Yeah-uh! I'm so good! Chapter three, baby!
Chapter Three: Dreaming of You
"Where's your mother?" a kindly voice asked her, and she tried, tried to run to the voice, into his arms. "I will help you find her, worry not."
"Father!" she cried, her wail echoing around in her ribcage. She was going insane. Her sanity was a pinch of sand on her open eyelids... if she closed her eyes or blinked, some would fall away. She felt so helpless, for who could keep their eyes open forever?
She felt clawed hands cup her cheeks, and almost cried in relief. She was lifted up and away, into the perfect, starry night, held up by love. Kagome flew for the first time in her dreams, soaring and dipping through the clouds, smiling against the rush of wind against her face. Sighing blissfully, she rolled over in her flight.
And fell. Her smile faded into a long-fading scream that crawled up her spine, clutching at footholds so it could escape from her diaphragm. She felt the clawed hands on her face again and smiled. He was here to save her.
The claws dug into her, and though she could feel not the pain, panic edged into her mind from all corners, covering her vision like static on a television. "No!" The stripes fell of the face, landing in a pool of water below her, where they floated away. It turned into InuYasha.
He laughed cruelly, digging a claw into her belly, dragging it downwards to her navel, then down more to her womanhood. She squirmed, but felt that she could not move her arms, for they were pinned down.
She was a frog, pinned spread-eagle to a dissecting board. Razor claws sliced through her as if through butter, and she felt her insides give way to a heavy burden as InuYasha crawled inside of her, laughing all the while. He smiled at her childishly, his eyes alight with joy and innocence, then closed the stomach over him.
Her belly bulged with the unaccustomed bulk.
"No! Sesshoumaru, no! No!" But her cries were lost.
"Shippou, I have called you here for a reason. Stop that!" Sesshoumaru snapped uncharacteristically, stilling Shippou's fiddling hands with a sharp gesture.
Looking at him wide-eyed, Shippou put his toy down to give the dog demon his full attention.
Calming himself with a few practiced breathing exercises, Sesshoumaru turned to Shippou. "I want you to prepare an army to attack the base."
"All right!" Shippou yelled enthusiastically. "I'll go now!"
"Wait, kit," Sesshoumaru said wearily, grabbing Shippou by the collar before he could fly out the door. "We're taking prisoners. A... The woman I bought yesterday." He made his voice harder, more uncaring. "She's mine by right. I demand her. And the monk, too. He could be valuable for questioning later. The troops themselves... kill any that give you trouble, but be sure not to kill all of them, because I want to know the extent of their training. Capture a specimen of both weakness and strength, flexibility and speed, everything. I want to know the extent of ALL the training."
He ignored the kitsune's puzzled look and waved Shippou away.
"Alright, Sesshie-sama... it's your call, after all. I'll go tell warriors." With that, he scampered away, his red ponytail bobbing about wildly.
Sesshoumaru crossed the room in a few strides, stopping in front of the row of pictures. He walked past them, to the last one, the charcoal sketch... "Soon," he told it. "Soon."
Of course, he had to train her in proper manners and marry her off to someone -- it's only proper to do so for a young lady, luckily enough she was of marriageable age. And then, of course, visit her every once in a while to see how her children are coming along.
So much to do... he was relieved to have a pet project to keep him company during this long, boring period.
His hand stilled as he realized it was reaching for the picture. He brought it down to his side again. 'I must marry soon, too. To show the public my stability, since none of the other four lords are marrying any time soon. To train my son to follow after my ways. But I can't find the right demoness! They're all wrong, all wrong.'
Golden eyes sought the picture, and his thoughts started down a venue he was scared to travel. 'No! Never! A human... unthinkable...' But, once again, his eyes sought the drawing. 'I never imagined she would get that pretty.'
He shook himself roughly from his reverie and, since he was alone, allowed himself a small frown. "It does not matter," he told the charcoal portrait aloud, getting courage from hearing his strong, unwavering voice. The index finger of his hand stretched upwards, and before he knew it he was outlining the line of her cheek with a claw. "It does not matter," he murmured.
In vain, he tried to focus on good, fatherly feelings. They simply wouldn't come. The affection was there, yes, but suddenly she was a teenager, in the highlight of her life. How could he possibly hold fatherly feelings for a girl he had met but once, had never raised?
Besides... it seemed she simply wasn't the same girl anymore. 'I wonder if she remembers me.'
'Sesshoumaru!' Kagome thought as she screamed herself awake. She reached for Miroku, but he was gone; to eat, presumably. Her eyelashes vanished as she squeezed her eyes as tight as they would go, shutting out the light streaming in through the window.
Yelling faintly, she hopped out of bed and ran across the room to the window, her bare feet making clapping sounds as they made contact with the stone. Slamming the shutters closed, she breathed deep.
"Kagome?"
Suddenly she was facing the other way... she didn't register even turning, but somehow she knew she must have. She relaxed when she saw him. "Miroku."
His violet eyes were troubled, full of guilt. He wasn't as sure of himself anymore. "Are you feeling alright?" he ventured timidly, stepping towards her slowly so as not to alarm her.
For God's sake, she wasn't a bloody deer. She wouldn't run off at the slightest move. "I'm fine, thank..." she choked on the word 'you,' as she remembered she was also thanking him for saving her life. "Thank you," she managed, then let the tears come as she felt his strong arms around her at once.
She leaned into him desperately, needing the contact of another human, a man she trusted. "Where is he?"
His grip tightened at the mention of 'he,' namely InuYasha. "We escorted him off the grounds," he said gruffly, in a way that firmly shut the door on that conversation.
She allowed him to coax her to the bed, where he had lain food. When he tried to spoon it into her, she gave him a frustrated glare and he shrugged with a wry grin.
"Very well, very well, you can feed yourself."
"I'm not an invalid, you know."
"I know, I know!"
She glared suspiciously at him and shoveled a spoonful of rice into her mouth. Relaxing quickly, Kagome finished her meal and reluctantly agreed to stay in the rooms, relaxing, for the rest of the day. She didn't particularly want to confront the men downstairs, but she was loathe to stay in the tiny room for too long.
"I'm going to train the troops personally today." Miroku leaned in to kiss her forehead, then looked at her for a long time, still leaning over her. Finally, he murmured, "Love you," and quickly left.
Kagome's mouth fell open slightly. "Love you." Just like that. She dug under the covers, pulling the blankets up to her chin as she looked at the wall of the room.
He couldn't possibly. She liked him well enough, and he was a great friend and a good partner, but...
Love?
Kagome jerked awake, then wondered what could possibly have woken her up. Suddenly, she heard it; the loud ring of metal hitting metal. Quickly, she sat up, her chest heaving. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, her feet quickly found boots next to the bed. Apparently Miroku knew she'd want to get a good walk-about later.
Still donning Miroku's shirt and leggings that cut off mid-calf, she poked her head about the door, letting her eyes roam about the corridor before letting the rest of her body follow suit. The clanks and such sounds were coming from downstairs, and now that she was out of her room, she could hear yelling.
Curse those thick doors, she screamed mentally, then leapt into her room to find her combat gear. She slammed most of it on in well-practiced movements, although it wasn't as well put together as usual. Finding her weapons laid out carefully on a tabletop, Kagome made quick work of putting them in sheathes and holsters.
Creeping out of her room, she noticed with a visible grimace that the shouting had become much less prominent. Men were dying; to whom they belonged, she didn't know.
She ran down the stairs with her guns out of their shoulder holsters, held in front of her and her fingers ready to go off at a moment's notice. The stairs led to the common room.
It was a mess. Blood bathed everything within sight, in splatters or completely. Men, mostly hers, lay scattered about as what was obviously the new carpeting. A few Youkai lay amongst them.
'Shit! Youkai...!' she thought, her mind becoming the clean, hard edge it usually became when confronted with a battle.
At that very minute, a Youkai noticed her and flew at her with his sword out wide and his tongue hanging out disgustingly. Shooting him in the head, he blew back far enough not to land on his feet, and swaggered up, earning a few more shots to the head.
When half of it was blown away, he finally fell, dead.
She shot a few more, only wounding them, before she ran out of bullets. Swearing, she remembered she had left the extra bullets upstairs, in Miroku's room. The blades on her back called to her, singing strongly, it seemed, and she reached for them. When they were in her hands, they quieted and took on a serious demeanor.
'Be serious, Kagome... since when do swords have personalities?' And she sliced a Youkai in half.
Badly outnumbered due to the loss of men, Kagome was soon fighting one to ten. She brought both swords up close to her face and body, prepared to move. The ten Youkai circling her merely watched her viciously, maniacally. One raised it's sword, and the other followed suit.
Kagome narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists down tighter on the handles of her swords.
"Halt!"
The Youkai stopped and backed away a good ten feet to avoid them getting struck down for their lack of movement. Between them stepped the tiniest goddamn Youkai she had ever seen in her entire life.
Momentarily shocked into silence, she stared at it.
It scrutinized her with clear green eyes. That was all she could see of its face, for it had covered the rest with a half-mask. It nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Take her to the other prisoners."
The Youkai sheathed their swords with more than a few grumbles, then advanced on her as one. Slowly, at a few barked orders, other Youkai dropped their battles and helped.
Panicked, she swung out at them viciously, spinning around so none could sneak up on her.
In vain. Something hard hit her in the head, and black swirled in as she dropped to the floor, her swords clattering beside her.
Sesshoumaru stared idly at her weapons, before reaching out to try the swords again. They resonated with an angry hum when his hand got near them, so he pulled back before he got shocked again. Bored with these, he fingered the armor she had worn. Solid, lightweight for it's size, strong. Nice armor.
Finally, he let his gaze return where it ached to be; the girl herself. Nurses had patched up her head and the long sword-cut on her side, and her Miko abilities were busying themselves with more healing as she slept.
Sitting on her bed, he brushed some hair out of her face. She didn't move, just kept on sleeping.
The girl he once knew had grown up to really be quite pretty, he knew. And she was strong. Fast. But because of her newfound strengths, she had lost her innocence, which he had once found so deeply endearing.
But oh well. He would simply wait for her to wake, and then push her into Youkai society. Where hopefully she would flourish... her Miko blood allowed for her to mate lifelong with a Youkai, so happiness could be sought here.
He just hoped she wouldn't feel a subconscious need to kill Youkai because of her latest employment.
Kagome felt the darkness recede, and where it fell away, something new replaced it; pain. Gods, her head hurt. She struggled to make her eyelids open, but deep inside she knew she had to wait for the darkness to go fully.
A claw gently swiped away some hair on her cheek, and inwardly, she panicked. InuYasha!
Outwardly, she still couldn't move.
Finally, enough of the dark had gone and she opened her eyes. The light that fell and reflected about the room increased her headache, and she squinted around. Standing above her was a tall man, with white... hair and... golden... eyes.
She screamed, then backed against the wall. "InuYasha! Don't!" She brought her hands to her face protectively.
The man seemed momentarily surprised, then leaned forward to catch her wrist. His voice was hard. "What did InuYasha do to you?"
Kagome did another thing she thought weak. She stared. Her mouth was open and everything. It wasn't InuYasha, and now all she could think about was how obvious it was that this was a different man. Calming herself, she gathered her bearings and looked about to memorize every detail of the room. "Oh... I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
"Kagome. Look at me." The command was enough to raise her ire. The affectionate tone really put her on edge.
"How do you know my--" stopped mid-sentence, Kagome gazed at the man. Light from the window glanced off in his eyes, casting a golden glare into her own. His stripes were the same. Everything. Exactly the same.
'I must be dreaming. Goddamnit. I thought I woke up that time.'
All the same, his name slipped out of her lips. "Mr. Sesshou...maru..."
"You do remember me. Good."
She grabbed for his hand, then clutched it. It was real. She pinched herself.
At that he blinked, then laughed. 'Delightful, she thinks she's dreaming. Am I in her dreams often, then?' he thought, much amused. Aloud, "I will have my servants prepare you."
"Prepare me for what?"
"Dinner, of course."
A/N Woooo, I'm getting a headache from staring at this computer so longggg. Must... keep... sanity. Ouch. Anyway, happy reading, hope you enjoyed the latest installment.
Chapter Three: Dreaming of You
"Where's your mother?" a kindly voice asked her, and she tried, tried to run to the voice, into his arms. "I will help you find her, worry not."
"Father!" she cried, her wail echoing around in her ribcage. She was going insane. Her sanity was a pinch of sand on her open eyelids... if she closed her eyes or blinked, some would fall away. She felt so helpless, for who could keep their eyes open forever?
She felt clawed hands cup her cheeks, and almost cried in relief. She was lifted up and away, into the perfect, starry night, held up by love. Kagome flew for the first time in her dreams, soaring and dipping through the clouds, smiling against the rush of wind against her face. Sighing blissfully, she rolled over in her flight.
And fell. Her smile faded into a long-fading scream that crawled up her spine, clutching at footholds so it could escape from her diaphragm. She felt the clawed hands on her face again and smiled. He was here to save her.
The claws dug into her, and though she could feel not the pain, panic edged into her mind from all corners, covering her vision like static on a television. "No!" The stripes fell of the face, landing in a pool of water below her, where they floated away. It turned into InuYasha.
He laughed cruelly, digging a claw into her belly, dragging it downwards to her navel, then down more to her womanhood. She squirmed, but felt that she could not move her arms, for they were pinned down.
She was a frog, pinned spread-eagle to a dissecting board. Razor claws sliced through her as if through butter, and she felt her insides give way to a heavy burden as InuYasha crawled inside of her, laughing all the while. He smiled at her childishly, his eyes alight with joy and innocence, then closed the stomach over him.
Her belly bulged with the unaccustomed bulk.
"No! Sesshoumaru, no! No!" But her cries were lost.
"Shippou, I have called you here for a reason. Stop that!" Sesshoumaru snapped uncharacteristically, stilling Shippou's fiddling hands with a sharp gesture.
Looking at him wide-eyed, Shippou put his toy down to give the dog demon his full attention.
Calming himself with a few practiced breathing exercises, Sesshoumaru turned to Shippou. "I want you to prepare an army to attack the base."
"All right!" Shippou yelled enthusiastically. "I'll go now!"
"Wait, kit," Sesshoumaru said wearily, grabbing Shippou by the collar before he could fly out the door. "We're taking prisoners. A... The woman I bought yesterday." He made his voice harder, more uncaring. "She's mine by right. I demand her. And the monk, too. He could be valuable for questioning later. The troops themselves... kill any that give you trouble, but be sure not to kill all of them, because I want to know the extent of their training. Capture a specimen of both weakness and strength, flexibility and speed, everything. I want to know the extent of ALL the training."
He ignored the kitsune's puzzled look and waved Shippou away.
"Alright, Sesshie-sama... it's your call, after all. I'll go tell warriors." With that, he scampered away, his red ponytail bobbing about wildly.
Sesshoumaru crossed the room in a few strides, stopping in front of the row of pictures. He walked past them, to the last one, the charcoal sketch... "Soon," he told it. "Soon."
Of course, he had to train her in proper manners and marry her off to someone -- it's only proper to do so for a young lady, luckily enough she was of marriageable age. And then, of course, visit her every once in a while to see how her children are coming along.
So much to do... he was relieved to have a pet project to keep him company during this long, boring period.
His hand stilled as he realized it was reaching for the picture. He brought it down to his side again. 'I must marry soon, too. To show the public my stability, since none of the other four lords are marrying any time soon. To train my son to follow after my ways. But I can't find the right demoness! They're all wrong, all wrong.'
Golden eyes sought the picture, and his thoughts started down a venue he was scared to travel. 'No! Never! A human... unthinkable...' But, once again, his eyes sought the drawing. 'I never imagined she would get that pretty.'
He shook himself roughly from his reverie and, since he was alone, allowed himself a small frown. "It does not matter," he told the charcoal portrait aloud, getting courage from hearing his strong, unwavering voice. The index finger of his hand stretched upwards, and before he knew it he was outlining the line of her cheek with a claw. "It does not matter," he murmured.
In vain, he tried to focus on good, fatherly feelings. They simply wouldn't come. The affection was there, yes, but suddenly she was a teenager, in the highlight of her life. How could he possibly hold fatherly feelings for a girl he had met but once, had never raised?
Besides... it seemed she simply wasn't the same girl anymore. 'I wonder if she remembers me.'
'Sesshoumaru!' Kagome thought as she screamed herself awake. She reached for Miroku, but he was gone; to eat, presumably. Her eyelashes vanished as she squeezed her eyes as tight as they would go, shutting out the light streaming in through the window.
Yelling faintly, she hopped out of bed and ran across the room to the window, her bare feet making clapping sounds as they made contact with the stone. Slamming the shutters closed, she breathed deep.
"Kagome?"
Suddenly she was facing the other way... she didn't register even turning, but somehow she knew she must have. She relaxed when she saw him. "Miroku."
His violet eyes were troubled, full of guilt. He wasn't as sure of himself anymore. "Are you feeling alright?" he ventured timidly, stepping towards her slowly so as not to alarm her.
For God's sake, she wasn't a bloody deer. She wouldn't run off at the slightest move. "I'm fine, thank..." she choked on the word 'you,' as she remembered she was also thanking him for saving her life. "Thank you," she managed, then let the tears come as she felt his strong arms around her at once.
She leaned into him desperately, needing the contact of another human, a man she trusted. "Where is he?"
His grip tightened at the mention of 'he,' namely InuYasha. "We escorted him off the grounds," he said gruffly, in a way that firmly shut the door on that conversation.
She allowed him to coax her to the bed, where he had lain food. When he tried to spoon it into her, she gave him a frustrated glare and he shrugged with a wry grin.
"Very well, very well, you can feed yourself."
"I'm not an invalid, you know."
"I know, I know!"
She glared suspiciously at him and shoveled a spoonful of rice into her mouth. Relaxing quickly, Kagome finished her meal and reluctantly agreed to stay in the rooms, relaxing, for the rest of the day. She didn't particularly want to confront the men downstairs, but she was loathe to stay in the tiny room for too long.
"I'm going to train the troops personally today." Miroku leaned in to kiss her forehead, then looked at her for a long time, still leaning over her. Finally, he murmured, "Love you," and quickly left.
Kagome's mouth fell open slightly. "Love you." Just like that. She dug under the covers, pulling the blankets up to her chin as she looked at the wall of the room.
He couldn't possibly. She liked him well enough, and he was a great friend and a good partner, but...
Love?
Kagome jerked awake, then wondered what could possibly have woken her up. Suddenly, she heard it; the loud ring of metal hitting metal. Quickly, she sat up, her chest heaving. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, her feet quickly found boots next to the bed. Apparently Miroku knew she'd want to get a good walk-about later.
Still donning Miroku's shirt and leggings that cut off mid-calf, she poked her head about the door, letting her eyes roam about the corridor before letting the rest of her body follow suit. The clanks and such sounds were coming from downstairs, and now that she was out of her room, she could hear yelling.
Curse those thick doors, she screamed mentally, then leapt into her room to find her combat gear. She slammed most of it on in well-practiced movements, although it wasn't as well put together as usual. Finding her weapons laid out carefully on a tabletop, Kagome made quick work of putting them in sheathes and holsters.
Creeping out of her room, she noticed with a visible grimace that the shouting had become much less prominent. Men were dying; to whom they belonged, she didn't know.
She ran down the stairs with her guns out of their shoulder holsters, held in front of her and her fingers ready to go off at a moment's notice. The stairs led to the common room.
It was a mess. Blood bathed everything within sight, in splatters or completely. Men, mostly hers, lay scattered about as what was obviously the new carpeting. A few Youkai lay amongst them.
'Shit! Youkai...!' she thought, her mind becoming the clean, hard edge it usually became when confronted with a battle.
At that very minute, a Youkai noticed her and flew at her with his sword out wide and his tongue hanging out disgustingly. Shooting him in the head, he blew back far enough not to land on his feet, and swaggered up, earning a few more shots to the head.
When half of it was blown away, he finally fell, dead.
She shot a few more, only wounding them, before she ran out of bullets. Swearing, she remembered she had left the extra bullets upstairs, in Miroku's room. The blades on her back called to her, singing strongly, it seemed, and she reached for them. When they were in her hands, they quieted and took on a serious demeanor.
'Be serious, Kagome... since when do swords have personalities?' And she sliced a Youkai in half.
Badly outnumbered due to the loss of men, Kagome was soon fighting one to ten. She brought both swords up close to her face and body, prepared to move. The ten Youkai circling her merely watched her viciously, maniacally. One raised it's sword, and the other followed suit.
Kagome narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists down tighter on the handles of her swords.
"Halt!"
The Youkai stopped and backed away a good ten feet to avoid them getting struck down for their lack of movement. Between them stepped the tiniest goddamn Youkai she had ever seen in her entire life.
Momentarily shocked into silence, she stared at it.
It scrutinized her with clear green eyes. That was all she could see of its face, for it had covered the rest with a half-mask. It nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Take her to the other prisoners."
The Youkai sheathed their swords with more than a few grumbles, then advanced on her as one. Slowly, at a few barked orders, other Youkai dropped their battles and helped.
Panicked, she swung out at them viciously, spinning around so none could sneak up on her.
In vain. Something hard hit her in the head, and black swirled in as she dropped to the floor, her swords clattering beside her.
Sesshoumaru stared idly at her weapons, before reaching out to try the swords again. They resonated with an angry hum when his hand got near them, so he pulled back before he got shocked again. Bored with these, he fingered the armor she had worn. Solid, lightweight for it's size, strong. Nice armor.
Finally, he let his gaze return where it ached to be; the girl herself. Nurses had patched up her head and the long sword-cut on her side, and her Miko abilities were busying themselves with more healing as she slept.
Sitting on her bed, he brushed some hair out of her face. She didn't move, just kept on sleeping.
The girl he once knew had grown up to really be quite pretty, he knew. And she was strong. Fast. But because of her newfound strengths, she had lost her innocence, which he had once found so deeply endearing.
But oh well. He would simply wait for her to wake, and then push her into Youkai society. Where hopefully she would flourish... her Miko blood allowed for her to mate lifelong with a Youkai, so happiness could be sought here.
He just hoped she wouldn't feel a subconscious need to kill Youkai because of her latest employment.
Kagome felt the darkness recede, and where it fell away, something new replaced it; pain. Gods, her head hurt. She struggled to make her eyelids open, but deep inside she knew she had to wait for the darkness to go fully.
A claw gently swiped away some hair on her cheek, and inwardly, she panicked. InuYasha!
Outwardly, she still couldn't move.
Finally, enough of the dark had gone and she opened her eyes. The light that fell and reflected about the room increased her headache, and she squinted around. Standing above her was a tall man, with white... hair and... golden... eyes.
She screamed, then backed against the wall. "InuYasha! Don't!" She brought her hands to her face protectively.
The man seemed momentarily surprised, then leaned forward to catch her wrist. His voice was hard. "What did InuYasha do to you?"
Kagome did another thing she thought weak. She stared. Her mouth was open and everything. It wasn't InuYasha, and now all she could think about was how obvious it was that this was a different man. Calming herself, she gathered her bearings and looked about to memorize every detail of the room. "Oh... I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
"Kagome. Look at me." The command was enough to raise her ire. The affectionate tone really put her on edge.
"How do you know my--" stopped mid-sentence, Kagome gazed at the man. Light from the window glanced off in his eyes, casting a golden glare into her own. His stripes were the same. Everything. Exactly the same.
'I must be dreaming. Goddamnit. I thought I woke up that time.'
All the same, his name slipped out of her lips. "Mr. Sesshou...maru..."
"You do remember me. Good."
She grabbed for his hand, then clutched it. It was real. She pinched herself.
At that he blinked, then laughed. 'Delightful, she thinks she's dreaming. Am I in her dreams often, then?' he thought, much amused. Aloud, "I will have my servants prepare you."
"Prepare me for what?"
"Dinner, of course."
A/N Woooo, I'm getting a headache from staring at this computer so longggg. Must... keep... sanity. Ouch. Anyway, happy reading, hope you enjoyed the latest installment.