InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Awakening ❯ Awakening ( One-Shot )

Awakening

----------------------------

Kagura dies staring at him. She drinks him in, the last thing she ever wants to see, the last hope she ever wishes to feel. He stares back at her, calmly, serene in his offensive way, and she vaguely feels like she should say something. Her throat is choked though, so she doesn't.

He is sitting next to her. She recognizes his sword, which rests limply in his lap, unsheathed. He follows her gaze to his sword, and then looks back at her face.

'I must look awful....' she thinks fuzzily.

Sesshoumaru frowns. "I imagine we will meet again."

Kagura tries to twist her lips, to thrum her voice, but fails. Blood bubbles gently from the corner of her mouth. She speaks with her eyes.

'I'm dying .I don't want to meet again. I'm finally free....'

Sesshoumaru nods as if he understands her twisted, unspoken message.

Kagura blinks to clear her eyes, turning to look at the overcast sky. She vaguely wishes for the sun to be out. She turns back to Sesshoumaru, sucking in his very essence, embalming him into her spirit. She smiles.

Kagura dies.

-------------------------------------

Kagura wakes in a child's body. She blinks, confused. She is in an enclosed area. Short grass caresses her bare legs, and she stares enraptured at her pudgy legs. Dolls are scattered around her in haphazard stacks. One sits in her lap expectantly, as though she had just dropped it.

She stands. Or, at least she tries to stand. Her limbs don't quite listen to her, and she feels panic well up in her breast. Where is she? What is going on?

A wood fence encloses the area, and as she twists to look behind her a large house comes into view, dwarfing her. A voice calls out and Kagura stills curiously, turning completely to face the large house. A giant of a man appears at the back door, his face stretching into an adoring smile as he sees her.

"Pumpkin," he greets lovingly and lifts her up, hands under her armpits.

Warmth fills her. She knows him, right? She loves him, right?

"Papa!" she giggles. He spins her around and she laughs madly as a woman's voice from the house chides them to come inside. The man grins at Kagura mischievously, tweaking a pig tail gently.

"Don't want to make Mama angry, do we?"

Kagura shakes her, collapsing against his shoulder, feeling perfectly safe, perfectly content. His arms engulf her and she melts on the inside.

Darkness ascends.

-----------------------------------

Kagura is in line. She frowns, befuddled. She is taller now, her body curvy and grown. She stares around, finding herself in some kind of brick building surrounded by other people her age. Two girls are laughing next to her, facing her, and they gulp in air desperately at some kind of amusement Kagura doesn't understand.

She waits patiently for them to stop. They finally settle, cheeks flushed, eyes wet with mirth. Kagura scowls at them.

"Oh, don't be upset," giggles the girl with the ponytail. "We didn't mean anything by it, Cho."

Kagura blinks. 'Cho...?'

"Yeah," continues the other girl, biting her cheek. "It was just your expression when he came up to you. I can't believe you rejected him! He was so cute."

"Ah..." Kagura scoffs, "He was nothing. I want a real man."

The ponytail girl snorts. "That's what you always say. Where do you expect to find this real man?"

Kagura gazes thoughtfully across the room. She does not see the other students bustling around carrying their book bags, or the two girls her tilt their heads at her curiously. She sees a sword in a limp, hopeless hand, and a man with blazing, hopeless eyes.

"He's around," Kagura says stubbornly. The other girls shrug and the line they are in moves.

Kagura fades.

---------------------------------------

Kagura is jolted awake. She feels panic. Her body is not under her control. She gulps in air and her arms jerk awkwardly and she has to calm her madly beating heart because the people in the room are beginning to look at her strangely.

She is in a dress, and her body is more mature now, nearly how it was before she died. Her hair is piled on top of her head, and she holds a flute of champagne in her left hand. People press against her, and sparkling, whispering music floats through the ballroom.

She wonders what jolted her awake, and then she sees him. He is in a suit, speaking calmly to a group of older men. Her lungs feel constricted, and shock settles into her belly. Once again, Kagura can't speak, though this time she is not dying.

Trembling, she sips her champagne, thankful for its smooth taste as it slides easily down her throat. Kagura strains a smile at the young waiter who takes her empty glass and hands her another full one. Then she turns back to study Sesshoumaru.

He is older, she notices. Light creases imprint the corner of his eyes and around his mouth. His hair is tied back, and his youkai crests are mysteriously absent. Despite this, he is still as imposing as she remembers him. His shoulders are still broad, his waist narrow, and his fingers long, tapered, and graceful.

Slowly but confidently, Kagura strides to where he lounges. The men have left him and he stands alone, eyes roving the crowd in an animalistic kind of way. Silently she stands next to him. He glances at her and his lips thin slightly. She is not sure whether he recognizes her not. She thinks it has been a very, very long time.

"Sesshoumaru, right?" she purrs aggressively. He lifts an eyebrow, and she smirks at him challengingly.

"It seems I am known," he says mildly. "But your name escapes me."

She imitates his lifted eyebrow. "Perhaps I never gave it."

"Perhaps you didn't," he agrees.

She extends a hand, nails sharp and red. He pauses, and something flashes across his features, though it is too brief for her to quite catch what it was. He takes her hand, shaking it softly, lightly. His fingers are calloused and they feel like electricity and fire and the sun on a spring day against her skin.

"Cho," she murmurs. "You may call me Cho."

Slowly the colors fade and blur and the music disappears and she is surrounded by the oppressive void once again. Kagura sleeps.

----------------------------

She comes to while staring at a mug of coffee. She blinks multiple times to clear her head, because it feels like she is being assailed by memory after memory. She sees her Papa and her Mama grinning at her from a crowd as she preens proudly on a stage. She sees Naraku, his bitter red eyes watching her with understated menace. She sees a group of girls in school girl uniforms. They surround her and she laughs with them with a care free air. She is flying in the air on a feather, and below her she sees a man with flowing silver hair and a regal stature. Her heart constricts, but not because Naraku has his vile hands on it.

Kagura breathes in deeply, and her eyes tear slightly. She scowls and holds them in, then she looks up.

Sesshoumaru sits across from her. A cup of tea sits half empty before him, and he is watching her calmly. Kagura opens her mouth to speak but only air comes out. She shuts her mouth again, and calmly takes a sip of her coffee. The cafe they are in is quiet and mellow. Groups of people litter the place, but all speak in whispers.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagura finally murmurs. His hands rest limply on the lacquered wood of the round table they reside it. "You don't have your sword."

He narrows his eyes slightly. "Of course not. We are in a public place."

Kagura's chest bubbles and roils and she feel she may just burst out of body, because her body is too real to hold this dream, this reality.

"Ah," she smirks, "so the dog is embarrassed of his sword in public, hm?"

Sesshoumaru ignores her comment. "You're awake, Kagura," he states.

Kagura reaches out and traces her nail gently along the back of his hand. "I'd prefer you call me Cho."

His hand twitches beneath her finger, then fluidly he grasps her hand in his. "I did say we would meet again."

Kagura hums contentedly, smiling at him. "So you did." He smiles back, a bare twitch of his lips, but she captures it and revels in it.

Kagura awakes.

--------------------------------

Cho: Butterfly