a/n: Hey yall! Sorry it took me so long to get a new chappie up but I was so busy with finals and Christmas preparations that I've only just now gotten the chapter typed. I guess this can be my Christmas present from me to yall! ^-^! I'm gonna try to get another chapter posted before I go out of town and loose internet connectivity but I don't know if I'll be able to since we have to go cut wood today and I'm the one operating the chainsaw... sigh...

"Speech"

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA...............What? Did yall expect me to do something weird? ...nope....not today........(TEAR T.T!!! WHY!?)...hum, what? oh, nothing.

Chapter 3- The Great Escape

Her entire week had consisted of eating, sleeping, and sitting around Kaede's hut. Boredom no longer applied to her, as she had gone beyond that after only a day of Sesshomaru's self-enforced imprisonment. The great and powerful Lord of the West had spent the last five days sitting beside the entrance of the hut and glaring fiercely at her if she moved around the hut too much or even looked towards the entrance.

Her wounds were healing quickly due to the lengthy rest being forced upon her but the large gash down her left arm was still aching slightly and was still swathed in bandages as it had yet to completely close. So of course Sesshomaru could smell the injury and continued to tell her that she was forbidden to leave the hut to do anything other than bathe and even then he and Inuyasha carried her and Kagome to the springs before leaving as they'd done the first day she'd awoken a week ago.

Today, however, would be different. She would wait until Sesshomaru was distracted by Inuyasha or someone else and then she would take Kirara and sneak away towards her village. Of course she knew that she would not get far but she only hoped that with Kirara's speed that she could get far enough that Sesshomaru would see that going to her village would be more beneficial than going back.

Acting like she had every day for the last week she started the day with her usual yelling match with Sesshomaru who merely growled back at her as usual. This was primarily to keep up the appearance that she had nothing planned but she had to admit that arguing with him was starting to give her some kind of sick satisfaction. Finally deciding that she had enough arguing she stood and stretched the kinks out of her muscles by bringing her arms together over her head and stretching her spine as far out as she could. A pang shot through her arm but since her eyes were already closed she managed to conceal it by clenching her eyes more tightly together.

Bringing her arms down and opening her eyes she sent Sesshomaru a mocking smirk before turning and walking towards the corner that her normal clothes lie folded neatly in.

"Ok Mr. Babysitter you need to leave so I can get dressed."

The icy glare he shot her told her that he hadn't appreciated her comment but he stood and left the hut nonetheless. Grinning mischievously to herself she hurried to put on her traveling kimono and place her torn and ruined slayer's suit into her blue traveling cloth that she would tie around her neck before she left. Motioning for Kirara to come over to her she picked up her tiny friend and quickly whispered her plan into her attentive ears.

"So what do you say Kirara?"

"Meow!"

"That's my good girl."

It was then that Kagome burst into the hut with an annoyed expression on her face before running to the corner opposite the one Sango's clothes were in and grabbed her bow and arrows.

"Stupid retarded bear demons! They just had to pick now to attack the village, just when I was about to start on the laundry."

"What's going on Kagome?"

The young priestess seemed to have only now noticed Sango and a look of surprise passed across her face before recognition dawned upon her and she sighed heavily; Sango was usually one of the first to arrive at a fight and Kagome must have been so flustered she forgot about her imprisonment.

"Oh sorry Sango. There's a big group of bear demons attacking the west side of the village. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are already there fighting them off though so don't worry. I'm just going to go help out and I'll be back in after I help Kaede with the injured."

"Ok Kagome, be careful."

She almost could not contain her smile as her friend ran out of the hut and towards the battle and as soon as her spiritual power was far enough away Sango laughed out loud and clapped her hands together happily. Shaking off her happiness she quickly ran to the corner to grab her supplies and weapon.

"Let's go Kirara!"

With an adorable mew the kitten ran outside the hut before transforming into her larger form and allowing her mistress to mount her before taking to the skies. The two companions had already discussed that speed was of the essence and so Kirara flew through the skies at top speed as Sango threw her head back and enjoyed the wind in her hair for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

"Just go as fast as you can for as long as you can Kirara and then when you're tired I'll run us from there."

The rumbled purr that came from the large cat's throat confirmed that she'd understood so Sango merely sat back and enjoyed the scenery while she could.

(Back at Kaede's Village)

Sesshomaru growled irritably. The battle with the bear demons had taken longer than he had expected since their leader was in possession of two sacred jewel shards. He and Inuyasha had teamed up on the leader after slicing their way through it's many subordinates. The leader, however, turned out to be quite the challenge since the two jewel shards healed any wound they made within seconds and they'd only been able to bring it down by shoving Tetsaiga and Tokijin through it's heart while Kagome shot out the two jewel shards with one of her sacred arrows.

The few wounds he'd received were already healing so he merely watched as his sister in law fussed over his brother's wounds with an amused smirk on his face. Inuyasha sent him a glare but merely sighed and allowed Kagome to continue with her ministrations. Deciding that he'd allowed his brother to be tortured enough he called out to the couple.

"Inuyasha we need to dispose of the bear demon remains before their residual demonic aura attracts other demons."

His calm statement shocked the two but Inuyasha merely nodded and told Kagome to go help the injured villagers while they took the remains to a nearby pit and burned them. Kagome merely nodded and turned to run towards Kaede to see what she needed her to do. Inuyasha watched her for a moment, his expression unreadable, before turning back to Sesshomaru.

"Ok Sesshomaru, let's get to work."

(One hour later)

The two Inu brothers stood a few yards away from the pit watching the flames as they consumed the bodies leaving only a trail of dark black smoke rising into the air. It had taken the two brothers a little under an hour to haul each one of the massive bear demons to the pit that lay about a mile outside of the outskirts of the village. Inuyasha was covered in bear demon blood while, as usual, Sesshomaru remained his perfectly pristine self. Inuyasha looked at him strangely and was about to ask him how he did it when Kagome's voice called out to them from the road coming from the village.

"Inuyasha! Sesshomaru!"

"Kagome? What is it? Is something wrong at the village?"

Kagome ran into Inuyasha before collapsing in his arms panting for breath. It was apparent that she'd run the entire mile from Kaede's village and both brother's watched her worriedly waiting for her to deliver whatever news was so important that she'd run the whole way to them.

"Kagome…"

"Its… S-Sango…She's g-gone…"

Gasping out her message, Kagome sagged back into her mate's arms and continued to pant heavily trying to regain her breath. Inuyasha watched her wearily for a moment before his golden gaze flew to that of his brothers'. Worry flashed across his face for a millisecond before an amused expression settled itself in his usually stoic eyes.

"I was wondering how long it was going to take before she would try to make her escape."

Inuyasha and Kagome, who had now regulated her breathing, looked at him incredulously. For the entire week they'd had to put up with he and Sango's arguing, Sango threatening to demolish Kaede's hut with Hiraikotsu if he didn't let her out, being carried to and from the hot springs and for what? So that Sesshomaru could amuse himself with her suffering? Kagome's expression darkened and her spiritual aura dropped to a dark foreboding level. Pushing herself off of Inuyasha's chest she was marching her way over to give Sesshomaru a piece of her mind when his voice cut through the dark atmosphere.

"Inuyasha I am returning to the old priestess' hut to check Sango's scent before I leave to retrieve her. If I am correct she will have left as soon as Kagome told her of our battle with the demons and she will most likely be near her village by now. I will not bring her all the way back to this village so we shall spend however long she needs to repair her possessions in her village. I must also go see Totosai on our journey back so do not worry if we have not returned within a week."

Kagome's aura had fallen back to it's normal level as she listened to what was possibly the longest statement she'd ever heard her brother in law say. Before she could recover from her surprise though, Sesshomaru had vanished from her eyesight as if he'd never been there to begin with. With his absence she finally remembered that she was angry at him.

"UGH! STUPID ARROGANT DEMON!!!"

(With Sesshomaru)

Easily running back to the village at speeds that made him only a silver and white blur to the normal human eye his sharp ears caught Kagome's loud exclamation despite that he was already standing in front of the old priestess' hut. Smirking evilly he entered the hut and looked to the corner to see that Sango's belongings were indeed missing as well as the stubborn woman herself and her neko.

As he'd suspected her scent was a few hours old meaning she had left as soon as Kagome had come to aid them with the bear demons. He could not help but think that killing the demons would have been much easier had she been there to aid them. Shaking that thought away mentally he turned and took to the skies on his white cloud. It would take him half the time it took Sango because he could travel much faster than her neko and he would not tire as easily as her cat would. He would venture to guess that with Kirara flying at full speed she could make it a little over a half of the way there before her master would have to travel on foot from there. He would fly until he caught her scent on the wind and then he would run from there.

As amused as he was that she had escaped he could not help but worry that she would get herself into some kind of trouble. He had come to notice that his battle partner seemed to be some kind of natural trouble magnet and it followed her everywhere she went. He, himself, had even been drug into battle more than once when they'd been training away from the village and her magnetism drew in more than one demon to their training area. He'd often wondered if there was something more to the slayer that lesser demons sensed that drew them to her but since he, the great Lord of the West, could not sense anything he had disregarded that possibility.

His thoughts on the matter were interrupted when he caught her scent on the wind but his mind was brought back to his contemplation as he also caught the scent of ogre demons not far from her. Quickly allowing his cloud of demonic aura to dissolve, he hit the ground at run and made his way towards where he could sense her aura clashing with that of the demons. Growling lowly in the back of his throat he swore to decapitate any pathetic demon that dared to injure her while she was under his protection.

He could hear the demons roaring that she and her friends had killed their leader and that they had come for revenge and he could tell from their scent that they were part of the group of ogre demons whose leader he had killed while protecting Sango just over a week ago. He smirked when she yelled back that they were pathetic bastards and that their leader was a disgusting pathetic… His brows knitted together as her retort was abruptly cut off and he knew that they had attacked her in rage.

Only a second later he cleared the trees and came into the small open area along the road to find that Sango was slicing through many of the ogres with her Hiraikotsu but her movement was restricted by her traveling kimono and he recalled that the primary reason for her trip to her village was to mend her slayer's suit. Without pausing he drew Tokijin from his side and immediately began to slice into the ogres on the furthest edges of the group.

"Sesshomaru!"

"We shall discuss your punishment for leaving without my permission later slayer. For now keep your focus on the pathetic demons that are trying to kill you."

He heard her snort as he turned to disembowel an ogre demon before slicing it in half and moving on to the next. His ears perked at the sound of ripping material and his eyes flew back to Sango just in time to see an ogre demon finish ripping off the bottom of her traveling kimono leaving her kimono now the length of Kagome's skirt. Sango flipped backwards now that she had more freedom of movement and managed to avoid the demon's next attack.

He watched as she looked down at the length of her now almost scandalously short skirt and her face became a bright scarlet red. Her brown eyes narrowed in fury as her head flew up towards the demon that had ripped her kimono and in a movement so quick that even he almost missed it she darted forward and sliced the head off the demon with a single swing of her giant boomerang.

The remaining demons turned to flee into the forest but the loud whirring of Hiraikotsu flying through the air caused them to turn and see the last sight they'd ever see; the huge swirling demon bone backed by the blue lightning of Sesshomaru's Dragon Strike flashed before their eyes before slicing through them and continuing on into the forest. The Hiraikotsu turned back at the edge of the trees and returned to Sango who caught it with a spin and slid back slightly at the force behind it after being pushed forward by the Dragon Strike.

Standing from her crouched position her eyes flew to Sesshomaru and she bit her lip nervously. She knew that he would catch up to her sooner or later but she hadn't actually put much thought into what he would do to her as "punishment." She was about to try to talk her way out of whatever he had planned for her when she noticed that his eyes were looking down. Confused she followed his eyes down and realized that her kimono was no longer covering her long scared legs. Embarrassment and shame shot through her as thoughts of Sesshomaru staring at the scars on her legs flashed through her mind and she imagined what he was thinking: ugly, scarred, horrid, pathetic, unworthy, imperfect.

Her thoughts weighed down on her consciousness and seemed to be crushing her but it wasn't until her knees collided with the dirt of the road and Sesshomaru caught her before she could fall forward that she realized that her shame had literally forced her to the ground.

"Sango!"

His voice broke through the heavy blackness that was trying to suffocate her and her vision cleared to see his silver brows knitted together and his golden eyes piercing deeply into her soul. All her sorrow and shame seemed to spill from her as blood from an open wound as those golden eyes once again viewed all of her darkest fears.

"You are uninjured Sango. What is it that plagues you so?"

A large lump formed in her throat and she couldn't have answered him had she even wanted to try. She could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes but she ground her teeth and forced them down before Sesshomaru could see them.

The demon lord himself merely sighed before grabbing her weapon and slinging it across his back before scooping the slayer into his arms carefully; mindful of where his hands touched the bare skin of her legs. He looked down when he heard a faint mew and Kirara limped exhaustedly from the bushes beside the road.

"Oh Kirara! Come here girl."

The brunette in his arms struggled weakly in his arms to get down to retrieve her pet but was unable to do much other than wiggle. Had he been anyone other than his stoic self he would have rolled his eyes before walking over and kneeling to allow her to pick the small neko up and cradle her in her arms.

"She was so exhausted Sesshomaru. I hid her in the bushes before the demons attacked and I can't believe I was so out of it that I almost forgot her. What is wrong with me?"

"Come Sango, we are not far from your village and you need to rest before we talk about this subject."

a/n: Well idk wether or not to count this as a cliffy. Hmmm..? Oh well yall will just have to review and tell me if its cliffy-ish to you. Also, for all of my dedicated reviewers I'd like you all to go to youtube and look up "Imperfection" by Skillet. I think this song is PERFECT for this story and I will be using some quotes from the song in my next chappy so if yall want to be prepared and know what your reading go look it up. Chappy 4 will not be a songfic or anything like that but there will be quotes in like in the dialogue. Anyways, enough blabbing....

PLZ READ AND REVIEW!!!