Thank you everyone for all your kind reviews! They mean so much!!
This is also the end of what I had written out in advance, and I'm trying to keep up momentum but the last two weeks have been so busy! Let's hope I can keep up the every other day posting!!
They meet in the woods. She is running towards him like a being possessed. She doesn't slow down, just flinging herself onto him. He is thankful he had the foresight to remove his armor.
He turns to lower her momentum, and her lips lock onto his. After a few moments of kissing, she relents and loosens her grip, dropping back down to the ground.
He realizes he is so much taller than she is at that moment. The top of her head barely reaches his shoulder.
He leans forward and rests his forehead against hers before greeting her in the inu way and all he can scent is her relief and joy.
They end up sitting on a hill together watching the stars.
As the night wears on, she lays back, pulling on his arm to get him to lay beside her. Curling into his side for warmth. Her fingertips trace the marks on his face.
She finally asks the question he has been dreading answering.
"Why do you hate Inuyasha?"
He stares into her beautiful eyes, lit by the glow of the moon. His brows draw down.
"I don't hate him," he can feel a sadness welling inside "I have not hated him since shortly after his birth"
She must feel the sadness in his aura, know that he is speaking the truth. She settles her head on his chest, ready for a long story, but he is not ready. He doesn't know if he will ever be able to tell everything. The emotions roil inside him like an unwatched pot that's about to bubble over.
He looks up at the stars, they are strong and steady like he wishes he could be.
"I had no choice, and when I attempted to explain, the damage had been done. No amount of reconciliation will repair the damage. Any attempt has caused it to further" he raises the stump of his arm as an example.
Her fingertips graze along his jaw, and she tucks her head beneath his jaw.
"Sesshoumaru, I may not know what happened, but I do know that it is not broken forever. You are both still here and this can be fixed."
He swallows down the emotions choking him, shutting them out.
"I have tried, he will not listen. This one must go, I need to attend to Rin."
He sits up, and she falls back. He sees acceptance in her eyes, she understands this is too much for him and lets him leave.
The wind changes and Sesshoumaru can scent Naraku's foul stench on the air.
Jaken runs up to him in a panic.
"Lord Sesshoumaru! Naraku's incarnation Kagura appeared out of nowhere and abducted Rin!"
His heart plummets. While he was with Kagome his precious ward was taken.
A low buzzing behind him has him turning. He sees the saimyosho of Naraku, along with what can only be described as a puppet. The scent is stale and the aura weak compared to the real Naraku.
"So we meet again. What do you have up your sleeve this time?" He asks disinterestedly, he wants to go get Rin, not debate this thing.
"Nothing special, I simply want you to kill Inuyasha." The puppet replies "do this and I will return the girl unharmed"
Sesshoumarus response is swift and instinctual. He lobs the head off the puppet. The saimyosho scatter. This creature thinks to force his hand.
"What will you do my Lord? Will you forsake her?" Jaken asks, shaking
He turned toward where the scent is strongest and begins in that direction. If Naraku had revealed himself, there must be a reason. Following a path he and Jaken come across a large empty valley.
The stench is all around him, as if he has been here for one time. The static feel in the air against his aura alerts him to a barrier just ahead of him.
As Jaken is questioning why they stopped, the barrier begins to open. He can scent the fear pouring off Jaken, but he can also scent Rin close by. He will save her.
Walking through the barrier, a large Shiro looms. A miasma has settled along the ground, the poisonous fog, almost as high as Jaken is tall, swirls with each step.
Naraku appears in front of him. Attempting to goad him into the action he wants, but Sesshoumaru takes orders from no one.
He raises his hand, knuckles cracking as the dokkasou within his blood begins to flow.
Naraku transforms into a hideous amalgamation of limbs from various lesser demons, raptoriles rip from his back coming up over his shoulders. Writhing tentacles flop out onto the ground as he raises up.
The raptoriles snap out with all the speed a mantis demon is known for, but Sesshoumaru is faster.
Naraku continues to send out tentacles, easily cut by the Tokijin, and Sesshoumaru quickly tires of this game when suddenly Naraku's eyes widen.
"Someone is trying to break through my barrier, Kagura, go after him" Naraku shouts towards the incarnation. Sesshoumaru realizes it must be Inuyasha using the red Tessaiga. The strength of the pup continues to amaze him.
"How unfortunate for him that his journey here will be in vain as you will be dead before he arrives" He tells this abomination sending a youki blast from his sword.
He did not realize that the disgusting pieces that were falling all around him were part of Naraku's plan. They began to reform, covering his body. He would not give Naraku the satisfaction of a struggle, and once he had been fully covered he could feel the slimy pieces beginning to try and absorb his youki.
This is not good. Internally his beast is thrashing, trying to free itself. When he feels familiar youki. Inuyasha has arrived.
The draining stops, and he knows that Inuyasha is fighting Naraku. He strains to hear over the squishing noises and he hears Inuyasha cry out in pain. Naraku laughs, and the Inuyasha's voice cracks as he asks "Sesshomaru?"
Naraku must have told him he had absorbed him. He knows by the way that Inuyasha said his name, that even through the anger and misunderstandings, there must still be a part of him that cares.
He feels the Wind Scar before it hits, blocking it with Tokijin, then slicing open the cocoon.
He can smell Inuyasha's relief, before it turns to anger.
There is comfort in the bickering with Inuyasha, and they fight together to defeat their enemy. He wants the kill as Naraku has threatened those which are HIS. His brother, his ward, his woman. The alpha should have the kill and his beast demands it.
Naraku, ever the coward, retreats when he realizes that together with his brother they are too powerful to defeat.