In Time, Death

By Alesyira

Summary: Technically, the idea from the day before had been the terrible one. The next morning went quite a bit better. (or did it?)

Author's Note: um yeah, things get spicy. I warned everyone in chapter 2 that there would be smut, and here we are, 150k words later before we get more than a vague description of things happening lolll :) not sorry. two versions are available. This version here on FFN is a little less detailed. AO3 has a few extra tidbits, but probably nothing worth reading twice to figure out where they differ :p

A Terrible Idea

-1517-

When the sun rose the next morning and Shippo's friend had yet to end his silent vigil, she knew she couldn't stay. Her device still showed hours remaining on the cooldown timer, but she was a stranger from another time with no obvious reason to remain.

It felt a little inconsiderate to think about leaving before he'd been buried, like she was skipping out on a funeral midway through the service. She was anxious to return home and see that he was still alive, to know for certain that she hadn't mucked up her future with a mistake in this past.

She didn't mind hiding at the edge of a battlefield for the next several hours, but she really needed to pee. Chagrined, she let loose a little sigh and stood, stretching the kinks from her back after sitting against a tree for so many hours. She peeked around her for any missed belongings, then slipped quietly away from the edge of the clearing in search of a bush far away and downwind from the stranger guarding Shippo's body.

Shippo's body. She shoved that thought from her mind and swallowed back a fresh wave of tears. She didn't want to think about what she'd do if she came home to find him gone.

When she'd traveled far enough away that she could only barely sense the stranger's presence, she dropped her supplies on the ground and ducked quickly into the bushes. She had to give Shippo's tailor some praise. A protective, neck-to-ankle bodysuit could be a nightmare when you really needed to pee (and she was practically dancing by the time she figured it was safe enough to go), but not with this one. A very discreet opening meant she could take care of business and get herself back in order in a hurry.

Staring down at the little display of her device, she bit her lip and contemplated skipping the last few hours of the safety timer. The chances that she'd need to leave on another mission again immediately were slim, so there shouldn't be much risk of danger to her device.

She briefly closed her eyes. Avoiding Kurama for a little bit longer was the only reason she could think of to not return immediately. That seemed so unimportant now. Yes, the memory of him had been seared into her brain and she'd probably blush like mad the next time she had to see or talk to him, but all she really wanted now was to ease the mounting anxiety she felt about whether Shippo had truly survived her indecisive moment the day before.

She could at least ensure a few extra moments of peace by returning to the shrine instead of the apartment's bathroom. She picked the hour closest to the time she'd left, 8:00 am, a mere sixteen minutes after she'd escaped. She hoped it was a short enough time that neither of her friends would have had a chance to get really worked up about her sudden disappearance.

Without another thought, she tapped through the cooldown warning.

The odd power gripped her from the core and pulled, yanking her hard into the space between times. She felt like she was coming apart at the edges, and a yelp of pain escaped her throat before she vanished.

-the present-

Another sound of distress squeaked out of her throat as her body reformed in a flash of light. She dropped into the darkened well house, feeling shaken by the unexpected sensations of the trip and emotionally exhausted from the day before. Her shoulders sagged and she collapsed to the ground on her hands and knees, her head bowed to the dusty floor.

She was home.

Safe.

The protections around the shrine hummed brightly, a soft blanket that lifted the subtle but constant state of alert she'd maintained while lingering in the past. Most of her trips, she rarely felt safe enough to relax. Despite being pretty torn up about the awful things she'd witnessed, she'd done her best to stay on guard. When Shippo's friend had gone unnoticed as he approached the clearing, it had been like a splash of cold water in her face to pay better attention.

As she eased into the peace of her family shrine, she felt a fresh wave of horror and despair roll over her. She might never shake the image of his mutilated body or the sound of his last breath rattling through his chest from her memories. The bow slid from her shoulder, and she trembled as she pulled her pouch free and unlatched her quiver.

It fell to a small pile at her side as she huddled in on herself in the dim, musty silence of the tiny well house. I sure did get a nice dose of 'this is what happens when you try to use your duties to escape a little bit of awkward'.

She just needed a few moments to collect herself and wonder why the heck the time-traveling was starting to feel strange. She took a deep breath. Just a moment, she promised herself, and then she'd rush out that door to find the answers to questions she was afraid to ask.

‟Why did you run away?"

She twisted sharply to face the unexpected voice behind her, choking out a gasp of surprise as she lost her balance and fell on her butt. ‟Hiei!" She blinked up at him in the darkness. A quick check with her magic showed there was no one else on the shrine. ‟Is…" she broke off and swallowed back a lump in her throat as fresh tears threatened, ‟Is Shippo okay?"

His expression was carefully neutral as he tilted his head and looked her over with concern. ‟I just left them at the apartment a few minutes ago." He crouched at her side and watched as she wrapped her arms around her torso, tears running down her cheeks as some lingering dread slipped away from her expression.

Shippo still existed. Her future seemed intact and unaffected.

She sniffled and managed a sad little chuckle. ‟I hope nobody worried over my vanishing act. I'd meant to just escape for a little while." She bit her lip and rubbed a hand over her face, trying in vain to stem the flow of tears. "I wanted a bit of time to get over the awkwardness of seeing Kurama right after experiencing your memory of him. I thought maybe one of my tasks would be just enough time and trouble to make it seem like less of a big deal." Her fingers twitched with the urge to throw herself against him and cry in exhausted relief.

As she rambled in clear distress, the tension in his posture slowly released. He hadn't been sure what to think about her sudden disappearance, but this explanation made perfect sense. He lowered his voice. ‟I'm guessing you got more than you bargained for?"

‟I saw him die," she whispered, her voice hoarse. He stilled in concern and waited for her to continue. ‟Shippo died. Right in front of me."

Past or future? Which had she seen? The concentrated feeling of anger that shot through him hearing about the death of an ally was a little unexpected, but he realized her question earlier about Shippo's current condition might indicate she'd seen something in the distant past. Botan's bitching about his soul that couldn't be retrieved would fit perfectly within this narrative.

Wanting to know more but a little wary of her emotional state, he carefully reached out for her hand. As his warm fingers slid over her dirty knuckles to loop around her palm, a hiccupping sob was his only warning of the sudden change in her demeanor.

She jumped at the chance for physical comfort and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him to bury her face in the crook of his neck.

His amusement was short-lived as he saw disturbingly fresh memories of violence and felt the wretched misery of witnessing her friend's final breaths. ‟I see," he said, his voice quiet. His fingers clenched in her side as he tugged her closer and curled himself around her.

She shuddered in his lap, her mind a dark turmoil of lingering agony from the horrible memory of knowing she had to leave him to his fate, that he was hopefully meant to return on different terms.

"I didn't know what to do," she croaked out.

He was quiet for a moment as he processed the details of what she'd seen. Her recollections were mostly broken impressions of sound, color, and light that had probably not made much sense to the girl in his arms, but he recognized the threat posed by the adversary she'd finished off. It hadn't been a simple fight, and if she hadn't caught the monster off-guard, she might not have returned at all.

He knew her misery wasn't due to the fight, but the aftermath. Shaking his head, he turned his face into her hair and told her the first thing that came to mind. "I wouldn't have known what to do, either," he admitted. How does one weigh using powers because you can against whether you should?

"But... you killed the one responsible," he continued, unsure if that would bring her any peace.

He stroked his fingertips down the muscles of her back through the thick material of her white haori, then made a sound of irritation before snaking his hand through the front to push the fabric off one shoulder. The bodysuit armor was slick beneath his fingers as he slid his hand across her back, looking for the spots that made her wince and brought the tingling burn of her magic to the surface.

He smiled with grim satisfaction into the hidden darkness of her hair, pressing his fingertips into a tight band of muscle along her spine. *I would have stabbed the bitch a few times for good measure.* His whispered thought tickled through her mind, and she hiccupped a half-laugh against his shoulder.

The heat of his fingers seeped in through her pain and she began to relax. She couldn't imagine how wildly upset her reaction might have been if Shippo had met her here instead. The thought of seeing him whole and alive once more brought a fresh round of tears.

He'd never imagined he'd see the day a girl would cry her eyes out on his shoulder like he was a comforting presence, but Kagome managed to continuously surprise him despite how much he'd gleaned from her memories. He held her quietly as she worked through her mixed emotions and began to pull herself back together.

Sniffling quietly, she leaned back to wipe her face with a suddenly self-conscious grimace. Gross. Nothing like ugly-crying all over a guy you were interested in. It took her a moment before she was satisfied that she'd stopped leaking from her face long enough to meet his eyes. Her voice caught as she asked, ‟He's home? Safe?"

His fingers tightened around her and his eyes unfocused as he searched for the kitsune's energy signature. When it came to the strange concept of her actively experiencing—and possibly affecting—things in the past, he didn't dare take a chance with a hasty assumption.

He quickly found the two males right where he had expected them to be.

She stared, transfixed by the odd strips of lifeless grey that had spread further through the warm crimson of his eyes. At this rate of change, the red might be completely gone in the next few days.

‟He's fine." His lips cracked into a half smile as he thought about the state he'd left them in. ‟Probably still arguing with Kurama about tea in the kitchen."

The sound of his voice pulled her attention away from contemplating the grey. Distracted by the smiling lips inches from her own, she murmured, ‟Arguing? That's good." Hiei didn't smile nearly often enough. The amusement dropped away and she glanced back at his eyes again, worried that she'd offended him somehow.

He watched her carefully, his hand still sliding in comforting strokes down her back. His fingers had taken on a peculiar chill, icy as they pressed into tense knots.

Those motions slowed and became more deliberate, and she felt each careful swipe of his fingertips through her bodysuit like he was mapping the planes of her back, dipping into the hollows and tickling over her curves to count each one of her scars. Her breath hitched as the sensation of his touch sparked against her nerves, an electric current that made her feel warm and tingly.

They stared at each other in the darkness. His lips parted, drawing her gaze like a magnet.

She really wanted to kiss him again.

‟Must I ask?" she whispered, her fingers sliding slowly over the muscles she could feel beneath his layers of clothing. He shifted beneath her, and she became acutely aware of her position straddling his lap.

‟No," he replied, leaning forward to capture her lips with his own. His arms tightened around her, pulling her hard against him. She hummed in pleasant surprise at the bold move, and she dragged a hand up his back to thread her trembling fingers into the hair at his nape.

She wasn't sure where this nearly overwhelming need for physical reassurance had come from. The roller-coaster of emotions had taken a toll on her mental well-being, and it felt so good to just let go and savor the warmth of his body and the strength in his arms. She was fascinated with the contrast between the heat of his lips and the icy-cold fingers that chilled unexpectedly against the skin of her neck. She gasped in surprise and he slipped his tongue into her mouth as he pulled her hips firmly into his.

Despite the sense of desperate hunger he picked up as they kissed, this felt very different from the night he'd thought he'd been rescuing her. She was in full control of herself, and they'd shown a clear physical interest in each other outside of the foreign influences of magic. He wondered how far she might push things if left to her own devices. He didn't care if she could feel what she was doing to him.

Her questing fingers traced along his neck to cup his face as she closed her eyes and gently nipped at his lower lip. She wanted to touch more of him, but he'd worn his blasted coat and was clothed from nearly neck to toe. She pulled away and met his eyes, then shimmied her arms out of her dirtied white top and allowed it to slip backwards, still mostly tucked into the high-waisted red pants. His coat was off in a flash and vanished in a rustle of fabric, lost to a dark corner of the small space.

She ran her hands up his arms as he leaned toward her, a warm glow illuminating his eyes as he glanced at her mouth with damp, parted lips.

Feeling like they were at the precipice of something that could change both their lives, he kept that minuscule space between their mouths, the warm puff of his breath enticing her to close the gap.

Her fingers found purchase along his jaw and slid to the back of his neck to pull him to her. Their lips met, unhurried for the smallest of moments as they inched precariously closer to the edge of madness.

But this wasn't the time nor place for a careful exploration. She promised herself she'd take it slow later. For now, she wanted to taste, touch, and feel, to forget every horrible thing that she'd—

His hands threaded in her hair and he mashed his lips to hers, whisking her mind away from dark thoughts and into the bliss of sensation.

She pushed her hands up the skin of his arms to roll over his shoulders, pulling herself closer as she slid one hand down the back of his sleeveless shirt. Her fingertips traced along the grooves of his muscles, squeezing whatever she could easily reach as the blunt ends of her nails scratched against his skin.

He shuddered and pulled her further into his lap, nudging her hips higher until she rubbed against his obvious arousal. He hissed against her mouth and she stilled in his lap, worried that she'd hurt him.

He opened his eyes to search her expression as he nudged her into doing it again, and the hint of friction teasing at the juncture of her thighs sent a bolt of pleasure snaking up her spine. He caught his lower lip between his teeth as a tiny guttural moan crept out of his throat. She tried moving again on her own, feeling the subtle stroke against her through thick layers of fabric.

She shivered and swallowed, thinking that less clothes was the best idea.

He wholeheartedly agreed, his fingers seeking out the odd little fastenings along her bodysuit that trailed from her neck and disappeared down her side into the bright red pants that currently thwarted any closer contact. His phenomenal speed worked in his favor, but only when he knew what he was doing. He was no virgin, but his patience for obstacles was limited, and her outfit was quickly approaching the status of expendable.

She sought more of that delicious sensation between them, leaning into him with her lips sliding along his, her hips undulating to feel more of those hints of friction that sent lightning bolts of pleasure through her body. How good would it feel to take it a step further?

His fingers skipped along the line of fastenings with increasing haste, opening a wider gap to make space for questing fingers. She felt him fumbling along her hips to find the ties to her pants, and she took pity on his distracted mindset to help the process along.

As soon as her pants loosened, his arm looped around her to lift her from his lap. She squeaked out a giggling laugh as his fingers tickled across the skin of her waist, but she broke off into a gasp of delight as he slid his palm down her hip and then squeezed a handful of her ass.

She clutched his shoulders with a sound of surprise as he shifted to reach further. She moaned into his mouth, wanting those fingers to—oh.

"Are you-" she gasped, breaking off into a wordless sound of delight. Reading my mind, she'd meant to ask. With the way his oddly cold fingers felt against her most sensitive hidden places, it seemed like a dumb question to try and ask out loud. Words completely failed her.

He smiled against her skin and shifted the placement of his fingertip until her voice hitched and her eyes crossed. *Yes.* Her face burned as she squeaked and squirmed in his lap, his calloused fingers teasing with feather-light strokes that made her gasp and writhe against his hold, hoping to increase the pressure of his maddening attentions.

Sure that he meant to torture her with delights until she begged him for more, she took matters into her own hands. Her fingers fumbled against his shirt, tugging up and away, trying to expose more skin. She nearly cried when he withdrew his hand to help her remove his shirt. It was flung away and she didn't hesitate, dropping her hands to the…

She paused, staring down in absolute dismay. Four belts. She blinked at the insurmountable straps of studded leather encircling his waist.

*Forget the fucking belts, there's a gap,* he growled, tugging at more fastenings on her bodysuit. Cool air met her skin as he pushed the fabric over her shoulders. He looped an arm around her waist and lifted her again, his mouth hot against the skin of her breast as he tugged off her red hakama pants.

‟Forget the damned bodysuit," she muttered with a shuddering gasp, ‟there's a gap," she parroted, yanking her arms free from the restricting sleeves before threading the fingers of one hand into his hair to pull his mouth back to hers.

He settled them back on the floor with her straddling his lap before he playfully tweaked her breast. She hissed and bit at his lips, kissing him hard as she pressed herself against him.

She absolutely ached, and the thought of how close they were made her feel nearly lightheaded with desire.

His hand fumbled between them to hurriedly pull aside fabric until he'd exposed himself. She caught her lip between her teeth and stared into his half-lidded gaze, rolling her hips forward experimentally to feel his flesh beneath hers. His eyes fluttered shut as they moved together, so damned close but not quite joined.

She ached for him. She wanted so much more. She wanted everything.

Their positions shifted unexpectedly, and she found herself on her back, staring up at him in the gloom. He leaned forward to capture her lips in a lingering kiss, tasting her mouth and nipping at her lower lip as he touched her with careful fingertips. She gasped against his mouth and arched into his hand, gripping his shoulder as she shuddered and yanked him closer.

She curled around his touch, unable to hold still or stop her sounds of desperation as he tried to focus on preparing her.

She begged for more with her sounds and her thoughts, and when he'd ignored her demands long enough while drawing out the inevitable, her clever fingers reached out to take hold of a sensitive bit of flesh and yanked. He barely caught himself from falling onto her, propping himself on the wooden floor as he stared down into her flushed face.

She ran her fingertips along his jaw with a shuddering breath, squeezing with her other hand, feeling an echo of pleasure at the thought of them joining together. ‟Why are we waiting?" she asked.

He smirked as he leisurely teased her with a fingertip, watching her squirm. ‟I was waiting for you to ask for it."

She squeezed again, harder this time, and reveled in his answering gasp. ‟I'm demanding it," she replied with a completely serious expression.

He leaned forward and licked at her mouth, nudging her hand away so he could settle himself between her parted thighs.

*The things I want to do to you…* he muttered in her mind as his mouth slid down her jaw, nudging their bodies an inch closer.

He pulled back and watched her face as he slowly pressed forward. Her eyes squeezed shut at the unbelievable pleasure of him sinking into her. She realized in some corner of her mind that this felt impossibly amazing, impossibly tight, impossible…

Was she picking up traces of what he felt? Had he left his mind open to her perusal?

He pulled back and thrust forward again, barely making an inch of progress. Her mouth dropped open, eyes wide as she lost her train of thought, momentarily overwhelmed by the sensation. Her breath slipped out of her lungs with a tiny, surprised gasp as something inexplicable suddenly loomed up and hovered over her, a guillotine ready to fall and sever her connection to reality. His third push made even less forward progress as she came unexpectedly, his hand over her mouth barely in time to contain the shriek he could hear echoing in her thoughts.

He shuddered against the accompanying flare of her magic that sizzled against his skin. It seemed like the more she burned him, the less it hurt and the better it felt. He hadn't realized he'd shut his eyes to savor the sensation until he opened them and saw tears dropping from the corners of her eyes. He jerked away from her in shock, instantly concerned he'd hurt her.

She swallowed thickly and sniffled with a small giggle, eventually relaxing beneath him. Her hands splayed across his chest, tracing the lines of his muscles with her fingertips and eyes in the dim light. ‟Sorry, it surprised me," she whispered, the leg draped over his hip pulling on him to return to what he'd been doing.

He cautiously leaned into her again. She had relaxed marginally, and as he slowly pressed forward, he shuddered in pleasure at the sensation of their joining. Watching her for signs of discomfort, he withdrew and thrust forward again, making more progress as she wrapped her other leg around his waist. Her ankles tugged on him insistently, and with a low growl he pulled back an inch and then joined them completely with a movement that took her breath away.

He stared down at her as she marveled at the feelings, her thoughts bouncing between wanting him to move and wondering what an orgasm might feel like with them joined like this.

He shuddered at the visual. He withdrew entirely, smirking at her moan of dismay before sinking back into her, savoring the feel of her.

Her mind was coming unraveled at the edges as she tried to process the dual assault of her body singing in pleasure and the nearly overwhelming urge to unleash her magic. Something trembling and violent ached along her abdomen, a burning, building pressure that had nothing to do with the orgasm that was rapidly approaching.

He shuddered over her, trying to hold back the urge to move faster, forcing back the magic that screamed along his spine like he was meant to do something more. He was surprised at the end he could feel rushing up to meet him. He hadn't reached his peak this rapidly since he was a teenager.

She felt the looming something rising over them as he sped up and lost all rhythm, and it wasn't long before he reached his peak and dragged her along with him.

She bit her lip against the overwhelming onslaught of pleasure and he mashed his mouth against hers, drinking in her cries as they fell together over the edge into the dark abyss of oblivion.

The scraping of the wooden door sliding open startled her from the light doze she'd fallen into. It took her a brief moment to realize that she was half-dressed on the dirty wooden floor of the well house. Still feeling relaxed and boneless from what she'd just done, she couldn't quite muster the energy to conceal her bared breasts in the sudden bright glare of morning sunshine. Either she'd just scarred her snooping brother for life, or she was giving a show to a shameless kitsune that wouldn't give a damn about her nudity.

She shifted slightly, blinking against the glare to see who'd intruded, and discovered Shippo staring down at them with his mouth agape, caught somewhere between shock and amusement. She flicked her fingertips at him in annoyance. Hiei was still lying collapsed over her, his heavy weight a pleasant pressure against her torso.

‟You might want to try for a bed next time, or at least a room with a door that locks," Shippo observed. ‟I can't believe you're both still mostly dressed. That much of a hurry, huh?"

As she listened to him tease over their state, the memory of seeing his violent death flooded her thoughts, and he spotted her eyes filling with tears. His gaze whipped from her upset expression to the male lying on her and rage filled his vision. Hiei sighed in exasperation and Shippo froze, unable to move against the sudden binding curse.

‟She's upset because she saw you die, not because we fucked." Hiei propped his face up on his palm, staring down at the distraught girl beneath him. ‟See? He's obviously just fine. Do you need another round to forget some more?"

She stared at him in disbelief. Did he just make a joke?

He shifted his weight slightly and she realized they were still joined together. ‟Oh my…" she whispered with a shudder, her hand clutching his shoulder in surprise at the sensation. Definitely not a joke.

Hiei released the fox in favor of focusing on better things demanding his attention. His presence was dismissed entirely as he dipped his face toward hers to catch her lips.

Shippo rolled his eyes. ‟Fifteen minutes," he announced before he stepped back outside, shutting the doors with a quiet snap as he sealed the little building with a barrier.

…And then Hiei helped her forget for a little bit longer.

End Notes:

1 - I mean, who even considers mundane shit like potty breaks in fantasy novels? apparently me, because a functional aspect of an outfit leads into a better use of said functional aspect. in hindsight, I probably should have worked this knowledge in earlier instead of just before it becomes important.

2 - my fave fics to read are the ones that build up to sex with a few encounters that tease you with the possibility but never quite get there UNTIL IT DOES and it's like YES, FINALLY.

that obvs isn't happening here.

before anyone goes 'WAIT, this was so sudden!' there's going to be some hindsight elements after the fact :)