Deep Waters

Series: Free!

Pairing: Kagome x Haruka

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or series

Sesshoumaru was going to take this personally.

Ever since they first met two and a half years ago, the inu daiyoukai had been proud, taking each and every single one of his responsibilities and duties as the Lord of the West seriously. And despite their first handful of frankly disastrous encounters, at some point during their travels, Kagome's safety and well being had been become one of them. Even after her relationship with Inuyasha went back to platonic friendship, the miko remained part of his pack.

That's why he'd been there, waiting for her as she came out of the well, battered and tired and holding the Shikon.

His presence just the right sort of calm to let the revelation that not just the inu lord but the rest of the youkais she'd gotten close to were reluctantly waiting for her at Sesshoumaru's estate. Weird time jumps or not, the miko still belonged to their makeshift family. And ever since, the daiyoukai stopped hiding all the covert ways he and the others had been helping her family out for generations.

In no time, the girl grew to love the new routine. There was no need for her to choose between her family and her pack, with Kouga, Shippo and Inuyasha regularly dropping by the shrine or Sesshoumaru inviting her to his estate. It helped soothe the pain of loosing Sango and Miroku. For a while, Kagome thought perhaps fate had stopped throwing random deadly threats in her path…only for her to be attacked on her way to school by a serpent demon, a member of a new clan that appeared to be determined to kill the Shikon miko. Of course, everyone hurried to move, doing their best to find the clan, but with the added complications that came with having to keep hiding their existence, there was no easy way to deal with her new enemies while staying in Tokyo. Not without seriously endangering her family. Sesshoumaru didn't hesitate to try to hide her away in one of the youkai villages under his control, but the miko had refused to lose a year after she struggled so much to pass her exams. Moving away to a small, mostly human town still inside his territory was the best compromise they could reach.

Wishing to avoid nosy questions, they'd agreed with a cover story that'd allow her to interact with others without having to be too avoidant, and calling herself Sesshoumaru's sister wasn't much of stretch considering her position inside the pack. It'd give the inu lord an excuse to come and go from the ancient estate. Having Shippo pose as her overprotective twin brother (with a some illusions to match her coloring) would also allow him to stick by her side and keep her safe. In the mean time, Kouga and Inuyasha remained at the shrine.

All of this was for her safety.

Yet here she was, kicking her shoes off as she ran after a couple of water spirits that had clung to her dress, desperate to guide her into the choppy waters of the stormy sea when she should be running to go back to her new temporary home.

Behind her, Shippo yelled at her to come back.

Kagome was being targeted, forced to move out, trusting random youkais she'd never met before was dangerous and reckless, but she was running all the same.

Treason wasn't an unthinkable possibility, the Hebi clan was influential, and since most of the town's inhabitants were humans there was no way to properly vet the youkais that lived in the area with the same sort of strict rules as there'd be in a purely demonic village. No, even if these water sprites weren't traitors, the storm coming down was more than enough to make the waters dangerous by their own right, and youkais like these were notorious for drowning the unfortunate humans that came across them.

Pretending she didn't hear how genuine the panic in their songs as they pulled on her wasn't something she could do. Sesshoumaru might not take it as a personal offense, but he'd certainly be pissed as hell that she was so willing to risk all of his precautionary measures just to follow a couple of strangers into the choppy waters. Still, he should know her well enough by now to know this was just who she was.

They seemed to be the source of each other's headaches more often than not.

Forcing down a shiver at the freezing water crashing into her, the miko pushed forward. If there was someone stuck in this storm, there was no time to wait. Really, Shippo would've been able to move faster, but with how aloof these youkais were towards humans, there was no guarantee there weren't more people drifting at sea that they didn't care about abandoned in the middle of the water. With the sprites as her guides, she should be able to get to this mysterious person while the fox scanned the area. Kagome swallowed down a grunt as the waves tried to wash her back to shore. Swirling around her, the water sprites broke the incoming rush of waves, forcing the worse of the massive water to flow to her sides, giving her somewhat of a clear path to follow, their dim glow the only light she could count on.

She could feel the sprites' panic as they twisted the currents to her favor, pushing her forward. Constant thunder competed with the crashing sea to drown every other noise, only serving to make her hurry even more.

A light pull on her hair forced her to turn to her left, and she cursed in her head. She could see him now. A lone guy fighting to stay afloat before apparently taking air and diving underwater.

This was really not a good idea.

Blood filled her tongue as she bit down. If the sprites decided to abandon her, the miko wasn't sure she could find her way back to shore. But she couldn't just leave. The glow of her guides followed her after se dove in, the couple of youkais working their hardest to manipulate the water around her, keeping her away from the violent currents threatening to swallow her. Her lungs burned as she pushed forward, her hand shooting out to grab the boy just as he was about to turn around in the opposite direction.

Wide blue eyes stared at her. Tension filled his frame for a second before relaxing as confusion took over. Still, he nodded at her when she motioned back towards the surface, and Kagome could only silently thank whatever god was listening that this stranger was willing to trust her. Swirling in front of her, the water sprites moved the water surrounding them as soon as the miko had gotten a good hold on his hand. Their panting couldn't be heard over the roaring storm. It all she could do to keep her eyes open despite the stinging pain of the salt water. Deciding against trying to fight against the chaotic cacophony, Kagome motioned back towards the place the sprites were trying to lead them to. For a second, it felt like the boy was about to refuse to follow before he nodded. Unwilling to bet on how much stamina the guy had left, the girl took a deep breath and dove back underwater, behind her, the unnamed guy didn't seem to struggle. Relief flooded her as the currents around them helped them avoid the worst of the chaos, letting them advance through the waves.

Good, Kagome had always been a good swimmer, but she wasn't sure she could've carried someone else through the choppy waters, even with the youkais help.

Minutes stretched, time warping around them as she kept her eyes locked on the glow of the sprites, a part of her almost failing to keep herself afloat when she finally distinguished the blue shine of Shippo's kitsunebi, it wouldn't be long until they reached land.

Whirling around she did her best to smile and tug on his hand again. To his eyes, the shore remained almost invisible, with no human light on the private beach, she doubted he could see a thing. If she was being honest, she was beyond lucky this guy was willing to trust someone he'd never seen before with his survival.

Now that they were so close to shore, the water sprites struggled to keep the violent waves from crashing into them, forcing them to be thrown around with it. Willing her legs to move she finally managed to find some footing, her feet inking into the sand and still failing to keep her stable. A tug on her arm almost brought her to her knees, her head whipped around as panic began to flood her when she noticed he was struggling to stay upright despite being tall enough for her to have to look up at him. He was loosing consciousness. Rushing around, the miko did her best to get to his side, placing one of his arms around her shoulders and grunting a little as the waves threw them forward once more. It looked like he'd finally lost what little energy he'd had left, trying to pull an unconscious body was always way harder than it looked.

"Kagome!"

"Over here!"

Light blue flames popped up around her, the fox appearing by her side in an instant, leaving behind the white form of the fire nekomata that jumped towards them and Lord of the West that still managed to stand out despite the lack of lighting. Oh this was not going to be fun, but at least she wouldn't have to explain the weirder parts of this encounter what with the guy being passed out.

"Here let me," Shippo said, taking the weight of her arms with a single move

"Miko."

"We need to warm him up!" Her voice fought against the wind, but demonic hearing meant Shippo heard her every word and hurried to place the boy on top of Kirara's youngest kitten. "Was there anyone else there?!"

"Even if there was, this Sesshoumaru fails to see how it would be your responsibility to act on it."

Golden eyes glared at the water sprites that were floating behind her, and the girl could only sigh. She was tired, they'd spent most of the morning moving, and her walk with Shippo was forcefully violently interrupted by the storm and her efforts to help out.

"You said it yourself, I'm a miko, it's a miko's duty to help people," she huffed. "And I need to make sure he's stable."

"Shouldn't we go to a hospital or something?"

"…he was keeping up with me up until the last moment." The reason for their cover story was to avoid being interrogated, and there was no way to get him there without getting invasive questions about how she managed to get the boy out of this mess. "I'l do a full check up, but I think it's just exhaustion."

The daiyoukai grunted, clearly unhappy but unwilling to let her stay under the rain and risk her getting sick. Passing her an entirely pointless umbrella, he hurried her back to the traditional estate, letting his youki blanket her in a small attempt to fend off the cold.

Tomorrow would surely be full of silent disapproval, but still, Kagome couldn't stop the smile forming on her lips as she glanced at the boy on the nekomata's back.

After youkais began hiding their existence, even those who were once friendly towards humans were now far more closed off, and yet, this guy had managed to earn the favor of water spirits to the point of them desperately looking for a way to help him. At the very least, the boy was certainly out of the norm, it didn't look like he'd been on any kind of ship or even boats, meaning he had to have come all the way to the beach and stayed in the water despite the late hour, and likely distracted enough not to notice the incoming storm until it was too late. Yes, part of the reason she rejected the idea of taking him to the hospital was to avoid attracting attention to themselves, however it'd be a lie to say a part of her wasn't genuinely curious to get a chance to see how this guy would react. Something told her that at least, the next few months might get interesting.

Shades of gray didn't look right.

His eyes narrowed as he studied the sketch in the page that should've been full of notes from the morning's classes. For the most part, Haruka was happy with the result, but no matter how he looked at it, using gray for her eyes simply looked wrong. The blue of his memories was deep and vibrant at the same time, the shade of the ocean on a full moon's night, and it was just as entrancing in her gaze as it was in the waters. A part of him felt like maybe he shouldn't have drawn her in his notebook, but her face refused to leave his mind even a two weeks after their remarkable meeting, so by the time he'd noticed, his pencil was already sketching the lines, trying to replicate the girl's face.

Maybe it was the way they met, but it felt like there was something to her that his brain had apparently latched onto.

"Ohhh, it's an actual person this time!"Makoto said, glancing at his notebook.

" …"

"I don't think I know her, though."

No, he wouldn't.

Actually, it would be more of a surprise if any of his friends had seen her before. From what little he'd learned about her, the girl and her brothers only moved to town last week, and there were too many boxes in the hallways it wouldn't be weird if they were still unpacking. Though at times he still wondered if perhaps what he'd seen was nothing but a illusion formed by the water, guiding him back to shore.

Even after seeing her in a room and hearing her speak, it was impossible to fully drown the thought that maybe the girl was n fact, some kind of supernatural being herself, tales of mermaids swimming on the depths of the ocean kept popping up inside his head.

He was proved wrong of course, when he woke up he was in a big traditional room, the mystery girl sitting at his bedside, a bowl of warm soup on the small table along with a first aid kit. After he managed to say a word of thanks and stumbling a short question out, the girl had laughed as she told him as a priestess, she'd been guided to help him out before jokingly asking him how he'd managed to gain the favor of the sea spirits. She was certainly…different, happy to follow along with his short answers, smile never quite slipping from her lips.

But it wasn't like he could tell the brunet how he met her, because he'd never heard the end of it.

Letting Makoto know he'd ignored his warnings against going into the sea during the last weeks of winter wasn't something he wanted to happen. Especially considering had it not been for the girl, he might've lost his way, turned around by the waves of a sudden storm. Between the darkened sky and the choppy waters, Haruka had managed to get himself turned around and almost started swimming on the opposite direction when a strong hand caught his grip. Despite the lack of visibility, her eyes had shone, the colors of the calm sea serving as a lighthouse as she pulled on him. And ever since, those eyes were constantly on his mind.

The background noise of his classmates chatter hushed down, and he idly glanced up only to snap to attention as black hair he recognized the first teen to follow his teacher. Long black hair in a sloppy ponytail and blue eyes seemed to be drinking in the classroom and stopping on him for a second, but Haruka couldn't quite bring himself to care when after him he found those bright oceanic eyes finding him, widening in surprise as the girl entered the room. Her black hair was down just like before, the waves falling all the way to her waist and looking way too comfortable in his school's uniform.

Oh.

So this was the school she was transferring to.

It had taken him a moment to realize he was still in the town. The obviously house she brought him to was probably the biggest house in the area, so when she mentioned she was transferring schools, he'd assumed she was sure to be enrolled on the more expensive academy. The brief meeting with her oldest brother had been enough for even him to notice how much power and authority the silver-haired man was used to.

Maybe he should've known.

She definitely didn't carry herself in that same way…then again, even now she still felt somewhat ethereal as she smiled at him. Somehow, while the two transfers were supposed to be twins, her colors alone looked more alive.

"Ah!" Miho-sensei's voice shocked him out of his temporary trance. "That's the gir…!"

Quick reflexes threw an eraser at his friend, earning a yelp he didn't care about as he rushed to grab a different notebook and cover his sketch.

He'd never been shy about other people looking at his sketches, he enjoyed drawing and was fairly good at it. There was no point in spending so much time with a pencil in his hands if he was going to spend just as much effort trying to hide it. But he didn't usually drew people, let alone real people. And there was more than just a single sketch in his notebook that he wasn't sure he wanted to be asked about.

From their one encounter, he didn't thin she'd get upset, but she seemed like a curious person and he wasn't sure he had even a single answer for any of their questions.

Now he only needed to find a way to ensure none of his friends said a word about the many drawings that now adorned more than just one of his notebooks, Maybe he should just give it up. He really didn't think she'd be too upset.

"Alright class, we have some transfer students." There was something in his teacher's voice he didn't care enough to try and decipher as he waved over the two teens. "These are Taisho Shippo and Taisho Kagome, please give them a warm welcome."

"Please, just call me Kagome, it's a pleasure."