An Inu Yasha Fanfic by Hika-chan
Chapter 2: In The Hours Before Dawn
She flinched slightly in his arms at the question, somehow his voice seemed less surreal than usual. "Why don't you tell me?" she responded, somewhat hesitantly not sure where this was going.
She felt him shrug, "You never asked." Why does she seem less confident now? Why does she feel more... real? "Why don't you ask?"
She sat up slightly and turned halfway to him, her black hair masking her face. He wanted to reach out and brush it aside to see what she looked like, but fear of that ending this dream he did not. The force of this dream world compelled him not to. "Because," she whispered, "I'm afraid."
"Of what? Me?" He almost sounded amused.
Raven locks rippled as she shook her head, "No. Of losing this, what we have now." She paused and tuned her head away from him, looking at the setting sun over the water before them. "I'm afraid that.. when and if we meet awake we won't... that we won't fit into each other's lives. That everything we have here will be ruined and lost."
He smiled at her childish fear, "Now what makes you think a thing like that?" She was not just a dream now, he was sure of it. Every time before now she had been calm, so much so that she seemed intangible, ethereal. But now, she worried, she was scared, her voice trembled with emotion, she was not merely content. She was real.
"What we have... it's almost like a sanctuary for me, no matter how the day goes, our meetings here make it a good one... I don't want to lose it."
She could hear the grin in his voice, "Now what makes you think it won't get better?"
She turned sideways to him again, the bright orange sun behind her head hiding her features. Inwardly he scowled at the mocking sun that once again denied him of the simple pleasure of her identity. A light laughter escaped her lips, "Suffice to say this seems too perfect to exist even in dreams... how can I dare even think it can exist in reality?"
He rose to his knees and pulled her close to him, she easily obliged and settled her head against his shoulder, nuzzling her head against his neck lovingly, almost like a cat. "You worry too much," he whispered assuringly. "But could you please tell me something I could know you by?" Were he awake he would simply demand it, but in this dream state, he did not fear the show of tenderness, well not anymore, afterall there was no one else to see it.
Her uneasiness rose inside her but at the same time his embrace eased her nervousness. "I don't know what to tell you..."
The sun dove below the horizon faster than it should have, eveloping them in darkness so that when he pulled back their faces could not be seen. "I will give you something to remember," he whispered, gently taking her chin in his hand and placing a simple, chaste kiss upon her lips.
When the kiss broke he could feel her smile warm him, "blue moon..." she whispered.
Sesshoumaru sat up in his bed, sighing slightly at the memoy of the kiss he had stolen. Contentment was soon stolen away by confusion, "Blue moon" she had said, Does she have an idea of who I am? He pondered thinking on the cresant decorating his forehead. No she can't possibly, not after all the things she had said were her fears. If she knew who I was then she would have not said that. And why now did he talk to her concious self? Suddenly a realization struck him, "She's close."
Kagome opened her eyes slowly. Well that was different, she thought. She sat up slowly careful not to disturb the kitsune cub beside her. She scanned the camp quickly, Inu Yasha, Miroku, and Sango were all still asleep, a closer look told her that Kirara and Myouga were as well. She sighed and got out of the sleeping bag. She picked up a water bottle, remembering there was a stream about a hundred meters away. She looked at her watch, 4:30. Oh well, I'll just wash my face, get a drink and go back to sleep.
"Kagome-sama? What are you doing?"
She turned at the voice, "Ah Tanuki-san, I'm just going to get some cold water. The stream is that way correct?" The racoon nodded. "Don't worry about me, I'll be back in a few minutes." Aside from nearly tripping on a root her trip to the stream was rather uneventful. It was a rather small stream, about five feet wide and probably only three feet deep at the most. Putting the bottle down at her side she kneeled down and splashed some of the refreshing liquid upon her face. "That was just too wierd," she muttered to herself. She looked down at her reflection in the water. He's real, she thought, both happy and afraid at the same time. What if was really an asshole? I mean he's certainly confident, all sure everything would work out... Maybe he's just a hopless romantic like me... She giggled a bit. No some how she knew that he was not. She smiled at her reflection, "or maybe he just doesn't know it yet."
Suddenly she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, a youkai was coming if it was not already here. Dammit! and I left my bow at the camp! She grabbed the bottle and went to stand, about to turn back towards camp, when half way to standing, she froze.
On the opposite side of the stream, regaurding her with intrest and bored, golden eyes, Sesshoumaru was looking at her. He wore his usual outfit, swords at his side, but no armor, if she had to guess she would assume that he had been in a rush to get dressed. "Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here?" She half whispered, as though her friends would wake if she spoke louder.
"Apparently watching you talk to yourself." He said in his usual monotone voice, though in actuality he was quite amused.
Her shoulders slumped and she seemed suddenly annoyed, "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for a kill," he lied, grinning inside as her face paled visibly even in the moonlight. "I am looking for someone..."
Why that jerk! Teasing me like that! Wait did he say- Fear and concern immediately crossed her features, "Rin's not missing is she?"
He almost smiled at her concern, almost. "No I was looking for someone else, I got the distinct feeling they were in this direction, but it seems I was mistaken."
"That doesn't seem very like you," she said, kneeling down to fill the bottle with water.
He raised a brow, "You know me so well?"
She grinned, "Well... no, but that would just be my guess."
And of course she's right... Sesshoumaru thought to himself as he silently watched her fil the bottle, Not only did you just wander off in the middle of the night from a dream and a feeling, you actually admitted to making a mistake! At least it doesn't seem she caught it. "It suites you." He said suddenly.
"What?" she asked confused. When she stood she was startled to realize he was standing an arms length from her, easily balanced on a rock protruding from the water's surface.
He reached out a hand slowly, she took a half step back and his fingers took hold of an azure lock of hair. "The blue, it suits you better. Your aura I mean." While his face was still straight it was beggining to take some effort to keep it so. Her heartbeat was speeding up, he wasn't even that close! It took so little to make her uneasy and the fact that he found some sadistic joy in it helped him take his mind off of his on wonderings.
"I see.. I guess that explains the color change then," she said uneasily as she backed up enough for her hair to fall free of where is hung loosly on his fingers. She brought the bottle up to her chest, holding it there in an unconcious gesture to protect herself from anything that may happen.
He raised a brow again, "You fear me?"
"No. Yes... errr.. is that a trick question?"
This was too fun, it was actually taking a concious effort not to smile at her antics. "I do not bother with such frivolous endevours. You clearly fear something, I can smell it, and you have brought your arms over your chest as though to guard yourself."
Her expression turned confused for a moment and she pulled out the collar of her shirt sniffing it, "I don't smell anything." She looked up at him a confused near pout on her face. He responded back with a you-honestly-didn't-think-that-would-work-did-you? look. The confused pout turned into an angry one, "What!?"
"You can't smell your own fear, besides now you're just annoyed."
"Well I wonder why," she huffed before catching a scent on the wind, it was his but it was a bit different from when he arrived. It was a useless distance at which she could smell, not like a youkai who could smell danger coming from literally a mile away. Something came to her mind as she matched the odd thing in his scent with something in his eyes. Her mouth hung open in offended shock, "You're enjoying this aren't you!?"
His eyes widened, surprised that she could sense it. "What makes you say that?" Amazing how her fear vanishes when she's angry...
"God you're such a jerk!" She said putting a hand in the middle of his chest and pushing.
He stepped back to keep his balance, one of his feet landing in the shallow water by the bank. He frowned at his wet foot and stepped back onto the rock. Or maybe she just forgets who she's talking too. He looked back at her one snowy brow raised in annoyance. Well I shall just have to remind her."Do not forget to whom you are speaking woman."
Kagome's blue eyes widened, Oops... Had she the inclination to think more on something other than getting away it would have been "Baaaaaad move Kagome."
He took a step forward onto the bank and she took two back. Narrowing his eyes at her and smelling her fear he grinned inside, Good, she finally remembers who I am. "You are very lucky Rin is so fond of you." He kept walking forward until she backed herself into a tree. He stared into her eyes for a long quiet minute, she obviously wasn't sure whether that meant if he would kill her or not. Finally a smirk touched his lips and with a "hmph" he backed up a few feet. "Any other changes since Tsukinoshi left?"
She gawked at him, he had started speaking again as though they had been having a normal friendly chat the entire time, he found her expression to be quite amusing. "n..No, unfortunately, I still have most of the limited youkai attributes I gained then. Well the mark on my f-"
"Kagome-sama?" They both turned towards the woods, it Tanuki was calling, worried for the girl.
"I'm alright. I'm coming!"
"Should I walk you back?"
"Ehhh.. I don't think that would be a good idea, Inu Yasha would-"
"Yes I suppose you are right. See you tomorrow?"
"eh? Oh, yeah... sure thing." She turned then, returning to the camp and he stood there listening to see that she made it back to the camp safely. He grinned and chuckled somewhat when he heard her trip cursing, "Damn root..." That done he took off in the air to go back to his castle, he may not have found that dream woman tonight but at least he did find some amusement.
------------------------------------
Hika-chan: Ok well I had half of that one planned out before I started writing the first chapter so this one came out pretty quick, I can't make any promises on the next one coming out this fast though... come to think of it this one's kinda short compared to most of my chapters...
Unfortunately it looks like "Beautiful Nightmare" won't be getting so much attention now that I'm working on this one (that and it's hardly getting any reviews :( *shrug* I only have so much creative energy here people! Between fanfics and art classes I'm getting tapped out!
Anyway... I gues I only kinda answered one question from the last chapter... (the color changing thing).. oh well! Some questions about Yuki should be answered next chapter *rubs her hands together and grins evilly* heh heh heheheh...
Oh! And Tanuki, in case you hadn't guessed already he's the racoon they get rides from... I think that's his name, I'm not sure because I think "Tanuki" means "racoon" soo.... yeah.
PS- I made a Sess/Kag desktop/wallpaper/ whatever on my web page :) it's here "http://www.freewebs.com/hika-chan/wp2.htm"