"When you go back, you have to stay." A man's voice rang in her ears. All she could see was white cloth and the greenery of nature. Everything made her dizzy. She didn't try hard to focus, it was too nauseating. "Do not stay here."

"What do you mean?" Kagome managed to ask, but her voice came out different than how she felt. She was breathless and near hysterical, when she felt that she had moaned out the question painfully. Why wasn't her body agreeing with her? Even her movements were nauseating with her eyes scanning back and forth. Her vision blurred once more.

"Trust me," This time the voice held emotion. Real emotion, too, and not like the cold demand he had just made. "You have to stay there, Kagome."

"Why are you telling me this?" She felt her body betray her once more. "What happens?"

"We say goodbye." He said, "For now."

"And everyone else?" She asked, somehow trusting his words. He would know, and he would return.

"I will take care of everything." He clenched his fist at his side. "Promise me you'll go and stay." It was a plea, that much she could tell. Not a demand.

"Okay." She said in finality. She trusted him. She had to.

Kagome woke in a cold sweat, rising from the leather couch with a gasp. She panted heavily for a moment, remembering where she was. Sesshou's house. Shippou must have covered her with a blanket when she fell asleep during the movie they had rented for the evening. She was so tired lately studying for finals, but felt guilty for not having spent more time with her demonic friends. So she caved and decided to join the two for a movie night in. However, Sesshou left after a business call sometime early on in the movie, and she had clearly fallen asleep somewhere around the middle.

She sat upright and straightened her clothing. Her sweater had ridden up her middle and her skirt along with it, exposing too much thigh. Rubbing her eyes clear of sleep, Kagome noticed the piece of paper on the coffee table by her cell phone.

I called Mama Higurashi and let her know you were staying the night. Dinner is in the fridge if you're hungry. Sesshou will be back around 2am.

-Shippou

Kagome relaxed into the couch after that. She would be lost without her fox kit. He took care of everything. With nothing to do, she pondered her dream. It was a message, or a memory, she couldn't tell. Everything was fuzzy. Even thinking about it twisted her stomach into knots.

The front door opening pulled Kagome from her thoughts. She turned and anticipated Sesshou's arrival. When he walked into the living room, he frowned.

"I'm glad you stayed," He said. His phrasing had struck her as familiar though. Why did his voice sound like that? "But you should have gone to bed, Kagome."

"I just woke up, actually." Kagome yawned and stretched, standing to follow him into the kitchen. "Besides, you have two bedrooms and they're both occupied normally, so the couch is where I'll be."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sesshou hung his coat over the back of a bar stool. "You would use my bed. I do not require sleep every night."

"And get my human stink all over your pillows? I don't think so!" Kagome joked, sticking her tongue out at the former lord.

"You're right, but that's why I have a housekeeper." He jabbed back, knowing she was only playing. Her mood felt off, though. "Is there something on your mind?"

"Hm?" Kagome had spaced out, eyeing a picture on the fridge of Shippou and his mate. The two of them looked very happy together. "I don't know," She admitted, turning toward Sesshou to take his right wrist in her hands. He offered it to her knowing already what she wanted from him. "I think I had a dream, or a memory," Kagome unlatched his wristwatch and watched with a single blink as Sesshou's appearance reverted back to it's natural state. She had come to dislike his human concealment, not that she didn't find his disguise handsome. The silver hair, golden eyes, and deadly features were bold; different. His face alone, with demonic markings adorning each cheek and the dark crescent moon upon his brow, was beautiful. "Or a dream of a memory?" Kagome placed his watch on the kitchen island.

"Do you wish to talk about it?" Sesshou asked. Kagome had made it a habit to remove his concealment anchor the first chance she got. If he was being completely honest with himself, Sesshou often forgot to take it off if he was busy at home, which Kagome had pointed out once that it was ironic, as he had sought out a home at the edge of a subdivision, on the outskirts of the neighborhood, with the forest surrounding his home, all so he could be without his human disguise. However, his closest neighbors were just beyond the tree line with their own cove of privacy.

"Nah," Kagome shook her head, fixing the sleeve of his sweater she had pushed up his arm to expose the watch. "I really couldn't make sense of it."

"Perhaps you're not trying hard enough." Sesshou teased her, but he was pushing her for a reason. He had come to learn that nothing was a coincidence with Kagome. "Tell me." He requested.

"Hmm," She leaned her back against the counter next to him, "I don't know. Someone was talking to me." Sesshou nodded for her to continue, leaning his hip on the counter on her right to stay close to her. They had become comfortable over the past few weeks in each other's presence, and often welcomed one another's touch instead of shying away out of politeness. "A man. He said something about staying or going?"

"Any idea where?" Sesshou asked, pushing off from the counter and headed towards his study. He knew she would follow to continue their discussions.

"I don't know," Kagome held her stomach as they walked, pressing a single palm into her abdomen. "But it was hard to see. Everything was too bright and blurry. I felt like throwing up."

"Your dreams are often strange, so I would dismiss this one as well." He smirked, "Once you dreamt about elephants the size of puppies."

"That is not true!" Kagome entered the study, jabbing her finger into his spine. "They were smaller, like those teacup pigs." She giggled, "But elephants!"

"I'm still certain you imagine absolute nonsense when you're asleep." Sesshou sat at his desk while Kagome made herself comfortable on the loveseat in the corner by the window. It was still dark outside and the forest, while eerie, was serene too. It was all about perception, she reminded herself. Not long ago she would sleep on the ground in forests just like this one. She sighed. "What ails you?"

"Don't you ever miss being back there?" Kagome kept her eyes glued to the darkness of the night, trying to see past the fog rolling through the open clearing that she presumed was all Sesshou's backyard.

"Yes," He knew what she meant. "It's always so much easier to deal with others when it isn't illegal to kill them." Kagome didn't entertain his humor, so he gave her a more honest answer. "I miss when Rin was small and she could still surprise me into behaving as I am now."

"Do you like yourself more now?" Kagome asked, this time interested in his response. She turned to face him, folding her legs on the seat so she could rest her arms over her knees and lean her chin against them.

"It is not that I disliked myself then." Sesshou was thoughtful, "But that I was ignorant of what it meant to love another. Rin knew she was mine to care for, but I should have made that more clear in the short years I had her." He paused, leaning back into his office chair. "I have become too exhausted to rage against the betrayals I felt as a young man. It was teenage angst, one might say." He knew he would earn a laugh at that, and laugh she did.

"You?" Kagome covered her mouth to stifle the bubbling laughter, "The great Western Lord? Sesshoumaru, first son of the Inu No Taisho, and killing perfection...an angsty teenager?" She could barely contain herself. "Sesshou, just how old are you supposed to be?"

"I was Inuyasha's age when he was born, if that tells you anything." Sesshou enjoyed her amusement. In truth, he had stopped counting, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of his birth year. He watched as the gears in her mind worked, adding up the math.

"You must be around nine hundred years old!" Kagome gasped.

"More like a thousand." Sesshou watched as she gasped in awe. "Demon mentality is different than humans, though. I am a century old, but in truth my human image is that of a man in his late twenties."

"And you're a man of your times," Kagome tapped a finger to her chin in thought, "You've killed so many people."

"Never without honor, Kagome," Sesshou reminded her. "I have a name to uphold." He eyed his old swords against the wall behind him. Bakusaiga and Tenseiga were on display behind his desk, with an empty sword holder for Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga. For some time he kept the sword close out of fear of other's coming to take it, but the time of war was long over, and he felt Inuyasha should wield it in death.

"I know," She nodded her chin against her knees, "Even back then, I knew you wouldn't kill me."

"Many have said I have taken a soft spot for women and children." He frowned, earning him another giggle.

"I'd certainly say so!" Kagome stood and stretched once more, raising her arms above her head. Her sweater rose enough to expose her navel. "Alright, since you've surrendered your bed to me, I think I'll turn in again. I don't know why, but I'm beat."

"You're drowsy when it rains." Sesshou knew her well enough to know that little fact about her. "You haven't been outside since yesterday afternoon, but it began raining just after I left."

"Why did you take off so suddenly anyways?" Kagome continued to stretch her muscles, working her shoulders first. Sesshou almost never stretched, but he admired that she was mindful of her body's limitations. She turned towards him and made a beeline to his desk, sitting herself on top of the dark wood next to where he kept a large paper calendar with minimal details of his daily work.

"I thought you said you were going to sleep." He teased with a smirk. Kagome only rolled her eyes. "Fine, I was informed that there is someone who may be of assistance in training your reiki."

"Okay." Kagome was pensive, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do you have any concerns?" Sesshou asked, always trying to feel out her emotions. Right now, he could feel an edge of nervousness, but she remained calm. "Or perhaps a question?" He knew she was fond of questions. The girl asked them incessantly.

"Yeah." Kagome's gaze reached his, her dark blue eyes swirling with a darker storm that he was familiar with. She was determined. "When do we start?"