Twist Of Fate
Chapter 3: Hello Again
The little girl bit her lip and looked up and down the bank of the river. Their campsite had to be around here somewhere. Why oh why did she chase after that cute little bunny? Now she was lost in the woods, pearing up and down the riverbank nervously. Did she cross a bridge? She knew she didn't cross the river because her feet were dry. Oh what was she supposed to do!? She bit her lip again, this time harder as her eyes began to tear up. "PAPA!MAMA! Where are you!?" She called out again a few more times before dropping to her knees. She sobbed before hearing a rustle behind her. She stiffened, what it was a wolf? Or a tiger or a bear, or a dinosaur!? What if she got eaten by a dinosaur? Her little brother wouldn't have a big sister anymore!
"Are you lost little one?" Wait a second dinosaurs didn't talk! She turned quickly to the kind voice. The person towered over her, of course who didn't to a seven-year-old? She wiped her tears away and nodded. The person reached out their hand and she took it. "Come along, I'll take you back to your family ok?"
The girl smiled and nodded. "I'm Kagome!"
The person smiled, "Pretty name for a pretty girl."
***
Kagome's eyes opened slowly, she had not expected that dream, that memory of a hero who's face she could never remember. She expected another nightmare, like last nights. The dective said a man brought her to the hospital. Could that have been the same person? The one who all those years ago... She shook herself mentally. No, that made no sense, that sounded like a guardian angel or something.
Suddenly, for no reason at all that she could see tears came. She rolled over onto her side then her stomach when there was too much pain to curl herself into a ball. She pushed her body into the mattress the salt water rivers not ceasing in their trek to the pillow. It wasn't for another five minutes before she realized there was something wrong with this picture. A bed? Where? She pushed herself up too quickly and pain shot through nearly her entire body and she fell back to the bed. Gasping she rolled herself onto her back once again. She was in a sleeping robe, opening it up a bit and looked down at herself.
In the light of the setting sun (or was it rising?) she could see that her stomach was bandaged, though the dressings were red from her new wound. Most of what else she could see of herself was badly bruised. She grimaced and with a groan pushed herself into a better sitting position. She looked around the room, it was very nice, she was obviously not in a villiage, and not even in a place where they would normally stay if Miroku were to offer his priestly services to a rich house. Oddly enough though, the room seemed strangely familiar, but she knew she had never been here befo-
Her eyes widened as once again she remembered her... what had it been? A dream, a vision, did she really already live out the next month and was sent back to fix something? It had been to real, she MUST have lived it, she must have... But what was she supposed to fix? How could she keep him from dying if everything was happening again anyway!? Helplessly, she lowered her head into her hands. "What am I supposed to do?" she moaned, "If I can't change anything... if I can't stop..." Her mind vividly flashed his death before her eyes, she began to cry again. "I'm useless," she choked, "it's all going to happen again."
***
He watched her from one of the darker corners of the room. He had silently entered the room sometime while she was still sleeping. He had thought that she was trying to escape or going crazy from the cries that had been emitting from her throat. It was odd though, before he made it to the bed she had calmed. He thought for a moment to startle her, putting her on edge. But he let his curiousity get the better of him and allowed himself to simply watch for a while. Besides she seemed unstable enough right now that he need not do anything for effect.
And now she was crying... again.
Sesshoumaru never enjoyed the smell of tears, he always obyed Rin to stop at even the stirrings of them. He did not know why, but the smell always made him feel... off somehow. He let her cry simply so he could analyze the feeling it caused. It was not simply annoyance at the act, that would have been easy to identify. It was mildly frustrating that he couldn't figure it out. Perhaps it was some deep seeded childhood memory that was the cause, but he hated the smell.
"I'm useless... it's all going to happen again."
"I wouldn't say that. It seems to me that everyone has some uses... well except maybe Jaken." He decided to leave the last half of her remark for later, she didn't seem to be in her right mind now anyway.
Her head snapped up and she stared at the emotionless mask of Sesshoumaru. How had she not seen him standing there before... and did he just tell a joke? "What are you doing here?" she asked rubbing the tears from her cheeks.
"I live here," he answered simply. Apparently the girl had not noticed that her sleeping robe hung partway open, revealing a good portion of bruised and unbruised skin, but not enough to show her bare breasts. He cared as much as she noticed.
God it felt good to hear his voice again. "Fine," she said, gaining more control of her voice, "What am I doing here Sesshoumaru?"
"Being an ungrateful houseguest." Coming from anybody else it might have sounded like a joke. From Sesshoumaru, it was a veiled threat.
She bowed her head, more out of exhaustion than etiquette, "Sorry. Thank you for having me healed," she doubted he dressed her wounds himself, "and allowing me to rest here." Sesshoumaru was surprised at her sudden obediance as it were, it seemed to him that she was not acting herself. "But I have to wonder why you brought me here, you don't seem the type who would hold me ransom for a sword. You struck me as having too much honor to do that."
Sesshoumaru blinked. Kagome hid the tiny smile that tugged on her lips. The "last time" she woke up here she had been furious and was convinced that he kidnapped her for the Tetsusaiga. He had simply said she was wrong, he never told her the reason he took her home that night, and she suspected the reason was similar now. "You are correct human."
"Then why am I here?" She didn't expect a real answer.
He didn't give her one. "It is not necessary that you know."
"Oh really?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest.
In a split second he was face to face with her, kneeling on the bed next to her, Kagome stiffened. The movement was so fast she barely felt the bed shift under his weight. "Yes," he said dangerously, "really."
She swallowed a lump in her throat as he backed away. Once he was standing again she asked, "Do you wish for me to help take care of Rin?"
"No." Kagome was surprised. "She doesn't know you are here, nor will she till I have deemed that you are not dangerous to her."
"Why would I be-" she stopped, then looked at the fresh bandages around her wrists, he had seen them? She didn't want him to know, she didn't want anyone here to know her problems that existed in the twentith century. She shuddered when she remembered that he had already found out the last time. Her clairvoyant images from before were fast fading. "I would never hurt Rin," she said sincerely.
Sesshoumaru turned away towards the door and paused as he opened it. "I am not willing to trust your judgement on the matter." With that he was gone.
***
Sesshoumaru pondered the wounds on her wrists. At first he thought it possible she had been captured and/or tortured. Many youkai liked the taste of human blood, drank it like wine even. And if they found a person who was of particularly good vintage they would keep them alive, and even treat them somewhat decently, with the exception of blood lettings, to keep their favorite drink comming.
The idea, however, was dispelled when he made the comment about her doing it to herself. If she hadn't done it he suspected that she would violently deny the accusation.
But she hadn't, she just stared at her wrist for a second, seemingly reliving the moment. The woman had tried to kill herself. The woman who had once yelled at him when he knocked Inu Yasha out after his youkai rampage. The same woman who, so long ago, flatly refused to give him the Tetsusaiga, and threated him with her arrows while foolishly telling him where she was aiming. So a single question kept entering his mind on the young woman's recent actions. Why?
And what was that odd feeling he sensed off of her? She was relieved to see him after the initial surprise of his entry. Relief at seeing him? Why? Then fear mixed with something else radiated off her when he was close to her. He could not pinpoint this other smell, her emotions were in too chaotic a state that he could not sort the smells they caused properly with as little time as he just spent near her. But somehow he got the impression that the fear she felt was not associated with the possible loss of her life.
Of course why would someone who had tried to take their own life fear dying? Somehow this didn't seem right to him either. This woman, Kagome, seemed to care about living still, somehow he sensed it. It must have been a moment of weakness, he reasoned, in which she attempted such an act. At least he had been right in one respect, with this new puzzle to figure out he was sure to not experience boredom for at least a few days.
***
She had hated to see him go, but at the same time was relieved. When he knelt by her she had felt the incredible urge to grab him and press her lips to his. To feel his arms around her, his hair between her fingers. But fear stayed her hand, fear of him loving her, fear of him dying because of it. Fear of him rejecting her. Violently she shook the thoughts from her head. She would not think like that, all that mattered was that he lived on past this next month. That was more important than him loving her.
Kagome carefully made her way to the window as her mind quickly began to process the things she knew he loved in her. That list made in her mind she decided she would do as few of them as possible. And should she need to remind herself the list had a memo on it that said she should replay his death so she would remember what she was trying to prevent. "So," she whispered to herself, "From here on out you're going to stop being yourself... just so he can get out of this alive." A sad smile tugged at her lips as she watched the sun rise. "I hope you will appreciate this someday Sesshoumaru. Then again it shouldn't be hard, I haven't been myself for a little while now."
------------------------------------
Kinda short for such a long wait I know but It works for now.
Sooo... what did I need to explain again? *shuffles through reviews*
Oh yeah there still seems to be some confusion about the timeline(s). Kagome is the only one who knows what supposedly will happen. Any time it says the "last time" or the "first time" it happened it's likely referring to her "vision" or whatever it was, which ended when she went to bed in the first chapter.
And If you haven't figured it out by now "he" is Sesshoumaru.
Chapter 3: Hello Again
The little girl bit her lip and looked up and down the bank of the river. Their campsite had to be around here somewhere. Why oh why did she chase after that cute little bunny? Now she was lost in the woods, pearing up and down the riverbank nervously. Did she cross a bridge? She knew she didn't cross the river because her feet were dry. Oh what was she supposed to do!? She bit her lip again, this time harder as her eyes began to tear up. "PAPA!MAMA! Where are you!?" She called out again a few more times before dropping to her knees. She sobbed before hearing a rustle behind her. She stiffened, what it was a wolf? Or a tiger or a bear, or a dinosaur!? What if she got eaten by a dinosaur? Her little brother wouldn't have a big sister anymore!
"Are you lost little one?" Wait a second dinosaurs didn't talk! She turned quickly to the kind voice. The person towered over her, of course who didn't to a seven-year-old? She wiped her tears away and nodded. The person reached out their hand and she took it. "Come along, I'll take you back to your family ok?"
The girl smiled and nodded. "I'm Kagome!"
The person smiled, "Pretty name for a pretty girl."
Kagome's eyes opened slowly, she had not expected that dream, that memory of a hero who's face she could never remember. She expected another nightmare, like last nights. The dective said a man brought her to the hospital. Could that have been the same person? The one who all those years ago... She shook herself mentally. No, that made no sense, that sounded like a guardian angel or something.
Suddenly, for no reason at all that she could see tears came. She rolled over onto her side then her stomach when there was too much pain to curl herself into a ball. She pushed her body into the mattress the salt water rivers not ceasing in their trek to the pillow. It wasn't for another five minutes before she realized there was something wrong with this picture. A bed? Where? She pushed herself up too quickly and pain shot through nearly her entire body and she fell back to the bed. Gasping she rolled herself onto her back once again. She was in a sleeping robe, opening it up a bit and looked down at herself.
In the light of the setting sun (or was it rising?) she could see that her stomach was bandaged, though the dressings were red from her new wound. Most of what else she could see of herself was badly bruised. She grimaced and with a groan pushed herself into a better sitting position. She looked around the room, it was very nice, she was obviously not in a villiage, and not even in a place where they would normally stay if Miroku were to offer his priestly services to a rich house. Oddly enough though, the room seemed strangely familiar, but she knew she had never been here befo-
Her eyes widened as once again she remembered her... what had it been? A dream, a vision, did she really already live out the next month and was sent back to fix something? It had been to real, she MUST have lived it, she must have... But what was she supposed to fix? How could she keep him from dying if everything was happening again anyway!? Helplessly, she lowered her head into her hands. "What am I supposed to do?" she moaned, "If I can't change anything... if I can't stop..." Her mind vividly flashed his death before her eyes, she began to cry again. "I'm useless," she choked, "it's all going to happen again."
He watched her from one of the darker corners of the room. He had silently entered the room sometime while she was still sleeping. He had thought that she was trying to escape or going crazy from the cries that had been emitting from her throat. It was odd though, before he made it to the bed she had calmed. He thought for a moment to startle her, putting her on edge. But he let his curiousity get the better of him and allowed himself to simply watch for a while. Besides she seemed unstable enough right now that he need not do anything for effect.
And now she was crying... again.
Sesshoumaru never enjoyed the smell of tears, he always obyed Rin to stop at even the stirrings of them. He did not know why, but the smell always made him feel... off somehow. He let her cry simply so he could analyze the feeling it caused. It was not simply annoyance at the act, that would have been easy to identify. It was mildly frustrating that he couldn't figure it out. Perhaps it was some deep seeded childhood memory that was the cause, but he hated the smell.
"I'm useless... it's all going to happen again."
"I wouldn't say that. It seems to me that everyone has some uses... well except maybe Jaken." He decided to leave the last half of her remark for later, she didn't seem to be in her right mind now anyway.
Her head snapped up and she stared at the emotionless mask of Sesshoumaru. How had she not seen him standing there before... and did he just tell a joke? "What are you doing here?" she asked rubbing the tears from her cheeks.
"I live here," he answered simply. Apparently the girl had not noticed that her sleeping robe hung partway open, revealing a good portion of bruised and unbruised skin, but not enough to show her bare breasts. He cared as much as she noticed.
God it felt good to hear his voice again. "Fine," she said, gaining more control of her voice, "What am I doing here Sesshoumaru?"
"Being an ungrateful houseguest." Coming from anybody else it might have sounded like a joke. From Sesshoumaru, it was a veiled threat.
She bowed her head, more out of exhaustion than etiquette, "Sorry. Thank you for having me healed," she doubted he dressed her wounds himself, "and allowing me to rest here." Sesshoumaru was surprised at her sudden obediance as it were, it seemed to him that she was not acting herself. "But I have to wonder why you brought me here, you don't seem the type who would hold me ransom for a sword. You struck me as having too much honor to do that."
Sesshoumaru blinked. Kagome hid the tiny smile that tugged on her lips. The "last time" she woke up here she had been furious and was convinced that he kidnapped her for the Tetsusaiga. He had simply said she was wrong, he never told her the reason he took her home that night, and she suspected the reason was similar now. "You are correct human."
"Then why am I here?" She didn't expect a real answer.
He didn't give her one. "It is not necessary that you know."
"Oh really?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest.
In a split second he was face to face with her, kneeling on the bed next to her, Kagome stiffened. The movement was so fast she barely felt the bed shift under his weight. "Yes," he said dangerously, "really."
She swallowed a lump in her throat as he backed away. Once he was standing again she asked, "Do you wish for me to help take care of Rin?"
"No." Kagome was surprised. "She doesn't know you are here, nor will she till I have deemed that you are not dangerous to her."
"Why would I be-" she stopped, then looked at the fresh bandages around her wrists, he had seen them? She didn't want him to know, she didn't want anyone here to know her problems that existed in the twentith century. She shuddered when she remembered that he had already found out the last time. Her clairvoyant images from before were fast fading. "I would never hurt Rin," she said sincerely.
Sesshoumaru turned away towards the door and paused as he opened it. "I am not willing to trust your judgement on the matter." With that he was gone.
Sesshoumaru pondered the wounds on her wrists. At first he thought it possible she had been captured and/or tortured. Many youkai liked the taste of human blood, drank it like wine even. And if they found a person who was of particularly good vintage they would keep them alive, and even treat them somewhat decently, with the exception of blood lettings, to keep their favorite drink comming.
The idea, however, was dispelled when he made the comment about her doing it to herself. If she hadn't done it he suspected that she would violently deny the accusation.
But she hadn't, she just stared at her wrist for a second, seemingly reliving the moment. The woman had tried to kill herself. The woman who had once yelled at him when he knocked Inu Yasha out after his youkai rampage. The same woman who, so long ago, flatly refused to give him the Tetsusaiga, and threated him with her arrows while foolishly telling him where she was aiming. So a single question kept entering his mind on the young woman's recent actions. Why?
And what was that odd feeling he sensed off of her? She was relieved to see him after the initial surprise of his entry. Relief at seeing him? Why? Then fear mixed with something else radiated off her when he was close to her. He could not pinpoint this other smell, her emotions were in too chaotic a state that he could not sort the smells they caused properly with as little time as he just spent near her. But somehow he got the impression that the fear she felt was not associated with the possible loss of her life.
Of course why would someone who had tried to take their own life fear dying? Somehow this didn't seem right to him either. This woman, Kagome, seemed to care about living still, somehow he sensed it. It must have been a moment of weakness, he reasoned, in which she attempted such an act. At least he had been right in one respect, with this new puzzle to figure out he was sure to not experience boredom for at least a few days.
She had hated to see him go, but at the same time was relieved. When he knelt by her she had felt the incredible urge to grab him and press her lips to his. To feel his arms around her, his hair between her fingers. But fear stayed her hand, fear of him loving her, fear of him dying because of it. Fear of him rejecting her. Violently she shook the thoughts from her head. She would not think like that, all that mattered was that he lived on past this next month. That was more important than him loving her.
Kagome carefully made her way to the window as her mind quickly began to process the things she knew he loved in her. That list made in her mind she decided she would do as few of them as possible. And should she need to remind herself the list had a memo on it that said she should replay his death so she would remember what she was trying to prevent. "So," she whispered to herself, "From here on out you're going to stop being yourself... just so he can get out of this alive." A sad smile tugged at her lips as she watched the sun rise. "I hope you will appreciate this someday Sesshoumaru. Then again it shouldn't be hard, I haven't been myself for a little while now."
------------------------------------
Kinda short for such a long wait I know but It works for now.
Sooo... what did I need to explain again? *shuffles through reviews*
Oh yeah there still seems to be some confusion about the timeline(s). Kagome is the only one who knows what supposedly will happen. Any time it says the "last time" or the "first time" it happened it's likely referring to her "vision" or whatever it was, which ended when she went to bed in the first chapter.
And If you haven't figured it out by now "he" is Sesshoumaru.