"Inuyasha." Sango said softly.
He did not reply.
"She's not going to come back." she said.
"I-It doesn't matter." He said, barely keeping his voice steady.
Sango shut her eyes painfully.
Miroku stepped up beside her as they slowly made their way through the trees, towards the rising sun, a sorrow where joy used to be.
Shippo had dissapeared before they had woken up.
Kagome had gone.
Perhaps he had known she wouldn't return.
Sango fought the tears she swore she would never shed.
Miroku was silent.
Inuyasha walked on.
*
The sun was just rising, Kagome walked down the silent hallway, her hand trailing along the paper wall.
She walked down the staircase, the dreamlike quietness almost echoed, making a mystical surrounding.
Kagome moved as if she had no control over her own body, walked down the staircase, slid open the door, and finally stopped.
In front of her was a garden, a serene garden she could not touch, or look at even, not now.
She did not feel sad, nor regret, as she looked one last time towards the direction of Inuyasha's forest, as Kaede had so rightfully named it.
In the far distance, she saw only for a moment a bright blue flash, that, in the reaches of her mind, she silently identified, as Shippo's fox fire.
*
Kagome smiled as she ran down to meet Sesshomaru-sama by his bedroom door, as she always did, despite his sometimes cold silence.
Most of the time though he would stay in a regular silence while she told him about everything she could think of to talk about, and sometimes she would even think she saw a spark of amusement or contentedness in his molten gold eyes.
She felt strangely resolved, almost like the blue fox that hovered in the sky like a beacon, for only a fraction of a second, was the end and a beginning of something that was to come.
"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked suddenly, a new thought inturrupting everything else in an instant.
"Hai?" He asked, almost, almost amused.
"Are there really dragons and unicorns and griffons and all that in this time?" She asked.
'This time?'
"There are no Griffons that anybody has seen for a very long time. Most dragon clans are extinct, but they live on, I know not whether the Unicorns survive. Years ago they dissapeared, they parted saying they would find a new land. They were a heavenly being though, not demon, not human, not creature. I doubt they have died out." He said, pondering.
This being the longest thing he had ever said to her, a bright smile lit Kagome's face and she made a resolve to ask as many long questions as she could think of. Unfortunately, it was in vain.
"What about fairies and nymphs?" She asked hopefully.
"None." He said monotone.
"Speaking trees? Monsters?" Her resolve was getting weaker and weaker by the minute.
"Where did you hear tell of speaking trees?" He said.
"What about-" She started.
"If you intend to drive me to speak more then I will, it is not working." He said, glancing at her.
She looked down blushing but he noticed the faint, laughing smile on her lips.
It almost brought him to a smile. Again. He could almost sigh. What was causing this?
"Do you talk a lot with the other lords?" She asked, looking back up at him.
He looked slightly puzzled as he glanced down at her again.
"You should know the answer to that." He said simply.
"No? But aren't you one of the most powerful? Wouldn't they value your opinion? I think they would appriciate it- you can be really strategic and smart... You should speak up more!" She smiled up at him, encouragingly.
He blinked down at her, though she wouldn't see his momentary shock as her eyes were closed in a happy, upwards arc.
He didn't answer her as they entered the dining room, and she didn't bring it up again, but he saw her endless autumn colored eyes smile at him from her place beside him.
'Who is she?' He asked himself.
But she could not read his mind and did not answer as she carefully ate her breakfast, careful not to get anything on any one of the kimono's he provided her. She had a near full collection now, but her favorite was the one his mother used to so often wear.
After breakfast she was about to go into the garden when he caught her short, appearing as suddenly as a ghost in front of her.
She gasped as she stopped short and almost tumbled into him, had he not caught her and righted her.
"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked after she caught her breath.
"Kagome." He answered.
Her attention was automatically snapped from the slightly distant garden and he had all of her attention.
"Hai?" She said softly, smiling.
He had never said her name before.
"Before you came here, Rin, Jaken and I did not stay here very often, we travelled more." He said.
"Hai, like us, ne?" She said.
"Hai. I must protect my lands and I cannot do that here. I am assuming you do not want to go back with Inuyasha and the others you travelled with, so I have a proposal." He said.
She nodded quietly, looking at him with trust.
"Were you to travel with us, Rin would enjoy your company, and I would be tolerant, Jaken... But there is a consequence behind that decision, decide whether you would face it or not. Your other option is to go and do as you will, where you will, and we will not be friend nor foe." he said.
An eternity seemed to pass as she looked at him, eyes swirling with thought.
'Will she come?'
"I-I've decided, to go with you, Sesshomaru-sama. Despite any consequence, I don't want to... to be an indifferent annoyance to you. I want to be your friend. So I want to go with you.." She finished, looking down, but when she looked up she had a happy smile but salty tears lining her eyes.
He again looked slightly puzzled down at her, and she spoke a soft word then, his ears shifting forward a little to catch it.
"Arigatou..." She whispered.
He looked puzzled again when she hugged him all of a sudden.
"Thank you- for saying my name..." She then dashed around him and out the door, not waiting to hear any consequence for her decision.