Recap: 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 in her already marked neck. She was dead.
The panic rose in his throat yet again. He was really beginning to hate that feeling. But then, for the first time in his life he felt a bubble of hope rise at the sight of the minions of the underworld. It wasn't so much their presence that brought on the optimistic feeling as it was the mere fact that he could see them. He reached for the Tenseiga, exactly where he had left it before bed, and felt immense joy over the fact that he could lift it. What he could see, he could destroy, particularly with the proper implements. Never before had he so relished swinging the sword through the air and feeling the scrawny bodies disintegrate in its wake. The triumph he felt cast his previous desperation to the back of his mind.
He knelt beside her, holding her much the same way he'd held Rin after he'd revived her. She opened her eyes, focusing the rubies on the golden amber orbs gazing back at her.
"Sesshoumaru," she paused. "You're probably wondering what I'm doing in your room." She sat up and faced him.
"Not until you mentioned it... But it is not important right now. Do you remember the dream you just had?" He looked her over, concern etched clearly on his usually serene face.
"Yes, but how did you-? Oh gods... no..." she breathed. She reached out and touched his tender cheek. "That's... Then that means that I..."
Sesshoumaru nodded. "You died. Naraku killed you..."
"But you brought me back," she reminded him. Sesshoumaru felt a wave pass over him, but he couldn't be sure if it was nausea or a fleeting of triumph. "Is your cheek okay?" She turned his head so she could see it better. It had swollen considerably, the bruises had gotten much worse, and the red stripes had turned a rather ugly, grape-like shade of purple.
"It's nothing; I've had worse," he said, brushing it off like a paper cut. "You're the one that died. Are you all right?"
"Hey, I'm all healed. But I think your cheekbone is broken," she said, peering at it. "They say the cheekbone is the hardest bone in the body, with the exception of Inuyasha. That's his entire skull, all the bones combined. But this is gonna hurt like a bitch while it heals. You can't exactly have a cast put on it. I'm amazed that you don't have a black eye as well."
"I said, I'm fine. I can handle pain," he said, gritting his teeth and pushing her hand away.
"Well, you should really put some ice on that. It will help the swelling go down," she insisted.
"Well, I haven't got any ice. It's summer," he growled, growing impatient.
"I think I've got some in my little bag of tricks," she said leaning over the side of the bed to where she'd dropped it. She brought it with her because I said so. "Here." She squeezed the ice bag until she heard a crack, then she gently put the cold plastic to his cheek. "There really should be another layer between your skin and the pack, but I figured since you're trying to play the tough guy, you could handle it. It has to stay on in rotations of 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off."
"Are you a healer now?" Sesshoumaru mocked.
"Actually, yes," she said, watching his expression while hiding a small smile. "Mostly just pain and stress relief, but if you want, I could try something simple to make it throb less." She could see the look in his eyes say, "Really! Oh, please, thank you!" but all he said was "Fine," through gritted teeth.
Angel got up on her knees for better leverage, then placed her hands over the side of his face. Relaxation settled over the muscles as soon as she began. She imagined wrapping her energy around shards of pain and pulling them out. At the same time, she filtered warm, healing energy through her hands and into him. After a few minutes of just pain relief, she focused in the bone. It was cracked very badly. She focused nearly all her energy on trying to get the bone to knit the crack. She poured nearly all her energy into healing that crack. It worked. It took ten exhausting minutes, but it worked. The crack was healed, the swelling had gone down completely, and the bruise had reduced to a slight discoloration that Sesshoumaru could probably heal within few hours.
"Whoa, that is the most I have ever done..."She looked a little tired but still much better than she had all day.
"Um... Ari-" he began to thank her.
"Don't bother. Consider it my thanks to you. I mean I figured I owed you after all that's happened," she sighed. "That's actually why I came in here in the first place."
"You came to my personal chambers in the middle of the night to thank me?" he said, making her sound ludicrous.
"Of course not. Rin came to my room earlier because she had a bad dream," she explained.
"Why didn't she come to me?" he wondered aloud.
"She said you were asleep, having a bad dream," Angel continued. "After she went back to her own room, I came to see if you were alright. Again, I thought I owed you that much. I thought maybe I could help. But it looks like I only ended up causing trouble..."
"You've repaid your debt," he said simply. He continued in his head, though. 'As long as you don't know I allowed myself to cry for you.'
"So... How does your cheek feel?" she asked attempting small talk.
"Much better," he replied and continued her efforts of small talk. "It appears a new day has dawned." Both looked up at the graying sky, lighting the room. The fire had been reduced to smoldering embers.
"Looks like. I guess it's back to being trapped in the stacks, just like yesterday," she sighed slightly at the prospect. "We found almost nothing useful. Let's hope today's search is more fruitful."
"Almost?" he inquired. He assumed she did not mean the information about her father. "You found something?"
"I, um... No? Nothing useful for the objective goal," she avoided lying.
"What did you find?" he demanded.
"Just a spell," she said, then added under her breath. "A little mind control spell."
"A what!" he barely avoided shouting.
"Oh, you weren't supposed to hear that..."
"Have you any idea how dangerous a spell like that could be? Especially if someone like Naraku found it." He was actually lecturing her. "Did you use it? Where is it? It must be destroyed."
"Will you relax? The spell has a lot of limitations. A person can only cast the spell once, for only one command. And a person can only have the spell cast on them once. After that, it won't work. And I mean, think about how useful it could be to you," she said, attempting to appeal to his wishes for his dear brother. "Not only that, but even if Naraku got his hands on it, he could only cast it once. Three guesses who that would probably be."
"Did you use the spell?" he prodded, trying to ignore her logic and flow with his own.
"Kinda..." she lowered her eyes, looking to the side, aiming for an innocent appearance.
"Whom did you use it on?" His voice became almost deadly calm.
"The guard stationed at my door," she said cautiously.
"That guard was there for a reason," he told her. "A reason that was clearly portrayed last night." His voice softened ever so slightly.
"I know that, but it made me feel like a prisoner. I hate that feeling. And, strange as it may sound, I think Naraku is completely gone from my system," she said, her voice becoming lighter. "I think that was meant to be his big finish, his last hoorah."
"Yes, but we can't be sure just yet," he said. "We must continue to take precautions until we can be absolutely certain that he gone permanently. Take no risks while you are still at risk."
"Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were worried about me," she gave a small, rather harsh laugh. "Maybe, though... My sense of smell seems to be working again. Am I the only one that smells salt?"
"Yes," Sesshoumaru cleared his throat and attempted to conceal a slight blush, while avoiding eye contact.
"Sesshoumaru, were you-?"
"No, absolutely not." He tried to make it sound very final, but said it a bit to quickly.
"You don't even know what I was going to say," she smirked slightly.
"I- um... I knew what you were implying," he said, struggling to rescue himself.
"Really? What do you think I was implying? Salt is in a lot of things," she said, backing him into a corner. "Whatever you think I was going to say is probably what you were doing because I was the first thing you thought about and deter me from saying it out loud."
"No, I wasn't... sweating. Because, you know I was. This room got a bit to warm during the night. And sweating is a sign of nervousness and fear. And as you know, I do not get nervous and I fear nothing. But I cannot afford any enemies finding out about any signs of weakness." He fought, kicking and screaming to force his way out of that corner.
"Sweat has a distinct smell... I don't think I smell sweat, at least, not enough for you to worry about," she said, placatingly. "But I think I do smell something else..."
"No, you don't," he told her. "You smell nothing."
"Now, you're starting to sound like me," she half-grinned. "That's how I talk to my friends when they noticed something I didn't want them to notice. Except, I usually either get really vicious or feign innocence and look away. I know you think I smell something you don't want me to smell. Now I have to know what I smell."
"Curiosity killed the cat," he said stiffly.
"But I don't see any kitties," she looked around. "I see a big puppy, but no kitties."
Sesshoumaru looked properly insulted. "I'm not-"
"Man," she said, suddenly standing on the bed and stretching. "Dying then healing a broken bone can really take it out of you. I'm about ready for another nap."
"No, you are not," he stood as well, forgetting something very important.
"It's a big morning for you, isn't it?" she said, looking away with a bright blush easily visible on her cheeks.
"Oro?" he hated being confused. He noticed her hand pointed down towards his waist. Following this, his cheeks nearly matched hers, and he was instantly holding a sheet to just under his navel. What he had forgotten was that he had decided not to wear a robe to bed... or pants... or a haori... or anything at all. Not to mention that he hadn't completely... deflated...
"No, you're right I don't need a nap anymore," she said, facing him. A smile had crept to her lips as she was trying desperately not to laugh, and she was still blushing, which wasn't helping matters. "Well, I think I'll go change for the day." She hopped off the bed, humming Gackt, and left the room.
"I hate mornings..." Sesshoumaru grumbled to himself.
Gackt is a J-Rock star really popular in Japan. He poses nude a lot.
What did you think? I didn't plan for that to happen, I swear! I just let the story flow. It has a life of its own. I'm not really even sure exactly how it's going to end.
