Sesshomaru stayed there, next to Luna's bed, holding her hand, for almost an hour. He didn't even notice the time passing. Instead, he noticed when Luna would occasionally giggle or try to hide a bright pink blush from him. He found it extremely interesting how one small thing could make her react like this, but noticed she was starting to get tired again. 'If I try to hold her hand while she's asleep... She'll probably hit me...' A memory flashed in his head of the time he held her while she slept, back when he had only first met her. But that had been an accident, though he never knew he could sleepwalk. "You seem tired..."

"I am..." Luna's alto voice sounded like she was dreading what would come next. "But I don't want to go back to sleep..." 'No... I just don't want to be alone again...'

"I was wondering... maybe I could hold you while you slept? I'm tired too... and I don't like being alone in strange places..." His attempt at sounding meek was extremely awkward, but he hoped Luna would fall for it.

"You know, you're really bad at pretending to be pathetic... So stop it. I would have said yes without that tone. Come on. I'll try not to hog the bed."

Luna's smile comforted Sesshomaru as he climbed onto the bed beside her. Calmly, he put his arm around the tiny half-demon girl and relaxed. Luna turned over so that she could face him and snuggled up to him.

"You're warm..." Luna's voice trailed off as she fell asleep.

The next morning, there was chaos. Elidian had managed to glue his hand to the couch, Zakura had knocked over one of the doors, Makoto had accidentally broken some of the pipes in the bathroom, causing water to spray everywhere. In the room where Luna and Sesshomaru slept, however, there was nothing but calm. Luna stretched as she awoke. Suddenly, she froze. There was something in front of her, that was alive and had its arm around her. 'What is...' The memory of last night rushed forward, and she couldn't help but to smile. 'Sesshomaru... is holding me...' Softly, she giggled, blushing at the thought.

"Damn it! I need more nails!"

"Well I need more pipes!"

"I could use some glue remover..."

'What the hell is going on out there?' Luna was completely still, listening to the chaos. None of the noise she heard was a clue as to what was going on.

"I see you're awake."

The voice made her jump. "S-Sesshomaru-sama! You scared the hell out of me!"

The demon chuckled as he pulled her closer. It was the first time she had ever really heard him chuckle, and Luna couldn't help but smile about it. 'I made him do that... He needs to do that more often...' Luna stretched. 'Maybe I'll reward him...'

"I have a question..." His voice shook her from her thoughts.

"Um... shoot?"

"Could you tell me about your past now? Even a tiny bit?" Sesshomaru's gaze held hers.

"I... I'm not sure..."

"I heard bits and pieces from your sleeptalking... and I would appreciate you putting them into context..."

"Oh... uh..." Luna's cheeks turned a bright shade of red. "I didn't know about that... That kinda changes matters..."

"So will you tell me?"

"Not that memory... I don't feel comfortable explaining that... But you can ask another question to see if I can explain that. I might be comfortable enough to explain memories that are more current..."

"But I already know about that... I went through that with you..."

"A little bit further back than that..."

"Oh... I'll have to think of something to ask..." Sesshomaru paused for awhile, trying to pick a question that would get him the most information possible. "You've said you've been captured by hunters... What was it like there?"

"I don't think you'd want to know that..."

"But I do... and it's recent." He gently pulled Luna closer to him. "And I won't let you go until you tell me..."

Luna blushed as she realized he was holding her, and blushed even more when she became aware of how tightly he was holding her. She could smell his scent clearly from here, since her face was almost touching his neck, which carried the scents of the forest and a few dandelions. 'He smells good-' Something touched the top of her head and stayed there. She felt a warm breath on her ear. 'Is he... sniffing me?'

While Luna had been distracted, Sesshomaru had simply put his head on hers, trying not to distract her, yet attempting to figure out why her scent was so incredibly familiar. The group's scent was so thick in the room that Sesshomaru almost had to stick his nose inside Luna's ear to be able to smell her. She had the faint scent of trees, though that could easily have been from the forest. There was a floral scent that had caught his attention when he had first met her. It took some time, however, before he realized that he had even taken notice. As he carefully analyzed her scent, he froze mid-breath as he realized what he smelled. 'Lavender...'

Memories flooded back to him.

Flashback:

Sesshomaru was a teenaged demon, calmly waiting outside of his father's strategy room while his father talked to the head general. He knew this general, though he had never seen his face. It always seemed like he was wearing the thick samurai armor that was traditional where the general was from. Sesshomaru tapped his foot, growing impatient from the waiting. 'What could possibly take this long?'

"I'm telling you, Touga, I strongly suggest not mating with Princess Izayoi unless you intend on keeping her here. If you do, people will try to kill her, and my men are still wounded from the last battle we had..."

Sesshomaru became very silent. 'That sounded like... a woman? No, that can't be right... General Tsukino is a man... not a woman... or... is he?' The question left Sesshomaru with a raised eyebrow as he decided to walk into the room.

The scent of lavender hit his nose as he walked in. What he saw made him drop the scroll he had been trying to deliver. There was no armor in sight, nor a General Tsukino. Instead, there was his father and a diminutive woman with raven hair and sparkling silver-blue eyes. Her ears were canine, and one was flopped over to one side, as if it was simply too lazy to stand up.

"Damn it... at least shut the door..."

Sesshomaru rushed to obey, never taking his eyes off of the strange girl.

A few months down the road, the girl he had met was his girlfriend. She went by a somewhat different name, Tsukiko, but he didn't mind. He sometimes wondered if she missed wearing the heavy armor and acting like a general, but every time he looked in her eyes, he could tell she was happy to have left it behind. "Tsukiko, I want to ask you something..."

"Yes, love?" Her alto voice rang out, blending with the chirping birds.

"Will you meet me in the garden tonight? I wanted to ask you something important, and I figured since tonight's the lunar eclipse..."

Tsukiko blushed. "Gladly, and after you do, I will tell you my true name."

"I would like that very much." Quickly, he kissed her on the lips. "It's a date then. Moon-high, at the bridge in the garden."

"Agreed."

That night, he waited. Moon-high passed with no sign of Tsukiko. Dawn came and found him alone. Sunrise came and went, fading into noon, without a trace of Tsukiko. He checked her room. No sign of her ever being there. Even her scent was gone from the room she had occupied. Collapsing on his knees, he cried for the first time in his life.

End Flashback

'She left... with no trace... though that should be impossible...'

Luna, meanwhile, had noticed that his scent was familiar as well, though she couldn't explain why, or how. 'Of all my memories, why did I lose this one? This one seems like it should be a good memory, but it's missing... a gap in my hindsight... I must know why he smells so familiar.'

Sesshomaru flinched as Luna's nose touched his chest. "Are you alright?"

But Luna was already lost in her memories.

Flashback:

What she could remember of the scent was vague. No visual memories were there. She couldn't remember a voice, though it would have helped greatly if she could have. Her memories were of being held, of wandering around with a sense of excitement and wonder, and always, always, being surrounded by that scent.

Everything suddenly changed and her vision came back. She was in her room, getting dressed up for something, when two guards knocked her door off of its hinges. Leaping back in surprise, she narrowly missed the hands trying to catch her wrists. Unfortunately, the second guard, who had tripped over the door he had knocked down, had a grip on her ankle, bringing her down onto the wooden floor with a loud thump.

"Get away from me! Let me go! I've done nothing wrong!" Luna's screams fell on deaf ears as the first guard caught her wrists and pinned them down.

"But you have, dearie..." A smooth, low voice came from the doorway. Luna gasped as she saw the thin, silver-haired woman who had spoken. "You advised my mate to bring that human slut here... Which, I really wouldn't have minded, except for the fact that she's pregnant, though I've been trying for years to get pregnant again... But no matter... I plan to see you, that little slut's pup, and all the half-demons purged! It will be illegal for a person to even see a half-demon without attempting to kill them! And a shame on their family's honor if they fail!"

"It won't work! There will still be some who will survive!"

The woman simply grinned, "But you won't. Guards, take her outside and slice her head off. Do whatever you'd like to the remains, as long as my son doesn't see them. Send me a maid for this room, too. I need to get this revolting stench out of here..."

Luna screamed and cried for someone to help, but the housemaids and servants simply looked on, as if she was invisible. "Sesshomaru! Sesshomaru, help me!"

End Flashback

Luna gasped as the screams flooded her mind. 'Is it really... the same guy? The scent is the same, and the name seems to be, too... but how can I tell?'

"Are you alright?" Sesshomaru repeated after hearing the gasp. "What's wrong?"

"...I just got part of my memory back..."

Outside, chaos was ensuing, and Zakura was left trying to hold things together. Makoto had found some pipes, but couldn't get them to stay attached to the sink. Elidian had fallen asleep, still glued to the couch.

The door slammed against the wall as Luna stormed out, the look on her face warning everyone not to say anything. She grabbed the glue from where Elidian was and took it to Makoto, gluing the pipes together without a word to anyone. Noticing that Makoto had some nails in his random assortment of junk, she took them, and proceeded to fix the door that Zakura had knocked over. "There, everyone happy now?"

"I'm still stuck..."A half-awake Elidian muttered.

"I don't know what'll get that glue off... sorry. unless..." Luna ran off to the kitchen and returned with a butterknife. "We're prying your hand off."

Working quickly, she detached the hand from the couch with only a few curses from Elidian. Returning the knife to the kitchen, Sesshomaru decided to approach her again with what they had been discussing..

"Why won't you tell me why you left-"

"FOR THE LAST DAMN TIME I DID NOT LEAVE!" Luna was breathing heavily, eyes darkening with rage. 'How dare he say that I left the one place where I was happy... I was executed... I know it. I have the detachable head to prove it...'

Zakura quickly jumped between them. "Ok, chill, guys, chill... Sesshomaru, go over there." Zakura pointed to the couch. "Luna, let's not murder anyone in our rage, ok? Here, let's go back into the bedroom and talk it out like diplomatic creatures. Come on, fluffers."

Luna sighed, then followed Zakura back into her bedroom without even a glance towards Sesshomaru.

He thought he noticed her wobble a little as she moved to shut the door. He had no doubt she could easily kill him, if she tried. He remembered seeing her fight once, back when she was known as 'Tsukiko' to him. She was deadly, if not always graceful. She could move quickly, despite the weight of armor. She was quick to spring back up when she fell, though relatively unlikely to. She was also very skilled at magic, something he struggled with. Where he was able to get one whip of light, Luna was able to cover the field in pure shadow and drag someone through the floor with it, disappearing not only from sight, but existence, if what he had heard of it was reliable.

Sighing, he slumped over on the couch, holding his head with his hand, trying to hide his misery from everyone else.

Inuyasha gasped as he saw what happened next. Of everything unexpected, he had never thought he would see this. Tears were falling down Sesshomaru's cheeks... Even though he was trying to hide it, it was obvious what he was doing. What's worse is that, for once, Inuyasha pitied his brother, but couldn't explain why. 'This is the man that tried to kill me all of my life... and yet, I feel sorry for him? Why? Why do I pity him this much?' Something inside was nagging at him to ask what had happened. He didn't want to do it, but he felt that he had to. "Sesshomaru, what happened?"

Sesshomaru blinked, confused at why his brother would be concerned at all. 'Maybe it's time I explained everything...' "It has to do with the reason I've been trying to kill you for so long..."