The little chibi thing that is otherwise known as Hika-chan has no ownership over any characters in Inu Yasha, but she does someday plan to take over the world so she will eventually own Japan which will cover the locations :)
Twist of Fate
By Hika-chan
Chapter 7: Trust Me With Your Open Wounds
As consciousness slowly came upon her, she thought she was dreaming even though she could not see anything. Even with her eyes closed she should not be feeling this safe, this content, this warm. But for now it felt too good for her to question it, she had not felt this way since the attack. Always paranoid, watching the shadows for every little movement. But here, wherever that was, she knew was she was safe, and so she had qualms about indulging further into this while she had the chance. So the young miko curled up closer to her firm, warm support, as sleep claimed her once again.
When she wriggled closer the inu youkai awoke and became fully aware of the situation. Golden eyes opened slowly, almost warily, as though he did not want the young woman beside him to know he was also conscious. Apparently though there was no need, he could tell that the contentment that washed over her was synonymous with a peaceful sleep. He bit back a sigh and cocked his head to the side to get a better look on the miko who was clinging to him more so than Rin ever had. He was quite curious as to how she had managed to get tangled up and buried under his tail, which was likely a large cause for her comfort.
Kami he hoped that was it.
Or most of him did anyway, a small part of him was glad she was content, and an even smaller part, one that he wasn't even sure existed, was glad she was content with him. Peering down at the girls face a clawed hand gently moved her bangs aside so he could see her closed eyes and relaxed expression. She was so strange... an odd little human thing with strange habits and great power. She was weak. She was strong. She was unsure. She was stubborn. She was compassionate. She was pure. There were so many words he could find to describe the girl, some of them opposing, but none of them, not a single word alone could describe her. She was... Kagome.
It was as simple as that. But again it wasn't simple. How could someone be so utterly difficult to describe? Are all creatures so hard to label? Let's see, he was Sesshoumaru, the cold youkai lord of the western lands. Ok that was easy enough. Then there was Rin: the little human girl that was his ward. Jaken: his loyal, sometimes useful, yet bumbling retainer. Inuyasha: his foolish, impulsive hanyou half-brother. Kagome: The human miko. That seemed too simple.. it seemed wrong to simply describe her as such.
Kagome: The miko reincarnation of Kikyou. No, that didn't work either. Somehow comparing her to the now undead priestess was wrong also.
Kagome: The human miko-woman who travels with Inuyasha. No.
Kagome: The protector of the Shikon no Tama... closer
Kagome: Inuyasha's wench... Hell no.
The girl with a spirit of fire...
The woman who slept so peacefully beside him now.
Sesshoumaru tore his thoughts away from the subject, well more the subtopic. His earlier question about the miko's behavior had been answered now the question remained as to how he would go about solving this puzzle and returning her to her former self. Ideas were already forming in his head when a thought suddenly struck him. Why did he care? He sighed, the why wasn't the real question though, it was when and how. Apparently at some point he had come to have some feeling for this woman... what feeling that was he was not sure. But he was comfortable beside her as she with him, or more because she was comfortable with him.
A sigh escaped his lips, he could not wait for the miko to awaken, he had things to do. Slowly he began to gently pry himself from the sleeping miko's grasp. After several minutes and whimpers from the young woman he succeeded. He was about to leave when he stopped, casting a simple spell before walking out the door to his chambers. It was one he had used before, now when Kagome was going to wake up he would know.
It would be several hours before Sesshoumaru sensed the stirrings of her consciousness.
***
Darkness pervaded her senses, and for the first time in forever she did not feel fear of it. She did not fear a lurking shadow would pounce upon her and do unspeakable things to her captive form. To the contrary she felt embraced by it. The cool darkness kept at bay the burning harshness of light that would reveal it's otherwise mysterious face. So she was content to keep her eyes shut as consciousness crept upon her.
A door opened somewhere in the darkness, she could hear it but not see; her mind refused to register its meaning. She felt the shadows she lay on shift beneath her. Something made contact with her arm, its warmth seeping through her sleeve and into her skin. It was strange how her mind saw the warmth as a soft light. The area of the warmth grew and the soft light from it registered in her mind as the shape of a hand. Some part of her awareness spread, temperature and youki traveling up the arm alighting in her mind the softly glowing form that sat on the bed beside her. A soft whisper escaped her lips, contended and amazed, "angel..." The miko was still unwilling to sacrifice her consciousness to the waking world.
"Kagome," the voice was deep, soft and gentle like the dark. But some part of her knew that the latter two didn't normally seem to fit with the voice she had heard. It was so out of place that her mind almost failed to register the voice as familiar. "Kagome..." A male voice, Dad?.. no he was long gone. Souta? Too young. Inuyasha? Not deep enough. Miroku? No the hand was on her arm...
The youki she had been sensing finally began to register to her as such, familiarity pulled at her mind. As it did so the softly glowing figure in her minds eye began to take on a more defined form. "Kagome, wake up."
Lazy blue eyes opened granting her the sight that she had recently expected to see, Sesshoumaru sat beside her on the bed, hand on her arm. She had been curled up on her side and lay so that she was facing him. "Good morning Sesshoumaru-sama," she murmured somewhat sleepily.
He almost grinned, "It would be, were it morning. The day is already half gone."
She carefully pushed herself up, cautious of her wounds that seemed to hurt a little more today. "How is that?" she asked, "Did I really sleep that long."
"It would appear so."
She now sat up fully, legs curled up under her, she reached up a hand and began to rub the sleep from her eyes as a yawn left her mouth. The youkai watched her, there were times when she so resembled Rin. He reached over and took hold of her collar. The miko immediately recoiled from his touch, holding her kimono shut. "What are you doing?" she asked quietly and a little scared.
Sesshoumaru pulled back and held her liquid gaze with his own. "I have come to a decision." He paused as the fear in her eyes began to fade out into confusion. What decision could he have made that warranted him removing her clothes? She did not see love in his eyes, nor hungry lust, so what the hell was he thinking? Just as impatience began to find it's way into her eyes he continued. "I have decided that I want you to trust me."
The teen blinked, stared, blinked, "I'm sorry what?"
"You tore your wounds open some last night when you ran off," he stated matter-of-factly, apparently changing the subject. "I need to change your bandages." Kagome looked down at herself, suddenly realizing that she was wearing the same thing she had last night, and that she had some grass and dirt stains on her. Once again the youkai reached up and took hold of the kimono's collar and stopped. When she shyly nodded her assent he continued, Kagome was glad that she had been wearing her bra, she never would have allowed this happen were she not. Besides, she reasoned, if he was going to do anything he could have done it last night. She smiled lightly at the slight confusion in his gaze when he saw her bra but he immediately dismissed it and went about treating her injury.
Blood had seeped through the bandage again, and even some into her kimono. The outfit, he realized, was probably ruined but that did not really concern him either. He put one of his fingers under the bandages and sliced through it. He gingerly and deftly removed the layers and carefully pealed off the pieces that had stuck to her wounds from dried blood. Sesshoumaru shook his head almost imperceptivity, "I should have changed these last night."
He pulled up a bowl of water and a rag, that until now the miko had failed to notice, and began to clean off the wound. After some long silence that did not seem to be all that long Sesshoumaru spoke again, "You are lucky," he said, his voice breaking the trance Kagome had let herself fall into, "It has not become infected."
Kagome gave him an indignant look, "Of course its not. I do know how to take care of injuries. I would have to."
The youkai suppressed a smirk, "The hanyou gets wounded that often?"
Kagome snorted and immediately regretted it because the action moved her injury in a mildly painful way. "You should know, you cause half of them." There was bitterness in her voice and the conversation ceased as the youkai began to dress her injuries with fresh bandages. Sesshoumaru allowed himself to accept the fact that he held some concern and feeling for this human, and the fact that she now trusted him (at least to some extent) brought him some peace. Now it was no longer a wonder to him why his brother accepted her presence. Though why she tolerated Inuyasha's was still a complete mystery to him. Either way the youkai concluded that he would like this miko woman to be his ally... he was still trying to figure out if he would want her as a friend.
Being emotionally attached to another being in anyway was once not so foreign a concept to Sesshoumaru, but he had been... out of practice in that area for several decades now. At least a good six or seven decades, with the exception of Jaken and Rin. Rin had made him feel many things he had forgotten, and many new things he had never known of. The child was nearly as his own. He would hate to lose her. And whether he had known it or not the toad had helped him retain the bare minimum of the little habit of caring. But Jaken did not expect more attention than what was given to him. He did not ask to be helped, to be fed, to be clothed. Jaken did not need him. Not like Rin did. True Rin did not ask these things of him either, she simply followed and he provided. But there were times when she did ask. Ask with her eyes and her smiles, never with words and rarely if ever did she complain if she did not receive what she asked for.
It was odd for him to realize that Kagome seemed the same way. Right now, for whatever reason, there was something she was unable to deal with and she needed him. She did not ask but every movement, every glance and step showed it. To top it off, for whatever reason, he wanted to be there for her. Like he wanted to be there for Rin, like he wanted Jaken's service (and occasionally his company), though these were things he would never admit to anyone aloud. He did not think the woman weak for not fully being able to handle it. Sesshoumaru knew he would never have to worry about being violated in such a way, but he imagined it would not be an easy thing to recover from. It had been hard for him, as a pup, to deal with his mother's death and the helplessness he had felt at the time. And he had smelled and sensed her emotions in this time, so similar and so very different then his had been at the time. And the same feeling clenched his gut then as it did now when she cried.
His hands paused for barely an instant as the thought struck him. Was that the reason he did not like crying? Something to do with his mother? And why was it only tears? The saltwater of the sea never affected him in such a way, so why this? There must be something about crying specifically that did this to him. His thoughts were cut off as he realized he had finished with the bandages.
After the silence had fallen upon them Kagome had stared off into some random direction, hands clenching the fabric of her half-on kimono. It's ok he's not going to do anything to you, she repeated to herself over and over at first. Bizarre reasons popping into her mind as reassurances. It wasn't until one of his hands brushed her skin that she realized she had been looking blankly at his forehead. A slight shift of her gaze and she found herself looking at amber eyes that were focused yet not on the physical task before him. She saw brief flashes of emotion course through his eyes like static sparks and found herself wondering what he was thinking about.
Why was he helping her? Why did he want her to trust him? What was going on behind that mask he wore? She notice the moment in which he paused and immediately noticing the barest change in his demeanor after it. Whatever thought that struck him seemed to bring him pain, how she knew this she wasn't sure, but she did. There seemed a tint of sadness on the edges of his eyes. The corners of his lips were a millimeter more down, his shoulders a little less straight. Maybe she was imagining all the signs but what caused it really was there.
He stopped and looked up at her. The miko must have been watching him because when gold met stormy blue he saw many emotions swirling within them. She felt... pity... for him? His mind told him that he did not need her pity, it was a worthless thing, a kind of disrespect. But he did not find himself getting angry over the fact. Instead he found her more intriguing. This poor wounded creature, regardless of the hurt she felt, was worried over the smallest bit of sadness an ancient memory had caused him. Perhaps it was empathy. A small hand reached up to touch his face, her first and middle finger contacting on the tips of the marks on the left side of his face and traveling back. His gaze immediately softened, she was trying to comfort him? Such a foolish thing she is to worry about me when her own pain was far more potent. Oddly this thought was not accompanied by contempt but with a kind of endearment. A useless gesture, like Rin with her flowers, that was made all the more meaningful with it's simplicity.
"Do not worry for me," he said quietly so as not to startle her by breaking the silence as the youkai gently took hold of her hand and removed it from his face.
She smiled sadly and shook her head, "It seems I am not the only one who has reopened old wounds."
"They are wounds that have long since become scars that you worry for."
She folded her hands in her lap, the sleeves and shoulders of her kimono bunched around her elbows. "Wounds on the heart and soul take so much longer heal. Sometimes we don't even realize they are still open until someone pokes them."
Sesshoumaru's gaze shifted a moment in thought as he nodded almost imperceptivity, "You sound as though you speak from experience." She nodded. "You are a very strange creature Kagome."
A short laugh escaped her lips and she grinned, "You have no idea."
"I am sure I have a better idea than you think," he said standing, "There is a clean yukata for you there, I shall send a servant to bring you to the dinning hall, you are no doubt in need of food."
Despite the fact that his voice held no emotion Kagome could tell that he held genuine concern for her welfare. "Thank you Sesshoumaru-sama."
He paused by the door. "You are very welcome Kagome-san."
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Hika-chan: Sappy? Yeah I know worth waiting for? Well you guys have to tell me. I've been dealing with major writers block. and umm.. yeah I'm sure there are other things I was gonna write here... but I forget now.. yep.. ok! Bai.
Shippo: *looks at her* boy are you spacy...
Hika-chan: First: I'm a girl and Second: Yes yes I am.
next chapter.... god knows....