InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Requiem of Time ❯ Let's Talk ( Chapter 3 )

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

A/N: Well, first off, I want someone from MediaMiner to tell me how to reply to reviews! T-T I've tried everything I could think of, and no matter what I do I'm met up with a dead end for the idea. I love replying to reviews, and I hate to 'ignore' the ones I really want to reply to!

Aside from that... Oh yeah! I updated within a month! -bows to imaginary applause-

Aside from that rare act of being egotistical, guess what! :D Read the chapter title! Fun chapter to be had, and you all deserve it for your patience and splendid reviews! Dear lord, I should bitch about reviews more. The last batch of them were so fantastic I about cried from happiness, and crying is a very rare thing in my life so take the compliment. I love all of you who actually broke away from the typical comments readers leave and wrote what was on your mind. I thoroughly enjoy reading what you have to say (even bits of your personal life, which a lot of you do) and it's fun if you bicker about a point, or get in my face about something, or even start wailing hysterically and order me to fix something.

Also, I have to say thank you all for all of your help, which you really do give. For example, a lot of people say that I'm making Sesshomaru obsessive (in a creepy way) and Kagome emotionless, and although I have my reasons it really helps when all of you make similar comments like that. So, in response to such reviews, an explanation will be built into a conversation soon. I always do that. Surprisingly enough, I don't start writing the next chapter until I get ten reviews for the latest, because I want to see where I have to improve and what I have to resolve/explain. So, all of you say I drive the plot forward and that everything has a natural flow, but all of you actually help quite a bit, and now that I've said that you should start seeing it. :P Heh, I feel like I just sold myself out for free. XD

So, one last itty-bitty-bit of information. I advise reading the Author Note at the end of this chapter before reviewing... ^__^U

Enjoy! Review, please! :D

Chapter 3

Let's Talk

Inuyasha wasn't happy, and everyone always knew when he wasn't happy. Mostly because he had a very big mouth.

“You're meeting him?!”

“Yes,” Kagome replied calmly through her teeth, picking some small fur balls out of the lined boots Kaede had given her over a month ago. She hated how the little collections of soft hair gathered up right where the undersides of her toes should be, it was so uncomfortable when walking on irregular ground.

“I'm coming with you.”

“No,” she enforced, her tone dull to match this argument. She was sitting on the ledge of the entrance to Sango's and Miroku's home, the genkan where the outdoor shoes and indoor slippers are kept, making the final preparations. “No matter how much you whine about it, you're staying here.” Gripping the sides of the boot she shoved her right foot into the freshly cleaned out cavity. Her heel popped into its place, and wiggling her sock restricted toes experimentally she accepted that everything felt comfortable and good then set to lacing up. She had to admit, everything from the ankle down would feel 'exceptional' and 'great' instead if only there were proper ways to wash clothes in the middle of winter. It was rather difficult considering she was living approximately two hundred years before the birth of the man who would be struck with the brilliant idea of electricity via a kite line. Rinsing out her clothes every time she went to the hot spring would have to suffice, since her solitary bar of soap was already quite small and was on reserve for herself until she traveled back home.

“Keh!” Inuyasha scoffed, crossing his arms.

Kagome, while sharing a disapproving crease of her brow, commented to herself that Sesshomaru had a tendency to do a similar motion with his arms, save for he tucked his hands in opposing sleeves so that the fabric didn't crease over itself.

Inuyasha's face loomed back into reality when he spoke again. “I'm not whining, I'm arguing.”

She blinked. “Well, whatever you're doing, it's still childish,” Kagome chided, a tad bereft over the mental image yet smiling inside to herself. Good old Inuyasha. It was nice to see him as a constant variable in her frequently jostled life. He was always the same age, always annoyingly hard driven and stubborn, and always dim witted and thickheaded on all the worse subjects imaginable. It was amazing that he hadn't been banned yet by a majority preference from that village.

He growled faintly at her, a noise which she definitely would have missed if not for the last month of listening for such small sensory details. Honestly, it wasn't something she had consciously done, but when you live for so long with everyone having certain advantages over you you try to negate them.

“Don't you do that to me,” she warned, making his ears shift forward with surprise. ... Funny, she didn't think he even had the muscles to move his ears like that... “And you better not think that I won't be feeling out where you are all day. I'll have you sealed on the roof if you try anything funny.” So, if he didn't have underdeveloped muscles when it came to his deplorably adorable ears, then did he just have underdeveloped emotions which triggered their movement? Or... Or was it something completely different and which would leave her guessing for the rest of her days?

His arms tightened around one another, making the creases of his sleeves deepen, and his nose wrinkled as his face tilted away, ears back to their normal and lazy positions. He absolutely hated when she was winning an argument. Not only that, but when he was losing, too; which happened to be at the level of 'terribly', at the moment. There wasn't much for him to say to win at this point, which kept her happy and inspired a few hums of felicity.

As Kagome cleaned the remaining boot and secured it to her foot, Inuyasha continued with his quest to discourage her from 'imminent death'. She could only sigh at him as she finally lifted herself from the floor. Certainly, unless she were being illogical to think this, he wouldn't be so unbearable if he knew Kagome's history with Sesshomaru, would he? Despite the fact that telling everyone the 'why's and 'how's of recent events and how doing so would probably clear the uncertainty from the air, she kept that information to herself. It was odd to do so, and in some ways it was painful, but it would hurt even more to relive memories now. Also, she had an annoying habit of telling a story in a way that got people emotionally caught up in it with her, and if they were caught up and made the presumptions she unwittingly enforced in her tellings, then she'd think that others assumed and felt the same way she did.

Well, she was done with that ridiculous habit. She wasn't going to tell anyone anything -and Shippo wasn't either if he knew what was good for him- until she herself was sure; which, if she were more lucky than history proved possible, would be very soon. She refused, on this rare occasion, to tell only the one half of the story which she knew. ... It was a really good, Sesshomaru-bashing half though... ... Hm... Wait, no, she wasn't going to consider it. Nope, not her. Not a word. And neither was Shippo. ... Come to think of it, where was he?

A very misplaced scoff jarred Kagome from her musings almost painfully, and she glanced up at Inuyasha through her eyelashes to see what he was expecting of her.

He was just staring down the hall. Probably cleared his throat.

Great, now she felt bad for assuming the worse from him. On top of that, Kagome still felt guilty to not confide in friends right now, but... Oye, there was too much to think about... She felt liable to confide in the one person who was as equally involved as she was before ricocheting half developed ideas off of friends. Yes. She had to keep telling herself that to believe it. But, oh, to finally talk about things with him? It made her heart flutter, wanting to see his face. To see it very, very closely. And yet her rushing blood fell cold to the bottoms of her stomach and feet at the thought of what she had caught him doing... That idiot... That had a great thing going, too.

On that note, she didn't like thinking about heading out when she finished readying herself to find a farther off place to wait for Sesshomaru to find her, but she needed to be away from everyone to talk with him. ... The actual walking and waiting didn't bother her, it was the conversation she had in mind which made her shiver and her spirits teeter, and even thinking about it now had her sucking in her lower lip to worry it between her teeth.

There was that scoff again, and Kagome glanced over her shoulder to see the culprit of Inuyasha's noises. Shippo was in the entryway near the open door to a general hosting room -in which were expected things such as a room heating hibachi and a chabudai table- playing with his fox fire and making the odd suspended ball of green-blue-whatever flame stick a flapping, blazing tongue out at Inuyasha. Kagome had to admit, if she weren't so impressed she'd be laughing.

Upon seeing her, Shippo reclaimed his energy and scrambled away as though he were going to be disciplined. She swore, sometimes, it was very tempting to think that foxes were cousins of felines rather than canines... Very tempting...

“Are you leaving?”

Kagome looked over her other shoulder.

“Yeah,” she replied with a faint smile to Sango. It didn't show to an obvious degree, but Kagome could tell her friend was a little worried. It was hidden deep behind her warm eyes, but after a few seconds of studying one another's faces Sango nodded and broke visual contact briefly.

Kagome couldn't help but to allow a real smile to pull at the corners of her mouth. It was an annoying thing to be mothered by a friend, to any degree, but it was also an awe inspiring thing that Sango, this woman who was shot in the back four and a half years ago and who clawed out of her own grave to seek revenge, was gifted with motherhood (something which Miroku was more than happy to give). Some would call having kids a burden, such as Kagome, but it actually warmed her heart to think that if anyone, ANYONE, dared messed with Sango's children, there would be hell and a swift death to pay. Also, to watch her and Miroku play with, feed, and cradle their children in their arms, even absentmindedly... There's an emotion which only certain combinations of people can inspire in someone, and Kagome had to admit she reacted strongly to the parental figures those two had become. It seemed like only yesterday when Sango slapped Miroku for groping her in public... ... ... Actually, it was yesterday...

She giggled, pulling herself back to her original thought. Kagome was not a child though, and Sango seemed a little hard pressed not to believe it but kept it to herself.

“Alright,” said the potentially deadly woman with a baby strapped to her back. “You plan on returning to change clothes?”

Okay, now Kagome was grinning. That was a rather good time frame to put things in. “Of course. I'd rather come all the way back than go one way with that backpack.”

The two of them giggled, Inuyasha observed, and Kagome hugged Sango goodbye. She turned and slid open the rice paper shÅji doors, walked into the wooden engawa hallway which was lit by the rooms it bordered, then slid open a wooden protective amado door to let in the light of day. There was the distinct scraping pitter-patter of feet when authentic light broke in through the wafting snow of the day.

... Of course it was snowing...

“Well, have fun!” Shippo wished a tad sarcastically, running outside as though making a break for it. She quickly grabbed him off the ground with a smile though, to his displeasure. “Hey!”

“Got'cha!” she giggled, giving him a bear hug as he struggled with all his childhood might against it. He was soon released and went bounding on all fours for Ah-Un, where Rin and Kohaku were already playing in the snow. It was nice to see that Shippo could cope with humans and yÅkai at the same time, and odd that he ran away from her affection now. Well, that was alright. Any boy would at his age. Besides, it was fair exchange for the hug, which she had needed.

Kagome watched as Inuyasha stepped outside -barefoot, as baffling as that was- onto the low stone which buffered the gap between the engawa and the ground, and he turned to give his 'I'm a bit peeved right now' expression, which was emphasized by his pose. This time he crossed his arms inside his sleeves to guard them from the cold, and she bit the inside of her lower lip.

“...”

Inuyasha sighed, loud and exaggerated with a wide open mouth. “... You're sure you want to go alone?”

“... Hm,” she hummed, nodding and stepping outside to walk up to him across the packed icy snow. “Yeah. I'll be back tonight though.”

“That long?” he asked, his face actually softening for once in his life so his eyebrows could rise. He looked so innocent when he wasn't scowling.

“Maybe sooner,” she supplied with a slight shrug. “Or even later. I'm not sure. I don't want you to come looking for me though, even if the sun sets and rises three times again.” It wouldn't be setting for a while, since it was still laboring towards its apex. “I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself.”

He studied her, ears twitching minutely, then scrubbed a set of claws against the back of his head. His left hand went to his hip, and his right knee loosened to give off a completely different bodily message. He looked uncertain.

“Yeah, alright. Just don't do anything stupid, got that?”

She grinned from ear to ear. “Got it.”

Kagome was passing through the opened two story high gate when she turned and waved back at everyone still in Sango's home. Sango, Inuyasha, and Shippo waved back. They were the only ones who had seen her gesture.

She turned back around, ready to face today, and a snowflake landed right in her eye with a gust of wind.

“KYEAH!!” She slapped her hands over her violated eye, waiting for the fresh water to change to a tolerable temperature.

“You're sure you don't want-?”

“SIT BOY!!”

And with that, she was on her way.

----------

There are very few things in this world which Sesshomaru forgives anyone for. Testing his patience was not on that list...

His mother, seated well away on the other end of the table, studied him with a skeptical eye.

Confounded woman... How dare she keep him here, on these grounds, for so long? As soon as the council decided to heed him once more he was banning that infuriating female from Japan and shipping her off to China.

“I do not favor that look in your eyes, my son,” she stated, sounding completely normal and conversational save for the stiffness of a reproach in her voice.

“As well you should not,” he replied. This was a waste of time. He was tired of waiting. He had been waiting for two weeks, now she's been retaining him there since sunrise.

She sighed through her nose, the sound as faint as a moth batting its wings. “You do realize this is merely for your own good.”

No, actually, he did not.

“If you were to go barging in demanding her attention at any hour of the day, I can assure you your conversation would not begin on good footing.”

“Such is typically the case,” he informed. Since when had any of their conversations started off well? Rarely. Even when he would visit her at night she would ask “what the hell do you want”. At least a third of the time. In fact, a part of him wanted her to shun his presence today. It was refreshing to work at turning her opinion in the completely opposite direction, and the more she refused the more entertaining and rewarding the results were. One would never guess as much, but it worked too well to not be true.

His mother stared at him, looking a little annoyed, over the brim of her tea mug. “That sounds absolutely dreadful,” she finally commented, glancing to the side. “Hm. No wonder she left...”

There was a hideous crack, and Sesshomaru was just as shocked as she when he looked down at his hand. His fingers were clenched above the base of his jagged, freshly shortened fine ceramic mug, the larger curved pieces still teetering in the light green tea on the table as the liquid spread. A servant hurried silently over to wipe up the mess as a different one set another mug onto the table and poured fresh tea into it.

He smelled copper, then uncurled his fingers and saw small rivulets of red.

Well... This was interesting. The young girl who had removed the mess now handled a new cloth and gently tried to take Sesshomaru's slightly bleeding hand into the white fabric. She flinched horribly when he yanked his fingers away and set to picking small ceramic pieces out of his skin himself. How dare she try and touch him.

“... You have changed.”

He paused, considering his mother's words, and concluded he was not in the least bit interested. “Really.”

“Truly,” she answered, taking a sip as he removed the last shard. His skin sealed once more, leaving behind a very misplaced red bead. She nodded to the servant to leave the cloth, and when the youth did Sesshomaru decided to wipe the tea and blood from his hand. “Perhaps, in a unique way, it is a good thing. ... I see no reason to retain you any longer. You may leave.”

There were Chinese fireworks everywhere, but that was for Sesshomaru alone as he stood and walked out the door. He was leaving! It was a splendid sensation! He had to compensate for his very internal celebration by having complete control of his bodily actions, save for walking a tad more hastily than a lord normally would. That was fine though, one would have to know his normal pace to know he was walking faster than usual. ... That, or notice how the loose articles on his person had a tendency to billow back slightly.

Upon exiting the conjoined room to enter a hall, Jaken exclaimed his lord's name once, but Sesshomaru ignored him. Perhaps, as soon as he was sick of having something to kick, he would send Jaken back to where he came from in a prominently swamp territory. Truthfully, the toad yÅkai had originally only been permitted within Sesshomaru's sight because he could use the Staff of Two Heads. Now that utensil served no purpose, and nor did its user. Such was fact. Regardless, Jaken would be better off with this own rather than looked down upon by even servants here. He had been a lord among his kind, and forsook his position to tail Sesshomaru in rather eerie adoration. So long ago, that much could have easily been dealt with, though it was hard even for an inugami daiyÅkai to look at a small being who groveled at your feet with just a glance and to consider decapitation. Instead, Jaken has survived many encounters with Sesshomaru's shoe and Tenseiga's sheath.

Aside from all of those excellent reasons for why Sesshomaru should be freed from his little green stalker, one of the better ones was simply that Jaken was a grotesquely misplaced figure on the o-shiro, and that did nothing for Sesshomaru's reputation. Yes, the toad had served to guard Rin and Kohaku from any nonchalant death sentence for their month on the o-shiro, and watched over them beforehand, but that also was no longer needed. Rather than protect children, Sesshomaru was in the hard-driven stage of his life where he wanted some of his own, and it was made no easier with a little green pest searching for you at any given time. Kagome would have none of that.

Now outside, Sesshomaru wrapped himself in his energy and darted like a falling star from the o-shiro.

He was in motion. Progressive motion. It was excellent. It didn't last long though... Within a few seconds he landed, on the other half of Japan which was part of the old Western Lands, and came to a stop.

He found himself in the clearing over which the Goshinboku tree watched, towering above the nearby woods.

The well use to be here... Sesshomaru was not going to forget it any time soon. It had been a focused location where Naraku chose to meet his demise, an old well which he had thought served no purpose. At the end of the first fight he'd had with Bashamon, that well had caught him in landing from quite the displeasing attack, and held him suspended above the mystic depths until a particular sick pubescent miko came running uselessly over to trip onto his delusional self and send them both tumbling five hundred years into the future.

Who would have ever imagined such a thing to even be... Well, imaginable.

The thought of it was now something he could smile about, though he had not been too happy with awakening in 'a box in the ground' while horribly injured and near a miko, of all things. ... Hm... Maybe he had changed. Minutely. If at all. That was a rather large 'if'.

He sighed faintly and took his mind off the seemingly distant past. Four years was not designed to seem 'distant' to yÅkai who have attained well over seven hundred in age.

Sesshomaru discovered quickly that Kagome was not in this village, and concluded that the only other place she'd be was where Rin stayed. At that village.

Flying for that place was a usual thing, until of late. Sesshomaru use to tolerate his brother's presence long enough to check up on Rin, sometimes leaving her with a little something humans would find valuable. She was welcome to do whatever she wished with it. Keep it, give it away, sell it, anything that would make her happy, and he told her that. It was interesting to see other little girls of the village at times wearing a rich silk kimono he had brought for Rin, and after asking her about it she said the darnest thing.

“I just don't need it.”

Sesshomaru hadn't known what to think of that at first. He knew that Rin was the orphan of the village, and although she was well loved it was not only easy but also a part of human nature to take valuables from someone weaker. That was natural selection, and instincts should have driven the girl to find people who would protect her from such a happenstance. It was Rin's choice to not pick a family to be with though, for whatever reasons she had, and despite the lack of comfort found in parents she did quite well. Besides, Kohaku would keep an eye on her.

Kagome's splendid scent greeted him before he met his destination, the walls merely one hundred feet away. He stopped to ascertain where she was, and noted it was snowing in this location.

“Oye!”

Oh, kami, not him... Sesshomaru should have just left, but his curiosity got the better of him and turned his head.

Inuyasha had just closed the gap between them, lessening it now to fifteen feet. The boy was glaring at him, for some reason.

“Oye!” he repeated like the genius he was. “I have questions, Sesshomaru!”

The inugami daiyÅkai frowned faintly, his customary look for having to tolerate the sight of his half brother. It was nothing personal, he was well over the inheritance shock, now it was simply a matter of how he just despised idiots.

“This Sesshomaru's time and patience are limited,” he practically growled. “You would do well to shorten neither.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Inuyasha brushed the warning aside. “Listen, what the hell are you going to talk to Kagome about!”

... “If she chose to not inform you herself, then you should know better than to expect an answer from me.” Besides, he only knew vaguely based off of their last encounter, and since she would most likely be doing all of the talking then he could honestly admit that he had no idea what they were going to talk about. The more interesting part of that though, Kagome didn't tell anyone? Anything? No, that was unrealistic, she was a female after all. Surely in the time frame of two weeks that woman had to have emotionally confided in someone. Then again, her stubbornness could prove him otherwise... She could put his mother to shame in that category, and... And that was a scary thought.

“Keh!” Inuyasha barked. “Listen, you bastard. I don't know what you said to her or why the hell the two of you are meeting, but if she comes back as depressed as she was two weeks ago then expect to be missing an arm again.”

Kagome was sad? The fact that it was his fault didn't help at all... “Fool. What will be said shall be said. However she reacts to it is her decision.” Did this mean he was going to be greeted by tears or by threats on his life in a few minutes? Quite frankly, he preferred the threats...

“Why you-!” Inuyasha seethed, hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga despite the fact that Sesshomaru had come unarmed.

Let's see... How to leave Inuyasha so he will not follow and with the knowledge that he is, indeed, a moron... Kagome's example was the best candidate for the job.

“Sit boy.”

Inuyasha was so petrified that he actually did sit, in a way. 'Fell on his ass' was more accurate.

Sesshomaru imagined that his half brother was yelling threats by now, but that was none of his concern. He was gone, and after a thousand or so feet through the woods he paused to determine Kagome's exact location.

...

Hm... She was close... To the right, and quite a good distance away from the village for traveling on foot. And she was alone.

Although he knew this encounter was bound to have quite a few downsides, it was already quite promising.

----------

This encounter was going to be absolutely dreadful...

At least, if Kagome knew any better. She had female instinct going for her though, so she couldn't be too far off. Then again, she was also Kagome... If she even had a wit of instinct, she wouldn't have been dragged through the well by a nudist lesbian centipede in the first place. Dammit, why her?

Such were her thoughts as she cut branches with focused amounts of her energy. For the last hour she had been trekking the nearby humongous hills which were separated from the slayer village by a flat plain. Her goal was to get over two in total and wait in the following valley which would direct hers and Sesshomaru's voices elsewhere. Alas, so far, she had only gotten halfway and was already tired.

She gave a huge sigh as she flopped down onto her select pine branches in the shade, disturbing some poor woodland creature from its perch. She'd feel a little bad for that if its rustling flight from her hadn't caused a white poof of snow to speckle her face. Even while under these thick trees the snow fell on her... She not only didn't have instincts, she lacked severely in luck as well!

She sat up, legs straight out and propped on one arm, wiped her face with the cool sleeve of her freshly rinsed white haori, and looked around.

There were misplaced colors in a familiar shape ahead...

“WHOAH!” she screamed suddenly, arms flinging into the air as her body tried to act without her permission. Her heel dug into the snow through the soft pine needles, allowed her leg to lurch her back, and her forearms in a desperate attempt to be a brace ended up sinking into the snow behind her. “Don't DO that!” she yelled, yanking her now cold limbs back to herself.

Despite his obvious confusion, Sesshomaru smiled down at her not too far away. “Surely you sensed my approach.”

“Well, I can assure you I didn't,” Kagome snapped, her heart racing and warming her skin so as to melt the snow into little rivulets starting at the elbows. She shoved her arms into opposing sleeves to dry and thaw, the fabric draping over her abdomen.

Steeling herself to bear the sight of him, Kagome looked up, ready to share in full detail what was on her mind... And the words simply vanished. Her heart wanted to reach out and grab him and never let go, and it hurt to keep it at bay. She didn't want to open herself up like that. She wanted to be strong for this.

“... Um, you're too early,” she informed him while kicking the thought of her last night with him into the corner of her mind. Oh, yes, that statement was strong. A huge list of better ones was quickly forming.

His head tilted to the side ever so slightly. “That does not say much for yourself.”

“... Huh?”

“You are far earlier.”

“...” True. Ugh, she hated being in the emotional middle of mad and eased. She was glad to see him, so glad she wanted to cry for how pathetic it was, and yet she wasn't. She wanted to confide in him, and at the same time she wanted to hurt him and never see him ever again. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin, and it was irritating. “Not really. I'm actually not done walking, so I'm going to get back to that now.”

A shade of disappointment skittered across his face, or so it seemed. Maybe the shadows were playing games with her. Or maybe he expected a different manner of reuniting? Probably a spiritual beating, if he knew any better. In fact, that sounded absolutely delightful. He deserved it, for... For that. For a lot of stuff, actually. Hell, why not, in the grand scheme of things, he deserved life in jail where the men are all friendly so long as you get breasts tattooed on your back and pick up the damn soap. ... Okay, maybe she was being a little too vindictive.

“Besides, I prefer talking when I sound horribly out of breath,” she lied, now a little sour with thoughts of a smirking Chiro dancing across her mind like a delighted and treacherous Kikyo reincarnate; though Kagome couldn't recall her predecessor ever smiling...

“Why do you choose to travel further?” Sesshomaru asked, disapproving of the effort.

“Because,” Kagome replied with a slight snip, “I want to be out of earshot so that no one can interrupt my kicking of your regal ass until nightfall.”

There. She admitted it, she was pissed.

He seemed to think she was joking, considering there was a funny little smile on his damnably gorgeous face, so she shared a glare with him since her scent wasn't getting the message across; the wind wasn't going the right direction, that's probably why. Damn, she had thought that after two weeks of not being bitter she'd be able to bottle it up upon seeing him again.

Nope. Someone decided to punch air holes into the lid of her emotion jar.

“You are mad,” he informed needlessly.

“You are correct,” she verified, taking her first steps onto the slope of the next hill, muscles protesting as they lifted her feet from the confines of the thick and heavy snow with every step. Winter was coming to an end. “And don't even begin to think that I have no right to be! If I knew what was good for me, I'd be on the other side of that well and ordering heavy machinery to dig it out and drop the remains somewhere in the central Pacific!” ... Though wood did have a tendency to float... Damn, she'd have to burn it then.

There was no response. For some reason his silence was the most irritating thing he could possibly do, so she stopped staring at the hill face and regarded him. “Say something, yÅkai.”

Sesshomaru was so taken aback that he stopped following and his brow furrowed slightly.

Kagome felt odd with her arms crossed and glaring downhill at him, and not even using his name. ... Actually, now that she thought about it, she just switched their positions. And he didn't like it.

“Nothing worth stating comes to mind,” he supplied, studying her. “You have your reasons to be frustrated. If either of us has a need to speak, it is not I.”

... “Uh!” she breathed in a vexed manner, turning back around and continuing to walk. How dare he not be irked! “I'd keep the silence at bay until dawn!”

She heard him resume his pace once more behind her. So, lords could trudge through the snow. “I invite you to do so.”

AGH! Damn him! He wasn't supposed to be cooperative! He should be just as mad as she was so she wasn't the only one and then she could yell and scream and-!

She wheeled around with anger and balled fists and punched the left side of his jaw as hard as she could.

Kagome watched, shocked yet feeling achieved. His head turned from the contact, naturally, but he didn't flinch. He looked at her from the corner of his eye though, completely calm, skin slowly flushing where she struck.

Her throat hitched, and all of her anger suddenly melted into a terrible sadness that began to gather treacherously in her eyes. She couldn't bite her lower lip before it bunched up oddly with displeasure, making her chin wrinkle and the corners of her mouth droop, and her cheeks lifted as though to catch the tears.

“Oh, I should hate you!” she yelled with a practical sob and bared teeth, backhanding him without a second thought and storming off once more so he wouldn't see her cry. She screamed with frustration at the hill and walked in a manner more suited to someone carrying dumbbells. “I should! I have a right to! I should tell you to go to hell and never come back!”

Her face was hot and the tears ran cold. This all felt wrong. So very wrong.

“You are overreacting.”

“...” She came to a stop, wiped her eyes, turned, and went right back down to get within three inches of his pale and ridiculously feminine face. “You should be thanking every deity that you're still standing here! Do you understand me!”

Beyond the two pink blotches on his face he looked annoyed, which was very easy to see from that distance, and leaned back for some personal space.

She was so angry that she swore something was going to shatter.

“Don't like this?” she demanded. “Well, too bad, because if I was stuck living the rest of my days with you this would likely happen again!”

She pulled away, sighed so hard that it turned into an “OOH!”, threw her arms into the air, continued on her way, and her hands landed in a knotting mesh atop her head.

“This is crazy!” she yelled to herself, for some reason thinking about how marvelous it had been not that long ago to have his face so close. “I shouldn't even think of us being a couple as even likely! It's the most ridiculous and clichÃ© thing that even irony can think of! It's impossible!”

She reached the top of the hill in record stomping time and just kept marching onwards. Her eyes began leaking again, so she continued to yell to quell their flow and to get Sesshomaru equally riled up, if he was even there still; she was too mad to use her energy properly at all. Kagome hoped he was there though. She wanted Sesshomaru to be angry. She wanted to be on equal grounds so that he'd fuel her anger with his own and give it more justification.

“I mean... It's just so preposterous! We're different species, different ages, different entities, we even have different cultures, and that's the worse part! We're completely wrong for one another!”

“Explain.”

The one word wonder... She shook her head at the ground, which blurred right now. Dammit! “Why should I? You already know everything there is to be said about it!”

“I wish to know what you are thinking, not to verify facts.”

... She wanted look at him. Just to see if there was some glimmer of emotion on that mask of his. Oh well, screw him, the majority of her didn't want to. Besides, she'd already seen how his mother had reacted to such 'concerns', giving improbable excuses which Sesshomaru didn't seem able to uphold to every single one, and she didn't want to see if he'd do the same. She didn't want to hear that she would be loved, and protected, and cherished. The timing was wrong. So absolutely wrong, and gone. Then again, since it was gone, then she could see his reactions with no remorse. Right? Sure, yes, of course.

“Fine. If you want me for a mate, then you'd also have to want a burden. I'm human, a miko, a commoner compared to you, not meek like you're used to, and I'm going to die well within eighty years. While I'm alive, I and my children would be victimized constantly by those who see me as unfit to be by your side, and your reputation will go to utter shit. I would also never allow you to intimately touch another woman for the rest of my days, and I highly doubt that I can satisfy your wants and needs if you expect to have a harem to service them. So, all in all, if we were together, we'd have to change into somebody else for the other person, and that's never good for any kind of relationship!” Even though she was walking downhill, she was breathing heavily. “Put that way, I would never want to live with you. It sounds like hell, and just being there for a month was nearly unbearable with how boring it was.”

There was a faint chuckle.

“What?” she asked, almost moaned. Arguments were tiring, especially when you were trudging through snow at the same time.

“You need not worry about all of that.”

... Ooooooooooye... She wished there was a pause button for life. And a rewind while she was at it. Maybe some skips, too. She stopped walking and sat down instead, not caring that her butt was bound to get soaked from such an action.

“Are you well?”

“Bodily, yes,” she replied, wiping her face dry again. “My heart may need some tuning, but aside from that, I'm completely healthy. No thanks to you.”

The dull compacting of snow came closer, from her left, and stopped about five feet away.

Kagome dared a peek and noted that Sesshomaru was having a seat as well, keeping his distance. He regarded her when she failed to look away, so she frowned and furiously broke eye contact. She felt so immature, but it was so justified.

“Why didn't you tell me?” she asked. It felt like a foreign wedge loosened from her chest, but her stomach fluttered almost sickeningly.

“It did not seem required,” he explained. “It is difficult to consider such things when you are raised knowing of them and capable of sensing them.”

She frowned. “You didn't even try then. You've lived for a full month in the future, you should have at least guessed as much.”

“I could say the same,” he retorted. “You have spent one month at the o-shiro, and have apparently had nothing better to do other than observe.”

She got angry again. “It's not the same!”

“How so?” he demanded.

“It just isn't!” she yelled, now looking at him again.

He frowned.

She clenched her fists. “Fine! Example! How would you like to catch me sleeping with Inuyasha on the condition that such a thing is normal in my time?!”

He looked even more mad now at that thought than he had been with her hand prints burnt into his neck a month ago.

“What's the difference!” she demanded. “To me, you've already done something just as bad! Don't you understand that?!”

“There is the difference that women are likely to get pregnant from such encounters,” he growled.

Kagome was utterly shocked. What? What what what? What kind of underdeveloped, woman suppressing country did this guy come fr- Oh, right. “... Oh... Kami... That's despicable...” That didn't improve either of their moods. “So you justify yourself on the condition that you can just up and leave the baby?”

“No,” Sesshomaru replied sharply. “On the condition that Chiro is and has been sterile, whereas you are not.”

... “So?”

They were definitely not seeing eye to eye.

“This is the way I see it,” Kagome began. “You, four years ago, get absolutely dumped onto my hands, and I feel liable to offer you a place to stay solely because I know and believe that you come from this time. In exchange for giving you a place to stay and trying to keep you busy and entertained, I was never addressed by name, was never regarded as something more than a servant or source of entertainment, and for some reason I started to get a crush on you. Then you leave for four years, and my love life is completely shattered. I haven't kissed another man, and although I've tried dating and looking for someone no one was good. Not even Keiji, and he was quite the stud and very interested in me and just about perfect. So, the well re-opened, I came back, and what happens? I wanted to know where I stood with Inuyasha and dare to kiss him. You see it and leave, like you're completely jealous, and that left me to just be mad because of your damn timing and your unwillingness to even say hello! So then I spent all that time looking for you and finding transportation, and what greets me is arrows and a pissed off yÅkai lord who would rather break my clavicle that even hear me out!”

She needed to breathe, and glared at him. He wasn't looking at her, but he was listening, so she went on.

“So, promptly after that I'm told that I have to stay there for a full month. I hated it, then three weeks ago we started... Feeling better around one another, and my distraught love life started to sort out, and then I catch you with her because you can't keep your thing in your pants, you jerk-off! Ugh! I really should hate you! I don't even know how many women you've laid in the last four years whereas I've kept my sexual frustrations all to myself!”

Now that she was done with that part, the embarrassment tickled her mind.

“I feel like an idiot for being hung up on you,” Kagome admitted, biting her lower lip in hopes that it would hold the tears at bay. “I really, really do. I should go home, seal off the well, and invite Keiji to spend the night. Then broaden my dating options.”

“Do not consider it.”

She fixed a scowl at Sesshomaru, who was his normal, unreadable, unbearable self again.

“Why the hell not?” she asked. “Nothing's written in stone between us. You think a few kisses and groping will act like a leash around my neck? I can go and do whatever I damn well wish, and I won't have to feel bad about one second of it.”

“You could,” he agreed, finally acknowledging the fact that she had such rights despite being a female. “Those men would not live long though.”

“You wouldn't follow me,” she informed. “The well won't work, so you can't follow.”

“Then five hundred years from now I will go to Tokyo and dispose of any man you pursue.”

“That's disgusting,” she informed him.

“It is natural,” Sesshomaru defended. “I know you are still interested in me, and I know that pursuing other men is just a means to try and make yourself feel better by summoning territorial actions from me. Competition will be dealt with as I see fit, until either you accept me or lose your undeniable want for me.”

Kagome suddenly didn't feel very safe, and actually a little guilty. “So, what, are you a stalker now?”

“No,” he answered smoothly. “I am a man who knows both who he seeks and who seeks him. Your experimental foolishness is not something that requires my tolerance, and should not even exist.”

Kagome's whole face and body got into her emotional storm. “What would you do about it then, huh? What if I didn't care how many men you killed? What then?”

“Do not flatter yourself,” Sesshomaru scolded, pointedly not looking at her. “I admire your intellect and strengths, but I cannot allow myself to remain with someone who would sell her nature just to try and make me angry. I will love you as you are, and always will, but things can and will change if you are too weak to resist losing yourself to this anger and spite.”

Kagome flinched as though she were physically struck, and suddenly felt ashamed and couldn't face him anymore.

“... I've never held a grudge like this before,” she admitted. “Your point works both ways though. I don't want a man who will ridicule and give up on me whenever I get mad. ... I need someone who can admit his mistakes, and who can show dedication to me. I can't be myself around someone who isn't like that, Sesshomaru. So, because of that...” She felt like her throat would break itself just to keep her from finishing. “Because of that, I have to tell you to look for someone else... I can't be what you need, I can't give what I don't have, and I can't change who I am. I wouldn't survive with you, and I refuse to die trying.”

There was a moment of silence. It lasted for theoretical hours.

“Kagome, what do you feel for me?”

She closed her eyes. So tightly it actually hurt. She knew he wasn't asking her to repeat everything she had just said.

“I can't say,” she answered, wiping her nose and sniffling.

“In other words, you choose not to,” Sesshomaru supplied.

How dare he make her feel so horrible... “If you're an ass, I guess you could say that.”

“Kagome.”

The weight inside of her shifted, drawing her attention to him. She couldn't stop herself. She had to see him. And she did.

He was frowning, but he wasn't mad. His golden eyes were sharp, but for an unidentifiable reason. He was looking right at her as though trying to distinguish the very colors of her soul.

She wanted to whimper. She wanted to look away and cover herself in layers of blankets. Wanted to run from all of this, to leave it five hundred years away and to try and live on without hating herself for fleeing.

“Kagome,” he repeated, anchoring her reality to this place. To this time. This moment which bore so much weight that it threatened to break her. “I need to hear you.” She felt like she was the only thing in his life right now, receiving more attention than she could possibly stand. He was memorizing her, training every sense he possessed onto her, and she wanted to cringe, afraid of what he might find. “I need to know.”

She felt weak, and scared, and loathed it. Her heart was replaced with a humming bird, and this lack of breathing was going to kill her. Was she being foolish? Did admitting it to him and to herself mean that her life would change for ever? Did three words have so much merit? So much value? Even if she did admit it, so what? She was free to ignore it. Free to do what she wanted in life. She had no ties, and didn't abide by anyone else's rules. She was free, and unsuppressed, and could do whatever she wanted.

Something, a piece so infinitely small that it could hide suspended right in front of your face, added itself to that thought process.

If she was free... and had no ties in life... then, why couldn't she say it?

More pieces tumbled into place, like watching an avalanche in reverse. She had no restrictions, and was perfectly capable of anything, but she couldn't? That didn't make sense. Where was this suppression coming from? She was being suppressed?? By herself? That still didn't make sense, but things shattered into place and tore into alignment. Why? Why was she afraid? What was there to lose? There was only something to gain, right? Unless...

Unless he rejected her.

Her heart lurched so strongly, so repulsed by this concept, that she actually lifted a hand over it and forced herself to breathe.

What if she wasn't good enough? What if he didn't want her? What if she opened up her very soul to him, willing to give everything she had to offer, and he tossed the key aside and walked away? She would feel horrible. Broken. Worthless. Unappreciated. Undesired.

Undesired...

He didn't respond to her kiss...

“Kagome?”

She was reeled back in from her thoughts, and noticed there was a hand on her shoulder. Looking over, Sesshomaru was studying her, looking ever so slightly worried.

Her mouth was dry, and surprisingly her eyes were, too. “I...” Am what? Not good enough for him? A wasted endeavor? Better left for another woman? ... No. No, she wasn't. “I think... That I'm worthy of love.”

The sun was let in, and the windows were opened. She felt... Lighter. He didn't react to her words, only waited. He wanted to hear more.

“I think that I can give love to someone who loves me equally,” she continued, a peculiar swell of pride welling up inside of her, pushing all other emotions to the sidelines. “I think I deserve to be the number one priority in someone's life, not the second.”

He observed, weighed these facts, and for some reason she didn't care. She was light, and actually felt joyous, her heart racing with her into this childish sense of carelessness. That's exactly what it was, and yet so much more. Who cared what he said in reply, because she knew what she said. She wasn't going to watch as he went for another woman, like she had let Inuyasha do. She wasn't going to allow herself to feel second best to someone who wasn't worth it. She could be first. She should be first. She deserved it, and it was about damn time she got it. She didn't need to be emotional and stubborn and uncertain anymore. She could be herself, and for no reason other than simply being.

She smiled at Sesshomaru, and was not only impressed but delighted that he had a small smirk on his face.

“You have your work cut out for you if you expect to meet my expectations, Sesshomaru,” she told him rather cockily. Her heart twitter-pattered when he gave her a full and genuine smile.

“I look forward to it.”

In honor of Kagome being ready to lose her ass to frostbite, Sesshomaru took her back to the village and they parted ways.

Inuyasha came just in time to miss the departure of his half brother, and Kagome still felt like the sun had rudely invaded her person, bringing music and cookies with it.

“Alright, what happened?” Inuyasha demanded, glaring after Sesshomaru rather than looking at her.

“Oh, nothing other than enlightenment,” Kagome replied, turning her smile onto Inuyasha. “Sit boy.”

----------

Sesshomaru's mother was, to say the least, blown off the perch of reality when her son came home with a smile on his face. A smile. What the hell did he do, kill something?

“This is a surprise, Sesshomaru,” she commented. “I was led to believe you would not be satisfied until you had covered yourself in her scent.” He barely smelled like her. Didn't they touch at all? It seemed like they just... Just sat next to one another.

Grinning like a child who had a secret, he regarded her. “There are more rewarding things in life than copulation.”

“...”

He walked away, flagging down the next available servant and scaring the shit out of them. Apparently, Sesshomaru was hungry, and he actually asked for food to be prepared.

“...” Alright. Her son had definitely changed... But... ... But it was such a great thing to see, and smiling became contagious that day.

----------

A/N: Did I make you wait long enough for that? XD I've been wanting to write something like that for a long time. Kagome's revelation! Honestly, you can't say that any self-respecting girl would tell their crush that they're allowed to pursue someone else while they wait for them. It's just not healthy, and that bitter-sweet moment Takahashi was aiming for in the anime (I can't remember the episode name for number for the life of me, but it was where Kagome was waiting for Inuyasha on the lip of the well, sun shining everywhere, birds and butterflies and enough of both to make Disney itself sick, and the ONLY time a lock of her hair is persistent to stay in front of her ear to make her look like Kikyo and oooooooh!! >.<) Yeah, that one. If you can't tell, the sentimental feelings went right over my head. My friends cooed over the scene and said it was 'soooooo sweet', and I was starting to lay bets with myself on which episode Kagome was going to mentally snap and drag him screaming into the woods for a very non romantic way of venting. That girl is WAY too patient, and I'd imagine that sacrificing herself over and over and OVER again would have long term effects.

So, yes, Kagome officially respects herself to a very healthy level in this story, and I know, things like that don't happen overnight, and she'll go back and forth for a little while longer, but for the most part, just make my job easier and accept that miracles can occur. ;D

So, what will happen in the next chapter? Haha, you have to WAIT! XD All I'm saying is this series is going to hit another funny phase.

-Looks at clock- Holy bologna, it's four in the morning... Another reason why I don't update is because I only write at this time of the morning! Yep, the earliest I get prime typing time is at ten pm. I think it has something to do with lack of sleep... ... And I'm still talking...

Thanks for reading! Review, please!

~AD