InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tales from the House of the Moon ❯ Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

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

Tales from the House of the Moon
by
Resmiranda

Chapter Fifteen

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

"If you think this is going to stop me from talking, you have another thing coming," Kagome said petulantly.

Sesshoumaru growled. "I only wish for you to cease your whining," he replied. "You were going on and on about your fatigue. Now I am carrying you. Perhaps it is too much to hope that you will ever be happy?"

Kagome huffed. "I appreciate the thought," she said, "but this really is very uncomfortable." She squirmed in her position on his shoulder, the heavy armor he wore cutting into her stomach. "Really uncomfortable," she reiterated.

Sesshoumaru said nothing.

"Unbearably uncomfortable," she tried again. "But you know, now that you're carrying me, I can talk all I want and not get out of breath. Won't that be nice?"

Sesshoumaru continued to say nothing.

"Because I know you love to hear me talk," she continued, shifting slightly and trying to prop her chin on her hand in order to relieve the weight on her stomach. "If you didn't, you would have thrown me over that cliff a long time ago."

The youkai lord clenched his teeth. "Do not think that is not an option I have considered thoroughly," he bit out.

"Ahaha!" Kagome laughed nervously. "But if you wanted to, you would have done it by now, right?"

"Perhaps it is my last resort," he replied. "For when you reach the end of my patience."

Kagome considered this. "Just out of curiosity," she speculated, "how near the end of your patience am I at this moment?"

"As near as I am to the edge of this cliff," Sesshoumaru responded.

Risking a peek to her right, Kagome assessed that they were travelling very close to the edge of the path indeed. If she hadn't been able to see the ground directly beneath Sesshoumaru's feet, she would have sworn they were walking on air.

Kagome shut up. In the neck of her haori, she heard Myouga give a sigh of relief. After a few minutes, she heard him begin to snore.

It had been five days of Sesshoumaru walking quickly and tirelessly in the direction of the north and forcing Kagome to keep up at an ungodly pace. She supposed that they had made good time. Still, when each day melded seamlessly into the next in hour after hour of exhausted stumbling through the woods, she found that she didn't care much about how far they had come, only how far they had yet to go, and that distance always seemed to stay the same: too far. Each day she woke up sore and still tired, and each night she dropped like a lead balloon into her sleeping bag, sometimes not even bothering to eat, which was always a bad move. When she woke up each morning, she didn't even have the presence of mind to complain, and she ate entire packages of dry noodles and washed them down with a bottle of water that she usually procured through snow or through the thin ice that shrouded the streams they crossed. The water always tasted of wild things and moss, the noodles were always flavorless and difficult to chew, and each day she craved plums more and more.

Myouga was becoming a poor companion. Fleas were not meant for cold weather, so he spent most of his time sleeping in her haori. Kagome always found it disconcerting when her clothing began to snore.

And Sesshoumaru was such a pill. Kagome was glad of his company, but there always seemed to be a gap between them. With Inuyasha, his emotions had always floated on the surface, easily accessible and identifiable, and so it was easy to feel close to him and know what he was thinking. Yet with Sesshoumaru, despite their bickering, there remained a gulf, wide and seemingly impossible to traverse, and it was cold, standing alone on the edge. Kagome was sick of it.

They'd entered the mountains this morning, and had been making terrible time up the side, since Kagome realized that she'd developed a slight fear of heights and the path was narrow and difficult to navigate.

They weren't even particularly nice mountains to begin with. They were barren and chilly and the sun refused to shine with anything more than the bare minimum of effort. Watery light bathed the dull brown rocks that rose up all around her, and Kagome found it annoying that the only thing that was of any interest was Sesshoumaru's back, and that scenery never changed. Her tired mind had briefly entertained itself by imagining Sesshoumaru in different outfits or with different colored hair, but that entertainment quickly wore thin. There were only so many times she could stuff him into a maid's outfit before her imaginary vision of him lost its patience and sliced her to ribbons.

Cold, tired, hungry – she was cold, tired, and hungry so often these days – and nearly terminally bored, Kagome decided that she was due for some well-justified whining. So she'd complained, and Sesshoumaru had told her that it was either shut up and walk with dignity, or keep talking and be carried like a recalcitrant child.

"I don't think you'd do that," Kagome had said, stumbling over a rock.

"Whatever gave you the impression that I would not be true to my word?" Sesshoumaru had said smoothly as he appeared to glide effortlessly over the terrain ahead of her. "Are you calling me a liar?"

He'd been winding her up and picking a fight again, and she'd known it. Kagome was tired of fighting, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. "Yes. You are a big, fat liar. You don't like human beings, remember? Rin was the exception. You wouldn't touch me voluntarily."

"If I were you," he'd said, voice low and dangerous, "I would not speculate on things about which I know nothing."

"Yeah, well," Kagome had mumbled, a feeling of guilt nibbling at her conscience. "I still don't think you'd do that."

Sesshoumaru had heaved one of his customary sighs as he stepped lightly over a rock formation. "Once again, why not? And please refrain from all offensive suppositions this time."

"Because," she'd replied, panting a little as she'd clambered after him, "that would make things easier on me, and you'd never, ever do anything to make my life easier."

Sesshoumaru neither confirmed nor denied this accusation, merely continued to pick his way along the mountain path.

"In fact," she'd said, because she couldn't resist, "I think you go out of your way just to be a pain in the neck. You're argumentative, arrogant, grumpy –"

"Grumpy?" he'd questioned without turning around. He sounded amused.

"Don't interrupt," Kagome snapped. "Yes, grumpy, and you're always prancing around like everything is so easy for you and I have to do all the work, and it's cold and I'm tired, and I just want to get this over with, and that silly hime could have at least caught the young man's name and now I have to go looking for dog demons in the mountains when I've had my fill of stupid dog demons for several lifetimes and it's just not—"

There had been a flurry of activity, and then Kagome found herself with a shoulder in her stomach, staring at the ground moving underneath Sesshoumaru's feet, and now with the added threat of being thrown off a cliff.

Kagome was not having a good time.

Over her heart, thick, cold fatigue poured down, pooling through her center, hardening where it dropped, but even the numbness of exhaustion couldn't block out the echoing loneliness.

Beneath her hands, the cold armor burned and scraped just a little bit, and underneath it, somewhere, was the man. Below hard layers was the brother to the boy she had loved, the one-time savior of herself and her friends, and a hundred other things she had only seen in fleeting glimpses, between one breath and the next. He was her companion, but he was slippery and ethereal, like an optical illusion she could only see out of the corner of her eye, difficult to hold onto, but impossible to ignore.

And that was the crux of the problem. She couldn't write him out of the universe, couldn't make him unimportant. He was annoying, uncharitable, and cold, but aside from Myouga, he was all she had; she chattered to fill the void between them, the gulf that she was unable to traverse. Perhaps, she thought, if she filled it with her words, she would be able to cross, but instead of filling it, her tiny little thoughts tumbled over each other, hollow and meaningless, into the bottomless rift.

His silences made her more lonely than she could ever feel by merely being alone.

Several minutes passed in which Kagome chose to be uncharacteristically quiet, though she did amuse herself by watching Sesshoumaru's beautiful silver hair toss and sway with the rhythm of his stride and the slight wind. In her mind, she tried to determine just how likely it was that Sesshoumaru would make good on his threat to throw her over the edge of the cliff. He did say that he kept his word and is not a liar, but he also said he wouldn't kill me. Verdict: probably safe.

Kagome went over her line of reasoning several times before deciding that it was, indeed, sound.

"Sesshoumaru –" she began.

"Unless you are going to say, ‘please, toss me off this cliff,' I would advise that you keep your counsel," Sesshoumaru interrupted her.

"Hear me out!" Kagome said quickly. "Give me one minute, and then if I haven't convinced you to let me talk I'll shut up for good!"

Sesshoumaru sniffed. Although she couldn't see his face, she was certain he had pulled on his most bored expression, which, she had slowly come to learn, meant that he was intensely interested in whatever was going on around him.

"You have fifty paces. Please try to be interesting," he said.

Kagome took a deep breath, suddenly apprehensive. The words stuck in her throat.

After a short silence, Sesshoumaru cleared his throat. "You are wasting time, miko."

In her mind, Kagome lined up the words, so she could get them out. "Sesshoumaru," she said. "Why are we always fighting?"

There was a pause wherein Sesshoumaru presumably cast about for a snide answer. "Because you are always annoying?" he replied.

Kagome gritted her teeth, intensely aware that he was just pushing her buttons. "No," she said. "Why are we always fighting? Why can't we just have a normal conversation for once?"

Beneath her, she felt his body slow a little, as though he found walking and thinking at the same time to be a difficult task. "What?" he asked, as though he had not comprehended her words.

Sighing, she shifted slightly on his shoulder. "I mean, I…" She trailed off, realizing, for the first time, just how difficult it might be. She wanted to know him, but she had no idea how to reach him, how to climb inside his mind and wrap him around herself the way she did everyone else. There was something there, keeping her out, and she was frustrated.

"We travel together, but I don't know you," she finally said. It was a bald statement, clumsy and crude, and she winced slightly at the inelegance of her words. "What I mean is… I guess, traveling with a companion, a little small talk is nice once in a while, without all the witty repartee. Maybe play some word games or something."

"Word games?"

"Or something. Or we could get to know each other. Right?"

Silence.

"Or… something…"

Sesshoumaru said nothing, and Kagome watched the rocky ground go past; with each step, she was more and more certain that he was going to lift her from his shoulder and toss her into the ravine. Might serve me right, she thought glumly.

Kagome opened her mouth, suddenly on the verge of tears. "Just talk to me," she said softly. "Please."

Sesshoumaru stopped walking, and was silent for a long moment. "I find conversation… difficult," he said.

"I can do most of the talking!" Kagome told him quickly, perking up.

She heard him sniff. "Of that, I am well aware."

Huffing, she twisted in his grasp. "You know what I mean," she said.

"Do I?"

Kagome wanted to hit him, but refrained, though she wondered if he had ever reached a point with anyone wherein each side felt comfortable with playful slaps on the shoulder. She suspected not; if she tried to do so, she'd pull back a bloody stump. Kagome thought briefly, trying to come up with a solution. Suddenly, it hit her.

"Hey, why don't I just ask a question and you answer it?" she asked. "That way all you have to do is tell me about yourself. You don't have to do any thinking on your own!"

Sesshoumaru hesitated.

"Please?" she wheedled.

"Oh, very well," he said, beginning to walk again. "If it will make you happy, I will do this." His tone of voice clearly said that he couldn't believe he was submitting to her whims, but Kagome decided she would take what she could get.

She clapped her hands and laughed. "Great! First things first, though."

Sesshoumaru sounded wary. "What?"

"Thank you."

The demon stopped again. "I beg your pardon?" he asked, startled.

"Thank you," Kagome repeated. "For carrying me across this dangerous mountain. It's a lot safer than me walking by myself."

"Oh." For some reason, Kagome was struck with the notion Sesshoumaru was unused to being thanked, and she made a mental note to do it more often. "You're welcome," he said as he moved forward again.

"Right!" Kagome said. "It's kind of uncomfortable up here. Can I just ride on your back?"

"I am not a pack animal."

"I know," she assured him quickly. "It just might be a little easier for both of us. I've had a lot of people carry me places, and on the back is definitely the best way to go."

"Is it now?" He sounded amused.

"Yup," she answered. "Over the shoulder makes me feel like a sack of rice, and if you carried me in your arms, you'd just get tired after a while."

"In my arms?"

A brief vision of Sesshoumaru carrying her, bridal style, flashed across her mind, and Kagome blushed scarlet. "Not that you'd ever lower yourself to do that!" she said quickly. "I'm just saying that it is not the best option! Which is good, since you'd never do it! Which is good!"

Sesshoumaru was mute.

Her face burned. Well, this little experiment backfired in record time, she thought gloomily.

He remained silent for a while. She wondered if he was a closet sadist and liked to see her suffer. "Are you certain you wish me to allow you to speak?" he finally asked.

"Yes," she replied. "If I put my foot in my mouth, so be it."

"You must enjoy the taste of your toes, then," he said.

Before she could retort, Sesshoumaru stopped. There was a warm hand on her back, and then he was gently setting her down in front of him on the narrow path. Reaching behind his head, he pulled the heavy weight of his hair over his shoulder as he turned around and knelt on the ground, exposing the back of his armor to her as he held out his elegant, clawed hands.

"Very well," he said. "Climb on."

Awkwardly, Kagome stepped forward and braced her hands on his shoulders as she straddled his hips from behind. Even though she had assumed this position with Inuyasha a thousand times, it had always seemed natural with him; with Sesshoumaru, whose entire demeanor screamed Don't Touch, it was strange. Undignified, even.

He had been right, he wasn't a pack animal. Kagome felt bad for seemingly reducing him to this.

"Sorry," she mumbled as his elbows linked behind her knees and he straightened effortlessly.

"Do not trouble yourself," he replied. There is no one here to see."

Nodding, she leaned forward and awkwardly rested her chin in his shoulder as he turned and set out again, swifter this time. Kagome tried to remember the first time Inuyasha had carried her like this and couldn't recall. She wondered if it had been as uncomfortable as this.

Probably not, she decided, feeling a sad little smile tug at her mouth. We were probably too busy yelling at each other to care. Perhaps I've made a mistake…

She was quiet for a while, watching the long, silken strands of his hair flutter in the wind. They danced over his shoulder and then to the front again, as if struggling to return to their rightful place but never quite making it. Finally she said something.

"You can push your hair back if you want," she told him.

"But then you would be covered in it, Kagome-sama," he said, lightly mocking.

"I don't mind, I like your hair," she said.

Sesshoumaru did not seem to know how to respond to that. "Very well," he said stiffly. Unhooking an arm from her leg – an action that caused her to squeeze embarrassingly tighter with her thighs – he tossed the heavy mass behind him. It fell around her, silken and thick, though she didn't dare touch it with her hands, even though she wanted to. The desire seemed too brazen, the impulse too familiar, and even though she was close to him at this moment, he'd never seemed further away.

The heavy, glossy strands brushed the bare skin of her neck briefly, and Kagome shivered. Time for a distraction, she thought glumly.

The awkward quiet grew as she cast about for something to say to diffuse the suddenly bizarre situation. Gazing down at his shoulder, she finally hit upon something.

"Hey," she said, "whatever happened to that giant fluffy thing you used to carry around?"

There was a slight pause. "That ‘giant fluffy thing'," Sesshoumaru replied, tone slightly miffed, "was my father's heirloom pelt. And I lost it."

Kagome frowned. "Lost it? Did you put it down somewhere and forget where you left it? Because I find that a little hard to believe. It was awfully big."

Sesshoumaru did not answer right away, and Kagome took this as an invitation to continue. "Really big. I'm impressed you carried it around so long without it swallowing you. Isn't fur heavy? Didn't it slow you down at all?"

Beneath her hands, she felt the muscles of his shoulder bunch in a shrug. "Not really," he said. "It was an honor to carry it – only the heir of the House is allowed to touch it."

"And you lost it?"

"Certain circumstances required that it be left behind," he said, appearing to choose his words carefully.

A memory tickled her mind. The first time she had seen him without it was in the firelight of her campsite, only a few months ago to her, ten years ago to him. He must have lost it at some point between when he was deposed and when he found her.

"Did it catch fire?" she asked.

There was a low sound, and after a few seconds, Kagome identified it as one of his humorless chuckles. "No," he told her. "It became too heavy."

Became too…? The ocean. Nice, Kagome. That was really slick. "Did it grow too large?" she asked, trying to make it into a joke.

"No."

They continued on. The sun hovered and fell in the sky. The wind blew. The ground passed beneath them.

Finally Kagome couldn't stand it any longer.

"Okay, you know what?" she blurted out.

"No, though I have a feeling I am about to find out," Sesshoumaru replied, staring straight ahead.

"Throw me back over your shoulder and argue with me," she said as if he hadn't spoken. "This is just too weird. I don't think I can handle this."

"I thought it was uncomfortable on my shoulder?"

"It is, but it's even more uncomfortable on your back!"

"Hm," he sniffed. "Should I be offended?"

Frustrated, she felt her hands try to clench into fists, but she just clenched handfuls of him instead, as though she was trying, through touch alone, to convey to him just how discomfiting the situation was. "No, just do it," she growled. "I don't like this at all. It was a terrible idea. In fact, it was probably the worst idea I ever had, and I give you permission to taunt me mercilessly about it as long as you put me down right now."

Sesshoumaru heaved a great sigh, and without ceremony he skidded to a stop and dropped her. Kagome hit the ground with a jarring thump, and in the neck of her haori, she felt Myouga stirring, clearly jolted out of his nap.

"Ow!" she cried. "That hurt!" Placing a hand on her bruised backside, Kagome glared up at him, and then blinked in surprise.

Brow slightly furrowed and eyes narrowing to golden slits, the demon lord looked more annoyed than she'd ever seen him.

"Kindly make up your damned mind," he bit out. He tilted his head to the side and appeared to consider something. "You insufferable woman," he added.

"I am not insufferable," Kagome snapped back. "I am merely put out."

"Then what ever it is, put it back in again," he snarled, and with lightning speed, he threw her on his shoulder, whirled around, and leapt forward.

"Eep!" Kagome squeaked as her stomach lurched. Oh, please, let me not be airsick, she thought desperately. That's all I need: another reason for him to hate me.

"Quiet," Sesshoumaru said. "You are worse than that damnable hime."

"Oh!" Kagome exclaimed, voice somewhat lost in the wind. "I am not that bad! I may talk a lot, but I'm not that brainless."

"At least she knew when to stop before she got herself killed," Sesshoumaru retorted. "I cannot say the same of you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kagome demanded. "You didn't say more than three words to her!"

Sudden realization dawned.

"Wait a minute…" she said. "Why were you so tired the day they left? Did you do something to her?"

"No!"

But Kagome was on a role, twisting in his grasp so she could berate him more effectively. "She was just a girl, you pervert! Okay, granted, she obviously had some experience, but EW!"

"I didn't touch her!" the demon lord snapped. "She assaulted me."

"Are you serious?"

"Unfortunately so."

"That little hussy!"

"Agreed."

"Right!"

There was a silence.

"I do believe that this is the first time I've seen you two agree on anything," Myouga said, popping his head out from beneath Kagome's collar, reminding her of his presence and her deep guilt for depriving him of his sleep.

"Sorry we woke you from your nap," Kagome replied, feeling sheepish.

Myouga shrugged. "I am certain I will be able to recapture it if you are quiet for but a few minutes."

Kagome blushed guiltily. "Sure, no problem."

"Thank you, Kagome-sama!" Myouga said happily before turning to his master. "And you, Sesshoumaru-sama, please do not say anything to upset her before I get to sleep. It's disrespectful to your elders."

"Hmph," Sesshoumaru replied as Myouga crawled under Kagome's collar again. For several minutes, Kagome bit her lip to keep from talking until she heard the pleasant sound of snores emanating from her clothing once more.

Deeming Myouga comfortably asleep, Kagome jumped at the chance to speak. For some reason, she was feeling slightly smug. "Hey, that is pretty nice," she said. She twisted against him again. "Hey, Sesshoumaru, how does it feel?"

The past few minutes had been strange ones for Sesshoumaru. He was unaccustomed to comfortable silences, but he had felt strangely content to be quiet while knowing that Kagome was also comfortable. It was ironically disconcerting for him to share such companionable calm, and he wasn't certain if he liked it. Most of his life was spent keeping other people off balance and cementing his iron hold on the upper hand; even when he was at a disadvantage, he knew where he stood. This friendly peace was strange, as though he were trying to fit himself into a space shaped differently from his normal posture. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but difficult to adapt.

For his part, he was thoroughly confused and frustrated, and entirely uncertain as to how to proceed. "How does what feel?" he demanded.

"Agreeing with me! Doesn't that feel nice? Rather than always arguing with me?"

Sesshoumaru pursed his lips against the wind. "I suppose there is some value in it," he conceded. "However, it is not so pleasant that I will be making a habit of it."

"Hey!"

"Also," he added, "please stop squirming, unless you wish to revisit our previous conversation regarding cliffs and your precarious position regarding them."

"You're so impossible," Kagome huffed, forcing her limbs to still, but she felt a smile on her face.

She watched the ground pass beneath his feet for a while, and marveled at how easily the simple task of moving seemed to him. Moving was usually something that required very little effort, but there seemed to be none at all involved. Inuyasha would land none-too-gently on the ground before springing away again, but Sesshoumaru barely skimmed the earth with his toes before smoothly taking off again. No wonder he always seems to be impeccable, Kagome thought idly. He doesn't have to touch anything to go anywhere.

The sun was falling faster in the sky now, the pale light turning the dull brown rocks a light gold, and it would be evening soon, and then after that it would be night. Kagome didn't even want to think about how cold it was going to be on the mountain once the sun set; she'd seen the patches of ice that clustered in the shadows, and if she had to pick a way to die, freezing to death was at the bottom of the list.

Pursing her lips in consternation, she wondered whether they would set up camp, or if Sesshoumaru would continue on through the night until they stumbled upon a tribe, if a tribe even existed on this mountain. Kagome was the first to admit that she had no clue where they were, and she was uncertain if she would even recognize another inu-youkai if she met one. Sesshoumaru was the only true inu-youkai she knew, so she was uncertain as to whether or not there was something to look for, or if they were indistinguishable from other youkai on sight.

Of course, all of it was a moot point if they never found any. It seemed that whenever she wanted to avoid youkai, they came out in droves, usually looking for her blood, but when she sought them out they had all decided to take a collective vacation in Fiji and had neglected to invite her. The situation would have been funny were it not so annoying.

"Sesshoumaru?"

Beneath her, he stumbled slightly before righting himself.

Jolted from the pleasant lull of his stride, the demon lord mentally picked himself up and shook himself off. "What?"

"What do mountain dogs look like?" she asked. "I don't think I've even heard of one."

"Like any other dogs," he replied, regaining his momentum. "And they live in the mountains."

"Are they friendly?"

"I suppose. Although I am uncertain as to why one would come down from the mountain merely to copulate with a human female. They rarely leave their dens."

Kagome frowned. Something didn't seem quite right. "Then why?"

Sesshoumaru snorted. "I have no idea. You should ask him when we find him."

Sighing, Kagome slumped a little on his shoulder. "I don't think he'd appreciate me asking him that question," she told him.

"Most likely no," he said.

A stray thought hit her. "What if he wasn't a dog youkai? What if he was something else? I wouldn't trust Machiko to spell her own name, much less get the species right."

"Then we will probably not find him in time, and the hime will die," Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome gasped in horror. "That's awful," she exclaimed. "Don't say things like that!"

"Why not?" he asked, puzzled. "It's true, isn't it?"

"Yes, but you don't say it!"

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. "Very well."

"What other kind of youkai are in the mountains?" Kagome asked, thinking out loud. "Maybe if we start here we can find the right guy."

Beneath her, she felt him shrug.

Kagome dug around in the dusty annals of her mind, trying to think of animals that lived in the mountains. "Bird youkai," she said. What else? "Bat youkai, bear youkai. Deer youkai. Dog youkai, cat youkai—"

Sesshoumaru sniffed the air. "Wolves," he supplied.

On his shoulder, he felt Kagome stiffen. "Why do you say that?" she asked, voice tight.

"Because there are three of them following us," he replied.

Kagome's mind shut down.

Sesshoumaru assessed the situation. Three wolf youkai, coming toward him at great speed, although they did not smell hostile. In fact, one of them smelled vaguely familiar. Sesshoumaru wondered where he had caught that scent before.

Planting one foot firmly on a rock, Sesshoumaru pushed off and rose into the air, looking for a spot to land where five people would not be crowded, and found it only a few leaps away, so he gently hit the ground again and made his way across the rocky landscape.

"Urk," said his passenger.

"Do try not to be ill," he told her. "It makes a bad impression."

She didn't answer as he landed lightly, and within seconds there were three wolf youkai standing in front of him, giving him cocky grins.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" said the one standing in the middle. "Long time, no see!"

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru replied. Beneath his arm, the miko had stiffened even more. He could smell her blood, rising to the surface of her skin. Swiftly, he set her down, but she didn't turn around to greet the wolves.

Sesshoumaru sized up the situation, recognizing the wolf in front of him as an ally by scent, but not by sight. Of course, the scent did not interest him nearly as much as the sight. He let his gaze fall on the young youkai's chest.

"If we'd known you were coming, we would have sent an envoy," the leader said. "What brings you to our territory unannounced and bearing such a lovely gift?"

Sesshoumaru felt a spike of annoyance. "She is not a gift," he informed the wolf. "She is my companion for this journey." He lifted his eyes from the scar that ran from the youkai's left shoulder, beneath the breastplate, and landing at his right hip. "And what brings us here is you, apparently."

The wolf gave a nervous laugh. "Why do you say that?" he said, his voice cracking just a little.

Sesshoumaru merely smirked. Next to him, the miko turned around.

Her heart was pounding so hard against her chest she thought it would burst, and there was ice water in her veins, pouring over her, chilling her to the bone, bathing her in cold. Kagome flexed her fingers, feeling them shake, suddenly weak and useless at her sides.

Just a moment in time, and she stood there for an eternity, listening to him talk. His voice was so familiar and so alien at the same time, but she knew this youkai. The world had narrowed down to a boundary, and once she passed it she knew she was going to either faint or cry, but she couldn't stay in this place forever.

Slowly, moving as though in a dream, she pivoted in place, and there he was. Long dark hair, pulled back into a queue, cocky grin on his face, strong hands on strong hips, just like she remembered him. He hadn't changed a bit, was still alive and laughing, still dashing around mountainsides. She didn't recognize his companions, but she knew him. She remembered him.

Licking dry lips, she forced herself to speak.

"Kouga…kun?"

But no. He looked at her, and his eyes were green, not blue, his face was slightly longer, eyes slightly wider, and in the sunlight his hair was dark brown, not black. He was frowning at her, and there was no recognition in him. "Who are you?" he said.

Kagome nearly fainted with relief.

"And how do you know my father?"