InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Difference Between Time and Distance: A Sesshoumaru Tale ❯ Something Hidden, Unequal Sky ( Chapter 7 )

There are some things you never forget.

 

Blood, fresh, so much like the dinner she had been cutting earlier.

 

The screams, strained and hoarse, a call for help, a desperate cry so pitiful, even an animal would feel the tightening of its chest.

 

And then the pain, the aching, wracking, throbbing-ly sharp pain; it brought the world into focus, yet dimmed ones perception as to be practically dead.

 

There are some things that are never forgotten.

 

And the mind will forever—forever—be haunted by these images. They will permeate the dreams, they will insight the nightmares, and they will always—always—be carried in ones heart.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Ayame gasped and sat up from the pallet, her face damp with sweat and unseen horrors. A moment of regaining herself, catching her racing breath, gripping her heaving chest, she calmed.

 

The miniscule hut was silent with deep breaths, and light snores. The peacefulness infiltrated Ayame's mind, the soft, comfortable feeling of complete rest. Even the testy hanyou dozed in the corner, grip lax on his beloved sword.

 

The woken girl smiled tenderly, not because of her great care, but the picturesque perfection of the moment. The space was a little to warm, and the herbs smell was magnified by the heat, but the tone of the little home was… perfect.

 

Ayame wished she could catch the second in time, a little bow, and attach it to her chest, never to be forgotten in the vague vestige of her memories. The dull coals of the ones flickering fire cast little shadows and orange rainbows of color across the wood, and Ayame found the seen absolutely beautiful.

 

Her stomach uncoiled, and her mind released the spiteful images that plagued the back of her sleeping eyes. She would forget until the morrow.

 

Yes, she would just take in the wonderful slumber of the accepting group. She would breathe it into her pores, casting every sense she could into the small room.

 

The whimper that had built its way into her throat at the moment of her waking had been forgotten, and the blissful drowsiness once again set on the troubled girl.

 

Ayame slowly relaxed again, body slaying back, and shifting into a comfortable position. After staring at the slowing ceiling for a short while, the dull dark of night came upon her, and the Lady finally granted her acceptance of a restful night.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

 

InuYasha peeked through his bangs, surveying the room as the last of its inhabitants finally fell asleep. He had had an odd feeling about the girl, Kagome's friend—Ayame—but this night had just confirmed it.

 

It wasn't as though she was abnormal—no, that wasn't it—she was just…weird. InuYasha knew his little band of…friends were different, but what made this girl different, was how she fit in, yet none of them knew anything about her.

 

He rephrased the thought in his mind, `She is friendly, polite, mannerly even, yet she never reveals anything.'

 

It disturbed the hanyou, that he could know so little about someone being kept so close to them. This night was the first night she had actually shown something to him, and she had had no idea.

 

He had watched her—under the mask of sleep—as she shallowly breathed, trued terror forged deep into her features. And then, with roving eyes, after what seemed like hours, she calmed.

 

Completely silent, she was, though InuYasha could see her throat muscles working, and it worried him.

 

`She hides things.'

 

He was not one to pry, and he didn't really care about her personal fears. Yet not knowing about one potential threat in his group was not something he could let past. She seemed harmless enough, but one could never tell.

 

Kagome trusted her, but also Kagome trusted that mangy wolf—Koga—as well. That said a lot about her weight of opinion.

 

The pensive hanyou twitched, moving around to be in a more comfortable position. He didn't like how she had gotten through the well. Something had happened. He didn't know what, but some event occurred to harm the girl. Neither he nor Kagome had ever any trouble going through the well, it had certainly never harmed them. But that girl… when she had come out of the well, she had been hurt, really hurt. It was though she had absolutely no energy, like she hadn't eaten for days.

 

“I'm fine.” She had said, waving it away, but they all knew something was wrong.

 

`She hides herself.'

 

“InuYasha?”

 

The said hanyou jerked up, looking into his friend's eyes. Kagome smiled tenderly at him, concern written plain on her open features.

 

“Feh! What are you doing awake! Your supposed to be asleep.” Though the he spoke the words harshly—albeit in a whisper—they held no conviction. There lack of intensity caused Kagome to press forward.

 

“Is something bothering you?”

 

InuYasha's ears laid flat against his head, “And what would be bothering me? Nothing, go back to sleep, wench.”

 

Kagome sighed, “I'm going to go for a walk. Would you like to come with me?”

 

InuYasha grumbled, something along the lines of, “Stupid wenches awake in the middle of the night,” but pulled himself up and followed the young miko outside of the small building.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kagome bathed in the cool wind whirling around her face. There was something about a night sky, the quiet of the forest, the rustle of the breeze, which enchanted her. The sky, piercing black in all its clearly defined glory, held up its blazing bright stars in a collage of pride. Kagome sighed as the hanyou next to her took no notice of the beauty in its entire context and continued to grumble.

 

After a few moments of wandering aimlessly, Kagome chose a spot to rest in a bush of coarse grass. InuYasha crouched next to her, and as usual, the miko leaned on his shoulder.

 

She truly treasured these moments. Kagome felt these were the one time that all her problems were swept away, and the rest of her life was a clean slate, to be formed at her choosing. Sometimes she felt a bit ridiculous, since the jewel was completed, and Naraku gone. Yet these seconds were what truly defined her life.

 

A whisper cleansed her ears, and Kagome finally decided to speak up, “You're worried about Ayame, aren't you?”

 

InuYasha scowled, “Not about her… You trust people to easily!”

 

Kagome sighed, used to this common argument. Tonight she decided to be easy on him, to not lose her temper, and just sighed in exasperation, “What am I supposed to do InuYasha? I can't just throw her out. She's my friend, for as little time as we've known each other. It's common decency to care for someone hurt.”

 

“There's something wrong with her.'

 

Kagome smiled softly, a hint of pity filtering into her kind gaze, “I feel kind of sorry for her… She seems sort of sad, and distant. Please don't make this into a big thing, InuYasha.” She pleaded, then her tone changed, “And don't you dare say anything to her.”

 

“Keh!”

 

“InuYasha.”

 

“Fine! I wont! Stupid, demanding wenches and their orders!”

 

Kagome grinned, “Thanks, InuYasha.”

 

With a swift movement, the girl reached up and pecked the hanyou on the cheek. His face flushed a dull red, and he stared intently at the ground.

 

Kagome teased, “You're not so bad, InuYasha.”

 

“Keh!” He scoffed.

 

And they stared into the glowing darkness.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Sesshoumaru looked stonily into the tree line surrounding his slumbering group. He sensed nothing, but that was no reason not to be on his guard.

 

Though the demon's body stayed alert, his mind wandered. His thoughts were jumbled, in great need of organization.

 

`I should go back.'

 

He needed to stop avoiding his home—it was his home, wasn't it? Orders needed to be out into place, rebellious demons taken down. The loose reigns of his control needed to be tightened.

 

`I've let it go for long enough.'

 

He had. In his desperation to escape, in his lust for blood against Naraku and his brother, Sesshoumaru had neglected his born duties. The fortress in which manners were normally conducted had fallen into shameful disrepair. The army he was supposed to control was pathetically nonexistent.

 

What was worst—worst than the rest—was that no one really knew that he was the ruler in the first place. The pathetic humans bowed down to their feeble landlords, unaware that they should be praising the TaiYoukai of the West. Not that he wanted to be praised by them—the weaklings—but he should.

 

Or that's what he told himself… what he told himself he should think. The truth of the matter was he had no true care for the lands of his. Sesshoumaru had yet to find any type of passion other than his hate. After his enemy-of-the-moment had been taken down, he did not know what to do with himself.

 

Even his disgust of his brother had fallen into shambles, a mere shadow of what it had been before. InuYasha was now a fly that Sesshoumaru wished to get rid of, but would not lower himself to do so.

 

Well, he told himself he should think that too. Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru held too much interest in that damnable half-brother of his than was healthy. He hated—despised—himself for thinking this, but he actually enjoyed fighting the shameful hanyou. To admit that his brother actually made for a good way to pass the time—sparring with swords, his vocabulary was something to be ashamed of—felt like an admission of weakness to the blue-blooded Sesshoumaru.

 

A sniffle pulled himself out of his reverie had Rin shifted slightly in her sleep, curling in closer to Ah-Un. Jaken dozed in and odd position a few feet away and Sesshoumaru felt a twinge of annoyance that the little imp was allowed relaxation when Sesshoumaru had to grapple with unanswerable problems.

 

He held in his urge to wake the goblin and turned his gaze to the sky instead. The stars glittered down with a cold flame, cruel in their unreachable delight. Sometimes, Sesshoumaru hated those flickers in the sky more than anything else. They seemed to mock him, he stuck to the earth, a mere mortal compared to those immortal deities. They truly would live forever, wouldn't they?

 

`I have become weak.'

 

Sesshoumaru uttered a soft growl, one felt, but not heard, and decided to mute his thoughts. He closed his eyes, his one arm resting in an artful fashion on a raised knee, then opened his senses even wider, scanning the area for any danger that he could dispatch.