CHAPTER 6

Amistad


"Share, Shippo..." Kagome said sternly, wagging her finger at the little fluffy-haired fox demon. "There's enough there for the both of you."

Shippo frowned at her in offended protest, and then glared at the little human girl standing next to him. "But she's with him-"

A small toad-like demon rolled his eyes nearby, muttering something about insufferable creatures.

Kagome put her hands on her hips and quirked her brow. "They're not here to cause trouble, and you know that."

Shippo pursed his lips, and with a defeated sigh, handed over three cans of play-do to young Rin. She looked at them curiously, and Kagome popped the lids off for her. "You mold it into shapes, like this," she said as she demonstrated with the brightly colored dough. The girl's eyes lit up, and she hesitantly took it from the older female's hands.

After a couple moments of toying with it, Rin's lips curled into a delighted smile. "Jaken!" she cried, and ran over to the ornery youkai. "Look what I got!"

Jaken feigned indifference, but Kagome didn't miss that once he looked at it, he couldn't take his eyes off the play-do as Rin molded it. Satisfied that she'd done some good in alleviating their anxiety over Sesshoumaru's absence, Kagome took off towards Kaede's hut.

It had been two days since she came through the well. Two days since she and Inuyasha had become something more… Naraku was defeated, the village safe, the day was clear and beautiful. But none of those things did much to ease the tension in their shoulders, or lift the melancholy faces of their little visitors, or erase the feeling of dread she got when she thought of Sango…

Trapped in a place none of them knew much about, and with a youkai who had wished nothing but harm on their little fellowship, no less. Alive, dead… No, Kagome reprimanded herself heatedly. NOT dead. Sango is nothing, if not a survivor…

Lost in her thoughts, her feet had subconsciously carried her to the shrine where the Shikon no Tama was being kept. She tilted her head back to study the bamboo walls and thatched roof. Small ensigns and sacred trinkets littered the doorframe, designating it as a holy and protected place. It drew her in, and before she knew it, she was inside its darkened room, facing the jewel. It didn't twinkle, or glow, leaving her senses to be assaulted by how musky it was inside. The place was filled with enchanted powders, and sanctified prayer sheets to protect it from those with evil hearts.

Not that it mattered. Evil heart, good heart, the magical orb was impervious to outside influence. Even hers. Out of desperation, she had held it, kissed it, slept with it, but the thing didn't respond to her purification powers. It just looked like a dull, gray marble.

"Hard to believe it's the same jewel, ne?"

Kagome startled at the somber voice behind her and spun around. Leaning casually against the back wall with his arms folded across his chest, was Inuyasha. His coloring was different in the dark hut, making his hair a dark gray, and his crimson attire an almost black rust. He would have seemed enigmatic, had his expression not been so open and honest.

Ever since she'd kissed him upon her return, he had been a lot less volatile around her, like he no longer felt as though he had something to prove. Or defend.

She enjoyed the change. Her expression softening, she smiled sadly. "Hai."

A moment of shared silence passed between them. Things were still wonderfully new in their budding relationship, and despite how well she knew him, she still found herself blushing shyly on occasion in his presence. Especially when they were in a dark place like this…alone.

"You usually don't come in here, Inuyasha," she said, trying to focus on something other than the tingling in her tummy his presence now evoked.

"Hn. Well, Miroku finally decided to take a walk."

"Ah." The monk had been spent a good deal of time with Kaede studying the Shikon no Tama, trying to draw their friend out with incantations and spells. It had left him withdrawn and rather serious since the battle. It seemed he cared for Sango a good deal more than he let on.

"So Rin and Jaken are staying, eh?" the hanyou asked abruptly.

She nodded in response. "They're worried about your brother-"

"Keh. Don't call him that. I don't claim that bastard as kin." The words were reflexive, but there was no bite to them. It suddenly made Kagome wonder if the siblings would ever reconcile.

"You know," she began cautiously, toeing some pebble on the floor in an effort to project naïve innocence, "watching you two fight…side by side when we went at Naraku… You were a quite a force to be reckoned with."

He made a disgusted noise in typical Inuyasha fashion, and another silence passed between them. Well, she thought in mild disappointment. It was worth a try. She was about to expound a little on her relationship with her own brother, but he spoke first.

"From what I heard," he said quietly. Seriously. "…the force to be reckoned with was you, Kagome."

She looked up to see his eyes narrowed in warmth. Lingering admiration for her part in the battle. It made the blood rush to her face. "I didn't…I barely remember," she began to stammer, blushing.

"Kagome…" He locked her in his stare, causing the pitter patter of her heart to quicken, and then opened his arms invitingly. Two seconds later, she found herself wrapped up in his warm embrace. The hanyou's hugs felt so good, it was a wonder she'd ever felt whole without them. His head bent next to her ear, and she could hear his long, deep inhalation of her scent. Always her scent. It made her smile in shy amusement. It must not have been all that bad if he was so crazy about it.

His chest expanded under her palms, and she closed her eyes as he exhaled, his breath tickling her neck. It redirected the rest of her scattered thoughts on one thing - and that was him. He made her feel so alive, she couldn't imagine a life without him.

Kagome blinked. A life without him… "Inuyasha," she whispered in his shirt as her heart began to ache. "What if, after the Shikon no Tama is used... What if the well stops working, and I can't return?"

He stiffened, no doubt hearing the words she didn't say - would they ever be able to see each other again when it was all said and done? "Idiot," he reprimanded softly, pulling back enough to frown down at her. "Don't think about that right now."

It put his face a heated inch away from hers, causing that familiar warmth to ignite in her abdomen and course all the way to the tips of her toes. Hopefully he didn't expect a coherent response, because his blatant proximity inebriated her. Kagome's eyelids grew heavy, and suddenly all she could think about was the soft, fevered texture of his lips.

A slight smirk lifted the corners of his mouth, and a knowing look crinkled his eyes. She blinked lazily, and some dim part of her was embarrassed that she was being so obvious. But it was squashed out immediately as he lowered his face and kissed her.

With an arm around the small of her back and the other raising to comb clawed fingers through her hair, he intensified it. Angling his head, he manipulated and maneuvered hers, working the liplock with a smooth aggression. Kagome figured it was a good thing he'd pinned her body against him because his kiss sucked the strength right out of her legs.

He felt her knees buckle, and made a small, self-satisfied 'Hm' against her mouth, arching her slightly back. She might have commented on his ego, but her coherence was swept up in that blissful oblivion she'd come to associate with Inuyasha's intimacy. Not much could have distracted them at that point. Not much at all.

Or so she thought…

It took them a few seconds to notice it, but when they did, Kagome and Inuyasha both gasped, breaking the embrace. It started as a sound. A growing whine that crescendoed into and outright roar. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as Inuyasha's eyes widened and fixed on something behind her. Kagome spun around.

"The…the Shikon no Tama!" she cried, staring in alarm at the orb that was now vibrating in its pronged holder. They both tensed as the air around them crackled, and spat, raising the hair on Kagome's arms. It gave her the impression that a presence was in the room with them…or about to be.

Clearly sensing danger, Inuyasha didn't waste time using the door. He hooked her in his arm and deliberately sprung back into the wall, crashing them right through it. Accustomed to being rescued, she clutched at him as he landed upright on a pile of bamboo splinters and twine.

"Whatever it is," he panted, "it's getting bigger."

"And louder!" Kagome screamed over the unidentifiable, thundering sound. She held her breath as the shrine's walls quivered, the thatched roof fragmented, a brilliant light fluttered on and off inside…

A moment later, it exploded.

Inuyasha held his arm up to shield them from flying debris as it rained about them like sleet. When the initial wave passed, they looked back through the foggy haze of a decimated structure. Inuyasha startled, and Kagome's jaw dropped.

Standing where the shrine used to be was a monstrous, white dog. A glorious and terrifying creature, its shiny fur tendrils were tainted crimson with blood, while nasty gashes could be seen in its flanks and sides. Its great, rolling eyes scanned the village and its inhabitants, who were mute with shock. Then, huffing exhaustedly, the mighty beast pawed at the ground.

"Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha cried, flinging Kagome protectively behind him. "Where the hell is…"

A rumbling growl from the dog interrupted him, and when its lip twitched angrily over its teeth, Kagome saw something that made her gasp with horrified denial. An arm. A human arm, ripped and torn, dangling from between the dog's cruel fangs. Someone was inside its mouth.

Sango!

Before they could act, the giant dog demon shimmered and blurred in front of their eyes. His lining became ambiguous, vague…a swirl of sparking gases that began to condense, and shrink. Kagome watched mutely from behind Inuyasha's tense form as the dispersed matter solidified again. There kneeling in the rubble of the shrine was Sesshoumaru in his human form, with Sango clutched tightly to his chest.

Were it not for his long, white mane, she wouldn't have even recognized him. Inuyasha began to advance, but was halted in his tracks as Sesshoumaru barked at him. Literally. Even in his human form, the youkai's face was still feral; eyes red, stripes black, lips curled up over angry, glistening fangs…

After seeing Sango caged inside the great dog's jaws like that, Kagome was still battling with thoughts of her friend being eaten by the demon…ridiculous though they were. Thank heavens Inuyasha was more in tune with his instincts, and something must have told him to keep his distance.

It was almost surreal. The demon brother, who projected nothing less than radiant elegance, with an unwavering dignified composure…

Was ripped to shreds. His shirt, his armor, his insignias…all gone. What was left of his pants were laying in tattered strips against the skin of his thighs. And just like the skin of his upper body, it glistened with a heady cocktail of blood and sweat that even she could smell.

Without his attire, she noticed that his chest, his legs, his arms were unexpectedly thick with muscle. More bulky than trim. His usual projection of unnatural effeminate beauty was replaced by something cruder. More masculine. Barbaric.

Kagome shuddered.

Draped in his arms like a wet towel, was Sango. Her thick, black hair was loose from its ponytail, sticking to them both in wet, bloodied clumps. She looked worse than he did, Kagome thought with nauseating alarm. There was no movement from her whatsoever…not even a rise and fall of her chest.

Gods…please, no…

Sesshoumaru bent over Sango's form almost protectively, listening for… A heartbeat? Breath?

Kagome choked back a sob. "No… She can't be… She's not…not…" She clenched her hands in fists and scrunched her eyes closed. "SANGO!"

She felt Inuyasha's arms around her immediately, and he curled her up against his chest without a word. He knew. She knew he did. He could sense life, and he could smell death. She clutched at him desperately…the denial still on her lips.

The patter of running feet forced her attention elsewhere, and she turned in Inuyasha's embrace to see none other than Miroku charging towards Sesshoumaru, his face contorted in a grimace of distressed rage.

"BASTARD!" he screamed, swinging his staff maliciously in the air. "What did you do to her?"

A deep guttural snarl emanated from Sesshoumaru's throat, and he glared at the monk with a barely retained fury. "Keep him BACK, Inuyasha!"

Kagome was dizzily spun aside as Inuyasha leapt at Miroku. He caught the monk, mid-leap and bracketed his arms from behind. Miroku fought and hissed at his captor, inarticulate protests frothing at his tongue. It was the first time Kagome had seen him be anything less than eloquent, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

Even Inuyasha had trouble holding him, his face reddening from the strain. "She's already dead, you idiot!" he snapped at Miroku. "Just…WAIT!"

Kagome's head swiveled on her neck. Wait for what?

The news of Sango's death hit Miroku like an avalanche. With a choked whimper, the monk slackened, his jaw clenched and eyes shimmering. Then with redoubled efforts he lunged against his restraints. "I'll kill you, you filthy youkai!"

Sesshoumaru acted as though he hadn't heard him, his gaze locked on Sango's swollen and lifeless face. Seemingly finding what he was, or wasn't looking for, Sesshoumaru laid the exterminator gently on the ground and stood to his full height. Without taking his gaze off their friend's corpse, he unsheathed his sword - the one he hated - and raised it over her body.

The demon lord then swiped at her…or the air above her, and Kagome didn't see them until he hit them. Dissipating apparitions…slug-like creatures that had been hovering hungrily over the huntress. A dim understanding flickered in the chaos of the moment, and there was hushed awe as Sango's body began to heal itself.

Kagome's felt her jaw drop. It heals people… And then out loud to no one in particular, "The sword heals people…" She wasn't even going to start pondering the irony of who the sword belonged to, because at that point all her attention was on Sango.

Even from her distance, Kagome saw the wounds heal up. The bloated, blue swelling of the huntress's face went down. Her skin regained color, shape, and firmness until her body was sturdy and whole. And all the while Sesshoumaru stood over her, watching…waiting…

Then finally, Sango opened her eyes.


Her awareness returned like a douse of freezing water. Her body tensed, and Sango's lids flung open and immediately squinted against the brightness of the sun. The disorientation began there.

The sun?

Where was the darkness? The claustrophobia? The ominous atmosphere…? Then she saw him standing there, sword in hand, silhouetted black against the blinding rays. "Sess…Sesshoumaru?" she asked, sitting in an upright position. When she moved, she noticed that she was sticky with blood…fresh blood, and her clothes were littered with tears. What the hell happened? Where were they?

"Is this…" she held up a clump of hair matted to her chest, "Is this your blood?" she asked in alarm, noticing that he was covered in it, too.

"Some."

The tone of his voice triggered her memory, and it all came back to her. "The realm beast..." she breathed, wide-eyed. It had snatched her at the last possible moment, away from the exit…away from him… Then pain. Unbearable pain, and after that, nothing… Either they were both dead, or "You…saved me, Sesshoumaru?"

His expression was still hidden in shadow, but she saw his fingers twitch slightly at her question. Before he could answer, the air was violently displaced beside her as someone nearly barreled her over.

"Sango!" Kagome cried, crouching down in the dirt next to her. Shippo was soon to follow, hopping into her arms. He whimpered like a pup against her shoulder, and she absently patted his head. Kagome cradled Sango's other hand in both of hers, and blinked the water from her eyes. "You're safe!"

Sango tried to smile reassuringly, but was far too distracted by the shoulder-length bob that was Kagome's hair. "You...you cut your hair, my friend..."

Kagome blushed, and nodded sheepishly. "Don't ask."

Sango nodded her approval and then noticed Kaede off in the distance, breathing relief. She was about to acknowledge her when a shadow blanketed them from behind. She turned and saw Miroku, disheveled, and flushed, panting as though he'd just run a race. He crouched down and studied her expression. Hard. Then he looked at her hands…her arms…her legs… Apparently satisfied that she was well, he plunked down in the dirt dazedly and clutched at his heart. "He…healed you," he breathed, looking immensely relieved. "I…" pant, cough, "I thought-"

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Sesshoumaru-samaaaa!"

They all turned to see a little blur of raggedy clothes and bouncing pigtail skip towards them. Sango smiled internally, recognizing Rin. The child slammed right into Sesshoumaru's bloodied calve, and wrapped her tiny arms around his knee. An ear-splitting smile broadened her delightful face, and she giggled with all the merry enthusiasm of a happy reunion.

Jaken followed, slightly more dignified, but not much. He at least respected the youkai's personal space.

Sango stole a quick glance at Sesshoumaru, whose expression was clear now that her eyes had adjusted to the daylight. He was rigid, with the slightest knot in his brow as he looked down at the sweet little urchin girl attached to his leg. Sango saw his inner conflict as clearly as the wounds on his body.

Ah, give the girl a hug… she urged silently, knowing that if she said the words out loud, he would be forced to save face in front of all the bystanders.

Sesshoumaru pursed his lips, his chest lifting and falling with a relenting sigh. Finally, he covered the top of Rin's head with his large hand, patting it awkwardly. She tee-hee'd in delight, and hugged his leg more tenaciously, rubbing her cheek against his knee.

Sango repressed a contented grin. There ya go. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Suddenly, the tender moment was interrupted by a derisive snort from none other than Inuyasha. "Keh. So it resurrects, eh?" The hanyou stood there with his arms folded arrogantly across his chest, barely concealing his intrigue with masked aloofness. "I was wondering what that useless sword of yours did."

Sango startled. I was dead? And more shockingly, He brought me back to life?

Sesshoumaru met his gaze evenly. Silently. Projecting without words the utter self-assurance that he'd gained in the realm from which they'd come. Sango suddenly realized how noble the youkai looked. There was something about the way he stood there, without all the adornment, neatness, or weaponry… Just him… bloodied and battle-honed like a god of war. He finally radiated majesty, and it had nothing to do with insignias, relics, or magical swords…

And Sango knew, in that moment, that Sesshoumaru was putting something behind him. She saw it in his stance, in his posture, in the way he looked at his brother without those murderous red pinpricks in his eyes…

Good for you, Sesshoumaru. You might find happiness yet…

His brow twitched, as though remembering something. "Inuyasha. Tell me where Naraku is."

Sango blinked and stared. Naraku. How could she have forgotten? Their journey through the Shikon no Tama had distracted her, indeed.

Inuyasha smirked, his chest puffing up. Sango was anticipating a self-declaration of sibling superiority, or ruler of the universe, when the hanyou jerked his chin in none other than Kagome's direction. "She killed him," he said with an almost possessive pride. "Blasted him all the way to hell."

Sango choked, and even Sesshoumaru's eyes widened marginally.

Kagome's cheeks turned about five shades of red as she batted at the air in front of her like it was no big deal. "Well…heh…it's not like I remember any of it… Really."

"Your humility is noble, Kagome-sama," Miroku said firmly, for the first time directing his attention on someone other than Sango, "but that doesn't make the event any less impressive."

"Ah, well…" Kagome averted her eyes, uncomfortable with the surrounding attention of her friends, and villagers. And in doing so, she noticed something that everyone seemed to have forgotten. "Oh!"

Without explanation, she hopped up, and ran over to a portion of the rubble where the shrine used to be. Bending down curiously, she shifted away a few splintered bamboo chutes, and her face was immediately blanketed in a soft glow. It hit Sango about the same time that it hit everyone else. Even Sesshoumaru tensed.

The Shikon no Tama!

"Funny," Kagome said. "It still looks…different…"

Remember in vivid detail the nightmare from which they'd just escaped, Sango cried out, "Maybe-you-shouldn't-touch-it-Kagome!"

But the young miko already had it in her hand, an innocent smile lighting her face. She studied the shiny orb in her fingers, and then held it up for everyone to observe. "See? It's sta…ble… Aaiieee!"

It happened so fast, even Inuyasha's frantic lunge didn't intercept the occurrence. The orb flicked twice, and then it seemed to melt into her very skin. Absorbed right into her fingers. Her hand immediately began to glow with a fierce yellow illuminance that proceeded to encompass her entire body. She levitated a foot off the ground, her shoulder-length hair standing on end against her scalp. Her face froze in a bewildered panic, while everyone else's set in awe. Finally, the aura flicked twice and dissipated, gravity once again claiming her and yanking her down.

Inuyasha caught her up in his arms, no doubt afraid of losing her to the dark realm. "Idiot! Why the hell would you touch it after what happened to Sango?" And then more softly. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" she said, blinking dazedly. "I think…"

The girl was abruptly swamped by people. Curious people who were trying to assimilate what just happened, and where exactly the powerful jewel was. Shippo jumped off her lap, and Sango made to go over there when she noticed that someone was missing. Someone important.

Sesshoumaru…

Her head swiveled on her neck until she saw him, walking away with Rin and Jaken skipping along behind. It seemed wrong, for some reason. To watch him just leave like that, after all that they'd been through. Besides, she still had his mother's pelt looped in her sash.

While everyone focused on Kagome, Sango sauntered over to the departing demon.


Sesshoumaru strode purposefully away from the crowd, basking in the ever-familiar sound of Rin's trotting footsteps behind him, and Jaken's shuffle. This wasn't his village. These weren't his people. And now that Inuyasha's girl just unwittingly fused with the Shikon no Tama, ruining his chances of prolonging Rin's life, there was no reason for him to stay…

…which is why it was odd that he felt like he was leaving something unfinished. As though he was running away from…

"Sesshoumaru!"

Her…

Perhaps against his better judgment, he nodded at Jaken to continue on with Rin, and waited impatiently for the demon exterminator to catch up with him. Their business was finished, he told himself. It was only natural that they go their separate ways. What could she possibly have to say, anyhow?

Sango came to an easy stop next to him, her expression was anxious. Friendly. She radiated such palpable hospitality that it overshadowed the fact that the woman was smudged red with blood and monster intestines, or that her battle suit was now nothing but shredded rags.

It confused his senses, amongst other things.

Sango held out the relic of his matriarch. "Your mother's pelt-"

"It's shorn. I've no need of it," he said, having made the decision prior to her asking. Granted, there was more to it than just that, but he wasn't divulging anymore than he had to. She already knew enough.

"Ah, I see…"she looked down at the monstrous fur in her hands, and nodded. A less uncomfortable silence passed between them, and Sesshoumaru couldn't help but to remember how natural it felt…in the end…to walk by her side in that dark realm. She had seen more of his soul than anyone - been a witness to his weaknesses, his insecurities, his fears… And had accepted him, regardless. Without condition. It left him feeling perplexed, and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Sango toed a pebble in the dirt, and chewed on her bottom lip. "You didn't tell me why you saved me from that realm beast," she asked quietly, lifting a questioning, almost hopeful gaze to his face. "Or how…"

He found himself tongue-tied. A strange sensation. The 'why' was easy, so he got it out of the way first. "I owed you my life. And now my debt is repaid," he said, feeling for some reason that wasn't the half of it…that the need to see her survive ran much, much deeper. But he pushed it back, focusing on the other inquiry, using it as a welcome distraction.

How. It was a fair question. One Sesshoumaru hadn't even thought to ask himself. He contemplated it. He'd been stronger in the end, thanks to her soul-healing. But that wasn't what enabled him to tear through a beast who should have done him in, and snatch Sango's dead body from its gut. He had gone berserk, tapping into a power supply he hadn't even known was there.

"I succeeded for the same reason that you defeated the ghoul that impersonated my mother-" Sesshoumaru stopped himself. He'd almost said, 'Because I didn't want you to die'. Not knowing what to do with the realization, he covered his discomfort with narrowed eyes. "Is that all?"

A slight pause, and she shook her head. "One more thing," she breathed, the familiar, rueful warmth that had enabled him to heal in the realm softening her features. He quirked a brow in question, unsure whether or not he wanted to flee or stay.

"I would be your friend, Sesshoumaru."

It took him a couple seconds to recover from the shock. "Why?"

"Because I've had a glimpse of the person you keep hidden from everyone," she said quietly. "And I like him."

Her words stole his breath, and made his chest ache. He nearly choked. The demon lord searched her face for some hidden agenda, for some vindictive, manipulative intent that was buried by such an altruistic request. But all he saw was her kind smile, sincere eyes, and honest expression. It left him dumbfounded.

"I…don't have friends."

She nodded, as though expecting that very response. "I know. But if you ever need one, Sesshoumaru, I'm here."

He stared stupidly. She was serious. And the response it elicited in him was nothing short of amazing. He suddenly felt taller. Stronger. More complete… Was he worth that much to this strange human? Someone who up until now had called him 'enemy'?

He had to get out of there before he did something the old Sesshoumaru wouldn't have approved of. As it was, he already felt a small, surprised smile tweak the corner of his mouth.

"Farewell, Sango."

She smiled knowingly, as though able to read his thoughts. He gave a mental snort, recalling how he'd opened his soul to her in the realm, revealing all. 'As though' indeed. She probably is…

Before he was further tempted to stay, Sesshoumaru left her there, and walked briskly after Rin and Jaken. There was too much he needed to sort through before he acted on his impulses. And his impulses gave him the outrageous, unprecedented urge to do something selfless. Something for the sole purpose of making her happy.

Something very, very 'not him'.

He walked blindly, caught up in the chaos in his head. You're trying to change my world, Sango, he pondered bewilderedly, and then even more disturbing than that…

And I'm letting you…