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Moonlit Lives

Chapter 1

Kagome's shrouded form stood quietly in the bushes, away from sight of the two people standing next to the goshinboku. She watched with a hope in her heart. It was a selfish and evil hope, but she gave all of herself into that hope. She watched silently as the scene unfolded before her.

Kikyou walked simperingly over to Inuyasha, whose eyes were glazed over, clouded. "Inuyasha." She whispered, grazing a soft finger around his tanned jaw. "Forget my silly incarnation. She is nothing but a copy, Inuyasha. She is a child." Kikyou's body came closer to Inuyasha's, and his eyes followed her every move.

He said nothing in return, merely enjoying the soft caresses, though confusion wrought heavily upon him.

She put her lips close to his dog ear. "Come with me, Inuyasha, and we can be together forever. Forget her." She slowly put the clay lips to his ear, kissing it.

Inuyasha suddenly twirled around and pushed Kikyou against him, and she let a small smirk grace her lips. Kagome held her breath, still hoping beyond hope. His body language suggested that he had chosen Kikyou, though his eyes were confused and clouded.

"I cannot." Inuyasha let go of a stunned clay miko, turning from her and walking, his head low, away.

Kagome's eyes became awash with tears as her heart fell.

"You can't do this to me, Inuyasha! Forget her, dammit! She is nothing compared to me!" Kikyou tried to run after him, but he ignored her.

Kagome let out a small sigh and whispered, "Forget me." however, he did not turn around, and he showed no regret of his choice, and Kagome's heart shattered. Tears streamed down her porcelain face as Kikyou and he parted ways, one in resolution and the other in disgust. When they were both gone, she came from behind the shrouded area, and kneeled before the goshinboku. "Forgive me, Inuyasha, please forgive me." She stayed there for an hour, crying silently into her hands.

Kagome trudged slowly to the camp site. It was tonight, she knew. A full moon that outshone all the stars glowed heavily above her head, beginning its rise to midnight. It was just her and Inuyasha now, she knew, and soon she would be leaving Inuyasha by himself. He would have no one to comfort him, no one to tell him that it was alright, no one to love him for himself. However, she had made herself a promise. "You will forget me, Inuyasha. And Kikyou will be your only love once again." A few minutes later, she was at the campsite, and Inuyasha was sitting desolately alone. When she came into the site, he looked up, and her heart broke a million times over.

This was not the loud and brash Inuyasha that yelled at her all the time and protected her with his life and growled when other men looked at her. This was a sad and quiet Inuyasha, who was glad to see that she hadn't been hurt and who needed her more than he needed his pride. He stood and walked over to her stock still frame. Stopping in front of her to stare at her for a second, and enveloped her in a tight hug, and for the first time, Kagome felt his shoulders shaked and the wetness on her hair that was his tears.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, letting her own tears fall. She rubbed his back comfortingly and kissed his shoulder. She knew that he would not remember this in the morning, and knew that she was taking advantage of that fact, but she also knew that she needed this as much as he did. "It's all going to be okay, Inuyasha." She whispered, hoping to Kami that she was right.

Inuyasha sat down with her still in his arms. "Are you sure, Kagome?" He sounded so lost and hopeless. Kagome told him that she was, even though she knew it to be a lie. They stayed like that for a while, and then Inuyasha's helpless voice sounded again. "Kagome?"

"Yes, Inuyasha?"

"You know I never meant any of those mean things I said to you, right?"

Kagome held back her tears. "Yes, Inuyasha. I know."

"And you know that I will always protect you, right?"

Once again, Kagome said yes, and tried very hard to keep from crying.

"Kagome, please face me." Kagome hadn't been able to hold a few swelling tears, and as Inuyasha lifted and propped her to face him, she turned her face away. He grasped her chin with his claws and gently turned her toward him. "Please don't cry, Kagome. I always hate it when you cry." he whispered as he wiped away her tears, as more of them came. "Stop." He said helplessly, finally resorting to kissing the tears away.

Kagome dipped her head and said sadly, "I don't deserve you, Inuyasha. Please don't do that. I don't deserve it." She kept saying it, pushing him away as he watched her helplessly. "I'm a wretched person, Inuyasha. I don't deserve you." Finally, she ripped herself from his grasp and crawled over to her sleeping bag, stained and ripped as it was.

However, Inuyasha was relentless and came over to where she cowered, gathering up her, sleeping bag and all, and jumped into the tree he was going to sleep in. "Don't say that, Kagome. Please don't say that." His voice became desperate. "I don't know what I'd do without you. All of our friends are gone, and we only have each other now. I can't stand to see you suffer so much."

Kagome began to sob, hating herself for having to do this, hating the damned god whose idea it was to play with her life so much. However, she only had a few hours left with him, and she knew that she had to make the best out of it. She steeled herself, preparing to face him.

She uncovered herself, looking up at him with bright brown eyes, piercing him wiyh her gaze. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha." She looked down and then back up again. If she only had a small bit of time with him, she was going to make it count. And she did. Enough said. Some would have said it was selfish of her to do so, but he needed it, and so did she, and it was a mutual thing.

She fell asleep in his arms, warm and safe and at peace for the first time in five years.

And then she woke up. And it was time. Tears came unbidden down her face as she climbed from his grasp and changed into her miko garb. Silently, she took the glowing jewel from around her neck, staring at it with sadness.

Suddenly, the prose which she knew she was to recite came to her mind, as they said it would. She stared one last time as the peacefully sleeping hanyou which owned her heart, and then the words flowed from her lips, broken by sobs.

"She who died and was brought back

to the living world as half

must have her life in full this time

and have her soul as well as mine

He whose love is split between

two promises he cannot keep

must forget I, be with the first

must never know, and never search"

At this time, Inuyasha awoke and sat up, seeing Kagome's face, tears streaking down her face, with the Shikon jewel in her hands. "Kagome! NO!"

"Forgive me, Inuyasha." she stared at him with a deep amount of regret and sadness in her eyes. "I will always love you, Inuyasha." And then he saw nothing but a bright pink light flooding his vision.

Inuyasha awoke with a headache and sat up slowly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he could have sworn he saw a female demon staring sadly at him before jumping off into the bushes. However, he couldn't be sure. So he forgot the strange woman, as he was slightly beguiled as to the reason for his current state of undress.

Kagome's heart wrenched as she flitted away from Inuyasha, whose life was free of her, as was his mind. They said that they would come for her, that when she had fulfilled her destiny, she would be retrieved and be reunited with her family once more. Thoughts of her mother and father ran through her head, also accompanied by memories of her older brother, Kura, which flitted openly through images of her childhood.

It had all been a hoax, made up by fate to make an otherwise dull story absolutely unbelievable. She missed her human family in the future, of course, but they had only been pawns in the great plan, as she was, as Inuyasha was. Now it was time to return to her true family and take up her place as the rightful Taikijo of the wolf clan of the North.

Her musings on the run, however, were cut short when a solid block of flesh seemed to plant itself directly in front of her. She looked up, hoping to god it wasn't who she thought it was.

He smelled like Amber Myrrh and clean wind, and the image standing in front of her very closely resembled that scent.

Sesshoumaru stood before her, tall and imposing. This single demon had been held witness to the destructionof The evil Naraku, been there to catch Kagome as she fell to the ground, carried both she and Inuyasha back to camp and tended her wounds when she could not heal herself. He alone had felt her wretched pain as her comrades were struck down one by one, and he alone had comforted her in her time of need when Inuyasha was unconscious and the entire village feared her for their own reasons.

She smiled at him smally, feeling small fangs poke at her lips. "Hello, Sesshoumaru Sama."

The great Lord sesshoumaru studied the young Demoness before him, his face unchanging. This woman was youkai royalty. On her forehead was a blue and black, eight pointed star. Her eyes were bright, clear blue, accentuated by an elegant line of silver running out past the corner of her outer eye to curve upward, and an ever-thinner blue strip, running slightly past the inner eyes. Strips of blue graced her cheeks, underlined thinly with silver, and black stripes adorned the upper part of her tipped ears. He studied her claws, black, with silver tips. Her hair was long and raven-like, with a bluish tint, the silky strands framing an ivory face.

She was undoubtably changed, but but Sesshoumaru would never mistake her scent, wild jasmine and vanilla sugar, accompanied by a whirlwind of rain. Every time he was around her, it was as if he was in a scented bath, relaxing away his built up tension. There was no mistaking that scent. This was most definitely Kagome.

He almost smiled.

He nodded slightly in acknowledgment. "Kagome. So it is done."

"Yes, It's done."

"I suppose he was not all that happy with it. No matter, I must talk to him, where is he?"

She looked away, tears brimming in her eyes.

He knew well of what Kagome had had to do, and her love for the hanyou, and how betraying him in such a way had crushed her heart. "I... I'm sorry." He finally told her. She looked up at him, then threw herself into his body, weeping.

Carefully, Sesshoumaru put his arm about Kagome.

"How could I do such a thing, Sesshoumaru?" She asked, not expecting an answer. Though she was surprised that he would even set himself within twenty feet of her, she had seen weirder things come from him, and she had come to appreciate his softer side when it decided to show itself. So she was only half surprised when he graced her with his ultimate wisdom.

"It was your destiny, and destiny must not be tampered with."

She suddenly just wanted to be somewhere, where she would be accepted and not scorned or judged, appreciated for what she was. "Sesshoumaru, take me with you." She said pleadingly.

"Hn?" he looked down at her with skepticism.

"When you go home, would you please take me?"

"Why? Do you not want to be with the humans and Inuyasha?"

"Sesshoumaru, look at me." She stepped away from him, forcing him to look at her demonic, ever beautiful body. "I have no place in the village." She paused, then looked up at him with dry but sad eyes. "I have no place with Inuyasha, either."

Something within Sesshoumaru jumped for joy with this statement. "And why, may I ask, not?" He would not give into these menial fantasies.

"Because he does not know who I am." She said quietly, looking away and rubbing her arm. "It was part of my wish. So he wouldn't have to miss me."

Sesshoumaru gave her a weird look.

"I know that sounds like self praising, but he chose me, Sesshoumaru. He rejected Kikyou for me!" She cried, tears streaming once again. "I had hoped with everything I had that he would choose her, so I wouldn't have to make him hurt so much, so I would have a reason to betray him!" she dropped to her knees before the great lord. "But he didn't, Sesshoumaru. He chose me, and I had to betray him."

"So you wished that he lose his memory of you." He stared hard at her. "Your intentions were honorable, but you realize what you have done."

"What?" She looked at him, a feeling of heaviness weighing her heart once again.

"In erasing yourself from his memory, you have also erased any lesson taught or battle fought because of you in his head. He is now not aware that he has tetsusaiga, nor how he is released from that arrow. He is oblivious to the fact that he has ever truly loved anyone. You have had an incredible amount of influence on the person he was, and now he is the same as he was fifty-five years ago, give or take a few attitude problems."

"But, doesn't he remember the others?"

"I'm afraid not. He only met them because of you. In his mind, he has been traveling the world alone. At least, that is my guess."

Kagome's eyes were suddenly wide with pain and terror. Blood started to gurgle in her throat as the sudden rush of pain to her spine shook her body. Claws plunged deep in her back, rupturing the backbone. She screamed in terrible pain, and even as Sesshoumaru rushed to relieve her, power began to build in her body.

Sesshoumaru paused in his attack, seeing Kagome's eyes turn aqua-marine in color. The star on her forehead glowed faintly, and then Inuyasha's hands were ripped from her spine and he was thrown against a nearby tree, held there by some unknown force.

Kagome rose, and Inuyasha's eyes widened, seeing that the injury had healed, her spine realigned and the skin already mending.

Kagome, however, was not concentrating on that fact. She did not turn around to see who it was that had attacked her, the look Sesshoumaru (who had not witnessed the healing of her spine) gave her said all.

"It's him, isn't it." She whimpered. When Sesshoumaru merely nodded, Kagome looked down, crying. She ran towards Sesshoumaru, whispering in his ear sullenly, "I'll wait for you. Please... he didn't know." And then she was gone, leaving a struggling Inuyasha and slightly disgruntled Sesshoumaru.

"What is the meaning of this, little brother?" the great lord asked scornfully, enjoying the sight of Inuyasha held helpless.

The young Hanyou's eyes flashed dangerously. "You!" he tried to break free of the never relenting magic. "You and that bitch are plotting to kill me!"

"Who gave you such an idiotic idea?" Sesshoumaru stepped forward menacingly.

"Kikyou! She told me about you and that Kagome woman!" he spat Kagome's name, as if it was poison. "How you and she were conspiring for the shikon jewel."

Sesshoumaru could hear Kagome weeping, smell her tears. Her bindings were weakening. He needed to end this quickly. "You are an imbecile, Inuyasha. This Sesshoumaru has no time for your ranting."

"Tell that fucking bitch to unbind me!"

"No." And with that, Sesshoumaru left Inuyasha screaming a choice line of curses after him, though paid no mind to them. This seemed to make the hanyou scream even louder. Sesshoumaru smirked in his triumph, small and feeble as it was.

"Kagome." Sesshoumaru could feel her sadness resonating from her in waves as he grew closer to her. Suddenly, arms were wrapped tightly about him and a face was buried deep in his haori.

"Sesshoumaru, it's all my fault. It's was my wish that made him like this!"

"No, you merely have set him back to what he is without you. There is no turning back on this journey, Kagome. You must fulfill what you are destined to do." Kagome was amazed at this lord's total eloquence, and suddenly felt very at peace with her wish.

"Does this mean that I may come with you, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru stared down at the vixen demoness that had plopped herself down into his life. "I suppose."

Kagome smiled in gratitude, letting go of him in sudden shame. She then bowed low to him, and it was now that he noticed how ripped and inappropriate her matter of dress was. Sighing lightly, he gathered his youkai cloud, and in the light of the afternoon sun, two figures were seen flying across the cloudless sky, comfortable in their intertwining destinies.

A/N: So? You like? I do appreciate reviews, but it's your choice. Bye bye, minna-San!