Hello all,

I guess I did update soon after all.  I couldn't resist.  I really am happy with this chapter and I hope it clears up a few things for you—even though it opens up a whole other can of worms.  Have fun with it.  And I wanted to thank everyone for reviewing; I appreciate it so much, honestly.  I definitely want more reviews but I'm still updating for ya'all because I know you are the ones who support me—endlessly.  So, thank you so much.

Read and enjoy,

-MC

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The sword was getting closer; just another large shove and it would be there—its goal complete.  Nothing else mattered at the moment, except accomplishing its job.  It called the power it had already stored and warmed itself in the intoxicating light.  Everything was going according to plan, the subjects could not resist.  However the sword would only take them so far.  It was simply an instrument; after all, it couldn't actually control fate.  Fate or destiny or whatever you believed in, was partially up to the person—they had to inevitably choose their path.  However, for now, until the job was finished, they were simply just puppets…

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It seemed as if time just stood still for a little while; as if time, for Kagome, was not an ever-flowing, ever-present entity and that she didn't have to ever worry about the perils of that same entity again.  It just stopped like her heart did at the words uttered from the still swollen lips of Sesshomaru. 

And then she took a breath and everything started again.

Oh shit.

Her mind went into overdrive, thinking over strategies that could get her out of this situation.  She was in heat!  Kagome had learned first hand from a random wolf youkai that her scent was so powerful in her heat when combined with the undeniable power of the jewel.  After practically being knocked flat on her back she had almost succumbed to killing the stupid wolf on grounds of drooling on her alone.  There was never fear or issue of overpowering; there rarely was nowadays, but still, to protect Inuyasha and herself from needless pain and punishment she masked her scent.  WITH HER POWER. 

Double shit.

And now there was a particularly hungry looking Taiyoukai staring her down that wouldn't have the control to stop if she ever used that kind of power and they ever started up again they would most likely finish it with her spread eagled on the ground with her back hurting for weeks. 

Triple shit.

Running away from a passed out Inuyasha (which seemed to happen, she discovered from a mated youkai once, when you fought the mating ritual too much, and brought up a question as to WHY Sesshomaru wasn't fighting me…) she was chased by a very aroused Sesshomaru.  Deciding the chance was worth the risk Kagome used the smallest bit of her power to take the edge out of her scent and perhaps make Sesshomaru's nose and consequently his head a little clearer.  There was nothing she could do for his loins. 

He was holding her close to him and she could definitely feel the evidence of his arousal.  She had snaked her hand down his shirt to feel his back and chest while he sensually licked her neck.  However Kagome cleared her mind rather quickly.  There were things they needed to talk about.

"Sesshomaru…" He ran his hands down her stomach and stopped at her skirt. "Sesshomaru!"  His hand was dancing on the top of her skirt band, a finger dipping in deliciously once in a while.  "Sesshomaru!!!!!!!"  His whole hand made it inside her skirt, fingertips barely brushing the top of her curls when his hand paused.  Looking up into her eyes, he could barely contain an evil smirk at the slightly frightened look she had on her face.  In retaliation his hands gently tickled her topmost curls before he withdrew completely, splaying his fingers on her stomach while retreating. 

"You called…?"  He tried not to smile outright, but smirking was impossible to resist.

"We need to talk." 

"No talking.  You smell delicious."  Now, that is my inner demon speaking, I'm sure, Sesshomaru thought to himself though he silently agreed with his words.

"Sesshomaru!"

"What?  What do you want?"

"I want to talk about what we are going to do when I'm in heat.  I usually mask my scent with my power."  Playtime was cut short.

"And you are saying that if you did that we would…" his words trailed off in an obvious direction.  Not that it would be that bad…he thought again, surprised that his mere liking of the girl had been intensified a hundred fold by her heat.  Did I even like her? Or was it simply lust?  Sesshomaru's head shook slightly at this prospect.  He knew that he liked the girl well enough.  And her scent now, combined with his previous liking, was driving him crazy. 

"Yes, that's what I mean. We would be perpetually together for however long I am in heat. And since we will have eternity to regret the act I fear it isn't in our best interests."  Sesshomaru begrudgingly agreed.  As long as I am away from that sce—"and so, I think that's why you need to say with me." 

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!??!?!?!?

"Why would I need to do such a thing?"  Kagome blushed prettily, cutting more away at his little self-won control. 

"Because, because, Inuyasha isn't the only one that can protect me.  I can't use my powers so therefore I can't fight.  And, and I know how…umm…potent…my scent can be.  That's why I always masked it." 

Quadruple shit. 

I have to be around her for at least five days and not lay a hand on her?  I can't even stand to be here right now without touching her and she hasn't seemed to notice yet that I haven't stopped holding her body close to me.  And if anything does happen then I probably won't be able to stop myself.  This is impossible. Sesshomaru silently shook his head again as he stepped away from Kagome and set her aside, away from him. 

"Woman, you ask too much of me," he gritted through his teeth, hands almost shaking at being this near her without touching her. 

"Please, Sesshomaru, I need this.  If someone comes and attacks me and Inuyasha cannot fend them off, I won't hesitate to use my power.  That could result in both our deaths."  Sesshomaru growled in response to having someone else "attacking" her in a sexual manner and decided to agree.  He was a Taiyoukai of the Western Lands.  Nothing had ever been too hard for him to accomplish before!  Perhaps writing out his feelings in a journal would be most therapeutic.  He groaned again.  I've never wanted to write sex novels…

Four days had passed and it seemed that they were out of youkai to kill, for the moment.  Her scent was beyond anything he had ever dreamed of and he knew because he physically clawed the earth in his "sleep" at night.  For it wasn't really sleep, whenever he closed his eyes he saw her around him, becoming one with him, calling for him to mark her to forever be with him.  The thought both repelled and pulled him inexplicably toward her.  What was it that the sword wanted so badly for him to do with her that it constantly kept this inconvenient charade going?  He hadn't yet succumbed to writing smutty nonsense so he reread things that he had written previously.  But he kept on coming back to the two little segments he wrote while in her time; while in Kagome's time.  He was currently reading "Bang" as she bounded up to him, obviously bored with no one to talk to.  Inuyasha had retreated to his tree, Shippou was sent to some old woman's hut to be away from the fighting and Sesshomaru was the only one left. 

"Whatcha doin?"  She questioned as she plopped next to him, seemingly unaware what her closeness did to him as his nostrils flared. 

"None of your concern," he tried to answer as coldly as possible.  He did NOT need her at the moment.

"Fine…frostbite."  She whispered the last part, and when he brought his gaze to hers, she wasn't laughing like he thought she would be.  Instead she was horrified. "I…I…I'm sorry, I mean, we just, I mean, I just…uh…"

"I was writing."  Kami knows what possessed him to answer her, but he decided that, perhaps for now, being cordial with her would be the best. 

"You write?"  Kagome asked, greatly relieved he seemed to ignore her last comment.

"That is what I said I was doing." 

"Can I read it?" He physically bristled but relented with the fire in her eyes.  Giving her what she wanted at this moment and not evoking her anger would therefore make her scent not as powerful.  His inner demon loved it when she was angry. 

Kagome hungrily read the story…I slowly wipe away the sweat from my brow.  The salty and annoying substance had dripped down from my shoulders and down my back.  Its presence was just another reminder of the situation I was in.  He had taken his best shot, the gun dangling from his fingertips across from me.  The fresh wound gracing my arm was proof that he had touched me.  Delicately holding my arm, I bore into his eyes with my glassy green orbs, searching for anything to aid me in my next attack.  Any opening, any place where I could perhaps take hold and never let go until the battle was finished.  But those eyes, those haunting eyes revealed nothing.  The cool, laconic smile gracing his lips wasn't there by accident.  He had wounded me—and he knew it…

"Its good," Kagome said when finishing. 

"You like it?"  Sesshomaru answered, strangely interested in her opinion of what he wrote.  He never shared what he wrote.

"I do, but I'm not sure that I really know what it is.  I mean, it's definitely good, but, tell me about it," Kagome answered, scooting closer but not noticing Sesshomaru shiver. 
 

"Well, it was meant to be that this woman is being challenged, she didn't know what she got herself into—"

"Yeah I got that..."
 

"She is going to fight the good fight…it was kind of like the battle was symbolic—"

"Seemed to me she knew exactly what she was doing," Kagome cut in again. Sesshomaru resisted the urge to growl.  He was actually enjoying this with her.  It was interesting to have someone he at least respected to discuss this with.  And since he just went home with her he knew she was intelligent.  Also, secretly, if he was honest with himself, her opinion mattered to him.

"They were playing a game--the man and her--a game that became something more than it started out to be—"

"Like maybe the shot on the arm was purposeful."  Kagome seemed to be off in her own little ruminations, not listening to Sesshomaru in the slightest.  Sesshomaru continued.

"…and when it came down for her to end the game, she decided that she didn't want it to end."

"Ok yeah," she dismissed, and he began puzzled about her comments.

"The shot on the arm purposeful how?"

"Like she let him hit her on purpose…" she hit herself in the head, "what am I saying you are the one who wrote it."
 

"No, I guess it's symbolic of a relationship: she got hurt because she let him in but she doesn't want to end it."

"Just to make things interesting," she said, standing up, but stopped with a clawed hand on her arm. 

"No, I want you to make comments," he pleaded, not ready to give up his first author/reader session just yet. "I wrote it, yes, but sometimes it's hard to tell what you write things for, how other people perceive it and such." She sat back down next to him.

"Yes, well it was certain that she was gonna win."

"But didn't it seem like he was letting her win?" 

"Either that or they were both gonna lose. They both were underestimating each other."

"Yes, they both didn't know what to expect when they started."

"So they didn't go all out."

"Exactly," he was pushing her, he knew, but he wanted to see the extent of her mind.

"But still she was gonna win."

"Where do you get that from?"

"I think he wanted her to." Kagome looked at him.

"Since the beginning?"

"Yes."

"I think he wanted her to win too."

"He wanted to be taken."  With that comment she just looked into his eyes, unwavering.  He couldn't take his own eyes off of her.  And the moment changed.  Suddenly Sesshomaru was acutely aware of everything that was happening between them and the words they were saying.  It was as if they characters in his little story had become them; playing out the parts in real life like some puppets in a game of some unknown puppeteer. They unconsciously drew closer.

"It was like he was testing her."

"I think he just wanted to either see what he could get away with," she laughed at this, still looking at him, "Or see what she was capable of."

"Yes."  He nodded, telling her to continue.

"It almost seems to me like they were arch rivals but they met each other so many times that the animosity soon changed into mutual respect for each other, that when they fought this time, it wasn't that they were fighting because they intended to kill, but they were fighting to just fight, to show each other what they could do, that their constant fighting over the years seemed to develop into some perverse friendship where they both couldn't get to the point of killing each other."

"No I think they had just known of each other before, they didn't really know each other," Sesshomaru smiled at this, wondering how conscious of their situation he was when writing this.

"This was their first real contact?"

"Yes, and they knew that they were going to be their only true challenge. But they still had the whole respect thing. Like if they were going to die a warrior's death this was the only person worthy of killing them," Sesshomaru stated.

"Yes, so they knew that it wasn't going to end in death."
 

"But they didn't want to kill…it was almost a flirtation," he purposely enunciated that word as they drew even closer still. 


"Yes," she whispered.

"Like a bet or something.  Like a…curse."

"Yes," she whispered again, moving closer still.

"Neither one of them wanted to do away with the other."

"Yes," her hand rested on top of his thigh. 

 "Because they were their only equals and that bond overwrote death.  To lose one to the other would be a travesty."  Sesshomaru pulled her towards him, placing one hand behind her head and the other on her back. 

"It was like they were two halves of the same stone," she whispered, her lips brushing over his own, making him even more aroused, and excited to hear her answer. "They were so alike yet different; yin and yang, black and white…man and woman," she lightly sucked his lips, "one could not go on without the other."
 

"Yes," he groaned, unable to help himself.  He pulled her to straddle his body and she wrapped her arms around his neck.  Her scent was driving him over the edge of his senses and he didn't want to stop. 

"That balance and harmony that only they could give each other would never be able to be lost—"   He slammed his lips upon her own just as a large youkai crashed into the clearing.  He pushed her away and behind him, and began to fight the youkai who seemed to swarm the area in a heartbeat.

"Go, go put yourself somewhere safe."

"But Sesshomaru…"

"Go, damn it!"  And with that Kagome ran, not noticing where she went—only caring that she had kissed Sesshomaru on her own free will and that it was more amazing than she ever thought possible.

It seemed as if the hundreds of youkai he had fended off were never-ending.  I know her scent is good, but damn!  She is human…I swear I saw the Eastern Lord attack Inuyasha a minute ago and he is almost as selective as I am…but…he took a glance at Kagome who was holed up in a cave.  He could not see her yet he knew she was safe and sound.  Something inside kept on telling him that if he was just to take her, that if he was just to mark her as his, this fighting would be over. Especially after their little rendezvous a while ago he was practically ready to do anything for her. And her heat would then be completely in tune with his nose and no one else would react as insanely as they were now.  Only a youkai's mate could smell his bitch in heat.  We aren't completely animals…

A strangling cry pierced through his thoughts as he witnessed Inuyasha being gored by the, yes, he was correct, the Eastern Lord.  I'll discuss why he is in MY part of the world later, after I heal my damn…brother.  He didn't have time for his petty little fights and tribulations right now.  The cold hard truth was that he didn't want Inuyasha dead as much as he seemed to want Kagome happy, and to him, both seemed to go hand in hand.  ANNNNNND…there wasn't enough time to dwell on anything his bizarre mind considered justification for the Eastern Lord was advancing for the final blow.  I also don't want Kagome taken by that prick…he is absolutely impossible to deal with and even SHE doesn't deserve that.  In a swift move that seemed seamless he bounded towards his fallen brother and simultaneously withdrew the tenseiga, bringing the sword down in a powerful swing.  His feet touched the ground as he sheathed the—

He groaned as she bit his neck roughly, wantonly.  Her hands were roaming everywhere, a brush through his hair, fingertips in his back, a squeeze to his butt, pinches to his nipples…she was everywhere.  He tried to remember why this was wrong but all thought was lost when her hand traveled down his pants and clasped around his erection. As her hands began gliding over his shaft he quickly brought her lips to his and kissed her with all his pent up frustrations and desires.  He poured all their unfinished sessions and the feelings that plagued him afterwards into the kiss and he jerked his hips as she began to pump his member.  Her thumb wandered over the tip continuously and a strangled moan was released from his lips into her mouth.  His hands cupped her breasts under her shirt and he pushed the contraption covering her chest up and away so he could feel her skin.  Kagome paused her ministrations to take off both their shirts, but quickly returned to her previous engagement.  Sesshomaru moaned again, thrusting into her hand and only wanted to thrust somewhere else that would be even more pleasurable—to both parties.  He took her hand away from his member and brought his own hand down her skirt to stroke her for the first time; the battle of tongues still continued on in their heated kiss, everything else melting away for that moment only, nothing else mattered.  Kagome whimpered into the kiss as he began to stroke her rhythmically.  Another heart-wrenching scream issued from outside the cave and Kagome awoke, as if coming out of the haze of a particularly good dream.  She couldn't help but moan and the sensations Sesshomaru were evoking in her—but something was wrong with Inuyasha. 

"Sesshomaru…"  He thrust a finger inside of her and her hips jerked involuntarily. "Sesshomaaaaaaaaaru," she moaned while he thrust another finger inside her, the claws enhancing the feeling tenfold.  He began licking and biting her neck while removing her skirt with one hand—the other was still occupied inside her.  "Sesshomaru, stop," she said, pushing his hand away.  He just continued like there was no distraction and ground his fingers into her a little harder.  "Sesshomaru, stop now!"  She said again, trying to sound like she actually did want him to stop.  She knew this wasn't what she wanted and yet her body wasn't listening.  He finally got her skirt and panties off and he withdrew his hand, only to replace it with his clothed member.  He then began to dry thrust into her naked opening, moaning loudly.  "We need to help Inuyasha!"  And he stopped.  It was like buckets of ice cold water dropped on his body.  There were some things you never mentioned in the bedroom, and one of them happened to be your lover's ex-boyfriend who also happens to be your brother.  Well, loosely speaking, that is.  Sesshomaru growled and pulled Kagome up with him as he stood.  He brought her head close to his as he hissed,

"Don't ever mention him when we are together like this again.  This is no place for that…hanyou."  His words dripped with the acidic venom she knew resided behind the claws of one of his hands.  Kagome wanted to fade into the rock behind her, especially after what she just did and how she was still naked.  But she didn't want Inuyasha to be hurt.

"Please, Sesshomaru, I heard him.  I didn't mean to anger you, honestly.  Please, help him.  I, I can't do anything, as usual. I can't do anything to stop anything anymore."  She collapsed back down to the ground and Sesshomaru stared at her there for a moment, broken, naked, curled up.  He felt disgusting.  Not because he actually did this with her, strangely, but the fact that he made her look that way; as if he had…taken advantage of her.  It was a far cry from everything they just experienced earlier, the mutual yearning, the physical attraction, the intellectual stimulation—things that he wanted to experience when he found his prospective mate.  It was strange to him that she could have embodied all these things, could have shown him all the things he wanted and yet for the life of him he could never get things right with her, could never make her understand at the end of the day that he did indeed love—

That he did indeed—

That he actually loved—

And then it stopped skipping, like a record on a record player—it finally played to its heart's content for the first time.  He could finally finish the song of his life…or at least his love.

I love her.  He loved her smile, her laugh, her naughtiness, her niceness, her mind her heart her everything.  He felt completely pathetic admitting it to himself and he would most likely liken himself to Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing"; finally succumbing to something he never believed; if he actually knew the reference.  What could he do about this?  Well, obviously the sword wanted this close contact from them and all he could do was welcome it with open arms and wait for the right opportunity to come.  And perhaps he would try to not be so…involved…in being with her.  And maybe he would just—

Right, Inuyasha.

He picked Kagome up and gave a swift kiss to her lips before he raced out the door to find Inuyasha.  His heart was amazingly light with his realization and he couldn't wait to get home—with Kagome of course, and write to his, well, large and warm heart's content.  With her as my muse, I could write anything, he thought before he once again pounced into the fray, shirtless and for once truly happy.

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The sword jumped uncontrollably at the hip of its master.  It was finished; it had completed its task.  The subject had acquired the emotion most necessary for the transformation, for the whole venture to succeed.  The sword felt a little regret as a little energy seeped out and into its master at the thought that it could not continue; it could not help with the outcome of everything that was to happen.  It was finished, complete, there was nothing left for it to do.  No more did the sword play its game.  However, consequently, the real game was just beginning.  The game that didn't have any boundaries…

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Kagome collapsed again after the quick and possessive kiss of Sesshomaru.  And he wasn't even under the influence…she mused lightly.  And not thinking except for the necessary objective of getting clean, she summoned her power to cleanse her body and soul—even dressing herself in traditional miko robes for the sheer hell of it.  After the familiar rush of her power, Kagome froze, unable to move, hating her stupidity. 

"I just wanted to be clean…now he is going to mess it all up again!" She held onto the wall and waited—

Shock permeated her scent as she tried everything she could—used all sorts of her power to do anything she could around the cave.  It all had the same result.

He wasn't coming…