Strange Duet by Hanyou_Miko_Higurashi

Gentle Regret

Blanket Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Inuyasha so there. Nyah! This is best listened to with Sarah McLachlan's Fallen.

Tracklist:

Fallen -Sarah McLachlan

"Inuyasha! The shard's in his back! Aim for the scar on his back!"

She yelled, drawing back the bowstring and firing the arrow she had loaded, watching as the neon violet aura suddenly erupted and engulfed the arrow's shaft before plunging directly into the side of the giant spider youkai, blasting away the entire side as it's head swiveled to glare in utter fury and hatred of her. They had done it once again, stumbled upon Naraku when his guard was down, but this time, he had just completed his `time' of the change. His voice was distorted, low and roaring as he sent Inuyasha flying into a tree with a bone crushing swipe from one spike covered leg and came for her.

"You fool, do you think your weak abilities would effect this Naraku? You are not deemed fit to be Kikyou's equal, much less her reincarnation. Now, die!"

"Kagome!"

"Kagome-chan!"

"Kagome!"

"Kagome-sama!"

Four sets of voices, all of which echoed in their horror and panic as Naraku bore down on the girl who had been paralyzed by the words said to her and the giant spider like form that was growing alarmingly bigger before her very eyes. Everything seemed to slow down, Kagome thought to herself as she found herself staring up into the sickeningly victorious scarlet eyes of Naraku, one of the large spike covered legs was raised above her head, casting a foreboding shadow down upon her face even as her eyes slowly widened with the realization that she was going to die.

`I'm going to die...and there's nothing I can do to stop this...'

She blinked back the tears that had come to her eyes as she unconsciously stiffened up while the appendage of Naraku descended down towards her body......

"Kagome-chan!"

Kagome shot up, soaked to the skin with sweat as her dark blue-grey eyes flashed once in fear before she realized where she was. A shaky hand came up and covered her eyes, shoulders trembling as she tried to regain her self-control. A hand, soft, she knew it had to have been Sango, touched her shoulder gently as an arm was slung around her shoulder in a quick embrace of comfort.

"Kagome-chan, are you sure you're alright?"

Dark maroon eyes filled with concern as the older girl stared into the darkening blue-grey ones of the girl she felt so affectionate towards as a member of her family. Ever since that battle a little over a month ago, the sweet young woman hadn't been herself.

`Can anyone truly be themselves after such an encounter?'

The miko girl's shoulders shook a couple more times before she was able to peer at the worried three people looking at her. Wiping away the crystalline liquid with a brush from shaking fingers, Kagome's pale face looked up at them, the firelight casting heavy shadows across her face as she forced an apologetic and weak smile at them.

`It was only a dream...Kagome no baka!'

"Sumimasen minna...I..."

Miroku rose from his place across from her and walked over slowly, trying not to startle the girl as he knelt down and touched her cheek, wiping away a stray tear from her face as he cut her off softly.

"There is no need to ask forgiveness from us, Kagome-sama. Anyone would have reacted in the same manner had they been in your situation."

`Anyone except Kikyou...she wouldn't have been paralyzed like that...'

The girl thought to herself as she drew her knees up to her chest, a small yet bulky weight against her shoulders and back informed her of Shippou's attempt to calm her down. Her eyes flickered across the camp area, darkening sadly as she felt a forlorn twitch of her lips at who was missing.

`How did I already know? Why am I still here anyways? I mean, Kikyou can sense the shards, not to mention Naraku...'

"You are not deemed fit to be Kikyou's equal, much less her reincarnation, now die!"

"I'm sorry everyone, please, just go back to sleep, I'll keep watch after I come back from washing the sweat off of me."

`Not to mention the memories of what happened, and the thoughts.'

Kagome said softly as she rose, despite the protests from Sango and Shippou, and walked off towards the onsen nearby, she needed space to think and to be by herself. After a couple of wrong turns, she finally reached her destination. With a long sigh of melancholy relief, the soon to be high school graduate shed her clothing and entered the heated water, eyes half-closing from the blissful heat as she sank down, leaning her back against a rock and sighing again. Blue-grey eyes fully closed as she sank further into the water.

"KAGOME!"

Another shout had come from Inuyasha's throat, sounding like he had been coughing up a lung due to how ragged his voice was. She started to instinctively brace herself for the blow to come, eyes slamming closed tightly in fear, she didn't want to see her death anymore than she wanted to be dead. Above her, the laugh of Naraku echoed in her ears like the demonic bastard that Inuyasha always proclaimed he was.

`Everyone, I'm sorry.'

The final blow had never come.

Her eyes had opened slowly, time seemingly like it had stood for her alone as she had looked up into the fierce calculating amber eyes of none other than Sesshoumaru. Toukijin was blocking the iron like leg that had been well on its way to killing her while the taiyoukai held it, almost bored, she thought in surprise as she felt herself sharply intake her breath. A god descended to earth, pristine silver hair immaculate and gleaming in the flashes of lightning that surrounded the area flowed behind the hauntingly beautiful youkai as those eyes of his left her own, leaving her breathless as she swore she heard two words spoken to her.

"Leave now."

In little time Naraku had decided and proclaimed that they were not "worth" his presence any longer and had escaped in a funnel of the toxic violet miasma. Kagome had fallen to her knees after he had gone, shaking in the aftershock of her terror and near death experience as she hugged herself, trying to assert that she was still alive. Inuyasha was busy trying to remove himself from the tree that he had been thrown into by Sesshoumaru after the cocky and pissed off hanyou had decided to make some smartass remark about good timing. Those eyes had borne into her back, her posture automatically freezing like a deer in headlights as she watched him walk past her, pausing for a moment before she heard him speak.

"Clean your wound."

******************************************************

She was close.

Amber eyes narrowed slightly as he caught the delicate scent of the wench who had traveled with the bastard who carried half of his proud father's blood within his tainted veins. Magenta stripes kissed lightly and arched over his smooth cheekbones as he turned, a few daring silver strands danced lightly over his face as he stared off with a closed yet somehow thoughtful expression in those stoic eyes of his. He had known, much to his disgust, of the binding between the hanyou and the undead woman who had dared to inform him that Inuyasha's life belonged to her. Moonlight filtered through the forest canopy and cast his white clothing and silver hair into a soft glow, illuminating him into even more of a mystical figure than he already was.

`The fool.'

Whether he was speaking of his half brother or of the woman who traveled with him was unclear. With a whisper of the silken fabric, the taiyoukai of the Western Lands vanished into the darkness that shrouded the forests, a memory suddenly invaded his protected thoughts.

`The stupid wench.'

It had been the first thought that had filtered through the haze of the scents and feel of the battle charged area. His eyes had just happened to land on the ningen girl-child who just stood there and waited for her death to come to her. Silently he had intervened, not knowing what possessed him to do so but feeling within some dark part of his being that there would be consequences should the wench die there. His hand sought the blade at his waist, unsheathing it from its place at his obi and smoothly stepping between the girl and Naraku, blade singing from the amount of strength used to block the downward blow from reaching his own body. He had not missed the sharp intake of breath, nor the surge of surprise and awe inside her scent. Despite the low birth that ningen were born into, his eyes had met hers, glowing in the dimness of the area and holding her gaze with his own. Something strange had flashed deep within the blue-grey orbs of the girl, such a hue was unusual to the eyes of youkai and ningen alike. He had spoken only five words in total to her during the entire battle and its aftermath. The first two were spoken right after he had saved her life.

"Leave now."

What had inspired him to speak to such a creature was past his understanding, he passed it on the fact that the woman was too stupid to know to move. Ningen, he had thought in disgust, nothing better than cattle, with less intelligence as well. After Naraku had fled at the prospect of his defeat, he had noticed the girl tending to everyone else in the idiot hanyou's party, therefore ignoring her own wounds. When she finally sank to her knees and allowed herself the feeling of experiencing the terror and the fullness of what had nearly occurred, she had wrapped her arms around her body and held back the tears of fear that wanted so desperately to break free of their restraint. He had had enough of watching his brother fraternize with the miko who absorbed the souls of dead ningen women, it disgusted him. As he had walked past, amber eyes could not help but notice the way the girl had stiffened when he had past her. It was curious, in a manner to him, the girl was never able to silence herself, nor could anyone else for that matter. He had overheard Inuyasha's retainer speaking of the wench as if she were a high born woman of youkai standards. He knew Inuyasha had not noticed the injuries the girl had sustained from battle, he had saved the girl from being killed but not from being injured by one of Naraku's tentacles.

"Clean your wound."

Sesshoumaru's flashback ended as he came upon the scent once more, this time stronger than it had been. Sun hued eyes glowed slightly in the night air as he slid among the trees, a silent watcher, though he need not have been. His presence was masked by a number of factors, the heady perfume of the pine trees and the night blooming jasmine, the winds that blew down wind of the girl and the onsen, and he was masking his own energy, suppressing it as he always had, to fool his opponents, those who were foolish enough to cross him, that is. Still, he would watch her from the shadows.

And watch he did.

*************************************************************

`I should get up before I melt into the water. I doubt anyone else has noticed I was gone.'

Kagome thought softly as her vision blurred with tears of regret. In a way, she felt it was her fault, after all, she hadn't confessed her feelings to Inuyasha anyways so, who was she to object over his choice?

`Who am I indeed, just a pathetic girl who loves a hanyou who doesn't love her back. That's who I am.'

She rose from the water, the moonlight streaming over the steamy water that cascaded down her body and met with its element once again. A long heavy sigh escaped her lips as she turned around to reach out and grab the bottle of sweet scented bath soap she had brought with her from her time. Her mother had bought it especially to help her calm down and relax, even though the clear bottle said `Sleep' on it. Lavender and vanilla, was what it was supposed to smell like, the lavender was in there for sure, the vanilla, not so much.

`Mama worries so much about my health here...'

She poured a small amount on to the pale blue louffa and began to rub the washing utensil with both hands, until the cool liquid soap turned into a rich foamy lather. Kagome smoothed the netted fabric over her body, starting at her arms before moving to her legs, waist, shoulders and finally, her rear and torso. She dipped the scrubby, as she had laughingly called it when she was little, into the water to rinse off the excess that clung to it before she took a deep breath and allowed herself to pitch forwards into the spring's center, where it was the deepest. With a splash, the girl vanished underneath the water, soft waves beating against the rocks and the shore before she came up, flipping her mass of raven hair over her shoulders and moving the bangs that fell in her face to join the rest of her hair. Another sigh escaped her lips as something suddenly ran its fingers down her spine, not literally but, that was the feeling she had whenever she was being watched.

`Who on earth is out at this time of night?'

Kagome wondered to herself as she spoke out softly, her voice trembling slightly as she looked over her shoulder slightly, trying to see if someone was behind her or not.

"Who's there?"

A soft rustling of the wind through the tree branches and leaves was the only answer that was given to her. She began to turn around when another rustling, this one cloth, not branches and leaves, caught her ears. A flush spread over her face as she quickly sank down to her shoulder in the water and called over her shoulder, voice sounding annoyed as she spoke.

`He gives a whole new meaning to the saying "Old habits die hard".'

"Miroku-sama, Sango-chan is going to be furious with you if you don't cut this habit out!"

The voice that replied was not that of her dear brother like friend, it was cold and void of emotion as the definitely male voice responded.

"You would mistake the likes of myself for the houshi onna?"

Ugh.......{pounds head against the table repeatedly} This took FOREVER to bring out! Sheesh, Anyhoo, new update...soon, hopefully. Review please!