GUST

It took longer to return than he would have liked, Kagura lagging behind and setting the pace for everyone else. Her exhaustion getting the better of her and even Sesshoumaru reluctantly slowed to accommodate it. A small blessing, he realized, as by the time they landed before the castle's gate the barrier had been reestablished, which meant that the damage was minimal, though he was still unsure of what reception awaited them on the other side.

Their footsteps crunched against the ice and snow as they landed and Sesshoumaru glanced over his shoulder to take one last look at Kagura. She stumbled a little when she landed, her wounds had stopped weeping, the blood either properly coagulated or frozen, but tremors still wracked her frame and her robes had frozen solid, creaking with shattered ice when she moved. Despite that she met his gaze with as much haughty pride as she could muster, setting her shoulders and raising her chin in defiance. He understood her reluctance to return, knew that the fault lay with him, but preferred her indignation to the alternative.

They passed through the rhododendron gate, the barrier crackling against their skin, only to be met by his mother's stern glare.

"You have quite the knack for causing trouble, don't you, girl?"

Kagura bristled, but her mouth only thinned into a hard line as she returned his mother's look with nothing more than stoicism. A crowd had gathered, those cleaning up after the mess and onlookers hoping for another fight. He spotted Jaken and Shippou peering through gaps between kneecaps. For as much as the imp griped about him, he tolerated the fox well enough.

"No smart remark? And here I thought you were more amusing than that," his mother scoffed, leaning a little too close to Kagura's face. "That wound does look awfully painful―"

"Mother."

He didn't need them arguing―or worse.

His mother turned to stare at him, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as her gaze slowly slid back to Kagura and then again to him. She paused, staring at him until she finally clicked her tongue and shook her head, muttering something under her breath he couldn't hear, but Kagura was close enough that her eyes went wide. Sesshoumaru had no intention of asking what she'd said.

Instead he kept walking, shouldering his way through the crowd and leaving Kagura and his mother to glare daggers at each other if that's what they chose to do. It was none of his concern.

He'd already saved her from drowning, the tengu's poison, and insured she didn't freeze to death on the beach, he had no responsibility to protect her from his mother. Even injured as she was, Kagura had proved she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and his mother was unlikely to want to sully her robes in such mixed company.

"That little trick was impressive, I'll give you that." Kagura must have begun to walk behind him, because his mother's voice didn't fade with the distance. "Those crows came back looking awfully terrified, I assume that was your doing, I would hope my son would have had less discretion."

Apparently he'd been gone long enough that his mother's new preferred way of making war was irritating her prey to death. He credited it to her age finally taking its toll.

"Kagura!" The oni's voice was grating as she barreled through the crowd, grunts of displeasure following in her wake. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Fuck off, Momiji."

"No! You always pull this shit and now look what you've done! My collection is ruined or buried under ten feet of rubble! What am I supposed to do now?! You know how much all that cost me! I can't believe you―"

"Shut up!"

Curious, Sesshoumaru stopped and turned back.

"I'm not in the mood."

Under the dim torchlight filtering down from above, he realized how pale she was, the exhaustion showing clearly on her face though her entire being held taught to contain her shivering. An attempt at subterfuge undone by her left arm, the muscles of her shoulder too damaged to properly control, leaving her hand hanging limp and trembling.

"I don't care! I can't believe you! You owe me―"

He'd had enough of her screeching, and unlike the spectators had no interest in watching Kagura smash in her thick skull.

"Oni." She flinched and looked up at him. "You're annoying."

He may as well have slapped her for the way she gasped and clutched at her chest. Scandalized, she flapped her mouth for longer than necessary, but the woman wasn't stupid, and finally settled on snapping it shut. A wise choice. Kagura may have laughed, but any amusement she felt was quickly lost in a gasp and a series of steadying breaths.

"Kagura."

She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, trying to school her breathing back to something calmer. He only gave one short jerk of his head, an indication for her to follow as he turned back to go up the steps. He didn't wait to see if she did, but he heard the bat questioning her, the soft voices of her companions asking after her condition, even the oni wishing her well as Kagura reassured them. Sesshoumaru didn't bother to turn back until he was nearly at the end of the walkway, simply wanting to be sure he should even bother leading her if she hadn't followed.

But she was. Crimson eyes bright despite the dried blood smearing her skin and the sallow color of her cheeks, her gaze stuck on him as she walked the center of the path, spectators on either side watching her every move. Her arm still trembled, but the rest of her held firm. Regal; as if the stain across her chest were glittering rubies rather than her own blood.

Sesshoumaru turned away, down a small branching hall and away from prying eyes.

Her apprehension was nearly palpable as he led her deeper into the keep, he idly wondered how long it would be before she said something. Wood and plaster gave way to polished stone, earthen corridors carved into the rock and illuminated by the warm glow of the incandescent fixtures embedded in the walls, and still, she said nothing.

It wasn't until he caught the heady scent of damp earth that he knew where to turn, a glamour hiding the entrance even to his own eyes. If Kagura was surprised she made no show of it, though she would have had to follow him blindly. He stopped and turned to her, where she hesitated.

Torchlight from the castle's interior distorted by the barrier lit her silhouette and left her face in shadow, but he could clearly make out the way she gripped the wall for support, having dropped her strong facade now that they were alone. Light shined down on her head, illuminating the ice crystals in her hair and giving her a glittering golden halo. It hardly distracted from the furrow in her brow or the severe line bisecting her jaw from her clenching her teeth.

"I'm guessing you didn't bring me to this cave to stare at me," she hissed. Her voice still wavered, thick and rasping.

His only answer was to continue up the corridor, carefully listening to the steady sound of her steps, paying attention to any change in the rhythm, in the sound of her panting.

The path wasn't very long, though he assumed that made little difference to her in her sorry state, as far as she'd forced herself to go since they'd left the beach. Ahead the corridor opened, a warm draft touched his face as they approached, the light growing brighter as they stepped out into the cavern.

Older than the mountain itself, it rose to dizzying heights above them, the ceiling lost in the darkness. Somewhere, off in the shadows, there was the patter of dripping water, forming more of the spindly stalactites that fell to the ground, reaching down like skeleton fingers while in the soft light their counterparts rising from the stone may as well have been wandering ghosts. The stone had long ago been smoothed, eroded by water and the footsteps of his ancestors into paths that crisscrossed the cavern, leading off down other dark corridors.

Only several steps behind him, Kagura sucked in a breath.

It didn't take much thought to understand why.

Bones. Skulls stacked high on stalagmites, rib cages and limbs arranged against the walls to form geometric patterns, broken shards scattered the floor, crunching beneath his boots, empty eye sockets staring back at them from those long dead. Oni, youkai, and human alike, some larger than he was tall, others as small as his fist; war trophies from battles long since won. The flicker of torchlight cast odd shadows amongst them, making them dance and grin at him with glittering white teeth. Ryuukotsusei's skull would have found a home here, had his father lived to defeat him.

Kagura let out a dry chuckle, the sound echoing into infinity around him.

"You asked me why I went to Yomi when you've got your very own right here…"

Sesshoumaru stopped and looked back at her. Her hand had found purchase in the eye sockets of something that looked vaguely human―hard to tell without flesh―and she leveled a grimace at him, her hair thawed and clinging to her skull from seawater and blood.

"Planning to add me to the collection?"

He blinked at her, not bothering to respond to such an accusation.

His lack of response had the opposite effect of pacifying her, her grimace turned into a furious scowl. Her fist tightened its hold on the skull and there was a deep rumble, the skeletons surrounding them beginning to quake and tremble. He paid them little mind, keeping his gaze level with hers.

"If you want to fight, I'll oblige you," he said softly, "but you aren't in any condition to do so."

Her lip pulled up into a sneer, the rumbling increasing to a higher pitch and the skeletons closest to him shivered, rattling as they lifted away from their perches. There was a moment where he expected that the horde would descend on him, an army of her making, but then the ferocity on her face fell, resignation clouding her features and the bones fell back to their places.

That didn't mean that her fist didn't pull the skull from the wall, sending a small avalanche of bones crashing to the floor, just to whip the thing at his feet. It shattered into hundreds of fragments, and with its destruction taking whatever anger had fueled her.

"Ass."

She pulled herself away from the wall, unsteady feet slipping against the broken bones littering the floor. She made as if to shove past him, but between her tremors and the uneven ground she stumbled―

His hand snatched her elbow without thinking, holding her upright beside him. Kagura hissed, the movement pulling on torn muscle; she gasped, her eyes lifting to look up at him, her lips parted, a furrow in her brow. There was the space of a breath where she did nothing but stare up at him, her weight shifted just a little, leaning into him for support, the chill of her skin like an icy draft against his side… but then there was the smattering of bone shards collapsing nearby and her sense came back to her like a rubber band snap.

She snatched her arm back, throwing herself against the wall of skulls for support and refusing to look at him.

"Don't touch me."

The tremors came back in full force, but Kagura just shook her head and kept her gaze stuck to the floor.

"I'm tired," she said, proving it with the weakness in her voice, "and I don't know why you brought me to your little boneyard―"

"Your shivering and the stink of your blood is annoying," he snapped. He fought to keep the scowl off his face as he started to walk away. "If you prefer to stay here and play with corpses, you're more than welcome to it."

It was only a moment before she sighed and the litter on the floor cracked and clattered as she followed.

He crossed halfway into the cavern before he turned and continued up into another passageway, this one taller than the one they'd come from but no ess dank and narrow. Stairs had been carved into the floor here, to compensate for the sharp incline. He could smell the muggy heat and hear the subtle sound of moving water wafting down from up ahead. The stone here shimmered in the dim light, condensation from the humidity. He made sure to plant his feet firmly so as not to slide on the wet steps and minutely slowed his pace, allowing Kagura the time to follow.

They rounded a bend and the passage opened into another cavern, this one free of bones and instead overtaken by pools of water. A hot spring, the water gushing from a crack in the stone and cascading down from one pool to the next, three in total until it fell from the last as a spring, disappearing down another crack and flowing back down into the mountain. The last cascade tall enough for even him to fully stand underneath. More steps gouged into rock to allow one to pass easily between each pool without climbing or jumping. The water itself sparkled in the light, heady with the scent of herbs and minerals.

"The waters are enchanted to expedite healing."

Her gaze itched as she needled his face. He refused to look at her, to give in to whatever question or insult waited on her tongue. He didn't need to wait long, even her tenacity worn thin with exhaustion. She stepped up to the falls, her back to him and letting the water spill across her hand. Already, the tension in her stance lessened, her robes thawing with the steam.

Kagura let out a contented sigh, a sound that snapped Sesshoumaru to full attention just in time to watch her slip the sleeve off her injured arm.

She hissed at the movement, still struggling to move the arm as she stepped fully beneath the water, letting it spill across the back of her neck. Her shoulder was still raw, blood marring the skin of her back and her lapel hung just low enough for him to see the burn between her shoulder blades―

He exhaled, perhaps a little too heavily. She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, eyes dull in the dim light as she watched him. Streams of water pouring down her cheek and washing away the blood on her back in long pink lines that disappeared beneath sodden fabric; no longer frozen, soaking wet, her robes clung to her skin.

"Expecting a show?"

He blinked. There was no mischief in the taunt, no tittering or teasing in the way she said the words, no toothy smirk playing on her smeared red lips.

Sesshoumaru hardly met her eyes before he turned on his heel, intending to return to the castle. But an itch in his spine stopped his feet before he could step up into the hall.

"Kagura."

He didn't turn to look at her, but he heard the stillness in the air, the indication she was listening.

"It won't happen again."

And then he left her alone.

She didn't turn to watch him go, but her breath stilled, caught in her throat as the sound of his footsteps faded up the corridor. Soft words, but solemnly spoken.

With a shuddering sigh she sank to her knees, bracing herself with one hand against the wall, letting the rushing water run over her skin. She knew it was hot by the steam and the smell of it, but to her frozen nerves she hardly felt it, it may as well have been as cold as the sea he'd pulled her from.

Her cheek still itched from the warmth of his hand, her arm from where he'd grabbed her. She wanted to laugh, wondering why he'd even bothered.

In a way, she could guess at his reasons: pride, maybe guilt, embarrassment over his lack of control, a temper tantrum someone like him had no business indulging in, but―

"Tch, even my son is nothing but a man."

His mother's words bounced around her skull. The most ridiculous reason of them all. Because if that were true, then―then why the fuck had he bothered getting pissed off in the first place.

She hissed, her wounds beginning to sting and itch as the flesh pulled back together. A small thing, she wouldn't have to worry about the tearing and burning of her skin for much longer, but it seemed the healing waters did not come with their own cost. She could feel her reserves leeching away. It had taken a not insignificant amount of energy to calm her youki, and now the rest of it was being stolen to fix her broken skin.

Hopefully the waters would warm her enough to hold her over. She had little left to keep herself going.

She held herself steady to scrub at her face, to remove what remained of the crow's blood. She hissed when she inadvertently scraped the gash along her jaw, and with a sigh stopped to let her head hang to allow the water to do its work.

It was slow going, every nerve screaming to life as her skin knit back together. She focused on the din of the rushing water, on dragging in each breath, slow and steady. Her lungs bubbled, the sound of leftover seawater, with a sigh she pressed a hand to her mouth, forcing herself to swallow air and force out the water. She coughed, the salt stinging her throat as she spit into the water swirling at her feet.

It felt like an eternity before the water ran clear and her nerves finally began to settle, her flesh still raw and pink, but no longer angry and weeping. But she was still cold, a shiver along her skin even as she stood under the falls. She stepped out and her flesh pebbled against the chill.

With some difficulty she removed her soaked robes, the fabric fighting her at every turn, weighed down by water, but she finally managed to slip them off and tossed them aside with a slap against the rocks. Too torn to be used again, the colors had run together because of the bloodstains and the ice. A pity, she'd quite liked that one and she'd have to make a mad dash to the others, wherever they were now, and hope that they'd managed to salvage something for her to wear. She still hadn't developed the knack for illusions like her brother had, and she had little interest in running outside naked in the cold.

The staircase was slick as she made her way up to the top pool, nearly slipping on the steps. Kagura undid her hair and slipped into the water, heat spreading from her toes and warming the rest of her, though it was several minutes before her shivering fully stopped, before she could even feel the warmth.

She ran her fingers through her hair under the water, the strands horribly tangled and still stuck with blood, but after soaking awhile she decided to leave well enough alone until she had something better than her hands and simply chose to lounge in the water.

With the warmth settling in her bones her mind wandered, wondering if she should still head south, imagining her brother's laughter if she told him what had happened, she could hear his mocking voice making her ear itch. She reached up, toying with the lobe and the hoop slung through it… she could always go back north, but that carried too much… if she stayed here she needed to have a talk with a certain dog, two, really, she could hear one in her mind, snide and haughty, and the other would have nothing to say to her, pride and circumstance keeping him from telling her what the hell his problem was… why he'd brought her to his hellhound's treasure trove, she could already hear the bird screeching at her, Urue's measure scolding about how they were no different―

The sound of shuffling feet and her eyes shot open.

From the lower corridor, a servant woman appearing with her head bowed. Kagura crawled to the edge of the pool so she could get a better look; old, grey hair trailing down her hunched back. The woman carried a bundle in her arms, set it down on a smooth rock near the wall before turning to the steaming heap of Kagura's torn robes.

"Would you like these mended, ma'am?"

Ma'am? "No."

"Very well." She bowed deeply and left, her shuffling bouncing off the walls of the cavern.

With a sigh Kagura pulled herself out of the water, her muscles tensing in response to the change in temperature as she went down to her things, a tentative hand reaching out for the bundle the woman had left behind. On top, a black lacquer comb and a pair of thick socks. Her fingers skimmed the texture of the cloth underneath, not recognizing the fabric as she began to palm through them. Not hers, she realized as she held up the short robe that lay on top, made of a thick material she didn't recognize, a deep dusty maroon. The second layer a deep forest green, but it was the outermost that caught her eye.

Hard to tell in the dull warm light, but she was almost sure of the pale lilac, the splotches of magenta along the shoulders and sleeves.

Hn.

She hadn't expected that.

She pulled on the last layer, most likely a long coat in charcoal grey, and something went clattering to the floor at her feet. She blinked, staring at it as her mind processed what she was looking at.

Well, it seemed he was full of surprises.

Kagura bent down to retrieve it, letting the fan slide open as she held it before her face. She watched the light play out across the gilded golden surface of the paper and as she began to dress and comb out her tangled hair she had to bite back laughter, figuring it was the closest she'd ever get to an apology.

Yo, so like who's already tired of this slow burn and the some 19,000 words I just wrote about a 3 hr period of one night? Cause I sure the fuck am and I'm the one writing it! But don't worry! BECAUSE...There's more where that came from