Masquerade

Chapter Four- It All Falls Down



At night, she dreamt-

Filled with an aching loneliness, burnt and broken, the shrine groaned under the weight of its knowledge.

She lay in her room, the room she’d grown down in, and watched as distant lights filtered through her closed window. No sound, no family, no friends, no feelings reached her.

The Stockholm Syndrome was a lie, she mused, knowing it was she that lied.

When he’d taken her, she hadn’t struggled or fought. She’d walked along side him; chatting like the friends he claimed them to be.

She turned her head to the window, watching as it opened slowly.

Pale hair entered, followed by a sleek, muscled body. His golden eyes landed on her briefly, before they moved over the room slowly, taking in the dirtied artifacts and the different cloth falling apart at its seams. He remembered, though he didn’t want to.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, having to bend down lowly to reach it, the frame long since broken. Eventually his eyes turned back to her, but she was staring up once more at the ceiling.

“Do you always spend your time so wisely?” His voice was echoing and eerie, like a pebble hitting water.

She sat up slowly, seeing only a different time. A time when the paint was new and the carpet clean. Her gaze took in his appearance, so clean and out of place around her. “When I feel the need.”

His head tilted back slightly. “Why didn’t you come back?”

Her gaze grew sharper, her fists balling in the bedspread even as it disintegrated through her fingers. “Because I never belonged.”

“Because you never belonged there?”

“Because I never belonged with you.”

The next morning Kagome sat next to Masao, staring in Sesshoumaru’s golden eyes and wincing from the stick that was poking her in the leg. They’d been doing this for several minutes. Staring, that is.

It had all started when Kagome woke up and made some lewd comment to Masao regarding demon hierarchy. Sesshoumaru hadn't been pleased, and glared at her. Kagome had glared back. His eyes had narrowed, her eyes had narrowed and so on and so forth.

Masao glanced up from his reading material and shook his head, smiling behind the worn pages.

Kagome was tired of having a staring contest, Sesshoumaru’s eyes were attractive and all but he was creepy. Especially because, though she should’ve found him scary, she didn’t. And while he looked so human, she could see the animal hidden in his golden eyes.

Sighing she glanced down and broke away the twig that was digging into her calf, then stood and looked at the barely-risen sun. “I’m going to go for a…”

“Bath…” Masao offered offhandedly.

“Walk…” Sesshoumaru drawled.

Kagome nodded, already halfway into the forest. “Yeah, that.”

Evading fallen twigs and animal ‘trails’ Kagome allowed her thoughts to drift.

Yesterday, at noon exactly, her and Masao had returned to Sesshoumaru’s homestead and almost immediately been lead away from it. They’d taken off at once for the Eastern lands, only a small amount of essentials between all three of them. It would take approximately a week to depart the Western lands, than another two to reach the Eastern lord’s home.

She hadn’t spoken much. Masao and Sesshoumaru had walked ahead of her in their graceful, silent, pretty youkai way, talking and ignoring her.

For a while Kagome had been thankful. Now, she was pissed off.

Sighing, she rose from her praying position - ignoring the fact she hadn’t done any praying, or, at least, any holy praying - and looked toward the east.

It was pointless, she mused. Being jealous of creatures like them. They were older than her, several centuries most likely, despite their appearances. They were not human, not even remotely. They were beings of magic, not held down by the restraints of this world. She’d been terribly distracted at first, being in such close contact with two powerful taiyoukai and not trying to kill them.

With her priestess powers at their height, she could feel their auras like cloth dancing over her skin. It had been distracting at first, then escalated into downright painful. She hadn’t stopped walking or said anything, but her powers had fought against her barriers, and it had become increasingly difficult to retain the iron-like control Kikyou had ingrained in her system.

Pulling her fingers through her hair in an agitated way, Kagome glared aimlessly. She’d been doing that a lot lately, too.

After being exposed to the same auras for many hours her miko powers had quieted, apparently aware she was in no real danger.

The sound of a twig snapping behind her brought her out of her reverie. Her eyes rose from the ground and she looked ahead, already knowing it was Masao.

“Kagome-san?”

“Hm?”

“Is there a demon nearby?”

“Besides you and Sesshoumaru-sama?”

“…Yes.”

“Then no. I don’t think so.” She shut her eyes again, loosing herself in the rush of power that flowed through her veins.

Masao placed a hand on her shoulder, coaxing her out of her trance. The two of them had traveled together for two weeks now and grown increasingly closer. Masao was still fighting with himself, pulling up memories of Leiko whenever he had a surge of emotions for Kagome. His defenses were dwindling quickly; he was still surprised he could feel so easily for a girl not even half his age.

Kagome opened her eyes and released the hold on her powers, sighing as they fell dormant in her soul once again. Her hand outstretched as a bird landed on her finger.

It wasn’t so much a bird as a killing, eating machine in feathers.

A falcon perhaps, but like none Kagome had seen in her textbooks.

Large, but weightless on her hand, the falcon eyed her with a cocked head and oddly intelligent gray eyes.

Kagome’s eyes widened in shock and Masao blinked.

Animals were drawn to Kagome; she was a priestess, a maiden of the elements, and a tool for the gods. It wasn’t surprising animals found her comforting and appealing, so Kagome had had plenty of birds land on her before. But this falcon wasn’t exactly…

Cute.

The main color appeared black, but shone a deep green in the light. The tips of his wings were a bright, glittering yellow, and his talons were…

Blue?

Kagome leaned a little closer, knowing (or hoping) that the thing wouldn’t claw her, and studied the insanely sharp talons. Digging. Into. Her. Skin.

She raised her head and realized two things.

One, the bird had no aura.

Two, Masao was staring the bird in the eyes. Not a bad thing, except he was leaning over her. Meaning his big, strong, male chest was brushing against her back.

“Um, Masao-san?”

He made a weird half-sound and glanced at her.

“Could you… and I don’t want to sound rude… maybe. Back. Up.”

Masao stiffened and looked down at their positions before grinning slightly and moving away. “Forgive me, Kagome-san.”

Kagome nodded and turned her attention back to the bird. “Masao, can you sense anything coming from this bird?”

Masao’s eyebrows scrunched up in an adorable way and he leaned forward again, sniffing delicately. “No, not even a scent.”

“Weird…”

“Are you two quite finished?”

Kagome squeaked and jumped, the bird hopped down to a boulder, and Masao stepped back, staring in shock. The bird’s head cocked again, his eyes blinking.

Kagome and Masao looked at each other, then leaned forward toward the bird.

“I asked you two a question.”

The two of them whirled around, their eyes shooting to Sesshoumaru as he watched them vacantly.

“Um… I thought the bird… and the question… nevermind…” Kagome grabbed her bow and quiver, pulled it over a shoulder and walked toward the path Sesshoumaru had said they’d be following, staring at the ground.

“Kagome!” Masao called from behind her.

“What?” She didn’t even raise her voice, knowing they’d hear her.

“You forgot your bag.”

She closed her eyes and grit her teeth, turning around slowly.

It wasn’t Masao standing a few inches from her. That would be less embarrassing and the gods couldn’t have that.

It was the Western lord.

Kagome was less than thrilled.

“Thank-you, Sesshoumaru-sama.”

He thrust the bag into her hands and leaned down to stare her in the eyes. “If you weren’t so useful I’d kill you.”

“Wow, thanks for the comforting words.”

Masao made a choking sound from behind Sesshoumaru and Kagome’s eyes widened, realizing she’d said that out loud.

“Um… What I meant to say was, ‘thank-you for restraining yourself, Sesshoumaru-sama’.”

His eyes tapered, but Kagome didn’t really notice. Her eyes were fixed on one of the stripes on his face. Tiny little black veins ran through the prominent markings, twisting and coiling like vines on the maroon background. The smell of parchment and exotic spices and strength clouded the air around her, but it only succeeded in awakening her senses and heightening her awareness of whom exactly she was in front of.

Sesshoumaru made a vague reply and stood, walking away without another word. Kagome turned to watch him go, her eyes narrowed at his back.

This is going to be worse than that time I forgot to bring my gym clothes to school and had to wear Yuka’s which were way to small on me, she thought while trailing behind the two youkai’s.

Remembering how just about everything had been exposed when she’d bent down to retrieve the volleyball, Kagome winced.

Then whimpered.

Fate was Naraku in disguise, obviously.

Sesshoumaru: Small gym clothes… bending down… showing everything… *shudders*

Kagome: …

Sesshoumaru: … I just made fun of your person. Are you not going to retaliate?

Kagome: … *shakes head* I’m attempting to decipher the dream. It baffles me.

Sesshoumaru: It baffles me that you learned a new vocabulary word.

Kagome: You want to know another one? Okay! Malformation. It basically defines your existence.

Sesshomaru: … She’s killing you off in a later chapter. I can feel it.

Evil, evil tags.