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"What did you say?"
Kagome asked confused and stiffened in his arms, her brows lifted and her eyes widened in surprise, not quite sure that she had heard him correctly. She even had to look at him strongly just to see if he was jesting, but the look he gave her was one of perplexed confusion and unsurety. She looked away from his piercing eyes. Baffled she shook her, and then removed herself from his lap.
She stood and turned away from him as she thought on his strange behavior and the odd question, while he remained motionless and did not say another word.
Still she had to know what he meant by asking her who she was, but that could wait until later. If he thought that he could come back into her life after six months and pretend like nothing had happened, and expected her to forgive him just like that, then he had another thing coming. He would be making a grave mistake to think such nonsense, for she was no push over or a door mat.
She had many questions for him and she wanted. If nothing else he owed her that much, after taking her most treasured of gifts, and for nearly destroying her when he'd left her behind.
At length Kagome turned around, faced him and spoke.
"I prayed you'd come. I'd hope you would have kept your word, but that was many months ago, and now I have no more time or patience believing in such fantasies. So tell me Sesshomaru, why are you really here after all this time?"
Her tone was low, coolly distant and withdrawn. It was the voice of a stranger, someone he did not know. There was not a trace in it of the seemingly shy, passionate girl he had just kissed.
Sesshomaru's left eye raised a fraction while he'd listened to her. He had heard the hurt and bitterness in her tone which gave him cause for concern. Realization slowly dawned on him that he and this human female had some sort of history or an agreement, one in which he broke.
So how could he answer her when he hadn't any idea what the specifics of their arrangements were? He couldn't even remember her name or the relationship both of them shared. It wasn't hard to figure out that they were close, or maybe they were lovers, because the kiss that they'd shared and the emotions poured into that one singular act was intense. So he decided it was best not to answer.
His continued silence, his total stillness was unnerving, and she wondered if he was alright because he seemed so changed. The Sesshomaru that she thought she knew and loved would not be so unresponsive and unsure of himself.
Searching his face she caught a look that she couldn't begin to interpret in his eyes. And so in spite of herself, the anger and the hurt that she was still feeling, her heart gave a sudden rough jolt inside her chest, making her blood throb into her veins. His gleaming eyes were fixed on her and she sighed in exasperation.
The awareness when it happened was like a blow landing on her ribcage, making her catch her breath in shock and confusion. Could it really be possible that he did not not remember who she was?
The more she gazed at him and he at her in the silence, the expression in his eyes became clearer as she saw the uncertainty; and surely that was the reason why he'd chosen to remain unresponsive. She wanted to scream out her anger and frustrations at him for hurting her, for abandoning and nearly destroying her sanity, but what good would that accomplish if he did not remember her.
None of this situation was making any sort of sense. For what could have happened to him to let him forget about her and their time together? Maybe she should let him leave and not bother herself with finding out the truth.
It had been many months and her life had finally begun to make some sort of sense without him in it. She should be running miles away from him, as far and as fast as she could. Not standing here seeking answers for her shattered past and broken dreams. And by the looks of him she may very well have to help him sort out whatever ails him.
She winced inside as she anticipated her next actions, because she was not the kind of person who could just walk away from someone that needed her attention without giving it. Maybe that would be her downfall in this life or the next; she was just too damn generous and too giving of herself.
Steeling her mind and body for what was to come, she sat down beside him and took a cleansing breath, while he watched engrossed by every little thing that she did.
"Okay," she said as she shifted in his direction, "my name is Kagome and this is my school, and I am also a priestess," she told him as calmly as possible in spite of the weird set of circumstances in which they both found themselves in.
Already the steady downpour had drenched the entrance of the classroom, and she felt the tiny mist of raindrops that blew inside hit her face. Sesshomaru had not bothered to close the door after she had fainted.
She was temporarily distracted by the rain and her thoughts that when he began to speak she almost did not hear.
"How did we get to know each other?" He asked her softly. Kagome eyed him warily.
He still looked like the Sesshomaru that she knew, so what could have happened to him to put him in such a state? But just as her mind threw that question at her, he provided her with an answer.
"I am unaware of what is causing the lapse in my memory."
Kagome secretly felt pity for him and his infirmity, and relief that he did not knowingly and cruelly leave her behind like she had thought.
Her sigh was one of pure frustration as she readied herself to tell him what he wanted to know. She could never imagine that this would be the outcome if and when she saw him. She took deep breaths and let them out slowly, she calmed her mind and began the long narration.
"I am a friend of your brother Inuyasha, and I am from the future. We fought alongside each other in the defeat of Naraku over fifty years ago…"
She gave him the accounts of her long life and their history, falling short of telling him about their intimate relationship and the last nine months of her life and time with and without him. And when he made queries she provided him with the answers as accurately as she could.
The more they conversed one thing was becoming very apparent, and that was; he remembered everything except the times when she was present. It seems as though his entire memory of her was wiped cleaned. But what kind of magic or spell could do something like that, and why? Because she had asked him if he'd received any severe blows to the head in recent times, and he'd assured her that he had not been in battle for a very long time, so that excluded that possibility of his memory loss.
The story was incredible to him, he was there when it all happened and so was she, and yet he had no recollection of her being there at all. He knew that she spoke the truth because she had very detailed information on everything.
At one point he thought illogically that maybe Inuyasha had filled her in and had given her the information, but that sentiment was foolish, there would be no point in doing something like that, and further more she was a priestess and he knew that Naraku was defeated with a combined assault of holy and demonic energies. When she was finished recounting the shared events of their history, she moved further down on the bench and away from him.
"Kagome?" He tried her name on his tongue and he liked the sound of it.
She turned abruptly into his direction at the sound of her name.
"Were we lovers?" He asked simply.
Kagome tensed sharply by the question because it was something that she was hoping they would not discuss right now; not when he could not remember their time together, all their hopes and dreams, it would just make all that she went through meaningless.
She shook her head, her mouth twisting, fighting he knew, against her tears. Again, emotions that he still could not explain from the moment that he pulled the classroom door open and saw her overwhelmed his heart, and he tried desperately to comfort her.
"Kagome."
His voice was surprisingly soft and two large, long fingered hand reached out some distance on the bench and pulled her close to his side. His kind gesture brought the bitter tears that had been burning at the backs of her eyes now flooded them totally, blurring her vision so much so that she could barely see.
A broken heart and misery left a bad taste in her mouth, combining brutally with the cruel knowledge that he did not remember her or the love that they had shared.
The reality of her life was horrible and she needed his strength, both mental and physical to see her through. She spun into him and buried her face in his chest and cried out her sorrow and bitterness. He held her close, stroked her hair while he whispered in her ear.
"Even though I don't remember you, my heart does, and it is enough."