Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I leave that to the great master-mind who created the series.
I really hope you guys enjoy and let me know what you think!
Chapter 1: Indebted
Lord Sesshomaru was avoidant by nature – not only to humans, but to other demons. The high-road left him alone and untarnished by emotions and attachments, just the way he liked it.
“My Lord?” Rin inquired from Ah-Uhn.
Sesshomaru looked over his shoulder.
“Do you smell that?” Rin pinched her nose. “It smells like smoke.”
Yes. He smelt it. But it was not his concern. “Hnn.”
He continued searching for Naraku, every lead ending in a dead end. Now, he was following the scent of Kagura. In the clearing just a head, he saw a large temple consumed in flames. The closer he got the burning building, the more he realized that scent was leading him there.
He stopped in front of the scene, calculating his next move. He turned from the burning building, but he heard a faint cry. “My Lord!” Rin exclaimed. “Someone is still in there!”
“Inuyasha!” The voice cried, and then coughed. “Please… help me!”
It was the voice of that reincarnated miko. Looking over his shoulder at the burning building, he wasn’t sure if going in to save the girl was worth the trouble. There was no doubt that the castle was Naraku’s, but he couldn’t figure out how the priestess managed to get there. He couldn’t smell the hanyou anywhere nearby. Odd.
“Lord Sesshomaru, it’s Kagome. Please help her!” Rin jumped off Ah-Uhn and ran over to him, grabbing the sleeve of his kimono.
He looked into the young human’s eyes. “You want me to save her?”
“Please, she was so nice to me. She helped me when I needed it.”
“Don’t be serious Rin! Lord Sesshomaru does not save humans.” Jaken squabbled in the background.
“He saved me Master Jaken,” She glared at Jaken, and then looked back at Sesshomaru. “Why can’t he save her? She’s helped us, even saved us a few times.” Jaken bit his lip and glared back; obviously admitting defeat.
Sesshomaru turned his gaze towards the fiery building. Without saying a word, he walked towards the temple. He couldn’t hear the girl; maybe it’s too late. Then from the right he heard her cough, mumbling phrases he couldn’t understand.
He gripped Tokijin, finding the wall where he could hear the voice. In a single stroke he broke it away. The fire licked its away along the walls; consuming nearly the entire room. In the farthest corner, he found the girl slouched against the wall with her head hung low. She looked up at him with a blank stare.
“Inuyasha,” A smile crept up her mouth. “…Inuyasha.” She reached out one of her shaky hands towards him. He stared for a moment, confounded and offended that she associated himself with that half-breed. For that, she deserved to die.
Rin.
He sheathed his sword while walking over to the human and then picked her up. She clung too closely to him; the intimacy was highly uncomfortable. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled into his chest, breathing shallowly; warming the skin on his neck.
Just as he walked out of the fire, the room collapsed.
As he returned to Rin, she came over – her face contorted into what he presumed was worry. “Is she alright, My Lord?” Sesshomaru laid the girl on the grass, but she reluctantly released her clasp around his next. She moaned and protested, but as far as he could tell she was unconscious.
“Oh no, look at her legs! They’re so burned. And her hands!” Rin bent over the girl, looking hard at the human’s wounds. “Is there anything we can do?”
“Rin!” Jaken exclaimed. “We do not have to do anything more.” He turned to Sesshomaru. “Right My Lord?”
“Jaken,” Sesshomaru looked at the imp. “Go find herbs.”
“But My Lord!”
“Jaken.” The imp bent his head and sulked off to the forest. Mumbling to himself pessimistically.
“I’m going to get some water from that river we passed.” Rin didn’t wait for approval before she ran off with a flask; leaving Sesshomaru alone with the unconscious miko.
He could only stare at the motionless form.
**
Kagome could feel the cool slather of something being rubbed against her aching leg. Her hands and legs were on fire, and her lungs burned with each inhale. What happened?
The last thing she could remember is going to the bone-eater’s well. She jumped over the edge, like she had done a thousand times before, then… nothing. Everything went black. Then she woke up in a room filled with smoke, screaming for help, and eventually the smoke made her mind foggy. But she also remembered someone breaking down the wall.
When she opened her eyes, she couldn’t make out the person at her side. She jumped away in alarm, skirting across the grass. “Who are you? Where am I? What’s going on?” She stood on shaky, burning legs and backed away from the small figure. “I can’t see!” She blinked and blinked, but couldn’t make out anything but a blur of shapes and colors.
“Kagome, please…” The voice comforted, but Kagome could not place the overly familiar voice to a face. “Oh no, watch out!”
Kagome felt her foot snag, and then she crashed backwards; falling against something soft yet hard. “Don’t be foolish.” The voice was icy cold, sending shivers down her spine.
Her heart raced. That voice! I know that voice. It can’t be! Inuyasha’s brother, Sesshomaru. She looked up, only seeing flowing silver hair. She stood again, this time walking away from the figure. “Pathetic.”
“Shut up!” She screamed back at him. There was no doubt; that voice was Sesshomaru’s. It was cold, insensitive, and flat.
“Kagome, please come back and lie down.” The little figure approached and grabbed her hand, but Kagome yanked it away. It had to be the little human girl that followed that monster around everywhere he went.
“Come Rin,” Sesshomaru said. “The human is ungrateful.”
Ungrateful?! For what? Kagome realized that someone had to have pulled her out of that fire. But it was so difficult for her to comprehend that Sesshomaru saved her. Why?
“My Lord, please, she still needs help.” Rin pleaded.
“No.” He said flatly, walking away.
Kagome blinked and stared at the blurry scene before her. She pinched herself, trying to differentiate dream from reality. Ouch. Okay so maybe this isn’t a dream. Did he really save me from that fire?
“Why?” Rin’s voice went quiet and Sesshomaru’s blur stopped. Kagome could feel both pairs of eyes on her. “Why did you save me?”
He said nothing. Didn’t even look at her.
Rin walked up to her, grabbing her hand. “Because you needed help.”
She scuffed. “What does he want?”
“What do you mean?” Rin asked innocently.
“Sesshomaru never does anything without some motive. What does he want in return?” Kagome looked at the black and white blur that she associated with Sesshomaru.
“He wants nothing.” Rin reassured. “Please sit down.”
Kagome sat down on the dewy grass, letting the small girl put the ointment on her legs and hands, staring at Sesshomaru.
**
“I don’t like your eyes on me, human.” Sesshomaru could feel her eyes stare at him, and it made his skin itch.
The human scuffed and began to converse with Rin. Jaken came scrambling out of the forest, out of breath. “I found the last herb My Lord. I had to go in a bat demon cave to get it, but I’m okay.” He looked over at Rin and Kagome and huffed, “My Lord, your presence is too high for that wench.”
“I can hear you.” Kagome said to Jaken.
“Good,” Jaken stated throwing the herbs on the grass. “Only to remind you of your place in front of the mighty Lord Sesshomaru.” He walked over to the human and pointed a tiny green finger in her face. “You are nothing before him.”
“Jaken.” The imp froze upon Sesshomaru’s firm words. “Yes, Me Lord?” Sesshomaru looked at Jaken, and the imp bowed and walked away from the girl.
“So you are going to help me find Inuyasha right?” He grimaced as she stared at him once more.
“I don’t have time for such things.”
“You don’t expect me to know where I am, do you?” Sesshomaru remained quiet. “The least you could do is return me to my friends.”
“I do not owe you anything human.”
“Lord Sesshomaru, can she come with us?” Rin asked.
Kagome laughed, “You’re kidding, right?”
Rin looks at her, confused, “No.”
The level of disrespect the human had towards him only made him wish he left her in the fire. “Come Rin, Jaken, we must go.”
**
“Come Kagome,” Rin grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of Sesshomaru. “He’s letting you come.”
“How do you figure? He didn’t say I could.”
Rin smiled. “He didn’t say no. So that means yes, at least for now.”
Kagome wasn’t sure whether to trust him, or if what Rin said made any sense, but she did know that being with Sesshomaru meant she would come across Inuyasha sooner or later. It was either that or wander through the forest without any sense of direction and without a weapon. Her chances were slim to none if she attempted to find Inuyasha on her own. She hated to admit it, but she is at the mercy of a control freak.