And here we go...
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"Wake up wench! I'm sending you back to your time to get healed up! You're useless injured like that!" Ahh yes, Inuyasha's wonderful personality was what woke her... that or due to his nudging of her bruised rib with his foot.
Groaning, she rolled over and slapped the offending appendage which caused Inuyasha to double-over. Slowly rising up, she stretched as best she could without opening her wounds.
"Ugh, I feel like I just got ran over by a bus." She nursed her pounding head, a migraine setting in.
"What's a bus Kagome?" Shippo, the ever curious one, asked as he settled beside her while handing her a fish for breakfast.
"Huh? Oh it's a big metallic box on wheels that is very bad if you stand in front of it." By the look on Shippo's face, her explanation didn't make much sense so she shrugged and patted his head. "Don't worry, you won't get to see those for a while." She smiled down at him and kissed the top of his head as a silent thank you while taking the fish from his hand.
After breakfast, Kagome rode on Kirara on the way back to Kaede's village. There were no demons that attacked them on the way, which is strange since they would usually encounter one or two at the least.
Scratching her head, Kagome felt the leaf slip out of her hair and before it blew away, she caught it in-between her fingers.
"Keh, you still have that thing? You don't need it, I'm strong enough to scare other demons away!" Inuyasha huffed, his chest out while his fist pounded on it. Kagome giggled at the image for he looked so much like Shippo at that moment.
Miroku eyed the leaf with wariness clear in his eyes. As did Sango.
"Kagome-sama, where by chance did you get that leaf?" Miroku asked as he moved closer to her, his hand itching for some contact but held it down so she can answer his question.
"Oh um, I had it when I woke up in that meadow that Inuyasha found me at." Raising the leaf in the air, she looked up at it in wonder. The sun's rays making it glisten all the more. Shrugging, she fingered the leaf and played with it in her hands reminiscing about the night before.
"Learn to keep this with you, Miko."
"Speaking of which, Kagome-chan, what happened after I disappeared last night? How did you kill that demon? His body was still there so you didn't purify him... Was it Inuyasha?" Sango asked, while putting a hand on her chin in thought. "But then again, wouldn't he be in tiny bits of pieces rather than a gaping hole in his chest?"
"Yeah! It looked like some of him was actually melted too!" Shippo added, a shudder of disgust ran over his spine.
Blinking, she looked over her group, her cheeks slowly giving off a tinge of pink. "Uh... well Sesshoumaru saved me." At that, everyone halted dead in their tracks, even Miroku's lecherous hand, stopped inches away from Kagome's bottom.
Everyone's mouths hung agape as they stared at her as if she grew another head. Because of course, they did not hear what she just said... but her sentence proved truthful as she looked down at the innocent silvery leaf in her palm.
"WHAT?!" Inuyasha yelled in disbelief. The rest of the journey was then filled with Kagome's explanation of what happened the past week.
The sun ever so slowly crept beyond the horizon, blanketing the sky with an array of orange and gold. In the distance, you can see the moon make its appearance as night soon came, evident from the cold gust of wind it brings with its arrival. With clouds starting to scatter in the sky, the stars shone through, giving the small group of shard-hunters much needed light as they camped for the night.
All you could really hear were the slight murmur of sighs and yawns as the group deigned their much needed rest. Inuyasha jumped on top of his branch, readying himself as the night's watchman.
His golden irises glancing back and forth from his group and to the sky while his ears seemed to tweak as a reaction to each sound that he hears. That is until he saw the fluttering of Kikyo's soul stealers at a distance.
Shifting into a squat, he looked down at his group to assure their slumber before heading off in that same direction.
Something felt amiss, that's what Kagome thought as she woke up to the wind chilling her down to the bone, she snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag, clutching onto Shippo in the process. Though try as she might, she could not fall back asleep.
Sighing, she carefully slid out of her makeshift bed and placed the covers back on Shippo. Stretching her aching muscles out, she stood up and looked around. Looking up to the branch where Inuyasha lay, her eyes widened slightly. He's gone..
Kagome's body seemed to move out of its own accord, into a direction she does not know. But she felt the necessity to heeding into its commands, just this once. Even when her injuries screamed in protest.
"Kikyo..." Inuyasha breathlessly uttered while he stared at his former love.
As Kikyo floated down, her gaze landed on Inuyasha's form. Her charcoal-black hair seemingly dancing in the wind as her soul-stealers skittered about. A small smile grazed her lips as she walked over to him.
"What is it, Inuyasha?" Her voice sent electricity through his spine.
Moving one foot after the other, Inuyasha closed the distance between them until they were literally a hair's breath away. Neither said a word, for none was needed. The desire was clear in their eyes and so, after what seemed like an eternity, their arms and bodies entangled in a tight embrace.
That was how she saw them, in that tight embrace underneath the moonlight. It seemed as if time stopped just for them. It was that beautiful yet heart-wrenching scene that Kagome could not tear her eyes away from. Her chest felt as heavy as lead and something inside her clicked to finally allow her control over her own body.
Struggling to breathe by the rush of emotions, she managed to turn around and walk away soundlessly. She wasn't needed there, she thought.
Inuyasha's ears perked up at the faint sound of fading footsteps and he knew who it was. He looked down at Kikyo, a serene look plastered on her face before he gave her an apologetic glance as he ran towards Kagome.
"Kagome...!"
She stopped walking and stood still, her back towards him.
"Kagome... I... We... What I mean is..." Stumbling on his words, Inuyasha tried to form a sentence... an explanation... just something to tell her.
"It's okay Inuyasha." Kagome turned around, her tears glistening in the moonlight that danced on her face as the wind blew through the canopy of leaves above her head. "I understand. Go back to her. She needs you." She turned around to walk away.
His heart was torn at the look that Kagome gave him. Walking over to her, he pulled her into a hug and planted his chin on her shoulder. He whispered words of forgiveness and a thank you as he let her go and turned the other direction.
A ghost of a smile shown on her lips as her form disappeared into the welcoming shadows of the forest.
Sesshoumaru's form was bathed in the moon's glorious shine, to whoever that may stumble upon him in that open field of grass as he gazed at the sky, they would think of him an angel. No, more like a god that descended from heaven.
His thoughts kept straying on the strange miko in his half-brother's group. A look of defiance at their every meeting shown in her eyes had him questioning her bravery and perhaps even her sanity.
"What right does she have to gaze at this Sesshoumaru in such a manner?" But he found that he truly didn't care about how she looked at him. He actually admired that defiant side of her.
The scent of salt and jasmine assaulted his senses as he heard the slight sounds of cries close to his vicinity. Feeling the need to investigate, though he knew who it was, he started in the direction where the scent came from.
His chest seemed painfully tight as the scene before him displayed Kagome in a heap on the forest ground, her small whimpering cries reaching his sensitive ears.
"Miko." He spoke, trying to get her attention, but she neither uttered a word nor moved to acknowledge his call to her.
Kneeling down in front of her, he took her chin in his hand and raised her face up.
Kagome knew he was there, but in her current state, her body refused to react to him. As he lifted her face, she looked up at him with tears cascading down her cheeks and her lips quivering in sadness.
"What has happened to you?" The need to comfort her rising with each passing minute.
"It hurts... I all ready knew his choice... I've readied myself for his decision long ago." Kagome said as she hiccuped softly. "But why does it still hurt so much?" She asked herself more than to the demon in front of her.
She didn't care if he thought of her as pathetic as a human should be. Right now, all that mattered was the pain that racked her body, not from her injuries, but from her breaking heart.
Her eyes drifted close as tears stained her cheeks.
He wasn't quite sure of the feeling that swirled inside him, but he found himself leaning down closer to the crying miko until his lips softly touched hers.
Her eyes flew open as she stared at Sesshoumaru. Her look of confusion and shock caused him to reply.
"Silence your tears, Miko." The hand from her chin brushed the tears staining her cheeks and moved the hair sticking to her face away.
"I am here for you." He added silently in his head.
She found herself leaning into his touch, perhaps it was the need to be comforted that caused her to do it or the fact that Sesshoumaru is the one comforting her she doesn't quite know. But the next moment she saw the heated look in his eyes and gasped slightly, her tears stopping for the moment.
His lips crashed onto hers. He kissed her with so much passion, so much devotion that when his fangs grazed her bottom lip, causing it to bleed, her mind barely registered it.
She knew this was strange; and quite possibly wrong all together. But when his tongue flicked the edge of her lips and she uttered a gasp, he dove inside and her mind went completely blank. Her body instinctively latched onto his and when she kissed back, she could only hope to match the power behind his.
The moment they broke apart, her chest heaved and she managed to take in a breath. The kiss left her so weak, so warm, and so utterly raw that without the powerful arm that found its way around her waist, she was sure to be a mass of glowering goo on the ground by now.
"Are your thoughts still about him, Kagome?"
"Sess... Sesshoumaru...?" Kagome all but whimpered his name as her eyes took on a glazed look. Her tears now dry.
A devious smirk played on his lips, he bent down and kissed her forehead, smoothing out her hair in the process and pulled her into his hold. He looked down at her head and saw the glittering leaf entangled between her locks. Careful of his claws, he plucked the leaf from her hair, at the sniffling sounds the miko still made, he frowned slightly and brought the leaf to his lips.
He felt her body slump against his and her breathing even out as he felt her relax in his hold.
One would have to take a second look at the scene, for their eyes surely must be deceiving them as the impossible is shown before them.
For there, leaning against the trunk of a tree, with a sleeping miko sprawled on his lap was Lord Sesshoumaru of the western lands with a hint of a smile on his lips.
His eyes of molten gold gazed back up at the sky. Content written all over his features.
"Wait... wait.. WAIT mama!" A young half-ling of miko and demon blood, about 65 years or so (About 11 in human years) interrupted her mother. Her face in a pout and her arms wildly waving above her head. "Are you telling me that papa fell in love with you first?"
The little one's nose scrunched up as she looked over her father, disbelief evident in her violet eyes.
"Yes, koi. Tell our little one the real story for once." Sesshoumaru looked over his mate, a small evil smile fell on his lips.
"What?! It's the truth! Has your father been feeding you lies to raise his ego again Karin?" Kagome patted her daughter's head as she sat by her on the bed and gave Sesshoumaru a dejected glare.
"But papa said... that well you came to him first... and that... uh" Karin's face was wrecked with concentration as she tried to remember what her father told her.
"Believe your mama, Karin. Our fluffy over there has his facts wrong since he's getting so olllddddd!"
Sesshoumaru's brow rose. "Wisdom comes with age, Miko."
"Miko?! I am your mate! Treat me like one!" Kagome gave a undignified huff as she crossed her arms and looked away, her nose in the air.
"Shall I call you bitch then?" A smirking Sesshoumaru spoke. Kagome's eyes bulged and quickly covered Karin's ears. Karin, all the while, still deep in concentration noticed nothing.
Kagome looked over Sesshoumaru as she was about to yell at him for his language but stopped as she saw the look in his eyes. "Uh... Sesshoumaru...? What.. Why are you looking at me like that?" With a deep, reverberating chuckle that sent chills down her spine, Sesshoumaru jumped on Kagome, sending both of them in a heap on the floor. Kagome 'eeped' as Sesshoumaru assaulted her with kisses.
"Oh! That you confessed to him first!... Huh? Mama?" Karin's eyes blinked in confusion as she crawled over to the edge of the bed. "Eww! Gross Papa!"
fin
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Buwahahahah! Sorry again that it took awhile, I'm working 6 days a week and on my day off I'm too exhausted so I just sleep most of the day :-/. But I've been writing bits and pieces of it when I get a chance to. What's weird is that I thought of the ending first before the beginning of the third chapter so I actually wrote that one down first lol ..
I understand that theres a lot of jumping around... I'll smooth those out in a rewrite in the future. I sorrehs.
Anyway, I hope you guys like my first three-shot! Reviews give me the energy to write and just the right push I need to finish. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews, I'm just all giddy that people like my story and that it's been put on alert and faves. I love you guys!
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