“Uncle InuYasha!” Yuuta and Emi yelled excitedly, running up to the hanyou with their arms held up.
He cracked a grin and picked up Emi, balancing her on his hip while he waved his other hand at Yuuta. The little boy’s face screwed into deep concentration as he backed up. He took off at a run and right before he reached InuYasha, he jumped as hard as he could. InuYasha caught him around the middle and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of rice, both of the twins laughing at his antics.
“Did you miss me, runts?” He asked not able to contain his own chuckle.
“Yes!” Two tiny voices exclaimed in perfect harmony, Emi giving him the best hug her short arms would allow.
“Did you get us anything?” Yuuta asked curiously, propping himself up on his elbows to look over his shoulder at InuYasha.
“Sure, kid. I got you a fox.” InuYasha replied jutting his chin towards Shippo who was dismounting Ah-Un behind Rin.
“Shippo!”
InuYasha cringed at the shrill volume of the tots’ combined voices. He put the squirming duo on their feet and watched with a smirk as they ran full blast for the frozen, wide eyed kitsune.
“Now guys, be gentle…I’m a little…oomph…gent…ly…” Shippo tried to warn as the unheeding children jumped him.
There was a collective round of snickers from the travelling companions as Shippo was taken to the ground by the children, his arms flailing. Rin came to his rescue lightly tugging the back of the twins’ clothing.
“Sowwy, Shippo.” Emi said with a sheepish smile unwrapping her arms from around the nearly blue kit’s neck.
“Yeah, sorry.” Yuuta mimicked his sister’s actions.
“It’s…okay…just…give…me…a…minute…” Shippo gasped scrambling to his feet trying to regain his breath.
Yuuta and Emi giggled and ran around the heaving Shippo to Rin who smiled down at the pair affectionately.
“Have you two been behaving yourselves?” She asked sounding older than she actually was.
They beamed up at her and nodded emphatically.
“Yes. We’ve been on our very best behavior.” Yuuta answered for them both.
Emi nodded in agreement taking her brother’s hand.
“It seems they took your orders quite seriously, InuYasha.” Miroku exclaimed walking from his post outside Kaede’s hut.
“Keh, I knew they would. They’re not as slippery as you, houshi.” InuYasha replied jokingly and Miroku laughed.
“From your lips to the Kami’s ears. Hey, InuYasha.” Sango remarked with a kiss to the hanyou's cheek, then held out a bundled Kaori for InuYasha to greet.
InuYasha let the gurgling baby latch onto his finger while she cooed her own welcome.
“How’s everything been?” InuYasha asked distracted by the tiny laugh he received when he brushed part of his hair against the baby’s face.
“There were no attacks and the villagers are doing well. The food stores have held thus far and there have been no illnesses.” Miroku reported as InuYasha disentangled himself from the babe’s sure grip.
Sango began ushering the children to her hut as Miroku and InuYasha started off towards Kaede’s. Jaken was left behind to wrestle the stubborn double dragon into submission who was trying to follow Sango as well. The kappa was failing miserably.
“What about the wench?” InuYasha asked quietly, his mind once again a cacophony of what ifs and terrible endings.
“She’s alive, though just barely. She’s been speaking with Kaede as of late. Perhaps her conscience has gotten the better of her.” Miroku answered hope clear in his voice.
“It wouldn’t matter if it did.” The hanyou muttered and Miroku lifted an eyebrow.
“Why not? What did you find out?” The monk asked seriously.
InuYasha didn’t answer him. They had reached Kaede’s and the hanyou was preparing himself for the less than pleasurable encounter he was about to have. He took a cleansing breath before pulling the door covering aside. Miroku made to follow, but InuYasha held out his arm to stop him.
“Rin will fill you in, but I need to talk to Kaede alone.” InuYasha stated and Miroku nodded understandingly turning back down the path.
“Allow me to assist you with that, Jaken.” The well-mannered houshi offered taking the reins from the fatigued toad and leading Ah-Un to the stables without a fuss.
InuYasha stepped inside and had to physically restrain himself from gagging. That scent…
The scent of death was stronger than it had been, but it was coming from the woman lying on the pallet, not the old woman with the eye patch seated near the fire. Kaede’s scent hadn’t changed and InuYasha felt relieved though it was bittersweet. She hadn’t gotten better either.
“It is good to see ye, InuYasha. How have ye faired?” Kaede greeted moving to stand, but InuYasha shook his head and plopped down in front of her so she wouldn’t have to move.
“Well, I didn’t need these. What about you?” He asked genuinely concerned handing her the bag of healing herbs.
“I am still here.” She said with a smile taking the proffered bag and InuYasha just smiled back.
“Nice to see you can follow orders.” He replied, his face drooping a bit, his heart not in the jest.
“I take it you were told something troubling.” The wizened woman said picking up on his dampened mood.
InuYasha peered over his shoulder to Noriko who hadn’t moved since he came in.
“She is sleeping. It will not be long now.” Kaede explained.
“That’s what I need to talk to you about, Kaede. Bokuseno told me that the spell Noriko cast was meant to take youki just as she said, but because she was a Miko using demonic energy, the spell attacked Kagome instead. She doesn’t have her powers anymore and there’s no cure for it.” InuYasha explained remorsefully, his heart breaking to say the last few words.
“There is always a way, InuYasha. Tell me the rest.” Kaede soothed patting the upset hanyou’s hand comfortingly.
“Bokuseno said that Sesshomaru is incapacitated, that Kagome shielded him and he said that I should use Tetsusaiga to tell me when it is the right time.” His fingers were busy playing with his sleeves dreading Kaede’s next inevitable question.
“Right time for what, InuYasha?” The old Miko asked her eye narrowing suspiciously.
“Bokuseno said that the answer is in Noriko’s blood and that Sesshomaru must flare his youki the same moment her blood comes in contact with the Bone Eater’s well.” InuYasha continued his voice dropping low and his chin hitting his chest.
He knew how it sounded and he couldn’t believe he was actually considering it, but he had to get Kagome back somehow.
“I see. Ye know that such a ritual would require all of her life force, InuYasha. She is too weak for only a few drops to suffice.” Kaede said her disappointment clearly defined in her tone.
“I know, Kaede. I know. What I need to know is…what I mean is…what do I do?” He floundered unable to properly express his turmoil and Kaede sighed.
“Tis not my decision. However, it would be an act of murder should ye take her from her deathbed and slay her. I cannot condone such a thing, but nor can I stop ye. Perhaps it would be beneficial for ye to talk with her.”
Kaede rose from her spot and walked out of her own hut leaving InuYasha staring into the fire contemplating his options morosely.
Kagome didn’t know what happened.
Sesshomaru’s demeanor did a complete one-eighty the moment he spaced out on her in the store. All the progress he had made just disappeared and he turned back into the same stoic jerk he’d always been. He no longer took the evening meal with her family, didn’t talk to them outside of terse, short answers to whatever question they asked only to retreat to her room closing the door behind him, and started meditating on his own at odd intervals of the day.
He stopped sharing theories with her and never once had he allowed her to join him during his experiments with the well. His golden eyes had turned cold and the hard set of his jaw, when she tried to be friendly, told her he was no longer receptive to it.
His behavior…hurt.
Today was the eighth day since his emotional blockade went up and she was beyond upset. There wasn’t even anger anymore, just pain. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with. Her memories of her friends, of InuYasha, were weighing as heavily on her psyche as the indifferent Taiyoukai, just out of her metaphorical reach upstairs, was. Not to mention her reiki hadn’t even given her a single hint that it was still active and her doubts were unavoidable. What if they were gone? How would she get back to the past then? Is that why Sesshomaru was angry?
No, it didn’t seem likely. They had failed so many times and being the cantankerous demon he was, he would have acted this way from the very beginning if that was the case. There was something else bothering him, but whatever it was eluded her completely.
He wasn’t overly rude to anyone and it seemed like the only person he tolerated the most was her mother. That was the only clue she had that told her there was more to his attitude than just what and who he was. She tried to exploit that, tried to get closer to him as she had been, tried to be a friend by having her mother drop hints, but Sesshomaru was so closed off to it. His answers were always respectful to the elder Higarashi, but sharp and to the point.
‘The Miko and this Sesshomaru are not friends. Now, if you will excuse me, there are many volumes that require my attention. I do not wish to be a further burden.’ And that is exactly what he did. If he wasn’t meditating, either in the backyard or the bottom of the well, he was using Bakusaiga or locked in her room researching every single library book she obtained, which she found herself doing religiously just because here lately, it was the only connection she had to him and it was the only way she felt like she was contributing to the cause.
He refused to allow her to tend his wounds and he didn’t accompany her to town anymore. It was as if his mind was focused selfishly on his own return to the Feudal era, her accompaniment be damned.
She confronted him once on that very subject, her anger too overwhelming to be contained. Needless to say that had ended badly for her. He literally jerked her up by her throat and had scared her nearly to death, snarling in her face like some rabid animal, no intelligible vocal warning whatsoever. No one had been home at the time and when he finally put her on her feet, she fled the room, the door slamming behind her.
She just put band-aids on her neck and told her mother that it was a well experiment that went terribly wrong. It was a lie, of course, but she didn’t have it in her for some reason to tell her mother the truth. Protecting Sesshomaru would never have been her first priority over her family’s safety in the beginning. What had changed? Where were these feelings coming from?
There was something in her gut that told her he would never hurt her family, that his own programming had caused this relapse, that he was a good person just like Rin said, but he was having a hard time accepting it. That compassion didn’t stop her from keeping a very close eye on him just in case.
He would stay up late into the night, the desk lamp as his only source of light, writing notes on the multiple sheets of loose leaf paper she had given him. She would watch through the crack in her door as his clawed fingers would sift themselves through his bangs and his eyes squinting at something on the page he was reading, then his opposite, roughly bandaged hand would be nothing but a series of frenzied movements trying to document his new findings. It was captivating and she felt like a crazed stalker.
She had never been this obsessed with anyone, not even when InuYasha would abandon everyone at the drop of a hat for Kikyou. She found herself checking on Sesshomaru every night and twice she covered him up with the blanket off of her bed while he slept face down on one of the library books that he had been studying, his hands still clutching the pen and a squiggly line etched on the paper inches away from the last word he had been writing.
He never acknowledged that she had been present in the room, never even acknowledged her period. It was like she was invisible unless she pushed herself up in his face with loud, pointed accusations. She still had the puncture wounds on her neck to remind her not to do that again. Her logical side told her that it was solely her connection to the well that stopped him, but a deeper rooted part said it was because he really did care for her on some level. She honestly didn’t know what to believe.
She couldn’t take it anymore. If he had discovered something, he needed to tell her. He was a very large, incredibly strong youkai, even as a mortal, but she would not cower and crow because of that. She was a benefit to his current situation and she needed him just the same. It could be an alliance of sorts, one that could be forgotten the moment their feet touched the soil of the Sengoku jidai.
Kagome took a deep, fortifying breath and set her foot upon the first carpeted step that would ultimately bring her to Sesshomaru. Her hands shook, not out of fear, but uncertainty, as she ascended the stairs. Before she knew it her hand was hovering over her bedroom’s doorknob. She let her fingers drift over her sweat slicked palm and then raked her hand through her hair before balling up a fist and rapping sharply on the wooden door.
There was no sound for a moment and she thought perhaps he was outside, he moved about so silently these days, but then her desk chair creaked and the doorknob turned. Her breath stuck in her throat and her mind came to a screeching halt at the sight of a bare chested Sesshomaru. Her eyes remained transfixed on his well-defined pectorals until his gaze began to burn the top of her head like an ant under a magnifying glass.
Her head snapped up and she met the amber, unforgiving eyes of the Taiyoukai of the West. His face was placid, giving no hint toward his current emotion. Was he annoyed? Angry? Happy to see her? She couldn’t tell. She cleared the sudden lump in her throat covering her mouth with her fist politely as he just stood there watching.
“Sesshomaru, I have…I have something I want to say.” She said faltering for just a second before regaining her composure.
Had she been this nervous walking up the stairs? She couldn’t remember.
The scowl on his face spoke volumes, but he took a step back and allowed her to enter the room that had always belonged to her. She walked in feeling like a stranger within its four walls for the first time in her life and stared at the stacks of paper on the edge of her desk, the black markings marring the once pristine purity of the white sheets.
“What is it, Miko?” Bored, callous, uncaring.
Her chest constricted.
“I need to know what you’ve learned.” She stated, her voice weaker than she had practiced.
There was a rustle of silk and then the very masculine scent that was Sesshomaru permeated the air in a short gust as he passed her to sit at the desk. His head was bowed over the current page he had been working on and his sophisticated fingers held the pen with precision like he would his own blade. He pushed the top of the ink stick over his shoulder granting her silent permission to take a seat on her bed. Yet another thing that had been conquered by another. She did as he bid, fidgeting silently with the hem of her skirt, her toes bunching and unbunching in the rug nervously.
“This Sesshomaru is busy, human. Speak your peace or get out.” Cold, harsh, intolerant.
She was nauseous, but persevered.
“You must have something I could use to get my powers back and you know it’s my reiki that will open the well. You can’t just keep me in the dark.” She replied, her voice growing in confidence every second he remained still, pen poised over paper hesitantly as if he was actually listening.
Then he slowly turned around.
A/N: I’d like to thank everyone who has reviewed, voted, and read this story.
Anon- I’m glad you’re enjoying the story so much. I agree, Noriko & Naraku would have made the perfect couple. ^_^
Lumnari_Lilium & Rua- Thank you guys for your kind words. ^_^
blackbutterbly- It’s not that bad is it? lol
