A/N: Final chapter!

He set down at the precipice of the cliff where they'd last watched the sunrise together. It felt like a lifetime ago that the two of them had laid side by side and counted shooting stars until dawn. She'd thought of that night often in the months since, remembering how it felt to be close to him, to feel his body next to hers, warm and safe. He stood at her side now, staring out over the open waters as though the island they'd just escaped wasn't nearly far enough away.

"Was that your true form?" she asked, even though she was certain she knew the answer.

"It is," he replied evenly. "Did it frighten you?"

His eyes shifted sidelong to her, and she shook her head.

"I knew it was you," she assured him. "You were magnificent."

His expression softened, her words quelling an unspoken fear, and he directed his gaze back out over the open water.

As they stood in silence, with the wind roaring past them, her mind circled around the one question she'd been avoiding—why had he brought her to this hilltop instead of the home they'd shared? Had he brought her here to say goodbye once more? Her chest tightened at the thought and she clenched her fists around the loose fabric of her kosode.

"I did not bring you here with any expectations," he said, as if reading her thoughts. "If you wish to choose your own path, you are free to do so."

"Which path do you wish me to choose?" she asked.

His palm came to rest atop Tenseiga's hilt, but he stubbornly would not look her way. "I cannot answer that."

He couldn't bring himself to persuade her, even now. Even when the evidence he cared for her was so clearly written in every glance and gesture. She wanted to sigh with frustration, but it was then that she noticed the flicker of yellow silk ribbon trailing at his side. Her hair ribbon had found a new home, wrapped neatly around Tenseiga's sheath. She exhaled the breath she'd been holding and lifted her eyes to his.

"I need you to," she replied.

"There are few things that have ever mattered to me in this world," he said, his voice quiet but unwavering. "My destiny, my legacy, and now you. When you were gone... the rest ceased to matter."

He went quiet then and appeared to choose his next words carefully. "Whatever you decide, know that I will protect you always."

A shy smile flirted with the corners of her mouth. "And if I choose to remain by your side?"

His eyes met hers then, and she understood why he'd avoided it until that moment. The truth was there and so apparent she couldn't believe she'd ever doubted it. A wide smile slowly spread from ear to ear, now impossible to contain, and the anxious fists she'd held at her side loosened.

"I wish to remain by your side, always," she blurted out in a rush. "I don't want to be anywhere else."

With her words, the tension seemed to evaporate from his body. He stepped in close, near enough that his hand could lift to her cheek.

"Walking this path together will not be without risk," he cautioned and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

She nodded her head in understanding and captured his hand to hold it tight. "The things worth doing rarely are."

His lips found hers then, and she felt the world slip away. His kiss was tender and unhurried, a welcome bit of relief after the storm of chaos they'd escaped on the island. Months of longing stretched her up onto her tiptoes to reach him. This kiss was so much sweeter than their first. It was as much an apology as it was a reunion, and by the time her feet lowered to the ground, she was left breathless.

"Let's go home," she suggested once she'd recovered. "I've missed the garden there almost half as much as I missed you."

He quirked a brow as he gathered her into him. "Almost half?"

Before she could think of a witty reply, he'd set off for the secluded mansion that served as their retreat from the world. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the solid perch of his shoulder as the wind rushed past, content in the knowledge that when her eyes opened again, they would be home.

oOo

The mansion was as she'd remembered it, though it seemed a little smaller now than it had in her memories and dreams. Her room was untouched, everything exactly as she'd left it. She smiled as her fingers trailed over the hair ribbons laid out atop her table and she selected a crimson one to tie back her hair. She knew she could have simply asked Sesshomaru to return the yellow one, but she rather liked that a demon so unaccustomed to sentimentality had kept something to remember her by.

She found him at their usual training spot in the bamboo forest, already deep in a training sequence. With the loss of his arm, he'd taken to focusing on honing his ability to change tactics without warning, tossing his sword aside one moment and retrieving it with his whip the next. She hung back to watch, enamored by how he made it look so easy when she knew it was anything but.

Noticing her, he stopped and sheathed Tenseiga at his side.

"Did you have a chance to rest?"

She nodded and stepped into the clearing, noting the slow return of birdsong as calm settled over the forest once more.

"Would you mind if I joined you?"

The idea seemed to please him and he accepted by drawing Tenseiga from its sheath. She followed in stride, drawing her wakizashi and taking up a proper defensive stance.

"You're wearing a new ribbon," he observed as they circled one another.

"Do you like it?" she asked without daring to remove her eyes from his. A quick glance away would be all the opening he'd need to catch her off guard. She'd learned that lesson the hard way one too many times before.

"It suits you," he said, and she felt a faint blush rise into her cheeks.

When it was clear she wouldn't be distracted so easily, he tried another tactic. "Have you been practicing drawing your spiritual power into the blade?"

A playful grin cut across her features. "Care to find out?"

He responded with an amused 'hmph' and advanced on her. Given how long it had been since the two of them had last trained together, she thought he might go easy on her. Instead, he had her dodging the trailing end of his whip and a glancing blow from Tenseiga within seconds. A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as she slid to a halt atop the dusty earth.

"You've improved," he said. He swept the air between them with Tenseiga, forcing her to jump back, but it was more to test her agility than to land an actual blow.

"Your reflexes are quicker."

"I'm glad you think so," she replied with a breathless laugh. Deciding it was time to try a bit of distraction of her own, she said, "I've been meaning to tell you something about the demon market."

His brow lifted in question. "Go on."

"Something unexpected happened the first time they brought me there for auction."

He drew up short, his feet abruptly coming to a halt. "You mean to say you were captured more than once?"

At her nod, his brow furrowed low over his eyes. The leather of Tenseiga's handle creaked where he gripped it tight and he glanced toward the ocean as though he had every intention of flying immediately back to that island to settle a score. But her next words kept his feet firmly planted on the ground and his eyes fixed on her.

"That first time... your father was the one who saved me."

"My father?" There was no disguising the astonishment in his tone. She used his momentary distraction to launch an unexpected attack. Her sword sparked as it slid against Tenseiga's edge and she abruptly jumped back to a safe distance.

"He outbid everyone else at the auction, then gave me money to stay at an inn and purchase boat fare to the mainland."

Sesshomaru's gaze lowered as he considered this unexpected turn of events. "My father never did anything out of the kindness of his heart," he determined, his eyes narrowing. "What did he demand of you?"

"Nothing," she replied, and his expression stated clearly that he didn't believe her.

"He mostly seemed concerned that you would try to kill your brother."

"Ridiculous," he replied with a huff of annoyance and easily deflected her next attack.

"I told him as much," she said and parried his next blow. "I said that if he spent any time at all getting to know you instead of lobbing off your limbs, he wouldn't need to ask such silly questions."

That earned her an amused smirk, but victory was short-lived. He aimed the next sweep of Tenseiga at her legs. She jumped back to avoid it, but quickly lost her balance and ended up landing hard on her behind. She muttered a quiet "Ow..." as she rubbed the spot that was sure to be sporting a bruise come morning.

"Don't lose focus," he said and stood over her victorious. She sighed in defeat and lay back against the earth instead of getting up. He joined her a moment later, and they gazed up at the cloudless sky in silence.

"I think maybe he was trying to make things right," she offered after a time.

"Perhaps," he conceded. "I suppose we'll never know."

She turned her head towards him. "What do you mean?"

"He died following a battle with Ryukotsusei," he informed her with a note of bitterness. "He succeeded in sealing the demon, but not before being gravely wounded."

She frowned and released an inaudible sigh at the news. "I'm sorry. I know how badly you wanted to defeat him."

"At least it was an honourable death," he remarked, sounding resigned.

She'd expected him to be enraged at being denied his destiny, especially when he'd worked so hard to achieve it, but to her surprise he seemed rather stoic about it all.

"There are other paths I am destined to walk," he explained. "Such things happen as they are meant to."

She glanced over at him and smiled. "Like when we met in the woods that day and I nearly killed you by bringing you to my family's shrine?"

An amused chuckle escaped him. "Yes, even then."

"Who would have thought back then that we would become friends?" she mused and returned to studying the sky overhead. Seeing a small cloud that resembled a rabbit, she pointed it out and Sesshomaru responded with a discerning nod.

After a few minutes of silence had passed, she turned on her side to face him. "These new paths you're destined to walk... will they be very dangerous?"

"It's possible," he conceded and shifted onto his side. He propped his head against his palm and considered the worried frown that had settled over her features.

"I guess that makes sense," she said and traced small patterns in the dirt with her fingertip. "Becoming the most powerful demon is bound to have its share of risks."

She could picture him leaving for days or weeks at a time, challenging every demon worthy of conquering in order to establish his reputation as the strongest there was. With his father gone, she was certain there would be no shortage of battles awaiting him as other demons sought to test their mettle against the son of the Great Dog Demon. The thought of him returning home battered and bloodied, or not at all, had her insides twisting into knots.

He conceded her point with a low "Hm" and asked, "What if I've chosen a different path?"

She looked up then, her wide eyes meeting his. "I don't understand..."

From the moment they'd met, he'd been driven by one thing—the desire to become strong enough to surpass his father. With that goal now permanently out of reach, she'd assumed he would have considered other avenues to prove his strength. But the subtle glimmer of amusement in his eyes had her wondering if she'd misread him.

"Will you permit me to show you?"

Stunned, she swallowed hard and nodded her head. His eyes searched hers, then lowered to her lips and lingered. Her heart lurched into a breakneck pace as his lips brushed across hers in invitation. His touch had a way of making her forget that anything else mattered; she felt it in every cell of her body, an intractable pull that drew her to him. She closed her eyes and could scarcely contain the subtle hitch in her breath when his mouth settled over hers. She'd expected her mind to be filled with a maelstrom of excitement and anxiety and a dozen other emotions, but there was only birdsong, and the creak of the wind through the bamboo, and the faint smack of his lips as they withdrew from hers.

He pulled back just far enough to tip his forehead against hers. "I have a suggestion," he said, and she felt the light caress of his breath against her cheek. She nodded without even opening her eyes, ready to agree to whatever idea he had so long as it meant a quick return of his lips to hers.

"Would you be amenable to a more permanent arrangement?"

Her eyes opened slowly, confusion muddling their depths. "A more permanent...?"

"It would require relocating your sleeping quarters," he explained, his expression serious.

"You want me to move my room?"

He nodded.

"To where?"

"To mine."

A shuddering exhale escaped her lips as realization dawned. She finally understood what it was he was telling her, or asking, as it were, in his own uncertain way. There was no containing the wide smile that lifted her lips. There'd never been any need for her to question her place in his life as he walked this new path; it was at his side, just as it'd been since the day they'd met. With a jubilant laugh, she pushed him onto his back and boldly kissed him on the mouth.

"You would truly give up your plans for supreme conquest just for me?" she asked once she'd pulled back. His claws sank deep into her hair to keep her from going far, and the pad of his thumb lightly brushed her temple.

"There will be time for such pursuits later," he said, stating the obvious. Her limited human lifespan was nothing compared to that of a demon. He might live a thousand years or more after she was gone from this earth. He'd decided that he wanted to spend whatever time she had left building a life together, and she couldn't think of anything she wanted more.

"Okay," she said with a shy smile. "I'll move my bed."

He gazed up at her, his eyes filled with light and warmth. Then, with a gentle pull, he urged her mouth to his.

"But if you snore, I'm moving back to my old room," she insisted, playfully holding him off with a finger against his lips.

"Where do you stand on growling?" he asked in all seriousness, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Her cheeks ached from smiling as she gazed up at the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. She hadn't thought it possible to be this happy, but she hadn't a single worry in the world as she stared into those endless pools of amber.

"I didn't think it was possible to love you more than I did," she confessed as her fingertips slid along the demonic markings on his cheek.

He responded with a soft note of agreement then his lips covered hers, his kiss bearing the promise of a life more beautiful than she ever could have imagined.

The End

A/N: Readers, it has been such a joy hearing from you through the different chapters of this story. I hope you've enjoyed the journey! I know I could have kept their story going but part of this fic was to challenge myself to write a completed story in under 50,000 words. I hope it was a success and all of the various loose ends felt sufficiently wrapped up by the end. I think no matter what universe these two characters are in, they will always face hardship but come through it stronger because of their love for one another.

A special shoutout to SessRinLover whose dedicated reviews have been such a joy to read from Day 1. Thank you!

Until next time,

Langus