Chapter 17

Author Note:

Sorry this is kind of late, I have mucho grad parties to go to, like 21 to be exact. I'm just that popular and awesome...and no, I'm totally not conceited, why do you ask? Just kidding! Anywho, that drawing is coming along, it should be done tonight actually, photoshopping backgrounds is just a pain in the ass. I got so many different requests from people for which scene to do, so I just did a general cutesy picture of the two of them together...I guess it could kind of be like a cover for the story or something. Anyway, I'll post the link when it is done, or you could just cyber stalk me on deviant art. Either one.

She couldn't move, she was on the floor, she was about to be married to some insane poison master, and she couldn't move.

His hands were on her, making her dance as he sung her a ridiculous marriage song and she couldn't pull away. Her arms wouldn't listen to her head, not even her voice seemed to be working.

He dropped her back to the floor then, telling her what a beautiful bride she was, offering her rice wine with that horrible smirk on his face. And then Sango and Miroku came bursting through the roof of the hut, wielding their weapons as Kirara crashed through planks and beams to get to the miko. But soon they were on the floor too, a blast of poison from her captor rendering them useless.

He was laughing after that, laughing as her friends coughed and fell to the ground, and Kagome was angry. She forced her limbs to move, grabbed a set of chopsticks, and thrust them into the poison master's throat. She had been trying to grab the jewel shard that was lodged in his stubby neck, but she missed, she missed and fell over.

He was angry.

He told her she wasn't fit to be his bride as his calloused, cold fingers closed around her neck and started to squeeze the air from her body. She gasped, the room started to go dark. She called for Inuyasha.

And then...she could breathe. Mukotsu was yelling in pain, his hands clutching at the wound that had suddenly appeared on his chest. She had been saved from the brink of certain death, and as the poison master fell to the side, she expected to find her hanyou staring back at her. But it wasn't Inuyasha she found.

"S-Sesshoumaru?" she had gasped in wonder. He stared back, his eyes cold and void.

Sesshoumaru had saved her...

***

It was this scene that played over and over in her mind as she drifted through the hazy limbo between consciousness and oblivion. That day the band of seven had been reduced to six. That day Sesshoumaru had saved her life.

Back then Sesshoumaru was the last person she would have expected to come to her aid, but now...now it only seemed natural that he had come to her rescue.

Her mind faded out of comprehensible thinking as she lost her train of thought and the memory of Mukotsu's demise replayed again in her head. It was hours, maybe days, before she felt as though she were truly conscious.

Kagome's first thought upon waking was how her back felt as though she had been dragged across the highway by a tractor trailer going ten miles over the speed limit. Which, she noted, couldn't possibly be right seeing as she was in the feudal era - an era quite devoid of tractor trailers.

Her second thought was that it sounded like someone was growling.

"Do calm down, I am simply changing the sheets," she heard a familiar female voice whisper as the growling ceased.

Sheets? The miko mentally repeated. I haven't slept on sheets in...well, too long. Just where the heck am I?

"Sesshoumaru?" Kagome said sleepily as she blinked open her eyes. She had no idea what was going on, but she hoped that she would at least be able to find Sesshoumaru and make sure he hadn't abandoned her for being such a fool. Unfortunately it seemed that her vision was being obstructed by a rather large amount of auburn hair.

"You're awake? Good. Tell your youkai he can stop growling every time anyone tries to get near you," the girl with the striking hair said, throwing a look over her shoulder as Sesshoumaru growled again. "See?"

Oh good, I haven't been abandoned then. That's definitely nice.

"The Great Lord of the Western lands making such a fuss," the girl muttered as she ripped the sheet currently guarding Kagome from the cold, cruel air from the bed and folded it. "I never."

Another low growl - probably a warning - erupted from the other end of the room, but the girl only shook her head.

"Sesshoumaru, I'm fine," Kagome said, wondering why in the heck he would be growling over her anyway. Maybe it was a dog thing? Like she was his miko chew toy and he didn't want anyone else to take a bite?

Kagome then realized that she was comparing herself to a chew toy and decided that she really could do with some more sleep...and perhaps a blood transfusion or two.

"Hn," he grunted, throwing her a stern glare from the wall he leaned against as she tried to shift and hissed in pain.

"Okay, maybe 'fine' is pushing it," she rolled her eyes, "but growling at people isn't going to help anything."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but otherwise gave no indication he was listening.

The auburn haired girl - Aiko, Kagome remembered - spread the new sheet over her and then took a step back. "Alright, I'll be back to change your bandages later," she said. "Now, you mustn't move or you'll tear your stitches," she warned as she slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"She seems...different," Kagome commented, remembering the haunted girl she had first met. Now she seemed almost normal.

Sesshoumaru's gaze shifted to her, looking her over as if trying of decide whether or not she was worthy of a response. "Hanyou are resilient creatures if nothing else," he finally said, his deep baritone cutting through the tension that had plagued the room since Aiko's departure.

Kagome nearly sighed with relief, he may not have said it, but she was sure this was Sesshoumaru's way of letting her know he wasn't going to maul her for disobeying him...though, he was probably still pretty angry.

"She was a hanyou?" She asked.

He merely nodded. "The kitsune lord of this province took a human mate in accordance with a peace treaty between the ningen of this area," he said distastefully. "She is their only offspring."

"She doesn't have animal ears like Inuyasha," the miko noted, not really knowing why it mattered, but feeling as though she would much rather keep their conversation limited to topics that wouldn't get her yelled at.

"Not all half-demons do," he said.

"Oh..." She trailed off awkwardly.

Sesshoumaru reached down and untied something from his waist, tossing it at the miko before she could see what it was. She squeaked indignantly as it hit her on the forehead before she could catch it, but immediately forgot her anger as she realized what it was he had thrown at her.

"The jewel shards!" She exclaimed happily as she picked up the glass vile from the bed and checked to make sure they were all there. "You got them back!"

Sesshoumaru merely raised a brow as if questioning why she would ever doubt he would be able to retrieve them.

"How come you were carrying them? You could've just put them back around my neck," she asked, slipping the necklace over her head once more.

"You were unconscious, I would not leave such things unguarded," he told her blandly.

Kagome frowned. "Oh...weren't you...affected by them?"

"No," he said simply, looking up from his inspection of his claws. "The jewel promises power, but it is a false power. This Sesshoumaru has no interest in such foolishness, wench."

"Wow," she said in awe. "I wish other people could realize that, it would make my job a whole lot easier...even that crazy Shigeru guy knew not to use them."

He gave her a quick look before returning to his claw inspection. "Indeed."

They were both silent then, for minutes they just shared the awkward void that had once been filled with words, but now lay empty between them. He stared at his hand while Kagome stared at him, desperately trying to figure out if he was angry, or simple bored as usual.

"I'm sorry about your clothes," she spit out hastily, eager to break the silence. She had noticed that he now wore just a white haori under his armor, paired with his usual white hakama. It was a pity she had ruined such a beautiful piece of clothing, though, at least his traditional obi seemed to have survived the ordeal, seeing as it was once again tied around his waist.

He finally looked at her, his eyes narrowing. "That is what you choose to apologize for?" He asked, the dead quality to his tone more unnerving than if he had screamed at her. "You think I have even the slightest concern over my ruined wardrobe?"

Kagome wrinkled her brow. "What should I apologize for? Since I'm obviously doing it wrong."

His eyes widened fractionally, surprise flitting across his face before his stoic mask was once again in it's place. Gracefully he pushed himself off of the wall at the far end of the room and walked over to her bedside, kneeling so that he was staring her right in the face. She wanted to back up, get away from his penetrating stare, but her wounds prevented her from moving at all.

She shifted uncomfortably, his golden eyes boring into hers, and she desperately wished that she at least didn't have to lay on her stomach like some beached whale while he glared at her.

"You disobeyed This Sesshoumaru," he told her, his voice like an ice so cold it burned. "You walked blindly into a trap simply because you are incapable of doing as you are told."

The miko swallowed her fear and scowled. "I thought it was just a youkai, I could have killed him in a second! How was I supposed to know there were men there?"

"You did not know, because you could not have known," he growled, his face so close to hers that she could see the glint of his fangs as he spoke. "You are human and your senses are inferior, you should have waited as I instructed. You will not disobey me again."

"I just wanted to help," she mumbled, turning her head away.

He grabbed her by the chin and forced him to look at him. "You will not do that again," he repeated in a voice so soft it was dangerous. His grip tightened, his claws threatening to break her skin where they held her.

"But I can fight!" She insisted, trying to pull away. His hold was iron tight, but his hand fell back to his side nonetheless. "I can help you! You know I can! Don't leave me behind the next time you go to fight and we won't have this problem!"

"Miko, you are human, act like it!" He snapped, standing up and giving her a disgusted look.

"Not this again!" She yelled, sitting up and using her elbow for support even as her back screamed in protest. "I know I'm human, but that doesn't mean I'm defenseless or worthless or stupid like you see fit to remind me every waking minute!"

"THAT," he rasped in a savage tone as his eyes shone red for a quick moment. He closed them and took a breath to calm himself. "That is not what I meant!" He said in a slightly more controlled manner, though, his voice was still sharp. "You are human, wounds that simply cause a youkai discomfort would kill you! I..."

He faltered and took another breath, opening his eyes slowly. They were once again golden and filled with a pain that came and went so quickly Kagome could not be sure it was really there.

"I do not wish to watch you die, miko," he said flatly, all emotion gone from his voice. "This Sesshoumaru may have the power over life and death, but it is an unpredictable power. I will not leave your life to chance."

"Oh," she said, all eloquence escaping her at the moment. She did not know what to say to that, he had just basically admitted that he actually gave a damn whether she lived or died, and that was big.

She felt her anger melt away and she reached out to grab his sleeve. "I'm not trying to die, you know, but I'm a miko. I have to fight. That's what I do."

"And yet, you let my half brother protect you," he growled and pushed her hand away, sweeping out of the room faster than Kagome could see. He didn't even bother to spare her one last glance.

"Sesshoumaru, wait!" She tried to get up, to follow after him, but she simply could not make her battered body move.

Kagome slumped back onto her pillow, buried her face in it, and screamed.

Of course she had expected him to be angry, but in a Sesshoumaru way. He would glare at her, call her a filthy ningen, and threaten to disembowel her when this whole ordeal was over. What she did not expect was for him to flip out! He was Lord Sesshoumaru for kami's sake! He wasn't supposed to lose his cool!

But he had! He had actually shown emotion! What did it all mean? Sure she probably shouldn't have disobeyed him, but her offense seemed significantly less...offensive...than say, Inuyasha repeatedly causing him grievous injury. Even when her hanyou friend had used the wind scar against Sesshoumaru, all the demon lord did was widen his eyes slightly before scoffing and disappearing in a ball of light.

But all she had done was get herself into trouble; she could hardly imagine why he was so furious. She was injured, but it was her fault, why did he care? Except maybe...maybe that was the reason he got so upset...maybe it was because he cared.

Kagome gaped at her pillow for a few more seconds, pondering the absurdity of Sesshoumaru caring, before promptly deciding that she deserved a few minutes of mental instability.

I am gonna need so much therapy, she mentally noted as she screamed into her pillow once again.

Chapter Note:

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