Miyuki followed Sesshoumaru and Jaken at a steady pace. Even that is so, she still kept her distance. They had been walking for a long while but Miyuki did not even chance a conversation with Sesshoumaru. She did not even want to read into his mind. He seemed not worried that she is following. Nor does he seem bothered by her. She sighs; it was all her fault, wasn't it.

Of a sudden, Miyuki felt a sudden clenching in her heart. It is as if someone is pressing it hard and prevented her from breathing. She stiffened. Her surroundings started to blur out and she found herself unable to move or to speak. She felt herself collapsing before her mind went blank. The last thing she remembered was a hand gripping her arm.

When Miyuki wakes up, she found herself leaning against a bark of a tree. The ground felt unbelievably warm and fluffy. Oh, wait, it's Sesshoumaru's pelt. Miyuki gasped. She remembered what had happened earlier on. Oh, why, why, why did she have to faint like that! Miyuki cursed herself. Now she is becoming a big problem. Determined, she tried to prop herself up.

"Don't move so much. You had been twitching and moving about since just now," said Sesshoumaru.

Miyuki stared at Sesshoumaru dumbly. Sesshoumaru didn't even look at her. He smirked inwardly. Just what, he thought, had happened to her the past century?

Miyuki looked down. She's being a fool. A down-right fool. Sesshoumaru had changed so much. It had been 100 years for mother's sake! Of course he had changed. Miyuki winced at that thought. It was at if the universe is mocking her at her bad fortune.

"Sesshoumaru..." asked Miyuki timidly.

"Hn," He replied. Sesshoumaru looked at her. This is the first time that she is addressing him so intimately since they met again. He gazed at her, half expecting her to look away, but she never looked away.

Miyuki looked at him but though he never said anything more, Miyuki still did not want to look into his mind. She wondered about his past. He had turned into such cold, uncaring demon. He even hated his own brother, and had intentions to slaying him. Yet, now, he looked different from that. It was probably Rin. It must have been that Rin kid that changed him. Humph, what was it about Rin?

"I-I'm sorry to have ..."

"Hn," replied Sesshoumaru off-handedly and looking away.

Miyuki quietened and looked down. She doesn't know what to say. What do you say after hundred years being apart? She bit her lips. When she was lingering around Sesshoumaru's castle, it seemed that she had a lot that she wanted to say. Yet now... Now that he is just mere steps away from her, she couldn't say a single thing. She wanted to explain so many things, but would he even listen? It seemed that he didn't even bother.

Or, does he...?

"I-I ..." Miyuki stuttered, at the lost of words.

"You don't need to say a thing if you don't want to."

Miyuki looked directly at Sesshoumaru. When she looked at him, she was suddenly lead to remember those times she was staying at the castle with her mother. It was those time before she was captured.

It was that first time that Miyuki had seen Sesshoumaru in her castle. She has had an instant liking to him. Still, he was a young lord, a son of the Great Demon. She is just, but a hanyou. Miyuki wouldn't even dreamt of talking to Sesshoumaru hadn't she not know what Sesshoumaru himself had been thinking. His thoughts had allowed her to pick up her courage to speak to him.

Since, Sesshoumaru and she had always met. Though he's still as nasty as a demon, he had compassion. He won't kill for no reason at all and he showed mercy. He would even smile. It was a pleasure to look at him smile. Those many times that they had spent together, ah... it was so memorable. At that time, Sesshoumaru didn't minded so much about power or the lands. He had enough already, for mother's sake! Yet... in that century she was away, he had been searching and looking for power and strength. It made her wonder...

When Miyuki went out of her trance, she was still looking at Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru, in turn, looked at her in awe. There was interest in his eyes. It wasn't cold, nor was it uncaring. It was unlike that Sesshoumaru that became when she left; unlike that Sesshoumaru she was forced to watch from afar.

"Sesshoumaru..."

This time Sesshoumaru didn't say a word. He tilts his head. He wonders if she could still read his mind. This female has interesting powers. He has been watching her and her eyes convey those of anxiousness and uncertainty. It is like, she doesn't know what to say or do, even.

"Would you come here, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru was slightly shocked at her request that he stared at her for awhile. Yet, he felt himself standing up and sitting beside Miyuki; leaning against the tree bark.

Miyuki slowly let out the breath she didn't realise she had been holding. How is she even going to start explaining everything that had happened? She doesn't even know where to start. Sesshoumaru may be sitting beside her, but he looks up to the sky as if it had a better story to tell. She sighed. Putting the rest of her thoughts out of the way, Miyuki propped herself up. Sesshoumaru still not look. She moved onto his lap and rested the left side of her temple on his right shoulder. Sesshoumaru did not seem to move. He did not even seem to be bothered by her outright courage to do that. Miyuki's curiosity could not longer be dampened.

"Sure enough; there is more to this girl than she would ever let on. It makes me ache with agony looking at her like this. She had changed so much. She seemed so much more timid and scared – as if she had been through something so painful." Sesshoumaru's thoughts wandered. He didn't even realise that Miyuki is reading his thoughts. Nor did he realised that his right hand had stealthily found its way up to Miyuki's hair, and caressing it, as if to comfort her of whatever pain she might be suffering from. "It sure makes me curious. Whatever it is she is thinking of. Heh. Of course. Of course I want to know what is going on in that little head of hers. I still care, don't I. That is why her disappearance a century ago went to my head. That is why I went on a rampage. I had so badly wanted to see her again, but I can't. No one could find her. Her mother was torn apart. I saw everyone who ever loved her just broke down. I, myself, could not lie to myself that it didn't hurt. So to ease that pain I resolved to killing. I could never love another. At least killing could give me some satisfaction. Love. Heh. Whatever could love do to me? It would just hurt me. It's worst than the pain I had to endure when I was hit by Inuyasha's Wind Scar. It is so much worst..."

Miyuki was thunderstruck by the pain and agony in Sesshoumaru's thoughts. She looked up at Sesshoumaru. He is facing away from her, but she could see his profile looking up to the skies. For once, she could see that there are emotions in his face. His melancholy face made her own heart ache in pain. Her eyes moistened. He had been through just as much as Miyuki had. That very thought made her shudder.

Sesshoumaru slowly turned his gaze at her when he noticed her sudden movement. He looked at her intensely. She's looking up directly at him. Then he saw it. Tears. There were tears in her eyes, there were tears streaming down her cheeks. Her face strained as if she is holding back all the emotions. Slowly, she turned her face and buries it in his chest; away from his view. Sesshoumaru looked away and returned to his trance. He noticed, though, that her tears did not stop immediately. He noticed that the tears did not even stop when she's already asleep. The tears just kept on coming and only stopped a considerably long time later.