All Change In Time

♥


Inuyasha was so deaf to the surrounding world that he failed to notice Kagome when she arrived, his only thoughts focused on his long dead lover of the past. Kikyou seemed so out of touch, as though she had reached enlightenment, and he was so forgotten to this hope, that he hugged her near, nuzzling faceface into the crook between her shoulders and throat. He allowed the wafting scent of Kikyou to fill him, his lung soothed and coated by the heavenly smell, and he was lost within her as he had been before, eyes fluttering closed.

But the sharp chirp of a discarded bow sought attention from him, and he entwined one arm protectively over the tattered maiden, his face twisted into a snarl of aggression. He would not have Naraku stealing his new possession from him now that it seemed she wanted him again!

His anger was short lived, cuffed sharply by the sight of the fleeting green skirt and raven hair, his face twisting into an expression of deep reality. It scarred into his very thoughts, screaming with all intention to run after his wounded love, but Kikyou took his hand, tugging on it helplessly when he stood to chase Kagome. Inuyasha looked down, torn, his gaze pitiful and falling between the two, but with Kikyou’s small whisper of his name, he knelt, taking her in his arms to carry. He knew it would not settle well…taking the maiden with him. But he would not forsake her! Not again.

♥

Kagome had run with every fiber that she could muster, never leaving enough time to cry, although tears had already stained her cheeks. How could he?! He had gone to see Kikyou after all! Kagome had met this kind of pain before, and she expected the hurt to be approachable, but to actually see such an embrace and interaction after making such wonderful plans to return home with him was an entirely new blow. She had felt weak under the pressure, and the smug look of Kikyou ended any willpower she had to listen for Inuyasha’s meek apologies.

Her face burned with white-hot embarrassment. Had she actually thought, even for a moment, that she could be as good as Kikyou and make the lonely tunnels of Inuyasha’s past ease away? She was a fool! Her eyes tightened together against the wind, which cut into her while she stumbled about, never pausing for debris. Limbs and vines reached out, taking advantage of this new prey, lancher her arms, legs, and sides with cruel strokes, taming her flesh with bruises and various cuts, which bled more freely as she sped up, her heartbeat climbing steadily higher. She did not care. She wanted to explode…so she may never see the two together again.

Kagome had been so busy not looking where she was going that she flew right into something. Something…alive. Both rebounded back, Kagome with less spirit, her ankles faltering below her as she tumbled on her butt. Roughly she landed, letting out a soft groan, and forgetting her place in this world, she spat out angrily, “Watch where you’re going! It’s not like I was sneaking around or anything!” She didn’t bother looking the creature in the face. Instead, she felt some guilt in the way she behaved, so she silently subdued herself by looking to the side, avoiding any visual identification. Standing, she managed to scrap some flecks of mud from her fanny, decorating her palms in the brown mess. Great…now she needed a bath.

She glanced to the shoes of her victim, finding them tantalizingly familiar, but she still did not advance her eyes further up the wearer’s leg, side stepping in order to appease them both. She did not want confrontation…she only wanted to curl up against her adoptive sister Sango and cry out her woes while being supported on how stupid Inuyasha could be. She took two steps along, now walking because of her abrupt encounter, when a cool voice made her pause, eyes falling open in instant fear.

“Kagome,” the stranger said, smoothly laying one hand on the middle of her back, the clawed fingers digging with an almost painful squeeze, “ why are you so upset? Has it been the stupidity of my half brother that has you so ruffled?” Sesshomaru smiled with a menacing tilt in his head, looking down on the back of the woman’s head.

Kagome shuddered, fighting every instinct to just flail out her arms and make a run for the cave, which she knew was tantalizingly near. But another thought followed…what if Sesshomaru had attacked her dearest friends in their slumber? He did not smell of blood and death but...he could have washed it in this rain. She said nothing to him, closing her hands over her chest as though to slow her terrified heart, feeling her breath grow slack…the effort tiring.

Sesshomaru seemed to quickly grow tired of the silent games, as he closed his other arm over her chest, handling her throat with a long, graceful finger as he traced the lines of her jugular. It would make him more than happy to slaughter the foolish human who had trampled him so, but he felt a certain…desire to be more creative than that. Inuyasha deserved more than just a dead love. He deserved…to have a ruined, soiled, and dead love. He wanted Inuyasha to know that his older brother had taken care of the one thing he had seemed to hold most dear over Kikyou, the forbidden maiden. “Perhaps I should take you with me. At least until the payment of Rin has been paid for.”

Kagome only had moments to absorb this thought before Sesshomaru grinned and captured her around the waist, holding her painfully tight to him. Her feet left the ground, raised to his height when he straightened, hanging helplessly with a strangled, trapped sound. He had a lot of power over herself, and the unbelievable power in which he shared when he began to crush her was enough to make her face turn an unnatural blue, her lips parted in a silent scream. The velvet lining of his lips nibbled on her throat, making her feel horridly mistreated, and she gave a feeble kick, before her body began to loose itself to the force around her middle. Fighting, although obviously loosing, Kagome’s head fell back onto Sesshomaru’s shoulders, lolling with all the gracelessness that belonged to the unconscious and the dead. Only when her last breath rattled from her throat did his grip slacked, and this only let her body recover from the teetering brink of death. She stank of fear, and he knew (and was rather pleased by) that Inuyasha would stumble upon it easily.

He shifted the limp woman in his arms, treating her much more gently now, wanting her alive to trade for Rin. If she and her stupid friends really had Rin, they would instantly give to an exchange, and he would oblige happily for the return of his most loyal servant. His lips thin with a cunning smile, he swept off into the oncoming night, the uncertain fate of Naraku bundled in his grasp.

[Writer] Wow...my first story, and I add 3 chapters in less than 3 hours. Rather good timing if I do say so myself ^_^;; I'm not the best story teller in the world...this I will tell you without shame, but I do try! So no killing me just yet okie dokie? I shall work hard to improve my skills.[End Writer]