"There is something I need to speak with you about," Sesshoumaru said, closing the topic of his cuteness.
"Fire away," she responded, having a very difficult time resisting adding 'cutie pie.'
"I have realized that the times that you have been attacked, probably because that is when your guard is lowest, was when you were sleeping. Therefore, tonight I have arranged for a guard to stand watch outside your room tonight," he told her.
"And just what is a guard outside my room supposed to do?" she questioned.
"He is under strict order to enter if, and only if, he senses anything amuck," he said, attempting to reason with her.
"I can take care of myself," she said defiantly. "I would actually feel safer without a guard standing outside my room trying to sense what's goin on inside."
"Oh, yes. That explains the marks on your neck and what happened upstairs," he said perfecting his own sarcasm. "You will have the guard." He closed the subject and stalked off yet again.
They avoided each other the rest of the afternoon, only spending time together during lunch and dinner where neither spoke much. Rin seemed to know to keep her distance. Angel spent most of the rest of the day either in her room or bringing books out to the garden to read. Both she and Sesshoumaru wondered why he did not just throw her out. The time Angel spent in her room, she used to try to figure out a way to get rid of the guard. She thought it was probably not such a good idea to kill him, so she had to find another way. Ironically, it was in the garden that she found it.
Around 11 o'clock, the guard, a large inu youkai, apparently from the royal guard, appeared outside her door. Angel wasn't sure whether to be flattered that Sesshoumaru thought her worthy of a member or the royal guard, or insulted that he thought she need to be kept under such strict surveillance. She picked up the two herbs from her bed and put them by the door, knowing that his sensitive nose would pick up the scents. She said the spell she'd found and watched for the effect. It came almost instantly. His jaw slackened slightly, as did the rest of his rigid frame, and his cool, amber eyes glazed over.
The spell she'd found seemed ancient but powerful, as most ancient things tend to be. Unfortunately, it only worked once on a person. Once they were under the effects, the person would obey any command given by the caster of the spell. Angel had worded the command very carefully.
"Go to your sleeping quarters to sleep for the rest of the night because you've forgotten tonight's duties, but you know any trouble you get into tomorrow for forgetting and sleeping will be my fault." She preyed it would work as a single order. She wasn't planning on doing anything that night besides try to get a good night's sleep, but she hated feeling like a prisoner or child that needed to be watched and kept out of trouble.
Later that night, probably around three o'clock, she was still awake. Because of this, she was able to hear the soft whimper at her door. She padded over, softly, and slid open the door to reveal a crying Rin.
"Oh, Rin-chan, what the matter? It's very late," Angel said, taking the child into her arms and carrying her over to the bed.
"R-Rin had a bad d-dream," she choked out between sobs.
"Do you want to tell me what it was about?" Angel asked gently.
"The wolves," she said almost inaudibly.
"Oh, Rin-chan." She rocked her in her lap, kissing the top of her head, trying to comfort her. "Well, why did you come to me instead of Sesshoumaru?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama is having a bad dream, too," Rin told her. She seemed to have calmed down a bit.
"Really? What do you usually do if you have a nightmare but Sesshoumaru is having one as well?"
"Rin has never seen Sesshoumaru-sama have a bad dream before," she said.
"Well, Rin, you are welcome to sleep here tonight," Angel offered.
"No, it's ok. Rin feels better now. Arigato," she smiled happily. "Rin can go back to Rin's own room now."
"That's good that you are feeling better," Angel said, smiling gently. When Rin was gone, she said to herself," Now I can go see what's going on with Sesshoumaru."
When she walked into the room, She noticed something very important. Something that almost slipped her mind when she looked around. The room was lit by the glow from the fireplace, which cast gold hues all about. The cathedral ceiling made the already enormous room seem even bigger. The four chairs around the fire seemed unused with the exception of one. The portrait over the mantle reminded her of the one in her room, except the occupants were older. Sesshoumaru looked closer to the age he was now, and his father looked just a touch older. The far wall was a bookcase, and the wall above Sesshoumaru's bed held another portrait, a very unique one. It was of him alone, in his full form howling at a full moon. It took her a moment to realize that there were no windows... until she looked up. The ceiling was one big skylight.
Once she had finished looking the room over, her mind returned to her mission. She remembered what she had noticed when she first walked in. She couldn't smell any fear. She thought she would've at least smelled a bit if Sesshoumaru were having a nightmare. Angel looked at him, sleeping on his bed, which was easily the size of four western king-size beds put together. His perfect face was set in a frown. Maybe it was just what Rin had said, a bad dream, an unpleasant dream. She could sense a lot of anxiety though. When she walked closer, she could see that it was quite like watching a dog sleep. His tail was twitching just a bit. Under the cover, it could be seen that the same was to be said for his arms and legs. She reached the end of the bed and...
Sesshoumaru despised being lectured by his father. He was a child; he should not have to be responsible for Inuyasha. The whelp had run off and gotten himself stuck in a thorn bush. Sesshoumaru had been ordered by his father to keep a close eye on the badly scratched, sleeping half-breed while he spoke to the human that had mothered it. He looked disdainfully down at Inuyasha only to find that it was not Inuyasha. It was Rin, bitten, scratched, torn, and bloodied. Her glassy, staring eyes made it evident that she was dead. He reached for the Tenseiga even though he couldn't see the messengers from the underworld. The sword was not at his belt. It was lying on the ground beside him, too heavy for his child arms to lift. Panic began to rise in his throat. He could not save her this time. Suddenly, he was pushed aside by his father. No... It was him, the adult him. But how? The older him picked up the sword easily and swung it through the air, destroying the messengers that were now invisible to him. He turned and walked away, discouraged and confused.
He walked into an open field. It seemed perfect, sunny, flowers blooming; it helped him clear his head. After a moment, he realized he was not alone in the field.
Angel sensed panic and watched Sesshoumaru's face carefully. His eyes squeezed shut further, his frown deepened, his chin lifted, and his back arched slightly as if he were lifting something very heavy. Before she realized what she was doing, Angel had climbed onto the bed and was cradling Sesshoumaru's head against her chest. In the back of her mind, she remembered that the sound of a heartbeat, especially in sleep, reminds a person of the womb and calms him. She had only heard that in reference to infants, but it seemed to be working just fine for Sesshoumaru. She could feel his heartbeat against her stomach, and the feeling and sound of that, alongside his now steady breathing, lulled her to sleep in under a minute. As she slept, she dreamed, but the dream was not completely her own.
Sesshoumaru saw a girl across the field. She looked maybe Rin's age; then again, he looked Rin's age. The girl had blue hair and wore a kimono of the same blue and green. This seemed very familiar to him, but he could not place it. He had only been looking at her profile, so when she turned and looked at him, it hit him. She was Angel.
Angel found herself in a sunny field at the edge of a forest. Looking down, the ground seemed a bit too close. It took her only a moment to realize she was no longer 18 but eight. She saw something white out of the corner of her eye and turned to see what it was. What she saw shocked her: Sesshoumaru, the young Sesshoumaru from the portrait in her room.
Sesshoumaru could see the shock and recognition in her eyes, and it startled him. They started to walk towards each other; neither yet realizing that it was a dream. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and this was only mildly pleasant. A dark cloud blotted out the sun. Both children looked up to determine the cause of the shadow over their peaceful field. It's time for the predictable, cliché moment: Naraku, of course.
Sesshoumaru felt a strange impulse overcome him, 'Protect her.' Without thinking twice about it, he jumped in front of the child form of Angel just as Naraku land before them both.
"What are you doing?" Angel hissed in his ear.
"I don't know?" he whispered back. "I just hope it works."
It didn't. Naraku, the only adult in the scene, stepped up to and backhanded the young boy, sending him flying. He then picked Angel up by the neck, similar to their first dream encounter; the difference being that this time he used only one hand. He needed only one hand to block the artery, cutting off the flow of blood to her brain, and crush her trachea.
Sesshoumaru sat up holding his bruised cheek, fleetingly glad the bone wasn't crushed. He saw the pain on Angel's face surrender to calm of death. That word reverberated in his head: "Death."
"NO!" he screamed out loud. Naraku turned and smirked at him. Then, he tossed the small body at him as if it was doll he was discarding before disappearing. Pain seared through his head, and stars danced in the blackness infringing on his vision as either her head or her shoulder, he couldn't be sure which, hit his damaged cheek. Perhaps the bone was cracked or fractured. It didn't matter as her stared down at her crumpled form. There were no messengers from the underworld... maybe she was just unconscious. No, he couldn't see the messengers for Rin either, and he couldn't hear her heartbeat at all. He didn't have the Tenseiga, and the older him was nowhere in sight. The small trickle of blood from one corner of her mouth and the bright fresh bruises marring the skin of her neck made it seem so surreal. It wasn't happening; it couldn't be happening.
He saw a drop of wetness land on one closed eyelid, then another land on and slide off of her cheek. He looked up into the fairly clear sky to see if it was raining. After a moment he realized what the drops had been, his own tears. He was crying; something he had not done in decades. But, now here he was, crying over a girl that should have meant nothing to him. He closed his eyes and put one hand to his injured cheek but pulled away when he felt tears wet his fingers. When he opened his eyes to look at them, he really opened his eyes. He was looking at his own adult hand in his own room lit by the glow of the fire. His fingers were wet from tears, and his cheek was extremely tender.
He rolled over and found himself staring into the bust of a woman. He sat up immediately and looked down at a sleeping Angel... Her chest wasn't moving... he couldn't hear her heart. The dream flashed through he mind. Gently, he turned her head so that she was facing the ceiling. There was a trickle of blood from her mouth that had spotted onto the pillow, and there was bright, fresh bruises on her already marked neck. She was dead.
