Meant To Be
By Onira
Chapter Five : "Think Nothing Of It"
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 softly 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, leaping silently out of sight of the window.
oOo
He felt someone moving his arms and was overwhelmed by a sense of something missing. Waking, 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 thought 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. Sesshoumaru's presence in the orchard with her came before his scent did, floating on the breeze through the cherry grove.
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.
Ishiru fell, too shocked to catch herself. She lay there for a moment before propping herself up on one arm. 'I knew it. He is angry.'
"I'm sorry... Sesshoumaru-sama." She said, keeping her head bowed. Ishiru got up, and turned, walking away.
"You dare..." Sesshoumaru growled. Ishiru stopped, but didn't turn around.
"Yes, I dare." She said. 'He's already mad at me. Why not...' Ishiru thought. "I apologized! What more do you want?" She shouted.
White exploded in front of her eyes and Ishiru felt her knees go. Then she felt pain. It was impossible for her to tell if her abdomen was freezing or burning. Ishiru looked down to find a blood covered, clawed hand clutching through the torn front of her haori. She yelped as she was pulled sharply backwards. Sparks flew across her eyes as she felt something else tear in her torso.
"I want you gone..." Was the whisper in her ear. Ishiru was flung to the ground like a rag doll. Ishiru felt his presence drift away. She lay there for a while, until her wound stopped bleeding in torrents. Only once she was only loosing about ten spoons of blood a minute did she move.
She coughed, blood spattering the ground as she heaved herself up. "Fine..." Ishiru stood, ignoring the pain from her injury. She tore her sleeve and bound the shreds around her middle wincing as she tightened them. Then, Ishiru began to walk back to the fortress. If she were to leave, she would need some things first.
Rin finally let her hand drop from her mouth, gasping for the breath she had been holding. 'How could he? Why did Sesshoumaru-sama hurt Ishiru?' She thought frantically as she ducked back behind a large shrub.
oOo
Ishiru snuck to her room, mindful of her scent. She entered though her window as she had exited the morning before. She quickly grabbed a few kimonos from her closet, a few spare haori along with her training gear and boots.
As she was rooting through her desk, Ishiru found a small hair-clip. Its delicate form was that of a butterfly, the thin silver legs forming the clasp. The wings were spattered with gems, clinging to the silver webbing like dew on thin blades of grass.
oOo
"Here." Sesshoumaru took a handful of the hair blocking her eyes and fastened it out of the way with the clip. Ishiru reached up and felt it. Her eyesight had yet to return at the time and she could form mental imagery as a supplement.
"Thank you." She said, looking towards where she thought he was. She felt his hand cup her cheek and Ishiru froze.
"You're welcome." He slipped away, withdrawing his aura. She couldn't find him.
oOo
Ishiru bit her lip and was about to throw the comb on the bed when she stopped. Something had entered her mind, an idea from some dark corner of her mind. She wrapped up her things and grabbed a square of white silk before darting out her window, the clip in her hand.
Ishiru reached the dojo and slid in through the window. She slid her curved blade from its rack on the wall and added its back-holster to her collection as well as a wakazashi blade and sheath. She stood before Soru no Heijin's rack, staring at the empty space on the wall.
She snatched a dagger from a table nearby. After a few moments of work with the white silk and comb she had formed a small, silk wrapped parcel, slightly stained with her blood and had pinned it to the wall with the dagger.
"You want me gone? Then I am gone." She whispered before darting out the window and away.
oOo
Sesshoumaru sat in his study sifting through some papers without really paying any attention to them. It was oddly silent. 'Rin...' He wondered vaguely where she was.
"Sesshoumaru-SAMA!" Sesshoumaru's head turned at Rin's shout. She sounded angry. Not as if Jaken had said something mean, but as if she were truly furious. He had never heard her sound like that before. Sesshoumaru stood up as the little girl approached the room.
The door to his study was shoved open and Rin ran in.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Why did you hurt Ishiru? She didn't do anything! Rin thinks she might be dead now! Rin likes Ishiru! Why did you hurt her?" Tears were falling down her cheeks as she shouted.
Sesshoumaru was utterly shocked. He had done no such thing. True, he had worked her hard in training that day, but he hadn't seen her since.
"Rin, what are you talking about? I have not seen Ishiru since this afternoon." He said, his voice giving away nothing, as usual.
"Rin saw you! You put your hand through her belly! Then you threw her!" Rin had buried her face in his hakama. Sesshoumaru knelt. If he wanted to find out anything else, he would have to calm the child first.
"Rin. I promise you that it was not me you saw. But, if you want me to find Ishiru, I need you to talk to me." He said, putting an arm around her tiny shoulders.
"Rin only saw you and Ishiru out in the gardens. She said sorry for something and you hit her! You had creepy eyes... And you looked kind of dark purple. Rin was so scared! Rin doesn't want to see you like that ever again!" She threw her tiny arms around his neck, and wouldn't let go.
"Aisumii..." Sesshoumaru called. The woman appeared within moments. "Rin, you must go with Aisumii now. I will find Ishiru." He said and the little girl let go to be transferred to Aisumii's arms. "She is not to leave the fortress." Sesshoumaru said, giving Aisumii a look that ensured a slow death if she did not obey. Without a second look, he left.
He first looked in the gardens. Ishiru's scent was everywhere, most recently in the cherry orchards. Following her scent of mist and vegetation he couldn't help but imagine her in the orchards, the petals sprinkling her ebony hair. He abruptly ended his thought.
He was getting soft, caring for her safety at all. Even in her training. He went too easy on her and she nearly died. He had trained her so hard that day to try and make up for it. And now she was in danger again.
oOo
Ishiru collapsed an oddly short distance from the fortress. She was sure she could have made it farther. 'I wasted too much time at the fortress...' She thought, sliding up against a tree to rest. She sat down and closed her eyes, intending to rest only a moment. She was immediately flung into the blackness of a dreamless sleep.
oOo
Sesshoumaru followed Ishiru's scent to a point. Her blood. The metallic tang assaulted his senses. 'So, Rin wasn't imagining things.' He thought. Sesshoumaru stopped. A few cherry petals on the ground were spattered with red. He knelt, resting a hand against the ground beneath them. He pulled his hand back. His fingers were covered in blood.
"Ishiru." His eyes became slightly laced with red as a scent reached his nose.
oOo
Naraku grinned. Things were going precisely as he wanted. His transformation melting away as he approached the passed-out demon girl. His mind frothed with thoughts, most too impure to mention, others devious to the extreme. He gathered her up, vines wrapping around Ishiru's lithe form before drifting off through the canopy and across the darkening sky.