Leftovers
...OOO...
Sesshomaru did not arise the next day until the sun was already high in the sky, but to his satisfaction, he was feeling all around better and could freely move again.
He flexed a clawed hand and fell into thought. Some of his stamina had returned, but he was still far from full strength.
One more day, he decided.
Looking around, he realized that the tiny hut had been swept and immaculately cleaned, a pile of wood already heaped in the fire pit ready to be lit. The woman was nowhere to be seen, but his keen ears picked up the sound of her voice, humming softly, almost inaudibly, to herself near the stream.
He stepped outside and found her kneeling by the riverbank, preoccupied with some task or other. As he approached, he realized that she was picking watercress- her slim but deft hands neatly snapping up the leaves from their tender stalks.
When she sensed his presence, she turned and a barely perceptible smile crept to her lips.
"I see you are healing well," she greeted, placing the last of the vegetable into her basket and pushing herself to her feet.
He allowed her an answer, "Yes."
"It is nearly noon," she observed, tilting her head to the sun. "Are you hungry?"
"No," he replied in his usual cold tone, then hesitated before adding, "But perhaps later I shall require sustenance."
Cocking her head to one side, she told him, "There are plenty of fish upstream." and walked off in the direction she had indicated.
Sesshomaru followed her until they arrived at the base of the waterfalls which slipped past a ring of large boulders to feed a small lake. These boulders helped to break up the current so that the waters were quite still and under its surface several aquatic creatures, including well sized fish, thrived.
Setting her basket down, Kikyo waded into the shallows and was surprised when Sesshomaru followed suit.
In answer to her questioning stare, he explained, "I am well capable of catching my own meal."
With that he raised his claw and waited patiently for an unwary fish to swim by.
Kikyo merely stood silently to watch, something like amusement shining in her usually melancholy eyes.
After several minutes, a large bass finally swam within his reach, and in one lightening fast move he plunged his claw into the water, grabbed the protesting fish, and pulled it out...
Only to have it just as quickly slip his grasp, fall back in, and swim away.
"Damn," he cursed under his breath. He was about to resume his position when a mirthful laugh caused him to swing around, ready to glare at the source of such impudence.
But almost as soon as it had escaped her lips, the laughter stopped.
Sesshomaru stared at her strangely, not aware she was capable of producing such a sound. She couldn't blame him.
The sound of her own laughter had shocked her back into silence, her hand raising involuntarily to her face where a visible expression of shock and awe had plastered itself.
Had she just... laughed? She asked herself, puzzled not only by her action, but by her reaction.
When was the last time she had allowed such a sound to pass through her lips, she wondered, but could not provide an answer.
Too long ago to remember...
For several minutes neither one could speak.
But when Kikyo did open her mouth, a familiar demonic aura interrupted whatever it was she had planned to say and set off alarm bells in her head. Shielding her eyes with one hand, she tipped her head up to scan the skies for the disturbing aura. Sesshomaru followed her gaze and saw them- three wasp-like demons flying overhead.
"Naraku's poisonous insects," he stated, though knowing that she knew full well what they were. Taking a quick glance at her face, he saw that all traces of shock, awe, and laughter, had disintegrated, replaced by a tense frown, her eyes pursuing the flight of the low level demons.
She reached into her quiver and in one easy sweep pulled out an arrow, nocked it to her bow, then let it fly. Her aim was straight and true; the arrow cut the air in a blaze of harsh light and reduced all three demons into dust.
But for the next several moments she stayed unmoving, her eyes fixated on the spot where her arrow had hit its mark.
"They must be left-overs from Naraku," he spoke, almost as if trying to reassure her, but the hard look stayed in her eyes and her eyebrows furrowed in evident concern.
She had not heard him, he thought but said nothing more. Quietly they returned to their undertaking.
The rest of the day passed by in the same silence.
They had caught the fish and she prepared them into a soup with the watercress, but this time she left him to dine alone.
She was sitting in the small veranda watching the golden sunset when he went to join her, coming to stand behind her sitting figure.
"Naraku is dead," he stated firmly without raising his voice. "You saw him die, as did I, as did Inuyasha and the others."
She did not answer, but instead rose to her feet to walk a little ways into the descending sun.
"And if we were mistaken?" she finally asked in a voice barely above a whisper and turned to face him.
He could not answer.
The brilliance of the setting sun behind her washed her in its dying golden light, making her glow, exposing the subtle sadness in her eyes in it's contrast.
His voice caught in his throat and a strange confusion flooded his usually sure mind. His instincts told him to leave, but something else was screaming at him to do the opposite...
But he shrugged off this absurd impulse and marched back inside.
Kikyo watched him turn his back and retreat into the darkness of the hut before letting her head drop to her chest, and for a while she just stood staring at the ground, her mind an utter blank.
Then she once again lifted her head to the sky, in the direction of the waterfall, her eyes diverted to the spot where they had spotted Naraku's poisonous insects.
Her heart was aching, but she didn't know why.
...ooo...
When she finally returned to their small habitation, the last rays of the sun had faded into the darkness of the ensuing night.
His eyes shifted over to watch her as she entered but quickly returned to the kettle of boiling water above the fire. She took her place opposite from him, and he removed the kettle from the heat, pouring some of the tea he had prepared in the saucer and nudging it in her direction.
For several seconds she stared blankly at the offering, then took it up, and raised it to her lips. She could barely perceive the heat on her tongue as she took a small sip and the taste was completely lost to her.
"Thank you," she said quietly, replacing the saucer on the floor and slid it back towards him.
He had watched her carefully and guessed her lack of feel and taste by the lack of change in her demeanor as she drank. Lifting the saucer to his own mouth, he downed the rest himself. It was still very hot and he had made it extra bitter.
They passed the rest of the evening without speaking, but the silence was not wholly uncomfortable.
After putting out the fire, he laid down to sleep, but she made no move to do the same and instead remained in the same posture that she had maintained since drinking the tea.
He said nothing, diverting his eyes to the ceiling.
Since his stay with her, he had felt her energy ebbing away though outwardly she had showed no signs of fatigue. Guessing at the reason for her draining stamina, he shifted to his side so that his back was to her and closed his eyes.
An hour passed but still she remained as she was.
Then another.
And another.
In the end he waited four hours before he finally heard the rustle of her clothes as she stirred from her repose, the soft shuffle of her feet, and the silent squeak of the door as it slid open then shut again.
He opened his eyes.
...ooo...
Outside the wind had picked up, bringing with it trailing cumulus clouds... and her scent. He followed it to a small mound where she stood staring at a veiled waning moon. All around her, her Soul Collectors swarmed, encircling her body as they released the glowing orbs they brought for her to absorb.
Her windblown hair brushed against her face as she turned to acknowledge him. She did not speak but her defiant, unwavering eyes meeting his removed all need for her to.
"How often must you do this?" he asked with only a hint of curiosity in his voice as the silver serpentine demons wound themselves around him, scrutinizing him carefully before deciding he was no threat and flying off to retrieve more souls for their mistress.
"No less than once every fortnight," she answered, also reverting back to her blank tone. "I do not wish to confine them any longer than that. That witch Urasuea might have denied me my rest, but I have no desire to do the same to these souls..."
They said nothing more to each other until the last of her Soul Collectors had unburdened his load and drifted off into the sky.
"It will rain tomorrow," she predicted as the dry wind ruffled through her hair and the folds of her haori and hakama, carrying with it the smell of damp earth.
"The roof will leak," he observed.
He had not meant for it to be humorous, but she let out a small, quiet, but sincere laugh as she followed him back to their temporary dwelling.
Her second one today, he noted but without any inclination of anger or annoyance.
...OOO...