Chapter 1: The Wound Reopens

She ran. It was the only thing she could think of at the moment, anything to not have to keep looking at it. She reached Kaede's hut to find it empty. Mirouko and Sango having gone to find rumors, Shippo having gone with them, and Kaede must have been helping someone in the village. She sat down and cried, trying to forget the scene she had witnessed. "How could you Inuyasha?" Almost a month had passed since the last incident and it had seemed thing had been getting better, at least until today. She had been coming from the well a day earlier than Inuyasha had said, so as to make him happy. She had sensed Inuyasha in a field nearby the well, so she went to find him. What she found was more horrible than she could imagine. "Of course he would kiss Kikyo instead of me. She is the original, after all, the original is better than the copy." She thought bitterly, her mind continually darkening as sadness, anger, and even jealousy made their way into her head, filling her with feelings of betrayal. "I can't take this anymore, being continually hurt because he can't choose which one he wants. I WON'T take this anymore!" Looking at the Tetsuigia, which Inuyasha had carelessly left behind, the idea from weeks ago came back. The desire for vengeance overrode any reason she had as she snatched it from where it was and she began to leave the hut to find the one person who would do anything for the sword.

"So I give you the sword and you help me find the shards. Is this a deal?" asked Kagome of the figure who stayed in the dark. A minute passed before the figure responded. "Are the jewels not the responsibility of yours and the half-breed? Why are you willing to betray him for the jewels?" "He's found someone more willing to help him," was all Kagome said in response. The figure thought over this for a good five minutes before agreeing to the deal. "However, there is something you will do as we travel." Kagome looking wary to what it was, was about to ask what, but the figure cut her off before she could continue. "You will find out what it is when we reach it. That is all that matters. We will leave before my disgusting half-brother finds us." Said Sesshoumaru, stepping out of the shadows and picking Kagome up with his tail before leaping off the ground. Kagome eeped at the sudden movement, and clutched his tail so as to stay stable. As they flew through the air towards a destination unknown to Kagome, Sesshoumaru asked her a question. "Why do you believe I won't kill you the minute I have the sword?" Kagome, taken off guard by the question, thought for a moment before answering. "Well, I suppose it's because, if you're as much a lord as you say you are, your honor is important to you." "But I am a demon, who is to say I won't betray a human?" Kagome thought over that one, finding she had now answer. Desperate for a response she said the first thing that came to her. "Why are you so curious anyways?" "The answer would mean nothing to you, wench." Mad about being called a wench, Kagome huffed and kept silent the rest of the flight.

Sesshoumaru continued to fly, thinking over the past half-hour. "Why am I doing this? I could just kill the wench, honor or not. What's holding me back?" An image flashed through his head of a little girl. A fear made itself known that if he killed the girl, it would be easy to kill the girl. And no matter how much the thought kept itself at the front of his head, he just couldn't bring himself to do so. "What is so special about that child? Why does she act as if I am simply a person? Does she not realize I am a demon, and will never return her affection?" Thinking back to the times he would say her name and she would act as if he had just given her the world on a plate. Being brought back to the present by the realization that the girl in his tail was asleep, he began to think over her again. "What did my foolish half-brother do so as to make her wish to betray him? She is beautiful even for a human, so it couldn't be over looks." Realizing what the last thought had been, he gave himself a mental slap in the face. "Thinking such things of a human. The child must be making me weak." Disgusted with himself, he stopped thinking about his current situation and simply kept flying.

Arriving at the camp before sunset, he found that Rin had fallen asleep and Jaken was keeping watch. "Lord Sesshoumaru, What are you doi-Whack!" Jaken began before Sesshoumaru whacked him upside the head. "Silence Jaken. Rin is asleep." Sesshoumaru said simply before attempting to remove Kagome from his tail. However, Kagome, when she had fallen asleep, had developed a death grip on his tail, using it as a pillow. Realizing it would be more painful taking her off than just letting her stay, he sat down near Rin while allowing his tail to rest at his side, Kagome entwined in it. He softly pulled Rin into his lap, whom cuddled into his into his chest, whispering his name in her sleep. Lying back against the tree, he looked over at Kagome, still asleep in his tail. Sighing at he mess he had gotten himself into, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to rest.

Arriving at Kaede's hut, Inuyasha stopped for a moment because he thought he could smell Kagome in the hut, before berating himself. "Of course you can smell her, she just left yesterday." Running into Sango first, she told him that there had not been any rumors of Shikon shards in any of the nearby villages. Grunting his confirmation, he grumbled about his luck. Flopping down in front of the fire for dinner. Waiting for his water to boil for the ramen cup that Kagome had bribed him with so that she could go home, Shippo came near enough to smell him. "Ew. Inuyasha, you smell like dead stuff and a bunch of mud. What'd you do, run around a graveyard?" Pissed that Shippo had said that, secretly glad that Kagome wasn't here to hear that, he whacked him over the head to shut him up. "Stupid Fox! There was a weak demon I took care of, cause it was bugging me." He said to the fox that was rubbing his head. Noticing a look from Kaede out of the corner of his eye, he knew she suspected differently. His water boiled, he made his ramen and left the hut, heading off towards the God-Tree. As he ate his ramen, he thought over Kagome, and her connection to Kikyo. "I wonder why the hell that bitch doesn't admit to being a reincarnation of Kikyo. She acts as if it's the most horrible thing that could have happened to her. As is, I continually have to be careful to not call her Kikyo, they smell so alike." Snorting, he tried to think what was wrong with the idea. "True, the Kikyo she knows now is pretty bad, but that shell is only what Kagome does not feel, all the hate Kikyo had from when she was alive. Kagome is everything Kikyo hid away because she was a miko, everything that made me love her." Knowing that he would have to set the shell of his lover to rest, he realized that he would also have to make Kagome realize what she was. Finished with his ramen, he laid back in into his tree, closing his eyes for a nap, one last thought filtering through his head. "Why the hell does my love life have to be so complicated?"

--------------------------------------------------------- -------------Kagome's Dream-Nightmare------------------------------------------------------------ ----

She was standing there watching Inuyasha walking up to me, holding a mirror in his hands. He presented it to me, motioning for me to look in it. Looking in it, I was temporarily stunned. In the mirror, starring back was Kikyo. Dropping the mirror, I looked back at Inuyasha. He pulled me into a hug, moving so as to kiss me. Frozen by the wanting of this, I simply looked back, my heart warmed by the caring in his eyes. Just before the kiss connected, he whispered something that froze my blood. "My beloved Kikyo," Was all that he said. Yet those simple three words had the force of a hammer. She pulled away from Inuyasha, running into the nearby woods, running from the hammer that broke my heart. Running deeper into the woods, the sun being drowned out by the trees, the trees themselves becoming black and distorted, she didn't feel fear, so lost was she in her grief. Finally, she came upon a spring. Se was temporarily pulled out of her grief at the sight of it. All around her were cherry trees in full blossom, and the spring itself was beautiful, a lone Weeping Willow tree in the middle. She sat down on a rock near the lake, putting her face in her hands, allowing her grief to be expressed in this place. However, as she cried, she failed to realize she was being pulled into someone's lap. Only knowing that something soft was in front of her, she cuddled her face into it, still crying, being calmed by words of kindness that she didn't hear, but knew were being said. A hand pet her hair, another rested on her back. When she was calm, she looked up to see who it was, yet when she did the person disappeared. Calling out to the person, a voice whispered, "Find me." As the voice faded, she awoke.

She opened her eyes wide, gasping for breath, stunned as she lay there, covered in something soft and warm. As reason returned to her as she allowed the memories of the dream to fade, she realized what the "Soft and Warm" something she was wrapped in was. Off to the side of her was Sesshoumaru, lying back against the tree, asleep, and she was wrapped up into his tail. Turing a scarlet red, it toke her a moment to realize that something was in Sesshoumaru's lap. "Is that… a girl?" she tried to get a closer look, but her moving around only caused his tail to tighten. Realizing any actions she tried now would be in vain, she settled back down into his tail. "God, his tails softer than silk. I wish my hair was this soft," she thought as she cuddled up, her head resting in the fur, the warmth slowly lulling her into a thankfully dreamless sleep.