Sesshomaru glared at his younger brother, hiding most of his amusement. The hanyou could transform into a smaller version of the dog demon that both Sesshomaru and his father embodied normally. That is,if he was desperate enough. Inu-Yasha stared at him, jaw agape as Sesshomaru stared back at him, almost defiantly, as if daring him to deny that what his half brother had said was true.
"You lie. You always lie to me, I don't understand it." Inu-Yasha said indignantly slamming his fist on the table and sat back.
His bitch seemed to be taking it quite well, Sesshomaru mused. The girl had hardly said a word since they'd stormed in, forced into captivity with him and demanded to know why he, Lord Sesshomaru, was held captive in his own home.
"Do you think I am lying Kagome-sama?" Sesshomaru asked quietly.
Kagome was silent for a moment as she stared back at him, making eye contact and holding it. She seemed to be trying to read his face for an indication of dishonesty.
"I don't know if you're lying or not. You've been able to lie to us straight faced before, so why should we believe you?" Kagome asked.
"Because I am in no position to do anything." Sesshomaru replied trying to hide his wounded dignity, he held up his shackled wrists. "With these on I can't do anything. I can't transform, I can't use my poison talons...Hell, I can't even break these manacles to protect my girl."
Rin was still asleep on his lap, and he really didn't care whether or not his brother paid attention to how his lord brother had degraded himself to let himself be touched by a human-whelp.
Inu-Yasha shifted uneasily. He too had been chained up, chained to Kagome no less. She didn't seem to mind though, the chains easily extended enough so they could sit a comfortable distance apart. Not that she'd want to be close to a fucking hanyou. Inu-Yasha berated himself inside his head. Not close to a full youkai either. Damn it all.
"Your chains are made out of a different material. Hanyou are only half-strength so--"
"We already know that." Kagome interupted feeling her companions discomfort.
"--So, she didn't think it was necessary to use such an expensive metal to contain a hybrid." Sesshomaru finished, "And no I was not taking another stab at your mixed heritage brother. On the contrary, I'm actually relieved you are what you are."
Kagome frowned, it wasn't bad enough that he had to point out Inu-Yasha's heritage again but he had to rub salt into the wound to say that it pleased him to see his brother's deepest anguish.
She was about to say something when Rin stirred in Sesshomaru's arms. The little girl blinked and looked up at her youkai protector and smiled. The look she gave Sesshomaru was one of love and adoration, something that Kagome had never thought she'd see in a human's eyes, especially directed at Sesshomaru.
"G'morning Sesshomaru-sama." Rin chirped.
"How are you feeling Rin?" Sesshomaru asked calmly as he looked down at her.
Kagome felt herself blush as she saw Sesshomaru's face soften as he looked down at the tiny girl in his lap.
"Rin is feeling better than last night." Rin said as she affectionately nuzzled his tail with her face, then she caught sight of the manacles, her face seemed confused and sad at the same time, "How come Sesshomaru-sama is all tied up?"
Sesshomaru frowned as if pained, "I don't know Rin."
"Don't worry, Rin will help you." Rin said and kissed his hands.
Sesshomaru looked up at them and instantly his face hardened. "Do your really think I would lie to you in a position like this?"
"No...I guess not." Kagome said finally, she lowered her head in kind of half-nod half-bow.
Inu-Yasha looked at her almost sternly, his eyes were a mix of emotions. Hurt, confusion, anger, and sadness were all there. She'd agreed with Sesshomaru, meaning if he failed and Sesshomaru really had lied to them he'd be humiliated in front of both his high-headed half-brother and in front of someone he did not wish to fail.
Wildrose was unrecognizable now, Kagome thought, she'd almost completely merged with Coyote and Coyote-spirit. The only thing to do now was sit and wait until Wildrose or should she say Coyote-rose had finished their transformation and had passed judgement on the one who had commited the crime against their people so many years ago. Kagome thought bitterly about the first day they'd met. Wildrose had that sketchbook that she carried with her everywhere, and had been so considerate as to let Kagome borrow it just to look at a couple of sketches. That's where this had started, and it was all her fault.
Unable to face her most recent crime against Inu-Yasha and the others, Kagome withdrew inside herself. She hugged her knees up to her chin and stared at the floor. Hot tears flooded her eyes. If only she'd been left out of this none of it would have happened.
Then again the sighting of the demon woman with Sesshomaru happened only when Wildrose arrived in Japan, before Kagome had even thought of bringing Wildrose into Sengoku-jidai.
Sesshomaru suddenly stood up, Rin had already jumped off of his lap and claimed a futon in the next room. Sesshomaru felt his lips turn up slightly in spite of himself. She was already asleep. Without having the extra duty of caring for Rin he found that he really needed to bathe,at least to get the god awful smell of Coyote off of him. The chain connected to the manacles moved with him as he left the room, the invisible anchor seeming to follow him out.
Inu-Yasha heard Kagome sniff a few times and looked over at her to find she was practically sobbing into her arms. He moved closer to her and put his arms hesitantly around her.
She shook him off the first time but didn't the second time.
"A--Ashiteru Kagome." he whispered.
She looked up at him, tears making her now blue-gray eyes even more beautiful.
"Nani?"
"Ashiteru." he repeated and hugged her closer.
She practically dove into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder, "You can't! You can't love me!"
She was practically yelling it at him. He didn't care if she said he couldn't because he did. He pulled her even closer and fought back tears of his own.
"Doushite?" he asked rubbing her back tenderly. "Why can't I love you?"
"Y-you just can't. I'm so mean to you all the time and I get you into trouble and your always getting hurt because of me and---and--"
"I love you." he repeated, "Not because you're faultless, but because you are what you are."
"I hate what I am! I'm a horrible person! You're only in this mess because I had to drag you into it! You're always getting into trouble and getting hurt because of me!"
He took a hold on her shoulders and forced her back reluctantly, even though seeing her tear stained face was more painful than any sword blade.
"You're not a horrible person! You're amazing, and how can you even think that? Coyote and Wildrose were here long before you knew them. Before we even knew there was something wrong. I would have gotten involved even if you hadn't brought her here, but I probably would not be alive if you weren't here with me" Inu-Yasha scolded her and then forced her back into his bear hug. "How can you even think that?! I could never believe that, you're the first person to ever accept me for what I am, a damnable half-breed."
She was still crying but she locked her arms around his neck, and he was relieved that she still wanted to touch him.
"Ashiteru...Oh gods I love you." he sighed and inhaled her scent.
He'd definately kill himself if he couldn't smell her. Her scent was still a bit sad but was also happy too and it was just as soft and gentle as it always was.
His shirt in as much disarray as it was allowed her to touch his bare skin and she did, sending shivers down his spine. Her hands were cold but they still managed to get a tingle started in the pit of his stomach.
"Ashiteru Inu-Yasha." she muttered and kissed his collar bone. "I don't care what you are. Ashiteru."
She put her arms up to be able to get her chained hands over his head and drew him closer. The chains on his manacles extended enough to allow him to keep his arms around her, though the chain between them was a bit uncomfortable and even restraining as they were. Deciding that a little bit of contact with Inu-Yasha was better than none Kagome pulled him closer and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
** ** **
"I won't. I can't do it." Wildrose's mind screamed.
"Why not? He's betrayed you, he does not want you..." Coyote-sprits voice mingled with Coyote's taunted. "With us, he can't resist you."
"I want him to want me. Not us, just me."
"Then kill him."
"I won't kill him either." Wildrose stated firmly.
"Then finish joining with us." the smug spirits commanded.
Wildrose felt them bombard her mind, as if they were throwing themselves against it and screamed. She opened her eyes to stare at the looking glass.
She was beautiful as a demon. She had to admit that at least.
She had missed beauty by mere inches as a human, now with Coyote and Coyote-spirit inside her she would be practically irrisistable to any man who used his eyes.
"He will love me now. He has to." Wildrose muttered to herself.
Tears stung at her eyelids and ran a carved course down her face.
"I'm so sorry you guys....." Wildrose stared out over throne room, surveying, through the darkly tinted windows, the land that was Sesshmaru's manor.
The woods surrounding them were dead. No birds sang, not even a cricket dared to chirp. How could Sesshomaru live in such silence? Why did she care?
The man was an asshole. A simple stated truth rang through her mind. Something she'd have to learn to deal wtih while joined with Coyote and Coyote-spirit. Their thoughts, no matter how absurd or mean or out of character for her, were her thoughts.
"Mine..." she whispered, childishly as the mental picture of Sesshomaru loomed up before her mind's eye.
Sighing she sat down in the throne where she assumed the Great Demon, Sesshomaru and Inu-Yasha's dearly departed lord father, had sat many years before even Sesshomaru had been able to talk. The silky fabric of the cushion pressed against her bare skin, almost bitingly.
"Even inanimate things...softer than most, are hard bared against me now....Am I that unholy?" Wildrose thought, another tear made it's way down her face.
It was followed by another, and another. And then several more as the emotional storm cloud broke over her. She decided that she was the intruder here, and for things to return to normal she must transfer the soon to be battle field to a place that was more remote than this.
Coyote took over for the moment and thrust a bone spear into the cushion of the throne, breaking the spear head off so it hung just so, this spear, unlike the others, the feathers adorning it's tip were simply black, to ward off any angry souls that should pass by it and to signify the way she felt inside, dead.
** ** **
It was nearly sunrise and Shippou was hopelessly lost. Kitsune, fox-youkai , as he was his nose hadn't fully developed. He'd lost the trail of scents that the group had left behind them heading for the village, and was now plunging blindly through the woods.
He'd turned back only once to find that the place where his friends had fallen before him had been, the forest seemed to have collapsed in on the opening of the forest, barricading the world from it's unholy nature.
The forest seemed dead. Even at the break of day, he could tell that it would not be very light out. The sky was a turning a dreary gray color, and soon gray, dismal rain began to pour down on the sad looking kit.
He stummbled several times along the root strewn path, but this time as he felt the mud, the consistancy of clay, soak through his haori he didn't get up. Instead he cried. Mourning for the friends he'd surely lost behind him in the deep dark forbidding forest and mourning for himself, for he would surely die if he did not find Kaede's village soon.
He lay in the mud, shivering with cold and hunger and ache of the run that had taken him a day and two nights to complete, until he was sure he had heard Inu-Yasha's voice. He realized it was his imagination playing a horrible trick.
He looked up, his blue-green eyes wide and aching, his hero, the brave Inu-Yasha, stood there with Tetsusaiga slung over his shoulder stoically.
"Get up useless pup!" Inu-Yasha snarled.
"But I'm tired..." Shippou heard himself say.
He looked over to see an image of himself in a similar state of disarray. He heard Inu-Yasha heave a dramatic sigh.
Shippou remembered it now. Kagome had left to go back to her own time that day and Inu-Yasha and Shippou were caught in a rainstorm on the long walk to Kaede's village. He remembered almost fondly.
Inu-Yasha sighed again and walked over to Shippou, sheathing the Steel Cleaving Fang, Shippou had been afraid that the older hanyou would hit him for being so useless, so stupid, but he didn't. Instead Inu-Yasha picked the Kitsune up and dusted him off as best he could then lifted the light cub up and placed Shippou on his shoulders. Shippou smiled as he saw himself grab Inu-Yasha's ears lightly and though the hanyou shivered against the cold wetness of his hands, he didn't protest.
"You wouldn't give up...would you Inu-Yasha?" Shippou said to himself as he saw his mental self and Inu-Yasha disappear into the woods, on their way home.
Shippou finally picked himself up painfully and brushed himself off and started to trudge in the direction he'd seen Inu-Yasha disappear into a moment ago. He felt a pricking little bite in the back of his knee.
Growling in frustration Shippou slapped the back of his knee and sent himself back down into the mud. He lifted his hand to glare at the dead bug clinging to his hand, the little bastard that had bitten him in his moment of dignity. Instead of the smushed corpse of a bug he saw the half-squished form of Myoga the flea.
"Myoga-jiji!" Shippou exclaimed excitedly.
"Good...to see you...too." Myoga grunted out.
After recovering quickly Myoga jumped up to grip onto Shippou's ear.
"It's a bit dangerous for you to be so far from the village alone Pup. Where's Inu-Yasha and that lovely miko girl...Kagome? Where are they?" Myoga piped.
Shippou grimaced and started to cry. Myoga sensed that he'd gotten seperated, but that didn't answer the question. Where were the two who were supposedly subbing in for Shippou's parents?
"Th-they....*hic*...Wildrose *hic*....an' Coyote *hic hic*...one...she attacked *hic* An' boom! Miroku and Sango *hic* in trees! An'--an' Kagome and Inu-Yasha *hic* Coyote *hic* took them!" Shippou managed to say as he hiccuped through his sobs.
From what the old flea was able to gather, the girl Wildrose, that Kagome had brought with her was really another side of Coyote. She attacked wounding and possibly killing Miroku and Sango, then kidnapped Kagome and Inu-Yasha, whisking them both to an unknown place to do god knows what.
"M-Myog-gaaaa **hic, sniff**jijiiii...What am I gonna dooo?" Shippou wailed.
"Well, first you are going to stop crying. That won't solve anything. Second we'll go to the place you say Coyote captured Kagome and Inu-Yasha-sama. Then we'll play it by ear." Myoga said patting the kistune's head, though the poor child couldn't feel it.
** ** **
"I will try to do this...." Inu-Yasha muttered, feeling stupid and over all self-concious at the moment, dressed only in a loincloth. "But if I find you have lied to me brother..."
His threats were idle at the moment, Sesshomaru thought blandly.
"We've no time for threats." Sesshomaru said.
Rin leaned on his arm and looked intently at Inu-Yasha who settled down on the floor, Kagome volunteering her lap as a pillow. She cocked her head dog-like, much to the amusment of her guardian, to watch the 'attempted transformation'.
Kagome forced herself to relax as she saw his complete form for only the second or third time in her life. She blushed and tried to ignore the fact he stood their clothed in next to nothing.
Inu-Yasha tried to ignore the three sets of eyes focused on him and concentrate on the task at hand. He had to find desperation in himself. He had to want this badly.
Kagome hushed both Sesshomaru and Rin with a look and Inu-Yasha plunged deeper into his heart. Desperation was there, he was desperate to escape humiliation, hurt, desperate to get Kagome to love him, to be with him...Desperate for so many things. Most of all, he wanted to escape things. He finally grasped the anxious emotion, he just had to mold it to be what he wanted.
Kagome fought back a gasp as she saw Inu-Yasha start to change. Fur, the same color as his hair sprouted up and grew denser and his face seemed to elongate. She closed her eyes against the crackling, popping, shifting noises she knew were his bones and muscles moving, and growing to become what they needed. She felt his head butt up against her stomach and his body shift.
When she looked again the transformation was complete, and instead of her beloved hanyou friend, there was a large white wolf-like dog laying in her lap, amber eyes turned up at her in interest. The chains, the ones that had bound him to her for several hours had finally snapped, freeing his 'hands' from the manacles. Finally Inu-Yasha, or his dog form, rolled over in her lap in order to lift himself to his feet.
She grasped his head in her hands and stared hard at his face, looking stern. She felt him try once to pull away but stopped, seeing she was examining his face. She finally smiled, recognizing the deep gray and black markings around his eyes as his eyebrows and the black nose to be his own. Around the dog's neck were the familiar, and oddly beautiful blue and white rosary beads.
"He did it! You did it Inu-Yasha!" Kagome cried and threw her arms around the great beast's neck.
Sesshomaru found himself hiding his smile, even Rin smiled from her perch in Sesshomaru's lap.
Kagome held up her hands and held them wide apart only after encouraged to do so by a nudge under her arms by Inu-Yasha. The immense jaws shut down on the chains with a snap, when he let go the chains crumbled and the manacles let go having been clipped by those bright white teeth that rested firmly in the dog's head.
Inu-Yasha nuzzled her neck,and sniffed her happily as she hugged him. He felt like this form was his freedom, it felt so good...so right.
Then, hesitantly Inu-Yasha turned to Sesshomaru and Rin. He sniffed at them both and stood silently glared at them.
Rin threw herself in front of Sesshomaru, much to the youkai's dismay.
"No! Bad doggy! You can't hurt Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin declared loudly, "No!"
The little girl sniffed loudly as Sesshomaru's arms came around her, hugging her back away from the transformed Inu-Yasha. If he was going to die by the hands of his halfling brother now, he wanted Rin to be safe behind him, not out in front of his where Inu-Yasha's large jaws waited. Rin sniffed again and then burst into tears, clutching Sesshomaru's haori in a death grip.
Inu-Yasha could still figure out human speech and was taken aback. He sniffed again and nudged Sesshomaru's arm gently.
Sesshomaru held up his wrists cautiously and Inu-Yasha snapped the magic-chains into tiny bits between his teeth.
"Thank you." Sesshomaru finally said, just loud enough for Inu-Yasha to hear.
Rin looked up bleary eyed and smiled somewhat raggedly. Inu-Yasha tossed his head and sniffed. Kagome grinned, knowing if his mouth and vocal chords worked she'd hear the familiar snort she'd grown so accustomed to hearing, though not fond of in the least.
Inu-Yasha sat back on his haunches beside Kagome, looking eagerly at his brother to hear the next move.
"What do we do next? If we try to get out of here Wild---Coyote will hear and she'll probably kill us." Kagome said.
"I know." Sesshomaru said. "But I don't plan on abandoning my home, simply because that bitch wants my head on a pike."
"Rin thinks Sesshomaru-sama is going to fight again." Rin said sadly.
Kagome looked at the small girl in puzzlement. Sesshomaru had never shown another human being an ounce of kindness and here he was treating Rin like a daughter. She sat on his lap, she slept with him in his bed, she even shared his food. How the little girl had won over the inu-youkai's heart so easily was beyond comprehension.
"Yes Rin. I am going to fight, when I come back we can travel to the next village and you can get a new doll. How's that?" Sesshomaru bribed a smile from Rin as easily as she did him.
"Rin likes that idea." Rin smiled and hugged him.
"Right now it smells like Rin needs a bath." Sesshomaru said gently disengaging her from his neck, "While I'm gone you will bathe and change into a new outfit."
Rin nodded and jumped down from his lap and ran out of the room.
Kagome looked at Inu-Yasha's face, he was still looking anxiously at his brother.
"Sesshomaru, how are we supposed to do anything? Both your sword and Inu-Yasha's have been taken away. All you have is your talons." Kagome pointed out.
Sesshomaru looked up at his half-brother, "That is of no consequence. I will simply regain both swords."
Kagome shook her head, no matter how weakened Coyote was by joining with Wildrose it wouldn't be that easy to get the swords from her.
"If if were you, however, I would be more worried about how I would protect that weak skin of yours." Sesshomaru said.
Kagome frowned, "You and Inu-Yasha always know just what to say."
Inu-Yasha whined a bit and snuffed at her until she looked at him. He dropped the fire rat cloak into her lap. She shook her head.
"You'll need it if you have to revert to normal." Kagome said shaking her head vigorously. "She's right. And she'll need more than that." Sesshomaru said almost to himself.
At first Kagome thought the youkai lord had gone insane. Wandering around the room muttering to himself, passing his hand over walls, until he finally found was he was looking for.
He thrust his arm through the wall and it seemed to crumble and give way to a small dark chamber. He disappeared into it and reemerged with what looked like a disassembled suit of armor.
Inu-Yasha eyed it suspiciously and sniffed at it, backed up then looked at Sesshomaru.
"It was your mother's." Sesshomaru said, confirming his suspicion. "Father couldn't always be ontop of that mortal wretch, so he had armor made so she could follow him into battle, so he could try and keep her out of harms way."
Sesshomaru dumped the load unceremoniously on the floor and Inu-Yasha growled deep within his throat while Kagome practically gasped her surprise, even with his obvious dislike for his half-brother she would have thought Sesshomaru would treat the dead with more respect.
"I'll leave you to put that on. I'll be back shortly." Sesshomaru said.
Kagome didn't dare touch the armor. It had belonged to Inu-Yasha's mother, it was practically holy, and if anything happened to it he'd probably go into the youkai-madness.
She eyed it from a distance though. The Great Demon that was Inu-Yasha's father had to have loved this human woman very much to have had this made. The armor seemed to be made out of gold, though she supposed it would have to be made out of something far stronger to be considered armor. A drawing of what she thought was meant to be Inu-Yasha's father in his true form, was embossed across the breast plates and designs decorated it to the point of excess.
She must have looked quite intimidating, riding before an army of youkai, backed up by her lord husband in his youkai form, Kagome thought. A very romantic image, but still intimidating. Any man in his right mind would tremble in his boots.
She felt a cold wet nose press against the back of her hand, and she looked to see Inu-Yasha's head butt up under her arm so her hand rested on his muzzle. She stroked the fur between his ears affectionately and even dared to rub one of them between her fingers. The beast purred a bit but then gave her another shove under the arm, pushing her towards the armor.
"Inu-Yasha, it's your mother's...I can't..." She started.
Inu-Yasha growled and then pulled away from her, then opened his mouth and closed it around her wrist, not ungently but with enough force so she couldn't pull away. With that he dragged her to the armor and dropped her in front of it.
Even without speech she knew what he wanted her to do. He didn't care that the armor had belonged to his mother. It was what would keep her safe when he couldn't be there.
"I don't even know how to put this stuff on." Kagome stated indignantly.
Inu-Yasha snorted and made a noise half-way between a bark and a yip. Sesshomaru returned looking quite disgusted.
"What do you mean she doesn't know how? You haven't even shown your woman how to put on armor? Pathetic!" Sesshomaru spat at the dog.
Another snort, followed by a growl.
Sesshomaru glared at Kagome, making her shudder. He picked up a breast plate and gestured for her to approach him. She did so and did so very cautiously.
He circled around her back and slid the peices over her head and told her to hold her arms out and not to move. Then he did something that she nearly whirled around and smacked him for. His hands moved to push the breast plates up against her and he wound up cupping both the armor and her at the same time. She felt her face heat up with a blush and let out a breath of indignation while Inu-Yasha growled his displeasure.
"It is your fault she does not know how to put on armor dear brother. If either of you feel too uncomfortable with my help I will leave you to your own devices." Sesshomaru said warningly.
Catching her breath she finally managed to speak. "You can understand him like that?"
"It's obvious what he's thinking through the way he acts but even so I can understand him. After all, I have a form like that too." he reminded her then cinched the armor plates together tightly making her gasp for breath. "I believe you can get the rest. It's just arm and shin guards now. You slide them on over your shins and lower arm."
She nodded and he finally left again, she tossed off her shoes and pulled the shin guards on and made sure they were in the right place before she put the shoes back on and started to slide her arms into the glove like arm guards.
She stood up again and looked at herself.
"So, how's it look? Dumb right?" Kagome asked Inu-Yasha, noticing him watching her intently.
He let out a low woof and picked himself up to stand beside her. He nuzzled the side of her face comfortingly.
It was definately easier to touch her like this. She didn't smack him, she didn't sit him. She dealt with him like she would a regular dog, but with a little more respect.
Respect. That and the word she'd said to him the night before were making him feel more at ease. He told her he loved her, and she said she loved him back. It was almost too good to be true.
Almost.
** ** **
"You might want to bring his clothes. I'm pretty sure that if he changes back he'll want something to cover his dignity with." Sesshomaru said to Kagome.
Kagome nodded and folded up the fire rat clothing and undershirt and tossed them over Inu-Yasha's back, even though she was sure that there was nothing wrong with his 'dignity'.
"Do you have any idea of what you're doing?" Kagome asked suddenly.
"Yes." Sesshomaru answered tersely.
"If you hurt Wildrose, you'll probably wind up with your head on a pike anyways. Her family won't be happy." Kagome said.
"Humans don't scare me." Sesshomaru said with a frown. "They're weak."
"Feh. You could be surprised what modern weaponry might do to youkai." Kagome retorted, stealing Inu-Yasha's favorite sentence-in-a-word.
Inu-Yasha leaned down so Kagome could climb onto his back. He fought back the wierd feeling that he felt when the bare skin of her legs managed to touch him through the fur on his back and grimaced when he saw his brother giving him an all-knowing look.
"Feels good, doesn't it brother?" Sesshomaru asked him in his own language.
"Shut up." Inu-Yasha growled.
Sesshomaru chuckled and pushed the door to their chamber open. Inu-Yasha felt Kagome shiver as the cold air blasted against them and had to remind himself why he was this way.
They stepped out into the main chamber and shut the doors behind them, Sesshomaru casting a quick seal/shielding spell on the doors to protect Rin.
Looking around Kagome noted they hadn't been imprisoned far from the entrance. She looked at the doors almost longingly as they walked by them. No one would find them here at Sesshomaru's castle. Only Sesshomaru and his associates knew of this place.
While they were walking Sesshomaru began to talk to Inu-Yasha in the inu-youkai language knowing full-well Kagome was feeling in the dark and hurt by his secrecy.
"I don't understand why you don't just take her. You could have overpowered her defenses easily. She probably would have liked it too." Sesshomaru said.
"Watch your mouth--I mean--That's disgusting!"
"Your reluctancy to admit you want her is unnerving. Brother, I know you, I can smell that you want her."
"So maybe I do. So what? I'm not going to take advantage of her like that."
"Why?"
"Because...Because...She doesn't want me." Inu-Yasha admitted and hung his head.
"She does too. Even now, it's even more obvious with her scent. She wants you and she wants you bad."
"Stop lying to me."
"Take a sniff dear Brother. Nature has a wonderful way of letting males know what a female wants." Sesshomaru taunted.
Inu-Yasha sniffed silently so Kagome couldn't hear. He felt his face heat up when he realized Sesshomaru hadn't been lying. He felt his mouth go dry and was silent.
God...even as a dog he's hot...Dear lord what am I thinking?! Ack! But...what am I so afraid of. So he's sexy, so what? I can think he's sexy, I have that right at least....right?
Kagome felt the rolling of Inu-Yasha's spine beneath her as he walked, he'd slowed down considerably and it felt like something was bothering him. He'd stopped sniffing, stopped growling and woofing to his brother and was all together silent.
Worrying he might be nervous, or lost his cool she rubbed her knuckles against his spine.
"Hey Inu-Yasha, lighten up." she told him, not daring to do so herself.
Even with this solem mood Kagome felt a certain peace inside her. Ever since she'd admitted her deepest secret to the hanyou, the male she called friend had turned into the male she called 'lover' and it didn't seem to bother her anymore. Strangely it felt right to be here, with Inu-Yasha even though he was literally a dog. The rolling of his spine, the feel of his back, even the closeness to him felt right.
Does she take feeling this way lightly? What if she does? Mates are supposed to share their first...what if she's already done that with someone else...God her skin's smooth.
Inu-Yasha tensed as he noted the combined scents of the companions they'd left, or rather were taken from, in the now overgrown forest area. The doors of the entrance sounded like they'd exploded open and charging in came Sango, Miroku and Shippou, then last and probably least was Myoga the flea who clung to Shippou's ear.
He turned his shaggy head, ears pricked in their direction. He felt with a combined sense of distress and relief that Kagome's scent was returning to normal.
"You guys!" Kagome nearly shouted for joy of seeing her friends alive again.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango and Shippou cried together.
After a moment of exchanged verbal greetings Miroku asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Where's Inu-Yasha?" the monk asked.
At the mention of his name Inu-Yasha's ears laid back and swiveled forward again with a snort. Kagome laughed at the somewhat worried faces her friends and the reaction Inu-Yasha had given them for not recognizing him.
They hadn't noticed Sesshomaru yet, and Kagome was beginning to wonder when they would.
"Sesshomaru, would you care to explain?" Kagome asked.
Sesshomaru snorted and attracted the attention of the little band of rescuers. Sango held her boomerang aloft and Miroku was prepared to open the Air Rip if need be. Meanwhile, the transformed Kirara sniffed at Inu-Yasha with interest and a protest from the hanyou. Kirara suddenly backed up in recognition and gave a meow and butted her head up under Inu-Yasha's chin.
Inu-Yasha backed up nearly jumping around and losing his precious cargo in the process.
"Hey, Inu-Yasha, be careful!" Kagome cried as her hands wove themselves deeper into his fur.
He snorted but looked at her over his shoulder. Shippou had heard the cry from Kagome and whipped his little kitsune head around to look.
"Th-that's Inu-Yasha?!" Shippou gasped.
Sango and Miroku looked up with surprise as well.
"Kagome-sama, I think you need to clear some of this up. Where's Inu-Yasha?" Miroku asked again.
Instead of saying something that would sound perverted to the already lecherous priest Kagome simply pointed down at the dog she rode on.
"THAT'S Inu-Yasha?!" Sango echoed Shippou's gasp. "What happened to him?"
Kagome sighed, feeling Inu-Yasha shift uneasily beneath her she realized she'd have to explain what was going on, very carefully in order for them to understand.
"Inu-Yasha, do you want to stay as you are or revert?" Kagome asked.
Inu-Yasha snorted something and growled and Kagome looked to Sesshomaru for translation.
"He said he wants to stay as is." Sesshomaru said irritably as he rolled his eyes, quite obviously disgusted at the way he was being disrespected.
Kagome shrugged and was careful on sliding off of Inu-Yasha's back so her skirt wouldn't wind up around her neck. She dusted herself off and straightened her uniform and the armor before beginning the story.
** ** **
A while later they were on the move again, Kagome again on Inu-Yasha's back, prefering to ride with the hanyou more for her own comfort with Inu-Yasha rather than risk being near Kirara in the overly affectionate mood she was in at the moment.
"Where would she go in a place like this?" Kagome asked no one in particular as she was getting more and more irritated by the minute.
With Coyote in charge of Wildrose's actions she could be anywhere in Japan, not just in Sesshomaru's castle.
Sesshomaru finally decided against his better judgement. "JAKEN!" he bellowed.
The echoes reverberated off the high ceiling and walls and a few moments later he bellowed the name again. Only the sensitive hearing of Sesshomaru and Inu-Yasha picked up the faint reply.
"One moment please Lord Sesshomaru." Jaken answered in his high pitched voice, even higher at the moment because he was in pain.
"Don't bother moving Jaken, I'll find you." Sesshomaru sighed irritably.
"He can't hear you when you're that quiet."
"I know that, you idiot." Sesshomaru retorted to Inu-Yasha, earning himself a few odd stares from the group behind him that made him sweat nervously, they all probably thought he was going insane.
"What did he say?" Kagome asked, good-natured.
"Nothing." Sesshomaru said with a frown as he marched up the stairs to a door among the many that lined the halls the others followed not too far behind.
He pushed it open and Kagome nearly gasped as she realized that this must be Rin's bedroom. The room itself was large enough to fit Sota and Kagome's bedrooms in with room to spare and it was also adjacent to several other rooms. Among the toys that Rin obviously played with all the time was the disgusting toad servent Kagome and the others knew as Jaken.
Despite being his usual warty, green, disgusting self Kagome thought Jaken looked terrible. His left eye had swollen into a nasty shade of purple and was sealed shut, his nose looked like it had caved in and was caked with blood.
"What truck hit you Toad?" Kagome asked coldly.
"None of yer business Wench!" Jaken replied angrily and pushed himself to his feet.
"Jaken, go clean up and then check on Rin. She's in the chambers on the right side downstairs." Sesshomaru ordered, "If I find you've tried anything when I get back you'll be in worse condition then when I found you. Got it?"
"Yes M'lord." Jaken said and scurried down the stairs.
Listening for a few minutes Sesshomaru laughed quietly when he heard the sound of electricity coming to ground and a loud curse from Jaken. Sesshomaru smirked, he'd forgotten to warn Jaken about the shield spells.
Then turning to the rest of the group he said, "She's not here. She's left."
"What?! How could she? Where could she go?!" Kagome demanded.
She was starting to remind him of Inu-Yasha with her impatience. But then, Wildrose, or whatever the human was called had been Kagome's friend after all. Maybe she had a reason to be impatient.
"I have a suspicion of where she went." Sesshomaru said.
He walked quickly, not slowing his pace for his 'guests' to keep up. He was down the stairs and through the door at the back of the main room, he walked calmly up to the spear that stuck out of the beautiful scarlet-purple silk cushion of his father's throne. He could smell the scent of Coyote on it, and on the chair as a matter of fact, she hadn't been happy here.
He noted the broken head of the spear and the black feathers. He heard his other guests enter the throne room.
He snorted. So Coyote thought she'd insult him in his own home...Some guest.
"What's with the broken spear?" Miroku asked.
"It's Coyote's signature." Sesshomaru finally said after a tense silence. "It's different though. The feathers...There are usually two or three, at least one of them white, and one of them black. They represent night and day and the spirits that haunt both. Day, the white, represents life, energy, everything good. Night, the black, represents the souls of the dead, their unfinished business and binds them to their respective reallm."
Miroku eyed it, "I've never heard of that. Is it youkai tradition or something?"
"No, it's Anasazi." Sesshomaru replied calmly, if they were going to help him they deserved an explanation, even if it wasn't complete.
"Wildrose's people?" Kagome asked.
"No, that would be impossible. The Anasazi were whiped out completely at least a hundred years ago." Sesshomaru sighed.
"How would you know?"
"I was the one who killed them all. That's why Coyote is angry with me. The Anasazi were a valued tribe of Coyote-spirit, he took great pride in them as they lavished him with gifts.
I arrived in the lands far to the east and west. I found a route that took me over oceans to this land from Father's lands in the west, and I found a route later from here in Japan, going east. But once I was there, Coyote-spirit's high priestess, Coyote, found me where I migrated south.
She and I became lovers, and I thought it would please her to be my mate...She rejected me, even though I offered to give myself to Coyote-spirit as she had. I---I lost control and killed everyone in the tribe and destroyed the temple she served. Coyote-spirit had been injured and had to retreat, thus locking the high-priestess's spirit somewhere.
After all this time she woke up to find herself alone. Coyote-spirit's contact was gone for a while I suppose. But she's found me, and she wants me to pay for what I did." Sesshomaru explained, trying to be as brief as possible.
"That's awful! No wonder Coyote wants to kill you." Kagome said off handedly.
She saw Sesshomaru's expression and slapped herself mentally. Offended wasn't quite the word.
Inu-Yasha spoke something in Inu-youkai to Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru nodded. He turned to Kagome gravely.
"He wants me to tell you, you don't need to come with us. You can even return to your own world if you like." Sesshomaru told her.
"Us?" Kagome echoed the word.
"Coyote has Tetsusaiga and Tensaiga, not to mention your half of the Shikon no Tama. Inu-Yasha has decided to come with me to retrieve Tetsusaiga and the half of the Shikon no Tama she took." Sesshomaru explained, almost irritably.
"Uh uh! No way!" Kagome whirled on her transformed companion, catching his dog face between her hands, "Inu-Yasha, I've been left out of most of these battles so far, I won't be left out of this! Not when it's MY friend who's in danger! Besides, Coyote has a shard, you'll need me to find it."
The dog snorted again but his golden eyes never left hers, the look read like he was incredibly relieved to have her with him.
Sesshomaru tried to look annoyed but it was hard to hide his relief. His brother and his wench would be there to help him, that gave him somewhat of a chance against Coyote.
"The rest of you, be gone by the time I get back" Sesshomaru commanded.
** ** **
The ancient dancing ground was completely emtpy, save for the altar erected in the middle and for Wildrose, who wove in among the spears surrounding the edge of the smooth dirt circle.
She sighed as she ran her fingers along the smooth surface of the spears. Almost wishing the others would get here soon. They would free her from this loneliness. With Coyote bonded to her mind now she remembered everything. There was no hosting family for her, she wasn't a foreign exchange student. She was simply a teenage girl who'd run away from home and found a cheap way to Japan, hopefully to make a new start. Her tribe had all but forgotten her.
She was the outcast, and as soon as that leather necklace touched her skin it was made even more apparent. No one wanted to be around the chieftan's granddaughter. She was supposed to be a boy, an heir to the chief. But no, only she and her sister were born to her father. The other girls of the tribe tried to include her somewhat, only at the chieftan's insistence, but she always felt out of place. Even in modern day society her tribe still only allowed men to take the role as chieftan of the tribe.
She came to Japan, enrolled in a school using the driver's licsense and other identification that she'd stolen from her mother's purse, even used the debit card her parents had gotten her for emergencies to buy the cheap little apartment she was living in, and most of the food that was in it had come from the same debit card. Her parents, she supposed, were bearing the brunt of the bill in puzzlement as to where she was.
Kagome is my only friend and now she hates me for using her to get something I want... For what? He's Mr. Ice. *sigh* She and Inu-Yasha are in love and I'm putting them both through hell for someone who doesn't even care. Wildrose thought bitterly.
She looked over the dancing grounds again from her position leaning against the rock pillar she'd rested against often as a small child. The dancing grounds looked the same in this time as it did in hers. She could probably even contact her parents from here, write them a note, leaving it where it could be found in another three to five hundred years, or whenever it would get back to her time. Hot tears streamed down her face. Coyote and Coyote-spirit had been kind enough to withdraw inside her and leave her to her thoughts for a while.
Not quite alone anymore but not with anybody either. Coyote and Coyote-spirit were just disembodied entities. Not flesh and blood, they weren't tangible. She couldn't touch them, couldn't feel them embrace her.
Coyote's mind brushed hers lightly, They will be here soon. You should prepare yourself.
I know....
Wildrose...This is the only way, if there were any other way to get what we want I would tell you. Coyote tried to comfort her.
Wildrose heaved a broken hearted sigh.
I finally get somewhere where someone cares about me, then I take advantage of them. When they finally leave....I die. Wildrose thought sadly.
She peeled off her shirt and secured the doe-skin skirt around her waist. She dipped her fingers into the orange paint on top of the altar in the middle of the dancing ground and used her dye covered fingers to paint three orange, squared stripes on either side of her rib cage and her face.
As the paint dried she sniffed the air with her new, better nose. She'd memorized the smell she detected in the air. It was him.
He'd gotten free of the shackles that Coyote managed to get on him while he slept. His face was free of emtion, like he'd forgotten the entire incident. He froze at the edge of the dancing grounds, staring at her, eyes a swirl of reactions.
"Coyote..." he said, barely above a whisper.
"No..." she replied, "I'm Wildrose."
"Coyote," he said insistently, "Why did you choose this host?"
Coyote's presence grasped Wildrose's mind again, this time with more force.
"She was alone...like I was for so long....She understood, I offered her a way out." Coyote's voice emerged from Wildrose's mouth.
Wildrose felt tears flow freely down her painted cheeks.
Sesshomaru didn't stay put. He closed the distance between them, blocking her bare skinned torso from the cold desert wind that had picked up.
The sun was setting, and the desert was getting cool. The altar in the middle of the dancing grounds burst into life, casting it's warm fire-light across his features.
"Sesshomaru..." Wildrose said, her heart was pounding in her ears, "You can accept me, and this will all be over."
"I came for the swords." he cut her off.
Tears came more frequently. Wildrose glared at him, hurt deeply.
"Don't you want me anymore?" Coyote was merged in her head now, they were one woman, if he scorned one, he scorned the other.
"You rejected me, Coyote." he explained, "I had my revenge, and I have moved on. You should too."
** ** **
Kagome and Inu-Yasha crouched side by side near the edge of the light. Both listening and both fighting back an unknown urge. A conversation like this one...It would happen sometime. Someone would get hurt.
"Why won't you give me a chance?" Wildrose asked bitterly, "Because of Coyote?! I'm not Coyote!"
Kagome felt her heart go out to Wildrose. She wasn't Coyote and Sesshomaru was damning them both because they existed in the same body.
"Ashiteru Inu-Yasha." Kagome whispered again, feeling her fingers find their way into the fur on the back of Inu-Yasha's neck.
The transformed hanyou heaved a sigh and she felt him relax beneath her touch. She could almost hear the word echoed on his humanoid tongue. He was still Inu-Yasha, even if he was in the form of a giant dog.
Sesshomaru didn't answer. He just stood in front of Wildrose and Coyote as stiff as a board. Even when Wildrose tenderly caressed the side of his face.
"I fell in love with you through my dreams...Sesshomaru...You were my Shining Knight. You were the person that wouldn't cast me out like the others...Then...you are also a killer... You killed her, Coyote, the one you said you loved. You killed her people. An entire tribe of innocents and you killed them all to prove your point." Wildrose said, withdrawing her hand like she'd been burned.
What happened next sent Kagome's mind reeling. She saw, but she didn't believe. A sword blade, as sudden and bright as a lightning bolt, thrust it's way through Wildrose's mid-torso.
Wildrose's eyes went wide, surprise and pain were there in eyes that seemed familiar now. The illusion cast by Coyote and Coyote-spirit faded.
Sesshomaru put a hand on Wildrose's shoulder, gave her a push and watched emotionlessly as she slid off the blade and crumbled in a broken heap to the ground.
Kagome didn't bother to bite back the scream that rose in her throat.
Sesshomaru knelt beside Wildrose as her life's blood ebbed from the open wound in her gut. His graceful fingers caressed her face, then travelled down and gripped the leather strap, with beads and youkai fangs, his hand closed around it. The leather popped as it gave beneath his hand and he threw the remnants into the fire. Then he stood up and watched as Kagome darted forward to cradle her friend's form to her to tell her to hang on for what it was worth.
He looked into the fire as if expecting answers and plucked a black feather from one of the spears absently and tossed it into the flames to follow Coyote's spirit into the afterlife.
No fanfare, no dramatic fight. No nothing. Just silence from all except for the crackling of the fire and Kagome's sobs.
"Kagome..." Wildrose finally broke the silence with a blood filled mouth, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Kagome asked through her tears.
"I haven't known you for long...but you're my friend...I betrayed you...I'm sorry for ruining your fairytale." Wildrose choked.
"My what?"
"You and Inu-Yasha...I know now..." Wildrose smiled. "He's your knight in shining armor, isn't he?"
Her voice was not only for Kagome to hear now, she didn't bother to speak in English, or even whisper.. Kagome smiled.
"Yes. He is." Kagome laughed.
"Thank you...Sesshomaru." Wildrose said with tears running down her face, "You really are my knight. Thanks for letting me be your damsel in distress."
Sesshomaru knelt down and gently lifted Wildrose's head from the ground, and pressed his lips against hers. With that he silently stood up and doused the fire in the altar.
At first he seemed torn about what to do with the sword that he'd wanted so bad for so long. Tetsusaiga's blade, or what could be seen of it above the sheath glimmered dully in the dim light of the moon. He leaned down to pick up both swords and seemed to fight with himself mentally, even as the flames of his father's shield spell engulfed his hand.
He heaved a sigh, finally taking notice of the irritating smell of his burning flesh.With that he rested the sword across Inu-Yasha's back, where he lay in the dirt, watching Kagome tend the wounded Wildrose.
"I have no desire to take it from you like this, dear brother." Sesshomaru smirked ironically, "You ought to seek attention for that wound, if you intend to return her to her family that is."
"How do we get back?" Kagome asked.
"Leave that to me. This Sesshomaru is more than capable of using a simple teleportation spell." Sesshomaru replied tersely, "I will stay here for a while. I am in need of some...soul searching I believe is the word you humans use..."
"What about Rin?" Wildrose croaked.
Sesshomaru's eyes widened slightly.
"I remember her when you introduced Coyote to her...She's a precious little girl..." Wildrose choaked again and arched her back wildly in order to take a gasping breath.
"I will see to her in a day or so. I suppose you will have to check up on her for me Inu-Yasha. See that Jaken is not mistreating her..." Sesshomaru said, neglecting to speak to Wildrose directly.
Then, sighing and lifting his gracefully clawed hand, he muttered a spell under his breath....
** ** **
Another Author's Note: Bwahahahaha! I gave Fluffy-chan a conciense for once! It will not be the last time neither! ^_^ Anywho, there will be a short interlude between this chapter and the ending chapter. You may take this time to get yourself some nurishment or relieve yourself as necessary **Pathetic humans** But be sure to read the next one, I'm intending a superly delicious lemon between our two favorite overly-lemoned couple and if you hate the story so far, flame me on my review page. Of course I might just have to delete it, but who gives a monkey's rear eh?
"You lie. You always lie to me, I don't understand it." Inu-Yasha said indignantly slamming his fist on the table and sat back.
His bitch seemed to be taking it quite well, Sesshomaru mused. The girl had hardly said a word since they'd stormed in, forced into captivity with him and demanded to know why he, Lord Sesshomaru, was held captive in his own home.
"Do you think I am lying Kagome-sama?" Sesshomaru asked quietly.
Kagome was silent for a moment as she stared back at him, making eye contact and holding it. She seemed to be trying to read his face for an indication of dishonesty.
"I don't know if you're lying or not. You've been able to lie to us straight faced before, so why should we believe you?" Kagome asked.
"Because I am in no position to do anything." Sesshomaru replied trying to hide his wounded dignity, he held up his shackled wrists. "With these on I can't do anything. I can't transform, I can't use my poison talons...Hell, I can't even break these manacles to protect my girl."
Rin was still asleep on his lap, and he really didn't care whether or not his brother paid attention to how his lord brother had degraded himself to let himself be touched by a human-whelp.
Inu-Yasha shifted uneasily. He too had been chained up, chained to Kagome no less. She didn't seem to mind though, the chains easily extended enough so they could sit a comfortable distance apart. Not that she'd want to be close to a fucking hanyou. Inu-Yasha berated himself inside his head. Not close to a full youkai either. Damn it all.
"Your chains are made out of a different material. Hanyou are only half-strength so--"
"We already know that." Kagome interupted feeling her companions discomfort.
"--So, she didn't think it was necessary to use such an expensive metal to contain a hybrid." Sesshomaru finished, "And no I was not taking another stab at your mixed heritage brother. On the contrary, I'm actually relieved you are what you are."
Kagome frowned, it wasn't bad enough that he had to point out Inu-Yasha's heritage again but he had to rub salt into the wound to say that it pleased him to see his brother's deepest anguish.
She was about to say something when Rin stirred in Sesshomaru's arms. The little girl blinked and looked up at her youkai protector and smiled. The look she gave Sesshomaru was one of love and adoration, something that Kagome had never thought she'd see in a human's eyes, especially directed at Sesshomaru.
"G'morning Sesshomaru-sama." Rin chirped.
"How are you feeling Rin?" Sesshomaru asked calmly as he looked down at her.
Kagome felt herself blush as she saw Sesshomaru's face soften as he looked down at the tiny girl in his lap.
"Rin is feeling better than last night." Rin said as she affectionately nuzzled his tail with her face, then she caught sight of the manacles, her face seemed confused and sad at the same time, "How come Sesshomaru-sama is all tied up?"
Sesshomaru frowned as if pained, "I don't know Rin."
"Don't worry, Rin will help you." Rin said and kissed his hands.
Sesshomaru looked up at them and instantly his face hardened. "Do your really think I would lie to you in a position like this?"
"No...I guess not." Kagome said finally, she lowered her head in kind of half-nod half-bow.
Inu-Yasha looked at her almost sternly, his eyes were a mix of emotions. Hurt, confusion, anger, and sadness were all there. She'd agreed with Sesshomaru, meaning if he failed and Sesshomaru really had lied to them he'd be humiliated in front of both his high-headed half-brother and in front of someone he did not wish to fail.
Wildrose was unrecognizable now, Kagome thought, she'd almost completely merged with Coyote and Coyote-spirit. The only thing to do now was sit and wait until Wildrose or should she say Coyote-rose had finished their transformation and had passed judgement on the one who had commited the crime against their people so many years ago. Kagome thought bitterly about the first day they'd met. Wildrose had that sketchbook that she carried with her everywhere, and had been so considerate as to let Kagome borrow it just to look at a couple of sketches. That's where this had started, and it was all her fault.
Unable to face her most recent crime against Inu-Yasha and the others, Kagome withdrew inside herself. She hugged her knees up to her chin and stared at the floor. Hot tears flooded her eyes. If only she'd been left out of this none of it would have happened.
Then again the sighting of the demon woman with Sesshomaru happened only when Wildrose arrived in Japan, before Kagome had even thought of bringing Wildrose into Sengoku-jidai.
Sesshomaru suddenly stood up, Rin had already jumped off of his lap and claimed a futon in the next room. Sesshomaru felt his lips turn up slightly in spite of himself. She was already asleep. Without having the extra duty of caring for Rin he found that he really needed to bathe,at least to get the god awful smell of Coyote off of him. The chain connected to the manacles moved with him as he left the room, the invisible anchor seeming to follow him out.
Inu-Yasha heard Kagome sniff a few times and looked over at her to find she was practically sobbing into her arms. He moved closer to her and put his arms hesitantly around her.
She shook him off the first time but didn't the second time.
"A--Ashiteru Kagome." he whispered.
She looked up at him, tears making her now blue-gray eyes even more beautiful.
"Nani?"
"Ashiteru." he repeated and hugged her closer.
She practically dove into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder, "You can't! You can't love me!"
She was practically yelling it at him. He didn't care if she said he couldn't because he did. He pulled her even closer and fought back tears of his own.
"Doushite?" he asked rubbing her back tenderly. "Why can't I love you?"
"Y-you just can't. I'm so mean to you all the time and I get you into trouble and your always getting hurt because of me and---and--"
"I love you." he repeated, "Not because you're faultless, but because you are what you are."
"I hate what I am! I'm a horrible person! You're only in this mess because I had to drag you into it! You're always getting into trouble and getting hurt because of me!"
He took a hold on her shoulders and forced her back reluctantly, even though seeing her tear stained face was more painful than any sword blade.
"You're not a horrible person! You're amazing, and how can you even think that? Coyote and Wildrose were here long before you knew them. Before we even knew there was something wrong. I would have gotten involved even if you hadn't brought her here, but I probably would not be alive if you weren't here with me" Inu-Yasha scolded her and then forced her back into his bear hug. "How can you even think that?! I could never believe that, you're the first person to ever accept me for what I am, a damnable half-breed."
She was still crying but she locked her arms around his neck, and he was relieved that she still wanted to touch him.
"Ashiteru...Oh gods I love you." he sighed and inhaled her scent.
He'd definately kill himself if he couldn't smell her. Her scent was still a bit sad but was also happy too and it was just as soft and gentle as it always was.
His shirt in as much disarray as it was allowed her to touch his bare skin and she did, sending shivers down his spine. Her hands were cold but they still managed to get a tingle started in the pit of his stomach.
"Ashiteru Inu-Yasha." she muttered and kissed his collar bone. "I don't care what you are. Ashiteru."
She put her arms up to be able to get her chained hands over his head and drew him closer. The chains on his manacles extended enough to allow him to keep his arms around her, though the chain between them was a bit uncomfortable and even restraining as they were. Deciding that a little bit of contact with Inu-Yasha was better than none Kagome pulled him closer and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
** ** **
"I won't. I can't do it." Wildrose's mind screamed.
"Why not? He's betrayed you, he does not want you..." Coyote-sprits voice mingled with Coyote's taunted. "With us, he can't resist you."
"I want him to want me. Not us, just me."
"Then kill him."
"I won't kill him either." Wildrose stated firmly.
"Then finish joining with us." the smug spirits commanded.
Wildrose felt them bombard her mind, as if they were throwing themselves against it and screamed. She opened her eyes to stare at the looking glass.
She was beautiful as a demon. She had to admit that at least.
She had missed beauty by mere inches as a human, now with Coyote and Coyote-spirit inside her she would be practically irrisistable to any man who used his eyes.
"He will love me now. He has to." Wildrose muttered to herself.
Tears stung at her eyelids and ran a carved course down her face.
"I'm so sorry you guys....." Wildrose stared out over throne room, surveying, through the darkly tinted windows, the land that was Sesshmaru's manor.
The woods surrounding them were dead. No birds sang, not even a cricket dared to chirp. How could Sesshomaru live in such silence? Why did she care?
The man was an asshole. A simple stated truth rang through her mind. Something she'd have to learn to deal wtih while joined with Coyote and Coyote-spirit. Their thoughts, no matter how absurd or mean or out of character for her, were her thoughts.
"Mine..." she whispered, childishly as the mental picture of Sesshomaru loomed up before her mind's eye.
Sighing she sat down in the throne where she assumed the Great Demon, Sesshomaru and Inu-Yasha's dearly departed lord father, had sat many years before even Sesshomaru had been able to talk. The silky fabric of the cushion pressed against her bare skin, almost bitingly.
"Even inanimate things...softer than most, are hard bared against me now....Am I that unholy?" Wildrose thought, another tear made it's way down her face.
It was followed by another, and another. And then several more as the emotional storm cloud broke over her. She decided that she was the intruder here, and for things to return to normal she must transfer the soon to be battle field to a place that was more remote than this.
Coyote took over for the moment and thrust a bone spear into the cushion of the throne, breaking the spear head off so it hung just so, this spear, unlike the others, the feathers adorning it's tip were simply black, to ward off any angry souls that should pass by it and to signify the way she felt inside, dead.
** ** **
It was nearly sunrise and Shippou was hopelessly lost. Kitsune, fox-youkai , as he was his nose hadn't fully developed. He'd lost the trail of scents that the group had left behind them heading for the village, and was now plunging blindly through the woods.
He'd turned back only once to find that the place where his friends had fallen before him had been, the forest seemed to have collapsed in on the opening of the forest, barricading the world from it's unholy nature.
The forest seemed dead. Even at the break of day, he could tell that it would not be very light out. The sky was a turning a dreary gray color, and soon gray, dismal rain began to pour down on the sad looking kit.
He stummbled several times along the root strewn path, but this time as he felt the mud, the consistancy of clay, soak through his haori he didn't get up. Instead he cried. Mourning for the friends he'd surely lost behind him in the deep dark forbidding forest and mourning for himself, for he would surely die if he did not find Kaede's village soon.
He lay in the mud, shivering with cold and hunger and ache of the run that had taken him a day and two nights to complete, until he was sure he had heard Inu-Yasha's voice. He realized it was his imagination playing a horrible trick.
He looked up, his blue-green eyes wide and aching, his hero, the brave Inu-Yasha, stood there with Tetsusaiga slung over his shoulder stoically.
"Get up useless pup!" Inu-Yasha snarled.
"But I'm tired..." Shippou heard himself say.
He looked over to see an image of himself in a similar state of disarray. He heard Inu-Yasha heave a dramatic sigh.
Shippou remembered it now. Kagome had left to go back to her own time that day and Inu-Yasha and Shippou were caught in a rainstorm on the long walk to Kaede's village. He remembered almost fondly.
Inu-Yasha sighed again and walked over to Shippou, sheathing the Steel Cleaving Fang, Shippou had been afraid that the older hanyou would hit him for being so useless, so stupid, but he didn't. Instead Inu-Yasha picked the Kitsune up and dusted him off as best he could then lifted the light cub up and placed Shippou on his shoulders. Shippou smiled as he saw himself grab Inu-Yasha's ears lightly and though the hanyou shivered against the cold wetness of his hands, he didn't protest.
"You wouldn't give up...would you Inu-Yasha?" Shippou said to himself as he saw his mental self and Inu-Yasha disappear into the woods, on their way home.
Shippou finally picked himself up painfully and brushed himself off and started to trudge in the direction he'd seen Inu-Yasha disappear into a moment ago. He felt a pricking little bite in the back of his knee.
Growling in frustration Shippou slapped the back of his knee and sent himself back down into the mud. He lifted his hand to glare at the dead bug clinging to his hand, the little bastard that had bitten him in his moment of dignity. Instead of the smushed corpse of a bug he saw the half-squished form of Myoga the flea.
"Myoga-jiji!" Shippou exclaimed excitedly.
"Good...to see you...too." Myoga grunted out.
After recovering quickly Myoga jumped up to grip onto Shippou's ear.
"It's a bit dangerous for you to be so far from the village alone Pup. Where's Inu-Yasha and that lovely miko girl...Kagome? Where are they?" Myoga piped.
Shippou grimaced and started to cry. Myoga sensed that he'd gotten seperated, but that didn't answer the question. Where were the two who were supposedly subbing in for Shippou's parents?
"Th-they....*hic*...Wildrose *hic*....an' Coyote *hic hic*...one...she attacked *hic* An' boom! Miroku and Sango *hic* in trees! An'--an' Kagome and Inu-Yasha *hic* Coyote *hic* took them!" Shippou managed to say as he hiccuped through his sobs.
From what the old flea was able to gather, the girl Wildrose, that Kagome had brought with her was really another side of Coyote. She attacked wounding and possibly killing Miroku and Sango, then kidnapped Kagome and Inu-Yasha, whisking them both to an unknown place to do god knows what.
"M-Myog-gaaaa **hic, sniff**jijiiii...What am I gonna dooo?" Shippou wailed.
"Well, first you are going to stop crying. That won't solve anything. Second we'll go to the place you say Coyote captured Kagome and Inu-Yasha-sama. Then we'll play it by ear." Myoga said patting the kistune's head, though the poor child couldn't feel it.
** ** **
"I will try to do this...." Inu-Yasha muttered, feeling stupid and over all self-concious at the moment, dressed only in a loincloth. "But if I find you have lied to me brother..."
His threats were idle at the moment, Sesshomaru thought blandly.
"We've no time for threats." Sesshomaru said.
Rin leaned on his arm and looked intently at Inu-Yasha who settled down on the floor, Kagome volunteering her lap as a pillow. She cocked her head dog-like, much to the amusment of her guardian, to watch the 'attempted transformation'.
Kagome forced herself to relax as she saw his complete form for only the second or third time in her life. She blushed and tried to ignore the fact he stood their clothed in next to nothing.
Inu-Yasha tried to ignore the three sets of eyes focused on him and concentrate on the task at hand. He had to find desperation in himself. He had to want this badly.
Kagome hushed both Sesshomaru and Rin with a look and Inu-Yasha plunged deeper into his heart. Desperation was there, he was desperate to escape humiliation, hurt, desperate to get Kagome to love him, to be with him...Desperate for so many things. Most of all, he wanted to escape things. He finally grasped the anxious emotion, he just had to mold it to be what he wanted.
Kagome fought back a gasp as she saw Inu-Yasha start to change. Fur, the same color as his hair sprouted up and grew denser and his face seemed to elongate. She closed her eyes against the crackling, popping, shifting noises she knew were his bones and muscles moving, and growing to become what they needed. She felt his head butt up against her stomach and his body shift.
When she looked again the transformation was complete, and instead of her beloved hanyou friend, there was a large white wolf-like dog laying in her lap, amber eyes turned up at her in interest. The chains, the ones that had bound him to her for several hours had finally snapped, freeing his 'hands' from the manacles. Finally Inu-Yasha, or his dog form, rolled over in her lap in order to lift himself to his feet.
She grasped his head in her hands and stared hard at his face, looking stern. She felt him try once to pull away but stopped, seeing she was examining his face. She finally smiled, recognizing the deep gray and black markings around his eyes as his eyebrows and the black nose to be his own. Around the dog's neck were the familiar, and oddly beautiful blue and white rosary beads.
"He did it! You did it Inu-Yasha!" Kagome cried and threw her arms around the great beast's neck.
Sesshomaru found himself hiding his smile, even Rin smiled from her perch in Sesshomaru's lap.
Kagome held up her hands and held them wide apart only after encouraged to do so by a nudge under her arms by Inu-Yasha. The immense jaws shut down on the chains with a snap, when he let go the chains crumbled and the manacles let go having been clipped by those bright white teeth that rested firmly in the dog's head.
Inu-Yasha nuzzled her neck,and sniffed her happily as she hugged him. He felt like this form was his freedom, it felt so good...so right.
Then, hesitantly Inu-Yasha turned to Sesshomaru and Rin. He sniffed at them both and stood silently glared at them.
Rin threw herself in front of Sesshomaru, much to the youkai's dismay.
"No! Bad doggy! You can't hurt Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin declared loudly, "No!"
The little girl sniffed loudly as Sesshomaru's arms came around her, hugging her back away from the transformed Inu-Yasha. If he was going to die by the hands of his halfling brother now, he wanted Rin to be safe behind him, not out in front of his where Inu-Yasha's large jaws waited. Rin sniffed again and then burst into tears, clutching Sesshomaru's haori in a death grip.
Inu-Yasha could still figure out human speech and was taken aback. He sniffed again and nudged Sesshomaru's arm gently.
Sesshomaru held up his wrists cautiously and Inu-Yasha snapped the magic-chains into tiny bits between his teeth.
"Thank you." Sesshomaru finally said, just loud enough for Inu-Yasha to hear.
Rin looked up bleary eyed and smiled somewhat raggedly. Inu-Yasha tossed his head and sniffed. Kagome grinned, knowing if his mouth and vocal chords worked she'd hear the familiar snort she'd grown so accustomed to hearing, though not fond of in the least.
Inu-Yasha sat back on his haunches beside Kagome, looking eagerly at his brother to hear the next move.
"What do we do next? If we try to get out of here Wild---Coyote will hear and she'll probably kill us." Kagome said.
"I know." Sesshomaru said. "But I don't plan on abandoning my home, simply because that bitch wants my head on a pike."
"Rin thinks Sesshomaru-sama is going to fight again." Rin said sadly.
Kagome looked at the small girl in puzzlement. Sesshomaru had never shown another human being an ounce of kindness and here he was treating Rin like a daughter. She sat on his lap, she slept with him in his bed, she even shared his food. How the little girl had won over the inu-youkai's heart so easily was beyond comprehension.
"Yes Rin. I am going to fight, when I come back we can travel to the next village and you can get a new doll. How's that?" Sesshomaru bribed a smile from Rin as easily as she did him.
"Rin likes that idea." Rin smiled and hugged him.
"Right now it smells like Rin needs a bath." Sesshomaru said gently disengaging her from his neck, "While I'm gone you will bathe and change into a new outfit."
Rin nodded and jumped down from his lap and ran out of the room.
Kagome looked at Inu-Yasha's face, he was still looking anxiously at his brother.
"Sesshomaru, how are we supposed to do anything? Both your sword and Inu-Yasha's have been taken away. All you have is your talons." Kagome pointed out.
Sesshomaru looked up at his half-brother, "That is of no consequence. I will simply regain both swords."
Kagome shook her head, no matter how weakened Coyote was by joining with Wildrose it wouldn't be that easy to get the swords from her.
"If if were you, however, I would be more worried about how I would protect that weak skin of yours." Sesshomaru said.
Kagome frowned, "You and Inu-Yasha always know just what to say."
Inu-Yasha whined a bit and snuffed at her until she looked at him. He dropped the fire rat cloak into her lap. She shook her head.
"You'll need it if you have to revert to normal." Kagome said shaking her head vigorously. "She's right. And she'll need more than that." Sesshomaru said almost to himself.
At first Kagome thought the youkai lord had gone insane. Wandering around the room muttering to himself, passing his hand over walls, until he finally found was he was looking for.
He thrust his arm through the wall and it seemed to crumble and give way to a small dark chamber. He disappeared into it and reemerged with what looked like a disassembled suit of armor.
Inu-Yasha eyed it suspiciously and sniffed at it, backed up then looked at Sesshomaru.
"It was your mother's." Sesshomaru said, confirming his suspicion. "Father couldn't always be ontop of that mortal wretch, so he had armor made so she could follow him into battle, so he could try and keep her out of harms way."
Sesshomaru dumped the load unceremoniously on the floor and Inu-Yasha growled deep within his throat while Kagome practically gasped her surprise, even with his obvious dislike for his half-brother she would have thought Sesshomaru would treat the dead with more respect.
"I'll leave you to put that on. I'll be back shortly." Sesshomaru said.
Kagome didn't dare touch the armor. It had belonged to Inu-Yasha's mother, it was practically holy, and if anything happened to it he'd probably go into the youkai-madness.
She eyed it from a distance though. The Great Demon that was Inu-Yasha's father had to have loved this human woman very much to have had this made. The armor seemed to be made out of gold, though she supposed it would have to be made out of something far stronger to be considered armor. A drawing of what she thought was meant to be Inu-Yasha's father in his true form, was embossed across the breast plates and designs decorated it to the point of excess.
She must have looked quite intimidating, riding before an army of youkai, backed up by her lord husband in his youkai form, Kagome thought. A very romantic image, but still intimidating. Any man in his right mind would tremble in his boots.
She felt a cold wet nose press against the back of her hand, and she looked to see Inu-Yasha's head butt up under her arm so her hand rested on his muzzle. She stroked the fur between his ears affectionately and even dared to rub one of them between her fingers. The beast purred a bit but then gave her another shove under the arm, pushing her towards the armor.
"Inu-Yasha, it's your mother's...I can't..." She started.
Inu-Yasha growled and then pulled away from her, then opened his mouth and closed it around her wrist, not ungently but with enough force so she couldn't pull away. With that he dragged her to the armor and dropped her in front of it.
Even without speech she knew what he wanted her to do. He didn't care that the armor had belonged to his mother. It was what would keep her safe when he couldn't be there.
"I don't even know how to put this stuff on." Kagome stated indignantly.
Inu-Yasha snorted and made a noise half-way between a bark and a yip. Sesshomaru returned looking quite disgusted.
"What do you mean she doesn't know how? You haven't even shown your woman how to put on armor? Pathetic!" Sesshomaru spat at the dog.
Another snort, followed by a growl.
Sesshomaru glared at Kagome, making her shudder. He picked up a breast plate and gestured for her to approach him. She did so and did so very cautiously.
He circled around her back and slid the peices over her head and told her to hold her arms out and not to move. Then he did something that she nearly whirled around and smacked him for. His hands moved to push the breast plates up against her and he wound up cupping both the armor and her at the same time. She felt her face heat up with a blush and let out a breath of indignation while Inu-Yasha growled his displeasure.
"It is your fault she does not know how to put on armor dear brother. If either of you feel too uncomfortable with my help I will leave you to your own devices." Sesshomaru said warningly.
Catching her breath she finally managed to speak. "You can understand him like that?"
"It's obvious what he's thinking through the way he acts but even so I can understand him. After all, I have a form like that too." he reminded her then cinched the armor plates together tightly making her gasp for breath. "I believe you can get the rest. It's just arm and shin guards now. You slide them on over your shins and lower arm."
She nodded and he finally left again, she tossed off her shoes and pulled the shin guards on and made sure they were in the right place before she put the shoes back on and started to slide her arms into the glove like arm guards.
She stood up again and looked at herself.
"So, how's it look? Dumb right?" Kagome asked Inu-Yasha, noticing him watching her intently.
He let out a low woof and picked himself up to stand beside her. He nuzzled the side of her face comfortingly.
It was definately easier to touch her like this. She didn't smack him, she didn't sit him. She dealt with him like she would a regular dog, but with a little more respect.
Respect. That and the word she'd said to him the night before were making him feel more at ease. He told her he loved her, and she said she loved him back. It was almost too good to be true.
Almost.
** ** **
"You might want to bring his clothes. I'm pretty sure that if he changes back he'll want something to cover his dignity with." Sesshomaru said to Kagome.
Kagome nodded and folded up the fire rat clothing and undershirt and tossed them over Inu-Yasha's back, even though she was sure that there was nothing wrong with his 'dignity'.
"Do you have any idea of what you're doing?" Kagome asked suddenly.
"Yes." Sesshomaru answered tersely.
"If you hurt Wildrose, you'll probably wind up with your head on a pike anyways. Her family won't be happy." Kagome said.
"Humans don't scare me." Sesshomaru said with a frown. "They're weak."
"Feh. You could be surprised what modern weaponry might do to youkai." Kagome retorted, stealing Inu-Yasha's favorite sentence-in-a-word.
Inu-Yasha leaned down so Kagome could climb onto his back. He fought back the wierd feeling that he felt when the bare skin of her legs managed to touch him through the fur on his back and grimaced when he saw his brother giving him an all-knowing look.
"Feels good, doesn't it brother?" Sesshomaru asked him in his own language.
"Shut up." Inu-Yasha growled.
Sesshomaru chuckled and pushed the door to their chamber open. Inu-Yasha felt Kagome shiver as the cold air blasted against them and had to remind himself why he was this way.
They stepped out into the main chamber and shut the doors behind them, Sesshomaru casting a quick seal/shielding spell on the doors to protect Rin.
Looking around Kagome noted they hadn't been imprisoned far from the entrance. She looked at the doors almost longingly as they walked by them. No one would find them here at Sesshomaru's castle. Only Sesshomaru and his associates knew of this place.
While they were walking Sesshomaru began to talk to Inu-Yasha in the inu-youkai language knowing full-well Kagome was feeling in the dark and hurt by his secrecy.
"I don't understand why you don't just take her. You could have overpowered her defenses easily. She probably would have liked it too." Sesshomaru said.
"Watch your mouth--I mean--That's disgusting!"
"Your reluctancy to admit you want her is unnerving. Brother, I know you, I can smell that you want her."
"So maybe I do. So what? I'm not going to take advantage of her like that."
"Why?"
"Because...Because...She doesn't want me." Inu-Yasha admitted and hung his head.
"She does too. Even now, it's even more obvious with her scent. She wants you and she wants you bad."
"Stop lying to me."
"Take a sniff dear Brother. Nature has a wonderful way of letting males know what a female wants." Sesshomaru taunted.
Inu-Yasha sniffed silently so Kagome couldn't hear. He felt his face heat up when he realized Sesshomaru hadn't been lying. He felt his mouth go dry and was silent.
God...even as a dog he's hot...Dear lord what am I thinking?! Ack! But...what am I so afraid of. So he's sexy, so what? I can think he's sexy, I have that right at least....right?
Kagome felt the rolling of Inu-Yasha's spine beneath her as he walked, he'd slowed down considerably and it felt like something was bothering him. He'd stopped sniffing, stopped growling and woofing to his brother and was all together silent.
Worrying he might be nervous, or lost his cool she rubbed her knuckles against his spine.
"Hey Inu-Yasha, lighten up." she told him, not daring to do so herself.
Even with this solem mood Kagome felt a certain peace inside her. Ever since she'd admitted her deepest secret to the hanyou, the male she called friend had turned into the male she called 'lover' and it didn't seem to bother her anymore. Strangely it felt right to be here, with Inu-Yasha even though he was literally a dog. The rolling of his spine, the feel of his back, even the closeness to him felt right.
Does she take feeling this way lightly? What if she does? Mates are supposed to share their first...what if she's already done that with someone else...God her skin's smooth.
Inu-Yasha tensed as he noted the combined scents of the companions they'd left, or rather were taken from, in the now overgrown forest area. The doors of the entrance sounded like they'd exploded open and charging in came Sango, Miroku and Shippou, then last and probably least was Myoga the flea who clung to Shippou's ear.
He turned his shaggy head, ears pricked in their direction. He felt with a combined sense of distress and relief that Kagome's scent was returning to normal.
"You guys!" Kagome nearly shouted for joy of seeing her friends alive again.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango and Shippou cried together.
After a moment of exchanged verbal greetings Miroku asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Where's Inu-Yasha?" the monk asked.
At the mention of his name Inu-Yasha's ears laid back and swiveled forward again with a snort. Kagome laughed at the somewhat worried faces her friends and the reaction Inu-Yasha had given them for not recognizing him.
They hadn't noticed Sesshomaru yet, and Kagome was beginning to wonder when they would.
"Sesshomaru, would you care to explain?" Kagome asked.
Sesshomaru snorted and attracted the attention of the little band of rescuers. Sango held her boomerang aloft and Miroku was prepared to open the Air Rip if need be. Meanwhile, the transformed Kirara sniffed at Inu-Yasha with interest and a protest from the hanyou. Kirara suddenly backed up in recognition and gave a meow and butted her head up under Inu-Yasha's chin.
Inu-Yasha backed up nearly jumping around and losing his precious cargo in the process.
"Hey, Inu-Yasha, be careful!" Kagome cried as her hands wove themselves deeper into his fur.
He snorted but looked at her over his shoulder. Shippou had heard the cry from Kagome and whipped his little kitsune head around to look.
"Th-that's Inu-Yasha?!" Shippou gasped.
Sango and Miroku looked up with surprise as well.
"Kagome-sama, I think you need to clear some of this up. Where's Inu-Yasha?" Miroku asked again.
Instead of saying something that would sound perverted to the already lecherous priest Kagome simply pointed down at the dog she rode on.
"THAT'S Inu-Yasha?!" Sango echoed Shippou's gasp. "What happened to him?"
Kagome sighed, feeling Inu-Yasha shift uneasily beneath her she realized she'd have to explain what was going on, very carefully in order for them to understand.
"Inu-Yasha, do you want to stay as you are or revert?" Kagome asked.
Inu-Yasha snorted something and growled and Kagome looked to Sesshomaru for translation.
"He said he wants to stay as is." Sesshomaru said irritably as he rolled his eyes, quite obviously disgusted at the way he was being disrespected.
Kagome shrugged and was careful on sliding off of Inu-Yasha's back so her skirt wouldn't wind up around her neck. She dusted herself off and straightened her uniform and the armor before beginning the story.
** ** **
A while later they were on the move again, Kagome again on Inu-Yasha's back, prefering to ride with the hanyou more for her own comfort with Inu-Yasha rather than risk being near Kirara in the overly affectionate mood she was in at the moment.
"Where would she go in a place like this?" Kagome asked no one in particular as she was getting more and more irritated by the minute.
With Coyote in charge of Wildrose's actions she could be anywhere in Japan, not just in Sesshomaru's castle.
Sesshomaru finally decided against his better judgement. "JAKEN!" he bellowed.
The echoes reverberated off the high ceiling and walls and a few moments later he bellowed the name again. Only the sensitive hearing of Sesshomaru and Inu-Yasha picked up the faint reply.
"One moment please Lord Sesshomaru." Jaken answered in his high pitched voice, even higher at the moment because he was in pain.
"Don't bother moving Jaken, I'll find you." Sesshomaru sighed irritably.
"He can't hear you when you're that quiet."
"I know that, you idiot." Sesshomaru retorted to Inu-Yasha, earning himself a few odd stares from the group behind him that made him sweat nervously, they all probably thought he was going insane.
"What did he say?" Kagome asked, good-natured.
"Nothing." Sesshomaru said with a frown as he marched up the stairs to a door among the many that lined the halls the others followed not too far behind.
He pushed it open and Kagome nearly gasped as she realized that this must be Rin's bedroom. The room itself was large enough to fit Sota and Kagome's bedrooms in with room to spare and it was also adjacent to several other rooms. Among the toys that Rin obviously played with all the time was the disgusting toad servent Kagome and the others knew as Jaken.
Despite being his usual warty, green, disgusting self Kagome thought Jaken looked terrible. His left eye had swollen into a nasty shade of purple and was sealed shut, his nose looked like it had caved in and was caked with blood.
"What truck hit you Toad?" Kagome asked coldly.
"None of yer business Wench!" Jaken replied angrily and pushed himself to his feet.
"Jaken, go clean up and then check on Rin. She's in the chambers on the right side downstairs." Sesshomaru ordered, "If I find you've tried anything when I get back you'll be in worse condition then when I found you. Got it?"
"Yes M'lord." Jaken said and scurried down the stairs.
Listening for a few minutes Sesshomaru laughed quietly when he heard the sound of electricity coming to ground and a loud curse from Jaken. Sesshomaru smirked, he'd forgotten to warn Jaken about the shield spells.
Then turning to the rest of the group he said, "She's not here. She's left."
"What?! How could she? Where could she go?!" Kagome demanded.
She was starting to remind him of Inu-Yasha with her impatience. But then, Wildrose, or whatever the human was called had been Kagome's friend after all. Maybe she had a reason to be impatient.
"I have a suspicion of where she went." Sesshomaru said.
He walked quickly, not slowing his pace for his 'guests' to keep up. He was down the stairs and through the door at the back of the main room, he walked calmly up to the spear that stuck out of the beautiful scarlet-purple silk cushion of his father's throne. He could smell the scent of Coyote on it, and on the chair as a matter of fact, she hadn't been happy here.
He noted the broken head of the spear and the black feathers. He heard his other guests enter the throne room.
He snorted. So Coyote thought she'd insult him in his own home...Some guest.
"What's with the broken spear?" Miroku asked.
"It's Coyote's signature." Sesshomaru finally said after a tense silence. "It's different though. The feathers...There are usually two or three, at least one of them white, and one of them black. They represent night and day and the spirits that haunt both. Day, the white, represents life, energy, everything good. Night, the black, represents the souls of the dead, their unfinished business and binds them to their respective reallm."
Miroku eyed it, "I've never heard of that. Is it youkai tradition or something?"
"No, it's Anasazi." Sesshomaru replied calmly, if they were going to help him they deserved an explanation, even if it wasn't complete.
"Wildrose's people?" Kagome asked.
"No, that would be impossible. The Anasazi were whiped out completely at least a hundred years ago." Sesshomaru sighed.
"How would you know?"
"I was the one who killed them all. That's why Coyote is angry with me. The Anasazi were a valued tribe of Coyote-spirit, he took great pride in them as they lavished him with gifts.
I arrived in the lands far to the east and west. I found a route that took me over oceans to this land from Father's lands in the west, and I found a route later from here in Japan, going east. But once I was there, Coyote-spirit's high priestess, Coyote, found me where I migrated south.
She and I became lovers, and I thought it would please her to be my mate...She rejected me, even though I offered to give myself to Coyote-spirit as she had. I---I lost control and killed everyone in the tribe and destroyed the temple she served. Coyote-spirit had been injured and had to retreat, thus locking the high-priestess's spirit somewhere.
After all this time she woke up to find herself alone. Coyote-spirit's contact was gone for a while I suppose. But she's found me, and she wants me to pay for what I did." Sesshomaru explained, trying to be as brief as possible.
"That's awful! No wonder Coyote wants to kill you." Kagome said off handedly.
She saw Sesshomaru's expression and slapped herself mentally. Offended wasn't quite the word.
Inu-Yasha spoke something in Inu-youkai to Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru nodded. He turned to Kagome gravely.
"He wants me to tell you, you don't need to come with us. You can even return to your own world if you like." Sesshomaru told her.
"Us?" Kagome echoed the word.
"Coyote has Tetsusaiga and Tensaiga, not to mention your half of the Shikon no Tama. Inu-Yasha has decided to come with me to retrieve Tetsusaiga and the half of the Shikon no Tama she took." Sesshomaru explained, almost irritably.
"Uh uh! No way!" Kagome whirled on her transformed companion, catching his dog face between her hands, "Inu-Yasha, I've been left out of most of these battles so far, I won't be left out of this! Not when it's MY friend who's in danger! Besides, Coyote has a shard, you'll need me to find it."
The dog snorted again but his golden eyes never left hers, the look read like he was incredibly relieved to have her with him.
Sesshomaru tried to look annoyed but it was hard to hide his relief. His brother and his wench would be there to help him, that gave him somewhat of a chance against Coyote.
"The rest of you, be gone by the time I get back" Sesshomaru commanded.
** ** **
The ancient dancing ground was completely emtpy, save for the altar erected in the middle and for Wildrose, who wove in among the spears surrounding the edge of the smooth dirt circle.
She sighed as she ran her fingers along the smooth surface of the spears. Almost wishing the others would get here soon. They would free her from this loneliness. With Coyote bonded to her mind now she remembered everything. There was no hosting family for her, she wasn't a foreign exchange student. She was simply a teenage girl who'd run away from home and found a cheap way to Japan, hopefully to make a new start. Her tribe had all but forgotten her.
She was the outcast, and as soon as that leather necklace touched her skin it was made even more apparent. No one wanted to be around the chieftan's granddaughter. She was supposed to be a boy, an heir to the chief. But no, only she and her sister were born to her father. The other girls of the tribe tried to include her somewhat, only at the chieftan's insistence, but she always felt out of place. Even in modern day society her tribe still only allowed men to take the role as chieftan of the tribe.
She came to Japan, enrolled in a school using the driver's licsense and other identification that she'd stolen from her mother's purse, even used the debit card her parents had gotten her for emergencies to buy the cheap little apartment she was living in, and most of the food that was in it had come from the same debit card. Her parents, she supposed, were bearing the brunt of the bill in puzzlement as to where she was.
Kagome is my only friend and now she hates me for using her to get something I want... For what? He's Mr. Ice. *sigh* She and Inu-Yasha are in love and I'm putting them both through hell for someone who doesn't even care. Wildrose thought bitterly.
She looked over the dancing grounds again from her position leaning against the rock pillar she'd rested against often as a small child. The dancing grounds looked the same in this time as it did in hers. She could probably even contact her parents from here, write them a note, leaving it where it could be found in another three to five hundred years, or whenever it would get back to her time. Hot tears streamed down her face. Coyote and Coyote-spirit had been kind enough to withdraw inside her and leave her to her thoughts for a while.
Not quite alone anymore but not with anybody either. Coyote and Coyote-spirit were just disembodied entities. Not flesh and blood, they weren't tangible. She couldn't touch them, couldn't feel them embrace her.
Coyote's mind brushed hers lightly, They will be here soon. You should prepare yourself.
I know....
Wildrose...This is the only way, if there were any other way to get what we want I would tell you. Coyote tried to comfort her.
Wildrose heaved a broken hearted sigh.
I finally get somewhere where someone cares about me, then I take advantage of them. When they finally leave....I die. Wildrose thought sadly.
She peeled off her shirt and secured the doe-skin skirt around her waist. She dipped her fingers into the orange paint on top of the altar in the middle of the dancing ground and used her dye covered fingers to paint three orange, squared stripes on either side of her rib cage and her face.
As the paint dried she sniffed the air with her new, better nose. She'd memorized the smell she detected in the air. It was him.
He'd gotten free of the shackles that Coyote managed to get on him while he slept. His face was free of emtion, like he'd forgotten the entire incident. He froze at the edge of the dancing grounds, staring at her, eyes a swirl of reactions.
"Coyote..." he said, barely above a whisper.
"No..." she replied, "I'm Wildrose."
"Coyote," he said insistently, "Why did you choose this host?"
Coyote's presence grasped Wildrose's mind again, this time with more force.
"She was alone...like I was for so long....She understood, I offered her a way out." Coyote's voice emerged from Wildrose's mouth.
Wildrose felt tears flow freely down her painted cheeks.
Sesshomaru didn't stay put. He closed the distance between them, blocking her bare skinned torso from the cold desert wind that had picked up.
The sun was setting, and the desert was getting cool. The altar in the middle of the dancing grounds burst into life, casting it's warm fire-light across his features.
"Sesshomaru..." Wildrose said, her heart was pounding in her ears, "You can accept me, and this will all be over."
"I came for the swords." he cut her off.
Tears came more frequently. Wildrose glared at him, hurt deeply.
"Don't you want me anymore?" Coyote was merged in her head now, they were one woman, if he scorned one, he scorned the other.
"You rejected me, Coyote." he explained, "I had my revenge, and I have moved on. You should too."
** ** **
Kagome and Inu-Yasha crouched side by side near the edge of the light. Both listening and both fighting back an unknown urge. A conversation like this one...It would happen sometime. Someone would get hurt.
"Why won't you give me a chance?" Wildrose asked bitterly, "Because of Coyote?! I'm not Coyote!"
Kagome felt her heart go out to Wildrose. She wasn't Coyote and Sesshomaru was damning them both because they existed in the same body.
"Ashiteru Inu-Yasha." Kagome whispered again, feeling her fingers find their way into the fur on the back of Inu-Yasha's neck.
The transformed hanyou heaved a sigh and she felt him relax beneath her touch. She could almost hear the word echoed on his humanoid tongue. He was still Inu-Yasha, even if he was in the form of a giant dog.
Sesshomaru didn't answer. He just stood in front of Wildrose and Coyote as stiff as a board. Even when Wildrose tenderly caressed the side of his face.
"I fell in love with you through my dreams...Sesshomaru...You were my Shining Knight. You were the person that wouldn't cast me out like the others...Then...you are also a killer... You killed her, Coyote, the one you said you loved. You killed her people. An entire tribe of innocents and you killed them all to prove your point." Wildrose said, withdrawing her hand like she'd been burned.
What happened next sent Kagome's mind reeling. She saw, but she didn't believe. A sword blade, as sudden and bright as a lightning bolt, thrust it's way through Wildrose's mid-torso.
Wildrose's eyes went wide, surprise and pain were there in eyes that seemed familiar now. The illusion cast by Coyote and Coyote-spirit faded.
Sesshomaru put a hand on Wildrose's shoulder, gave her a push and watched emotionlessly as she slid off the blade and crumbled in a broken heap to the ground.
Kagome didn't bother to bite back the scream that rose in her throat.
Sesshomaru knelt beside Wildrose as her life's blood ebbed from the open wound in her gut. His graceful fingers caressed her face, then travelled down and gripped the leather strap, with beads and youkai fangs, his hand closed around it. The leather popped as it gave beneath his hand and he threw the remnants into the fire. Then he stood up and watched as Kagome darted forward to cradle her friend's form to her to tell her to hang on for what it was worth.
He looked into the fire as if expecting answers and plucked a black feather from one of the spears absently and tossed it into the flames to follow Coyote's spirit into the afterlife.
No fanfare, no dramatic fight. No nothing. Just silence from all except for the crackling of the fire and Kagome's sobs.
"Kagome..." Wildrose finally broke the silence with a blood filled mouth, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Kagome asked through her tears.
"I haven't known you for long...but you're my friend...I betrayed you...I'm sorry for ruining your fairytale." Wildrose choked.
"My what?"
"You and Inu-Yasha...I know now..." Wildrose smiled. "He's your knight in shining armor, isn't he?"
Her voice was not only for Kagome to hear now, she didn't bother to speak in English, or even whisper.. Kagome smiled.
"Yes. He is." Kagome laughed.
"Thank you...Sesshomaru." Wildrose said with tears running down her face, "You really are my knight. Thanks for letting me be your damsel in distress."
Sesshomaru knelt down and gently lifted Wildrose's head from the ground, and pressed his lips against hers. With that he silently stood up and doused the fire in the altar.
At first he seemed torn about what to do with the sword that he'd wanted so bad for so long. Tetsusaiga's blade, or what could be seen of it above the sheath glimmered dully in the dim light of the moon. He leaned down to pick up both swords and seemed to fight with himself mentally, even as the flames of his father's shield spell engulfed his hand.
He heaved a sigh, finally taking notice of the irritating smell of his burning flesh.With that he rested the sword across Inu-Yasha's back, where he lay in the dirt, watching Kagome tend the wounded Wildrose.
"I have no desire to take it from you like this, dear brother." Sesshomaru smirked ironically, "You ought to seek attention for that wound, if you intend to return her to her family that is."
"How do we get back?" Kagome asked.
"Leave that to me. This Sesshomaru is more than capable of using a simple teleportation spell." Sesshomaru replied tersely, "I will stay here for a while. I am in need of some...soul searching I believe is the word you humans use..."
"What about Rin?" Wildrose croaked.
Sesshomaru's eyes widened slightly.
"I remember her when you introduced Coyote to her...She's a precious little girl..." Wildrose choaked again and arched her back wildly in order to take a gasping breath.
"I will see to her in a day or so. I suppose you will have to check up on her for me Inu-Yasha. See that Jaken is not mistreating her..." Sesshomaru said, neglecting to speak to Wildrose directly.
Then, sighing and lifting his gracefully clawed hand, he muttered a spell under his breath....
** ** **
Another Author's Note: Bwahahahaha! I gave Fluffy-chan a conciense for once! It will not be the last time neither! ^_^ Anywho, there will be a short interlude between this chapter and the ending chapter. You may take this time to get yourself some nurishment or relieve yourself as necessary **Pathetic humans** But be sure to read the next one, I'm intending a superly delicious lemon between our two favorite overly-lemoned couple and if you hate the story so far, flame me on my review page. Of course I might just have to delete it, but who gives a monkey's rear eh?