InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Fragile Heart ❯ Chapter Nine: Shards of Sunset ( Chapter 9 )

Hi everyone, guess what, I'm not dead after all! Hah! I know that the last time I posted a chapter I had said you could anticipate an update roughly once a month. Weeeellll, that was before a very sudden move, and I only got my internet and computer back about two weeks ago. Plus, I can never get anything accomplished when I only have three or less projects going on, so I've reemersed myself in Astelbania the RPG(www.astelbania.com), started another fanfic ("Chasing Twilight"), worked on a considerable number of poetry submissions as well as began compiling a book of said poetry, started a new novel (which I write at work when I'm bored, which is often), and pulled out an old one to begin chaptering, as well as started on a new gaming addiction…(www.gaiaonline.com). With so many things going on, I am sure to start actually getting somewhere on "A Fragile Heart". Hah! I know that sounds totally counter-productive, but, heh, trust me, it works!

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"A Fragile Heart"

by: Banshee Puppet

Chapter ****: Shards of Sunset

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Sesshomaru had fallen asleep by the window in Rin's bedroom. He couldn't bring himself to leave her side after what happened.

Now, bleary-eyed, the little girl awakens to find her caretaker slumbering, and blinks. The setting sun casts shadow over his figure, but it seemed off somehow; his head was

resting at a strange angle in the hair, as if lying against something, but then, wait…

Rin rubbed her eyes with the back of her tiny fist. The blurry silhouette of something fluffy and white was wrapped around behind him, his face had stripes, vague in the odd-lighting and looking almost like open wounds ripped across his cheeks, and there was some sort of crescent mark on his forehead. The girl blinked again. "Sessho-kun?" she asked softly.

Slowly, the man lifted his head, hand coming up to brush a stray strand of hair behind his ear.

The child gasped. More stripes and…claws. Intangible claws.

"Rin?" he asked, still a bit sleepy, and as quickly as the markings appeared, they faded away. It must have been a dream, the child decided. A waking dream, the kind that occurs when you're on the border of awakening, but not quite there. "Do you want something to eat now?" he asked when the girl said nothing.

He stood as Rin clambered out of bed, and his eyes widened in surprise when she tackled him with a one-armed hug, tears brimming in eyes that refused to cry as the girl sniffled.

"Sessho-kun wasn't there," she said, before the tears started falling.

"I'm sorry Rin," Sesshomaru said. "Kagura was supposed to be with you."

"Kagura-san?" the girl asked.

"I'm sorry."

Wordlessly, the little girl clung tightly to his legs, and didn't let go for a long time.

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She drove slowly and in silence. In truth, Kagome didn't even have her learner's permit yet, and wouldn't be going for it until the winter, but she didn't think Miroku was in any condition to be driving, and anyway, Sesshomaru had taught her how to do it just in case there was an emergency with Rin.

"It's just down there," Miroku said, running his right hand over his bald head(He'd gotten into the habit of doing so.) and pointing off to the left side of the road. "Just park on the grass."

"Okay," she answered, carefully pulling across the street and over.

She tried not to notice that Miroku took a long time getting out of the car, that many times on their way down the hill, she thought she would have to catch him. It was heartbreaking really, he was still just a kid, so willful and determined, only two years her senior; to see him like this…oh, to see him like this. She wished she could reverse time and make him healthy again. She would even take his groping hands without complaint if that was possible.

Quietly, the young man sat down in the grass, watching the last shards of sunset disappear. He'd arrived later than usual. It felt like missing an appointment that he hadn't known he made.

'Kouga.' Images of that day rolled over in his mind, and of other, previous days, that the two boys had spent together. Kouga telling him that he looked like a monk with his bald head, getting on the back of that punk's motorcycle for the very firs time, and then…also…getting on it for the very last time…, talking about Kouga's grandfather-'I have no business with the dead,' the young man had told him, but it seemed that the situation had changed now-

They weren't friends, not really, but they were connected by something bigger than both of them, maybe bigger than this bay, or the river that ran into it, or beyond that, the endless sea. Miroku didn't pretend to know. Tired beyond recompense, he lay down on his side and watched the waters slowly churning, the harbor lights coming on. He'd come here to say goodbye, but he still didn't know who, or what, he was saying goodbye to.

'This bay,' he thought as his eyes drifted shut, feeling suddenly very heavy, heavier than anything else. 'I'm saying goodbye to this bay. I don't think that I'll ever see it again.'

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Inuyasha paced, stopped in front of a glass panel, fussed with his hair, paced some more. He had to make a conscious effort not to crush the purple corsage in his hand. First dates were always nerve-wracking, but a first date ever, with the girl you like best in all the world…well, it bordered on situational insanity.

He wondered if there was such a thing as situational insanity, because if there was, then he was definitely situationally insane. Vaguely he wondered if Kagome and his brother would be attending the dance and decided, 'yeah right, who would baby-sit?'

He stopped in front of the glass again and adjusted his tie for the seventh time. This is when Sango arrived, and tried not to laugh. In the moonlight, pouting slightly, Inuyasha looked so like a little lost puppy. She could practically see dog ears resting atop his mane of hair, lying flat in some sort of nervously disgruntled reaction.

She took a deep breath and wondered if he felt as nervous as he looked, because given the butterflies in her stomach, it would be no end of comfort to her.

"Inuyasha," she called finally. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Yes. I mean, ah, no, not at all!" He waved it off, figuring it best not to tell her that he was so anxious that he'd arrived forty-five minutes early.

He tried not to be too blatant about staring, but fact was, he wasn't the most subtle guy in the world. Sango was wearing a crème-colored skirt that fell just below the knee, flaring slightly, and matching lace-up sandals. Her blouse was a powder-blue bar maiden top with bell-sleeves that hung off the edge of her shoulder, displaying a long expanse of throat. Other than a watch, ring and two simple gold studs in her ears, she wore no jewelry, the long expanse of her neck left bare.

In truth, the dance was only semi-formal, but most people dressed up anyway.

"Inuyasha?" she asked, blushing.

"Uh, nothing. Let's go?"

Sango smiled to herself. No 'you look nice' or other such pleasantries-that's just how Inuyasha was, and that was fine with her. She already knew it. "Yeah," she answered gently, daring to slip her fingers into his.

'We can be allowed this happiness, can't we?" Inuyasha thought. 'In spite of everything? Just this one thing. Whoever's pulling the string on this weird world that we've all fallen into…I can have this one thing, right? Whether you're a god or a devil-I don't care-just, please don't take Sango away from me...' he prayed. 'Without her, I'll shatter.'

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Naraku quietly slid back the rice paper door-not that silence mattered; their slumber was so deep, they might never awaken. A slight smile curled his lips-all still soundly asleep in their enemy's castle.

Sesshomaru had, of course, protected his priestess, and lay in a heap beside her peacefully sleeping form now. Inuyasha, in his sleep, had rolled over to tightly clutch Sango's hand. A bit of blood seeped through the bandages. His wounds had not yet fully healed.

"Kohaku," the evil hanyou called. "Change his bandages."

The dull monotone of Sango's former brother answered simply, "Yes, Lord Naraku," as always.

"I can't have you dying yet, Inuyasha," Naraku smirked. "You are the key to Tanjoh's woven dream after all-that which holds the world you see now in place and all of the characters bound to one another; it was your guilt, your wish for Sesshomaru's happiness that allowed Tanjoh into your minds. Heh. What does a dreamweaver do, after all, other than grant wishes," Naraku smirked.

His eyes shifted to Kouga. 'Troublesome,' he thought. 'Brat Prince.'

He looked about the room once more, and his eyes locked on the monk, black eyes blinking disorientedly up at the ceiling! The dark eyes shifted. "Naraku," the name came out in a hissed whisper, as if he had just been burned. Confused and angry, the monk intended to leap to his feet, but many days of slumber had made the progress slow, aching muscles burned from lack of use. He was about to use his wind tunnel, suck in everything, as long as the evil Naraku came with it, when the hanyou chuckled.

"What will you do monk?" Use your wind tunnel? Even at the risk of sucking in your slumbering friends?"

Miroku's eyes shot about, the dream world still fresh in his mind, a name spilled out of his lips, the last name he would expect to hear himself say with such despair and determined vengeance. "Kouga…Naraku, you bastard!" The wolf prince was still asleep, curled up in a corner of the room. Fists clenched, the monk's eyes shift about for some sort of weapon, some way…without hurting his friends…

"Kohaku," the demon says easily, and in the instant the monk turns, locking on empty eyes, the sharp point of a blade cuts into his side. He clutches there, and falls to a heap on the floor, blood seeping out between tightly pressed fingers.

"A thousand apologies monk," Naraku's honeyed words touch his ears, dimming-dimming-"but you will not interfere with my attainment of the Shikon Jewel from that priestess a second time."

'The jewel?' Miroku thought as his consciousness faded out, 'But it's too late…Inuyasha already used the jewel, didn't he? to…become a demon…a full-demon…we were…too late…Sango and I… …weren't we?'

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Review Replies:

Icy Kitten: your wish is my command! Haha. After a long delay, I'll be posting the rest of this story tonight!

Saria4: Thanks for noticing that about Miroku! That's what I was going for, because to me, he just seems like that sort of guy, whether I'm AU-ing it or not.

CrimsonRegret Pours in My Soul: I believe that dream is clarified as the story progresses! For the first it was meant to be a little like "wait…what the heck's going on here?" As for your other question, read on and find out!

That final bit is a reference back to B.A.A., see how clever I am? Hah! or not. Anyway, if you didn't read B.A.A. that might not make sense. Not my fault! *does a little dance that involves sticking her tongue out at random people*

Somebody in this chapter felt ooc to me; sadly, I can't remember who now! Geez, I give up. haha. Every chapter I write I think 'someone is ooc', and then nobody says anything about that-maybe I'm just paranoid. So sorry for making everyone wait! I'm turning into a lazy bum where this story is concerned. I'm sooo easily distracted! My current distraction from getting ANY work of ANY kind done is the manga "Love Mode"-Naoya and Isumi amuse me; they're both so clueless. haha! And Takamiya s so smiley! (think that's his name) You just know that under that smile he's nothing but a perverted old man! Hah! Okay, maybe not. Aoe sometimes reminds me of Sesshomaru though, so maybe when I write the final story in this arc and go back to all that fun Sess/Kag romance(*is getting ahead of herself*) that will be useful!

Anyway, until next time,

Happy Haunting,

Banshee Puppet