Hanging By A Moment by Reverent Moonlight

Hanging By A Moment

"Go, miko!"

Bakusaiga slashed through the soldier before him, and blood sprayed and splattered. Some specks flinging themselves to be lost in the crimson patches littering his haori. 

They were overrun. A rogue band of demons that had started out small, hating the unfairness gifted to the higher class, had grown and swarmed over the last six decades until they were this monstrous hoard that was attempting to slaughter everyone and everything behind his walls. 

He knew the stronghold was going to fall, but as he turned to the woman beside him, covered in the blood of their enemies and friends and allies, all he cared about was making sure she fled.

Because he was unsure if they could survive. 

Blue eyes, flaring with anger and worry and fear slashed to him as she shot an arrow crackling with reiki straight into the eye of a male somewhere behind him. The sound of it imbedding in his skull barely registering through the chaos of battle.

"We've been over this," she heaved through heavy breaths. 

They had been fighting for half a day attempting to keep the enemy back long enough to herd the women and young one's out. 

They had failed. 

"I will not leave. You are mine and I am yours, and these people are our people. I won't leave them anymore than you will."

He scowled, attempting to hide the pride and fear in the truth of her statement. His mate was a force to be reckoned with when she was determined, and a raging tempest when she was slighted. 

One hundred and eighty-three years he had spent with her, and still her temper speared him. 

"It is over, miko! You need to see to the evacuation."

Her eyes flashed, and then she was storming up to him, feet stomping with her aura flaring around her as it snapped against his own. 

Sesshomaru watched as she stopped before him, chest to chest, blue to gold. 

"Yuka is seeing to the evacuation. My place is with you. Rulers we may be, but before anything else is us. You told me that. You can't twist the narrative just because your fear is getting in the way!"

Red flashed in his eyes, and he reached out to grab her by her upper arms. The silk of her kimono sliding against his palms like a balm attempting to soothe the heightened emotions of the moment.

"It is not fear that rules me. It is terror."

The sounds of clashing steel and shouts of pain seemed to drift away as he let the mask he held in place drop long enough to flash the raging truth in his eyes. 

He watched as the miko he had come to love deflated as her own eyes filled with tears, and she sagged forward understanding the severity he was trying to impart. Her head resting against the chest plate he wore as she gave into the heaviness of the moment. He loathed what was to come, but they had known it was a very real possibility. 

Shaking hands reach for his sides, and he felt the shifting of silk as she wrinkled the fabric of his already ruined haori to hold him closer. 

The sound of her racing heart beat louder than the war-drums outside of their castle walls. 

"I can't. I can't leave you."

His eyes sealed shut, and he felt the tightness in his throat like a hand attempting to close his airways. 

"You must."

She shook her head and the trembling in her body hitched with her breath, but she did not speak again. The tangy scent of her tears reached his nose, and the grip at his throat traveled down into his chest to encompass his heart as well. 

"Kagome, please." 

She shuddered and lifted her head. He could see the resignation and sorrow as absolute despair flooded her. Tears poured from her eyes, and Sesshomaru felt his expression change to morph into the pain that was to great to hold back in the face of her own. 

Her hand slipped from his side to lift to his cheek, and he felt her body stretch up onto her toes. Dipping his head he indulged in the offering. 

Their lips met hesitantly, and he was reminded of their first. Gentle sweeps of their mouths that were barely felt before it grew. 

Every emotion they held suddenly exploded, and he was spinning to pin her against the ruined wall behind him, as his hands rose to cup her face, blood tipped claws slipping into the hair behind her curved ears. 

Their lips moved with a furious rhythm as they clung to each other. Mouth's parted and tongue's swept in as they attempted to impart the taste of each other to memory one last time. 

Teeth clashed, and their hand's clung to each other. Her's swept up into the mass of silver, and pulled him to her roughly. He obliged, pressing his body closer as if willing their bodies to merge into one being. 

The taste of salt mingled on his tongue from the tears she could not stop, and he tried so desperately to hang on to this one single moment in time. To hang on until the rope snapped. 

Shouting sounded all to soon from a corridor near by, and he released her hastily as he searched her eyes once more. 

The pain in those stormy depths left him wanting to grab her up, and forget his rule - his people, his lands, his responsibility - and seclude themselves away forever. 

Pushing the thoughts aside in preparation for the end that was to sure to come, he built up his walls piece by piece until the face of the Western Lord was back in place. 

The shouting was drawing nearer. 

"Go, miko."

She chewed on her lip as her eyes drew to the sounds of the approaching soldiers, but nodded her head in understanding. She stepped around him, drawing her bow, and he could not help but to grab on and drink in the vision she presented. 

Blood soaked kimono, hair falling to her waist in waves, eyes that could ravage a persons soul to nothing - she looked a like a fallen warrior god that had been sent to slay any who dared defied her. The bow in her hand, that was held from nearly two centuries of practiced perfection, was glistening as though it was syphoning her rage.

His mate turned back to him, and he felt the walls attempting to fall. 

Her head tipped a bit to the side, and her long dark hair swayed with the motion. Her eyes dimmed, and a warmth that was so great it made the sun that floated in the sky above them seem freezing cold, landed upon him. 

Her emotions, her feelings, her thoughts - everything she was and had been and would become flashed to him in a singular look, and he was momentarily humbled, for not the first time, at how lucky he was to have gotten to experience her, to love her. 

Her next words only confirmed it, and he felt his body stiffen against the emotion that threatened to topple him. 

"I love you."

Between the span of one blink and the next, he returned the favor. Gave her everything of himself, and who he had been and became thanks to her unending onslaught of an emotion he had once cursed and deemed useless. 

"And I, you."

She smiled, or at least attempted too. The agony to clear to make it truly vibrant. 

He lamented on the fact it wasn't. 

With a nod of his head she turned and ran. He watched as she disappeared around the bend of a corner, and hissed at the pain that contracted in his chest at her departure and what that meant for him and the life they'd lived. 

His shoulders tensed, and he leaned his head on the wall they had just been. Her scent still swarming his senses. 

Footsteps echoed down the hall from him and he shoved off of the rumbled ruins of his home while he let the rage and fury push away everything except the task he had to complete.

Sesshomaru remained still as he honed in on Kagome's aura. He wanted her out. The explosion that was about to tear the stronghold into dust from his hand would do no one any good if she was not out first. 

His head cocked to the side as he listened to the sound of boots headed his way. 

He had twelve seconds, and began the countdown in his head. 

She was out of the castle in three. 

From the sound of their steps he could count fourteen. He snorted at the offense. His mate could singe them all to nothing before they even glanced his way. 

At the hidden exit in nine.

Muttered curses echoed as they made their way through the rubble. 

Fleeing the grounds in eleven. 

He smirked as his eyes reddened at the slaughter that was about to take place on the mongrels who thought to destroy his reign. 

All at once they were upon him, and he exploded into a mass of twisting muscle and fur. His form expanded and lengthened, and the castle walls that had remained standing fell as the beast that lurked beneath his skin was set free. 

His red eyes landed on those that had come, and the smell of urine assaulted him. 

Pitiful. 

With a quick snap of his jaws they were gone, acidic saliva melting the flesh and bones that had congregated inside of his snout. 

Eyes searched the grounds for less than a second, and then he was leaping and tearing and snapping. 

Bones crunched beneath paws and snapping teeth as he tore apart their ranks. He could feel the sharp jabs of swords and spears sinking into his flesh and the blood leaking from the wounds, but he pushed forward. 

The sight of their leader had him growling out an enraged snarl as he made a beeline for the male. A pathetic wolf youkai that had been cast away from grace. 

If he remembered the story correctly, the male had been a soldier in the Southern army, and had been banished for acts of treason. Though he supposed it mattered not. 

The wolf's face broke into a feral grin, and Sesshomaru watched as his skin rippled and youki flared in a signal that warned of his transformation. 

Within seconds a massive wolf stood before him, although he was still smaller than he, it made no real difference in regard to strength. His smaller stature would make him more nimble, faster. He would have to stay on his guard. 

The male snarled and leaped for him, and he too jumped into the air. 

They collided with a thunderous boom, and then there was the sound of jaws snapping while razor sharp claws dug into hide and fur. 

Both armies stopped to stare at the two beasts as they snarled and roared and attempted to tear each other to shreds. Before long, both armies returned to their positions, swords sparking and youki flaring all around. 

The fight went on for nearly an hour. They panting breaths could be heard as the two males dove and leaped away from one another. Paws would jolt out to swipe. 

The wolf dove away, and the two began circling, taking the time to gather their bearings the stalemate afforded them. 

Acid pooled and dipped to the ground from Sesshomaru's panting mouth. His claws scrapping against the ruined ground as his eyes watched for any sign of movement. 

He saw the muscles in the male's hind legs tense, and as he snarled his rage and leaped, he dove to the side, head swinging around with his mouth wide and caught the hold he had been waiting for. 

Large teeth sunk into the flesh of the wolf's neck, and he jerked his head to the side as threw him to the ground. 

The placement was not perfect, however, and the burning pain of claws raking his underbelly had him snarling around a mouth full of fur and flesh. Jaws clamped tighter, and pushed his poison into the wounds. The scent of corroding flesh burned his nostrils, but he held firm, refusing to let up even with the pain of his own flesh being stripped away. Ignored the agony of organs being pierced and shredded. 

His blood rushed out all around, his vision growing hazy as tiredness crept into his bones. 

A flash of a smile appeared in his mind, and he latched onto it like a lifeline as the images began playing at rapid pace. 

Black hair swaying in the breeze. 

Blue eyes flashing in mirth and compassion and mischief. 

Smooth skin rubbing against the hard planes of his body. 

Laughter echoing in his ears and the sight of his mate romping through the clearing next to the Bone Eaters well. 

The flash of anger as she missed a target during practice. 

Arguments, joy, tears, anger, sadness, laughter - everything that was her swarmed him, and he hung onto each and every moment that he had sworn to protect as the pulse he felt against he tongue slowed and then halted. 

His jaws pulled away, and Sesshomaru raised his head in a triumphant howl. The sounds of shouting echoed the sentiment, and he watched as the enemy turned and fled, his men chasing after them to end any thoughts of returning. 

Black spots danced around his vision, and he hardly recognized the change as he sunk to his knees. 

He looked down, and saw the carnage the mutt had wrought on his flesh. 

His entrails were hanging to the ground, some of his organs missing from the claws that had dug them out. 

Breathing ragged, he sunk down on his hands with head tilted down. Everything was hazy. Sounds distorted. 

He was dying. 

The sound of shouting made its way through the fog, and he tried to move - to look. 

The darkness pressed down, and he vaguely heard the sound of a voice filled with agony shouting his name. 

 xXx

He groaned, unable to help the noise that escaped him behind his lips, as he pried his eyes open. Brightness assaulted them for a moment before a face came into view. 

Relief flooded over him from her aura, and she sobbed as her hands grasped his face and kissed him hard.

He was confused for a moment. Could not understand what had his mate in such a state of utter torment.

Images from the battle slammed into him with a force that had him sitting upright, nearly knocking his head into her own. 

Golden eyes searched her's in concern, and then swept across her body as he searched for any damage. 

"I'm fine. I'm okay."

His own relief sank into him even as his brows furrowed.

"How?"

Her eyes looked down, and he followed her gaze to the sword in her hand. 

Tensaiga. 

"It called to me."

His head tilted to the side. The sword had never done so before, though, he supposed it would make sense for it search out his mate.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, and he did not hesitate to wrap his own around her waist. 

"Please, please, never do that again."

He chuckled inappropriately given the severity of the situation that had occurred. He pushed his nose to the mark on her neck, and nuzzled as he allowed her scent to wash over him and soothe the ragged edges of his soul.

"I swear, I shall attempt to never die in defense of our home, lives, and people ever again."

She pulled back, blue eyes flaring, but he cut her off by pressing his mouth to hers. Her response was instantaneous. The terror, agony, and gut clinching relief they held between them poured out into the kiss they shared amongst the field littered with war and death and victory. 

It may not be the last war they fought, most assuredly not the last time their lives would be at risk, but it did not matter presently. 

His very being latched on to his mate, and he was content to stay there, suspended in time while he hung from the moment they shared.