Author's Note: I'm a dumbass and I'd forgotten I had this written for The Sorceress (it was placed in a wip file with all sorts of snippets), and now it's too late for me to incorporate it, so um, enjoy this random extra scene for those of you who follow that story? It had happened to be one of my favorite parts, so I'm really quite annoyed with myself right now.

Word Count: 286


sakura


I have something to show you, milord, were the words that greeted Sesshoumaru's ears the moment he stepped into the shop on his next visit.

Without shame, she placed her tiny hand into his larger one, unaware of the tiny flashes of another vision that came with her touch. Sesshoumaru kept his composure, letting her lead the way down the corridors, turning corners, and finally to a peculiar shoji door unalike any of the other portals.

Silently, Kagome slid the door aside, pulling him gently into a scenic garden scattered with cherry blossom trees in bloom beneath the full moon.

He looked up, surprised as bright pink petals rained down all around them.

"This is…"

She tilted her head to the side, smiling knowingly.

"My father's palace." He pulled his hand back, letting it feel the plants around them. "How?"

She did not answer him.

He looked down to see she had cupped her hands together, catching one petal.

"Ryukotsusei had burned it to the ground long before Inuyasha was even conceived," he recalled. He stepped forward, his hand touched a particular tree looming closely over a koi pond. "I used to climb this tree as a pup. Mother was always afraid I would fall into the pond." He unexpectedly chuckled, mildly surprised by his own unusual behavior. "I think I might have."

"Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"How peculiar," he murmured more to himself than her.

"What is?" she inquired, approaching his side.

He peered down at her face, beautifully bathed in the moonlight. He reached out and removed a cherry blossom petal from her dark hair. "This feeling of nostalgia," he answered, handing her the pink petal. "Thank you."

She smiled in response, gladly accepting his gift.