InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Requiem of Time ❯ Questions and Concerns ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Yep. It's been a while. Time flies. I have quite a few excellent and (surprisingly) honest reasons for the delay, but I'm too lazy to indulge you with the list. :P I will say this though, moving twice in one month, having no Internet in either of the places, starting college a week and a half late and getting catch-up work, and having a foreign exchange student randomly dumped into my hands for a few weeks really is a pain. The worse part is I wish I was lying... Life would be a lot more cheery if I were. But that's alright, because things are almost fully sorted out, and I hope to be doing weekly updates again. Soon.

To settle any possible concerns, I'm not losing interest in the story. I just don't have as much time to devote to it now, that's all. And getting around any free Internet is also an inconvenience, but I've already covered that base...

In case anyone's interested in a quirk of my personal life (if not, feel more than free to skip ahead to the chapter. :D), I've come up with two more story ideas while moving boxes. Hopefully way, way shorter stories than this monstrosity, but they're kinda bitter-sweet movie-like concepts. I'll probably hold off on posting them until this story is complete. :D

Lastly, I'm sorry for all the late review and PM replies! It's funny, when I have the Internet, I have no time for e-mails, and when I have time, there's no Internet. The funny part about that though is how very not-humorous it is.

... Damn, I can talk... Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and maybe the exaggerated A/N at the end, and as always, I'll have the next chapter out as soon as personally possible. Thanks for your patience!

Chapter 2

Questions and Concerns

The night which followed the wolf pack slaughter was especially cold, despite the thick cloud cover. White snow had been wafting from the darkened heavens, slowly adding itself to the blanket of the shadowed land. A soft howl of lifeless wind made Sango shiver as she lay in her husband's arms.

“Are you alright?”

“Mm,” she answered him softly. “I was just thinking.”

Both of them were whispering, their voices occupying only the space around their heads so as to not disturb the children. Kagome, when she first came back to see them a little over a month ago, had commented on how odd it was that Sango should keep to tradition and sleep with her children as well as her husband. It was quite the expected thing, really, since every family in the village did the same. They were not the wealthiest of people alive, after all.

“About?” Miroku prompted, his arms flexing around her middle as he shifted, pressing his chest to her back more securely. They were both on their left sides, as per usual.

Sango felt a small and warm smile appear on her face. She loved it when he held her close like that. It made her feel like the woman that being a slayer never permitted her to be. She relaxed in his grip, safe and at ease. “Just about Kagome. I'm not entirely sure, but-” Hm, how to say this to a monk... Probably not with full detail. It was not her story to tell, anyway. “-I think she's in love with someone.”

Miroku sighed.

“Not with Inuyasha,” Sango clarified.

He rubbed her forearm absentmindedly, pondering. He was making his thinking hums, his eyes most likely closed and face relaxed, and those low rumbles gave Sango good goose bumps. “Well, if it's been established that he is no longer her target of interest, then I see no problem with her pursuit of men...”

Sango rolled her eyes, but smiled. Miroku... She married him for his overall commitment, loved him for being himself, and got headaches over the perks. It was worth it though. “I know. She's definitely old enough by now. The problem is that I believe the someone in question hurt her, and that she's keeping it all bottled inside.”

“Hm,” Miroku forced. Sango couldn't tell if it was a hum or a brief chuckle. Probably both. “She can keep it to herself. It's normal.”

“Not for women,” Sango stated. “If something's bothering her, she should be able to come out and say it. Even if it's not about men and it's about the slaying. Whatever it is, she should be open about it. Right?”

Kagome had been disturbed when Sango returned with both their payments and a spot-bloody blanket, folded to be a sack. Hiraikotsu, Sango's weapon of choice, had spoken to her before. Long, long ago. She remembered it, and since the first mission of the revived and improved slayer village there was a new tradition. Every fatality on the side of the demons was honored. The other slayers frowned upon it, but Sango, being the village leader, insisted that there would always be a part of the slaughtered 'demon' brought back for a proper death ceremony. Burning pyres.

“I don't know,” was his eventual reply. “Should she?”

Sango was quiet for a second, thoughts cycling with facts and questions. Pieces clicked more securely. “Good answer.”

“... I just repeated the question,” he stated bluntly.

“Hence its brilliance,” Sango supplied, clamping his arms around her waist with her own as she shifted. His mirth vibrated against her back.

“Whatever you say, love,” he laughed minutely. He kissed her cheek and settled his face against her ear for the night. It was his favorite sleeping position.

Sango sighed with him, a final deep breath before the darkness was allowed to swallow them. The night proved to be restless though, and she couldn't sleep. No matter how long she lay there, watching the light of the moon slowly creep across the floor. She was thinking too much. What had happened over the past month? Was Kagome in pain? Was there anything Sango could do to help? Why was she keeping it all inside and not talking about it? And why had Sango been asking these same questions for the last few days and yet still not have answers to any of them? ... Well, she probably had to ask the person who had the answers in the first place, but it wasn't her place to ask...

Sango closed her eyes and listened to Miroku breathe. She knew that Kagome would open up when the time was good for her. Sango had the right to wonder when that would happen though, as 'too late' isn't a good time for anything. She didn't expect to be emotionally needed at all, but she wanted to know if Kagome would like condolence. Sango wanted, and even expected, Kagome to be fine and to stand for herself. ... Hmm... Then again, a woman's heart could be weak at the worse of times, and when it's damaged, other things begin to wear thin, such as relationships. Sango didn't like to watch from the sidelines as Kagome walked that line alone. She at least wanted to know if she could help, or listen, or be an emotional outlet, or beat a certain yÅkai into reconciliation...

“Everything is fine,” Miroku whispered, sounding very tired as his calloused fingers worked gently to unclench Sango's. As well he should be exhausted, it was so late that it was early, and they weren't the youngest people alive anymore. She wondered for a second why he had stirred from his slumber, then noticed that her grip was being loosened from around his other hand. Yeah, that one might have hurt. His high pain tolerance was another point towards marrying him. “Go to sleep, Sango. Least Hiroko steal more of the night than necessary.”

That boy of theirs was like a rooster... ... Worse, actually. A rooster had the decency to wait for dawn...

“Alright,” she breathed. She'd drop the matter, again. Tomorrow was a new day, and Sango had too much on her list to add Kagome to it. She'd do the hardest thing, which was to ignore the possible problem and wait to see if it even existed, which it probably didn't, despite the fact that Kagome returned alone and weary and sad and...

Alright, now she was dropping it...

...

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

Inuyasha was pretty sure that something was up, and he didn't need his nose to figure that one out. Not entirely, that is. Kagome, returning in her condition after so long and bearing the scent of his wretched half brother, was still sad, and all of that added together wasn't too promising, either. What made it worse was that the woman was silent as a grave marker on the issues in life. Inuyasha knew that, whatever they happened to be, the problem still existed and persisted, no matter how many feet down she tried to bury it. Kagome acted happy and normal, but she was a horrible liar, and that was one of the good things about her.

“Spill it,” he pressed for, quite possibly, the hundredth time. That was a lot of questioning for four days, even he had to admit that. He had been sitting for the last butt-numbing twenty minutes on the floor to watch her, and now stood nearby in the room she occupied yet didn't use. It was a guest bedroom. Sleep was to be had here. Not... this... Oye, females... Seriously, Inuyasha was still wondering how she survived any sort of encounter with Sesshomaru.

“You know I won't,” Kagome replied a tad sharply, on her knees and packing her grotesquely huge bag at that ungodly hour of the morning. This woman slept less of late, especially if there was work to be done. Her stress level was fluxing up and down and doing laps around her head, and slowly accumulating speed with every hour. Inuyasha didn't like that, and what's worse was he knew that Sesshomaru had set some sort of fire at the feet of her reality. A frantically dancing Kagome resulted in a frequently sat hanyÅ... There, that was the extent to which Inuyasha's 'mathematical comprehension' extended, whatever that was. Kagome had attempted -and failed miserably- to explain 'math' to him. Come on, she was telling him that there were sticks named One, Two, and Three, and when she took Two away she asked how many remained. How could the answer 'One and Three' ever be wrong?

Great, now his head hurt. Time to change the topic.

“Here, let me help,” Inuyasha stated, bumping her shoulder with his so he could get her out of the way, allowing him to lean over the bag in her stead.

“I got it, thanks,” Kagome replied, emphasizing her words with the mimic of his gesture.

“You go to sleep,” he ordered, doing it twice this time. “You're exhausted, you idiot. You can't wear yourself out until you're useless, you know.” There was an unexpected noise, and Inuyasha blinked and twitched his ears to catch the sound better. It was the same no matter the angle of his hearing. “... You're laughing?”

“Yes,” Kagome replied simply with a straight face, now just shoving him and relocating her backpack for further stuffing, away some distance. “Because you're an idiot, not me. I'm almost done, this is better than laying around and doing nothing.”

“That would be the point of going to sleep,” Inuyasha scoffed. She was difficult. How could Sesshomaru's scent even rub off onto her without her presence granting a death sentence? “Fine. Whatever. You've changed in every other way, why not night time stamina, too?”

Kagome sighed, a long and overused sound, jamming a piece of clothing into the bag with too much nonchalant effort. “I'm sorry.”

That was it. Inuyasha's arms flung up into the air on their own, and his feet decided to begin making some big circles over the floor.

“What?” she demanded.

“You!” he yelled, pacing and crossing his arms to keep from waving them with emphasis over nothing. There really was no other way to phrase it, and he gave up on resistance and pointed his finger at her for emphasis. “You, you, you!”

She quirked her eyebrow at him. “This really doesn't help your level of idiocy...”

“Keh!” he scoffed again, crossing his arms tight enough to make the sleeves bunch closer to his elbows. They weren't getting away again.

Glancing over, he saw that Kagome had gotten an almost evil little smile on her face. He hated when that vindictive smirk appeared, it was simply horrible, and sometimes horrifying. “Aw, wittle Inu-washa is worried fo' wittle ol' me?”

“...” He studied her, but no fluffy fox tail ever appeared. This was the actual Kagome, talking in a tongue no ears should ever have to suffer. “And you call me the idiot?”

She laughed it off. “Is something on your mind?”

“Of course,” he informed her. “It's on everyone's minds.”

“Really?” Kagome asked. “And that would be?”

Inuyasha contemplated the ceiling while scratching his head. It was a good thinking/'why-me-kami-why position. “You know what it is. Everyone wants to know what's on your mind.”

He watched as Kagome's face fell into its familiar sag.

“And don't you dare say it's none of my business, or that nothing's wrong. ... Or that you'll sit me!” he barked at her. “It's about time you let us know whether or not we should know! At least!”

She frowned at the nearby wall, and then decided to turn the annoyed and confounded expression onto him. “Then 'no', you shouldn't know.”

He blinked. “That's not what I meant!”

“What?The only answer you'll accept is me wanting everyone to know something?!” she demanded loudly.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and continued before she did sit him. “Why did you smell like Sesshomaru when you came back?? That's all I care about, so spill it!”

...

... That was a reaction for the books... Inuyasha had never before seen her go from blushing to embarrassed to angry and then him from vertical to horizontal so quickly. He was still left to think about her expressions as he learned first hand what the flavor of the floor was, not that he didn't bitch about it, of course. Being sat felt like having the icy hand of dread knot into your haori and yank down while the thirteen ton boulder of unrighteous punishment dropped. And she still wondered why he yelped some undignified noise every time she sat him... HE should give HER a collar for a day...

“I'm almost done, then I'm going to bed!” Kagome yelled, angry for no reason at all. “I'll see you in a week, Inuyasha! Good night!”

“I'm not-”

“SIT BOY!!”

... Fine... He'd let her finish packing, step over his reduced form, and go to bed. Yes, he'd let her do that, and then later -way later- he'd ask her that question again before she left. He wanted answers, after all.

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

Shippo was very, extremely, undeniably, gloriously, delightedly, fan-freakin'-tastic. And let's not forget, ecstatic. There was one tiny flaw in his good morning, and that was Kagome's inability to wake up when he wanted her to.

“KAgOmE!” he yelled, marching up and down the unused edges of her blanket, still getting used to the feeling of the daggers on his hips. He had ample growing to do. They jostled, the leather sheathes tapping dully at the blade tips against one another through his tail, and it was annoying. They were also huge compared to him. “WAKE! UP! NOW! PLEASE!”

“MmMMmnnnnnn...” came a growl from under the blankets, a black hairball turning ninety degrees under the blanket as she rolled from her back to her side.

His reply to that was jumping around, then nudging her hip with his foot. “Come on, wake up!” She shifted, and he smiled. “Up up UP!”

There were lazy and nigh incoherent noises, and they meant 'what time is it'.

“It's midday already!” he lied. He was a fox, he was permitted a lie or several...

Kagome shot out of bed so quickly that he was surprised he was left standing. Shippo stared at her as she sat there, blankets bunched in her lap as she stared with wonder at the dark room.

“... You look horrible,” he admitted. And she did. She wasn't a morning person... And she needed her hair brush like a fish needed water. What the hell did she do? Invite a pine tree over for some intimacy? Maybe this was a side effect of hers to troubled sleep, or an emotion fried brain?

He was given quite the glare then, the expression only more deadly for its grayed outlines. “Leave before I beat you like the naughty brat you are...”

He grinned. Kagome was nice, but didn't act like it in the morning. Even to him. “Aw, you don't mean that.”

In a blink there was a sudden sensation of flying, and Shippo stared at nothing with wonder when he fell from midair, landed on his rump, and had the door closed behind him... Did he do that? Why was he outside the room? And why did the scruff of his neck tingle?

“What was that!” he yelled through the door.

“GO to SLEEP!” was his response.

He scratched at the wood with his little nails, which stayed in one place and wouldn't open for some odd reason. He also felt spiritual energy nearby. “Not until you tell me what it was!”

Continuing at that pace, Shippo had Kagome up and out of bed by dawn, and he was very proud of himself for that.

“You're awake?”

“No, I'm asleep,” Kagome answered Sango sarcastically, sitting on her knees at the table and flopping her upper body over it. Shippo became alarmed that his work would be ruined, and he walked over to shake her shoulders should the need arise. He got growled at.

“Kagome, why don't you go back to bed?” Sango asked. Shippo waved his hands at the woman. What was she THINKING?? He and Kagome needed to leave now if they had any desire to get to TÅtÅsai's by midday! Women! ACK!

“Good idea,” Kagome replied. “Just tie Shippo to a rock some few miles away from here, and I'll get right to it...”

“I can scream,” Shippo supplied.

“I got duct tape,” Kagome stated.

“You lie, I can smell it.”

“I can improvise...”

... Alright, she wasn't lying on that account... “Come on, Kagome! Let's grab that dragon and go! Rin will be up soon anyway, and then we'll never get out of here!”

Sango giggled, which sounded a little strained with how Hiroko's bindings dug into her chest. That pudgy, sticky toddler was now asleep and drooling all over Sango, slung safely against her back with a looped and tied sash. Shippo found the kid to be very annoying, more so than the twins, and those girls could be mean. Speaking of, they'd be awake soon, too.

...

“Oh, it's FREEZING!!” Kagome cried when they went outside. Yes, Shippo was quite the persuasive one when it came to being threatened with pudgy-fingered torture.

“Is it?” Shippo asked, the winter wind tugging at his little hooded cloak. He always was reminded of those hanyÅ kids from the island of the four gods whenever he wore that cloak his foster mom made for him... He was as tall now as the shortest one there had been. Anyway, he wasn't that cold, though he did have his energy coursing through him doubly fast to make up for the weather. Shippo wasn't very strong yet, but he was strong enough to regulate his temperature and sharpen his sense of smell, both at the same time. In a few more years, if he trained a whole lot, he'd be able to mingle his energy safely with his spirit, and that would extend his life like every other powerful yÅkai's and allow him to transform into his true great spirit animal self. Maybe after that, he'd learn to manipulate things with his energy -since Kagome of all people apparently could- but being a fox his first priority was life extension. What thief would want to wait and develop everything else if it meant giving up the innocence of youth? Every day could be stretched out into five years, so every day he wasted was a huge sacrifice to his time. Not that he thought about it much, it escaped his mind pretty easily. Shippo was too young to think about being old every day.

“Yes, it is!” Kagome whimpered, her teeth chattering loudly as she doubled over. He didn't know if her new position was to concentrate heat or to balance the backpack while in the tall snow, but either way she looked ridiculous. “Can't you go see TÅtÅsai in the summer?”

Shippo was actually scared by such a thought. What was she thinking?? “No! I can't go back to my family until I get this done!”

Kagome looked surprised for a moment, then that weird 'I'm a female so I get to make this face' expression popped up. It was a warm smile, but it was too friendly to be good for him.

“Stop it.”

“Stop what?” she had the audacity to ask.

He felt his face pucker sourly at her sarcasm. “You know what!”

She giggled, then shooed him for Ah-Un in voiced fear of the freshly adorned saddle freezing.

“You know the way?”

“Yes, Inuyasha,” Kagome assured him with ample exasperation, which led to a mild argument between them. Shippo was glad that she wasn't emotionally hung up on that dog anymore. If she was going to go for dogs, then she might as well go for the pick of the litter; which, as Shippo noted some time ago, she was. And good for her. Kagome had the looks, personality, intelligence, strength, dignity, honor, presence... Everything, save for some mannerism. Shippo was sure that many yÅkai men she met would become another Koga if they had the wits and sense of mind to see a lonely female and not a human. Hell, if Shippo was old enough to think women were pretty rather than annoying, he had to admit he'd probably be interested too. He knew Kagome's bad side though, and it was UGLY. Sesshomaru... Sesshomaru must have been hit pretty hard in the head to ever consider tolerance over termination in regards to Kagome.

The minor verbal quarrel ended with a 'splut' as Inuyasha was smashed by some invisible force into the snow, and Ah-Un had his normal takeoff. They were finally in the air, and it was fun to sit in the gap between the dragon's two necks. Ah-Un didn't mind it either, so long as Shippo kept his heels to himself. It was hard to not swing his feet for entertainment when the only other thing to do was listen to whispered bitching and the chatter of pearly teeth.

“It's colder up here,” Kagome commented, not even three minutes off the ground.

“You're a wimp,” he scoffed at her playfully.

Scolding, griping, lecturing, and over dramatic mothering ensued. All of it. For the next ten minutes, everything between 'it's bad to steal someone's cherished work' to 'respect your elders, not that I'm that old' was poured over his sensitive hearing. Even Ah-Un didn't enjoy it. Shippo's replies to those two in particular were 'it'll motivate him to do better' and 'yes, you are'.

“You're such a little brat,” she snipped a little playfully after he affirmed her age.

“And you whine too much,” Shippo commented. The teeth finally stopped their chattering, and so he continued before she could scold him some more. “Sesshomaru's not going to like that if you keep it up...”

Dead silence.

It was glorious.

“I-”

“I can smell it. Don't lie.”

Kagome was quiet again. “... I hate yÅkai...”

Shippo's face stretched into a wide grin, and he tilt back his head to look at the sky, then further to look at her. “Except for two.”

She actually blushed. “You can, really smell that?”

... Yeah, he just said he could... Humans were odd. “U-huh.” He looked forward again. The sun was just now cresting over the slope of a mountain like a kid peeking from behind a rock. It reminded Shippo of his new siblings, and how they loved to play 'grab that huge tail'. One guess at the rules of that game...

He heard Kagome give a 'humph'. “I see you've developed your senses since I was last here, since you're using them against me so much.”

“Of course,” he replied cheekily. “Embarrassing humans is another thing foxes love to do.”

He got smacked on top of the head, and even though it really didn't hurt a bit he still threw a big fuss over it. Mostly because she shouldn't be hitting him. He looked up to her after all, and it was still painful to be scolded so harshly by people he respected.

“So,” Kagome began after their brief bickering subsided. He swore he had a bump, now that he was rubbing his head to find it. “Does Inuyasha know?”

“Are you kidding?” Shippo asked. “I don't think he even knew that Kikyo was dead all that time... Maybe his mom dropped him on his face as a baby. His sense of smell is horrible...”

Despite the tone of the conversation, Kagome managed a giggle. Good. Shippo didn't like talking about things that made her sad. Kagome was a happy person, and she deserved to be happy, but for some reason she was great at finding something to always be depressed or traumatized about...

“So, why Sesshomaru?” Shippo asked. It had been bugging him all week, it was about time he got some answers. “I mean, sure, he's strong and handsome and has enough status to choke the whole human royalty system of Japan, but come on... He's your total opposite, emotionally, at least. What's the point? Why aren't one of you dead yet?”

...

“Opposites attract,” Kagome stated mirthlessly. She sounded like she was quoting something, but what it was Shippo couldn't say.

“What does that mean?”

She sighed. “I'll put you through school in five hundred years, then you can figure it out.”

“No, thanks,” he replied with a scowl. “I don't want homework. It looks horrible.”

She giggled again, and they were quiet for a few minutes. She was thinking. “I really don't know what it is between us... We just don't mind each other. Maybe we're both just insane, I don't know. Or it's a mutual and desperate need for misery, that works too.”

He felt his ears actually perk. “Wait, both of you??” She was quiet, so he jerked himself off his rump to kneel staring at her. “BOTH of you??”

She was mortified, and glanced away from him. Shippo swore his heart actually stopped, but apparently his body was delighted by such a thing because he had a huge, open mouthed smile stretched across his face.

“Oh get over it,” she mumbled quickly.

“No!” he laughed, sitting on his haunches to keep on staring. This was either THE most funny thing on earth, or a quirky miracle in the flesh. “BOTH of you?!”

She sucked in her lips, and nodded once. Then she glanced at his bewildered and elated expression and slapped both palms over her face for the next few minutes.

“That's so weird!” he yelled, which was the initiation of a very long tangent depicting all the things that this news was. It was odd, strange, foreign, unnatural, bizarre, but for some reason, it was also good, and that was the funny part. “And it doesn't make sense! I mean, you're not emotionally stable at all and Sesshomaru can use his feels as bricks to build something on the foundation of his sturdy self-control!”

Hehe, he felt good now. That was one of his better sentences in life.

“Okay, you can stop now!” she yelled from behind her hands. He was openly laughing, and he still didn't really know what for.

“YOU and SESSHOMARU!!” he cackled, holding his middle. “That's like the sun and moon getting together!”

Kagome finally revealed her face, and it was so very red that it looked like her hands had just been removed from a suction grip. “Shippo, this isn't funny!”

That statement only made it better... His sides were going to rip, and he was going to fall off, and he was going to be laughing so hard on the way down that he would not be able to transform into a sparrow no matter how much his life would depend on it...

“I know, it's weird!” she yelled at him, sounding a tad frantic with the situation now. “But he came on to me! I was the innocent bystander!”

... It was astounding how quickly the mirth vanished. “... What?” What? What? What?? “What?”

She was blushing all over again. “He... ... He wants... ... He wants to be... He wants me to be his m-... m-m-m-... ... ... ...”

“... Mate?” Shippo offered.

She slapped her face into her hands again.

“... Kagome, are you drunk?” She had to be. She wasn't lying, so that meant she had to think that she was telling the truth, but... That simply couldn't be the truth... “Maybe you'd be a part of his harem, but his mate? How did you think that one up?”

“NO I'm not DRUNK you little BRAT!” she yelled at him, completely humiliated. “Oh, kami, he actually said... AAAGH!! He said...” She was so red right now, and for some reason, angry. “UGH!! He's a fucking MORON!!”

“... He said that?” Shippo asked, a little surprised. She wasn't lying on that note, either.

“He should,” she growled with a gurgling tone against the heels of her hands, glaring at sky overhead. “Kami, I don't know how to feel about this! I'm just so... GAAAH!!”

Shippo blinked. He hadn't seen Kagome off the handle like this in a long time. “Um... You're mad?”

“Yes!” she yelled at nothing. She looked ready to cry now. Women were confusing... “He wants me to be his mate, but I can't be without feeling horrible about it! And then there's all that to think about, and... And I really shouldn't be talking about this!!”

Shippo was quiet, but mostly because he was trying to sort out the overload of odorous messages he was receiving. He finally got a few to line up and make sense though. “Was he bad?”

“We didn't get that intimate!” she snapped.

... WAY too much information... She just admitted being intimate with Sesshomaru to some slight degree...

“... No, did he do something bad?”

“Oh...” was her recovery, blinking and becoming more sane. “Yes, Shippo. He was a very bad boy, and Kagome needs to punish him for it.”

Shippo grinned. “No sex for him, then?”

It was simply priceless to see Kagome's expression. “... ... Ah-? SHIPPO!!”

He laughed at her, and although she was annoyed for quite a long time her curiosity eventually overruled.

“So...” she began, seeming to look for the right words. “Um. What did you mean by 'his harem'?”

Shippo, currently sitting back against a scaly neck with his arms behind his head and his knees crossed, watched his foot wiggle. “Give me a break, I'm just a kid. You want me to explain adult stuff?”

She blushed. “You already knew the word, and you already know the information, so just relay it before you're left to fly the rest of the way by yourself.”

He smirked. Shippo actually liked her better this way. It was far better than being seen for the first time and hearing her say “It's a fox! It talks? ... Cool!”. How lame could you get? “Yeah. A harem. As in a lot of females gathered for his pleasure alone. I'll have one some day, just you wait and see.”

Kagome rolled her eyes at him, but didn't say anything about it. “So... He mates them?”

Shippo frowned. “Of course not. They're just there in case his mate says 'no'.”

Kagome looked humored. “Can they have kids?”

“Yep,” Shippo replied. “A lot of kids. Too many. They all become servants though.”

Now she just looked startled, and now that he thought about it, Sesshomaru and kids didn't really seem to go together.

Shippo perked up. Her scent changed... ...

...

... ... Oh, that's what it meant... “Did you see him with a girl?”

Kagome's sudden bodily jostle was answer enough. “Um. ... Yeah. I did.”

And that was the problem. Well, that was easy. “If you were jealous, then you're pathetic.”

The miko's anger flared, almost enough to singe his toes.

“He's allowed to have women!” Shippo protested. “It can't be that bad! Did you see him with ten of them or something?”

She blinked. “... No. One.”

He stared. “Wow... You're territorial...”

She looked utterly baffled. “W-... What?”

“No, no, that's good,” Shippo assured her. “Let him know who's boss of sex, that's the way nature works, good job.”

She was blushing for the rest of the way to the YÅkai blacksmith's, and it was quite entertaining. She had things to think about though, or at least acted like she did, and Shippo spent the remainder of their flight pondering over this predicament of hers. He couldn't help her, but he could at least make an effort to understand her.

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

Sheng came to the unfortunate conclusion that Sesshomaru was losing his mind. In a very lordly, discreet sense, if you would, but that just meant that Sesshomaru refused to admit it.

So, as an appropriate countermeasure and a guarantee to not be dismissed from service, Sheng worked out some minor little details which would attend to themselves, and packed his things to leave until his wise yet very young lord figured out his mating situation. From what he gathered about Kagome, it looked as though spring whelping was out of the question for those two, so a trip to tropical Tahiti was in the plans.

Plans change though... Abruptly, and not at the hands of those who crafted them in the first place. Well, not directly in their hands. In fact, this alteration was the expected result of having worked out those 'minor' details. Sheng just figured it would take longer than all of ten minutes for Sesshomaru to discover.

“Sheng,” the dangerous and romantically disrupt man began, rounding the corner which Sheng had been approaching. He tried to turn on his heel and go for his room, but that would just be childish...

“I do not wish to speak with you,” Sheng stated instead. Yes. That was less childish.

Sesshomaru was giving one of those smiles which sent Jaken running for the hills. Sheng just felt his toes tingle. He could beat Sesshomaru into submission if he ever wished to. It would just require a lot of time and blood, and he didn't feel like loosing either of those, thank you very much.

“You should know that what you want shies from acknowledgment compared to what this Sesshomaru wants,” the lord stated icily, sounding calm yet stern, that positively vindictive smile still on his face. This wasn't going to work out too smoothly...

“Indeed,” Sheng agreed, licking his lips and lifting his left hand, a habit of his for when he was going to begin something tricky. “I acknowledge that your being acknowledged in what you want comes before the wanting of my even being and wanting acknowledgment, however, should you be acknowledging my wanting acknowledgment then the wants would not be being.”

Oh, how many meanings a few blinks had. One happened to be confusion. Sesshomaru usually wasn't taught up in such statements, though Sheng had the elements of personal sanity and elaborate nonsense on his side. For a short while. A very, very short while.

“Now then, your mother knows more of this than I, so I'll leave things in her hands.”

Sheng was almost certain that he was going to get away with this. A fist knotted in the back of his collar though.

Damn.

“Not quite,” Sesshomaru began. “This Sesshomaru is not convinced that the message has gotten across.”

Sheng couldn't resist. “Would you like that I reiterate?”

A glance over his shoulder told him 'no'. Even in a random hallway, with Sheng armed with his own fur -a thing he hated wearing- and various ceramic jugs of sake strung over a shoulder, Sesshomaru still had the upper hand when it came to 'I'm a far scarier being than your humor will ever allow you to be' presence.

“That message would be my inquiry of why all official business has been shifted from my line of servants to yours without my direct permission and approval. It seems that you have overstepped the boundaries of your position, counselor.”

Sheng's fingers rhythmically flexed over the sake strings like the hem of a flamenco dancer's colorful dress. That was the only sign of his uncertainty. “Ah. Well, that is easy to explain. See, the council had a vote, and we all agreed that minor matters would be bettered handled by others until the major matter was settled.

That was indeed putting it gently. It was taken with a few pounds of salt though, as Sesshomaru's bitter expression revealed.

“Sesshy, are you picking fights with friends again?”

It was a saint from the heavens! Sheng had to admit, Li Hua had her perks, and this was an excellent one. Making her son mad.

Sesshomaru's anger was immediately and fully shifted to his mother, and that was Sheng's queue to 'slip away'. As in, in a flash and immediate and quickly as possibly fathomable. And he did.

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

Although Kagome had been glad to see TÅtÅsai and Myoga again, it was sadly too much to ask of them to be ecstatic to see her. To them, it must have felt like a week since they'd last seen one another, and for her, that was depressing.

Sitting on a slight slope, where the snow had given way to the hot ground of TÅtÅsai's home, she sighed and stared almost longingly at the mountain range, which was a light gray for its distance and for the low clouds today. They were surprisingly close to the ocean now, and the moisture kicked up by playful waves had a way of gathering to explore the land.

She sighed again. White and gray, cold, and all out of reach. How appropriate for her...

There was a pinch on the side of her neck, but she remained hugging her knees.

“I see something is troubling you?” asked Myoga, bouncing off her skin to stand on her forearm and face her.

“I'm fine,” she replied, taking another deep breath.

The old flea frowned at her. “I may be a bug, and I may be a man, but I know when something is troubling a fair lady.”

Kagome glanced down and to the left at him, moving only her eyes. She would have offered a smile, but her mouth was hidden by her folded arms. She was huddled in on herself, slightly, and her excuse was the random gusts of cold wind.

“Hm. Even if there was, I wouldn't want to talk about it,” she informed. “Is Shippo still bothering TÅtÅsai to end the winter vacation and get cracking on the daggers?”

“Yes. It's a madhouse in there,” Myoga informed, his lower arms crossed while the upper ones scratched his balding scalp.

“Hey, Myoga?”

“Yes?”

“How can you talk when you don't have a tongue or lips?”

There was a moment of silence.

“Kagome!” came an all too familiar whine.

“Fight your own battles!” she yelled over her shoulder. Shippo stopped in mid run for her, and then huffed and turned back inside to batter with the old blacksmith. She turned to face forward again, and Myoga was looking up at her with absolute shock. “What?”

“That was not like you at all!” Myoga exclaimed, shocked and bewildered.

“Humans change, remember?” she asked.

“Yes, but never so dramatically,” he stated. “Are you sure you have nothing to talk about? If you'd like, I'll never utter a word of it and just sit to listen.”

“In other words, you'll fall asleep with your eyes open?” she jested.

“I am NOT that mean!” he defended himself, offended.

She hummed, a little happy yet still melancholy. She felt fine, but she knew that others saw a change.

Myoga sat and waited patiently, nestled rather comfortably in a crease of her sleeve. He had spent a little time shifting the fabrics to make it almost like an arm chair, and now he was relaxed and puffing at a very small pipe he kept in that travel bag of his. It was one of his simple pleasures in life, and the random whiffs of sweet cigar tobacco caught her attention every now and then. If it was a whole cigar, Kagome would have left by now and let him be. She normally couldn't stand the smell of it, but a little was fine.

“I've been accused of being in love with someone,” she commented randomly.

“A curse of youth, I assure you,” was Myoga's response.

She smiled. “I guess.”

She was ready to go silent again, but Myoga wouldn't let the beginning hang over his head. “How did you meet?”

Kagome thought, and was humored. “He showed up on my doorstep one day...” Memories of them seething at one another after she dragged him through the barrier of her home flooded in, making her delay. “... And he needed a place to stay.”

“Ah, so this happened in your time?”

That would be a good way to throw off the scent. “Yeah. In the future,” she affirmed.

“Is that why you are here now?” he asked, little rings of smoke puffing from his beak, growing, and fading away.

“Not necessarily,” Kagome answered. “I came because I had questions. And they've been answered.”

“So then you are going home soon?” Myoga asked.

“... Maybe.” She had thought about it. A lot. She could go home, and she could live with the facts she had before more questions arose. But... ... She didn't want to. “I still have one more question I need to ask someone. Then I can go home, or stay here.”

Myoga nodded. The story telling shifted to why she had stayed away for so long, and from there they found entertainment in one another's company.

The sun was setting by the time Shippo convinced TÅtÅsai to take on the project of altering the weapons. They were invited to stay the night so as to avoid traveling in the dark, but Shippo protested too much to not be heeded. So Kagome bid TÅtÅsai farewell, made a comment of their next encounter being better, and was surprised that Myoga chose to go with them.

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

Time either flew by or crawled on its belly, and everyone knew that it went by just as slowly as you wished it to go quickly, and vice versa.

Five more days. Five more dreary and uneventful days, and he could see her again. Sesshomaru didn't know what he was thinking with having said he'd come see her in a month. He should have said a week! And if he had, then his desire for her mere presence would have been sated by now.

“Sesshomaru, sit down before you wear through the tatami mats,” his mother scolded him. “The tea is getting cold.”

The woman lied through her teeth. The teapot was suspended over a candle, there was no possible chance of it getting cold. He sighed though when he stopped, and the lack of movement made Tenseiga's rattling all the more evident.

“Growling at nothing is not becoming of a lord,” she commented, nibbling on her cookies.

“Such is excusable, considering the fact that this Sesshomaru has not been permitted to be lord, should the council be heeded,” he bit back. That little issue Sheng had left him to ponder over had happened a while ago, and it only gave Sesshomaru another reason to lose sleep at night.

“Your authority will be reinstated in six days,” was her reply. “Depending, of course.”

It was painfully obvious what the dependent variable was.

He turned away quickly enough to make his hair swing, and walked.

“Where are you going?” the question followed him.

“Wherever I so please.”

'Wherever he so pleased' happened to be his room. He'd spent a lot of time there in the last-... Well, the last four years, but a significant amount in the last nine days, and his scent was beginning to hang thickly in the air. It was accompanied by the odors of frustration and impatience. It wasn't healthy for him to stay there. His instincts were screaming that he travel the lands, affirm their belonging to him, and then go woo the woman he sought. Of course, she probably wouldn't like to be courted again so soon, but that was one of the merry little challenges he looked forward to...

There was, however, one tiny obstacle -other than Kagome's stubbornness- in his way of continuing on with life. As degrading as it was, the great Lord of the Central Domain was grounded to the o-shiro by his insufferable mother, which didn't seem possible, but the woman had her ways. Such as calling back Jaken from his second round of soldier camp checkups.

The room's scent spiked even higher with frustration and impatience...

It took too much energy to be mad all the time, no matter how good of a job he was doing. It was only midday, and his mind was ladened with life's ordeals to the point that they also dragged at his body. Sometimes he didn't even want to get out from under the covers in the morning unless there was a damn good reason to. Such as food. Sheng had commented in passing not too long ago that Sesshomaru's appetite would grow outrageously, even more than it had in the last four years. It had something to do with women and the mating process, even though the latter was still only a vague possibility. Sesshomaru didn't know how that one worked, but the old man had his point proven.

Feeling extremely lazy and ready to wait for the day to fade to night, Sesshomaru surrendered himself to the force of gravity and flopped onto his bed, his mood too heavy to permit him a bounce in the landing. He recalled of that oddly padded bed he had used in the future. It was nice. If he could convince one of those to fold and be stuffed down the well, he'd do it. Now that he thought about it, one of the best aspects of that bed was it held traces of Kagome's scent, though he had found it a tad annoying the night he used it.

Hm... Her scent... He was definitely losing it.

Sesshomaru rubbed at his face with a now well practiced hand, trying to wipe away the thought of gathering the miko into his arms and breathing in her smell until even the surrounding odors were blotted out by her very existence. Kami, he was becoming pathetic. What was he to do though? There was no sword to seek and obtain, no child to take care of, no territory to conquer, no obligations to fulfill -thanks to a particular old bastard and his band of elder advisors-... Sesshomaru's job was just to exist right now, and it grated at his very soul.

His throat was beginning to sting for how frequently he'd been growling for the last week. His mood swings have been so bad that servants would prepare rooms with food and drink to satisfy a starving man before he'd even enter them, just to avoid his glare.

He rubbed his face again, failing to clear his mind of her. Too long... It's been far too long. They had been making such great progress, too, and what did he do? He screwed up, that's what he did. That grated at him even more than merely existing!

And now his throat hurt again. Was this one of those things men blamed women for? Minor insanity?

He wanted to be with her though. He wanted to know she was safe, and happy, and healthy. He wanted to hear her voice, no matter its tone, and he wanted to see her smile. He longed for her touch, for the feel of her, and sometimes his brief dreams would be so vivid that he'd wake up with the taste of her on his tongue. It was splendid, and he usually would roll over to try and start where it had left off.

Hm... Now that she was out of the reach of his self-indulgence, he had a lot of time to think about such things. He made several mental lists of what he enjoyed about that miko who had served only as a vice in his life mere years ago, and the features he thought of were present in at least every fourth female he's ever seen. He had thought he was insane for liking such commonplace things about Kagome, but now that he's come to terms with his emotions, he could admit that they were, indeed, general and weren't special at all. Such as her narrow hands, her glowing skin, certain curves of her body, the little freckles speckling her sparcely. They were very general. Normal. They were special though because they came from someone special to him, and they only had meaning because she gave them meaning. So, yes, everyone possessed what he loved about her. Such as, everyone has a distinguishing smell, but hers calmed him and stayed in the recesses of his mind for endearing spans of time. Everyone had a sense of humor, but hers always made him smile. Everyone could argue, but the seductively sarcastic tone which entered her voice when they bantered was unique and charming; in an annoying sort of way.

Then there were pleasant side effects. Such as good dreams. He loved dreaming. Also, she helped his mind whittle away at the time for many boring meetings and when he had absolutely nothing to do. Sometimes she even invaded if he needed a little bit of humor. He found himself having conversations with her without need of her presence, and it was on such occasions that his mother suggested he take the rest of the day off and cool his head. She didn't like her son smiling at nothing in particular. It usually meant that someone or something was about to die, if one based current reasoning off the past... Sesshomaru also found life to be full of interesting little details. He noticed these in people, nature, architecture, food... He was definitely hungry now. To continue, whatever was presented to him, he automatically compared it to Kagome or to something Kagome had shown him. She gave more volume and value to the little things in life, and that was what made the individual days distinguishable.

Sesshomaru had never met a woman before who could highlight the most minor things in life. It was when being around her that he actually felt alive. There were always stronger emotions, stronger sensations when she was near. He made memories worth recalling when she was within his sight, and everything would become so important and detailed that he was shocked that his senses never went into overload.

That's why he loved her.

Now he scrubbed his face with both hands. It was still odd to admit it, and this sudden infatuation and plague of sentimental feelings was irritating. He'd never wanted, or daresay needed, someone to be with him so badly before. It made him feel a little like a stalker, though that was impossible for his title. For him, being a lord as it were, it would be more like 'investment of a great deal of time and interest', not 'stalking'. Though the general principle was the same... And the next male to come along and become interested in Kagome was the next male to die in the world.

He sighed, imagining her giving a quizzical look over that last thought process of his, her blue eyes sparkling with the right corner of her mouth slightly pitched with humor and everything. Sesshomaru was tired of thinking these things over and over again. He was even repeating whole sentences of late. Then, for variety, he'd think of something else he loved about her. Her cleverness, her eyes, her giggle, the feel of her hair, the way she blushed around him, the manner in which she handled and quite possibly controlled others, that wild range of moods, how she gave off that splendid and fascinating scent whenever he wooed her... There were just too many things about her. Good, some of them. There were bad things, of course, but they all faded in comparison to the woman she was as a whole.

His fingers twitched, and he swore that for a second her hand had been in his. He was sure that he was slowly losing his grasp of some levels of reality. No one should ever be so enthralled with someone. Then again, what else should he expect? That's what she did to him. She was just herself, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Side effects included.

By the time he stopped thinking about her long enough to consider rolling to his side the sun was setting. Maybe he'd manage to get some sleep this time. After all, he didn't want to look like a ragged mutt when he saw her again.

... Yes. He was losing it. Maybe he'd get it back again some day...

A/N: So, I've gotten a lot of comments about the title. Truth be told, I wanted to call it something else relating to a season (Autumn and Summer being the ones remaining), and in further truth, I really didn't want to involve either of those seasons after actually thinking about it. Why? Because A: there would be a very good excuse for all of you to pester me for a fourth story to follow this one if I did, and B: this part is going to cover more than just one season they share together... ;)

Aside from that, in general, people have more common comments/complaints/demands/questions from many chapters, and I'm going to generalize them and supply responses for the masses.

1: Shippo steals? -gasp- The nerve! Kagome should scold him and tell him to never do it again!

Well, come on. What, exactly, are all foxes (real and demon) notorious for? ... Well, in case you don't know, it's theft. They steal everything. All of it. Even your sanity if they can. :P I don't think Shippo would be accepted immediately into his own community either if he started returning items and apologizing for his outrageous actions. He's a fox, not a human, and therefore is not bound to human laws of moral and religious acknowledgment of what is sinful. Most yÅkai, I've noticed, are not. :P

2: So, is Sesshomaru going to turn into some sort of dog when he gets too old? Based on the wolves, that is.

No.

3: Oh! Poor wolves! You shouldn't have done that!

Hm... Well, I did, so now I have to make use of your mental scaring. -savors it-

4: Kagome's so mean to Inuyasha! And he's changed, too! Since when did he get so smart?

Yeah, about that. My general answer to such a comment is always laughter, but to be more specific, Inuyasha, in my and Sesshomaru's eyes, is an idiot. There. I said it. I-D-I-O-T. In regards to common sense, at least. And when it comes to idiocy, I'm a nigh-religious fanatic of the concept that anything can and will be beaten out of someone given time. And that is exactly why I don't have kids. :P

I'm mostly kidding. Next general statement from the masses:

5: Agh! You did it again! They're mad at each other! -continues to sob- It was still good though!

U-huh. See, that oxymoron in crying over it and it still being good is exactly how I feel about Inuyasha's minor abuse. Just different emotions.

Anyway, I'm also a firm believer in 'if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger', and so far the relationship hasn't died, so that means it's becoming more stable. Don't worry, they'll laugh about it all later. ... Well, at least one of them will. Depends on the memory. :P

Also, you cried over it?? -gives normal response of laughing- I don't recommend reading the other stories I'll write in the future then. ;)

6: Update! Update! Updateupdateupdate-incoherentwriting-UPDATE! PLEASE!

a- Please, for the love of macaroni, re-read what you write before posting it as a review.

b- Please, for the love of the English language, turn that Caps Lock off and use real punctuations and words to portray your emotions. Some of these reviews I have to read for five minutes to puzzle out the meanings. Example nine would be an accurate portrayal.

c- I will! I will! IwillIwillIwill-sarcasm-IWILL! OKAY! (This reply has just as much body and meaning as the above statement. Nada.)

7: I like it. Update

Aaah... Glad you do. You damn well should if you've read this far. Now, let's get a little more specific, and say what you actually like so that this story is molded in part around what the readers want to read more of, shall we?

8: Sweet. Kagome's all jedi (spelling?) with her mind powers now. Awesome.

... Well, I know that basic concept from commercials and from witnessing social rapes of the Star Wars series, but I've personally never watched more than forty minutes of any of it in my whole life, and the instant Jaken dresses up in a robe and takes off that hat and learns to use his eyelids is the instant I lose respect for the Inuyasha series. -imitates odd space-toad's voice with personal quirk- “Use the force, dammit!”

9: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHATHATWASSOFINGREATCANTWAIT4MORUPDATEASAPTHSIISAWESO MESOKOOL!!!!!!! SRY FOR NO SPACES B4IM JUST SO HAPY AND EXCITEDED I JUT HAD 2 WRITEOMG I CANT WAITUPDATE SOON OR ILL DIE DX!!!!

... Oh my god, are you shitting me? -re-reads- Oh my god... Oh, my, god. You have got to be the worse-

Host Site Notice: We're sorry, but the following section has been removed from this chapter for its obscene nature. This may be due to there being an improper and unhealthy amount of cursing, slander, and/or profanity expressed in this portion of writing. Problems may also have occurred via repetitive keyboard smashing, crying over the computer and short circuiting it, or from the author attempting and failing to download a virus file to attach to the next review written like the above sample. For more information, please contact the author and inquire after consoling her. Only this section was removed from the site for reader safety, and the less offensive remainder will be displayed below. End of Host Site Notice.

-and fucking furthermore, I swear the next twat who ever plagues my eyes and mind with such ghastly and sinfully bad use of my mother tongue is going to-!

Host Site Invitation: If you feel the same way about such reviews, copy and paste this into your profile page! (Joking. Immensely. Don't. Not without telling me you did it. :P And I seriously do hate reviews like that. Do you think I won't read them unless they're all caps?? I read and reply to all the reply-worthy reviews, so please at least make it coherent. I mean, a lot people read those before reading the story, and reviews like that make me look bad.)

10: It's okay. Could be better. Update soon please.

... Are you joking? You read this far, find that there isn't another chapter, and you leave that for the overall review? At least have the decency to tell me how it can be better, you lazy jerk.

11: Loved it. I especially loved these parts! -points out at least one part- And this is why I loved them! -gives valid, insightful criticism- You are -something-. This story it -something-. Thanks for writing! Hope you update soon, but if not then I shall wait. Until next time!

... ... ... I... Love you. An actual review. As in, pinpointing something and reviewing it! I love it, and you're my new bestest best friend in the whole fat world! -beams- And the compliments are just add-ons that make me blush and say 'I'm not that good, honest', despite the fact that deep down inside my ego spreads its wings and gives a victory cry whenever there's a fantastic compliment. Those who write such reviews (you all know who you are) have my eternal adoration. XD I can't wait to hear what all of you have to say for this chapter! -beams even more, coos, purrs contently, snuggles in on self, is elated, etc.- I write this story and post it for you guys and no one else. Heart my cross and die to hope! :D

12:

I refuse to do another.

Thanks for reading! I'll update ASAP!

~AD