InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Beside You in Time ❯ 1596: London ( Chapter 2 )

The market was unusually crowded for so late in the day. She pushed through the crowds, protecting her purchases with one hand and the leftover coins with the other. It was only a couple farthings, but they could buy a loaf of bread or a pint - more than enough incentive for a pickpocket or someone rougher than that. She closed her fist tightly around them as she was pushed backwards by an oblivious man that smelled of rotting fish. He was laughing raucously and showing off his five teeth. Kagome craned her neck to see feathers flying - a cockfight.

She sighed. Barbarians, she thought, as a cheer went up and there was a tinkle of coins passed from hand to hand. One man stumbled from the crowd, holding an entire crown aloft. Kagome's heart quickened. That was almost three weeks' wages right there in his hand. She would be that much closer to getting off this island and onto the Continent. He was drunk enough, even this early in the evening. He wouldn't notice.

But she hesitated too long, and the man was running down the lane, crowing about his fantastic fortune. She kicked at the ground and turned, walking up the other road towards Blackfriars. Ships moved along the Thames beside her - mostly fishing boats and small skiffs that ferried people across the river for a fee, but several cargo ships too. These, she knew, would take on passengers as well, to almost any destination they wished for the right price.

The farthings bit into her hand as she watched the boats. Even the small amount she had would get her across the Thames. But what then? No one would come looking for her, but if she showed her face in London again, she would be thrown into prison as a thief. And thieves were often executed, especially when they had spurned the generosity of their noble employers.

Not that execution was much more than a potential annoyance these days.

Kagome frowned - the fact was that she had a fairly fortunate position. She was paid, and she was largely ignored. She hadn't even received a proper lashing, only a few strikes with the flat of someone's hand - usually from Catherine or Theresa, the teenaged daughters of her boss.

Turning the corner and passing down the alley, she arrived at the large building that served as Sir Harold's London home. Kagome hefted her basket onto her hip and pushed open the door, letting out a flood of warm, sticky air. She sighed softly and stepped inside, desperate to shed her shawl and sit by the fire. It had been a long walk, and she wasn't used to it yet. Her calves ached.

"Close the door! Where've ya been?" snipped Martha, yanking the basket out of her hands immediately. Kagome deposited the coins into the maid's waiting palm before she could even hint at thievery. "I told you to hurry! They've been here for ages, waitin' for this wine."

"Sorry. Sorry," Kagome murmured, lowering her eyes.

Her thick Japanese accent drew the usual sneer from the kitchen maid. "Can't understand a bloody thing you say, girl."

Kagome's jaw clenched. They should understand the only word she ever seemed to utter in this detestable place. "Sorry."

"Give 'er a break, Martha," said the cook, John, his brow creasing as he studied the sauce. He added some costly saffron and stirred again. "Other things to be doin' than mockin' the little freak."

The serving maid swept in with an empty tray and her eyes sparkling. "Martha, you should see the little mistresses!" Jane crowed quietly. "What fuss!"

"Do they want the wine, Jane?" John broke in, before the serving maid could get any farther. He drew himself up a bit straighter now that Jane was in the room and spoke with greater care, not dropping letters from his words as he did in his usual Cockney.

"No," Jane said, not looking at the older man. "They're happy with the ale for now."

John frowned at the brush-off, but no one else was surprised. Jane was eyeing a butcher from the morning market, Kagome knew. Not that even Jane - who was significantly more accepting than the conservative, elder Martha - would confide in the "little freak" who had shown up in their kitchen three months before. But even if Kagome didn't know much English aside from the words most often shouted at her, she could see how eager Jane was to go to the market on the days they were having beef or chicken. Kagome had had to wait around many times as her flirtatious companion chatted with the butcher. She could see the attraction - he was a handsome man and had his own business. He was a true catch for a serving maid, even one that spoke with a refined accent. He offered Jane true freedom.

Kagome could sympathize with that, certainly.

Jane was talking again. "They want to get their greedy claws into that Lord Spenser that's come to dinner." Kagome wasn't the only one that loathed Theresa and Catherine - no one liked the households' two teenage daughters. The mistress of the house was the only one that doted upon them, but even their father called them brats, so this description of them went by unchecked.

"Well, is he 'andsome?" Martha asked, loading up the next tray for Jane.

"He's an odd one, that's what he is," the serving maid replied, but the color in her cheeks told them that she thought more of the lord than that. "Suppose he is. He's young and rich, that's all the little mistresses care about."

"All Sir Harold cares about too," commented John. Their boss was getting on his years, and his days as an active knight in the Queen's forces were long over. He had made his modest fortune, and now it was up to his daughters to marry men wealthy enough to maintain their lifestyle.

"Don't matter either way," Jane replied with a shrug. "He isn't half bored by them all. Not that they notice, the little tarts! I confess, he is rather dashing. He's so quiet and superior to them all, even if he does look like a bit of a freak."

"Like this one?" Martha asked with a nasty grin, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at Kagome.

Jane spared a glance for the girl, noting her almond-shaped eyes and jet black hair. "No. He's cultured, not a creeping urchin from the docks. He has such unusual coloring, although it becomes him. He can't be more than five-and-twenty, but his hair is all white. No. Silver, more like."

"Sounds like a freak," Martha said.

"A man's hair can go white from fright. I've seen it in Plymouth," John put in. The cook would tell anyone who would listen about how the seaside inn he used to work in was once commandeered for food and beds by the Queen's navy in the battle against the Spanish Armada. If pressed, of course, John would admit that he didn't see anyone aside from a few raggedy sailors or, at most, a lieutenant or two. "It'll go right silver, like an old man, fast as it can grow."

Kagome glanced up from the pot she was scrubbing. She had to listen very closely to these conversations - the other servants didn't slow down their chatter so that she could learn the language more easily, of course - but she knew the word 'silver' particularly well. 'Don't you dare touch that silver, you little freak!' was a common admonishment these days. Not that she ever went near the dratted stuff.

"His hair looks like silk," Jane said with a coquettish smile. "Silver silk."

Kagome sighed softly. A man with silver hair was not something so unusual, but it did remind her of so much. It cut her deeply to remember Inuyasha. It had been a long time since she had heard his rough voice or had him drape her with his fire-rat robe when she got cold. She wondered vaguely how he was doing and whether she would ever see him again.

Would she ever step foot in Japan again, for that matter? She missed Japan almost as much as she missed her friends. She wished she could have afforded to go beyond London when she first arrived in England, to someplace with greenery that would remind her of home. But she was certain that the similarities would end there, and she wouldn't feel any more love for the English countryside as she did for London. To be here, in a land where she didn't know the language and she got less respect than the dogs, made her ache for her home. There, she was someone to be respected - a miko with untapped potential. In London, she was a scullery maid and reduced to cleaning out the chamber pots of the other servants.

A bell rang, and Jane went out of the kitchen again, balancing the tray expertly in one hand. When she came back a few moments later, she pointed to Kagome. "Our mistress wants you," she said, barely concealing a smile.

Kagome sighed and set aside the crockery. This happened almost every time the family had dinner guests - inevitably, the rather daft Lady Emily would talk about her odd, foreign servant and the guests would want to see her. She felt rather pathetic as a curiosity, but at least it got her out of the hostile kitchen for a few moments. And it was something to hold (silently) over Martha - the kitchen maid never was permitted a peek at the dinner guests. Even now, Martha's eyes burned with jealousy as Kagome passed by.

She walked down the narrow hall, wiping her hands on her apron and smoothing her hair back under her cap. She could hear the soft twittering of the daughters and the high, silly voice of Emily as they tried to entertain their guest. It paused as she stepped around the corner and curtsied, her eyes on the floor.

"Come here, Kagome," Lady Emily said, the Japanese name sounding awkward on her British tongue. "Lord Spenser wished to meet you."

Kagome lifted her head and nearly jumped out of her skin.

There, at the far end of the table, sat Sesshoumaru. In a doublet. She wasn't sure which was the stranger sight, but he was looking back at her with utter non-surprise.

"Move your feet, girl," snapped Sir Harold.

Kagome scooted forward across the wooden floor and curtsied again, and Lady Emily smiled her slightly vacant smile. Kagome would concede that her mistress was a good-hearted woman. She certainly wouldn't subject her scullery maid to this sort of charade if she knew how uncomfortable it was for Kagome, but the fact that it didn't even occur to Emily that it could be uncomfortable made Kagome think of her as quite stupid. Not to mention that Lady Emily was hardly batting an eye at the fact that her servant was pale and on the edge of fainting at the sight of their guest.

"Lord Spenser says he may know your language. Isn't that nice?" Lady Emily said. She waved a finger, not letting Kagome answer. "Mind that you don't point out his mistakes. He says it's been some time since he was in your country."

Kagome almost barked out a hysterical laugh, but stilled herself by lifting her eyes and curtsying yet again to the dog demon. Sesshoumaru leaned back in his chair, one hand holding a silver goblet that cost more than Kagome got in wages for a whole year. "What are you doing here, miko?" he asked her in Japanese.

"I could ask you the same," she said. "You scared me to death! Did you come here to find me?"

"Why would I care to look for a worthless human like you?" he replied.

"Oh. Well. I see you haven't changed."

"Why would I?"

She shrugged. "It's been more than forty years. People change. But you have a new arm. That's new, I guess." She glanced at the very real fingers clutching his glass. The claws were filed down, she noticed. His hair was draped over his ears too, although tied back. She wondered if it was magic or make-up that hid his demonic markings and finally settled upon magic - colored contacts were about four hundred years in the future, and his eyes were gray. "So if you still hate all humans, why are impersonating one? And why are you here with my boss?"

"Business," he replied shortly. His lips turned down slightly. "It has been forty years," he added, as if just realizing it, "and yet, you have not changed."

"Tell me about it," she sighed. "Stop frowning though. Everyone's staring. I'll get in trouble, and I don't feel like dealing with that tonight."

His eyes swept over the other occupants of the room. Kagome knew he didn't care much for their opinion, but whatever business he had with Sir Harold must have been quite important. He straightened and nodded towards her once. "We will talk later," he said. Switching easily to English, he turned to Emily. "How intriguing that you brought such a girl into your home," he said. His tones were bordering on oily, and Kagome had to steel herself against recoiling. To her ears, his refined British accent was both perfect and horrifying. She realized that she had desperately enjoyed using her native language again.

Theresa answered for her mother. "Oh, my brother found her wandering the docks. He's a lieutenant, you know, on the HMS Defiant. Anyway, he found the poor little thing and decided she had good enough breeding to fill our vacant place. He was being too kind, of course. But that's to be expected, considering where she came from." She batted her eyelashes and whispered conspiratorially, "She's a heathen!"

"That's not entirely true, my dear," Emily said indulgently. "Our Lord has seen fit to save her soul."

Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered towards Kagome and narrowed. She looked away, ashamed. Her mother and grandfather would be horrified to hear Lady Emily's words - to even pretend to forget your ancestors was to dishonor them. But she had seen what happened to 'heathens' on her travels, and she learned to lie convincingly enough. She was, by all outward appearances, loyal to the Church of England.

"Saved or not," Sir Harold said, "she's still not one of us. My wife was too indulgent allowing her this place."

"Charity, my husband, is a virtue," reminded Lady Emily, still smiling dimly. "Besides, she has turned from such evil."

Catherine leaned forward over the table, ignoring her parents. "You must know all about those heathens, having been there, Lord Spenser. We would be delighted to hear of your stories of the Far East," she purred. "Theresa and I enjoy nothing more than such tales!"

Sesshoumaru put down his glass. "I suppose I have some stories," he said, sending the two young women into a small fit of giggles.

Kagome rolled her eyes and, realizing they had forgotten about her, retreated back to the kitchen.

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"How does a miko become a scullery maid?"

She looked up, startled, from where she was dumping the ashes from the fireplace and spilled them all down her front. She had thought she was the last one awake, and that he had gone home. "What?"

He emerged from the shadows and leaned against the stone wall that encircled their small yard. She had to shake herself again, trying not to stare at the sight of Sesshoumaru in a doublet, hose and slops. He - as Jane would say - cut a fine figure, but Kagome couldn't help but think it looked a bit ridiculous. Since he had just given her a second heart attack of the day, she said so.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. "Did you expect me to make a spectacle of myself, as you have? This is the custom," he said. "And do not believe that I will not spill your blood, simply because we are half a world away from Japan."

"I'm sure you would," she said with a shrug. She tried to brush away the soot that stained her apron, but only succeeded in smearing it. "I'm assuming that you'll wait though. You're really curious about why I'm here, after all."

"I am curious as to why of all the places in this growing world you could have been, you are in the house I dined at this evening," he corrected. "I don't particularly care why you left my idiot brother, but I do not believe in such coincidences as this." He looked her up and down once. "Although," he added, "I am curious about your lack of aging. You should be an old woman by now."

"I am an old woman," she said. "Sixty-five, actually. Officially, in some times and places, I'm a senior citizen. I just don't look it."

His brow furrowed in irritation at her rambling. "Explain."

She pulled her shawl closer. Clearly they would be skipping the pleasantries, but that wasn't particularly surprising, considering it was Sesshoumaru. She was surprised he hadn't tried to behead her for the comment about the doublet - although, he probably thought it equally ridiculous. "Well, do you remember the last time we saw each other? When we tried to get the Jewel back from those monkey demons? You tried to help me."

He scowled at the mere suggestion. "I was trying to prevent another youkai from taking the Shikon no Tama," he said. "I had no interest in assisting you."

"Yeah, I know," she said with a wave of her hand. "The point is, when that leader made that wish, we were all caught in that explosion of light. And it - I don't know - did something to me. I can't age, and I can't die."

"You are immortal," he said.

Kagome scrunched her nose and tapped her chin. "Close to it, at least. Well, not quite. Sort of," she waffled. She raised an eyebrow as he growled softly. "Well, it would have helped immensely if you'd been around, you know! When we realized that I wasn't getting any older, and that I was surviving everything that should have hurt or killed me, we went looking for you. You're the only one that could have heard the wish. Where were you?"

"Traveling," Sesshoumaru replied simply. "Once the Jewel and Naraku were no longer a threat, I had no ties binding me to Japan."

"What about your kingdom?"

"There is a whole world to conquer. My kingdom is secure enough," he said softly.

She resisted the urge to stamp her foot. Of all the times to get a wanderlust! "Fine. Can you tell me now what he said?"

He thought for a moment. "It has been over forty years," he observed, "but I believe he wished for his family to remain together forever."

"His family? He said that, precisely?"

Sesshoumaru frowned. "No," he amended. "He said, 'us'. He did not specify who that was. He wished for eternal youth and life for 'us', so that 'we' could be 'together so long as we desire it'."

Kagome sagged slightly and shook her head. "Of course. Well, he wouldn't exactly have wished for just one hundred years of good health and youth, I guess." She straightened again, although her eyes were shining with droplets. "I suspected that all along, but thank you for confirming it. It does help to know the specifics, even if it's not what I wanted to hear."

He studied her for a moment. An immortal miko - it was enough to cause even his heart to skip a beat. She could destroy every demon in the world and never die. He supposed it was fortunate for his race that the foolish girl was not one to think about such things. He was the only one in this garden that could consider genocide as a viable option in battle. This girl that could not grow up only thought of returning to her mother. "You left Japan because of this?"

"I thought you weren't interested in that," she said, tying her cap underneath her chin. It was so cold in London at night, and her ears were beginning to hurt.

"I changed my mind."

She bit her lip. "I don't know. I had to. It was getting weird, I guess. I stayed the same age, and everyone else got older and older. Sango and Miroku have grandchildren! Grown up grandchildren who probably have kids of their own by now. I was... I was beginning to resemble Kikyo more than ever. We were the only ones stuck at one age, never dying, never aging." She took a breath and looked away. "Shippo was growing up, and he didn't need me anymore. Inuyasha looks a bit older too. It was just weird."

"Hn," he replied simply, not sounding interested at all.

She looked back at him with a frown. "You should know. Isn't that the worst part? Don't people age around you and die all the time?"

"Of course, but I do not care."

The inevitable question of Rin came to the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. When Sesshoumaru had left their lives, so had Rin. Kagome guessed that she was somewhere in her late fifties, if alive at all, and she had no wish to risk her neck again by asking. She had become careless of late, she admitted. Her cheekiness to a powerful demon lord - his demonic features magically concealed or not - was proof of that. Being immortal could make a person lazy with their words. She went with the safer question. "Where's Jaken?"

"In Japan, looking after the administrative needs of my kingdom that do not need my personal attention," he replied.

"I didn't know your kingdom had administrative needs," she said, her eyebrows arching. "I thought you just kind of wandered around, killing whoever challenged your power."

He scowled. "The complexities of youkai relations are far beyond your comprehension, miko," he said. "My kingdom will keep."

She shrugged. "Alright," she said, sounding wholly unconvinced. Her eyes swept over his features. "And this? Magic?" she asked, gesturing towards his cheekbones and forehead.

The taiyoukai nodded once. "Are you quite finished questioning me?"

"Oh." She frowned at him. "Well, you can ask a question about me. Go ahead. I'm sure there's something else you want answered."

He considered this for a moment. Her confidence - mixed with a healthy dose of insolence - was beginning to annoy him. And yet, she was right. There was so much still left unknown, and he could not bear being left in the dark. It would please him, he decided, to unsettle her. "Why did my brother not take you as his mate?" he asked.

She promptly forgot her near-promise to answer his inquiries. "Why should I tell you that? You never cared about Inuyasha in the past."

"I still do not," Sesshoumaru replied. "But your situation is curious. Normally, even a hanyou would far outlast a human lifespan. Your immortality would have been ideal, and yet he did not choose you. Did he choose the clay miko instead?"

Kagome took a step back. "I... I don't know. I mean, he didn't, but it was awkward. We couldn't find the monkey demons to get the Jewel back, and then, I got hurt. For the second time in just a couple years, I should have died, but I didn't. That's really when we started figuring it out. The aging thing just confirmed it." She shrugged. "I think it freaked him out a bit. He was a bit scared of me. I don't know. Maybe when I didn't need him to save me, we didn't have anything to hold us together anymore. He just started wandering off for months at a time, sometimes with Kikyo. I stayed in the village as long, as I could stand it. When I couldn't anymore, I left."

"You did not come here first."

It wasn't a question, but she answered anyway. "No. Russia at first." She saw his slight confusion and corrected herself. Russia didn't exist yet, she reminded herself. "Muscovy, I mean. And then all over the deserts of the East. That wasn't particularly fun. So when I reached Egypt, I found a ship and eventually came here. I haven't been to Japan in, oh, ten years."

"I see."

"Why did you come here?"

He shrugged, and it occurred to Kagome that she had never seen him shrug before. For that matter, she had never had a civil conversation with him before, especially one of this length. There was more of a difference in Sesshoumaru than just a new arm, she decided. She tried again. "I mean, did you feel called here?"

He paused. "I felt the desire to go West," he said slowly.

"Me too," she replied. "I fought it for a very long time, but I just couldn't do it forever. Something drew me here. You're not the only one I've run into over the years, either. I've seen those monkey demons too. That's another big coincidence, don't you think?"

The taiyoukai raised an eyebrow. "Very much so. They are immortal now too, I am assuming," he said.

She let out a soft breath - they had reached the crux of the whole matter. At least they were avoiding the topic of Inuyasha. "That's the thing though. That's why I said I'm not really, really immortal. Because they can hurt me."

He straightened, and at his full height, he looked very much like the demon lord she remembered. "What do you mean?"

"It means that I'm actually glad you found me, because I need your help to kill them," she said. "And don't tell me that it doesn't involve you, because it does. It's our responsibility now. I think that we're the only ones that can kill them. And they're the only ones that can kill us. You were caught in that blast too, remember. We're both cursed with this immortality."

"I was already practically immortal."

"Practically immortal is much different than actually immortal, and you know it," she said, picking up steam. "Look, two years after we got caught up in that wish, I was run through with a sword! I don't even have a scar. But when I met the monkey demons in Muscovy..." She paused and suddenly started undoing her bodice. Sesshoumaru blinked, a sort of disgusted shock marring his features. "Calm down. I'm not trying to seduce you!" she added with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

She pulled aside her chemise and he leaned forward again, staring at the three parallel scars running just under her collar bone. Claw marks, he deduced. "This was ten years ago," she said, shivering from the cold.

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "The skin looks freshly mended," he observed, still looking at the shining white scar tissue.

Kagome pulled her clothing back over her shoulder and redid her ties. "No. Ten years ago. It took forever to heal. Slower than normal, even for a human."

He considered this for a moment. "The youkai wished to be with his family until they desired otherwise," Sesshoumaru said.

"Exactly. So I'm thinking we're the only ones that can really hurt each other, because we're the only ones that can 'desire' to be free from one another." Her jaw clenched as she looked at him. "You're not going to kill me now, are you?"

"I do not care to do so at the moment," he replied absently. He was turning over this new information in his mind, looking at it from every angle as rapidly as possible. If the girl was correct - and he could not smell any deception - the advantages were obvious and numerous. Never again would he have to weigh the possible losses and gains of engaging his enemies in battle. He could decimate an army by himself. The thought was empowering, to say the least.

On the other hand, he now had four monkey demons and a miko that could strike him down as easily as a wheat stalk at harvest. It was only some comfort that he could do the same to them.

"So will you help?"

His hackles raised. There was that word again - 'help' - as if he were her errand boy. Here he was, poised to become the most powerful demon in the entire world, and she wanted him to condescend to become her companion in this self-imposed mission? "Why should I care if four monkey youkai are immortal? Or if you are?"

"Because they're the only ones that can kill you," she replied, her eyes wide with disbelief, "and they could show up tomorrow. We're outnumbered on this one. And don't think that they've been behaving well, either. They're smarter than you'd think. Truthfully, I don't actually think they're monkey demons."

"Kitsune?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. But they're dangerous, and we're the only ones that can stop them. They must be like me. Like you, too! Nothing else can hurt them except for each other. And us."

"I still fail to see why this concerns me," he said. "I have no wish to run around the world looking for troublesome youkai. That is your quest, not mine. I am quite comfortable here. If they cross my path, I will kill them. Otherwise, I do not care." He turned to leave.

"They still have the Jewel! You promised!" she cried, suddenly desperate. She took a breath and looked away as he stared at her with his golden eyes. "You did, though. You promised to help us when we fought Naraku. You said you would help getting rid of - in your words - 'that contemptible Jewel'. And Inuyasha can't help me anymore. I won't let him. Those monkey demons would rip him to pieces. They have no fear of death anymore. You're the only one that can help me."

"Your pleading does not move me," he said. "My obligation ended long ago."

She watched, horrified, as he stepped out of the garden and into the alley. She tripped over the bucket that had held the fireplace ashes as she followed. "I... I know the future," she called after him. "You know I do. Don't tell me that's not useful to you."

He paused again and turned, his eyes flickering up towards the windows of the surrounding homes to look for eavesdroppers before he remembered that no one could understand her but him. Still, it was never a wise idea to shout in foreign tongues during the witching hour, even in London. He stalked back to her, the moonlight giving her the only hint as to where he stepped. He moved exactly like the predator that he was. "Are you proposing a trade?" he asked, coming close.

She swallowed. When she and her friends had first joined up with Sesshoumaru to defeat Naraku, Kagome had insisted that she tell the taiyoukai the truth about her origins. He knew exactly what she held in her head, and she had always suspected that it held more than his passing interest. She supposed this was a resounding confirmation of that particular pet theory. "Yes," she said. This had never been the plan, of course, but she was desperate. "What do you want to know? I'm sure I can help you."

He studied her face with unnerving thoroughness. "I do not care about material possessions."

Kagome successfully willed her eyes not to go to the expensive velvet he wore on his shoulders. "I know. But I know what's going to happen to this world for the next four hundred and something years. You're resourceful enough to work that to your advantage. I could tell you what armies will fall and where..."

"You do not know the specifics I require," he interrupted, pulling back. "You have already informed me that I am immortal. I merely need to seek them out and destroy them myself."

"Not everything is immortal," she replied. "What about your lands? I know things about Japan's future that you can't even conceive of. What then? Are you going to leave everything to melt?"

"I will take my chances."

She set her jaw and discarded the remaining concern she felt for herself. "And what about Rin? Have you protected her?"

He froze. Except for the slight rise and fall of his chest, she would have thought he had turned to stone. And then - so fast that she couldn't see it - he whirled and pinned her to the stone wall. She cracked her head against the rocks and gasped, her ears ringing loudly. "Rin is safe under my protection," he growled. The magic spell concealing his demonic features sputtered and failed as his eyes glowed red.

Kagome wrapped her hands around the forearm that held her in place. "Let me go! I'll purify you!" she hissed. "I can do it in a second. Think about how badly it will burn!"

Sesshoumaru pushed away from her with a languid movement that belied the surprise he had felt at her threat. She would have done it - he had seen it in her eyes. She had become fierce in their time apart, and he realized that he might have underestimated her. She was not a child any longer. He reminded himself that she might be one of only five creatures in the world that could kill him. "Rin is safe," he repeated, his voice smooth and calm, as if they hadn't just been at each other's throats.

She was rubbing at her chest, looking small and human once again. "So she's alive," she whispered.

"Of course. She is mated to my most powerful vassal," he replied. "She shares his lifeline."

Kagome looked at him and leaned back against the stone wall. "I didn't know you could do that. So when he dies, she dies? And the other way around? It sounds like a tricky bit of magic."

"It is not perfect," he admitted. "Sometimes, when one mate dies suddenly, the other will linger for some time. But for the most part, yes, that is the way it works."

The miko thought of Inuyasha's mother, who she knew had outlasted her mate for several years. Perhaps Sesshoumaru was thinking of Izayoi too, but she doubted it. "I'm glad she's doing well," Kagome said. She thought of suggesting that Rin had a lifespan like her own, but realized how foolish it sounded in her own head. Rin shared her life with someone - Kagome was entirely alone. "But she can still die."

"Yes."

"I can do my best to prevent it," she offered. She took a deep breath and rubbed at her temples. She was going to have one hell of a headache in the morning.

"Hn."

He seemed to have retreated into his usual stoicism. That wouldn't do, she decided. She needed an answer. "There are things coming that you wouldn't believe," she said. She crossed her arms imperiously as he gave her a dark glance. "I'm just saying that we can help one another. Not just with these monkey demons, either. I think we should stick together and make sure we don't go all Naraku on the world ourselves."

Sesshoumaru scoffed softly. "That will never happen."

"Oh? You're a bit power hungry, you have to admit. And I'm really, really bitter about... well, a lot." She shook her head. "They aren't exactly good traits when you add immortality into the mix."

"You will not be my keeper," he replied.

"I never said that."

"Hn." He relaxed slightly, which really only meant that he wasn't tensed to rip out her throat. "I will consider it."

She blinked. "All that and a concussion, and you're saying you'll think about it?" she asked.

He frowned. "Your insolence does not lend itself to an answer in your favor, miko," he replied. "I will consider it. And even if I do decide that this is a worthwhile endeavor, I may choose to end it at any time."

Kagome sagged, falling back against the stone wall again. "And if you decide not to help me? Are you going to tell me or just let me wait here forever?"

It was difficult to see in the dark alley, but she was certain he was smirking. "It depends on whether I am feeling charitable," he said.

Panic rose in her chest. "You can't! I mean, I can't stay here anymore. I'm a priestess. I'm a genius, compared to these people! I know calculus and it hasn't even been invented yet! I know words Shakespeare hasn't written yet! But here, I'm treated like dirt, just because I have the eyes of a foreigner."

He was silent for a few moments. "It is not your eyes, but your tongue. Learn English. Do you think that I, even with my concealment spells, look British?" he asked. "You have been wasting your time here. You have assumed that your limited knowledge of the future makes you superior to them. You have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps. But in the end, you are still just another human."

She swallowed thickly, and her voice broke. "I'm not though. You need me. We're the only ones that can do this."

"Hn." He turned on his heel and walked down the alley, disappearing into the black.

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Two weeks passed, and Kagome decided to give up the hope that he would come for her. Theresa and Catherine were still moaning that Lord Spenser had not returned to dine again, and the miko refused to pine away like those little ninnies. Instead, she spent every moment of the day either working or listening to the gossiping servants. She was becoming particularly well-versed in insults.

So she was surprised when, as she was hauling water in for boiling the breakfast eggs, Sir Harold's manservant came to the kitchen asking for her. "I am Kagome," she said, with a curtsy, since they had only passed by one another in the halls. The personal attendants never lowered themselves to speaking with the most inferior of the household servants, unless ordered to do so.

"There is a horse waiting for you outside," said the manservant.

All eyes turned to her. Kagome wondered if she had misunderstood. "Horse?"

The manservant tapped his foot. "Sir Harold has released you."

"Gettin' rid of her?" Martha sneered. "Wot's the horse for, then?"

He turned his eyes to her and did a quick appraisal of the kitchen maid. Deeming her worthy of the gossip, he said, "As far as I can tell, Sir Harold received a request from Lord Spenser. He wants the girl so that she may teach him more of her foreign language. He has paid a handsome sum for the trouble." He looked back at Kagome and deposited a few coins into her hand. "There are your wages. Go off. Don't bother the master or mistresses and leave out the back."

Even Martha was struck silent at the announcement. A scullery maid to become a tutor to a lord? It was unheard of. Kagome had to smother her urge to laugh. She put down her pails of water and skipped up the steps to the attic where she shared the room with the three chamber maids. She added the money the manservant gave her to the small pouch that she always kept under her skirts, and then she pulled out the one thing that she kept in her room - the simple, cotton kimono that she had been wearing when she arrived in London. Wrapping it in a spare bit of brown paper and twine, Kagome ran out again, not bothering to look back at her home of almost four months.

The manservant was gone, and the kitchen was abuzz with whispers as she rushed through. "Here's a good-bye and God-bless for you!" huffed Martha.

Kagome ignored her. She opened the kitchen door, ran through the small garden and down the alley to where a large chestnut mare stood. A groom in fine livery was waiting alongside his own dappled filly. His eyebrow arched at the dirty girl that came towards him to bob a curtsy.

"Well, I can tell that you're her," he said. "Come on." He lifted her into the ladies' saddle. "Don't you have anything besides yourself and that bit of nothing?"

She shook her head as she tied her small bundle to the mare's flank.

He frowned as he mounted his own horse. "Don't see why you needed a mount then. It's only a three hour walk. But you'll find our lord has some strange ways about him. Let's go. Haven't got all the time in the world."

Kagome smiled as the horses began to move down the street. "I have," she murmured.

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A/N: That was enjoyable, as I've just finished an extended vacation in London. I'm hoping I got everything accurate, historically speaking. I did try.

Sesshoumaru did quote Shakespeare, by the way (altering only the first word) - "They have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps." It's from Love's Labor's Lost (Act 5, scene 1) and would have been on stage around this period of time for the very first time. The quote is slightly out of context, but the gist is the same. Sesshoumaru is obviously a fan, even if he doesn't come out and say so. Hehe.

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