Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Inuyasha or any of the other characters that may be used throughout the duration of the fan-fiction. Be advised this is a world created for the sole purpose of entertainment and would expect you to respect my work of fantasy as you would have me respect yours. This is rated mature for further chapters that may be controversial in subject matter. Please do not report me as you have been warned.

Thank-you and please review!

Your Lady Fractured Moonlight

Summary: Sesshomaru has lived centuries without the one thing he desires the most only to have her return with no memory of him or the life they had known. Can he accept her as he had once or will everything be lost to time once more? Will she love the beast within the man as she once had in a time lost to her? Will they learn to love or will their love vanish as though it had never been? Read and discover the untold story between Sesshomaru and Kagome and you might discover a love that can span the centuries!

-oOo-

Moonlight's Embrace

Chapter 8

By noon they were on their on their way again heading back towards their destination with Kagome safely in Sesshomaru's arms and Hana up ahead leaving him to ponder over what had been said earlier that very same morning.

"He's my mate." True those words had brought out a reaction out of him that he hadn't expected but what had she wanted him to do. Take her word for it that her mate, the word still sounded foreign when describing them, wasn't and hadn't been himself for sometime and that it was all Katsurou's doing. That was plausible but what disturbed him more than what she had revealed was that she burst past him suddenly telling him to 'just forget it I don't expect you to believe me'. It wasn't that he didn't believe her and it wasn't for the reason's she might be thinking.

Hana was thankful that he had been generous enough to allow the subject of her and Ayumu to fall on silence. She was absolutely flabbergasted by his lack of control but when she asked he said nothing pertaining to the subject at all. He didn't pry despite the curiosity he must have felt, the natural curiosity she had seen, he was after all an inu but no where near as curious as a neko would have been. Thank the heavens. He left her to her thoughts as they lingered over everything she held dear when his scent reached her nose. She drew her blade knowing that he would notice the tensing of her muscles before she even reached for it.

She turned to look at him meeting his gaze momentarily before drifting her amethyst coloured orbs down to the very reason they were on this journey for. They lingered on Kagome's rounded cheeks and the gaining colour of her skin before they drifted upwards again to meet his. Reluctantly she could see him resign himself to continuing onward.

"I can buy you time but minutes only! You must leave now!" she saw his glare harden and knew he was preparing to fight her on this. "The effects of the brew I procured will not last long. I will meet you there but you must go!" she could only hope he understood her words and judging from the harsh line of his chiselled jaw and the hardness his golden eyes took she could see that he was preparing to do as she asked however she had not been prepared for what she was about to hear come from him.

"Will you be alright?"

'WHAT,' her mind, she thought audibly gave a sign of complete and total failure but the widening of her eyes told him this.

"I'll be fine." She reassured but could tell he wasn't buying it for a second but was glad to see him brush past her just the same his gate steadily quickening. "Be safe." She called doubting that he heard her whisper but her eyes saw the confirmation of his small and distancing nod.

"Hana," his venomous voice rang out through her head. "That was foolish of you. Did you think that I would leave that clearing unprotected, once I finish with you they will be next so you see by staying behind you are saving no one." His laugh was cut short when she spun suddenly attacking first. He dodged easily before she swung again cutting across his midsection from left to right just grazing the skin there allowing for a small trickle of blood to poor against the black and white silk of his twin haori. She saw then the soft flicker of his eyes as they flashed between hard crimson of controlled and the liquid calming crimson of the Ayumu she knew only to well. That moment was soon stolen when he vanished from sight and into the trees that surrounded them enjoying this game a little too much for her liking.

She stood in the clearing momentarily dazed. Looking from tree to tree that surrounded her while his blood dripped down her long steal blade. She extended her senses to the mark in her neck that pulsed slightly pin pointing him almost immediately behind her. She side stepped his poisoned talons from attacking her side but now grazed her shoulder slightly. The poison burned from the entrance as it entered into her blood, she let out a muffled cry.

As he looked at her she could see momentary concern and regret that passed his features before they became hardened again. Confirming in her mind that at least someone else was behind his actions and that they were not his own. She watched him switch his stance before moving to attack her again. He gripped her arm then, his claws sinking in deep almost hitting her bone. She howled openly in pain as his poison spread before he pressed his lips to her ears.

"Kill me," he pleaded. "Kill me love," she could hear the smooth comforting tenor of his voice ring through the power hungry being that held him. "I won't be able to stop if you don't."

"Ayumu," she whispered sorrowfully pushing him back, his claws retracting from her arm as she did so. "I can't!" her voice broke.

"You must." He said giving her no chance to debate him he charged at her and her mind raced watching as his eyes hardened with control once more. She didn't think anymore she acted on instinct as he knew she would. Her sword swung at him cutting him from his ribs deep into his waist. Tears shone down her cheeks as she realised just what she had done without even realising it.

He stumbled as if possessed, falling slightly before control faded completely and his control was granted. He felt the searing pain of Hana's actions and the cooling of his own blood as it ran down his side before his own legs gave way beneath him. He smelt her scent as she ran to him.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" she whispered as her fingers ran to his side assessing the damage she had done. He tried not to growl which failed miserably as he pulled her hands away harshly meeting her face which reflected everything she was feeling. The face that had shown nothing but hate days before now shown nothing but her love for him. She had known, he realized, after their interaction that he had not been himself. She could feel it.

"Don't be love." he spoke softly reaching to caress her cheek holding her there firmly before pressing his lips against hers, showing her which his words could not have told adequately. 'I love you,' they said. 'I always have and I always will,' they whispered. 'I'll never forget you for you have been my reason for living.'

Her heart was breaking, shattering into hundreds of shards and she could do nothing to stop it. She was loosing him and he would die from the wound that SHE herself had given him. Fate would force her to live with out him, to live with the knowledge that she had killed him, that he had died by her own two hands.

"No," she said pulling away from him watching as he collapsed against the ground his skin ashen as he continued to bleed. "NO!" she screamed as her voice became a howl that echoed off of the surrounding trees threatening to tear the world apart as she howled the loss of her mate.

Hana had not sensed Sesshomaru's approach and she had not sensed him not even as he knelt beside her. She only felt his fingers when they griped her shoulders pulling her away from the man she held in her arms. He knew he was doing something completely out of the character he portrayed himself to be but couldn't bring himself to stop.

When Hana looked at him as she did her eyes wide with concern brimming with fresh tears he placed himself in her shoes. He pictured himself on the day everything had been altered between him and his lady love. The pain he felt then……just at the thought of being without her was enough to cause his heart to pull painfully within his rib cage.

"Please," she pleaded never realising that his decision had been made before she had opened her mouth.

He nodded slightly feeling Tensaiga pulse against his side. Gripping the fang in his hand he stood unsheathing the blade in one unnaturally quick movement. His eyes moved from hers as they now glared at the imps that were appearing on his form before he swung and dispatched them easily. His eyes returned to normal as he sheathed the blade.

Hana breathed a sigh of relief when she felt Ayumu begin to breathe again.

"Hana." Sesshomaru addressed.

"Yes." She said meekly.

"You will need to bandage his wounds or they will get infected." He said turning away from her.

"Thank-you" she breathed.

"You saved Kagome, I was just returning the favour." His voice bitter as he spoke

"Thank-you" she repeated her voice gaining strength.

"Do not expect me to trust him." He bit out his voice firm as he moved towards a tree near her where she noted he had placed a steadily wakening Kagome. She realised that he had dropped everything to come to her anguished call and that knowledge startled her. If so, if he did drop everything than what did that make her in his world? Especially now that he had revived her lover, her one and only, what did she mean?

Ayumu's staggered breathing drew her attention from Sesshomaru who now cradled Kagome against him. As she looked at him then, his eyelashes fluttered slightly before opening revealing them to be crimson…..a calming sea of crimson.

"How?" he coughed as he looked at her, his eyes slightly unfocused. "How am I-" his voice harsh and gritty when he spoke and she shushed him with her finger. His eyes widened as her face moved towards his, her lips dangerously close. "H-Hana." He gasped when her lips touched his lightly.

"I missed you." She breathed against them before deepening her kiss. Ayumu hadn't expected this. He had been dead he was sure of it. His soul had left his body and was waiting but for what he didn't know when he felt her. He felt her take his limp body in her arms and felt the warmth of her tears as they hit his cheeks and then he heard it. That pained and agony filled cry that left her lips as she howled out her loss through the morning air despite being muffled by death.

He had died. He knew this. But than how was he living now? Did it really matter? His fingers moved of their own accord. Wrapping themselves behind her neck pulling her against him. He didn't care who saw. His body was at long last his meaning the connection between him and Katsurou had been severed and his life at long last belonged to him.

When he hissed Hana felt the warmth of his blood seep through her kimono top. She snapped into action forcing them apart to re-examine the wound she had given him, long fingers prodding softly. Sesshomaru was right the wound was open to an infection if she didn't bandage it soon but she didn't have anything to do that with did she?

She looked over her small outer kimono and realised that she did. Shrugging out of the silk she gathered it in her hands watching Ayumu as she did. She saw his reluctance to see her rip her clothes but what else was she to do.

"No." he protested.

"You need something and unfortunately we do not have any bandages so we will have to make do and I have another. SO STOP THIS PROTEST!" She stressed or so she hoped. Seeing him huff she took her time in shredding the fabric into long strips before moving his haori's aside to begin the process. She ignored his hisses when she pulled tightly just as surely as she ignored the tensing of his body where her fingers touched.

"How?" he asked again as she finished with her task.

"How what?" she asked dumbly for which she received a harsh glare. "Um Sesshomaru revived you."

"What?" he almost yelled realising that the mate of the very woman whom he had poisoned and who by the looks of it remained poisoned had been the one to bring him back from death. The quilt that flooded him right then was immense as he vowed to make amends for all the wrongs that he had done. Now with his second chance at life, he would never forget this.

"Sesshomaru, I am yours now."

Authour's Note: Okay I'm getting this story written! Yay so I hope this answers some questions though I don't think it will answer much because Sesshomaru himself doesn't know why he got so mad at Hana's confession.....other than being protective of those around him! Things are getting interesting are they not....Ayumu had offered himself in servitude to Sesshomaru and more is on it's way!

As always tell me what you think,

Your Lady Fractured Moonlight