Chapter Eight : No. . . I'm NOT Sorry!

Ishiru woke early the next morning, feeling delightfully rested. She shifted in preparation for sitting up. Before she got very far, Ishiru felt a pair of strong arms loosely encircling her. The night before rushed back and Ishiru fought down panic.

'I've got to get up and back to my room before he wakes up!' She thought, fighting to keep her scent from changing with her emotions. She shifted and carefully tried to free herself from his grip. She lifted Sesshoumaru's arm and his hand left her hip. That apparently triggered something in his still sleeping mind. He growled softly and curled his arms around her, trapping Ishiru tightly against his chest with his nose buried in her hair.

"Mine..." He whispered next to her ear, then lightly rested his lips against her neck, lightly licking her flesh. Ishiru froze, not that she really could have gone anywhere. 'What?' She thought, her mind frozen. After a few minutes of just lying there in catatonic shock, Ishiru's mind began working again.

'Well, screw stealth. There's no way I'll be able to get up without waking him up.' She concluded. Judging the distance between her and the door in the corner, Ishiru poised her hands to break his hold on her.

In a quick flurry of movement, Ishiru darted through the door, closing it behind her standing in the center of her floor for a moment, panting. Her muscles were still at a high maintenance level. But now, it only required a lot of work to move. Ishiru didn't feel like they'd give out on her without warning. She heard motion in Sesshoumaru's room and panicked. 'So I did wake him up.' She thought, looking for a way to get out of her room, other than the door. Surely he would have smelt her scent in the bed. 'The window.'

Ishiru pressed her hand to the glass panel, the spell parting the material and leapt onto the sill before touching the glass, sealing it again. She jumped down onto the somewhat steep ground just as she heard her door slide open.

'He's probably furious.' Ishiru thought. 'He was probably dreaming about something else when he said 'mine'...' She pressed herself against the wall, inching silently out of sight of the window.

OOO

He felt someone moving his arms and was overwhelmed by a sense of something missing. Waking up, Sesshoumaru sat up in his bed. The covers next to him were open, thrown to the side in evident haste. He rested a clawed hand on the sheets next to him. It was still warm, very warm.

Foggy memories entered his mind. Ishiru lying next to him, snuggling into his chest. No. That was definitely a dream. He couldn't recall all that he would have had he been awake.

The youkai lord slid out from beneath the silk covers. Whether or not it had been a dream was a question Ishiru herself could most definitely answer. It was her scent that, he was sure, was permanently on his sheets.

Sesshoumaru opened the door to Ishiru's room just in time to see a faint motion on the window, the glass melting back into a single pane. He approached the window, placing his hand against the glass to part it. Nothing. Her scent lead out onto the sill, but that could just as easily have flowed from in her room.

Well, two could play that game. 'Hide and Seek it is then.'

OOO

As soon as she was out of sight, Ishiru took off, heading for the orchard part of the gardens. She collapsed onto a marble bench, panting heavily. Her muscles burned, millimeters from giving out. Ishiru swore mentally, reprimanding herself for being so stupid. She spent a time there, sitting on a bench and regaining her strength.

'Well that was brilliant girl. Just go and fall asleep in his bed!' She thought, knuckling an eye free of sleep. Testing her legs, she stood up, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet before walking through the orchard rows. The sun struck her face as she entered a gap in the trees.

"Kuso!" Ishiru yelped, remembering that she had to train. 'Screw Sesshoumaru. If he's still looking for me that's his issue. I'm not letting my muscles atrophy after I worked to hard to get them up to this point!' She said in a firm mental resolve, sounding somewhat harsher towards Sesshoumaru than she had intended.

She set off at a light run, which brought her to the dojo in roughly five minutes with a light sweat on her brow.

"Damn." She said, her resolve to train hard strengthening. She slid into her offensive stance for a change, attacking army upon army of imaginary zombies, lashing out at the air with her still venom-less claws.

She never felt him coming towards her until he pressed against her back, his arms and legs aligning with hers. Sesshoumaru's fingers wove in-between hers, locking their hands together, hers beneath his. He curled his arms around her, trapping her.

"Found you." He said, reminding Ishiru of the morning, which she had forgotten in the intensity of her training.

"Sesshoumaru, I-" He cut her off.

"Think nothing of it. It never happened." He said, releasing her. Ishiru felt something in her heart snap.

'Didn't it?' She thought, letting Sesshoumaru guide her numbly through the rest of her training session.

OOO

Later that night, Ishiru was massaging her sore muscles. He must have been mad at her, no matter what he said. He worked her so hard during training that day, much harder than normal. He never waited for her to collapse. He would always tell her to stop just before hand.

'He's mad. I know it. He wouldn't even look at me.' She thought, standing up from the bench. She had gone back to the orchard. The dappled shade on the soft grassy ground calmed her slightly despite the turmoil in her mind.

She turned then to face him. A soft gasp flew from her lips as she took in the sight of him. Cherry blossoms fell all around him, tinted blue in the moonlight. His face was thrown into sharp relief by the weak light of the night, his expression appearing more stoic, more haunting to her than it ever had before. His eyes seemed dark, almost black even as he approached her and brought more focus to his features.

"Sesshoumaru... I, I want to apologize. I shouldn't have done what I did..." She trailed off, loosing her courage. She let her hand curl into a fist at her side. She was lying to him! She wasn't sorry! She had loved watching him sleep, curling up next to him, his scent. "I am sorry for my intrusion last night. It will not happen again." Ishiru said, looking down as she forced the words past her lips.

She felt his hand under her chin, tilting her head up. She complied, looking up at him. A sharp slap knocked her to the ground.