It is I, Jjah-Jjah! And I have discovered POCKY!!!! Pocky is good! I
found it at a grocery store I don't usually go to. I got the chocolate
kind. They had strawberry too; I'll get some of that next time. And also
my car's break lights went out and poor Lib had to go to the car hospital.
My car's name is Liberace; he dates Elton, my best friend's car. Ne ways,
Lib is ok though... The damn car wash people jiggled something loose.. I've
started summer classes too and it's evil like Barney... (shiver)
And now, reviews! Hark the herald!
Defafeath Mechqua: Yes indeed. The world revolves around inadvertent comments.
dancing-by-moonlight: Oh God, thank you! I hate those fics where just suddenly everybody falls deeply in love in the first five paragraphs! This romance will take a while damn it!!! And then there's the thing with the giant Buddah, but oh well...
Hieis/Kuramas-Angel: Thank you! I shall keep writing! They'll have to pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers to make me stop! (Lets out a deranged cackle)
Jazngurl: Hi! Thank you, hope your leg hasn't fallen off...
Mirokou Sempai-Crazy: Awww... Thank you! (smiles giddily) Yes! Indeed, there is a glimpse into said past. It will be clarified later, but this is all ya get till.... (Ed: Don't give away the plot! JJ: Shut up you stupid bird!) Erm.. Yeah.
Sukera: Thanks! Appreciate the review!
Crimson Colored Cloaked Figure: Thank you! I love giving animals titles. For example, my cat Stinker is The Great Stinkrini... You know, Houdini... Meh..
piccolojr212002: Thank you for reviewing; hope to hear from you again!
lilbunnyfufu: Tehehe! Sesshoumaru's not being hunted per se, but his past is gonna catch up with him, let's just say that...
desy: Naw, it doesn't end, end. I just tend to babble. Sorry! Alright then. Thanks for the review!
Sesshyangel: (Backs away from reviewer slowly...) Umm.. Sorry? Thank you for reviewing! Sess-chan gets better, I promise! Oh, and just so you know... I put curses on people who attack me, ask all my friends.. Er.. Well. You could have asked them, but unfortunately they're...unavailable... (Ed: You shrunk their heads! Of curse they're frikken unavailable! JJ: That's it! I'm getting another muse, you can't keep your beak shut!) Hehehe. Ignore that conversation...
Akki-Chan: Thank you for the review! Here's the next chapter! WinterBlossom/YukiSakura: Thank you! Tehe, I'll admit that is a pretty neat power.. Someone should write about Kagome's magic mini-skirt. I'd read it!
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And now, the disclaimer!
Disclaimer: Kumbaya, my lord, Kumbaya! Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya! Kumbaya my lord, Kubaya! Oh lord, no own Inuyasha!
And now, what you've all been waiting for....
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::
Chapter Four: Worse Than His Bite
She stayed up all night worrying and awoke the next morning much later than usual. Late morning sunlight shone cheerfully against her bleary eyes. It was all a conspiracy... When the cheerfulness of the birds outside became to poignant to ignore, Kagome flung her pillow across the room and screeched, "Alright you stupid birds, I'm up!"
Downstairs, a certain youkai wondered if the strange miko had gone insane.
"Morning." She said, sleepily trudging down the stairs.
"I was beginning to think you might have died in your sleep." Sesshoumaru greeted, ever the positive one.
"No such luck." She replied and started making a batch of the most caffeine heavy tea that she owned. As it steeped, she looked around and realized that Sesshoumaru had already made himself breakfast.
"I didn't know you could cook." She yawned.
"There are many things you don't know about me." He replied, and left to go outside. Kagome followed him with her eyes till he was gone. That was true. She had hardly known anything about him in the Feudal Era, and a lot more had to have happened to him in five hundred years... She needed to know. Kagome blinked sleepily. As soon as she was awake, that is...
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After getting hyped up and eating and all that jazz, Kagome headed out in what she hoped would be a peaceful confrontation with Sesshoumaru.
'Who am I kidding?' She berated herself, 'Peaceful is one adjective that could never be associated with Sesshoumaru in a million years!'
When she couldn't find him right away, she followed a hunch and went over to the Goshinboku. Sure enough, there was Sesshoumaru. Though, this time he was sitting at the base of it rather than up in its branches. He did not acknowledge her presence. She waited for a while, building up her courage.
"What?" The Taiyoukai finally drawled. His eyes opened to slits and he glared at her stoically.
"What happened, Sesshoumaru?"
His eyes opened the rest of the way and he fixed her with a look that clearly showed his disbelief that she'd be so stupid as to ask. Kagome felt rather stupid. She had meant to simply ask him if he would stay at the shrine for a while, but the other question just popped out. Oh well. Now that she had said it, she might as well pursue it.
"That is none of your business, human." He growled.
Kagome bristled. "Excuse me! I just want to know. I mean, it isn't everyday that an inu youkai that I only know from the Feudal Era just knocks me over and faints at my feet! I want to help you if I can!"
"I will speak no more of it Higurashi! Do not think to meddle into my affairs..." He started to stalk off, but Kagome followed.
"Now listen here, you jerk. I'm only trying to help, you don't have to get your panties all up in a bunch!"
Apparently, Sesshoumaru at that point had had enough.
"Filthy human!" He swung around, his face a cold hard mask and slammed her into the nearest building, pinning her there by the throat. All pleasantries were gone. "What makes you think you can speak thus to me?! Do you have any idea with whom you are being so obnoxious to?!"
"No! I don't!" Kagome snarled back. "I don't have any idea who you are at all! You'll have to excuse me for thinking that it's a little out of character for the Lord of the Western Lands to be filthy and starving in a back alley!!! What the hell happened?!"
Sesshoumaru flung her from the wall and she skidded a few feet, but felt unhurt. She didn't really care though, once she looked up at the glaring youkai lord and saw his eyes beginning to bleed red.
'Well crap.' She thought as he glided over to her and picked her up by the front of the haori.
"You cannot understand."
"Try me. Did you make a stupid mistake or something? Were you too obsessed with getting the Tetsusaiga and ended up losing everything?!" She was getting vindictive and she knew it, but the one thing she hadn't expected from the Taiyoukai was the reaction she got.
"NO!!!" Sesshoumaru roared, holding her up as high off the ground as his arm would allow. "How dare you imply that I lost them of my own fault? The Western Lands were all I had; they would not have been thrown away!"
"What happened then?" She whispered, not wanting to draw on his rage any longer, but realizing this was her only chance to find out the truth.
"More than your pitiful mind can comprehend. There was the Golden Age: that time in the glorious past when we reigned supreme. Then there were the youkai hunts; hoards of accursed humans killing youkai after youkai be they benign or no. Then it came when even the most powerful of us had to go into hiding or risk destruction. It is not easy to change like that, Higurashi... We, the Lords of all the lands banded together to ensure the safety of our holdings. You think that I would not be far- sighted, but I was neither rash nor presumptuous." He paused only long enough to lower her to her feet and pull her close, his claws digging into her arms. His stared directly into her eyes and continued, "It was merely greed that made me to be as I am. Not my own, but those whom I so foolishly trusted. The other Lords sought to have my lands and betrayed me... That is why I have nothing left, Higurashi! That is why I am here, with you, rather than among what little of my own kind there is left and why I am no longer what you first thought me to be. You cannot possibly hope to understand..."
And with that last sentence, the dam within Kagome broke.
"I, cannot understand? You think for one moment that just because I'm human and beneath you, that I've never felt betrayal? That I've never had a hard time? Hell, when I disappeared from the Feudal Era, Inuyasha was in the process of telling me how much more important Kikyo was to him than me. I loved that stupid bastard!" She stifled an angry sob, "I loved him so much and he never even saw it! Do you have any idea how much that hurts?! It's not just something you can will away. And all my friends... They're gone now; I never even got to say goodbye! I'll never see Sango or Miroku again. I'll never see Shippo and he was like my son! Don't you ever, ever say that I don't know what it's like, because I'm probably the only person who really understands!"
Kagome stopped on a breath as jagged as broken glass and by the time she had exhaled Sesshoumaru was gone.
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The entire rest of the day went by uneventfully. Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found; he didn't even come for lunch or dinner. Soberly, Kagome realized that he probably wasn't coming back. She was really sad about that. She had blown it and now things seemed to be even more worse off than before. Somehow, she knew that nothing would ever be the same. Before, she had been able to fit into her niche, so comfortable with only seeing those few and far between glimpses of the past. Now that she had actually touched a part of it, knowing that he was there, she would never be able to go back. For the rest of her life she would be looking down alleys and searching in the dark for the glow of eyes of things better left alone.
There was still some small part of her that clung to the hope that he'd return. Did he even have any other place to go? Somehow she doubted that with his pride, that was any incentive for him to stay. She couldn't help feeling it, but still the branches of the God Tree remained as empty as they had been before he arrived.
Kagome poked at her TV dinner and glanced at the clock. Eleven- thirty. He hadn't come back. In spite of herself, she let out a melancholy sigh. She was tired and she wasn't going to stay up anymore, but she wasn't going to her room. She turned off the lights and curled up on the living room couch. She had left the door unlocked, so that if he wanted to come back in, he could do so. She was staying downstairs in the hope that when, well if, he returned, she'd wake up and be able to talk to him straight away. As she closed her eyes she snorted. Even if he did come back, she had no idea what she was going to say... With that thought in mind, she fell asleep.
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Kagome woke up abruptly and she didn't know why. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Blearily, she looked over at the glowing digital clock on the VCR and saw that it was around four in the morning.
'What the hell am I doing awake this early?' She thought to herself, realizing she sounded out of it even in her own mind. Dismissing the situation, she snuggled back down into the couch and was beginning to fall back asleep when she realized what had woken her up. In the next room something fell off the counter and she could hear the soft scuff of footsteps.
Someone was in the kitchen.
For a moment, she froze out of fear, but then she remembered why she was sleeping in the living room in the first place.
'Sesshoumaru must be back!' She smiled, got up and stretched, and headed into the kitchen ready for anything he had to throw at her.
"Sesshoumaru?" She called, stepping into the dark kitchen.
There was silence, and the only thing that warned of what was happening was the distant sound of Buyo's frightened hiss. By then it was too late.
Kagome cried out in pain as strange hands grabbed her and smashed her head into the wall. She was dizzy for a moment and her knees buckled. Someone pulled her roughly to her feet however, holding on to her arms tightly, aggravating the bruises Sesshoumaru left earlier. The light snapped on and the miko blinked away the vertigo to see she was in the room with two strange men.
"Hey, if she knows we're here maybe we should forget about it." The one across the room said hesitantly.
The other, the one holding her, yanked her roughly across the room seeming to purposefully jostle her aching head. "Yeah, right. This is perfect, she's all alone and this place is isolated enough that we don't have to worry about anyone hearing anything."
'Crap!' Kagome thought, panicked. "I would have to have let the door unlocked! Now they're gonna rob the house! My life sucks!'
She continued to stay slumped over a bit, as if she was still hurt even after her head cleared. The other man began taking all the valuable things out of the living room, under her captor's direction. Then, the other came into the room with Souta's videogames and managed to trip and spill them all over the place.
"You frigging idiot! Pick those up!" Her captor hissed, and for a split second loosened his hold.
Kagome wrenched herself out of his grasp and quickly as she could and headed for the door. Unfortunately, she was more injured than she thought. Her head throbbed painfully and the moment she took to slow down and wince in pain was the moment he caught her.
"Stupid bitch!" He yelled, wrenching her back around and shaking her till she felt nauseous. "I'll teach you for making me climb up all those stairs!" Suddenly, Kagome recognized him. He was that creepy delivery guy. She also noticed the knife in his hand as he pushed her backwards.
It was very nearly slow motion, just like in the movies. He was holding the blade like he knew how to use it and he was pushing it towards her. She cried out when she felt the sharp metal cut through her clothes and she could feel the first prick against her skin.
"Sess--" She started, and then stopped. There wasn't any point. He wouldn't come. He wasn't here... Then the knife bit into her.
She had actually been injured a fair amount of times in her life, but nothing was like this. The knife was sharp, and it sliced through her skin as if she were made of soft butter. At first she didn't feel the wound at all, but then as the knife went deeper she became aware of a intense burning sensation. It was as if someone were impaling her with a red-hot poker. Then the warmth seemed to spread out all over her stomach like hot water. She was dully aware when her head hit the floor. She was also dully aware of some thunderous sound in the distance, and numbly she wondered if another storm was coming up. She decided she didn't like storms and then her eyelids felt like they were made of wax.
So she closed them.
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Sesshoumaru was not having a good night.
In fact, that was an understatement. What the hell was the matter with him? What was this emotion he was feeling? Remorse?
Why in the world should he care about the opinion of a single human? After all, she had been poking her nose where it didn't belong. He nodded to himself and settled back into the branches of the Goshinboku, watching the moon hiding amongst the leaves. He had never left the grounds; the shrine was better than most places to be. When she had looked for him in the Goshinboku, he had simply moved to the roof of her house and returned once she had given up. The whole tree had smelled of her melancholy when she was gone. What was it about her that irked him so? He shook his head and regarded the moon once more. He tried to slip off to sleep, but the rising scents of the city, were harder to ignore when outside. His anal retentive nature forced him away from relaxation, urging him to file every single scent away for later use. He growled. The smells in a city were always so confusing. There were so many different ones that it was often hard to keep them sorted out.
He tried to relax back against the tree again. It was impossible. He had never been comfortable sleeping in trees. Only a lunatic would be comfortable sleeping in trees... Not to mention it was hard enough trying to sleep with the combination of this own traitorous thoughts and the menagerie of scents, but what was that annoying sound coming form the miko's home? Frustrated, he focused his superhuman hearing towards the sound and caught a pained gasp of the beginning of his name closely followed by the thick overwhelming scent of Kagome's blood.
He was off before his mind had time to process the information. The kitchen door was open and he blasted in. Objects from the house were strewn all over the kitchen and on the floor lay Kagome in a steadily growing pool of her own blood. Amidst the carnage two humans stood and as soon as they noticed his presence, the air became acrid with fear. The Taiyoukai did not even give them enough time to utter a syllable before he was upon them. The follower of the two was literally thrown out the door where he landed outside with a sickening crunch. The other, the one covered in Kagome's blood, brandished the knife, but it was no use. Sesshoumaru grabbed the offending appendage and crushed it to pulp. The following wrench that flung him outside to join his companion dislocated his shoulder. Once out of the house, the youkai grabbed an offender in each hand, sped up to the stairs and flung them down. He did not wait till they hit the bottom, but immediately retuned to the house. He would deal with whether or not they survived later, but Kagome had very little time.
Kagome was right where he left her, pale as death. The fact that she was still bleeding a bit proved that she was alive, but just barely. The ingrate had stabbed her just under the left side of her ribcage. The wound was deep and precise and had punctured several vital organs. She would not survive. Sesshoumaru looked down at her. She looked so helpless, defenseless...
'Like Rin.' The thought came unbidden. Why not?
In a flash, the youkai was up in the Miko's room. By scent, he found his old pack right where she had left it. It seemed mostly empty, but the one thing that it contained was priceless.
Tenseiga slid out of the darkness and into the moonlight. The healing fang shone and then almost as if it scented the blood that clung to its master, the sword pulsed. The next moment, he was in the kitchen again. He stood over Kagome holding the sword, looking like a warrior of old.
"Live." The Taiyoukai ordered. Then he struck with a bolt of blue light. The sword returned to it's sheath and the pool of blood stopped growing. Without a word, the youkai scooped up the priestess in his arms and left the room.
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The only way, Kagome later decided, to describe things as she came back to herself, was hazy. It was almost as if everything had been covered in a thin sheen of mist while she slumbered. Slowly, the veil faded and life began to shift back into focus, beginning with Sesshoumaru.
The first thing she saw were his fathomless golden eyes as they stared right into her soul.
"Wha happen--" She began, but all too soon her memories came back to her. She drew in a breath full of alarm and sat up quickly; too quickly. Lightheaded, she lowered herself back to the pillow with a groan. Wait. Pillow? She looked around and realized she was in her own bed. Sesshoumaru loomed over her and pressed what felt like a cool cloth to her forehead.
"Don't move around." He ordered. "You lost a lot of blood."
So it wasn't a dream, then. She pleaded with her eyes for him to explain and he got the message. "They will not be back, I assure you. You were badly wounded, so I healed you with Tenseiga."
Kagome blinked. Tenseiga? She looked, and sure enough the sword was leaning against the wall. "What happened to Toukijin?" She asked.
"It broke." He said simply.
"Oh."
There was a pregnant pause and in it, Kagome looked down to survey herself. There were no bloodstains on her clothing. In fact, she wasn't even wearing the same clothes she had been wearing when she'd been attacked. She blushed when she realized who had changed them. Before she could stop herself she wondered just how much experience he had undressing women. She watched the youkai lord as he fussed over her, changing the cloth on her head and adjusting the blankets. She never would have expected Sesshoumaru to have a nurturing side. Then the vision of a tiny girl in a checkered kimono danced across her inner eye.
"Rin..." She said.
The youkai froze and looked at her.
"You learned how to take care of others from Rin."
Finally, he inclined his head. "I learned many things from Rin."
"I'm glad. Sesshoumaru, I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier... And thank you. You saved my life."
Sesshoumaru felt all the animosity he had felt for the human slowly fade. How could he remain angry when she looked up at him with such trust in her eyes? He had been right. She was so much like Rin. And she obviously needed someone to protect her. She didn't seem to be capable of defending herself against her own species. She was too kind.
"You are welcome, Kagome. Now rest."
To say the least he was startled by the volume of her smile.
"What is it?"
"That's the first time you've called me by my name."
She drifted off with that smile on her face and Sesshoumaru stayed and watched her for a long time.
Then he went downstairs to clean up the blood.
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Oh, I wish I was a little piece of orange! Hello all! Feel free to save the whales or push the little button in order to either give me kudos or deliver death threats. The tortellini is all the same from where I'm standing... R&R, my children, farewell.
JJ is consumed by the Great Spirit.
Ed: Well. Now that she's gone maybe I won't have to worry about being plucked in my sleep anymore.
(Evil disembodied cackle fill the air)
Tata, JJ
And now, reviews! Hark the herald!
Defafeath Mechqua: Yes indeed. The world revolves around inadvertent comments.
dancing-by-moonlight: Oh God, thank you! I hate those fics where just suddenly everybody falls deeply in love in the first five paragraphs! This romance will take a while damn it!!! And then there's the thing with the giant Buddah, but oh well...
Hieis/Kuramas-Angel: Thank you! I shall keep writing! They'll have to pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers to make me stop! (Lets out a deranged cackle)
Jazngurl: Hi! Thank you, hope your leg hasn't fallen off...
Mirokou Sempai-Crazy: Awww... Thank you! (smiles giddily) Yes! Indeed, there is a glimpse into said past. It will be clarified later, but this is all ya get till.... (Ed: Don't give away the plot! JJ: Shut up you stupid bird!) Erm.. Yeah.
Sukera: Thanks! Appreciate the review!
Crimson Colored Cloaked Figure: Thank you! I love giving animals titles. For example, my cat Stinker is The Great Stinkrini... You know, Houdini... Meh..
piccolojr212002: Thank you for reviewing; hope to hear from you again!
lilbunnyfufu: Tehehe! Sesshoumaru's not being hunted per se, but his past is gonna catch up with him, let's just say that...
desy: Naw, it doesn't end, end. I just tend to babble. Sorry! Alright then. Thanks for the review!
Sesshyangel: (Backs away from reviewer slowly...) Umm.. Sorry? Thank you for reviewing! Sess-chan gets better, I promise! Oh, and just so you know... I put curses on people who attack me, ask all my friends.. Er.. Well. You could have asked them, but unfortunately they're...unavailable... (Ed: You shrunk their heads! Of curse they're frikken unavailable! JJ: That's it! I'm getting another muse, you can't keep your beak shut!) Hehehe. Ignore that conversation...
Akki-Chan: Thank you for the review! Here's the next chapter! WinterBlossom/YukiSakura: Thank you! Tehe, I'll admit that is a pretty neat power.. Someone should write about Kagome's magic mini-skirt. I'd read it!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
And now, the disclaimer!
Disclaimer: Kumbaya, my lord, Kumbaya! Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya! Kumbaya my lord, Kubaya! Oh lord, no own Inuyasha!
And now, what you've all been waiting for....
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::
Chapter Four: Worse Than His Bite
She stayed up all night worrying and awoke the next morning much later than usual. Late morning sunlight shone cheerfully against her bleary eyes. It was all a conspiracy... When the cheerfulness of the birds outside became to poignant to ignore, Kagome flung her pillow across the room and screeched, "Alright you stupid birds, I'm up!"
Downstairs, a certain youkai wondered if the strange miko had gone insane.
"Morning." She said, sleepily trudging down the stairs.
"I was beginning to think you might have died in your sleep." Sesshoumaru greeted, ever the positive one.
"No such luck." She replied and started making a batch of the most caffeine heavy tea that she owned. As it steeped, she looked around and realized that Sesshoumaru had already made himself breakfast.
"I didn't know you could cook." She yawned.
"There are many things you don't know about me." He replied, and left to go outside. Kagome followed him with her eyes till he was gone. That was true. She had hardly known anything about him in the Feudal Era, and a lot more had to have happened to him in five hundred years... She needed to know. Kagome blinked sleepily. As soon as she was awake, that is...
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After getting hyped up and eating and all that jazz, Kagome headed out in what she hoped would be a peaceful confrontation with Sesshoumaru.
'Who am I kidding?' She berated herself, 'Peaceful is one adjective that could never be associated with Sesshoumaru in a million years!'
When she couldn't find him right away, she followed a hunch and went over to the Goshinboku. Sure enough, there was Sesshoumaru. Though, this time he was sitting at the base of it rather than up in its branches. He did not acknowledge her presence. She waited for a while, building up her courage.
"What?" The Taiyoukai finally drawled. His eyes opened to slits and he glared at her stoically.
"What happened, Sesshoumaru?"
His eyes opened the rest of the way and he fixed her with a look that clearly showed his disbelief that she'd be so stupid as to ask. Kagome felt rather stupid. She had meant to simply ask him if he would stay at the shrine for a while, but the other question just popped out. Oh well. Now that she had said it, she might as well pursue it.
"That is none of your business, human." He growled.
Kagome bristled. "Excuse me! I just want to know. I mean, it isn't everyday that an inu youkai that I only know from the Feudal Era just knocks me over and faints at my feet! I want to help you if I can!"
"I will speak no more of it Higurashi! Do not think to meddle into my affairs..." He started to stalk off, but Kagome followed.
"Now listen here, you jerk. I'm only trying to help, you don't have to get your panties all up in a bunch!"
Apparently, Sesshoumaru at that point had had enough.
"Filthy human!" He swung around, his face a cold hard mask and slammed her into the nearest building, pinning her there by the throat. All pleasantries were gone. "What makes you think you can speak thus to me?! Do you have any idea with whom you are being so obnoxious to?!"
"No! I don't!" Kagome snarled back. "I don't have any idea who you are at all! You'll have to excuse me for thinking that it's a little out of character for the Lord of the Western Lands to be filthy and starving in a back alley!!! What the hell happened?!"
Sesshoumaru flung her from the wall and she skidded a few feet, but felt unhurt. She didn't really care though, once she looked up at the glaring youkai lord and saw his eyes beginning to bleed red.
'Well crap.' She thought as he glided over to her and picked her up by the front of the haori.
"You cannot understand."
"Try me. Did you make a stupid mistake or something? Were you too obsessed with getting the Tetsusaiga and ended up losing everything?!" She was getting vindictive and she knew it, but the one thing she hadn't expected from the Taiyoukai was the reaction she got.
"NO!!!" Sesshoumaru roared, holding her up as high off the ground as his arm would allow. "How dare you imply that I lost them of my own fault? The Western Lands were all I had; they would not have been thrown away!"
"What happened then?" She whispered, not wanting to draw on his rage any longer, but realizing this was her only chance to find out the truth.
"More than your pitiful mind can comprehend. There was the Golden Age: that time in the glorious past when we reigned supreme. Then there were the youkai hunts; hoards of accursed humans killing youkai after youkai be they benign or no. Then it came when even the most powerful of us had to go into hiding or risk destruction. It is not easy to change like that, Higurashi... We, the Lords of all the lands banded together to ensure the safety of our holdings. You think that I would not be far- sighted, but I was neither rash nor presumptuous." He paused only long enough to lower her to her feet and pull her close, his claws digging into her arms. His stared directly into her eyes and continued, "It was merely greed that made me to be as I am. Not my own, but those whom I so foolishly trusted. The other Lords sought to have my lands and betrayed me... That is why I have nothing left, Higurashi! That is why I am here, with you, rather than among what little of my own kind there is left and why I am no longer what you first thought me to be. You cannot possibly hope to understand..."
And with that last sentence, the dam within Kagome broke.
"I, cannot understand? You think for one moment that just because I'm human and beneath you, that I've never felt betrayal? That I've never had a hard time? Hell, when I disappeared from the Feudal Era, Inuyasha was in the process of telling me how much more important Kikyo was to him than me. I loved that stupid bastard!" She stifled an angry sob, "I loved him so much and he never even saw it! Do you have any idea how much that hurts?! It's not just something you can will away. And all my friends... They're gone now; I never even got to say goodbye! I'll never see Sango or Miroku again. I'll never see Shippo and he was like my son! Don't you ever, ever say that I don't know what it's like, because I'm probably the only person who really understands!"
Kagome stopped on a breath as jagged as broken glass and by the time she had exhaled Sesshoumaru was gone.
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The entire rest of the day went by uneventfully. Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found; he didn't even come for lunch or dinner. Soberly, Kagome realized that he probably wasn't coming back. She was really sad about that. She had blown it and now things seemed to be even more worse off than before. Somehow, she knew that nothing would ever be the same. Before, she had been able to fit into her niche, so comfortable with only seeing those few and far between glimpses of the past. Now that she had actually touched a part of it, knowing that he was there, she would never be able to go back. For the rest of her life she would be looking down alleys and searching in the dark for the glow of eyes of things better left alone.
There was still some small part of her that clung to the hope that he'd return. Did he even have any other place to go? Somehow she doubted that with his pride, that was any incentive for him to stay. She couldn't help feeling it, but still the branches of the God Tree remained as empty as they had been before he arrived.
Kagome poked at her TV dinner and glanced at the clock. Eleven- thirty. He hadn't come back. In spite of herself, she let out a melancholy sigh. She was tired and she wasn't going to stay up anymore, but she wasn't going to her room. She turned off the lights and curled up on the living room couch. She had left the door unlocked, so that if he wanted to come back in, he could do so. She was staying downstairs in the hope that when, well if, he returned, she'd wake up and be able to talk to him straight away. As she closed her eyes she snorted. Even if he did come back, she had no idea what she was going to say... With that thought in mind, she fell asleep.
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Kagome woke up abruptly and she didn't know why. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Blearily, she looked over at the glowing digital clock on the VCR and saw that it was around four in the morning.
'What the hell am I doing awake this early?' She thought to herself, realizing she sounded out of it even in her own mind. Dismissing the situation, she snuggled back down into the couch and was beginning to fall back asleep when she realized what had woken her up. In the next room something fell off the counter and she could hear the soft scuff of footsteps.
Someone was in the kitchen.
For a moment, she froze out of fear, but then she remembered why she was sleeping in the living room in the first place.
'Sesshoumaru must be back!' She smiled, got up and stretched, and headed into the kitchen ready for anything he had to throw at her.
"Sesshoumaru?" She called, stepping into the dark kitchen.
There was silence, and the only thing that warned of what was happening was the distant sound of Buyo's frightened hiss. By then it was too late.
Kagome cried out in pain as strange hands grabbed her and smashed her head into the wall. She was dizzy for a moment and her knees buckled. Someone pulled her roughly to her feet however, holding on to her arms tightly, aggravating the bruises Sesshoumaru left earlier. The light snapped on and the miko blinked away the vertigo to see she was in the room with two strange men.
"Hey, if she knows we're here maybe we should forget about it." The one across the room said hesitantly.
The other, the one holding her, yanked her roughly across the room seeming to purposefully jostle her aching head. "Yeah, right. This is perfect, she's all alone and this place is isolated enough that we don't have to worry about anyone hearing anything."
'Crap!' Kagome thought, panicked. "I would have to have let the door unlocked! Now they're gonna rob the house! My life sucks!'
She continued to stay slumped over a bit, as if she was still hurt even after her head cleared. The other man began taking all the valuable things out of the living room, under her captor's direction. Then, the other came into the room with Souta's videogames and managed to trip and spill them all over the place.
"You frigging idiot! Pick those up!" Her captor hissed, and for a split second loosened his hold.
Kagome wrenched herself out of his grasp and quickly as she could and headed for the door. Unfortunately, she was more injured than she thought. Her head throbbed painfully and the moment she took to slow down and wince in pain was the moment he caught her.
"Stupid bitch!" He yelled, wrenching her back around and shaking her till she felt nauseous. "I'll teach you for making me climb up all those stairs!" Suddenly, Kagome recognized him. He was that creepy delivery guy. She also noticed the knife in his hand as he pushed her backwards.
It was very nearly slow motion, just like in the movies. He was holding the blade like he knew how to use it and he was pushing it towards her. She cried out when she felt the sharp metal cut through her clothes and she could feel the first prick against her skin.
"Sess--" She started, and then stopped. There wasn't any point. He wouldn't come. He wasn't here... Then the knife bit into her.
She had actually been injured a fair amount of times in her life, but nothing was like this. The knife was sharp, and it sliced through her skin as if she were made of soft butter. At first she didn't feel the wound at all, but then as the knife went deeper she became aware of a intense burning sensation. It was as if someone were impaling her with a red-hot poker. Then the warmth seemed to spread out all over her stomach like hot water. She was dully aware when her head hit the floor. She was also dully aware of some thunderous sound in the distance, and numbly she wondered if another storm was coming up. She decided she didn't like storms and then her eyelids felt like they were made of wax.
So she closed them.
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Sesshoumaru was not having a good night.
In fact, that was an understatement. What the hell was the matter with him? What was this emotion he was feeling? Remorse?
Why in the world should he care about the opinion of a single human? After all, she had been poking her nose where it didn't belong. He nodded to himself and settled back into the branches of the Goshinboku, watching the moon hiding amongst the leaves. He had never left the grounds; the shrine was better than most places to be. When she had looked for him in the Goshinboku, he had simply moved to the roof of her house and returned once she had given up. The whole tree had smelled of her melancholy when she was gone. What was it about her that irked him so? He shook his head and regarded the moon once more. He tried to slip off to sleep, but the rising scents of the city, were harder to ignore when outside. His anal retentive nature forced him away from relaxation, urging him to file every single scent away for later use. He growled. The smells in a city were always so confusing. There were so many different ones that it was often hard to keep them sorted out.
He tried to relax back against the tree again. It was impossible. He had never been comfortable sleeping in trees. Only a lunatic would be comfortable sleeping in trees... Not to mention it was hard enough trying to sleep with the combination of this own traitorous thoughts and the menagerie of scents, but what was that annoying sound coming form the miko's home? Frustrated, he focused his superhuman hearing towards the sound and caught a pained gasp of the beginning of his name closely followed by the thick overwhelming scent of Kagome's blood.
He was off before his mind had time to process the information. The kitchen door was open and he blasted in. Objects from the house were strewn all over the kitchen and on the floor lay Kagome in a steadily growing pool of her own blood. Amidst the carnage two humans stood and as soon as they noticed his presence, the air became acrid with fear. The Taiyoukai did not even give them enough time to utter a syllable before he was upon them. The follower of the two was literally thrown out the door where he landed outside with a sickening crunch. The other, the one covered in Kagome's blood, brandished the knife, but it was no use. Sesshoumaru grabbed the offending appendage and crushed it to pulp. The following wrench that flung him outside to join his companion dislocated his shoulder. Once out of the house, the youkai grabbed an offender in each hand, sped up to the stairs and flung them down. He did not wait till they hit the bottom, but immediately retuned to the house. He would deal with whether or not they survived later, but Kagome had very little time.
Kagome was right where he left her, pale as death. The fact that she was still bleeding a bit proved that she was alive, but just barely. The ingrate had stabbed her just under the left side of her ribcage. The wound was deep and precise and had punctured several vital organs. She would not survive. Sesshoumaru looked down at her. She looked so helpless, defenseless...
'Like Rin.' The thought came unbidden. Why not?
In a flash, the youkai was up in the Miko's room. By scent, he found his old pack right where she had left it. It seemed mostly empty, but the one thing that it contained was priceless.
Tenseiga slid out of the darkness and into the moonlight. The healing fang shone and then almost as if it scented the blood that clung to its master, the sword pulsed. The next moment, he was in the kitchen again. He stood over Kagome holding the sword, looking like a warrior of old.
"Live." The Taiyoukai ordered. Then he struck with a bolt of blue light. The sword returned to it's sheath and the pool of blood stopped growing. Without a word, the youkai scooped up the priestess in his arms and left the room.
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The only way, Kagome later decided, to describe things as she came back to herself, was hazy. It was almost as if everything had been covered in a thin sheen of mist while she slumbered. Slowly, the veil faded and life began to shift back into focus, beginning with Sesshoumaru.
The first thing she saw were his fathomless golden eyes as they stared right into her soul.
"Wha happen--" She began, but all too soon her memories came back to her. She drew in a breath full of alarm and sat up quickly; too quickly. Lightheaded, she lowered herself back to the pillow with a groan. Wait. Pillow? She looked around and realized she was in her own bed. Sesshoumaru loomed over her and pressed what felt like a cool cloth to her forehead.
"Don't move around." He ordered. "You lost a lot of blood."
So it wasn't a dream, then. She pleaded with her eyes for him to explain and he got the message. "They will not be back, I assure you. You were badly wounded, so I healed you with Tenseiga."
Kagome blinked. Tenseiga? She looked, and sure enough the sword was leaning against the wall. "What happened to Toukijin?" She asked.
"It broke." He said simply.
"Oh."
There was a pregnant pause and in it, Kagome looked down to survey herself. There were no bloodstains on her clothing. In fact, she wasn't even wearing the same clothes she had been wearing when she'd been attacked. She blushed when she realized who had changed them. Before she could stop herself she wondered just how much experience he had undressing women. She watched the youkai lord as he fussed over her, changing the cloth on her head and adjusting the blankets. She never would have expected Sesshoumaru to have a nurturing side. Then the vision of a tiny girl in a checkered kimono danced across her inner eye.
"Rin..." She said.
The youkai froze and looked at her.
"You learned how to take care of others from Rin."
Finally, he inclined his head. "I learned many things from Rin."
"I'm glad. Sesshoumaru, I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier... And thank you. You saved my life."
Sesshoumaru felt all the animosity he had felt for the human slowly fade. How could he remain angry when she looked up at him with such trust in her eyes? He had been right. She was so much like Rin. And she obviously needed someone to protect her. She didn't seem to be capable of defending herself against her own species. She was too kind.
"You are welcome, Kagome. Now rest."
To say the least he was startled by the volume of her smile.
"What is it?"
"That's the first time you've called me by my name."
She drifted off with that smile on her face and Sesshoumaru stayed and watched her for a long time.
Then he went downstairs to clean up the blood.
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Oh, I wish I was a little piece of orange! Hello all! Feel free to save the whales or push the little button in order to either give me kudos or deliver death threats. The tortellini is all the same from where I'm standing... R&R, my children, farewell.
JJ is consumed by the Great Spirit.
Ed: Well. Now that she's gone maybe I won't have to worry about being plucked in my sleep anymore.
(Evil disembodied cackle fill the air)
Tata, JJ