To Live Again
By Rurouni Star
*A squeal of delight is head*
YAY! 50 reviews! Thank you everyone! Just for you guys, our favorite demon lord gets to start thinking about their relationship (as in none right now) in this chapter! Of course, I'm slowly developing an addiction to reviews, now. That will be a problem. Therefore, if anyone wants to put a little note about my author name at the bottom of their fics, I'm certainly not stopping you. ^____^
Dragon Queen: I hate spiders too! That's why I put it in. I mean, I'm not scared of bugs, flies, even mosquitoes. I've picked up a cockroach before. But show me a spider and I'll run for the hills.
Aphiopsyduck: Thanks for all the reviews! Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! Actually, what I was inferring in that chapter was that Sesshoumaru had deliberately miscalculated the time, letting her take her time instead of rushing her.
Dragon of Sakura: Yes, I let her live… *grumble, grumble* I still have regrets about that. Oh well. She's Sesshoumaru's problem now. And what a big problem she is at the moment…
Chapter 9 – Time for a Change
Sesshoumaru stared after her as she entered the tent.
Had a human just hit him? Just slapped him in the face for calling her what she was?
"I don't care."
"Well maybe you should!"
He rubbed the fast fading spot of red skin on his face. Had Jaken or Rin been awake, he would have felt marginally embarrassed. First his brother, and now his wench.
Everyone was beating on demon lords these days.
Sesshoumaru never forgot that he was missing an arm because of that half-breed.
"Maybe you should!"
Had she been a demon, any kind of lowly demon, he might have considered this more seriously. As it was, Sesshoumaru was wondering why he thought of it at all.
Of course, had she been a demon, none of this would have happened.
Was that the problem?
Sesshoumaru paused in his thought. If he had treated her like a demon in the first place, would the outcome have changed? He had insulted her terribly, making her stalk off in a fury, forgetting her bow. Had he treated her differently, she may have taken it. And he wouldn't have had to spend three useless days bringing her back to health.
Perhaps he should consider this. She was still a human, but this idea had merit.
The thought that he should kill her, somehow, never crossed his mind.
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Kagome lay by herself, trying to sleep.
But she couldn't sleep.
She was still too furious. That jerk! That bastard! He had no right to treat her like dirt! For all that he had kept her alive, she hated him.
No. That wasn't right. She hated herself for the utter contempt she'd seen in his eyes.
Kagome reasoned with herself that he thought that way about all humans, that she was no different. But then, why did Sesshoumaru take care of Rin, making sure that she was never hurt in any way by others or even by himself?
Was that mutual courtesy?
Somehow, she doubted it. She was fooling herself if she thought she could be Rin's equal in his eyes. If Inu Yasha couldn't stand her, there was no way his brother would.
Her miko clothes were stained now, she thought suddenly. She didn't really have any left. She would need to wash them if that idiot demon lord wanted her up on time.
Kagome sighed and got up. There was no way she could sleep anyway.
Luckily, for all of the water they had needed, the group had moved near a stream. Kagome could hear it close, softly flowing.
She noticed Sesshoumaru in his tree once again. He seemed to acknowledge her just a bit. Kagome turned her back on him with a 'hmmph'.
The stream was cold, as were nearly all streams in Japan, but she'd been through worse before. The only thing that troubled her was that the night was cold too, as winter was drawing nearer all the time. If she washed her clothes...
Oh well.
She slowly stripped the priestess outfit from herself, wincing as it pulled on her bandage.
Kagome glared down at the bandage, though. She didn't need his help.
Slowly, she dipped the clothes in the moonlit river, smiling as the sweat and blood slowly came off and floated away. Deciding critically that now was one of those special times, Kagome washed her hair with shampoo. It somehow made her feel much more confident than before. Her mind told her that it was worth the risk to rinse her body off, and Kagome lowered herself gently into the water, trying to not wince as her leg stung momentarily.
She did have to admit that the bandages held remarkably well, though.
Once she was done, the girl dried off contentedly, suddenly feeling as though she could take on whatever the world wanted to throw at her.
Well, she thought as the wind blew across her wet body, not quite anything. Right now that blanket is sounding pretty good.
She wrapped the towel around herself and headed back to the tent, holding her very wet, but neatly folded clothes in her arms. Kagome hung them on a tree branch carefully before slipping back into the blanket and snuggling in for the night.
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It wasn't that long, though, before a very familiar sounding, "Wake up now," disturbed her rest.
Kagome decided not to let it get to her. She put on her best cheery 'Isn't it a great morning' smile and got dressed in her clothes (which were only slightly wet now).
The smile turned real indeed when Sesshoumaru seemed perturbed by something.
He's probably wondering why I don't smell so terrible anymore. All of that blood and sweat was probably on his nerves.
In fact, he was really wondering about the sudden scent of flowers in the air.
It must be Rin. She's been picking too many of those lately with nothing to do. That directed his glance to the much-too-happy Kagome. She had been the cause of it all.
Wait. That scent was coming from her.
Sesshoumaru held himself back from rubbing his forehead, not wanting to give the woman the benefit of seeing him confused. He never pretended to understand humans.
"Kagome-nee-san!" Rin ploughed into her, making Kagome tense a bit when she hit her leg. Instead of doing what she felt like (saying something very profane), she patted the little girl on the head.
"Hello, Rin. What have you been doing?"
"Picking flowers for Kagome-nee-san!" Rin relied happily. "But...Rin lost them somewhere..." her face deflated again.
Kagome laughed. "Don't worry Rin, I'm sure there will be flowers wherever we end up going." Something in her mind snapped into place then. "That's right! I still haven't given you the rest of the chocolate, have I?"
Rin immediately brightened. Kagome could easily see why Sesshoumaru kept her around when she saw her smile. The miko handed her the last of the bar of chocolate (which had kept well in the cold weather).
The atmosphere was nothing like the night before. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it seemed as though the night before had never happened. Well, mostly. A few times, she had felt chills run up her spine, only to turn around and see the demon lord looking at her with a detached and studious expression.
All of that changed when she felt the Shikon shard.
She turned her head to look at Sesshoumaru, who simply shrugged, indicating that she could do as she wished. She knew that he would not save her this time should things go wrong.
"That's fine with me," she muttered angrily to herself. Sesshoumaru surprised her somewhat by tossing her bow and arrows at her in an arrogant manner.
"Something tells me that you're fairly forgetful."
Kagome blinked, then shook her head. "Thank you." Jaken watched her go anxiously. That human wouldn't dare to hold them up again for her precious shards would she?
Would she?
Yes. Apparently she would. And Sesshoumaru was doing nothing to stop her.
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Kagome followed the shard, which had stopped moving completely. Almost as if it were waiting for her.
But that was stupid. No one that would know about her powers had the faintest inkling of where she was.
She continued on, despite her misgivings. Eventually, after jumping at nearly every sound on the way there, a distant roaring filled her ears. Whatever was there would be the thing with the Shikon shard.
Kagome nocked an arrow cautiously, moving a bit more slowly. But she needn't have bothered, she found. The roaring came from a waterfall.
And there was no one there.