In response to everyone's comments...

I am planning to reveal what happened to Inuyasha/where he is quite soon, I'm just waiting for the right time

and as Sesshomaru said in one of the previous chapters, he said that Inuyasha WOULD join with Naraku, then when they both get all of the jewel shards he's going to try to betray Naraku and steal the shards for himself. And you'll also find out if Inuyasha is on a spell by Kikyo LATER on.

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Kagome sat there, trembling. 'I'm so weak..'

"Kagome," Sesshomaru said. "You may go."

Sesshomaru watched as Kagome, still trembling, walked down the hallway. He hated seeing women like this. He wouldn't admit that to anyone though, but he still wondered why Inuyasha chose the dead miko over her. 'They both look the same, but the dead miko has more power, perhaps?' He thought, but mentally shook his head. 'A living miko is better than a dead one.'

Inuyasha cradled Kikyo in his arms-was she truly gone this time? He gently shook her. 'Damn Sesshomaru! I'll kill him when I find him.. He just had to come into that battle, didn't he? We could've killed the bitch if it weren't for him!' Inuyasha thought angrily. 'But why did he want her?'

'No matter, I'll find her.'

"Kikyo.. I'll kill that Kagome wench for you.. In your name.." He rested Kikyo's corpse (A/N: even though Kikyo always WAS a corpse) on the cave floor. He swiftly ran out of the cave. 'Maybe I can find some souls for her,' he thought.

"If that doesn't work.. Kagome's soul will have to do." Inuyasha felt a smirk creeping to his face.

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Kagome walked up to her room with Sakura. She felt tired, worn out from all of the crying. Sakura patted her back, "It's ok Kagome, everything will be better soon.." But did Kagome believe it? 'No,' she thought, 'Even Sakura knows in her heart that that's not true. Everything will just get worse. Inuyasha will come and Sesshomaru will be forced to kill him or else Inuyasha will kill me..' Kagome inhaled, shuddering at the sudden coldness she felt. She climbed into the bed, not bothering to take her clothes off. 'Maybe tomorow will be better..' She thought.

She was in Inuyasha's arms again.

"Inuyasha..." She breathed, but pulled away from him. "I know you don't really love me," she said, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Inuyasha looked at her and walked closer to her.

"Kagome.. You're not making any sense.. Who was the person who rescued you every time you were in trouble?" He asked, cupping her chin in one hand to make her look at him.

"You, but-" "Then no more questions asked." Inuyasha brought Kagome into an embrace. 'I'm so happy everything's okay.. Maybe it was just a dream...' But as she hugged him back she felt a searing pain in her stomach. She saw Inuyasha push her away and saw that there was a knife lodged in her chest, and Inuyasha smiling. She screamed.

The first thing that Kagome saw with a blurry vision was golden eyes and white hair. She screamed again but felt a hand muffle it.

"Kagome."

"Stay away from me! Let me go!" She screamed, squirming to get away.

"Kagome," The voice said, more louder, more forceful. She heard that it wasn't Inuyasha's voice and relaxed, but a part of her tensed when it knew that the voice belonged to Sesshomaru.

"Are you going to scream again?" He asked. As Kagome's vision focused, she saw that Sesshomaru looked a little pissed off as he stared down at her. Kagome shook her head and felt the weight of his hand disappear from her mouth.

"You were screaming in your sleep," he said. "I came to see why but it seems you were having a dream about my hanyou brother."

"I'm really sorr-" "Why?"

Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru. Her head tilted, telling him that she didn't understand.

"Why are you still in love with my foolish brother?"

Kagome's thoughts paused a moment as she stared into Sesshomaru's eyes.

'Why did she still love him?' She wondered.

"I.. Don't know.. I'm sorry." Kagome felt extremely stupid saying those words-not knowing why she still loved someone who tried to kill her? That truly was stupidity, she thought.

Sesshomaru stared into her eyes a moment more, then turned away from the bedside and walked over to the door.

"Rin will be waiting for you downstairs. I expect you to be there in ten minutes."

Kagome nodded. With that, Sesshomaru exited the room.

'I don't know what she ever saw in my hanyou brother.'

Kagome sighed and opened the closet door. She gasped as she found more new, beautiful kimonos. 'I really love these.. But I wish he wouldn't let me wear these because I'm afraid I'll ruin them..' She thought and picked out one of the plainer ones-(if it COULD be considered plain). It was a mostly black kimono with white flowers embroidered onto the edges.

As Kagome entered the room that Rin and felt something attatch itself to her leg.

"Kagomeeeee!" Rin squealed. Kagome smiled and knelt down so she could hug Rin-and smiled.

Sesshomaru watched this, sitting on a chair. 'Kagome is like a mother to her,' he noted.

Rin looked up at Kagome with watery eyes. "Rin missed you.."

'Aww, she's so cute!' Kagome thought. She was happy to be around a girl like Rin.

"I missed you too, Rin, but it's only been a day!'

"It seems longer.. Kagome-chan, can we go to pick flowers?" Kagome gladly nodded. 'It'll do me good to get out of this dark castle, anyway..' She thought.

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Time passed quickly as Kagome and Rin picked flowers in Sesshomaru's main garden-to say the least, all of his gardens were HUGE. Kagome knew that Sesshomaru was a very powerful lord to have such a big castle and so many servants, but she never suspected that he would have gardens-she just never thought about Sesshomaru being a calm person but now that she thought about it it seemed to suit him.

Kagome was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice Rin approach her.

"Kagome.. I want to give this to you," Rin said, and held up a flower. Kagome gladly accepted it with appreciation.

"Thanks, Rin!" Kagome took it from Rin's small hand and sniffed it and found that it smelled very pleasant. She recognized it as a cherry blossom.

"I chose this for you because you remind me of this flower.. You're nice and delicate," she said.

"Ah." Kagome seemed to ponder those words for a moment. 'And fragile.' She added at the end of that sentence but mentally hit herself. She was becoming more pessimistic as the days passed. She suddenly thought of her family. 'Do they miss me?' she thought. 'What will become of my life? Will I live the rest of my days in the fuedal era? It's not like I have a good education, anyway.. I've skipped so many of my school days because of Inuyasha.. I sacrificed.. So much for him..' She thought bitterly. She suddenly felt very angry towards him-she had lost so much because of him, and she didn't get anything in return. Only betrayal and sorrow.

Kagome felt a tear run down her cheek and it landed on the flower, making the cherry blossom's flowers flatten against it.

"Kagome.. Why are you crying? Why are you so sad all the time?" Rin asked, sitting next to her. 'Why am I crying again? I'm so weak..'

Kagome tried to stop crying but realized that she couldn't-the tears just kept spilling endlessly.

"Rin," Kagome didn't look up as she heard a deep voice in front of her. "Give Kagome some time alone," the voice said and even though Kagome knew it belonged to Sesshomaru she did nothing to acknowledge him. 'I feel so ashamed..' she thought sadly and pulled herself into a tight embrace with her arms around her legs that were pulled up to her chest. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rin nod and run towards the castle.

"Kagome," Sesshomaru sounded louder, more closer. Her grip on her legs tightened.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She slowly rose her head from her arms and looked up, into Sesshomaru's golden eyes.

"Why are you crying?"

Sesshomaru's voice didn't sound that concerned, and his question didn't seem very questioning even. It sounded more like a statement, but she answered anyway.

"I miss my family. I miss my life. I miss-"

"Inuyasha." He finished the sentence for her as if reading her thoughts. 'Was I going to say that?' She thought, but still stared into Sesshomaru's cold gaze.

She suddenly realized that he was kneeling in front of her.

"Do you wish to go back to him, Kagome? Go back to the way your life was before with your friends?"

Kagome thought about that. She then realized that she was unsure of her answer and turned away until she felt a hand gently tug her chin to face Sesshomaru.

"My friends.. Are dead. And if I went back to Inuyasha, he would just betray me again. Why would I want that? And even if I did want it, I wouldn't be able to since the past is the past."

Kagome's chest ached. She remembered the pain she went through when Sango, Miroku, and Shippo were murdered. Murdered by Inuyasha and Kikyo. She remembered how she sank to her knees in the blood and sobbed as her friends' lifeless eyes stared vacantly at her. But what she remembered the most was the blood and gore.

Everything was covered in blood. And Inuyasha just laughed as he saw her friends' dead bodies on the floor, tangled and twisted into abnormal shapes.

It was hard to believe that they were once his friends.

Sesshomaru was staring at Kagome as she stared blankly back at him, her gaze almost as blank as his was. She seemed to be remembering something.

"But.."

Kagome snapped back to reality and focused on Sesshomaru's face once more, reluctantly.

"Isn't a moment of what used to be worth it?" He asked. He was curious to hear her reply-she truly was interesting, he thought. He didn't care how cold he may have seemed to her as he asked her all of these questions, forcing her to relive her terror.

He saw her smile, but at the same time tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, it is worth it. I want to go back to the way things were-to talk and laugh with my friends again, to go home and see that Inuyasha followed me down the well to pick me up early. To look for jewel shards," her voice cracked. "To fight Naraku and.. to fight you.." She whispered the last three syllables, then abruptly turned her head away and held herself once more.

'She truly is a broken creature,' he thought.

There was a long silence as Kagome's quiet sobs were muffled by her hands.

"Have you lost the will to live?" He asked her. This was the last question he wanted her to reply to.

She turned to him and he saw that her cheeks were now reddened and she looked almost as though she were blushing.

"No," she said, never breaking her gaze from his. "I have Rin to care for."

"And your family?"

Kagome stared at the ground. "Do you think.. That Inuyasha killed them?"

'Perhaps,' Sesshomaru thought. He knew how vengeful Inuyasha could be, and since Kikyo was such a precious 'person' to him, he knew that Inuyasha was beyond angry. He looked over to Kagome's tear stained face. 'She's worried enough.'

"No," he lied. "Inuyasha isn't that type of avenger."

Kagome let out a sigh of relief. She smiled weakly, still staring at the ground.

"It's funny.. How I once thought that he actually cared for me. He met my family.. He saved my friends and I so many times, and he even.. Saved me from you."

Sesshomaru stared intently at Kagome, who was still smiling morbidly.

"Not everyone is what they appear to be." He said, and Kagome looked up at him. He kneeled by Kagome but she flinched as he outstretched his arm to stroke her cheek.

"Why are you afraid of me?" He asked. "Have I hurt you at all during the time of your stay? If it weren't for me," he said softly, "You would be dead."

'He's right,' Kagome told herself. 'Stop being afraid of him.' She looked down at the ground again, intimidated to look him straight in the eyes.

"It's just strange, to think that we were once enemies.." Kagome said, but felt her chin gently turn towards Sesshomaru. She was forced to peer into his eyes.

"Am I still your enemy?" Sesshomaru asked, near a whisper. His hand traveled from her chin to cup her cheek as he stroked it gently, almost lovingly. He was surprised that her cheek was so soft, so.. Perfect.

'Why am I doing this?' He asked himself, but didn't really listen to himself as he stopped stroking her cheek but still cupped it with his hand. With a soft, almost inaudible sigh, he brought his hand back down to his waist and stood up. He walked to the castle as if nothing had happened.

Kagome sat there, wide eyed as she tried to figure out what just happened. 'Why was he acting like that? He's never acted like that before..' She thought to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted as Rin bounded towards her from the castle.

"Is Kagome chan okay?" Rin asked, her eyes wide and concerned.

Kagome forced herself to smile at Rin. "Yeah, I'm okay.. What do you want to do now?"

Kagome watched as Rin pondered that question to herself but then exclaimed, "Can we go inside? It's hot outside.."

Kagome smiled and nodded as she felt Rin's hand slip into hers, and they walked to the castle, oblivious that Sesshomaru was watching them the whole time.