Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put them in. Everything else belongs to someone else..which my readers are likely thankful for. Lord only knows who I'd do to what was a successful franchise. Anyways hope you enjoy and thanks for reading and reviewing.

Cry For Me

They had only time to watch the young version of Sesshoumaru walk through the portal before Tomoyo collapsed, Kouga just in time to catch her before she hit the ground in a dead faint. "Is she all right?" Kagome demanded to know, rushing over to Kouga's side.

"She's breathing. I'm guessing it was just too much for her to keep up. That's some mystical place they're all in. Whoever's having their fun with our familles might not have wanted us spying either." Kouga replied, adjusting his grip a little as he tried not to look in Sesshoumaru's direction. He hadn't had a lot of contact with Inu yasha's brother but he'd thought he had the guy pretty much pegged. Look likes I wasn't even close to figuring him out, Kouga thought as he snuck a peek in the demon's direction. Not even close.

"Someone should go get her mate. Or a servant." Andrea suggested, since no one seemed to know what to do. Inu yasha, Miroku, Kyou and Kouga were all doing their best not to stare at Lord Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru was ignoring them all and Rin and Sango were hovering around him protectively, not sure what to do.

"I'll do it." Kyou volunteered, a little anxious to leave the room so that he wouldn't provoke his uncle with his stares. He'd known that his uncle's mother had been. He'd thought he'd known anyway. He hadn't been even close to understanding what his uncle had gone through. He did now and he felt physically ill. Heading out of the room at a quick run he figured grabbing a servant would be the wisest course.

"Sesshomaru..how did she die?" Sango asked quietly, close to his side as she looked up at him. Rin had pretty much attached herself to her master's leg and it was telling that instead of warning the girl off Sesshoumaru had actually set a hand on the girl's head.

"She took her life with one of her hair decorations." Was his cool response. Nothing showed on his face, nor any emotion was present in his voice. Both were blank and lifeless. The way he preferred.

"You were there, weren't you?" Sango guessed, the evil woman's words still ringing in her ears. How could any person, no matter how horrible, say such things to their own son? Their only child? "You were there when she killed herself."

"Yes. I was there."

"Did she tell you it was your fault?"

"Mine and my father's. And why are you crying?" Sesshoumaru asked, still shocked over the sight of those tears falling down her cheeks without discipline. She wasn't even bothering to try and hide them from him or anyone else. Wasn't she embarrassed and ashamed? He sure as hell would be.

"How can I not cry?" Was her forceful answer, her eyes shining glassily.

"That makes no sense." Was his stiff reply. Staring down at her he felt a tightness in his chest he'd never felt before. It wasn't an all together unpleasant feeling but he couldn't say he liked it either. Especially since the slayer was causing it.

"Only to you it wouldn't."

"That makes no sense either. Especially since I'm more intelligent then you are." Was his blustery reply, deliberately adding in the intelligence comment, hoping it would get her riled. At least then she wouldn't be crying and looking all soft and vulnerable. She wasn't supposed to look like that. She was supposed to be fiery and strong.

"The only reason you know a lot more then I do is because you've been around a hell of a lot longer then I have. And it wouldn't make sense to you get it because you had such a lousy childhood! If you can even call it that!" Was her response, Sesshoumaru glad to hear some fire in the response though she was still crying. He couldn't stand crying.

"I'm perfectly aware my childhood wasn't a standard one." Sesshoumaru pointed out, still not getting where she was going with all this. Why would she feel the need to cry for him? Especially when he hadn't seen his mother alive in decades, much less suffered her abuse. All that asides, crying never solved anything. He was proud to say he couldn't remember the last time he'd cried. He was only sorry he couldn't say he'd never cried.

"Well obviously, otherwise we wouldn't have had so many children together." Sango blubbered, wiping at her eyes now. She hadn't been embarrassed until he'd made an issue over it. She couldn't see any reason to be sorry for crying over the abuse of a child.

"And what's my childhood got to do with the size of our family?" Sesshoumaru wanted to know, not even aware that everyone was staring at them. They were, after all, having a fairly normal, if emotionally charged, conversation. The Great Lord of the West didn't have conversations after all. Least of all with a human demon slayer.

"Well because if you thought your childhood was normal and treated our children the way you were treated I would have taken our children and left you so fast your head would have spun." Was her spunky response.

Blinking Sesshoumaru said, more harshly then he intended, "I would NEVER harm a child."

"Well obviously or I wouldn't have married you." Sango said in exasperation, no longer crying though her cheeks were flushed and wet with tears still.

Deciding to take that as a compliment Sesshoumaru wasn't sure what to do with it or what to say for that matter. They didn't appear to have anything to argue about anymore. He didn't quite know how to talk to her unless they were fighting. Ignore her? Well at least she'd stopped crying, he thought absently.

"Master Sesshoumaru?" Rin said hesitantly, tugging on his pant leg slightly. Seeing her Master's faint nod of allowance Rin continued. "The bad lady's dead, right? She can't hurt anyone anymore?"

"Yes, Rin. She's quite dead."

Lord Treize hurrying in he quickly took over, taking his wife from Kouga. Basically making it plan that he blamed them all for his wife's condition he told them that they could stay on his lands for the night but he expected them gone in the morning. Leaving the room with his mate in his arms servants appeared to escort them all out. Pushing the matter made no sense so they followed Lord Treize's pointed suggestion, though they did intend to try and speak to Lady Tomoyo again the next day if Sora hadn't returned. Setting up camp a mile away from the holding they quickly built a fire with Rin practically hanging off Sesshoumaru the whole time. This of course bothered the hell out of Jakken but he was too unsure of his lord's mood to dare punish the child when his lord wasn't doing anything to discourage the girl.

They were all sitting around the camp fire for about twenty minutes before there was a flash, Sora suddenly appearing before them looking a little disoriented but in one piece.

"Sora!" Kyou yelled, rushing over to glomp his cousin. "You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive, stupid." Was her response, rolling his eyes as she was enthusiastically hugged. "Let me go. I need to tell you guys what's all going on." Reluctantly letting her go Kyou took his seat again though he dragged her along with him to sit beside him. Letting him get away with it for the moment Sora sat down before she began explaining. "Basically in the future our family members are trying to go through this Gate of legend to try and be granted the ability to come back here and help get us back and kill Ferio. They have to go through all these tests and so far everyone that's in the group's gotten through all right. Well Ren's a bit shaky but I think he'll be okay."

"We went to Lady Tomoyo to see if she could tell us where you'd gone." Kagome explained, smiling happily, glad to see the girl back safe and sound. "We got to see a bit of what was going on. Just a couple of you going through these strange illusions."

"Yeah. Mine was okay but some of the other ones were pretty weird apparently." Sora agreed, looking at her father out of the corner of her eye. His future self had looked just a little shaken up when he'd come out of that stupid mountain. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out just what might have met him in the darkness.

"So they're almost done?" Andrea asked.

"Well basically there are three main tests with a few mini ones thrown in. We've cleared two of the big ones and as I was fading away to come back I heard this voice say something about giving them a break before the final tests. Hopefully they'll get a breather to recharge and prepare for whatever the last test is."

"Is there anything we can do for them from this end?" Miroku wanted to know.

"Not that I know of. No one will be taken from this time period again. At least I don't think so. It was Kohaku's turn to come for the final challenge and it's supposed to be the last one." Sora said thoughtfully, wishing that there really was something she or any of them could do. From the looks of it though, there wasn't anything any of them could do but wait. "Did I miss anything important while I was gone?"

"No." Was Sesshoumaru's answer before anyone could bring up exactly what they'd seen earlier. It would be wise for them to figure out early that he wouldn't tolerate his childhood being discussed in any shape or form. As it was he had no intention of speaking about it with the slayer again. Even if she started crying again.

"So we're back on Lord Treize's land?"

"Yes, we're pretty much here until morning. Then Lord Treize made it pretty clear he wanted us out." Inu yasha said with a dark look. "Like it was our fault his woman was too weak too handle the visions."

"Weak wouldn't be the word. While I was in that place I sensed incredible power. The air practically hummed with it. It's not surprising that it got to be too much for her." Sora remarked, absently brushing off her robes. "So it's unlikely he'd be willing to let us near her to find out how they do with the third task?"

"That's the way it looks right now anyway." Kouga informed her. "We can always ask tomorrow but somehow I can't see the Lord of the Manor allowing her to try, even if she wanted to. All we can really do is rest up and hope that maybe she'll be on our side."

"Sleep sounds good." Kagome spoke up, quite plainly exhausted. They'd been doing a lot of walking in the last few days and the pace was nothing short of killing. A demon's version of a nice walk in other words, Kagome thought with a faint smirk.

"I'll stay up and watch first." Kouga offered, not requiring sleep and being well rested for the

moment. "Who wants second?"

"I'll go second." Inu yasha stated, not about to trust the stupid wolf to keep them all safe. If memory served him Kouga had trouble taking care of himself, much less taking care of a large group.

"I'll take over for third." Kyou volunteered, an annoyed look coming over his face as his male relatives all sent him looks that said quite plainly that they weren't about to trust their safety to him. "Hey, don't give me those looks. I can do it. Andrea, Sora, tell them I can do it!"

"He can. it's his mind that's damaged, not his sense of smell." Andrea commented with a small smirk on her lips.

Sputtering in indignation Kyou looked over to Sora for some back up. She was family after all.

"Let him do it. We'll all wake up before the danger gets here anyway if we are attacked." Was Sora's contribution to this little argument. Kyou was capable of standing guard but his mind also tended to wander if he wasn't focused on something. Which reminded her... "And no drawing while you're on watch, Kyou."

"My own blood." Kyou muttered, sending a glare her way.

"Everyone lay down to rest." Kagome said in her best commanding tone. The last thing they needed right now was a pissing contest. "We'll all need it for tomorrow."

"Are you tired?" Sesshoumaru asked Sango as she and Sora made up the blankets to sleep on for the evening. It was rather annoying having to bend slightly so that Sango could straighten the blankets.

"I'm not beat but I'll sleep good tonight. Why?" Sango asked, smiling at Rin who'd already flopped onto the blankets before looking up at Sesshoumaru questioningly.

"I want to go for a walk."

"A walk. Now?" Sango asked in surprise, raising an eyebrow. Of course demons never really slept so it wasn't surprising that he wasn't sleepy but he had to be a t least a little tired. Not to mention the fact that now wasn't exactly the time for them to go out wandering without someone watching their backs. They were chained together after all.

"Yes. Now." Was his insistent response.

All set to say no way in hell Sango paused for a minute. Given what he'd been through, not just having to watch those terrible things but know others were seeing it too... He was such a contained, private person. It must have been torture for him, knowing that they were seeing into a part of his past that had to be more painful then she could ever imagine. "Okay."

Of course there were some objections to the idea but no one wanted to mess with Sesshoumaru at the moment. Even if he didn't show it he had to be at the very least disturbed about what they'd all seen. Better to let him work off some steam walking then chopping one of their heads off. In the mood he was quite likely in it was an understatement to say he was more then up to taking care of himself and Sango. Leaving Rin in the care of Sora the two headed out with Sango walking slightly behind him. As unlikely as it sounded she was starting to be able to read him. At first she'd thought it was just a fluke but she was beginning to think she might not be wrong. It definitely wasn't in his words or even in his eyes. Those usually only showed what he wanted you to see. No, it was the feelings she felt when she was with him. Like his emotions were in his aura or his physical presence. It was hard to describe. It was like she could read his body with her own. Whatever it was she was getting the distinct idea that it would be best to give him his space. Or at least until he said something.

They'd been walking for at least twenty minutes and she hadn't made so much as a peep. Glancing over his shoulder slightly Sesshoumaru looked the slayer over, noting that she was a tad slower then she had been when they'd started out. Her feet made no sound though and her breathing was faint. She was obviously awake enough to see the value in drawing as little attention to herself as possible. Turning back to face the front Sesshoumaru wished there was a way to ditch her. He'd thought the walking, being away from his brother would help clear his mind and calm him. That wasn't working. Sighing faintly he kept going, pleased when ten minutes later he caught sight of a small clearing where the sky was plainly visible above. Walking over to the very middle he surprised the slayer when he sat down then tugged her down to sit as well. Once she was sitting he lay back, looking up at the sky as he blocked her and everything else as his gaze never left the sky.

Not sure what to think of the sight of the great lord of the west laying on the ground Sango just watched him for a few minutes, curious to see if he'd do anything. "You'd be more comfortable using your free arm as a pillow." Sango said finally, noticing the way he was shifting his head subtly. She wasn't much of a star gazer but he, on the other hand, was a pleasure to look at, Sango thought to herself, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"I can't." Sesshoumaru said after a moments pause to consider ignoring her words. "I need to replace it shortly as it is."

"Oh." Sango replied, having forgotten momentarily that the arm in question wasn't Sesshoumaru's. So he had to replace it often, she wondered. Did he just go out and find someone's arm to rip off? Grimacing slightly at the thought she hoped she wasn't there when he did that. Then again, in their present situation odds were she would be. Watching him sit up slightly Sango watched as he ran clawed hands around the area his head had been. "What's wrong?"

"There are a lot of small rocks here." He replied, brushing what he could feel away before laying down, annoyed when he felt more tiny bumps. Well at least there weren't any biting into his head anymore, he thought with a faint sigh as he shifted in discomfort again.

Watching Sango acted before she thought about how incredibly stupid she was being. Shuffling over she got behind him and before he had even a clue as to what she intended to do she'd lifted his head and put it in her lap. As soon as she'd done it Sango went still as a rock, staring down at him in a shock while his eyes reflected the same as he stared back at her. Neither breathed as they're eyes held, a hundred messages sent and received without a word. On Sango's part she waited for him to remove his head and in all likelihood beat the hell out of her. For his part, Sesshoumaru was waited for her to push his head from her lap and apologize profusely in the hopes of not getting her head handed to her for what she'd dared to do. Neither of them did what the other expected. Then, finally, without a word to her, his eyes returned to the heavens above them, making no move to remove his head.