And Back again. You were waiting for this, you know you were.
I would like to point out that while Sesshoumaru has met Aki before, she looked very very very freakin' different. And though he has seen her since (at a very great distance) he hasn't made the connection between the "hallucination" that helped him after he lost his arm and Aki. He won't make the connection until it is forced down his handsome throat because Sesshoumaru, like most males, doesn't see what's right under his marvelously powerful nose. But the realization and connection are for later when it will be most effective in driving him mildly crazy. I'm so evil!
I would also like to remind everybody about the second part of the Urasei's spell alteration. You may remember that Aki was to go into a false heat the next time a male youkai touched her. WEll, Sesshoumaru stuck her with his claws, that would count as being touched wouldn't it? Hee, hee. Bet you thought I'd forgotten about it. WEll you were wrong! I just love to save plot devices for the most inoppurtune moments. And I love to set them up way in advance just to keep my readers in suspense. It makes you think and exercise that wonderful underdeveloped memory you have. I am after all, a firm believer in making people think.
Oh and despite the title, there is no intimate encounter to speak of in this chapter. In fact, there will be no lemons whatsoever in this fic at all. poor you. You were so looking forward to it.
The question is, which youkai is feeling the lust, and when the hell will it be acted upon. If it ever is...
I am sooo evil!
The Inuyasha cast have now demanded that I pay for them to undergo therapy as a result to the stress they are subjected to by working for me. Fred says they're a bunch of wimps and that they should be glad they aren't my characters to begin with!
Youkai in…Lust?
Kagome wasn't one to insist on being the center of attention. Sometimes it was best to stand on the fringes of the spotlight and smile smugly at the poor bastard who got suckered into suffering all the scrutiny. Unfortunately, the poor girl found herself stuck smack dab in the middle of a rather red tinged spotlight in front of a group of people, not the least of which were three very unhappy youkai.
"Kagome, that hurt," Aki hollered.
"What'd you do that for, wench?" Inuyasha bellowed.
"I was ashamed before to admit that you were a blood relative, but now," Sesshoumaru growled as he continued to attempt to unearth Aki by ripping Inuyasha up by his hair. "There are not words to describe the disgrace you present yourself to be."
It was hard to tell what bothered the inu youkai more, that Inuyasha was plastered to the ground with Aki underneath him or that the hanyou had wound up that way because a little human wench had told him to sit like a dog.
And poor Kagome was put on the spot to explain her actions. In the end she didn't have to. As soon as Sesshoumaru had managed to peel Inuyasha off the slightly flattened Aki, the former English tutor sprang up to pursue Naraku. Both brothers pounced on her before either even realized what they were doing. Seriously, who wanted to run through the forest some more?
"He's getting away!" Aki screamed as she struggled to break free. "Get off of me! This is really no time for a dog pile!" Inuyasha growled at that, but his insulted sensibilities didn't make him let go.
Everybody was stunned, well except for Kikyou. Did Aki have a death wish? She was in terrible shape, what with being wounded and still suffering from the toxicity of Sesshoumaru's claws. She was in no condition to be fighting the most cunning and evil enemy they'd ever encountered.
"You're doing it again," a voice said, making nearly everyone jump.
"Please don't tell me you're here to save me again," Aki said from under two inu youkai. "Last time you tried that you nearly got everybody in the area killed." She groaned at the memory.
"Hey, it wasn't the last time, it was the time before that!" Fred corrected her pointlessly.
"Right Fred, last time you only nearly killed a measly half," she responded dryly while trying to find a way out of being on the bottom of a dog pile.
"Whatever," the ghost shrugged. "Sometimes you are so tiresome. Anyway, I'm not here to save you. I don't have to bother, Kikyou's going to ensure you live through this bought of stupidity you're going through."
Most of the group looked at the undead miko to see what the see-through guy was talking about. Kikyou held a packet of herbs in one hand, which she was carefully measuring out.
Sesshoumaru felt the squirming female under their pile go very still. Obviously she knew what the ghost was talking about better than the rest of them. She then launched an escape plan with renewed force and energy.
"How much are you giving her?" Kagome inquired noticing the immense size of the dose Kikyou was measuring out.
"Five times the normal dose," Kikyou responded absently. "Last time I gave her only two times the normal amount, which would've knocked any normal person off their feet and into a deep sleep for several days. She was up in an hour." Kikyou kept her concentration on the growing dose in her hand. "The only way we're going to get her to stay put is to make her sleep. And with those wounds, the longer she sleeps the better."
"No!" Aki objected vociferously. "Kikyou don't do this!"
Kikyou kept pouring; desperately trying not to think of what Aki's nightmares could possibly be considering the things the miko had seen her stare down without a change of expression.
"Let go of me!" Aki's maneuvering took on a desperate strength that rocked the two males holding her down.
Sesshoumaru was quite impressed. AS damaged as the female was, she was still making it difficult for himself and Inuyasha to hold her down. Quite a feat considering how strong the youkai lord considered himself to be.
Kikyou finished her measurements. "Sorry," she apologized in advance, "I'd dilute it like we're supposed to, but you're not likely to stay put that long." The miko turned to Miroku, "Monk. Will you help me get it down her?" she asked.
The two brothers levered the protesting Aki into an upright position and Kikyou, with Miroku's help, forced the bitter powder down her throat.
"This is for your own good!" Kikyou stated firmly.
Aki gagged as the last bit of it left a powdery trail down the back of her throat. "Ugh!" she made a face. The stuff threatened to come right back up again, but the look on Kikyou's face made her swallow it.
Kagome handed Aki a cup of water from the spring and Inuyasha cheerfully forced that down her throat. "I hate you," she glowered at everyone present. Her mood was especially foul as the warm water settled in her poor abused stomach. "You'll get yours," she muttered darkly. "It may not be me that sees that it happens, but it will."
Miroku chuckled, "You're prophesy can't help but come true. WE all have quite a bit left to live yet and it's pretty certain we'll have a lot of bad days. I swear at least one of them will be dedicated to you."
Aki reacted rather violently to that, or rather she would have if Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha weren't still holding her down. "It would never be enough! One bad day would never equal the hell of what you've all sentenced me to!"
"They're just nightmares Aki, don't be overly dramatic," Inuyasha pinched her arm. "I can't see why you're making such a big deal over nothing."
Aki's glare turned on him with such force he stepped back in fright. "Oh they're real alright," she declared intensely dark. The weight of her words throbbed in the space he'd placed between them. "All the best nightmares are. After all, what is more frightening than an irrefutable truth you'd rather forget."
"What truth?" Shippou the ever inquisitive asked despite the creeping sensation crawling down his arms.
Aki's luminous green eyes swung to stare into him, "My truth. A truth that the real monsters can't even compare to. Truth so terrible and real that life has no hope to ever compare." She bit her lip and realized she'd said more than she'd ever meant to. "A truth I will never share."
"But Aki," Kagome tried to persuade her to tell them about it. "It helps to talk about it, to share it."
Aki snorted, "The whole world knew my truth and instead of it helping, it hurt more. The world blamed me for my truth until their blame caused more damage to me and added to my truth. I'll not share it, thanks."
"That's not healthy," Kagome declared.
"But it won't kill me," Aki brushed her efforts aside. "I think splitting up would be a very good idea," she changed the subject. Her eyes were beginning to look a little glazed. "We have here a lot of targets and each of them likely to draw a lot of attention. Attention you've all seen to it that I can't handle right now."
Kagome sighed and let it go. Besides, Aki had a point about splitting up. "She's right, if we all stay here we would be inviting trouble. Naraku knows where we are and we can't move as such a large group without him being sure to know where we would go. Plus we have all these Shikon shards so every youkai in the area will be coming after them. Kikyou, I'm sorry, but you invite quite a bit of trouble just by being you. Villagers don't like you, youkai don't like you, and you can't offer Aki any protection or even a sanctuary of any kind." The miko had to agree; it was certainly true. "Fred, You certainly can't protect Aki and you can't help her either."
"Nonsense! I've helped Aki before," the ghost declared and Aki burst out laughing. "Well I have."
"That wasn't the kind of help she meant," Aki chuckled derisively.
"Sesshoumaru's bound to have enemies what with being a lord and all that. Plus Naraku's bound to bother him again sometime," Kagome observed. "We're all problem magnets no matter how you look at it."
"So what do you propose?" Sesshoumaru inquired as he absently caught Aki before she fell. It appeared the herbs were throwing off her balance.
"I suggest we split up into our original traveling groups," Kagome held up her hand to stave off a wave of objections. "I'm not finished! I also suggest we pick one of those groups to stay and protect Aki while she's asle-No Fred you aren't going to do it!" the ghost harrumphed and glowered at the ninth grader.
"I could stay," Kikyou began and was immediately met with protests on all sides.
"Like you could protect her from anything!" Fred snorted.
"Then it's almost certain Naraku will come!" Kagome objected.
"You can't do it, you just can't!" Inuyasha growled. Couldn't he come up with something a little more concrete?
"Don't you have some other places you have to go or something?" Miroku asked.
"I want to stay, I could protect her!" Shippou shouted over all of them. Everybody laughed good-naturedly to Shippou's chagrin. "Well, I could…"
"I doubt very much that the sleeping one would be happy to see your face when she wakes up," Sesshoumaru observed blandly.
"I suppose you're right," Kikyou agreed with little grace.
"Us staying as a group is out," Sango said. "This large a group is bound to draw something, and we have the Shikon no Kakera with us. We'll be sending up a red flag to anybody in the era that's interested in them. And that's without considering Naraku and his detachments never leave us alone for long."
Inuyasha opened his mouth as if to offer a suggestion when Kagome cut him off. "We're more likely to be trouble than to defend against it. Sango and I could stay." Inuyasha was definitely against that, but Miroku beat him to it.
"I must disagree with that suggestion," Miroku began and Inuyasha growled at him. "Miss Kagome, you would still have the shards, which would still draw in all the problems the rest of the group would if we stayed together."
"Oh yeah! You're right," Kagome thought for a minute. "Then you and Inuyasha could stay, or just Inuyasha. I'd never trust you here alone with Aki sleeping."
Inuyasha steamrolled over Miroku's attempts to protest his innocence and so-called virtue. "The hell if I'm staying here! We have to find the shards and you know you can't collect them without me around to beat up the morons that have them!"
"I'm insulted," Sango glared at the hanyou. "My family has been killing youkai for generations without your help."
"Yeah, and Miroku has taken down several youkai all on his own," Kagome pointed out.
"Yeah, but you guys are too likely to forget to actually look for shards," Inuyasha declared.
"I'd shut up if I were you, Inuyasha," Aki mumbled. "You're just making them angrier." In truth, she didn't really mind their stupid arguing. They were making enough noise that she didn't have to worry about being able to sleep through it.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, could we stay?" Rin asked her protector.
Everyone was surprised, except Sesshoumaru who had been expecting it. Rin seemed to like the partial youkai and it was quite obvious nobody else could look after her while she was going to be unconscious. They'd already identified all the problems associated with every other possibility, it was only a matter of time before they figured out they had to leave Aki with him. And Sesshoumaru found he didn't mind looking after the strange female either.
"It would be dangerous for Rin to be kept around me while I'm unable to help defend her," Aki declared. "Besides, it's more difficult to watch two targets than just one."
"I don't care!" Rin cried and began to wail.
"Stop Rin," Sesshoumaru said quietly and the girl halted her tears abruptly.
The child smiled brightly, obviously having realized a solution to Aki's objection. "I don't have to stay," she pouted not really wanting to go away, "but Sesshoumaru-sama still can! He'd be the bestest protector ever!" Rin beamed at them all.
"That might work," Kikyou began. "No wait let me finish." She looked sharply at Inuyasha who'd been about to interrupt. "You have someone who can look after the child, don't you?" she directed the question at Sesshoumaru.
He nodded minutely, "I'd have to take her there."
"Alright then, since we can't all stay and Sesshoumaru, sans Rin, seems to be the least troublesome protector, I elect that Sesshoumaru watch over Aki after dropping off Rin. I also suggest that I stay until he comes back," Kikyou said.
"I suggest we move her first," Sango interjected. "Naraku and Kagura know this place and that we were here," she pointed out. "I'm not saying we have to move her very far, just far enough away so that they can't find her immediately."
Kagome nodded as Kikyou moved to collect the still damp clothes to be taken with their respective owners. Kagome rummaged in her bag for an extra shirt Rin could borrow so Inuyasha could have his Haori back.
Kikyou packed Aki's things back into her bag and made a bundle out of Rin's clothes. After Aki was maneuvered into her shoulder bag and Rin's bundle was tied firmly on the child's back, the group divided in two. Kikyou and Sesshoumaru were moving Aki somewhere a bit safer and Inuyasha's group was going back to their quest.
"You know Kikyou," Aki began drowsily, "you don't really need to stay. Kouga is to the south heading west about 20km from here. Naraku and Kagura are to the East going further that way about 40 km away. There's nothing but insects, birds, and ten or twelve dear anywhere near here."
"You can smell them from here?" the youkai asked. She nodded and realized he couldn't see it with her on his back, so she answered in the affirmative out loud.
"That doesn't mean there couldn't be trouble anyway," Kikyou replied stubbornly. "Either way, I'm staying with you whether you like it or not."
Sesshoumaru felt more than heard the woman sigh. He knew better than to interrupt their discussion, but he found himself aching at the weariness he could hear in Aki's words.
"Do what you want, you will anyway," the partial youkai said peevishly. She was only talking now because it helped fight off the dark edge of sleep that kept creeping up on her. Aki didn't want what that intangible curtain brought with it and the longer she fought the drug, the less time she'd be out. She hoped anyway.
They finally stopped, just as the rhythmic motion of walking was beginning to put her to sleep. Sesshoumaru gathered up Rin and took off in the direction where he'd last left Jaken.
"Kikyou?" Aki began.
"Hmm?" Kikyou hummed. "I thought you'd be asleep by now. Heck, I thought you were asleep."
Aki ignored the comment and continued. "I think some of my stitches came loose." Kikyou moved to look and noticed for the first time the damaged state of her hands.
"What's this?" Kikyou demanded seizing the blistered flesh and Aki winced. "Why didn't you show us this before?" she demanded as she began to doctor the raw skin roughly.
Aki bit her lip and refused to show Kikyou just how much pain the undead miko was inducing. "Kyaa! Kikyou! At least leave me my claws!" when the miko showed no notice she continued. "If you want me to wear the bandages, you'd better leave the claws out. Wrap the palms fine but leave the fingers unrestrained!"
"You won't need…" Kikyou paused; suddenly rethinking the situation she was leaving Aki in.
"What is it?" Aki asked, observing the change in Kikyou's behavior.
"I can't believe I'm leaving you alone with him…" Kikyou readjusted the bandages making absolutely certain the material didn't impede her clawed fingers.
"Thanks Kikyou, but what made you change your mind?" Aki wondered in the haze induced by the herbs forced on her.
"Well, Sesshoumaru's a male," the miko began.
"You noticed that, did you," Aki broke in dryly, narrowing her eyes. An inkling of just were this might be going almost broke through the fuzzy veil covering her thoughts.
"You're a girl," the miko continued.
"Last time I checked that was correct," Aki responded.
"Well, doesn't that worry you?" Kikyou cried. "He might take advantage of your indefensible condition," she finished in a rush.
Aki grinned, her eyes shiny with mirth. "You're worried about that? He won't touch me at all. I've got too much human blood in my veins to interest Mr. High-and-Mighty-Fluffy-Thing!"
"Even so, you're an attractive female and will be alone in his care. He may surprise you," Kikyou insisted.
"What? And ravish me in my sleep?" She exclaimed in disbelief.
"You would never know either way," Kikyou's defense was getting weaker.
"The hell I wouldn't. I'd be able to smell him on me. As I said before, I've got too much human in my blood. Naraku's the only one I've met likely to take me by force, and he'd make damn sure I was awake to suffer through the experience," Aki finished firmly. "Besides there's nothing you can do to change the plans now. You're leaving, so stop worrying about it."
Kikyou looked at her as if to say something else in support of her fear. Aki stilled the words by raising her hand tiredly. "I said enough."
Kikyou closed her mouth and busied herself by rechecking the youkai's injuries. "The poison is still in your blood," she observed.
"So it is," Aki agreed.
The miko looked at the former English tutor's face, "Why hasn't it been cleaned out yet?"
"A number of reasons, not the least of which is my really worthless healing ability," Aki sighed. A cough tickled the back of her throat and she suppressed it not wanting to taste her own poisoned blood again. "The blood loss helped get rid of some of the poison." It also got rid of a lot of important good stuff with it.
"Here," Kikyou shoved something at her and Aki blinked. It was a container of water. "You need it, especially after you lost all that blood. You should eat something too, but I'll let Sesshoumaru see to that. I doubt I'd be able to make you eat before I leave." Aki gave the miko a devilish grin and Kikyou just glared at her.
Action was helping keep her awake. Keeping up the fight against sleep without getting caught that was getting difficult. She was running out of ways to distract her self-appointed guardian miko. That was kind of humorous, a youkai being protected by a miko.
The medication was beginning to make everything seem kind of funny. This couldn't be good.
Luckily, Sesshoumaru arrived right about the time she nearly succumbed to the drug. That is, his arrival helped her wake back up, much to Kikyou's disappointment. She'd hoped Aki would've been asleep by now.
"You're shifts done now Kikyou," Aki sang, consciously rubbing in the fact she hadn't passed out yet.
Kikyou glared at her before turning to give Sesshoumaru her last instructions about how to care for Aki in the miko's absence. Then she turned and left without saying good-bye. Dead people can be so rude.
Aki sighed and stood up to stretch up to the sky. Subsequently she showed off the length and shape of her body without really noticing or caring.
Sesshoumaru watched her muscles ripple under her exposed skin seemingly entranced. A beam of the fading light splashed onto her hair and the area was lit with the golden brilliance.
Absently, she let her body recoil from the stretch with a yawn. Aki was slightly afraid to move around too much. It might cause her injury or something since she couldn't seem to tell where her center of gravity was from one moment to the next.
Sesshoumaru shook his head to dislodge the sensory images watching her created. He clenched his hands until his claws dug into the flesh of his palm. It was truly strange to feel this insane sweep of distrust of his own body. He'd never felt this way so strongly about anyone. Nor was he given to react quite so easily to such an innocent gesture.
He blinked and watched as Aki began to doze. That wench, Kikyou had said that this woman was likely to wake herself up before it was healthy for her to do so. She'd given him another dose of the sleeping powder just before she left.
Sesshoumaru found himself intrigued by the little female fighting the effects of the herbs that had been shoved down her throat. What could possibly be so terrible as to frighten anyone as strong as she'd proven to be? He wanted to know. He was curious, and he couldn't figure out why. Anyone else, anything else and he wouldn't care. He was the lord of the Western Lands, what did he care about some random lesser demon. But he wanted to know about Aki.
"So," Aki began stifling a yawn, "You took Rin back to that guy who was supposed to be watching her in the first place. Are you sure she's going to be alright?" She gave him a sketchy smirk, "I mean, he didn't do such a good job the last time."
"She shall be fine. Jaken is very clear as to what will transpire should he fail again," Sesshoumaru answered evenly. "Rin promised not to wander off again."
Aki almost laughed. "Rin may be an adorable angel, but…well lets just say things happen and small children tend to have selective memory." She smiled in a confiding manner, "Some adults do too."
Sesshoumaru stared at her, somehow getting the impression she was referring to him but certain she couldn't be. It was a valid statement in the general sense and he couldn't truly refute it when darkness hovered in her eyes that bespoke experience with the subject. In any case, the conversation was pointless and he recognized it for what it was, a diversionary tactic. Aki was fighting to stay awake and engaging in conversation aided in achieving that goal while distracting the person she conversed with. Too bad he wasn't likely to ever fall for it. The inu youkai never was big on conversation.
"I am here to keep watch over you and I will not be talked into leaving so you can stop trying," he declared firmly.
Aki blinked up at him. Should she tell him now that it was about to rain? Nah. She liked the rain. Of course Sesshoumaru wasn't about to let her play in the rain if he had prior knowledge of it.
"What are you smirking about now?" his eyes narrowed down at her.
Aki grinned, "I know something you don't know!" She stood up just as the first drops of rain began to fall. "Hmm, that's a little off," she stared up at the sky in puzzlement. Normally she was a little better at judging the weather.
Suddenly her feet were no longer touching the ground and silver hair tickled her nose. "What the hell?" her arms convulsively clung to the nearest object. The nearest object happened to be Sesshoumaru's shoulders. She found herself receiving yet another piggyback ride. "Where are you going now?" she asked sleepily.
"Someplace dry. Did you know it was going to rain?" Sesshoumaru's accusation was filled with palpable suspicion.
"What? I can't even walk straight and you want me to predict the weather! I don't know what you've been told, but I'm not super woman!" Aki declared with a snort.
"So you did know," the dog demon stated with conviction.
Aki pouted quietly from her perch. "There was a cave back that way," she pointed over his shoulder, "we passed it on the way here."
Sesshoumaru headed in the direction indicated by her gesture and marveled at her ability for observation in her condition. Even more impressive that she noticed the cave when he, in perfect health and completely alert, had missed it.
They were barely half way there when the sun set completely. Aki hissed in pain as the moment struck her like she knew it would. Her control over her illusions and physical appearance wasn't perfect and most likely never would be, but the greatest trial was when the sun sank under the horizon. It seemed the sun affected her youkai blood and when the sun sank it surged against her control. Normally she could control the effects, but she was in no condition to handle it today.
Sesshoumaru paused when the shape of his burden appeared to change. Just what was she up to now? He glanced down at her hands where they rested against his chest. Suddenly Aki's hands appeared more talon-like than they had been. One of her fists was clenched tightly, causing blood to drip down the front of his clothes.
Honestly, he didn't care about the stain; it was the smell that bothered him. On most occasions he liked the smell of blood, but Aki's blood smelled wrong for more reason than the taint of his own toxins laced through it.
Whatever Aki was up to, she needed to get out of the rain regardless. Sesshoumaru increased his speed and nearly missed the cave in the darkening light. His new ward had to nip him with her claws to get his attention.
The inu youkai rushed inside the relatively dry interior of the cave and set his cargo down as gently as possible. Then he went to investigate the rest of the cave. He wasn't as wet as he could've been, the body he'd carried made quite an effective umbrella. His pants were wet around his semi-ruined shoes, which he kicked off before turning to check over his charge.
Sesshoumaru's phenomenal control failed as he gasped at the changes in Aki. Where once a woman of average height had stood now a youkai nearly as tall as him attempted to wring the water out of her hair. Hair that had formally been the color of golden honey was now a shiny almond. Her ears had migrated to the top of her head. But those were the more subtle changes. After all, the sudden appearance of transparent feathered wings and an iridescent scaled tail were quite the opposite of subtle. It was certainly a unique combination, he had to admit.
Aki was completely unaware of his intense scrutiny. She was more concerned with other more pressing matters like being soaking wet. Originally she'd been pretty dry down her front, but all that hair tends to retain a lot of water and without a towel there was no hope of it remaining dry. Being wet certainly didn't help her aching muscles. Ever since the first time she'd changed, assuming her more youkai form had always been painful. Hence why she tried to avoid it.
Today, however, the pain had helped her fight back the meds that were attempting to knock her out. She never thought she'd be happy about not being who she used to be.
"What happened?" Sesshoumaru asked.
Aki took a moment to answer while she fought back a cough. "The sun went down," she enunciated very carefully around her elongated fangs. "Usually I prevent the change, but I don't have the concentration or the strength tonight."
"Why would you prefer to look less youkai?" Sesshoumaru couldn't understand someone not wanting to look powerful, and she certainly looked powerful.
"Well, for starters the wings get in the way," Aki began. "And the tail and ears leave me open for attack simply because I'm not human. Without them I draw less attention."
"I don't think it's the attention you're really worried about," a new voice broke in.
Sesshoumaru moved between Aki and the voice prepared to defend her as he was meant to but there was really no reason for him to have bothered. It was only Fred.
Aki just sighed as her guardian toned down his guard. "Mostly, it's because I don't recognize myself after I've changed." The doped up, suffering, changed female shook her head and put forth the effort to return her appearance to what it normally was nowadays. Evidently the effort was a bit more than she could afford to expend and her knees gave way under her.
Sesshoumaru barely caught her before her head smacked the dirt. He was horrified by the heated texture her temperature had given to her skin. She was soaked to the bone, she should feel cold and clammy, but she was burning. "Why did you not say you had a fever?"
"I didn't realize I had one," Aki mumbled, wondering how long it would take for the Urasei's punishment to finish her off.
Sesshoumaru growled with displeasure before setting her down to scout out the rest of the cave in case he had missed something.
Aki watched the other youkai search the cave for a moment before dismissing his activity for more active employment. She started to spread out her damp clothes so that they could dry a little more. Eventually she hoped to be dressed in something that didn't drip water into the dirt at her feet. Distractedly she reminded Fred that he wasn't supposed to be bugging them anymore.
Fred replied with his usual teasing. "You don't really want me to leave you alone with Sesshoumaru now, do you?" His mock horror was layered on real thick.
Aki gave Fred a sharp look while the lord wasn't looking. There was no need for Sesshoumaru to know what the real problem was. "You know that's not it, Fred," she responded and threw a book through his semi-transparent head.
Sesshoumaru's search at the back of the cave had met with a small measure of success. There was a small crevice filled with cool, clean water that Aki could drink. He figured that if water could help after blood loss, cool water could help bring down a fever. At the very least it could help replace what she lost.
Luckily he did carry a small water pouch for travel and when he reached to retrieve it, his hand brushed against the package he had nearly forgotten about. Sesshoumaru pulled out the cloth bundle and looked back towards where he'd left his patient, only to find her not resting and otherwise sitting still like she should have been.
The inu youkai stalked to the front of the cave and seized Aki's wrist rather abruptly.
"Hey!" Aki objected to being manhandled.
"The ill should not be doing laundry," he growled shortly and thumped her in the chest with the package.
"The ill shouldn't be handled too roughly," Aki pointed out before bothering to inspect what he'd given her. "Now what is this?"
Sesshoumaru turned to stare out the mouth of the cave. "The ill should be properly dressed in dry clothing."
"I guess I can agree with that," Aki murmured as the silk fell to drape towards the floor. "I'll warn you now, I haven't a clue as to how to wear a kimono properly."
Sesshoumaru didn't bother to respond to that as he was too caught up in the sound of cloth sliding over skin. The murmurs of her sensual pleasure of the feel of silk against her skin nearly put the killing blow on his control. All the while he was trying not to remember that gifts of silk and clothing were normally reserved for during courting and mating.
"I think I'm presentable. What do you think Fred?" she called out to let him know she was decent.
"Not bad," the ghost offered in critique. "You look like you're ready for a bath."
"Your just jealous that you can't change clothes," Aki scoffed.
"Well how would you feel if for the rest of time you looked like you were dressed by your mother?" Fred grumbled. "You know I would never pick these clothes out for myself. I think she had to run out and buy them because I wouldn't have kept them in my closet."
"You're mother's taste wasn't that bad," Aki argued.
"I didn't say it was bad," he countered. "I just said it wasn't mine."
Sesshoumaru observed them as they continued to argue. They were like siblings, or old lovers. A bitter feeling settled into his stomach and the lord dismissed it as something he ate. That reminded him. "Kikyou told me to make sure you ate," he interrupted their play fight.
Aki blanched and fought back a yawn. It was a toss up on what bothered her more, the thought of eating or the thought of sleeping.
"At the moment I'm willing to forego the forced meal," Sesshoumaru continued. "Instead, you will sleep." He shoved her to the floor and growled when she tried to get back up. "Sleep!"
Aki grumbled under her breath about over bearing youkai and evil mikos. Despite her disgruntlement, she quickly fell unconscious.
Fred hovered over Aki and stared at her face. Twenty minutes after his friend sank into somnolence the disturbance started. He could always tell when the nightmares began. "And so the horror begins," he mumbled.
Sesshoumaru studied the ghost before glancing down at his charge. "Does she always suffer such nightmares?" he asked the ghost.
Fred blinked up at him. "Always. They may change a little from nightmare to nightmare, but the content is always the same."
"What does she dream?" the youkai demanded.
"She relives the night she found her family, dead." Ghosts couldn't shiver, but Fred did a good imitation. "Do you know how terrifying it is to come home on some random evening and find everything you loved was covered in blood that flowed against the tilt of the floor and wouldn't soak into the carpet? To find the bodies of your kin laying in pools of their own blood without a mark on them and then see that the blood flowed from their bodies to congregate in the hall and then flow towards the front door against all reason? I can't even imagine it." He looked like he would throw up if he were alive. "And she, wonderful, caring, and funny Aki lived through that in house after house after house in one night."
And that was the nightmare that plagued her? Sesshoumaru's eyes landed on her face as the tears began to streak down it. He knew full-blooded warriors that would've been driven insane from suffering such nightmares over and over again.
"She never cries when she's awake," Fred commented quietly. "She's afraid to care about anyone else because of this curse she believes caused it all. She'll never heal that way."
Sesshoumaru stared at Fred, not quite certain of his sanity. Then again, the human was dead, what was the point of sanity? He shook his head before crouching down next to the sleeping female. Since he'd taken in Rin, he'd grown rather skilled at soothing nightmares. He could at least put those skills to use for the woman he was to guard. "Shh," he whispered in her ear while petting her hair. "It's okay."
Aki's face slowly eased of tension as he continued his attempts to comfort her. Eventually her body relaxed a little more and she wasn't so rigidly curled in on herself.
Sesshoumaru sighed and tried to lean back so he could move away from her only to find that somehow, Aki had fisted her hand in the front of his clothes.
As all powerful and mighty as the youkai tended to be, he could only maintain such an awkward position for so long before it became exceedingly uncomfortable. With a sigh, Sesshoumaru laid down beside Aki, brushing aside Fred's ridiculous protests.
Fred snapped his open mouth shut. There lay the Ice Prince next to his best friend on the ground in a cave. How surreal could things continue to get?
Maybe he should wait to limit surreality until after the morning. Because then Aki would be awake and likely to take Sesshoumaru's closeness badly.