Cinnamon Roses by AiVixen

Serpent in the Moonlight

Kagome rose quietly from her sleeping bag. Licking her lips, she stood frozen for a moment, assessing her situation. Inuyasha was asleep - at least, she hoped so, and only shifted slightly with her upwards movement.

Kagome resisted the urge to grin at her luck. Inuyasha slept so infrequently, it was a blessing of freedom in itself to be awake when he finally took a few hours off guard duty.

Sometimes she hated herself for taking advantage of his unconsciousness. Every time he slept, he was wracked with nightmares and woke drenched in sweat. To rise from one nightmare to find yourself trapped in another one - such as an alleged charge's disappearance... It was cruel, Kagome mourned. But habits were difficult to break, and refuge was most sweetly found in a situation that was not entirely safe or planned. Besides, she deserved a nice long walk.

Stepping carefully around the dreaming bodies of her tortured friends, Kagome tried to banish her guilt by gulping in a breath of cold midnight air. A smile fought her furrowed brow, and she found herself forgetting her doubts. Gorgeous night...

She stepped into the teal forestry and she was so far gone, she could have forgotten what she had to go back to. But the light of morning was a fair reminder, and the look of Inuyasha's frantic terror that loomed on the edge of her vision, warning her against an extensive excursion.

The velvety night played with her dark hair, tossing it to and fro and driving her to such a sense of giddiness she could have run in her excitement. She grinned wildly and picked up her pace. Glancing past trees and half-skipping, Kagome felt oddly unworldly.

The first notes of her erratic hum plunged her into a world of deep contemplation. She looked back over her days in feudal Japan.

Shippou, the little fox-demon who jumped to offer his welcoming warmth every time she returned from her modern world. Sango, the woman who, despite her tragic past, managed to offer the most beautiful smile of friendship and the best words of advice. Kirara, who was the clever cat-demon who protected everyone with the same vigor as Inuyasha.

Miroku was a happy-go-lucky monk who hid his sorrow and fright behind a perverted grin of unconditional companionship. Finally, there was a hybrid dog-demon who had experienced a hatred and betrayal like none of them could begin to imagine.

But it wouldn't be a fair evaluation if she didn't take into account all the individuals who had affected her personal fairy tale.

Kaede was an old woman, formerly a powerful priestess' younger sister, who would sacrifice her own comfort and welfare to help them and offer advice and support. Kikyou was an undead lady who had protected the sacred Shikon jewel to the end of her life.

Naraku was a collection of thousands of demons, the epitome of evil and greed, smirking at the pain of others. He was vengeful and prone to heartless actions.

Rin was the small companion to a demon lord, cheery and jovial and energetic, with a love for flowers and sunshine.

As for Sesshoumaru... Sesshoumaru was a wild card. He was cruel and cold-blooded, until he adopted a tiny human girl and accepted a sword that practically bled pure white magic. Every time one thought they had him figured out, the high-ranking demon would change abruptly and dare you to figure the new quirk out with a narrowing of the sun-colored eyes.

Kagome sighed and shook her head. So man faces. And there was the abominable Jaken, whose annoying nature couldn't be properly translated into the Japanese language. Kagura - Kanna - Kouga - Kohaku - so many people...

She was jerked from her mindset when she slipped thoughtlessly through a veil of trees and was suddenly being oppressed by a blanket of flickering universe.

But no - she stood on the crest of a hill, wild grass caressing her bare ankles, the twinkling spider web of stars extending above her, the candlelit village swooping before her, all enclosed and enhanced by a cloud of scorching fireflies. Taking a breath to ground her in reality again, Kagome straightened to study the lightened huts swelling before her. It was directly in the path of the traveling group of shard hunters, so they'd probably be seeing this place tomorrow.

Putting her hands on her hips and deciding that this was probably the end of her journey, she was about to do an extravagant about-face back to her camp before the pattering of prancing footsteps sounded loudly behind her and she ended up clumsily swirling around in shock and instinctive horror to note the source.

Regaining her balance mere seconds before she was nearly tackled to the ground by the little girl, Kagome couldn't deny the friendly smile that parted her lips.

"Rin! Good evening." She spoke pleasantly, touching the girls head fondly.

"Hello, Kagome." Rin replied, turning doe-like brown eyes up to meet Kagome's, and the older woman came to the same revelation that she always did when she ran into the girl: What demon or matter of beast could be capable of denying this child anything?

"What are you doing out so late?" Kagome inquired politely, "aren't you tired? Where is -" She stopped abruptly as the vision in white appeared above Rin's head, and she flew into attention so quickly, she felt whiplash and dizziness set in at the same unfortunate instance. She blinked and wet her lips.

"Sesshoumaru." The word tasted like liquid moon on her tongue, unexplainable in the most ethereal, dangerous, careening-crazy fashion. "Sesshoumaru-sama." She corrected herself quickly, feeling the liquid become sharp and sturdy and real. Sesshoumaru itself, plainly, was just too personal. Kagome shivered as she looked upon the silver silken angel - the ugliest, most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on.

He did not move, or seem to acknowledge her. Kagome clamped down on the urge to dance on the balls of her feet in nervousness. Feeling it would be insulting and suicidal to step either behind or in front of the child - in fact, she was endangering herself with a hand on Rin's crown - she skipped to the side, chewing the inside of her lip.

When Sesshoumaru still did not display any evidence of breathing existence, Kagome cleared her throat.

"Inuyasha isn't with me." She hated how her voice trembled, though her eyes rose defiantly to meet his own glinting honey orbs. 'He can smell every emotion on me, anyway. Just like Inuyasha.' Kagome thought, despairingly. 'Better than Inuyasha.' She added wryly. 'You're so talented at getting yourself into messes.'

Once again jumping at the mental picture of the distraught Inuyasha, Kagome stepped forward with renewed courage.

"Are you going to let me go back to him?" Pleaseyesgods. She thought absurdly as she carefully watched Sesshoumaru's expression. Maybe he was still in his healing-sword-savior-of-human-girls phase, and would let her go. Maybe...? Of course, it frightened her how her impression of him would drastically change if he did so. Would she rather die than see him in a forgiving light?

His intense gold eyes thinned at her words, and he slowly brought a clawed hand up to brush a pristine lock of silver from his pale complexion. She was in a state of euphoria, entranced by his striking solute as he seemed to measure her up. He was like a serpent, holding his prey's gaze with deadly elegance while it found the best place to lunge for. Letting out a shallow breath that seemed to thunder in her ears, Sesshoumaru turned away and let his grace carry him innocently away.

"Come, Rin." He invoked, and the little girl, perhaps as enchanted as Kagome, flew after him with rehabilitated adoration, throwing her hand behind her in an absent, uncaring wave. She meant well, Kagome was sure.

Endowing her lips with forgotten moisture, Kagome called it a night and tumbled back to safety with a new appreciation for it. Except... Sesshoumaru's unpredictable danger factor was as alluring as the night and moon... and her friend's safe haven tendency around her.

"You just tried to kill me, didn't you?!" Those had been her accusing words the first time she had met Sesshoumaru, and he seemed to have changed so much.

So had she, she supposed. She had been such a ditz when she had made that exclamation... What else could Sesshoumaru possibly have been trying to do?

Kagome, of course, wasn't one to deem how prudent she had grown, or how kind, or how much better, character-wise... Her power had changed though, and it was a provable fact.

Mostly, the magic was written in her eyes. They used to be dark chocolate, ugly and common. Since, they had lightened to a starkly unique shade of sun kissed cinnamon, laced with white magic unbelievable and unprecedented in a mortal.

She was silent as a deer as she tiptoed over to her sleeping bag to join Shippou. He mumbled when she curled up with him, and she smiled with wry humor. She was so addicted to 'freedom' and 'danger' that she almost sacrificed the makings of her sweetest moments without a thought. Her early hour walks always seemed ridiculous when she found herself in the face of her friends again.

With a sigh of almost comical mourning, Kagome turned over and tried to fall asleep. The image of the moonlit-firefly-lit Sesshoumaru on the hill was etched into her mind and burned the black hollow of her sleep...

When Kagome woke up, it was to the glaring face of Inuyasha crouched over her, his gold eyes narrowed and inches from her face. She yelled and watched him fall back in surprise and pain.

"Stupid woman! What the hell do you think you're doing, yelling in people's faces like that?!"

"What are you doing, sitting right in front of a person when they sleep?! Pervert! Sit!" Kagome jumped up and clutched at her chest, glaring.

"Been taking lessons from Miroku, Inuyasha?" Shippou mocked slyly from beneath the thick sleeping bag. His hands were over his ears, but he was wide awake, grinning.

"Bas-"

"Sit." Inuyasha didn't finish the vulgarity before he found himself swallowing dirt. He glared at the giggling fox who now found itself perched safely on Kagome's shoulder.

"Ah - Inuyasha." Miroku spoke charitably with a wide, mischievous smile, "if I told you once I told you a thousand times." He shook his chopsticks in demonstration, flinging a fraction of a half-cooked Ramen noodle at the fallen boy. "Never offer anything in the morning. It unsettles woman to find their dreams coming true before their eyes."

Kagome blushed beet red and seethed. Miroku winked. Shippou guffawed. Inuyasha snarled. Sango wrestled with the pot of Ramen and the small cooking fire. Kirara sat on the sidelines and watched.

"... What time is it?" Kagome finally yawned, resolving to calm her fury by changing the subject.

"Late, Kagome. You slept in." Sango replied absently, her attention completely fixated on the now charred soup.

"Are you making breakfast?" Kagome asked uneasily.

"Yes..." Sango began, then: "I'm not a very good cook." She looked sheepish. Kagome patted her on the shoulder.

"Practice makes perfect." Kagome offered a smile and crunched on the Ramen. 'Demons... are worse than this...' Kagome suppressed a grimace, trying to be optimistic in the face of the unnaturally dark concoction...

"Hurry up." Inuyasha growled irritably, edging away from his favorite dish, "we've gotta leave soon."

"Inuyasha...!" But Kagome quickly rose, deserting her breakfast, and made for her backpack.

"You're going to be a professional at it someday, Sango!" Kagome exclaimed while she stumbled to put away her things and pull on her clothes.

After the fifth school uniform got destroyed by monster slime, Kagome's mother had suggested gently that Kagome go in less formal clothes. She had added that besides, if they had to specially order ten uniforms a year, people might begin asking questions. Kagome reluctantly agreed, though her situation felt more permanent in everyday clothes.

People gave her as many strange looks for her jeans as they did for her indecent skirts, so she learned not to mind. Even though the material got heavy when it rained, at least Miroku couldn't fall over and catch a glimpse of her panties anymore, and there were less bug bites and scrapes on her legs. She didn't have to moon every demon she sprinted away from... It was better in the long run.

Kagome whipped her hair up into a ponytail, disregarding sullenly Inuyasha's wistful look, and moved on ahead of the group.

"Is there a village up here?" She asked absently.

"Yes." Miroku smiled at her, an intelligent and friendly gleam in his eye. 'Miroku is nice to have around.' She thought happily, 'he can be a good friend.'

"It's not a very big village, and it's very... quiet. There is no rebellion in it; the people are peaceful."

"Finally." Shippou snorted around his lollypop. "We always run into stupid humans."

"Shippou." Kagome chastised absently.

"They are." Shippou murmured argumentatively.

The village was indeed very quiet. It was a fortunate thing that they did not need a place to stay for the night, because all the doors were shut so tightly they could have slept on the street and nobody would have noticed.

The lords house was dark, but Miroku nor Kagome felt anything odd lurking in the village, so they moved on silently, afraid to rile up the people or disturb the peace.

"Maybe they don't like demons." Shippou sniffed, deciding that the village was unfriendly and un-fun and thus, stupid. Inuyasha was silent.

"Maybe they're just unnerved by my unusual dress. At least before they could pretend I was just some easy girl with a tiny kimono. Who knows what they think of me now?" Kagome asked, disheartened. 'Maybe I should follow behind. Or start prancing around in priestess garb. Not that Inuyasha needs any more reminders as to who I'm the reincarnation of. It sure would make things easier though.' Kagome sighed.

"Don't worry, Kagome-sama. I've also heard that the people of this village bear haunted eyes. They're as skittish as wild horses." But Miroku looked uneasy, as if he couldn't believe a dark spirit wasn't at work here. As if he was far away, looking for a sign. A reason to fall into a defensive position.

'It is discomforting when you think you're missing something and can't figure it out.' Kagome allowed, her brow scrunching in thought.

They sped along the roads as quickly as they could, wishing they had skirted it instead. When they had broken away from the central huddle of huts, Kagome let out a breath she hadn't know she'd been holding.

"What an unsettling place." Sango murmured, fondling Kirara. Kagome shuddered.

"It gives me the creeps." Shippou voiced her thoughts.

They walked on in silence, but it wasn't until the vanilla-pink creamy dusk that another party spoke to them, his cold voice succeeding in turning their lingering edginess to an emotion less significant than mild content.

"Sesshoumaru." Kagome tried not to gasp. She felt her blood turn to ice; speaking his name seemed to make his appearance that much less of a dream.

His gaze fell on her, and she swallowed. Who is going to win tonight? She couldn't tell if the mental voice was her own, or his. She felt an irrational urge to spread her arms out and defend the antagonistic demon. 'How ridiculous,' She mocked herself - or was it Sesshoumaru inside her head that mocked her? 'How ridiculous...'

"Sesshoumaru." It was moon-stuff on her lips again, and she was almost driven to tears, realizing that she had, in fact, altered her opinion of Sesshoumaru after he so miraculously spared her life. 'No!' She wanted to shout. 'I don't know you! What enchantment are you working? Who are you?...'

'Who, indeed.' He seemed to answer, but the battle had already begun.