THAW
"So… what the hell happened?"
The question slapped her in the face the second she stepped out into open air, her brother's voice carried on the wind, garbled, like too many voices speaking at once, whispered through the miles between them and inaudible to anyone who didn't know how to listen.
"Don't worry about it."
"'Don't worry about it' she says," Byakuya scoffed, "hard to do when all of a sudden my nice warm bath goes ice cold."
"Sounds like a personal problem." He was always so dramatic.
"Yeah, the problem being you."
Kagura couldn't help but laugh, picturing clearly how he must be rolling his eyes. She'd come out towards the upper floors of the castle, a path carved into the rock looping around the mountain. Looking out over the valley, she could see the trees tremble with his voice, skeletal fingers waving to the sky that had begun to turn, no longer the deep black of night but a softening gray from the oncoming dawn. Still strung with twinkling stars but the moon must have set hours ago, leaving the sky a blanket of glittering diamonds.
"I'm fine, really," she said softly, keeping her voice low. As irritating as he could be, she knew his concern for her was genuine, and that he was one of the few people she could truly rely on if needed. A small list, she could count them on one hand.
"I know," he hummed, "but who am I if I don't badger you for it?"
His voice was warm, coming from the south, but a breeze caressed the mountain, bringing a chill with it. Kagura shivered involuntarily, gripping the lapels of the hanten tighter around her shoulders.
"Leave it to you to start getting into trouble as soon as you get back."
She chuckled. "Just bad luck, I suppose."
"For you? Just the normal state of affairs."
"Please, it's been weeks since I've gotten into anything, you're just being dramatic."
"Can't help it," he hummed as Kagura rounded a corner. A silver head popped into view but she took a quick step back before it turned in her direction. "Oi, Nee-chan, where are you, anyway? I can sense a barrier―"
"Mind your business," she hissed. She waved her hand, a motion he'd recognize even so far away. "I'm busy. See ya'."
She heard something that sounded like a grumble, but his voice drifted away. If he truly wanted to―and maybe he had already―he would ask Urue or come himself, but she put enough trust in him to leave her alone where it counted, and so far he hadn't overstepped. Small blessings for a sibling she'd never asked for.
She'd followed the path Sesshoumaru had taken when he'd left her in the cave, curiosity getting the better of her. Yet as Kagura peered around the rock, once again catching sight of that silver hair, she still found herself a little surprised by Sesshoumaru leaning up against the side of the castle, perched on a railing and staring down at the castle below. She glanced down, following his line of sight as best she could, catching sight of the mess she'd made, multiple bodies picking through the rubble. She'd have to join them soon enough, she knew, hoped her collection hadn't been crushed beneath the stones.
Tearing her gaze away she turned back to the moody dog. He couldn't have been waiting for her, and he hadn't turned to look at her, but she doubted he was unaware of her presence, she was only unsure if he'd heard her speaking. She debated simply leaving him to his own devices, but then she took another glance at the fan, her curiosity getting the better of her and she stepped out from behind the rock.
The sound of her feet scraping against the ground finally garnered his attention and he turned his head slowly. She crossed her arms inside her sleeves and gave him the haughtiest face she could muster as she stopped a few feet away. He gave her one long once over before he turned back to the spectacle below.
"You're healed."
Kagura pursed her lips. If he expected her to thank him, then… "I am."
"The crows haven't gone yet."
She wasn't sure if that was meant to be a warning, did he think she would go down and chase them out? Even if she had the energy she wasn't all that interested in terrorizing the younger brother any more than she already had.
"It isn't quite sunrise," she said, picking at the lapel of the hanten as she leaned up against the railing more than twice his arm's length away from him.
He made a sound of affirmation, still not looking at her, though she noticed that his eyes had turned marginally to the left, probably looking at her in his peripherals without wanting to make it obvious. She stifled a laugh at the juvenile behavior, but the longer the silence stretched on, the longer he spent ignoring her gaze on the side of his face, the more irritated she got.
"So am I to take all this as an apology?" she finally snapped, brandishing the fan between them. She opened it, twirling it in her hand. He blinked but still didn't look at her.
"You can take it however you like."
She supposed that was the closest she'd get to a yes.
"Fine. I accept your apology."
His head snapped in her direction, his eyes narrowed, but she stared right back at him, her eyebrows raised, silently daring him to deny it or take it back. It was several seconds before he rolled his eyes and turned away again, conceding.
She almost snapped at him, an insult ready on her tongue, but she quickly bit it back. The sky was slowly lightening, a lighter shade of grey than before, the stars beginning to fade. The muted hue cast odd shadows on his face, washing away his colors; the marks on his face nearly black, his usually vibrant eyes clouded, and without any light to reflect his silver hair was left lifeless, muddied and flat. She wondered if he preferred the lack of light, if the bland and colorless thing before her was what he wished to be, always so closed off and silent.
The sky lightened a few shades as she watched him, and while his irritation at her blatant staring was nearly palpable, she found that she much preferred the change on him. The light bringing warmth to his face.
She'd always known him to be stubborn, as pigheaded as his brother despite their supposed differences, and while she didn't doubt that the meager years they'd been apart hadn't changed him, she still knew she couldn't expect much more from him than what he'd already given. Even that had been more than she would have thought him capable of.
With a sigh and a shake of her head, decision made, she started: "I went to Yomi―"
"I don't care." He hadn't even bothered to look at her. Ass.
She tutted, leveling him with a dull glare. "Too bad, I'm telling you." Not truly, but enough to set his mind at ease. She turned away to tuck her hands deeper into her sleeves, holding the coat closed in front of her chest. "I went to Yomi to resurrect a god."
"My mother already explained," he interrupted, doing his best to make it clear that he wasn't interested in what she had to say: his gaze off somewhere else and his left shoulder angled in such a way to keep her from seeing his face. Of course his mother had said something, the old bitch had no reason to keep it a secret. Kagura supposed that leaving it at that would leave well enough alone, but then he turned, not meeting her eyes but enough for her to see his profile. "Though she did not say why you would do such a thing."
Alright, maybe not so uninterested after all. Maybe the guilt had gone to his head, making him particularly chatty.
"After I―after I came back, I couldn't control my powers as much as I would have liked, I'm sure you remember." She gave him a look that he pointedly ignored. His apparent interest only going so far. "I went to the shrine at Ise, looking for a wind god to help me." She swallowed. Here, the lie began: "I didn't find any wind god, but I did find a fan I liked and decided to take it." There hadn't been any decision, she'd known better, it'd been a subconscious impulse. "You can imagine how well that went over."
He said nothing, but he was watching her from the corner of his eye, listening. With a sigh, she continued.
"After that a wind god found me, told me someone else would come after me and that if I wanted to avoid the consequences I'd do him the favor of bringing his nephew back from hell."
He'd said he didn't care, yet― "It would have been simpler to kill you."
She snorted. "So you'd think, but I wasn't like I was in a place to question it, especially after seeing how powerful he was," she said with a snort. "We went to your mother because the other option was the gate guarded by those two statues, and you can imagine why I didn't want to go that way." Though looking back on it, she wondered if the guardians would have taken orders if she'd simply told them to allow her passage. Maybe that had been another of Naraku's tests, she doubted Hakudoushi had known. "I didn't know who she was until I saw her face and asked about you."
"You asked?"
"Why wouldn't I? I wanted to know if she was some secret sister or somethin'." Or a wife. "And it's not like I meant to screw her over, things just… got complicated."
He turned to her fully, one eyebrow raised as he leaned against the wall.
"You ain't supposed to leave hell once you're there," she said, "but nobody told me exactly what the fuck that meant, nearly lost my hand."
At that he did look at her earnestly, a questioning line between his brows as he glanced down at the fabric she'd balled between her fists. She chuckled, pulled her hand out of her sleeve, waving at him with her left hand where Kagutsuchi had nearly burnt her to the bone. Little brother, Byakuya was probably thinking somewhere.
"Don't worry, still got all five fingers." She twirled them at Sesshoumaru for good measure, shaking the thought from her head.
He narrowed his eyes, following the movement with a predatory interest that was gone within the next second as he looked away again. She pulled her hand back into her sleeve quickly, the chill already setting into her fingers.
"And the god?"
"Alive and well, warm and cozy wherever the hell he is right now, I don't know, I don't care to keep track of him like that." If she stretched her consciousness, prodded at that thread that connected them, she could find him, could sometimes tell where he was, what he was doing, hearing, smelling, and if they were together it could go as far as knowing the thoughts in his head if she really wanted to. A road that went both ways.
She'd threatened him if he ever did it without her knowing, but there was some comfort in it, knowing she had someone to call if she needed it. As fussy as he could be, she'd never known him to shy away from a task. A trait they most definitely did not share.
"―But he did help me like he was supposed to, and does whenever I need it. A decent enough bargain, I guess." A stray thought wondered what would have become of him, had she failed in Yomi, or hadn't gone to the shrine in the first place. She shook her head, the possibilities making her stomach roll.
"Is that who you were speaking to?"
"Hn?" Her head snapped up. He couldn't have heard―
"When you regained consciousness, you were speaking to someone."
Oh. She vaguely remembered his voice, more a scream in her ear until he realized she was well enough to speak. She blinked. "Yeah, we can talk if we want to… usually him more than me."
The sky shifted from gray to dull orange, almost burning and bringing a warm wind with it over the mountain. Kagura shivered, letting it caress her skin and taking some comfort in it, watching the colors in his hair change as the light slowly bled into the sky..
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Urue take to the air from several floors below, flying several loops higher above the valley. Probably looking for her. Kagura pulled her arm from her sleeve, flipping the fan over her hand to create a gentle breeze that would send the bat off course, nothing dangerous, but enough to get the message across: go back inside.
Urue tumbled, catching herself in the column of air as her head whipped up towards them, spotting the dog beside her. She let out an indignant screech, one Kagura couldn't necessarily fault her for, but she didn't have the energy to argue and with another twist of the fan sent a stronger eddie that would force her down. Urue didn't have the energy or spite enough to fight against the wind, and reluctantly glided back into an open window.
"That thing obeys you." A statement, though she knew it to be a question. Of course he wouldn't just ask what he wanted to know.
"She does."
Sesshoumaru glanced at her, probably irritated, but Kagura didn't care to indulge whatever line of questioning he wanted to voice but refused to. She shook her head, spotting what had set Urue off in the first place: the group of crows hobbling through the main yard towards the gate. The one she'd maimed slung between his brother and the uninjured kotengu, the other limping along behind them. Between the two of them, the crows were able to take to the air once they'd crossed out of the gate, their wing beats audible even so high up as they struggle to keep themselves above the ground. She couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it; more than a little pleased with herself despite the fact that there was still a chill in her bones.
Kagura watched them go, black spots against the grey horizon disappearing into the distance and finally beyond the valley. Beside her, Sesshoumaru made a noncommittal sound, and once they were out of sight she glanced at him only to find him staring at her, his eyes nearly the same color as the dawn sky.
She looked him over, confused. "...what?"
"You are…" He took a breath, his gaze never leaving her face even as he seemed to struggle with the next word, "...powerful."
She wasn't sure if she should take that as a compliment, as hesitant as he'd been to voice it, so she simply answered with a slow nod.
"You sought me out four years ago in order to defeat Naraku," he continued, slowly, carefully.
"I did."
She had a guess as to where his line of questioning was going, but wouldn't give him the satisfaction of helping him along. If he wanted to know something he could just come out and say it. She'd already given him more than he deserved today.
His eyes narrowed, picking up on her disposition, and she wondered if he'd simply decide to drop the subject, but then his expression softened and he looked back towards the sea.
"I once asked why you wouldn't kill him yourself," he said. "You never answered."
The sky suddenly went yellow, the sun having finally breached the horizon, but Kagura found herself fiddling with the threads inside her sleeve, her gaze stuck on the roof tiles far below, still dark green and murky in the mountain's shadow. Idly, she wondered if she prefered him all fangs and snarling, at least then she could respond in kind.
There had been the stray thought or two, before she'd arrived, the idea of seeing him again, the possibility of his presence revealing old scars that hadn't quite healed, just more scabs to pick at. A daunting possibility, given the Sesshoumaru she'd remembered. She'd pushed the thoughts away, not letting herself get too caught up in the fantasy that he'd be anything more than barely civil. She'd hardly considered them friends when she'd left him the last time, nothing more than two beings who'd shared a poignant moment or two.
Maybe the years truly had changed him. Or the girl, his little human softening the stone heart of a daiyoukai.
She heard him inhale when he opened his mouth and realized she'd been staring at him too long, so before he could say anything else she made a decision.
"Naraku wasn't stupid, a coward, definitely, but never stupid," she said with a sigh, leaning her folded arms up against the railing. "He designed this body, knowing what I would be capable of, knowing how I would act under his… thumb. I think he'd hoped I'd die, that first night that he sent me out to fight your brother, would have made things easier for him, but…" she snorted, "I've always been better than that."
Now he was pointedly not looking at her, his eyes stuck on something just outside, whether it was for her comfort or for the pretense of his nonchalance she didn't know. She wanted to laugh at his picture perfect stoicism, but thought better of it.
She'd told Inuyasha and his humans because they were the piteous type, always with their hearts on their sleeves, and because it hadn't mattered, she'd kept enough secrets for them to know hers wouldn't be used against her, would be more a help than a hindrance, but… she'd never had those delusions with the man sitting beside her. Pity would have done her little, his only concern himself and his aspirations, and while her initial offer of exchange hadn't gone as she'd hoped, at least she hadn't been wrong. And no wonder, seeing where he'd gotten his attitude from.
"He designed this body," she said again, she turned to rest her cheek against her folded arms, "but he wasn't stupid."
Malicious and overconfident and calculating. Always with a contingency in place. Always with some devious new way to invent suffering, to prolong his scheming. Always always always plotting something new that was bound to fail. Only saved by his own cowardice. But never stupid.
"He ripped my heart from my chest before I'd even said my first words―"
A pain she could still feel, the tightness in her breast, the pressure stopping her breath and stilling the blood in her veins, that phantom pain that leached from the empty space between her ribs and into every nerve in her body, leaving her gasping and heaving and paralyzed. The pain itself was manageable, she'd certainly suffered worse, but it was the fear that gripped her more than anything. The inability to fight, to do anything but clutch at her breast with a silent scream as she wavered on the precipice of what felt like death, her own body rioting against her, every cell screaming in terror.
"―held it in his fist and squeezed whenever I got too mouthy."
She supposed that had been the true intent, her death had never mattered to him, only her fear.
A shiver wracked her frame, a ghost more than the cold, but she wrapped the cloth tighter around her shoulders, suddenly feeling very tired.
"You never said."
She hummed and kept her gaze down. "Would it have changed anything?"
She knew the answer without even needing to ask the question, but said it anyway, gleaning some satisfaction in the subtle way his breath stilled in his lungs for the briefest second. Maybe he swallowed, and she might have smiled if not for the way her eyes burned when she blinked.
He didn't say anything, and she turned her head just enough to look up at him from beneath her lashes. He stared at her, fully turned towards her, furrow between his brows and his eyes dark despite their brightened surroundings. There was something in his expression she couldn't quite place, and she wondered what thought had passed through his head to bring it on.
"It wouldn't have," she finally answered for him. "I've never been stupid enough to think that running to you with tears in my eyes would have gotten me anything but loathing from you."
His eyes softened and he turned away, his chin dipping in an almost imperceptible nod.
She shouldn't have taken as much satisfaction from his acquiescence as she did. She struggled to keep the smirk off her lips. Vindication four years too late.
The sun's rays crested the mountain's peak, dragging soft lines across the sky and streaking his silver hair with strands of warm gold, almost enough to chase the chill from her bones, but not quite. She needed rest, to curl in on herself beneath a warm blanket, beside a fire. She glanced at him, the fur lining his shoulder, wondered how―no, she supposed she'd have to settle for the cluttered carriage and a pile of discarded cloth.
"My people are still here." A rhetorical question. She could feel them, huddled together down below somewhere, probably listening to Momiji's bitching.
"They've been given new lodgings." Good, he'd understood her meaning. New lodging meant they could stay, meant she could stay. Despite whatever had happened between them the night before, she found herself not wanting to leave just quite yet.
Kagura pulled herself up onto the railing, swinging her legs over the otherside mimicking his stance even as she let her feet dangle in the open air.
"I suppose I've pestered you long enough," she said, pushing herself off so that she barely clung to the weathered timbers. "I'll let you get back to your pondering or whatever it is you were doing."
There was a pause, a quick intake of breath, and then:
"You leaving?"
She stopped, eyes going wide as she struggled to keep her own breath even. He'd asked her that before… hadn't he?
"No. I just…" She shook her head. "I'll stay. I'm just tired."
She looked back at him, barely a glance, but enough to see the flash of something that might have been relief flash across his features. Barely there, but her heart stuttered, and she froze, gripping the railing with her lips parted in shock as she stared at him. He bristled under her gaze, golden eyes luminous and reflecting the warm sky. She blinked, a chuckle erupting from her throat and earning her a quirk of his brow.
"You know," she hummed, smiling, "you shouldn't talk to me like this so much, I'll start to think you're being kind."
His eyes went a little wider and he turned away with a huff, but whatever he said next was lost to the wind as she threw herself from her perch down to the castle down below, the last she saw of him the silhouette against the rising sun.
…
I hate dialogue heavy chapters but tbh one of the biggest problems I have with big ensemble stories is that certain characters just don't know things… esp Sess, but that's mostly because he doesn't talk to anyone… for the longest running side character he really don't know shit about anything
Anyway, do y'all like more action? Originally there was going to be a lot more in this but I just kept cutting it and cutting it down, so its a much quieter fic than i intended, but lemme know lol
