Sesshomaru caught her, just in time.He sat down with her on the step, laying her head in his lap and smoothing her hair from her face. Her cheeks were flush and warm. Her fainting had taken him by surprise; maybe leading with his brother's death hadn't been the best idea, looking back on it.

"Rin always said I should be less brash.." He murmured, picking up a lock of the girl's dark hair and letting it fall from his fingers. It slipped through them like silk, and he recalled a long forgotten memory.

"Where have you gone, little one?"

Sesshomaru heard a small giggle off in the distance, towards the forest near where they were camping for the evening. He breathed in deep through his nose and... there! Behind that tree, he found her. She squealed when he appeared, laughing when she realized she'd be caught, and looked up at him with large chocolate eyes.

"Don't wander so far," He made a deep hnn sound with his throat, and put a hand on her head, mussing up her soft, dark hair.

She grinned at him with a look that said she would do this again, no matter how many times he told her to stay close.

"I love you Sesshomaru-Sama," She cooed, hugging his leg.

It was the first time she had said that to him since he had taken her into his care.

"You remind me of my Rin, little one." He whispered.

"I'm not a child, Sesshomaru," Kagome's eyes had opened suddenly, and she stared up at him with those midnight blue irises, her cheeks still red with blush - most likely due to embarrassment; he dropped her hair without her noticing.

"Will you explain to this one how you seem to know me so well, yet I do not know you?"

She sighed. "Can I sit up? This is weird, and it's a very long story."

"I have time,"

"Funny you should mention time, Sesshomaru-Sama..."

They learned many things sitting together on the bottom steps of the shrine's entrance, trees blocking them from the afternoon sun. A slight breeze tousled Kagome's raven hair, and she lifted one hand up to smooth it down absentmindedly. Se was staring off in the distance intently as she talked, and Sesshomaru was lost in her story, lost in her sad, faraway eyes.

"...And so to defeat Naraku, I made what I believed to be the one true wish. I wished the Shikon no Tama was never created, and in doing so purified the darkness. At least, that's how Midoriko explained it to me when I was inside it. Then I was waking up at home, and none of it was apart of my life anymore. Not that I didn't try to go back once or twice the first couple of weeks."

And try to dig my way through.

"I'm sorry," He whispered, lost in his own train of thought. So she had lived an entirely different life? Loved so many people only for them to completely forget her?

He was appalled at what the Sesshoamru in her world had acted like.

Is that who he would be had he not learned compassion and love early in his life?

She winced. "That's all you have to say? You don't think I'm crazy?"

His brow wrinkled, a deep frown pulling the corners of his lips down. "Kagome, I have lived a long time. I'm a demon, but you already knew that. I do not completely understand the ability you have to travel through time using a well but.. I get the gist I believe."

She chewed on her lip for a moment then looked at him, her eyes full of sorrow.

"What happened to Inuyasha, without the Jewel?"

"His mother died when he was a child, as you know. I was still very young at the time, a teenager by human standards though I was fifty years old. I was mad at father for leaving mother and siring a hanyou with another woman, let alone a human woman,"

The Sesshomaru she knew would have said half-breed, with utter disgust, but he said the proper term with a softness she wasn't quite used to with him. He had always been quiet voiced until prompted, but he had been menacing, and a little frightenening when she knew him.

"My mother took him in, much to my displeasure, and I had to learn to let go of my hate and disgust. Mother insisted upon it. He grew on me eventually, stubborn hanyo. It took a long time for me to not be bitter," His voice grew impossibly softer, remembering. "When he. was almost fifty, he met a priestess, and they eventually married."

"Kikyo," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. As it should have been. You win, Kikyo.

"Yes, the priestess. She died to the wolves of the Eastern tribe during a territorial war, and..."

"Inuyasha died trying to kill them all," She finished, not at all needing to know the details. You idiot.

"You knew him well. He killed many before they finally overcame him. He became quite the good fighter. He was brash, but calculated. I am sorry that you lost everyone," He sympathized. "You must have cared very deeply for him with all that you went through together."

Kagome looked at him, really looked at him and smiled. He stared at her with big golden eyes. They're pretty. She thought. I never noticed that.

She tried her best to smile at him, "I was in love with him."

He was silent for a long moment, contemplating his words.

"I could tell you all I know of the past I lived, would that appease your longing or your sadness?"

Her eyes spilled over with tears, "Tell me everything,"

Help me grieve, Sessomaru.

It was long passed dark when her tears dried and he had no more stories to tell for the night, but one last thing, and he would lead her back up the steps to her home.

"Were we friends, in your world, I mean?" His brow wrinkled.

Or was I a monster then, too?

Kagome blinked at him for a second. Slowly, her lips turned up in a warm smile.

"Yes! We're friends now too, Sesshomaru-Sama."