Written In The Stars by Reflection of a Broken Dream

Chapter 1

Written In The Stars

Sess-Kag Week 2k18

Canon take-off.

Prompt:

Day 1- Inevitable, mesmerize, memory.

Kagome had always known, down somewhere deep in her fractured heart, that it would never work out. Inuyasha would never be able to fully see her as the powerful individual she was past the long shadow Kikyo had unwittingly cast over her so many years before. But that didn't make it any less painful when the end finally came about after two years of seperation because of the completed- and obliterated- Shikon no Tama. It left her aimless while she picked up the pieces of a shattered dream...and oddly closer to the most unlikely person...

"You are unusually pensive this evening," a familiar baritone broke the silence where Kagome lay on the edge of Edo, gazing up at the twinkling stars in the beautifully clear night sky. She couldn't stop the smile that pulled at her lips as she angled her head back just enough to turn her gaze up to the daiyoukai standing a few feet away from her now. Her dark hair was splayed about her like a dark pool of water in the yawning depths of a cave, and her plain summer yukata was spattered with dirt and blood. He had been watching her for a while now...she had felt both his eyes and the presence of his powerful youki lingering just on the edges of her senses...

"Ah, Sesshoumaru...how nice of you to finally join me," Kagome grinned up at him before returning her azure eyes to the nearly moonless sky overhead. He would be staying around a few days for Rin's protection...or so he would say. "Come and sit with me." She patted the ground beside her before unceremoniously raising and dropping the limb back to its boneless position about her head. Sesshoumaru slowly, his every movement made with deliberate precision, made his way to her side and gracefully dropped into a lotus position beside her.

"...You have not answered this Sesshoumaru," he responded after a long moment of calm quiet. Her smile took on a tinge of sorrow...something she knew he could smell on her. He had called her out on her emotions before...more than once. And she knew better than to lie to him...

"I'm just thinking about the past," Kagome revealed softly, her eyes never straying from the stars. "...Some people say our fates are written in the stars. Everything is pre-determined, and some things are inevitable."

"Do you believe this?" He questioned, and she could feel the intense heat of his molten golden orbs on her.

"I believe we can carve our own paths out if we really want to," Kagome answered earnestly, meeting his ever-intense eyes with a world-wearied gaze. "And I also believe that there are people who think they want to...or even say that they do, but stick to the path before them anyway. And some are just too damn stubborn to stray far from it."

"You are thinking of Inuyasha." It was subtle, but she could hear the distaste in his tone.

"Yes," she didn't even try to hide it as she turned her gaze upwards again. "I guess I'm just dissappointed that he couldn't get past Kikyo to see me...and that he didn't want to make the effort to carve out a new path. That I wasn't worth the effort to him...yeah. That's what hurts the most. He meant everything to me while I meant little to nothing to him as I am now...as Kagome. ...I feel like such a fool..."

"You aren't the fool," the tightness in Sesshoumaru's tone had her facing him again. His jaw was clenched, eyes narrowed to slits as they surveyed the woods around them.

"Hm? Sesshoumaru...?" Kagome started, propping herself up on one arm as she looked up at him. Was there some enemy nearby she wasn't sensing? This tension was...weird. When he looked at her, however, she realized there was no outer threat. His deep golden pools were swirling with raw emotion. She found herself unable to move...and almost unable to breathe.

"Do you remember the first time we met?"

"...Yeah...you were on that ogre. You let Jaken persuade the Unmother to try and get Inuyasha's memory of your father's tomb."

"And you fought," his words surprised her. "Past the Unmother's hold without any proper training- you saved Inuyasha from being devoured. You fearlessly chased us into unfamiliar territory...stood against me at the risk of your own life, and taught Inuyasha the secret of the Tessaiga. Without you, Inuyasha would be dead several times over...and he would have never learned how to use Tessaiga. Tell me again, who is the fool?" Kagome's jaw dropped...she knew it did, and she worked it uselessly for a moment...like a flailing fish out of water. But the words wouldn't come. And her cheeks burned hot. This...this she wasn't used to from Sesshoumaru.

And then it happened.

The anger slowly dissappated from his golden gaze, and mirth replaced the negativity. His face softened from the intense harsh look he'd worn only moments before, and the smallest of smiles curved at his lips. Kagome was mesmerized. "Have I rendered this one speechless? Had I known truths would do such a thing, I would have spoken sooner."

"H-Hey!" Kagome cried, face burning crimson as she scrambled into a sitting position probably a little too close to the daiyoukai. Her voice held an incredulous, accusing tone, but her eyes glimmered with surprise and disbelief. "Y-You're teasing me, aren't you?!" He raised a brow as though asking, "so what if I am?" Kagome couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up and overflowed from her lips. It was just such a Sesshoumaru reaction with such an uncharacteristic look...she couldn't help herself. In her amusement, she missed how his eyes softened just a bit more, the curve of his lips turning almost gentle...but it didn't last. A momentary lapse before something closer to his usual stoic look reappeared on his face.

"Joy suits you," Sesshoumaru spoke as his eyes roamed the forest. Kagome rubbed at her own azure eyes as she looked back up at him in shock. Her cheeks were pink from both laughing and his sudden words. What...what was this? And why...was her heart all aflutter? "Continue carving out your own way in life, Kagome." She shivered at the sound of her name passing his lips. Had he ever called her by name before..? She was almost sure that this was the first time...and that made her feel very strange, an odd joy bubbling up from deep inside. "You are the author of your own fate...and, one day, your story will be written in the stars." His gaze caught hers, pinning her with an unreadable look that left her wanting for air. "Not because it was pre-determined, but because you wrote it." Kagome felt her breath catch as his hand lifted, brushing over the top of her head and tracing her jawline down to her chin. He held it firm and steady, and she didn't dare try to tear her eyes from his. "And that...is the truth." There was a minor lilt to his baritone when he uttered the word 'truth', a low, almost unheard, gutteral growl emitting from his lips as his calloused thumb brushed over Kagome's soft bottom lip.

His eyes strayed to her lips and her face flushed a shade darker at the intimate feel of the moment; Kagome was all too aware of every tick of her muscles, the heat of his gaze, the way her lips were parted just so, and the way the combination of the musty-earthy smell of his hand and slight salt from his thumb made her want for more. To be buried in his comforting scent...to feel the powerful and kind touch of this male who could kill her in a split second, although she knew that he would not...and to taste more of his skin... It was absurd. Or, at least, it should have been. In an act of habitual nervousness, Kagome's tongue flicked out over her bottom lip...and also over his thumb. She realized her mistake almost instantly, the taste of his salty-earthy skin lingering on her tastebuds as she froze like a mouse looking up at a lion. Her eyes were wide, but his narrowed and darkened in hue. A more audible growl reverberated from his chest, and the combination of the heated look he was giving her with everything else made her body heat up a few degrees in all the wrong places...

"Next time...," Sesshoumaru began with a strained voice as he leaned forwards, his warm breath ghosting over the shell of Kagome's ear. She gasped and shivered at the feeling, swallowing hard in her anxiety of the moment, not knowing just what would happen. "...this one will share truths that will require a response." He pushed his thumb slightly into her mouth, just enough for it to flirt with her tongue, as Kagome made a muffled noise of surprise. "Silence is not an option." She managed a nod...and then, suddenly, he was gone. Kagome was left sitting there in a daze, the only proof that Sesshoumaru had been there being the lingering taste in her mouth. Collapsing back against the hard ground, Kagome was left wondering just what had just happened as she stared up at the stars, one hand covering her tingling lips. In the distance, a powerful youki danced against the edges of her keen senses...and all she could do was smile.