Under The Moonlight by PandaDee

Encounter

A/N: So, this is gonna be an MA content story, just saying, so none of you go all "omg you didn't warn me there would be sex and shit." Well, there will be lemons, some really bad language, some mature scenes. :) Don't read if you're not mature enough to absorb it.

Thanks,

-Panda

Chapter One

Encounter

"I love you," I smiled, blushing up at him from where we sat atop the cherry tree. His eyes widened and his mouth popped open audibly before he started laughing at me. My eyes fell and I found him shaking his head at me like I was a stupid little girl. Maybe I was, for assuming after the many kisses we'd shared he felt something too.

He pushed me off the branch and I felt on my butt, staring up at him in shock. Had his eyes always been so cold? "You don't know what love is, dumbass."

How could I not know the feeling erupting through my own chest whenever we were together? How could I not feel this warmth, even now as he glared down at me. "There's only one human in this world that I've ever loved and she's dead," he growled hatefully and I felt my heart shatter into pieces. The tears were already spilling down my cheeks when he stood up on the branch. "So focus on our mission so I can get revenge and join her in the afterlife."

So here I was in the forest, wandering with tears flowing down my cheeks in the rain until I found a spring hidden by a canopy of trees that would soothe the tender ache in my chest. It hurt to even touch my own skin. I was so hurt, so lost, so confused…but most of all I felt desolation and solace creeping up on me. There was nothing for me in this time now except the rock that hung across my neck, glimmering beneath the water. How could I ever compare to the woman that he truly loved? How could I ever compare to Kikyo?

"Stupid Inuyasha!" I almost shouted the words into the woods, I was so mad and hurt by his words! I'd never been this pissed off at him in the entire time I'd known him. "Stupid stubborn, two-timing…hanyou!" I couldn't believe the words I'd actually said, blushing at the strength of what they meant as I covered my mouth in shame. I sounded like Sesshomaru with those words that tasted like vinegar in my mouth. Inuyasha was half human and half demon, but it was the human part that seemed to be getting in the damn way all the time. The human part that irrevocably loved her and the demon part that was loyal only to her.

But it was meant to happen this way, wasn't it? I sunk down further into the warm hot springs I'd escaped to after I saw them together when he'd run from me and sighed. No matter how much of his heart was human, Inuyasha had already filled it and there wasn't any room for me there. "I don't even know why I bother." I spoke lowly to myself as I wrapped my arms around my naked form.

"It's not like he'd ever love me like he loves…her." I didn't even want to say her name. "No matter what I do I'm not good enough." Wasn't that the truth? I watched the mess of stars above me: this era was so beautiful, so peaceful, but I'd never felt my heart break more in my own time than it had here. That was my mistake for falling in love with someone who could never love me back. Was I even meant to stand beside him anymore? Was I meant for something deeper, something that I could feel, even now, blossoming in my chest?

Ever since I'd fallen down the well in my modern day home about a year ago, I'd come to find a best friend – the hanyou – who I cared too much about over the time we spent underneath the stars here. I imagined him, standing above me as he protected me from the evil of this world, and saw the hero I'd dreaming of when every girl played princess in their bedroom at night. His white hair spread out across his back, his ears twitching as I smiled and tried to play with them, only to get glared at. He was the first person I saw when I came here and even though he'd called me by the name of the woman he loved in the past, I couldn't help but feel something deeper from that day forward.

We'd gained a lot of friends since that day, though, the first of which being the little cub I'd taken as my own named Shippo, the fox demon. His family was killed be two demons that only desired the Sacred Jewel shards; from the jewel that I, in my most graceful moment, broke. I'd taken him as my own since that day and watched him grow in strength and wisdom. He was the best son any woman could ever hope to raise. The second was a pervert monk named Miroku who only wanted to have a child to live on his legacy of destroying the demon that plagued his family for generations, and now that very same demon haunted my life. I was cursed to protect this rock, I glared at the thing hanging between my breasts, because of that demon. If he wasn't created, I would be free to love…to laugh, to find happiness in this life. But the last person to join our group of misfits was a demon slayer named Sango who was as beautiful as she was deadly with her mighty strength and Hiraikotsu boomerang that could kill a dozen demons with one throw. She and Miroku fallen in love almost immediately and were inseparable now, but at the beginning of our journey together – and even into the days I knew were to come in my future, she was my sister. I loved her like my own family.

But…my feelings for Inuyasha, the half-demon, were the very reason I could still see Kikyo in his arms in my memories. Kikyo, the tragic fallen priestess raised from the dead, standing beside a tree with love in her eyes while Inuyasha pulled her close and their lips met like magnets that had been searching through time to meet each other. They had been betrayed be the demon that plagued us all: Naraku. Their story was probably the most heartbreaking of them all. The day Inuyasha was to use the Jewel to become a demon, Naraku disguised himself as Kikyo and created a betrayal on both sides. I could kill him for causing so much heartache. But when I same them, standing there in the forest, I felt stupid for even having followed him away from camp when his ears twitched and he ran off. Who was I to keep them apart any longer?

And it wasn't long until my intrusion on their moment caused me further embarrassment. I saw Kikyo had pressed herself into him and tears poured from her undead eyes as she confessed she'd missed him so much more than she missed life itself. And he swore the same before I saw her kimono discarded on the forest floor and got the hell out of there before my face melted from blushing so much. I didn't want to see her love him like I wanted to love him. Like I did love him. My heart throbbed in my chest.

Their love had lasted even after death. How was I, a fifteen year old klutz that fell down a well, broke a sacred relic embedded below my skin, supposed to compete with that?

Rustling came from the bushes in front of me, and I froze in all of my misery to look up to see a very unfamiliar face glaring down at me. Well, the momentary horror of being alone in the woods with a feral demon without my weapons had vanished, but it was replaced with a sense of curiosity and shyness. His fine white hair was flowing in the wind behind him, beyond the mist, and I almost blushed at how warm his eyes were as they saw me. I'd always thought he was sort of beautiful, and here in the mist and moonlight, I knew I wasn't mistaken. What the hell was I talking about? Sesshomaru being handsome? But…it wasn't exactly untrue. Why had I never noticed the way his emotions were so very clear through his eyes? Had this feeling, like the earth had stopped moving, always been in my chest when he was around?

I shook my head to clear the thoughts and stammered up at him. "W-what are you doing here?" I wondered, covering myself with my hair enough so that he couldn't see my body beneath the water. I already knew he wouldn't even want to but still, I played the 'for my own honor' card.

He made a noise of disapproval in the back of his throat. "Do not flatter yourself, girl. Where is Inuyasha? I followed his stench here." He averted his eyes and I knew I was imagining the red flaring across his cheeks – delusional and hallucinating. Way to go, Kags. What the hell was he looking at anyway? I stood and grabbed the spare bathing kimono I borrowed from Kaede while his eyes were otherwise occupied.

I glared stubbornly back at him after putting it on, and Sesshomaru met my gaze again. Well at least the red tint across his pale cheeks had left my imagination, at least. "Inuyasha, why would he be with me when his precious Kikyo is wandering through the woods at night? Just follow the stench of death and graveyard dirt and you'll find them together. I'm not even good enough to be noticed." I spat, sounding more like a woman scorned than a priestess in training when I sat back down in the water. I removed the Kimono again, feeling it was incredibly useless in this situation anyway. What was the point of taking a bath with clothes on? He frowned then and I was surprised I wasn't dead for speaking to him that way, with such disrespect.

I was quick to apologize though. He didn't deserve the rage I felt inside. "I'm sorry, Sesshomaru-sama," I never addressed the demon without his title like Inuyasha did, "please, forgive the bitterness in my voice, it wasn't directed towards you." I apologized after lathering up my hair with the only thing I'd brought from my home this time. I sighed at the tangy chai smell and shut my eyes in pure bliss. Thank you shampoo gods.

I sighed, knowing he had to have left by now, and felt clean for what was the first time in weeks. So you bet I was surprised to look up and see he was staring at me with a questioning look on his emotionless face. What, hadn't he ever seen Shampoo? You'd think with all of that hair he'd know what it was, right? "If Inuyasha displeases you so, why do you stay beside him? Why not find someone of better company?" He wondered and I couldn't help the way my eyes were bugging out of my head. Why in the world would he care about me and my feelings? Didn't he hate all humans?

"I-I can't leave him. He needs me to look for the jewel shards-"

"You certainly are capable of doing that alone, perhaps with the monk or the demon slayer." He speculated, looking at me like I was stupid for even saying that his half-brother needed me.

…Didn't he?

"I guess, but-"

"What is the reason behind your hesitation?" He stepped closer to the stream and frowned deeply, almost showing some sort of emotion. "What compels you to stay with that worthless hanyou when obviously all he does is upset you to the point of tears? Even a human doesn't deserve to be in misery all the time." He countered, glaring at me like I'd offended him. Maybe I had, just by being here in his presence nakedly. What the hell did he even care anyway? So what if I stayed with Inuyasha stupidly? At least I got to see him…pretend he was mine even when he was. How pathetic.

My nostrils flared from the grieving emotions this youkai sparked in me and I stood, putting my hands on my hips. "Why do you even care, it's not like it matters to you what I do. If I wanna make myself miserable, what's it to you?"

He smirked then like he had realized some great, unknown truth. "I see now. You stay, girl, because you're in love with him – a worthless half-demon gaining the love of a young priestess. I might get sick. You should know, priestess, all he will do is hurt you because he loves that woman and not you. He's too naïve to love another, girl." My eyes left his when tears gathered in them and he snorted at me. I didn't care if he saw this as weakness, my tears were bitter and gave me strength to go on when I felt like everything else was hopeless. I cured him, but his voice was not his own when he spoke the next words to me, but that of a deep snarl from a man possessed and I didn't understand how he would ever come to take on such a seductive tone – around me. "…Inuyasha isn't deserving of you, anyway."

My head shot up in shock but before I could gape at him like a fish out of water, he was gone. It was like he hadn't even been there. Sesshomaru, the unfeeling demon brother of the man I loved, just said Inuyasha wasn't deserving of me? What did he think of me, then? I blushed and got out of the water, feeling completely exposed because I was standing with erect nipples in the chilled air, the dip between my legs exposed to his long-gone eyes. I wrapped myself up in the spare kimono Kaede let me borrow because if Sesshomaru was in the woods, other demons weren't.

What the hell could Sesshomaru have meant anyway? Did I imagine the blush across his cheeks when he found me naked – without Inuyasha by my side? Did I image the snarl of possession in his voice, the way his eyes trailed all the way down to my full hips? More importantly, after speaking to him like that, why wasn't I lying face down in a ditch somewhere? My heart thudded at the way he looked at me, his guarded eyes full of understanding and a sadness I never knew his heart had experienced, while he defended me against his most hated family member.

"Whatever," I sighed hopelessly. "Like it meant anything, knowing him, anyway. Like I meant something to Sesshomaru for one second in his terrible life where his only purpose is supreme conquest, not flirting with priestesses in hot springs. Please. I've gotta be delusional. I'd put my money on him trying to separate me and Inuyasha so he can kill us both easier." I smiled at the conclusion, accepting it fully. I let the sinking feeling in my chest from seeing Inuyasha on top of Kikyo out of my memories, and headed back toward where Miroku and Sango had set up camp this night. We were only a few hours out of the village, but it had grown dark before we could travel any further.

When I came into the clearing filled with wildflowers and the smell of smoke from the fire, I smiled at the monk, wrapped up in the woman he really loved, and sat opposite them beside the fire. Miroku and Sango would never admit it to Inuyasha or I, but they were in love and had been for a long time – now I was just waiting for the cute little babies to come! At least two of us had found love in this feuding era that seemed to go on forever. I jumped, startled, as Inuyasha walked back into the clearing, looking dazed as I glared at him from afar. I hoped my aura was black with rage because that's what my heart raced with.

Unfortunately, it looked like someone got lucky. I shuddered and poked the fire with a stick, making it pop and sizzle in the night. I wasn't hungry. I lost my appetite the moment I left them alone in the woods. "Kagome," he asked after seeing me for the first time in hours, and I didn't question where he had been. "Are you alright? You seem…different." He wondered, sniffing me as I glanced quickly over at him. Oh, I was the one who was different now? I wasn't the one sneaking around the woods with people! Well…I had, but I wasn't sneaking, Sesshomaru was.

I glared and unrolled my pink sleeping bag. "I'm fine." Ice ran out of my mouth and he backed away, his eyes large at how coldly I glared. I was trying to imitate his older brother and I think it did just the trick. "How's Kikyo?" I wondered, changing the subject to one that made my heart scream in my chest. Obviously his previous words that were thrown at me before he found himself between her legs had affected me more than he thought they would. I hoped he saw the pain in my eyes; I wanted him to feel the anguish inside of my heart.

His face said it all. He went bright red, all the way to the white ears on top of his head, and he didn't meet my gaze. I nodded at the supposition he'd just drawn, and lied on the ground, facing the bushes, and sighed at the way he grumbled and tried to reason with me. I shut my eyes before the tears could fall, thinking of the only thing on my mind after what had happened in the hot springs and found peace as I thought of his face, barred by a crescent moon on his forehead. His golden eyes filled to the brim with warmth as he took me into his arms and led me into my dreams.

A/N: What do y'all think? :D I like it so far. :)

-Panda