Moments in Time by LC Rose (One-Shot #36)
Title: Moments in Time
Author: LC Rose
Rating: T
Prompt: Obstacle (One Shot #36)
Genfic: Drama
Word Count: 1487
Warnings: hanyou language (we all know how Inu talks…)
Summary: Kagome confronts her friends where Sesshoumaru is concerned.
a/n: This piece is a continuation for I Will Find You: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5391934/1/I_Will_Find_You
Kagome felt like a wayward child as she entered the still-waking village from her tryst with Sesshoumaru. At her insistence, Sesshoumaru had returned her to the outskirts of the village despite his obvious reluctance to leave her there. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on her side this morning. Her plans for a quiet entrance failed dismally as she only made it a few steps before Inuyasha appeared.
He landed before her, snow flying up around them from his entrance. In his hands he clutched her shoes and his face was twisted with anger. His eyes darted around, looking for any threats as he sniffed the air. “Kagome,” he growled, his voice a mixture of anger and relief.
She snatched her shoes from him, hurrying to put them on her feet as she doubted this conversation would be as brief as she’d like it to be. “Inuyasha,” she said with false cheer, fighting against the urge to look behind her and make sure Sesshoumaru truly was gone. Guilt swelled within her, but she knocked it aside. By the Kami, there was nothing she had to be feeling guilty about! “Thanks for my shoes. What are you doing up so early?”
He looked less than convinced by her performance, dislike written across his face. "Where have you been, Kagome?"
"Out," she answered lightly. "I've been out."
Inuyasha shifted his stance, his eyes accusing. "And who the fuck were you out with?”
In the space of a heartbeat, Kagome debated her answer to such a question. There was no way in hell she could pursue a relationship with Sesshoumaru and not include the life she had now. There was no way happiness on such a front could be gained without blending in evenly the way things were now. Oh, she knew there would be hardships and grievousness, but she just had to believe that everything would work out in the end. “I was with Sesshoumaru.”
“And what did you do with him?”
Kagome stiffened at the unsaid accusations riddling Inuyasha’s tone. “That’s none of your business, Inuyasha.”
As if her answer surprised him, as if he hadn’t already smelled Sesshoumaru all over her, Inuyasha stuttered and took a step back. His mouth opened to form an opinion and then quickly snapped shut once more. It opened again and Kagome prepared herself for the incoming tirade, but once again he shut it without comment. "He's courting me," she continued, feeling as if she were driving the nail into the coffin. She held up the white flower, which had miraculously survived her encounter with Sesshoumaru, and sniffed it delicately. "He's courting me," she said again, more strongly than before.
"Courting you?!" Inuyasha finally choked out, struggling to form those words as he did. "That fucking bastard--"
"Is a different man than you know," Kagome defended, her ire raised. She snapped her head upwards, proud to be who she was and proud to be where she had been. "You, Inuyasha," she said, dragging out his name in a way she knew would grate upon his hearing, “Never did anything. I loved you for longer than I knew possible. I gave everything I had and nothing seemed to be enough.”
“You never fucking asked me to do anything, Kagome!”
“Ugghh!” she screamed out of pure frustration, the bewildered look on his face only serving to anger her more. Are all men this clueless?! He was acting as if he’d never known how she felt about him. “I shouldn’t have had to!”
A heavy silence descended. Kagome glared at Inuyasha as he glared back. The tension was intense but somehow strangely satisfying. “A girl can only take so much,” she finally said, breaking the quiet. “Before she accepts that something will not ever be and moves on.”
“To Sesshoumaru?! What in the hell about him can you fucking like? He’s a fucking cold-hearted bastard.”
“That’s enough, Inuyasha!”
"Kago--.”
"No," she interrupted, cutting him off. "You did nothing and yet someone who cared, someone who wanted to be where I placed you, stepped forward. Sesshoumaru," she clarified, both hating and loving the flinch that crossed her long time friend's face at the mention of his brother’s name. "He waited patiently for me all this time. He even came to me in the well when I was struggling most. It was because of him that I was able to hold on, to stay strong. So I damn well will give him a chance, Inuyasha!”
She had to admit in the darkest part of herself that there was something pleasing about watching Inuyasha struggle through this. It had been so long, during the years of their search for jewel shards, where she'd dealt with the same things he now was. Karma truly was a bitch--but a fair one, at least to her at this time-- to bring this back on him. "And you have nothing to say on this," Kagome concluded, straightening her spine as she did. "Nothing."
**
Several hours later Kagome found herself cornered by Sango. She should have, honestly, expected this. It was in Inuyasha’s nature to speak with Miroku, after all, when something bothered him…even if he took his own sweet time to do so. And naturally Miroku would share whatever concerns he had with his wife. “No kids today?” Kagome noted lightly, looking around for any hiding children.
“Miroku has taken them out,” Sango answered with a smile, her joy for the life she had now shining through. “He is so good with them.”
“And you doubted he would be?”
“Never.”
They shared a secret smile before Sango remembered herself and why she was there. “Kagome,” she began, using a tone that reminded Kagome of her own mother.
"Sango,” Kagome replied, keeping her own tone even as well. As much as she didn’t want to discuss this right now, she knew Sango wouldn’t let it go. “If you are here on Inuyasha's behalf, he's old enough to speak for himself."
"I am not here because of Inuyasha," Sango replied patiently. "And I am not here because Miroku has concerns, either. I am here because I question this."
"Really? And why is that?" Kagome asked, trying to keep the pique she was beginning to feel from showing. This was Sango, after all; the one who’d seen her through many relationship troubles in the past. Her friend caring about who she was seeing shouldn’t make her angry.
Sango took a deep, clarifying breath before she answered. "Because it is Sesshoumaru, Kagome."
"And?" Kagome pressed, determined to dig straight down to whatever bottom her best female friend seemed to want to reach. There had to be more of an argument to Sango’s case than who her…male interest…was. Sango wasn’t that shallow.
"I know youkai," Sango answered. "I was taught about them from the day of my birth. I know more about true youkai than you ever will, Kagome."
"Yes. You know how to kill them."
Sango sent her a disapproving glance. "That is unfair."
Kagome had to give in to that. Even though her words were true, they were still wrongly said. For some reason, though, her defenses were flaring. "I'm sorry," Kagome replied, hanging her head. "But I see the world differently than you and I see Sesshoumaru differently from you, too."
“You have always viewed everything differently, Kagome. It was one of the things I found so endearing about you and you have changed my own life more than you will ever know. But this is a step in a direction you have never gone before. You are walking into territory you know nothing about. Youkai are not like us. Some may look human, but they have entirely different lifestyles, different values. Have you forgotten who, exactly, Sesshoumaru is? Have you forgotten everything he has done?”
At that, Kagome raised her head once more. "No," she answered readily. "I haven't. Have you?"
“Kagome, I just don’t want you to be hurt any more than you already have. I love you. You are the sister I never had and have always been there for me. I just want to return the favor and be here for you now.”
“To tell me not to give Sesshoumaru a chance?” she asked, disbelief lacing her voice. “He was there for me, Sango. When all seemed lost, when all seemed unreachable, he was there.”
Sango sighed, her body losing the tension it had held. “Kagome, Sesshoumaru may seem like someone to make a connection with. He may put on a front now. But think of more than the present. Can you live as he does? Can you act like him? Because that is what it would take to survive in a youkai world and if you mate yourself with him that is the world you would be in. Youkai do not involve humans in their affairs. You would be considered an outsider for the rest of your life.”
Post a/n: much love to my beta, LordRandallslady…she makes my insanity more real