The Once and Future Taiyoukai By RosieB. (Inuyasha FanFic)

Chapter 7: Soliloquy

ALL RIGHTS TO ROSIE B ON FANFICTION.NET Rosie B [https://www.fanfiction.net/u/38149/RosieB]

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Chapter 7: Soliloquy

The Once and Future Taiyoukai

Chapter 7: Soliloquy

She was so small. So fragile. He had to be careful, or he would crush her. Already his claws were tightening too much where he held her, on her upper arm and the outside of her thigh. She couldn't afford to lose any more blood and he could not prick her. But it was hard. He wanted to keep a good hold on her.

As if that would help.

He tried to keep his attention on his path and his speed. He was barely touching the grass as he ran, but he tried not to leap over anything but rivers. Vertical movement didn't help, he told himself. And it only jostled Kagome more than was necessary. And he could outmaneuver anything that crossed his path.

These were the things he thought about, the things he kept in his mind to keep from thinking about the dying girl in his arms. And yet, every minute or so, he would look down at her pale little face and realize that he was doing this all for her. And each time, he was struck by how strange that was.

Really, it was very odd. He had only met her a few days before, after all. And despite her easy words and her ready laughter, Sesshoumaru was never so generous.

Oh, Sesshoumaru. You're too hard on yourself. You're generous to me.

Yes, that's what she would say. She would be laughing, or at least smiling softly. She might reach out and touch the back of his hand, as she had been wont to do in the past couple of days. He had wondered what those touches meant. They had no explanation like the embarrassing embrace in the middle of the forest, when she had been crying on him. Humans were so emotional. But he didn't think they were quite so affectionate with taiyoukai as she seemed to be. He wondered if she would ever wake up again, so that he could ask her.

Of course she would wake up. How ridiculous, to think that he might fail. He did not fail. Not when it was this important. And this was important to him, although he wasn't quite certain why.

The truth of the matter was that he dealt out death, despite Kagome's naïve ideas about his generosity. (He suspected she wasn't really that naïve. Sometimes, he saw a hardness in her eyes that told him that she had seen just as much death as he had. It surprised him that she could still laugh and smile at all.) He was a ruthless killer. Perhaps not as proficient as his father, or the assassins they kept in the army, but he was getting there. His tutors had said that he had the makings of a great general and his father had been proud.

Bloodlust ran in the family. Aside from the story he had told to Kagome about his uncle and his madness-driven transformation, Sesshoumaru could think of at least seven close relatives that had died in battle offhand. That didn't count the many inuyoukai that had died from wounds later, after their men had dragged them out of the fray. It explained why he and his father were now the last left.

So why was he saving this little human girl? Why was he willing to run for two and a half days straight - something that would exhaust even him to the point of collapse - for her? He had no great hatred of humans, but no great love of them either. It did not make sense.

See? I told you that you were generous. The voice was back in his head, lilted with light teasing. Only Kagome had ever gotten away with that tone around him. Maybe you're just a big softie at heart.

She had said that to him the night they had left the village, after he had carried her for hours on his back. He had growled at her for it, but she had simply smiled and laid down to go back to sleep. She hadn't pressed it any further and he had been grateful, because he could see that the other priestess had been watching them. Even then she was suspicious.