To Live For by Kagome-Chan

To Live For

To Live For

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Around midnight a lone girl walked along lazily in the moonlight down the dimly lit streets. She knew it was dangerous for a woman to be alone at this time of night, but she couldn't help it. She had to get away from it all for just a little while. Plus, she knew she could take care of herself. She thought about her life. Her father, dead and gone for many years now. Her mother, always expecting her to be the best woman, the 'heart of Japan', the 'perfect Japanese woman'. She couldn't stand it. She didn't want to sit and serve tea, wear kimonos every day, be silent until someone spoke to her, or keep her gaze averted around everyone. She wanted to laugh, and dance, and sing, and go shopping with her girlfriends just like everyone else!!!! Just because she was a miko, didn't mean she didn't like wearing short skirts and gossiping with her girlfriends a little, right?

Kagome stopped walking under a streetlight and leaned against it. What was she doing? Leaving the house at midnight to just walk around the town didn't prove anything. If anything it proved she was stupid. If she was going to let her mother know she was done with all her 'perfect woman' training, leaving the house wasn't the way to do it. She sighed and began walking again. She would take the shortcut home, back to the shrine; maybe if she got back quickly no one would notice she was gone.

Quickly, she came to the bridge across the river that wound through her town. She stopped walking though, upon seeing a figure standing there. The person was tall, with long hair. A woman then, she decided. She began walking again, being wary of this person.

As she walked past, she didn't even look at the person, just kept her eyes down and kept walking. The woman didn't even seem to notice her as she passed.

When she was halfway across the bridge she turned to look over her shoulder at the person. She hadn't even heard it, but the woman had gotten up on the rail of the bridge, and was teetering dangerously over the edge. Kagome knew that the water was rushing below, if a simple stick fell into the water, the river gobbled it in no time, and it was never seen again. The river was violent, and it was even against the law to swim in it because it was dangerous. So what was the woman doing?

Kagome looked forward again, caught between running home to not get in trouble, or going back to question the person. Her curiosity got the better of her and she turned around, and walked quickly back to the woman.

"Excuse me" She said tentatively when she arrived beside the figure. "What are you doing?"

"I'm sick of this world" A smooth, agonized, very MALE voice answered. Kagome almost yelped in surprise. With the long hair, she was SURE it had been a woman.

"Why are you on the rail?" She asked, confused.

"You are very sheltered, aren't you woman?" He asked snidely.

Kagome was silent. Well, YEAH, she WAS sheltered; she wasn't allowed to do anything!!!! The only thing she was allowed any freedom to do was walk home after school because she had begged her mom not to drive her to school every day anymore.

"I suppose I am" She answered him finally.

"Then you would have no idea why I would be standing here"

"Well, isn't that why I asked?" She was getting irritated now. She just wanted an answer, and then she would be on her merry way.

"How hard do you think I would have to hit the water to never resurface again?" He asked.

"Not very" She answered right away, remembering the sticks she would throw in the water as a child. Then she gasped. Never resurface? Was he going to throw himself into the river? "Get down from there!!" She demanded.

The man shook his head lightly, just as an evening summer breeze ruffled his hair around his head. "No, my time is done here"

"What's your name?" She couldn't help but ask, she didn't like talking to a person if she knew absolutely nothing about them.

"Sesshomaru. And who are you?"

"Kagome" She answered.

"Hn"

She waited a moment, wondering if he would say more. After a few minutes of silence she leaned against the edge of the bridge and looked up at the stars.

"Tell me why you want to never resurface" She said.

He sighed, but began speaking anyway. "My father is a very powerful man, Kagome. He wants me to take over the family...business someday. My mother, also a powerful woman, died when I was very young. Then my father married someone below him a few years after my mother's death. They had a son. Then she died as well. Now my father is very sick, and probably won't live through the summer. Then it will be just me, and my step-brother. I despise him, and yet my father made me promise to take care of him when he's gone. I have to take over the business, and also take care of my bastard half-brother, who should never have been born in the first place. But I'm through with it, I'm ending it tonight." He finished.

By this point Kagome had tears running down her face. She was reminded partly of her own life during his speech and she very much wished it were different.

She turned, grabbed a hold of the rail and hoisted herself up into a sitting position beside Sesshomaru, and then hesitantly, and very carefully, she lifted herself to stand next to him.

"What are you doing?" He asked once she was steady.

"The same thing you are Sesshomaru" She turned to look at him and her breath caught. He was so beautiful. The moonlight shinning on his alabaster skin, his golden almond eyes, his thin lips, and high cheekbones. He looked like a god. Except for the single tear streaming down his left cheek.

"Why would you want to do the same thing as me?" He asked, turning back to face the water.

"Because I realized my life isn't good either. And that it would be easier to just leave it behind"

"What is so troublesome with your life?" He asked, as if her problems couldn't possibly be as bad as his.

Kagome turned to look back at the water as well and started into her story. "My father died before my younger brother even turned one. When this happened my mother, brother, and I moved in with my grandfather who is a monk on a shrine. That's when we discovered I was a miko. From that day on I wasn't allowed to do anything except learn the ways of the miko. Be pure of heart, be the 'heart of Japan', pray to kami four times a day, and do everything everyone tells me 24 hours a day. I'm sick of it too, and I left my house tonight because I wanted to prove to my mother that I wasn't going to follow her rules anymore. And what better way than to just disappear into the water and never return?"

He was silent for only a moment before he turned to look at her again, this time anger in his handsome golden eyes.

"Get off this bridge" He demanded cruelly.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because you shouldn't be here! You should go home to your mother, make her understand you!!!! This is no place for a woman like you!!"

"I won't leave!!" She set her jaw defiantly. "I won't do what my mother says, so what makes you think I'll do what you say?"

He growled low and then grabbed her around the waist and jumped back onto the bridge.

"You will stay off this bridge" He commanded.

Kagome was still in his arms, and she looked up at him and beamed. "You aren't on the bridge anymore either. Looks like you have something to live for after all."

He moved his head back a little in surprise, his eyes wide. Kagome just smiled at him. Yes, she had tricked him, but she had to. At least he wasn't swaying on the evening breeze over a dangerous death trap anymore.

Before she realized what was happening those thin beautiful lips touched hers, and tears were wetting her face. She realized after a moment that they weren't her own. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. After a few moments he rested his forehead against her own and whispered;

"Thank you"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Thanks For Reading! Yes, a Very Short One-Shot. Did U Like It? I Think There's a Lesson 2 B Learned Here!!!! Please Rate and Review!! Thanks!

Love,

Kagome-Chan