Yeah, sorry it's been so long. Bit of a cliffy at the end. And since I haven't said it once since I started my story, I have no ownership of Inuyasha or the involved characters. Hah.

*

We sat around a pitiful fire later on, drying slowly from our romp in the creek, and I had insisted that he chew on some leaves that helped nausea (and bad breath, which was bound to be a side effect after yakking three times in a row.) in case he started to feel sick again. It wasn't Pepto Bismal or anything, but it was the best I could come up with.

"How's your shoulder?" I asked after a very long silence.

"Fine," was all he said.

"Any other wounds I should know about?"

"No."

I sighed. "Hungry?"

"No."

"Want me to build up the fire?"

"If you must."

Fine. If he insisted on being moody, then that was his problem. It wasn't like I didn't have plenty to think about anyways, so I was completely all right with ignoring him. He didn't want to talk anyways.

My mind drifted once I wasn't worried about small talk, and I found myself thinking about . . . oh hell. Who did I think about constantly now? My mind and body still bore the scars of my vacation with Naraku, and some of them (like the one on my stomach, which had begun to bleed again) would never heal. I was more unnerved by the way we had passed the time—talking, in between shredding me like paper. I knew his ultimate motive for allowing himself to tell me the things he told me: when you're a demon hell-bent on destruction, you don't really get to talk to a lot of people. After probably a day and a half of badgering, I finally got something out of him—a lot of somethings, actually.

While it wasn't the primary reason for taking me, my resemblance to Kikyo played a large part in choosing me to catch off-guard rather than Sango, whose wounds from Naraku also ran deep. On some sick, twisted level, I truly began to suspect that in his own form and fashion, Naraku had been in love with the now-dead priestess. She alone had cared for him when he was dying, and I felt in him the futility of knowing that he would never again walk or be able to trick her into following him. Sure, the Shikkon Jewel had a lot to do with it too, but . . . well, you know how it went. He hadn't quite meant to show me these sides of himself, but it had been inevitable: when you open your mind up totally to scare the piss out of someone, you can't help but let them see the good and the bad.

I thought back to the miasma that had brought Inuyasha to the mountain where the demons fought. And I also remembered how he took Kikyo—he didn't kidnap her, he just took her and carried her like a doll he was afraid of breaking. It was like she was precious to him.

I could see, in 20-20 hindsight, that it was why he had been unable to kill me this time. Sure, when he first saw me, it had seemed like killing me would be the fun thing to do . . . maybe because he remembered Kikyo being in love with Inuyasha. Whatever happened, it was now blatantly obvious that she didn't love him. If a soul only housed by a mere shell could hate, I think she hated him. The conversation flitted back to me in bits and pieces, one of many things I had tried to block out and failed.

I was suspended in thin air, as though a string connected the top of my spine to the sky above and I dangled like a doll. My eyes were closed to keep blood from running into them.

"Your jewel shards . . . I thank you for them," Naraku said in a conversational tone, sitting calmly on the ground, dressed in what could have been pajamas. "They will be of much use to me."

I said nothing. I suspected my jaw was broken, and I didn't have to talk anyways. Words formed in my mind and he heard them as though I had spoken out loud. Inuyasha will kill you before you can use them.

"I think not. All that eludes me is the shard I so kindly lent Lord Sesshoumaru, and that will be no obstacle to retrieve. I daresay you will be a fine bartering chip, in fact."

You've lost your mind.

"Have I? I seem to see a memory of you in a very compromising position with him not long after I lent him the jewel shard—and the arm. Let's see . . . he not only saved you from me, he invited you to travel with him, and then there was an incident at a hot spring in the Western Lands . . . I imagine that at the very least, he has something of a . . ." he seemed to think about the word. " . . . a crush on you, as you would say," he finished. "Though I have always pegged him as very repressed. So who knows? Perhaps he loves you with every fiber of his being and cannot bring himself to approach you. Or perhaps you simply amuse him.

Perhaps it's none of your damn business! You don't see me badgering you about Kikyo, do you?

He stiffened. I hadn't mentioned anything about the other priestess once, but now seemed as good a time as any to piss him off so much that he killed me. His mounting anger made the 'string' attached to my spine pull tighter as my body remained stationary. It felt like my spinal cord was going to be ripped out.

"Do not compare my trials to your own," he warned.

The implication in my mind (that he saw, by the way) was one that spoke of skepticism. So there was a trial to speak of?

He pushed into my mind, triggering parts of my brain that were reserved only for pain. A cry welled up in my throat when my brain told me that red-hot wood had been shoved through my stomach.

No such thing had actually been done, however.

I clenched my teeth, and realized that my jaw didn't actually hurt. Maybe that was an impression he had put into my mind, as well. I tested the theory. "You hunted Inuyasha because of her, and you still torment him because of her. All this is because you met Kikyo." A little pain to be sure, especially from my raw throat, but I suspected my jaw wasn't broken.

He pressed a few more triggers, and this time, now that my mouth worked, I was able to scream. But I had carried suspicions the entire time, and now I acted on them. I snagged the brief contact between our conscious minds and, in turn, pried his open as well. I didn't actually see anything—or even feel anything, but he pulled away suddenly, and then blackness engulfed me.

*

I came to slowly, sore in more places than before, and still suspended like a marionette. I had no energy left.

"Do you really demand to know the truth about Kikyo?" came Naraku's dangerously soft voice. H e was angry. I suspected he'd been angry since I passed out.

I said nothing. I was burned out entirely. Even my spirit was growing weary.

"A truly horrible thing to behold," he said thoughtfully, "is a dying man who desires what he cannot have. The fool Onegumo would never walk again. He had no way of healing himself and, perhaps, someday lure the priestess to him. He was a greedy mortal obsessed with the Shikkon Jewel and the beauty it radiated when it's bearer was tainted with evil, but he was also a human with a heart buried by years of evil. I suspect that Kikyo unearthed it without knowing. But rather than love him, she loved a half-demon. With the knowledge he would never again live as he once had, and the bitter resentment of Kikyo's choice, he invoked demons from all around to consume his body and turn him into one who could take the Jewel from her and make her feel his wrath. He had a perverted mind and soul, but even he could not control the demons who merged within him. I was borne of one man's greed and hatred. It is all I know, and it is all I wish to know. I will use the jewel to become a true demon, not this half-and-half creation of a desperate and evil man. But do not think this will stop once I have used the Shikkon Jewel," he added. "If you live long enough to see it completed, then you will not live long after that. I have plans for this world—and yours . . ."

I let out a heaving sigh and got an odd look from Sesshoumaru over the flames. "Sorry, just thinking," I said absently.

He looked away, irritation written into his face, along with a hint of futility. I sobered at the sight. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I am human," was his response, as though that should answer my question.

I felt a tug of pity. "Guess not."

He must have seen the pity, because his face darkened considerably with pent-up anger. "I would prefer you not feel sorry for me," he growled. "I am not a thing to be pitied."

I bit my lip. "Didn't mean to say you were. Very sorry."

"I will be the one to destroy Naraku," he added in an offhand way. "In the very end, I will let no other take my revenge from me."

"Everyone says that."

"Everyone is wrong."

I remained silent. "I don't really need revenge on Naraku. The knowledge that he'll get what's coming to him is enough to hold me over. The only person I ever hated enough to even think of killing was Kikyo."

A surprised glance (he was proving very bad at keeping his emotions off his face). "The priestess?"

I nodded.

"The one my brother loves."

I snorted. "Nope. He actually hates her—in theory, at least."

"In theory?" he repeated scornfully.

"Yep. I mean . . . he hates everything she stands for, and all the things she's done, but when he gets around her, it's like . . . no matter what, he'll always be responsible for what happened with them. He just can't kill her, because to him, he'll have killed her again. She plays on that like a drum every time she sees him, manipulates him to do whatever she thinks he'll do for her. He almost followed her into Hell," I said bitterly. "He would have."

"Then he is a fool. No human is worth dying for."

"Not even Rin?" I asked darkly.

"Leave her out of this." His voice was deceptively calm.

"Well anyways. The other problem I have with Kikyo is the fact that she has no respect for the fact that technically, we share the same soul. Or we did," I added, "until some genius decided to bring her back and take part of my soul to do so. She sees me as competition for Inuyasha—she honestly thinks that I'm a threat to her. But beyond that, she doesn't consider me a person. I'm just a walking doll made to look like her, not even worth her time of day. The only time she cared enough to even show she didn't like me was when she took my damn jewel shards. But no, Inuyasha doesn't love her."

"Interesting. And where is this priestess now?"

I shrugged. "I think she's finally truly gone—maybe her soul finally descended into Hell—or Heaven, wherever her soul was destined to go. But every time I think that, she shows back up again and makes everyone miserable, so who knows? She was a healer for a while; maybe she's still using some of her powers for good." I raised my eyes to glance at him, and felt a sigh inside at how tired he looked. "But enough talking for now. I'm exhausted—you don't mind if I sleep, right?"

"Go ahead," was his absent reply.

Before I made myself really comfortable on that nice, rocky ground, I stole a last look at him. Even as a human, with no demon markings to accent his features, he was still—well, beautiful. Serene and silent, flames casting dancing shadows across his face and bringing out his defined cheekbones, he still had the unearthly beauty that even humanity couldn't hide. I shivered and lay down, inching closer to the fire and closing my eyes.

"Kagome," he said before I could drift off.

I propped myself up on an elbow. "Yeah?"

His voice was soft. "Come over here."

I blinked. "What?"

"Just do it. Get over here, on this side of the fire, beside me, and shut up." I began to do so with a definite toll of confusion and just a little—"And whatever you do, don't look behind you," he added calmly. I sighed. Great—some big bad out in the woods. Well so much for the late-night snuggle.

As I approached him, he stood up and looked out into the darkness of the forest, hand on the hilt of his sword. Wait, he never used the sword! Didn't it only—maybe it was just for show. "Show yourself," he called, his voice gentle with an underlying edge of nerves.

I frowned, certain there was nothing in the woods, and then disappointed when I had to eat my words. Whatever had been lurking in the forest came out into our little clearing and towered over us, definitely a demon and definitely huge. How in the hell had I not heard it crashing around? Something that big was bound to make noise.

"Who are you to trespass in my land?" the creature rumbled.

"We meant no offense. We are travelers lost in a strange country."

"You did not have leave to be here."

Frustration was now clear on his face, and I muttered, "Now see how it feels."

His hand dropped from the sword. "What lands are these?"

"These are the Northern Lands."

A very soft "Shit," just out of the demon's earshot. ":I am Lord Sesshoumaru, gone for now from my lands and traveling back to them. The Lady of your lands should know of my presence by now. We are pursued by a half-demon by name of Naraku."

An audible growl. "I see. An enemy of yours?"

"Yes."

"An enemy of my enemy is my friend," the biggie-sized demon rumbled. "I did not recognize you, little Lord of the West."

I stifled a giggle. Someone thought he was little? Well . . . okay, in comparison, yeah. Not in comparison to me and Inuyasha, but to this demon? Pet Chihuahua. I swallowed when I looked up at it, its three eyes blood-red and its teeth looking more like a meat grinder than anything else. I shivered and inched closer to Sesshoumaru.

The demon looked down at me. "Who is the human you travel with?"

He seemed at a loss. "She—she is a . . ."

"Priestess," I supplied. "I am the reincarnation of the healer Kikyo, and I travel with Sesshoumaru until I find my friends."

"Kikyo?" it repeated. "She healed many of the villages here once. You are welcome as well, then."

I did my best not to pass out with relief.

"So you travel together?"

"For now," I said before Sesshoumaru could say anything rotten about me.

It nodded its massive head. "Until you are in the confines of a village," it advised us with what seemed suspiciously like a wink, "I would refrain from any . . . activity between you. Many demons are drawn for miles by the sound and smell, and they are very evil demons from neighboring lands. So be wise and keep the fire in between you."

Activity? What was he . . . oh. I began to blush furiously, and glanced away, trying to think of a decent comeback that was at least semi-polite. Sesshoumaru did it for me. "She merely accompanies me for a short time," he said in a clipped voice (although when I glanced up at him, there seemed to be definite color to his cheeks. Maybe it was just the fire . . .). "Nothing more."

"Of course," the demon said in what could have passed as a condescending tone. "My mistake . . ." I half-expected Sesshoumaru to say something like, "That's right, it is your mistake," but he didn't.

"Be safe this night," it told us as it turned and moved into the forest with amazing silence. "Tomorrow travel east to the sun, and you will find the village of the Lady of the North. If you are who you say, she will welcome you and aide you on your journey. Good-night."

" . . . Aide me on my journey?" he repeated when the demon had gone. "More likely chain me to the . . ." He cut himself off. "Go to sleep," he said suddenly. "We leave before sunrise."

So I lay down and closed my eyes, but I didn't return to my side of the fire and he didn't make me.

*

Inuyasha

We had been walking for probably four hours before I collapsed—that little bitch was gonna get his ass beat into a pulp if I had anything to do with it—and I would. My whole brain was humming with several currents of thought.

I'm gonna kill Naraku when I get my hands around that goddamn neck of his.

Is Kagome alive?

Damn, walking hurts.

Sesshoumaru is human?

Is Kagome all right?

If he doesn't shut up, I'm going to have to kill Miroku . . .

And she's alone with him? How are they supposed to protect themselves?

. . . with my bare hands. I will wring his neck and twist . . .

She can't be dead. Even the monk is still alive.

He's got all the jewel shards but one.

How is Sesshoumaru human? Is it a curse, like the wind tunnel?

I hope they know to go to Kaede's village.

Shit, I hope she's okay.

So understandably, the dull hum of frenzied thoughts gave me a headache and made me a little bit crabby. If I'd had the grace to, I'd have felt sorry for Miroku for tolerating it.

But who said he needed sympathy?

We stopped walking once I hit my knees and couldn't get back up, and Miroku insisted on stopping for the night. The sun's glow hadn't even faded from the sky yet—wimp. He was just afraid of the damned dark.

I was scowling the entire time he cooked a rat or something. "That's disgusting," I told him.

He glanced at me. "Well I didn't think you'd mind—I always pegged you as the hunter."

I wrinkled my nose and looked away. "Shoot me in the ass before I eat something that was alive the last time I saw it."

"True to your canine instincts," he said dryly. "I hope we run into Sango at some point. I think she has Shippou and Rin with her. They should be relatively safe."

I shrugged. "Who cares? If Shippou dies, well, then that's one less person I have to rescue all the time. Rin? That kid is Sesshoumaru's problem. Sango can take care of herself."

"What about Kagome?" Miroku asked calmly.

My mood, already dark, blackened. "She slammed back into my brother, and then I blacked out. Wherever she is, she's with him."

"Then she's safe?"

"No, she's not safe! He can't do shit! You know how I get when there's a new moon?" I demanded. "I do it every month and I still can't protect anyone! He's never—ever—been human before, and now he's STUCK as one! And to top it off, his damned sword only heals! It doesn't protect! Goddamnit! If she hadn't been so damned worried about him, she wouldn't have been over there with him and gotten into this! Now she's who-knows-where, away from us, and totally vulnerable, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

The monk watched me calmly. "I see. Well perhaps it's for the best that they're together right now. Heaven only knows they've got some things to work out."

"Oh, right, and shipping them off alone is a good way to work it out," I said angrily. "Would you want to be stuck alone with Sango in a situation like that?"

A small smile flickered across his face. "Actually—"

"All right, pervert, forget I asked. Bad example. My point is, even if he's human and virtually unable to protect her from anything, that means he can't protect her from himself, either. I mean . . . I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do if I can't be there to protect her! Yes, he's an asshole, yes, he's homicidal, and yes, he's a jerk, but . . . he's human now and he—" I just couldn't make myself say it. The thought—just the concept . . .

"If you're trying to imply that he's attracted to her," Miroku offered, "then I know what you're getting at. He's had excellent control to the best of my knowledge—in fact, he's actually managed to keep it on the . . . erm, the D.L., I think Kagome would say. And I suspect it's just a passing thing, anyways. As great and powerful as he usually is, I should think he wouldn't give up life as a bachelor for someone who just turned seventeen."

I was grinding my teeth—he was such an idiot. Even his voice made me twitch. "He's completely incapable of feeling anything resembling emotion unless it benefits him in some way, so quit talking about 'a passing thing,'" I snapped. "You forget who we're discussing here."

"Yes, but you yourself forget who his usual traveling companion is—an eight-year-old human girl, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm guessing her age. How does he benefit from that? Besides, I'm sure we're wrong. For all we know, they're biting each other's heads off right now with hatred."

*

Kagome

The sun glaring into my face was what woke me up. No longer was it chilly out, but warm instead, and while the temperature was nice, the rocky ground still felt like . . . well, rocky ground. Lovely. I rolled over—

And bumped into someone.

Oh shit. Um—where—who was . . .

Oh. Duh. I opened my eyes and found myself face-to-face with Sesshoumaru, who was sound asleep. I hadn't pictured him a heavy sleeper, but I guess he was tired. So much for leaving before sunrise. I considered for a moment waking him up, but people tend to be crabbiest when they've just gotten up, and that was something I'd like to delay as long as possible.

From the way the sun had risen in the sky, I figured it was almost noon, and reveled in the first decent sleep I'd had since my last trip home, which had been a weekend and I'd slept till eleven. I sat up slowly, careful to not bump him, and found, to my surprise, that I was a bit tangled. And by tangled, I mean that I had snuggled right up to him and entwined our ankles, and his arm was draped haphazardly around me, and so we were effectively . . . erm, tangled. Plus I had wrapped my own arm around his waist, and that was trapped by his arm, so . . . um, yeah. Whoopsy.

If—oh, jeez, if he woke up and we were like this . . . he was never going to believe that it wasn't my fault. Honest to goodness, we had gone to sleep several feet apart, and I sure as hell hadn't intentionally scooched over to snuggle (although his big argument would be 'Neither did I!' so there went the insinuation that he did. Wouldn't hold water.), but there we were. Very carefully, in case he woke up, I pulled my ankle gently away from his legs, then set to the task of the upper-body area. My arm gradually snaked away from him, and I sighed. My part was over. Now all I had to worry about was getting him off of me. With a grim demeanor, I rolled very quickly away, sprawling out on my stomach away from him but taking his arm with me on accident. At the sudden movement, Sesshoumaru jerked awake with a start.

We lay like that for a moment, me flat on my stomach with my face pressed to the earth and him half pushed-up on his elbow, eyes narrowed suspiciously while mine were wide and as innocent as I could make them. With a glare, he removed his arm from where it now lay on my back and then turned to me.

"Care to explain?"

I blinked innocently. "Looks like you missed me last night," I said timidly.

He snorted. "Try again!"

"I dunno. I just woke up. Am I in trouble for breathing? I know how you hate it when I do that."

A scowl. "You snore, human. It kept me up the entire night."

"I do not!"

"You do," he informed me smoothly, "and so do not complain about being tired later on. I did not sleep as easily as you did and I was up much earlier."

I rolled my eyes. "Were not."

He sat cross-legged before me. "I was. You yourself cannot contend otherwise; you just woke up. You wouldn't know."

I arched an eyebrow. "Does that mean you want to snuggle again later?"

He shook his head. "You are truly annoying," he declared. "Get up—we're already behind. The day is half-spent."

I stood and combed the knots out of my hair with my fingers, sighing heavily. He was such a bad liar—if he'd been awake when I woke up, he definitely wouldn't have admitted to it. Ha ha on him. He really needed to learn how to lie better, especially if he was a human until we killed Naraku (and who knew how long that would take?). I rubbed a crick out of my neck and followed after him, as he had no intention of letting me eat before we left. (The other thing he needed to learn was that humans had to eat, too.)

Sesshoumaru gave me a skewed glance over his shoulder as I peeled myself off the ground and rubbed my neck. "You are truly stupid," he sighed. "You slept like that all night?"

I bit my tongue. I felt like I'd slept on a rock . . . oh, wait, I had slept on a rock. "Sure. I slept like that all night."

*

It was the little things that suggested Sesshoumaru wasn't nearly as comfortable being around me as he projected. Actually, he projected indifference, not comfort, but the indifference seemed to be a little challenged as well. Maybe it was the fact that he went out of his way to stay about three feet away from me at all times, maybe it was the way he absolutely did not touch me, or even the way he tried not to talk to me—but maybe I was paranoid. I mean, I'm just so darned cute and cuddly, why wouldn't he like travelling with me?

Jeez.

Sure, I was bothered by the fact that he seemed adamantly plagued by my presence, but really. I couldn't dwell on it the entire time, now, could I? If I did, I'd be sulking and offended and altogether unpleasant to be around. No, I decided, it was probably nothing to worry about.

And BESIDES, who in the hell said I cared?! I mean, sure we'd had our moments (one of which was two nights ago), but that didn't mean anything to me. Really. Just because we'd had a bit of a snog-fest didn't mean we were married or anything. Two snog-fests, actually. But I wasn't counting. Really—who counted these things? Not me. The point was, I didn't have any real claim to him. So I didn't care.

Seriously.

*

Sesshoumaru

I did not profess to live a life of purity or good deeds, but what in the hell had I done to deserve this? Trapped in the body of a pitiful human, utterly blind and defenseless, and travelling with someone I'd spent the better part of two years avoiding? It was almost enough to make me sick. Again.

I could not sense the world around me, save for the obvious birds chirping in a disgustingly cheerful song and the human's incessant talking, but I could truly hear nothing. And I smelled nothing, either. It was like being blindfolded, gagged, and bound with a sign that said EAT ME. I felt utterly weak and helpless. And I did not like it.

What I also felt was . . . well, emotion. Not to say that I did not have emotions before, but all demons must keep them under control. Anger, grief, joy—all were kept carefully hidden. An emotional demon lord was a dead one, as my father ended up demonstrating. But now . . . I had my same mind and spirit, but perhaps one of the givens of being a true demon was the ability to keep one's feelings at bay. Now, in this pathetic body, I did not have the walls I had so carefully erected inside myself, and keeping the distance between myself and the human girl was becoming increasingly difficult—

"You know, if you're planning on being that antisocial, then maybe you'd like a bubble to walk around in," she said sourly.

--Until she actually talked, and then it was no trouble at all.

I had long since dropped the heavy armor once the sun rose higher into the sky, and I adjusted the damp material on my shoulders fastidiously. "I never said I was antisocial," I threw back. "I just don't want to talk to you."

She huffed and folded her arms. "Fine. Be a jerk if you must."

"Thank you for the permission," I scowled. She was annoying when she was annoyed.

"Damn, it's hot out here," she muttered, adjusting her own clothes. The black jacket that covered her arms was shed suddenly, revealing a black shirt that was—erm, revealing, to say the least. The neck was low and the hem was high, but the pants rode around her hips, and—

Stop looking. It's just skin.

Indeed, but there was certainly a lot of it.

She tied the jacket around her waist and fanned herself, her hair no longer holding its shape in the unusual heat. "Put that back on," I snapped.

Kagome snorted. "You put it back on."

"We're approaching the capital city of the Northern Lands," I informed her snappishly. "I would ordinarily allow you to enter it dressed like that, as I could ordinarily provide ample protection against the fools who would approach you, but under the circumstances, I advise you cover yourself."

"How do you know where we are, anyways?"

"I travelled this way many times when I was younger. The forest is only this thick close to the city." My other concern was that should she travel looking like some sort of scarlet woman, she would be mistaken for my scarlet woman, and the last thing I needed was the jealousy of the Lady of the North, especially while I was embarrassingly human. This stupid, stupid girl was going to get us both killed—the North City did not take kindly to humans of any sort, even if it happened to be a temporary condition. Hopefully they would not notice that my marks had vanished. I would find a reasonable excuse if they did.

Kagome peered through the thick forest. "There is something through the forest," she stated. "I sense—I don't know. Something . . . ooooh, not evil, but . . . not good. Damn, if these priestess powers don't start shaping up and doing what I tell them, I'm not going to be very happy. What good are sacred gifts if they're useless?"

"Not useless," I corrected her with a sideways glance, "especially if you can sense the woman who dwells in that city from here. Humans take their gifts for granted."

She let a childish scowl cross her young features, and her smoky eyes darkened. "Right," she sighed.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "So how did you end up striking a deal with Naraku a while back?" she finally asked.

I did not look at her. "He presented me with this arm and bade me kill Inuyasha. I had no qualms about it at the time and I have none now. I like my brother no more than I did before. He is still a fool who lifted no finger to aid our father when he was killed and allowed a human woman to overtake him."

"Wasn't he trapped to a tree when your father was killed?" Kagome asked meekly.

I sneered with contempt. "Does it matter? He was overtaken with a foolish fondness for a human, a weakness in itself, and because of his own damned weakness, he was unable to help the one person in this world who cared about him. Did you know he hated our father?" I asked suddenly. The question came from nowhere. I suddenly disliked being human even more—I was not prone to talking this much about my own past.

She blinked. "I—I thought he liked him."

I shook my head. "No. He was the son my father truly loved, but he was blinded by hatred. He could never forgive my father for siring him as a half-breed cursed to be alone all his life. He lived under the same roof as his mother and my father, but when he was old enough, he set out on his own to try and unmake the life that had been made for him. His true happiness eluded him, and he eventually sought the Jewel to try and become a human." I could not keep the disgust and slow, burning hatred out of my voice. "The boy selfishly left a man who would give his life for him in the end, amid his foolish hatred. That was why my father was eventually killed," I added in what passed as a human growl. "He not only kept secret his human lover, but he sired a child by her and kept that secret as well. I myself did not find out until the boy was nearly seven, and I said nothing to the greedy, foolish demon bastards who sought to overthrow him. I could have slipped a rumor to them, been rid of the brat and his mother easily with little repercussion to my father—but he bid me stay silent, and I did so."

Her dark eyes were now fixed on me with fascination, sadness, and dawning horror. "And—they found out eventually?" she pressed uncertainly, revealing what was beginning to horrify her.

I nodded, feeling myself grow furious over this bitter past that could not be changed. "After that damned fool had been trapped to the tree, word spread that my father had taken a human to his bed and to his home. I do not know to this day who spoke it first, otherwise they would be dead now. My father was confronted by a few of them, ordered to do away with the woman and her brat immediately. Had he done that . . . he would have been spared. Certainly his position would have been stripped, but he would have lived. The Lords of the East and South had his woman killed while he was away, but none went for my brother. My father alone knew where he was. The Lords requested he find his son and give him to them, promising him no harm. I happen to trust them when they give their word, but the old fool refused to say where the brat was. I was called by my own mother to defend him, then kill Inuyasha myself to avenge her honor, save my father's life, and generally satisfy the demons of the land—but I alone was not enough to save him. They came in great numbers to dispose of him—a man who takes a human to bed and protects the child spawned is one ruled by emotion, and that makes one weak when ruling others. I was wounded. He was killed."

Her eyes had left me, and her dark hair kept me from seeing her eyes. She seemed to hesitate before speaking, but when she finally did, her words came out in soft, halted rush. "My dad died when I was really young," she said quietly. "At least you got to know yours. I was too young when he was killed to really have any clear memories of him. I remember the pipe he smoked in the evenings—my mom hated it. She always wanted him to quit. He worked in a factory, on the assembly line. There was an accident when I was six . . . the guy who owned the whole company, Amasha-OmaruCorp., came by my house to tell my mom in person before someone from the company called to tell her. I wasn't actually in the room when he told her, but I listened by the door. Some guy operating a forklift was using the one that had a broken . . . fork, I guess. My dad had walked under it because he wasn't paying attention or something, and the lift broke when he was underneath it. There were three thousand pounds of solid steel in a crate above him that was going to be melted. Souta was too young to remember it, but I do. The guy—he was really tall to me back then—gave me a letter to read when I got older. I read it when I turned ten," she continued softly. "It had his deepest condolences, he was sorry for my loss, all that crap . . . but he also said that he should have known that something could go wrong, and that everyone should have been overly careful at all times and he felt personally responsible. I let my mom read it, and she said people don't usually take responsibility for stuff like that. I guess it's part of the debt the company owes us for it, because along with that, weird little stuff happens all the time now. Some big corporation—not as big as the one my dad worked for—was going to evict us from the shrine a few years back to put a highway down—like Tokyo needs another highway. Anyways, the city gave them leave to do it, and so we had a notice that gave us all a week to be out of the house and empty the shrine. But someone else who I guess was over their heads called it off and told them to leave my family alone and let us keep the land. The highway did go up, but it's about three miles east of us. And business has gone up since more people pass by," she added, a phony cheer in her voice. "Mom said it was Dad's old company that pulled strings and let us keep the shrine."

I had never seen her so dejected. Her eyes, usually alight with cheer or mischief, were dull and smoky. She had silently slipped back into the jacket as we walked, and said nothing else. The urge to reach out to her—hold her, maybe even just touch her—was overwhelming. A concept I was unfamiliar with wanted me to wrap my arms around her—comfort? How alien. I stayed my distance, however, and even put a little more between us. Kagome glanced up as the gap widened, but this time she said nothing.

Now I was feeling . . . guilt? Wonderful. This day just got better and better.

*

Kagome

You know what? Maybe being stuck with a moody Sesshoumaru was even less fun than I'd pegged it to be. Sure, he spilled his guts, and I spilled mine . . . that didn't mean we had to like each other or anything. And God forbid we actually stand each other for a minute! Well Krishna and Christ on a stick. Some pair we were.

After that incident, my good mood had spiralled down into oblivion and I said absolutely nothing to the crabby bastard. I mean—I had dumped my life out on him, and he just took a step back from me, like he couldn't stand to be around me—like my mere presence itself sickened him. That was fine. I'd just be the bigger person and, you know, not speak to him. At all. The silent treatment sounded great right then, no pun intended.

I was fine. I didn't care what he thought (even if he did probably hate me), I didn't care if he talked to me or not, I didn't even care if he walked off a cliff. In fact, I was so fine that I didn't even notice the circle of demons around us suddenly. I don't know how they got there; maybe they'd been following us for awhile, maybe they'd just kind of stumbled upon us and decided to form a circle. I wasn't frankly paying attention. All I know is that when I quit feeling sorry for myself long enough to realize that Sesshoumaru had reached out and physically restrained me from continuing, I was looking down the shaft of an arrow and into the cool blue eyes of an exceptionally good-looking demon.