a bad idea to think such things. She had fallen asleep by now, that much he assumed as she did not counter his condemning thoughts. Surely, he could never call her senseless in her waking hours without that vexed wrath of hers. All of which included her yelling at whoever spoke the words she deemed offensive, and she seemed to find a lot of what he said offensive.
Yet his mind kept going back to how he came to with her standing before him. She claimed she saved him. She claimed that and there were no other explanations he could find as to explain the predicament. He just couldn't wrap his head around it.
He was the strongest demon to exist, of course another demon could lay claim to that, but no opponent he had ever had would last against him... Well, all but one, but Inuyasha was a special case. He let him win. That's what he told himself. And then he would sulk about the loss of his arm and only reiterate to himself that he let it happen, even if it was a lie.
Perhaps he should have thanked her, for 'saving' him, but in honest, after all the times they had seen each other, usually at the other end of a battlefield, he deemed her as more than rude and maybe even barbaric. She had not once in his memory called him by proper title although she herself was some sort of peasant. Her mouth ran and ran, it would run for days perhaps. He didn't care for all of that chatter, especially when it was used to say something distasteful about himself.
Plus, she was now in his mind, as he was in hers. She deserved no thanks. This may very well be worse than whatever fate once awaited him. He held back a sigh. Likely, that was a lie. She saved him from some terrible fate, but he would not admit that anytime soon.
He finally reached his destination. Bokensenou seemed to know he was coming, but in truth, that was not uncommon. What was uncommon was this new link that had been formed between his and the miko's mind. Although he spent the entire night seeking audience with the old tree demon and pondering this mystery, his queries were only met with more questions.
A/N: So I have decided to answer reviews here at the end of chapters. I am doing this because I enjoy reading review replies in other stories. Sometimes there are questions that are answered or simply little fun tidbits of info or whatnot. That is why I have decided to do this as such.
I also wanted to add that I feel I sometimes get a bit rambly. I apologize for this, however, I am writing this for fun so *shrug*, it is what it is. I'm going to try not to re-edit too much until this story is finished as to not mess with my flow of writing.
Well, that is all I can think of so far. Well, I guess I could also say that I've had the idea for this story for a long time but always had a hard time with the execution of it. I've decided to just try anyway and see what happens. I always wanted a story where Sessh and Kag could hear each other's thoughts and the trouble and shenanigans that would ensue.
Well, onto review replies. Also, thank you for reading and I hope it was enjoyable. Please review if you'd like. Its always a joy to hear when people enjoy my stories.
To windbreaking: Thank you, it was funny to write as well. I am glad you enjoyed the first chapter! And thank you for reading.
To OnceUponABlueMoonDream: Thank you so much! I really enjoyed reading your review. I do look forward to all the trouble being cuaght in each others heads will cause for the two of them. I actually hadn't thought of Sesshomaru melting the priestess at first, but after reading your review, it did seem like the sort of thing he would do. I decided to write in a bit of him going back. I had planned on her simply getting away, but decided it would be better to foreshadow that better too, so thank you for much for pointing that out. Also yes! She mentioned the future half-asleep in this chapter and I am deeply excited to get more into it as I go, though I think Sesshomaru will take a moment to get on board with even caring so much as I like to make him be a bit stuck up, for now that is. Also, on the jerky-mc jerk face, it was something I could totally imagine Kagome saying, so it made me happy that you pointed that out. Thank you very much for reading and I hope yo enjoyed this second chapter. :)
To Mayuna: Thank you very much for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I have thought about how to go about a plot like this for a long time so I am going to try my best. Thank you again, it does make me happy to see someone say that my story has potential. I have thought on it for a long time and if I'm being honest I sometimes get nervous that it would not be very good. So your words have brought me joy that I am doing something right I think, and perhaps a little more confidence in moving forward. Thank you once again. :)
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Well, I hope that this chapter was enjoyable. Please review/follow if you enjoy the story. I don't really have a set schedule but I'm going to try to update at least once a week or so. Thank you for reading. Have a beautiful day or night, whichever it is for you.