Fear not the flame of my love's candle
Let it be the sun in your world of darkness
Give unto me all that frightens you
I'll have your nightmares for you
If you sleep soundly
She sat there and watched the waning moon wondering what Kouga was doing, wondering if he was going to be ok. Eventually she fell asleep perched in the tree but she was plagued by horrid dreams of the shards, Naraku and worst of all the math test that was a week from now. But during one of the Naraku dreams she just couldn’t get away. It was one of those dreams where you couldn’t scream and it didn't matter what you did you couldn’t win. Then suddenly she found her self in a pair of strong arms when she looked behind her Naraku was gone.
She took a deep breath and looked up to her surprise it was Sesshoumaru, her eyes widened. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes as she tried to push away only making him tighten his grip on her. Eventually she gave up and tightened her grip on his shirt. Then she pulled her self closer to him burying her face in his chest, and then she wondered why. Why was he such a comfort to her?
“Sesshoumaru?” she questioned him with a lazy voice. “Why?” She was so tired; she smiled at him as he whipped one of her tears away.
“Kagome…” his voice was so soft for him and she pulled away just enough to look into his amber eyes. “Sleep Kagome…” she could feel her eyelids becoming heavy and she blinked at him as he picked her up.
“But I…” he pulled her closer and wondered if her miko powers where causing her physical pain. He did know why but the thought of her in pain deeply disturbed him.
“Sleep deeply Kagome…” the last thought she had was why was he talking to her like that, maybe its just because this is a dream.
She woke the next morning wrapped in her tail. She snuggled in feeling safe and warm; she didn't want to get up. As she closed her eyes again she saw that soft amber soft gaze locked with hers. Who was that, why can’t I remember his face. I know those eyes. She opened her eyes and blinked remembering the dream; she realized she slept with out waking up and with out the bad dreams.
She looked to everyone below, they where still sleeping. She released her tail letting it drape over her shoulder in pure Sesshoumaru style. She dropped silently out of the tree and walked over to Kouga who had come back in the middle of the night. She wanted to lay with him next to the fire pit, and she wanted to comfort him. But she didn't want him to think that she had just been nervous.
She got some wood then sat next to him and started a fire. As she poked the fire to keep it alive Kouga started to move. She looked over as he opened his eyes; he glanced around till his eyes met hers. She blinked then looked back to the fire.
“Kagome…” she gave him a side glance. “What did you dream about last night?” her tail twitched, as she smelled his distress.
“Naraku, why?” he frowned.
“Then why did you say his name?” Kagome blinked for a moment and frowned thinking about it. He sat up and looked at her. “Sesshoumaru… you called him in your dreams.” Kagome blinked again as she raised an eyebrow.
“Sesshoumaru?” he scowled and quickly looked at the ground. “It wasn’t like that Kouga.” Or was it like that. She sighed; she could still feel his arms wrapped around her. She was comfortable in his arms so why did it frighten her?
“Ohhh?” he stood up and towered over her, his hands where shaking as he balled them into fists and narrowed his eyes. She had never seen him this up set. She scowled at him and stood up to face him.
“You think I would lie to you?” she snapped only inches away from his face making him almost fall backward. He frowned, how much had she changed?
“I don’t know would you?” he already regretted saying that as her hair started to rise around her, women seemed to do that when they where angry but she was a demon now. Scary.
Her eyes started to turn a deep maroon and she started to shake, he could almost see the fire crawling over her body in waves. She balled her fists then started to growl at him. She turned around to leave but he grabbed her by the shoulder.
“What?” she snapped as she turned on him. Pain flashed across his face as she bared her teeth. He thought he felt the ground shake and the air vibrate.
“Kagome… I…” she lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow. She wanted to lay him out so bad, one swift shot to the jaw… that’s all it would take to get him out of her face. Kagome clenched her jaw.
“I know your sorry…” the end of her tail twitched and she turned away from him and started walking.
As Kagome walked away from Kouga she wondered how long he was going to be like that. Then she realized she was being over sensitive.
{“But he had no right to call you a liar.”
“No he didn't but that doesn’t give me a reason to freak out like that.”}
She stopped and looked at her hands for a moment turning them this way and that. She was still her self but now that she was a demon she felt like she loved him in a ‘human’ way. She still loved him but it was different.
What made it different she silently wondered? It didn't feel like a family kind of love or even the love one would hold for a friend. She stopped next to a stream and watched the water gently roll over the small pebbles. She was deep in thought when not far off she heard soft footfall. She could smell him and wondered why he was here.
“Sesshoumaru…” she whispered as he walked up next to her and shot her a chilly side-glance; she smirked nervously. “Having a bad day?” he glared at her and she lifted a coy eyebrow at him.
“No.” Kagome eyed him wondering what he was up to. She was afraid of him but her foul mood seemed to get the best of her.
“Oh really?” she grinned as he stared down his nose at her. She was getting to big for her fluffy little tail he thought to himself. He suddenly snatched her up by neck making her flinch as he lifted her off the ground.
“Do not forget who you are talking to little miko.” She strived for air as she lifted her hands to his arm and stared at him around his hand.
He glared at her thinking that this made a wonderful test; he looked her over and noticed that her tail was curling and uncurling. He looked back at her slightly pail face thinking that if she didn't do something soon he would have to put her down. He was very tempted just to let her die and normally he would have. But Rin had softened him enough that he wouldn’t. Then he felt a furry thing that could only be her tail twine tightly around his hand. He watched her eyes as she tightened her grip then she swung her legs up around his arm. He raised an eyebrow at her; this was definitely different from what most would have done.
She started to growl and black tendrils crept across her already darkened eyes as she moved one of her legs to his chest tightened her hands around his wrist digging her claws into his flesh. He tightened his grip on her neck as he felt all of her muscles bunch up, he knew she was trying to pull away and realized that she had been holding her breath for quite some time. Suddenly as he pondered how she was still awake she kicked him square in the chest right between the spikes on his armor. It wasn’t enough to knock the wind out of him but just enough that she had caught him off guard and escaped his grasp.
As she landed she unwrapped her tail and started to growl. The blackness had covered her eyes and she lunged for him baring her now dangerously long teeth. The plan was to catch her and restrain her till she was calm but Kouga came leaping out of the bushes at him. Sesshoumaru stepped aside and let the foolish wolf soften Kagomes fall; he knew the wolf was trying to regain her attentions. But what he failed to realize was that Kagome a strong willed girl to begin with now she had new blood coursing threw her making her stronger and making her standards for a mate higher than before.
As Sesshoumaru thought he watched Kagome crash into Kouga tearing into him. She must have been blinded by her rage obviously not knowing that her target was off to the side. Kouga was trying to defend him self and not hurt her in the process. Sesshoumaru snickered and not whishing Kagome to feel guilty about killing her suitor he walked over and plucked the girl off him. She struggled until he wove his arms with hers and locked his hands together behind her head. Kouga stood up holding his shoulder where she had broken his armor away and ripped into his shoulder shredding much of the flesh. The result of her wild attack was a blood covered shoulder, seeing as he was holding her hands it was really the only thing she could have done.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER!?” Sesshoumaru lifted one of his delicate eyebrows.
“I was reminding her who she was dealing with.” The wolfs tail started to whip back and forth more like a cats than a wolf.
“YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!” Kouga took a step toward him.
“Yes… but the question is would I have killed her?” Kouga stopped in his tracks thrown off by the question.
Sesshoumaru looked down at the black haired beauty that he was holding as she stopped trying to get away. She looked at Kouga and her eyes widened as the blackness receded, the last thing she could remember was watching Sesshoumaru's calm face as her vision faded and she wrapped her tail around his arm. When she realized that she was being restrained she tried to look back but could only see a white fluffy thing that answered that question, she thought about trying to get away but she didn't know if she could. As Kagomes senses started to come back she could taste the blood.
“Ohhh my god Kouga!” to Kagomes shock Sesshoumaru let go of her as she started to move toward the wolf. “Are you ok?” she looked at his arm as her eyes started to sparkle with tears. She looked back at Sesshoumaru who was walking over to them.
“I’m fine…” he glared at Sesshoumaru. “Don’t you come near her!” he pushed Kagome to the side making her frown and narrow her eyes.
“She doesn’t need you to protect her any more.” Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru then looked at her hands realizing that they where moist, what she found was blood.
She looked back to the advancing pail figure and saw blood dripping down his hand; she wanted to run but she forced her self to stay figuring that if he wanted to kill her he would have. She walked up next to Kouga and touched his uninjured shoulder as she glanced at his hard angry face. Was he angry because Sesshoumaru was right or because Sesshoumaru was hurting her Kagome wondered. Kouga looked at her clenching his shoulder. Before Kagome could say anything Inuyasha was next to leap out of the under brush. He collided with Kouga and Kagome thought that she was going down too until she felt a pair of soft strong arms around her waist.
She blinked and looked up at Sesshoumaru then back to the boys, her eyes widened as her blood started to run cold and her sent became laced with fear. It was his eyes that scared her they where different and he smelled different. She pushed away from the great lord as he loosened his grip. The boys managed to untangle and stand up glaring at Sesshoumaru as Kagome backed toward them.
“What’s going on?!” Inuyasha looked at everyone in tern and his gaze settled on the young blood covered miko. “Your not hurt are you?” it was a stupid question but he couldn’t help it, he had spent so long saying that it just kinda popped out.
“She can protect her self.” the boys looked at a slightly bitter sounding Sesshoumaru but Kagomes eyes where trained on Kouga’s shoulder. She couldn’t remember what happened, she felt the air shift around her and looked over to see Sesshoumaru right behind her looking down on her.
“What happened?” Sesshoumaru looked from her to the boys and lifted an eyebrow.
“We will talk about that in privet.” She took a deep breath and glared at him as he turned around and walked away.
“I hate that.” She snapped then found her self with him holding her chin tightly. Her anger melted into a respectful fear.
“Get used to it.” he turned around and left.
Get used to it? What the hell did that mean? He couldn’t mean that he was going to stick around. Kagome started to growl making the boys shiver at the blatant reminder of what she really was. She stopped and turned around to see them just staring at her, she sighed feeling her heavy emotions ebb away as she walked over to Kouga.
“Let me see that.” He obediently moved his arm for her. She winced when she saw the deep wound she had caused; she had bitten deep and obviously shook his shoulder seeing the deep marks she left. She idle wondered how deep they where. “I’m sorry….” She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as her eyes started to glitter with new tears.
“Its ok Kagome…” he sighed as tears streamed down her face, he pulled her close despite the pain it caused him. “Its not your fault.” She bent down and rinsed her hands off then rinsed her mouth. She moved away from the river and looked at the sky. Night was starting to fall.
“We should get back.” Inuyasha said as he placed a hand on Kagomes shoulder. She looked at them and both nodded. She walked between them not wanting to look at them and the pain crept across her stomach and up her back.
She wanted to get this under control. She wondered if she would lose it again. She wondered if she would accidentally kill someone; the thought made her shiver. She tried to push the morbid thoughts away not wanting to awaken her over active imagination.