To Live Again
By Rurouni Star
A/N: I know, I was cruel leaving it off on that point. But have no worries. I will hopefully be updating more regularly with this story, as I know more of what I am going to do with it and have many more ideas. Be happy, people, and review!
Sesshoumaru: I, Sesshoumaru, am the only one giving orders around here.
Yeah, yeah…and what's with the third person thing? Has Rin been influencing you?
Sesshoumaru: …
Chapter 2 – Lost
Kagome stumbled through the rain tiredly, clutching her yellow backpack as if it were a lifeline (as, indeed, it was). It held all of the food the last village had given her and the only blanket she had, and the last of her first aid kit. She would need to ration that. Her poor mother would never be able to refill it. Of course, Kagome reflected, she was about to move off to college anyway. It really wasn't that different, she consoled herself.
Except that you couldn't phone Sengoku Jidai. And you couldn't visit either, or ask how things were going, or deliver fruitcake at Christmas.
She swallowed those tears again. What annoying things they were. She was strong! She didn't need them anymore.
Of course, it wouldn't hurt to cry now, in the rain. The tears were just more raindrops.
That said, she was cold and wet, and she needed to set up tent for the night. It wasn't that it wasn't tearing her up inside anymore – it was. But she was practical. And while she had once been willing to give her life up for Inu Yasha (and still would), she wouldn't give it up because of his scorn.
She was stronger than that.
It's your damn fault he's still alive...more people are going to die...
Maybe not. But it was good to pretend.
It was hard to set up the tent while she was crying and still cradling her wounded arm. But she somehow managed it. And she somehow managed to fall asleep, even though she was alone in a forest in Sengoku Jidai, without hope of ever seeing her mother, or anyone else that even cared, ever again. Even though the place was probably swarming with youkai and her bow and arrows that the village had given her were in her backpack and not beneath her pillow.
And then, just as she managed to fall asleep, the presence of a very powerful youkai that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere in her tent startled her to lucidity once more. No, she reflected tiredly as her gaze traveled up the white hakama to the two swords, the silver hair, and ultimately the Demon Lord of the West's inhumanly cold face, she had not sensed it. He had allowed her to sense it when he was under her very nose.
"So tell me, miko, how you came to such a pathetic state."
She simply raised her head defiantly and let her silence keep her dignity.
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How amusing. The girl was actually staring him in the eyes. Had she no sense of self-preservation?
The inu youkai's claw blurred to a place beneath her chin, cradling it ever-so-gently, yet showing her that he was capable of killing her without much effort at all.
"You'd stain your haori with dirty human blood," she said in a flat, emotionless voice. Rather like his own.
Yes, amusing indeed.
"Perhaps so. Perhaps not. One never knows. It is raining, after all, and the stain would probably rinse out in due time." He said this nonchalantly, as if he were talking about only the weather and not its effect on his decision to kill her.
The cold war continued, but Sesshoumaru had had much experience with hiding his emotions. He fully expected her to break down first.
But she surprised him. She kept the cold expression as if she really didn't have fear of death. Perhaps she didn't... that was absurd. Even he, Sesshoumaru, had fear of dying, though he would surely not let anyone know it.
"What are you waiting for?"
"Why aren't you with my 'dear' baby brother?"
Both sentences came out in a rush, and they seemed to answer each other as Kagome's breath hitched ever-so-slightly with his question.
"I thought so," Sesshoumaru said, tracing one claw lazily across her throat, drawing no blood but always coming ever so close to breaking the skin. "Did he have the decency to let you go before he mated with you or did he stain you first?"
That drew a rise from her, as he knew it would. "Inu Yasha is not like that!"
There was a moment of silence.
"Oh? Then why do you look like a beaten puppy?" Oddly enough, this was not giving him as much pleasure as it once would have.
Was it because of Rin?
"Who's the puppy here?" she shot back, now angered. The hand that had been grasping her chin suddenly tightened and began to squeeze.
"You seem to forget yourself." Kagome looked on the verge of crying.
Therefore, it completely surprised him when the flash of light threw him back from her and into darkness.