Chapter Five: Lingering Wounds

What more a difficult thing for thoughts to linger on than that which you wanted and never truly possessed. To have reached for and failed to touch a equally outstretched hand. To have watched that for which you so thirst touch the lips of another?

There are pains that no time can manage to control. That leave scars that will never mend, and the people that tell you eventually you'll move on. Those are the people that are lying to themselves as well as you in a disastrous effort to ease their own pain.

No one ever forgets the sharp pain that accompanies the cold shoulder.

ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo

They would be to their destination soon and he was a bit bewildered as to what he should do with the girl crying on his shoulder. It would be pressing her good nature to push her away. At the very least she smelled pleasantly, like a spring breeze with a slight floral texture. Thankfully he wasn't left debating the issue for long, she pulled away again wiping at her eyes and getting off when it was their stop. He followed quietly, ignoring the stares they had earned for the outburst.

"I'm sorry." She was still half crying as she spoke. "I just...I don't know..."

When they began to move up the steps to the shrine she tripped and barely missed slamming her head into the concrete. Lezard shook his head lightly and settled on the steps next to her. "What is wrong?"

"I shouldn't even be crying right now. You don't know me and you have your own problems." She seemed to genuinely feel guilty for bursting into tears, but also seemed unable to stop. "It's just...the reason I wanted onto the other side of the well...I left the first boy I ever loved there and he can't remember me anymore. He is with someone else and...I just...it's awful."

Being separated from the one you love or having the one you love caring about someone else was something Lezard was intimately familiar with. He had rarely cried for his love of his Valkyrie Lenneth in the worst times when he was designing her new body.

Empathy was something with which he was often forced to pretend to know. Though to some level he understood why she was crying. He had been placed with more a kindred soul than he may have originally realized. He settled a hand on her back and let her cry on his shoulder, it would have been less of a bother if he wouldn't have seemed cold for continuing to read. Instead he passively rubbed her back as he eyed the sky, the clouds were looking ominous again and he wasn't surprised when rain began to hit them lightly.

"Now if I could just get Lenneth to want to cry on my shoulder so freely." He mentally sighed but was relieved when she looked around at the rain and only sniffled instead of continuing to sob gently.

"I'm sorry again...we should get inside." She jumped all the way to her feet as thunder cracked loudly and the rain picked up more.

Then she began to dash up the stairs, though Lezard wasn't too far behind. Physical excursion wasn't his favorite thing, particularly when he was still recovering from the massive wounds he'd incurred. His outer body was well enough thanks to the girls magic but he still needed to rest. Something he discovered more fully as he had to sit on the floor inside her home to try to catch his breath after the run, his lungs burned in a fiery reminder of just how damage had been caused.

"Lezard...are you okay?" She was next to him but he was still gasping for air but nodding toward her question. It was becoming more obvious that they had done significant more damage than he had originally accessed. "I should have remembered that you were almost dead yesterday. Stupid Kagome. Stay here...I'll get you a towel."

Another intake of breath was her only reply and doubted he would have been able to move if he'd wanted to. "Some grand necromancer I am at the moment, reduced to wheezing on a commoner's floor."

The lack of power is what irritated him the most. He hated to rely on anything other than the creatures he made himself. Even if Kagome had been exceptionally kind, he was getting quickly more frustrated at the fluxes in his health. The towel she offered was warm and she felt like she had some sort of fever. He eyed her and the concern across her face made him realize he must have been deathly cold.

"My goodness Lezard, are you sure I shouldn't call a doctor?" She sat next to him, her chocolate gaze filled with innocent worry for his situation.

His breath was coming a little easier and the cold wasn't something he was unaccustomed to feeling. There was often a similar side effect of the grander necromantic magic so he wasn't too unused to it. He took Kagome's hand mostly out of a fear she'd run off and get someone if he didn't hold on, it was uncomfortably warm but he would suffer though. A doctor would only complicate things.

"Lezard, you are cold as ice..." she voice trembled a little but she shook her head and seemed to resolve herself. "Can you at least stand so we can get you to the couch?"

He wasn't sure he should, his breath was only now evening out and his lungs were still screaming at him despite the chill that had taken over his body. More exertion wasn't likely to end well, but the thought of sitting on the floor next to the door all night got him to nod to her breathlessly.

She immediately moved to help him and it was a battle both to not sneer at how weak he must look at that moment and also not to pass out during the short walk to the family's couch. Her body had become more akin to touching fire but it was better than falling on his face.

It was out of a paranoid habit that he'd kept grasp on her arm, and he was glad he did as she had started to move off again. "Lezard, come on...you are absurdly cold...I have to get blankets."

He didn't want to risk her finding someone else in her run for blankets...it was getting painful to touch her but it was the sort of pain he wanted just so he could leech some heat from her. "Stay."

"Lezard."

"Please."

She bit her lip but sat down next to the couch, pulling the one blanket they kept near there to toss over his body as best she could. "You are still obviously sick Lezard, why do you want to avoid seeing a doctor so much?"

"There isn't anything your sort of doctor could do Kagome." He closed his eyes, frowning further as a wave of dizziness hit him. He wouldn't be able to argue with her much longer so it seemed wiser to discourage her in another way.

Kagome was half afraid the strange boy was going to die from hypothermia on her couch, his skin was already pale but he was looking deathly as he lay there telling her there wasn't anything anyone she knew could do.

Her magic was unrefined but if it closed his wounds before then maybe she'd be able to help him now. She closed her eyes and instead of having him grasp her arm took one of his hands, it was difficult to concentrate when it seemed like she was holding a ice cube in the middle of a blizzard just by touching him but after a few minutes of trying she managed to recreate the same golden glow that she had the night before.

Practice apparently would make a difference cause she was able to hold it for a longer period, until she felt the chill leave him. She didn't pass out but she felt extremely exhausted by the time she'd finished.

Lezard didn't realize he was receiving magical healing until she was nearly finished, purple gaze staring at the holy aura around the girl when she cast. With the correct training she could be a caster of incredible power. It was the second time she'd saved him from at least a very uncomfortable evening if not death. Without a motion of asking for anything for herself, the concept was bizarre to him but he was thankful to have been left at such a place.

"You going to be all right?" He spoke first after she offered him a tired smile. "You shouldn't draw so much on your power when you are untrained. It will exhaust you faster."

"What was I suppose to do?" It was immediately obvious in the smallest of slurs in her voice that she was tired after the casting. "You wouldn't let me get a doctor and you were passing out and perhaps the coldest thing I've ever felt."

"I'm not saying I fail to appreciate your efforts in any way. But if you make yourself sick in the process it is a bit self defeating." He commented. "Will your family be home soon?"

"Mom is working late, Grandpa is off on some convention for old people that run shrines or something for new ways of bringing in customers." She rolled her eyes a little at that. "Souta I think is still staying at a friends house so mom probably won't be home for another couple hours."

It was always good to know a vague window of the times he had to work with. He sat up and was glad to not need the blanket she'd tossed over him. Pulling his hand from hers for the first time. Casting like that was bound to make her hungry and she'd need sustenance to keep from making herself ill. As much as he hated the idea he knew if he didn't watch her health that he might miss out on a needed healing spell at a critical moment. Survival being the foremost thing on his mind he helped her sit on the couch.

"You'll need to eat something..." He was at a loss as to what he should do for her. He had never learned to cook himself, at least at any level he would feed to the person that might be needed to heal him again. Usually he summoned his food but after his recent reactions with even the smallest of cantrips he was wary to be as free with his power as he once was.

"There should be some cookies and soda near the fridge, in the kitchen...I can warm something up later but you are right, I'm pretty tired." She commented, thinking casting spells might be like giving blood...maybe she needed to raise her blood sugar.

He disappeared into the kitchen, returning after a while with the whole box of soda and a couple boxes of cookies. She giggled a little as he set them on the table. "How much do you think I can eat."

He waited for her to do what she would with the apparent food and sat down on the other side of the couch from where she had wrapped the blanket around herself.

When she didn't get a answer she opened the box for a soda and then pealed back the seal on the oreo's. She usually didn't like her coke warm but she figured if he was bringing it to her she probably shouldn't walk just yet. "Thank you."

"I should say the same. This is one admist many times you've helped me." He only said it aloud so she knew he hadn't mistaken her kindness, women seemed to like it when you let them know you were watching. Except for dear Lenneth.

"I'm glad I could." She sipped at the soda, even warm it was good to have something. "It's good to know that I've helped."

And in that regard she was at least like other women.

She seemed as if she would recover well enough, people with a natural gift usually tended to bounce back quickly from such things. Lezard himself rarely had to worry about using his magic, of course, having been nearly cut in half the day prior was leaving his abilities far more stressed than he liked.

"Can we work on math for a while?" The question caught him off guard but he nodded. If that is what she wished then he would oblige. His own studies would have to wait until he could find time at her school the next day. Making sure the person fixing him wasn't falling apart was a priority that could not be ignored.

End Chapter

More plot stuff, a semi-still sick Lezard ( :( ), an awesome Kagome all healing him and stuff and being her usual super emotional self. I know my updates aren't super common but I do actually bizarrely enjoy writing this couple.

-Nera

Reviewer folk:

minaseiko1 - I hope you are still reading and such and continue to enjoy my odd pairing here.

Cherricia - It's too bad you didn't like Inuyasha much but I understand. Everyone has their likes and dislikes after all. Yes it's pretty hard to keep his attitude IC. I hope you keep on reading.

Mischievous L.A. - I also love Lezard muchly. He's up there with Jade and Albel for me as far as video game characters go. He's just so awesome.