To Live Again

By Rurouni Star

Suki: Thanks for the encouragement!

Ref: I'm sorry, she does look like Kikyo. That's what Inu Yasha thought when he saw her like that, so I gotta stick by what happened. Also, I don't really have a bad opinion of Kikyo as a character. She hasn't really killed anyone yet (bar Inu Yasha – and that was once, I swear…) and she's even helped out a few times even if you put that against the shards she's stolen. I think she's just really confused. If I were dead, I feel I would also be very confused.

ClawDieAH: That's how I like them! FYI, Sesshoumaru doesn't actually like Kagome even in this chapter. My idea of his character is that he always repays debts… of which he has a few to her.

Chapter 6 – A Sickness Within

Certainly, the time seemed to fly (literally) when they were on the cloud. It was like riding on Kirara, but it was so much more amazing. The ride was completely smooth, excepting the air that rushed past her, ruffling her now loose clothing. So this was what flying was like. What everyone dreamed of doing.

Kagome loved it.

If only her classmates could see her now, wouldn't they all be envious?

Oh right. They'd soon think her dead. How else could her family explain her disappearance?

Another bleak thought that was soon brushed away by the freedom of the sky. For now, all of her troubles floated away with the breeze. They'd have to catch her up here.

Rin clambered into her lap with a giggle. She had foregone riding on An and Un to sit with Kagome.

"Kagome-nee-san looks very happy," she observed in her childish way. Kagome smiled at her.

"I am, Rin. It's nice up here." Rin fidgeted a bit, obviously burning to ask her something, but holding herself back. Kagome's smile widened. "What is it, Rin? Do you want something?" The little girl hesitated a moment.

"Does Kagome-nee-san have any more of that food? Cho-choko-"

"Chocolate? Oh yes, I almost forgot. I was going to give you some after dinner-" She stopped abruptly. "But there never was dinner." Her stomach growled loudly. "I suppose I should get some food out from my pack for me too."

Sesshoumaru's head turned slightly to regard her with an incredulous (for him anyway) expression.

"You haven't eaten for two days?" he asked flatly. She nodded slowly.

"I mean, there never was- you never-" He sighed in exasperation.

"Idiot. Why do you think I let Rin stop every few hours?" Kagome blinked, a few pieces falling into place.

"You mean she forages for food?" she murmured in an amazed voice. "Wow. I couldn't forage for food in my pantry at that age." Sesshoumaru ignored the foreign expression and turned away again.

Kagome became annoyed. Why did he even ask at all if he didn't care?

Her attitude disintegrated as she felt the cloud begin to lose altitude. They were soon floating inches from the ground, and their odd transport disappeared, and Kagome dropped to the ground in surprise.

"Thank yo-" Sesshoumaru was in another dratted tree.

More than just tree hugging runs in the blood. Inu Yasha never stays to listen to thank you's either.

Surprisingly, she only felt a little twinge from thinking of him. Perhaps it was because Rin was tugging at her hand excitedly.

"There's some really good berries over here!" Kagome began to follow her, when something tugged at her mind. She stopped. "Kagome-nee-san?" Something was definitely wrong, if only she could put her finger on it... oh no. With a sinking feeling, Kagome realized that Rin was much hotter to the touch than she should have been.

"Rin..." she started. "Are you...feeling okay?" The little girl blinked, and then got on her tiptoes, motioning for Kagome to bring her ear down.

"Rin doesn't feel good. But Rin doesn't want to slow down Sesshoumaru-sama. Rin will feel better once Rin has eaten."

"You should tell me when you aren't feeling well, Rin." Kagome nearly jumped out of her skin at Sesshoumaru's voice behind her. Wasn't he in a tree?

The little girl made a face. "But Sesshoumaru-sama is always angry when we go slow."

"I would be more angry if we had to stop once you were much worse." Kagome, meanwhile, had placed a hand on the girl's forehead.

"Actually, I'm afraid it's already very bad." Sesshoumaru looked at her sharply.

"You are a doctor?" Kagome shook her head.

"Everyone knows about fevers. I'd guess hers at maybe thirty-nine degrees celcius. I think we're going to need to stop now." Sesshoumaru seemed to not understand what she was talking about, but he didn't say a thing. "It's a measurement of heat," Kagome said in an annoyed voice. The demon lord turned around.

"I didn't say anything."

"I know," Kagome muttered. "But you thought it. When you want to know something would you go ahead and ask instead of making me feel so weird about it?" Sesshoumaru's expression hardened for an instant, and he looked as though he were going to say something cold to her. But his face relaxed, as he visibly regained control.

"What do you suggest we do to bring down her fever?" At least he knew that too much heat wasn't a good thing.

"Do you know anything about herbs?" she asked him. Sesshoumaru looked as though he would rather kill her than admit that he didn't, but he simply shook his head.

"I know about herbs," Jaken interrupted loudly. "What do you require?"

Kagome quickly searched her head for her lessons with Kaede. "White Willow root. Although I'm not sure if it grows around here." Jaken was already gone.

Kagome opened her pack of many things once again, searching for her teakettle. A hand reached past her and picked up the whole thing...then dumped it on the ground.

"Wh-what was that for?" she asked Sesshoumaru angrily. He picked up the teakettle from the pile.

"You can clean up the mess later." With a sigh, the girl looked around ineffectively for something. "The river is too far for you to hear it with your ears," Sesshoumaru supplied coolly.

Kagome blinked. "I didn't-" at the look on his face, however, her mouth went into an 'oh'. "Rin," she called back, "sit down somewhere shady and try not to move too much." She looked back at the demon lord. "Which way?"

She was definitely not prepared for the arm that grabbed her around the waist. Kagome went nearly beet red before she realized that Sesshoumaru was going faster than she could see.

In what seemed like only a minute or so, they were at a small brook, the small clearing nowhere in sight.

"Get what you need," he told her. Kagome gulped and complied with his order, still feeling flushed. The hand that brushed her forehead did not help in the least. "You seem to have a small fever yourself. Perhaps you should get more water for yourself." The cold voice and completely different behavior sent her mind reeling.

Kagome nodded mutely and let the river flow into the kettle so that it was filled three quarters. Before she could even let Sesshoumaru know, she was being carried back again, the water sloshing in the kettle, but none of it spilling.

Before five minutes had passed, she was back in front of Rin with a small pile of wood in front of her and a soaked piece of her uniform in hand.

Jaken arrived soon after, bearing the required herb. Frankly, Kagome hadn't expected it so quickly, but she was grateful, as Rin's fever had progressed quite a bit. With a simple word, Jaken's staff started the fire easily. Kagome laughed nervously and offered it to Sesshoumaru.

"Do you think you might...ah...I don't really have a knife..." The demon raised an eyebrow and snorted, and the root was soon in many, many pieces.

The unanimously elected herbalist set the concoction boiling and ran the excess water over Rin's forehead.

"Rin is sleepy..." the girl complained. Kagome shook her head.

"You can go to sleep once the tea is ready. Until then, you can't go to sleep." Rin made a face, but struggled to stay awake, occasionally beginning to nod off before Kagome shook her back to alertness. In what seemed like hours, the tea was finally ready. Kagome lifted up a cup of it to Rin, who drank it all in one gulp and gratefully curled up and went to sleep.

Kagome sighed in relief, and turned to start dismantling the fire. She nearly knocked over another small cup of tea.

I know I didn't pour that one. She blinked and scanned the clearing. And where in hell did Mr. High and Mighty get off to?

Jaken cleared his throat, distracting her attention from the puzzling situation.

"I would drink that if I were you," the toad told her in a pompous voice. Kagome once again thought on the unfairness of the world, but drank the whole thing down. She had been feeling a bit on the dizzy side lately, but that could have been because of many things. Her sickness was not the kind that would be helped by tea.

It was a bit later that Sesshoumaru reappeared, and Kagome could not have been more surprised when he thrust a small sack at her.

She opened it to find a large assortment of food, including some of the more sustaining food from her pack. She swallowed, trying to put together the cold image she'd seen with the food in front of her.

"Humans are more trouble than they're worth," the demon muttered, just loud enough for her to hear.

That explains it.

For a moment, she'd actually thought he was thanking her for taking care of Rin. But Sesshoumaru wasn't like that.

"Well excuse me for being a human," she muttered back.

But she did eat the food.