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Edge of Paradise	By : QueenoftheDream Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 5324 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor the characters from it. I made no money in writing this fiction.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
The chirping of birds and humming of cicadas surrounded the trio as they traversed the uneven terrain near the road. Sunset's blazing rays bore down upon the burdened miko. Sesshomaru, walking in front of her, seemed unaffected. In fact, he appeared to be unaffected by everything: the hot air and scorching sun, the humidity, the mud, the dried blood and bits of viscera splattered across his clothing…
In the time since they left Rin's village five hours previously, Kagome had carried the withdrawn child the entire time upon her left hip. Rin had been silent during the trek, opting instead to suck on her thumb as a child five years her junior would. Meanwhile, Kagome's arm was burning from the strain. It felt as if molten steel was pumping through the blood vessels. Coupled with the oppressive heat, she was approaching her physical limit.
"Say, Sesshomaru-sama, when will we be able to stop? It's approaching nightfall, and Rin and I need to eat." She got no reply whatsoever from the aloof demon. Resisting the urge to mumble peevishly, she awkwardly shifted her longbow to her left hand and shuffled Rin to rest upon her right hip. Her left arm and shoulder sagged in relief before her entire body tensed up as a new type of pain was introduced. The healing claw wounds in her right shoulder immediately began aching with the stress put upon the injuries. The edge of her sandal caught on the edge of an ill-placed stone, and she stumbled. Looking up, she saw that Sesshomaru had not turned around at either the sound of her uneven footfall or the surprised gasp that fell from her lips. She glared at the back of his head, gritted her teeth against the pain, and continued walking. Surely, Sesshomaru wouldn't make them walk through the night…
An hour later, Kagome was holding back tears and mentally slamming her face into a large, sandpapery boulder for being so stupid: stupid enough to believe Sesshomaru had a merciful bone in his body, and stupid enough to move Rin to her right side, where she promptly fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. Kagome couldn't bear to disturb the exhausted child for something as trivial as her own pain. With a tiny sigh, she continued forward, following the dim figure of the stoic demon before her.
As Kagome gently shifted Rin's uncomfortable position upon her right hip, Sesshomaru stopped and turned to look at the lagging miko. "We will make camp here," he stated in a clipped tone, crossing his arms upon his chest imperiously.
She looked around at the seemingly random location and brought her skeptical gaze back to Sesshomaru's hard face, one eyebrow rising in questioning. She got no response, and the stiff-shouldered demon walked into a thick copse of trees just off of the road. Kagome had no choice but to follow him into the darkness. As she approached, she saw him lounging against the trunk of a large oak, one arm slung over his knee casually.
Kagome carefully picked her way across the site in the darkness and gently deposited the sleeping Rin upon the ground under a soft-needled pine and settled against the bark of a tree nearby, wearily pulling a chip of dried meat out of her furoshiki and chewing on it apathetically. Swallowing the tough meat, she promptly closed her eyes as she began succumbing to exhaustion.
Just as she was standing upon the brink of sleep, she could hear a rustling to her left. She groggily opened her eyes and saw Sesshomaru staring at her. She returned his stare with a blank expression written in her half-awake eyes.
"Your wounds have reopened."
Her shoulders sank, and she resisted the impulse to slap herself in the forehead. Of course her wounds reopened. She felt the flesh begin tearing mere moments after shifting Rin to her right side during their hike. He roused her just to tell her that?
"Thank you, my lord. I was unaware," she dully muttered while closing her eyes, praying that he would not pursue conversation.
Those hopes went unrealized. "This would not have happened if you had just left the child in the village where it belonged."
Biting back an irritated growl, she turned her head to look at him once more. "Was I just supposed to leave her there to starve to death or succumb to the plague that killed her entire community? No, this would not have happened if you had bothered to help me carry supplies. I had to carry a limp child, a bow and quiver, and all of my rations and supplies." She testily crossed her arms and jammed her eyes shut, determined to ignore the maddening creature to her left.
"I fail to see how that is my problem," he levelly declared, crossing his own arms over his chest.
"But of course, the great 'Lord' Sesshomaru couldn't lower himself to help a dumb human, would he? No, of course not. I shouldn't have had the gall to expect some goodness out of such a 'highborn demon lord,' should I?"
She immediately regretted her irritable reply and turned, wide-eyed, to face Sesshomaru. His eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits, practically pinning her to the spot.
Sigh. "I'm sorry for snapping. I'm just really tired." She turned to curl up on the ground, her back resting against the trunk of the tree. "Good night, Sesshomaru-sama," she stated with finality, and she closed her eyes.
"Be sure to watch your tongue, miko. The next time you utter something so carelessly, it will be ripped out," was the reply she received, though it barely registered in her mind as she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
It seemed like mere moments later that a sharp stabbing sensation was tapping out an uneven pattern on her forehead. Furrowing her eyebrows, she sleepily tried to bury herself further into the fallen foliage on the hard ground. She was rewarded with the jabbing moving to the soft flesh of her temple. With a long exhalation, she turned her head and cracked open her eyes.
Mere inches from her, staring into her face were two large, unblinking mahogany brown eyes. Her own eyes snapped open and she bolted upward into a sitting position, her heart hammering in her chest. In front of her crouched Rin, sharp stick in hand with a broad smile stretched across her face.
Rubbing her abused temple tenderly, she chuckled when Rin burst into what appeared to be unprovoked laughter. Turning her head from side to side, effectively cracking the vertebrae in her neck, Kagome noticed that Sesshomaru was nowhere to be seen in the camp.
Both she and Rin were taken by surprise when a loud, solid 'thump' resounded around them, making them both jump as Rin scampered to hide behind Kagome. The miko turned to see Sesshomaru and, more importantly, the twitching, gushing body of a young spotted deer lying upon the ground before her. The stony-faced demon indifferently walked back to his tree trunk and leaned against it, examining his once again bloodied claws. Kagome's head swiveled to face him, and she was sure her expression was the very picture of grim apprehension. He did not meet her gaze.
She instead turned to the fawn before, which had stopped shuddering but was instead steadily leaking blood from a wide gash in the neck. Looking at its glassy eye, she hesitantly began skinning the animal with her tanto.
"Do not get accustomed to this, miko, for it is not my duty to provide for you."
Schlep.
"I have repaid my debt: you returned my life, and so I-"
Squelch.
"… I have ensured your survival for the next few days. With that, I leave you."
Grunt.
"I do not have time for your dawdling and slow pace of travel, so-"
Growl.
"-I will set out on my own, for I surely can achieve more than you, despite my being at odds with all persons in my path-"
With a frustrated groan, Kagome threw her hands up into the air, completely oblivious to what Sesshomaru had been saying. The mangled hide that she had been trying to remove from the carcass flopped over pitifully. "What? I don't have time to listen to your yammering-"
She was effectively cut off when Rin, who had been crouching behind her, ran toward the tall demon and latched onto his leg, muttering as she buried her face into the fabric. Sesshomaru was scowling down at the child as if she was some manner of grotesque growth or parasite.
Without thinking, Kagome hurriedly wiped her slick hands upon her still-muddy hakama and clumsily ran forward to enact some damage control. As she knelt by Rin's side at Sesshomaru's feet, she looked up at the unhappy male, whose left temple housed a vein that was pulsing in a rather curious manner. As she returned her gaze to the blubbering Rin, the young girl in question raised her red-splotched face, lips a-quiver and eyes brimming with shimmering tears, to look at Sesshomaru.
"D-don't leave, yokai-Sesshomaru-s-s-sama," Rin quietly entreated with a pathetically sweet and tiny voice. Kagome surreptitiously glanced up at the haughty demon, who refused to make eye contact with either of the females at his feet.
Kagome, sensing that the potential for danger had passed, returned to the bloody corpse of the deer. Sitting back upon the ground, she resumed what amounted to hacking and slicing what she hoped was skin and sinew and not edible flesh. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the demon's right hand slowly come down to hover awkwardly above Rin's head, while Rin was hugging his leg in what amounted to an extremely uncomfortable display of affection for the ornery demon.
When she reached to her left to pick up a large piece of fallen birch bark upon which to put carved pieces of the deer's flesh, she saw the animal in question being dragged away. Sesshomaru, in fact, had grabbed one of the hind legs, deftly plucked the tanto from her limp grasp, and positioned the animal in front of his crouched form with a barbed stare at the inept priestess. With a few smooth moves of his arms, he finished the work that Kagome had messily started with a grace that made her fumblings seem like the inconsequential arm flailing of a small child.
A sheepish grin wormed its way across her face despite her best efforts, and she could feel a blush of embarrassment creep up her neck. Suddenly finding the need to occupy herself, she made a point to gather dry bark and wood to start a fire so that some of the meat garnered from the carcass could be dried. She pointedly avoided Sesshomaru's trailing gaze as she walked past Rin, who had found her pointed stick and had taken to poking at an earthworm. She picked up a conveniently-shaped chunk of wood and ignored the desire to throw it at his smug head.
*** furoshiki: It's a piece of cloth tied around the shoulders, a knapsack of sorts. Sango carries one when in her commoner garb. It's the blue thing she carries around her shoulders.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Edge of Paradise