Subverted Dreams by Sarshi

Spring Madness

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi

AN: Written for the #sesskag Spring Competition over on DA. Just a little something I wrote when I was feeling insanely fangirlish after watching a doctor who episode. This chapter won third prize ^^

Spring Madness

"There's something you should know," Kagome said as she woke up next to Inuyasha, drowsy with the images that had just been before her eyes, when she'd thought she'd woken up but hadn't. "It's not that I entirely oppose flowers, or looking at them, but this is..."

The sakura blossoms turned red and floated into the pink sky, rotating slowly in a building tornado that was just about to become somebody's nightmare. And, yes, there it was, the orange clouds gathering into floating dark mountains of exhaust fumes, the flower petals growing heads and feet, crying in a dark, cheerful chorus "going up!" and then swirling faster and faster as, next to her, Inuyasha...

She turned her head. It wasn't him, he wasn't there to save her. The demon next to her was Sesshoumaru, impassively and coldly watching her, his eyes pinning her in the air, making her unable to move.

"You will die," he announced. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, and then she saw that no, there was an alternative, which the dog demon would offer her and she'd take it and be happy for it. "Of course, you can also sleep with him and maybe that will change his mind. As long as he's interested in you. It might not be long."

She turned and saw a man, entirely blue, entirely naked, entirely impassive looking at her without any sort of emotion.

Then she thankfully woke up screaming, seeing the darkness of her own room at home, dimly lit by the street lamps outside, the ceiling, the shapes of objects in her very own, very private, very comfortable, very non-blue-person-non-Sesshoumaru-non-sakura-non-pink bedroom.

"Why do I have such messed up dreams!"

She swore and turned the other way in bed. It was an old way to break a nightmare or a dream. She didn't know why it worked, but it did and she sure as anything didn't want a revisit to that place.

Maybe her subconscious was trying to tell her something? You think pink is the color of the Apocalypse. No, that couldn't be it. You are afraid Inuyasha will go away and you'll be alone and helpless. So what else was new? You see Sesshoumaru as a... Nope, no clue about what he was. A murderous, cruel, fate-deciding monster, maybe? You are afraid of tomorrow's meeting with your friends to see the flowering trees. Again, what else was new?

Films really do freak you out. No, they didn't. Come on, admit it. The blue guy was Dr. Manhattan from "Watchmen". So what? That didn't meant anything. Pervert. Sleep with him, eh? You have an uncanny attraction towards... Stuff it, subconscious. This Kagome wasn't about to listen. I'm the voice in your head, every day I will be there, if you cannot stand it, I don't care.

Kagome groaned and threw the pillow against the wall. A voice in your head can be the sign of insanity. A singing, taunting voice occupying said place was worse. She needed a walk. She needed anything that could get her out of the house and in a better mood and able to rethink her life and what exactly went on through her head.

Really though, it was better than the time she'd dreamed of herself as a fat, pimply boy of about 15 who was begging of a male androgynous-looking classmate to do stuff to him.

Maybe she needed a shrink.

Maybe she needed to stop talking to her modern-era friends who had weird obsessions, such as blue men and yaoi.

Maybe, her subconscious tried to tell her, you just need to acknowledge you are a girl in need of some romance. If you know what I mean.

Kagome wondered when she had acquired such an annoying dark side of her mind. Still, she needed to clear her thoughts – possibly even scrub them with bleach – so, after a short debate, got out of bed entirely, dressed, checked the time, saw it was 2 am and decided to go outside and look at the stars. They were bound to be saner.

Said and done. Pants, blouse and jacket on, she left her room, then the house, entering the garden and seeing Inuyasha, back turned towards her, probably just arrived through the well and considering whether to wake her or no.

"I'm here," she said, cheerfully.

He turned, swiftly and she saw it wasn't, in fact, Inuyasha, but a quite impassive Sesshoumaru, measuring her from head to foot.

"Oh, no," she groaned. "No. This can't be one of those waking dreams. I hate those."

The demon lord looked at her some more, quietly. His expression was the same as always, unmoved, unchanged. Basically, he stared at her. She stared back at him. It turned into something akin to a blinking contest, each of them trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

"Oh, yeah," she sighed, in the end. "This is a waking dream."

"This Sesshoumaru finds that disturbing."

Well, he didn't seem disturbed, Kagome thought. But then again, he rarely seemed anything. "Yeah, well..." she muttered. "So do I."

"Was it not my younger brother that you fancied?" he continued.

She blinked, trying to find the connection with the conversation. It struck her, in the end, that the words she'd uttered had a double meaning and she blushed. "I meant a dream in which you keep thinking you wake up."

"I see." He paused a second, cocked his head slightly. "This is not one of those."

"Yeah, well. I don't trust that. You wouldn't be here if I were awake."

He approached her very quickly. Her breath caught in her throat as he extended a hand towards her and she tried to pull back, but found his palm covering her eyes.

"Can you see?" he asked.

"Erm. Of course not. There's a hand in front of my eyes," she pointed out.

"Dreams are not seen through the eyes. You would see if this were such a thing." He pulled his hand back.

"Oh. Erm. Thanks for the tip, I guess. So. Heh. What are you doing here?"

Sesshoumaru looked up towards the sky with enough intent that she gazed up, too, wondering what had caught his attention. It turned out that nothing had, so she resumed looking at him instead. He didn't seem about to share any great secrets, so she had to start guessing to herself. It was obvious he'd come through the well. It was obvious that he had some motive to do so – the demon lord had never seemed the type to act randomly. And... yep, that was just about all of her grand input for tonight.

"Tracing myself," he answered finally. "Demons live much longer than humans. I should still be alive. I should come meet myself."

"Isn't that breaking some sort of rule of time?" Kagome asked, frowning.

"I recall no rule of time. Where are they written?"

"I'd always assumed there were some. Don't change history, don't contact yourself, that sort of stuff." She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe there are none. So, any luck so far?"

"I have yet to see myself."

"Do you have any trace to follow?"

"I know where I am. I should come here."

"Maybe you don't want to?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, the tiny hint of a possible emotion that could ever be gathered from his expression saying that he hadn't considered that and had to reluctantly admit that she could be right.

"Maybe it's a bad location," she shrugged. "Or a bad timing."

"Location," he said with a slight thoughtful nod. "I do not approve of this place. A perfect copy of myself might be too obvious. Is there any space more open and deserted at this time of night?"

"There's a park really close to here," she said. "It's locked up at night."

"Then you shall take me there."

Kagome considered protesting and going back to bed, but then realized she didn't really want that. So she nodded in agreement. Spending her days and nights with demons on weird errands was getting to be a habit. To her surprise, he offered to carry her, so she climbed on his back and directed him towards the place.

It was beautiful even by night, she noticed. Even if she'd been in the wilderness at night many times, due to her ... medieval lifestyle … forests were not parks. And blooming trees beat greenery even at night. She marveled at how tame it seemed, how non-frightening, how much of a park it was, how it was amazing by being so familiar. She'd expected strangeness, a de-familiarization, a...

Why was Sesshoumaru over there?

Oh.

She'd been right. He hadn't wanted to meet himself. But now he did. Away from prying eyes, the demon lord, past and present, could meet himself. Physically, they were very much the same. She wondered if he'd worn the right clothes on purpose, or if he'd worn the same style since forever and would still continue to look the same even when kimonos would be entirely obsolete.

The two watched each other as quietly as she would have assumed. No words were spoken at first, then the older of the two said:

"Her grandfather is watching. Every night. For me and Inuyasha. And for her. I have observed it myself, wishing to verify these words."

The younger nodded.

"I know what you are thinking. You will go into commerce. New empires are built from the power of money, not of land. You will extend your status in the human world."

The wind blew softly and cherry petals, fallen that day and not swept away yet were picked up by the wind and swirled around the three.

"But that is inconsequential. I am unlikely to be brought down by time," the older Sesshoumaru said with a shrug. Then he walked towards Kagome and actually smiled at her, making her jump and the younger version of himself shift ever so slightly. "Do not be afraid," he told her. "You will fit well into the world of this time. The flower viewing tomorrow will only be the start towards building yourself a good life. Better than you would expect. Much better."

"Erm," she said, because she couldn't think of anything better.

Then he caught her chin in his fingers, tenderly and leaned forward, kissing her chastely on the lips. She froze in surprise. He pulled back a second after that, giving her another smile, a charming, rare, subtle thing. "Your first kiss, right? Stolen. The rest will only come when you give them."

She stared at the demon lord in front of her, then turned towards the younger Sesshoumaru, who seemed, under his usually cold exterior, to be as dumbstruck as she was.

"And that is why we needed privacy," the older one said. "I know what you are thinking. Yes."

Kagome turned from one to the other, staring, disbelieving and yet some part of her had enjoyed that closeness, that smooth attitude of the older Sesshoumaru. She was both outraged and astonished and she couldn't deny that she was also delighted.

What that dream was trying to tell you was that you have a crush on him, her subconscious supplied helpfully. 'Sod off,' she told it. 'It wasn't hinting anywhere in that direction and you know it.' No, no, really! It did! You have to look for the signs! The ssiiiiiggnnnss! 'Right. Of course. How didn't I see it. You were so ominous about it.' Humph. See if I ever try to tell you anything else.

"It's going to be a distinctively interesting time," the older Sesshoumaru was telling his younger version, who blinked in approval.

"I think it's some sort of spring madness, right?" Kagome pipped in. "Weird dreams. Weird... Erm..."

The two carbon copies of a powerful demon lord turned to look towards her and she gave a small "heh".

"You'd better take her home before her grandfather worries," the older one said.

So, that night, later in her bed, Kagome covered her eyes with the palm of her hand, saw that she couldn't see anything through it and decided that the younger Sesshoumaru had been wrong. This method didn't work. Because there was no way this was real.

Yeah. It was just pollen-induced fever.

Yeah.

….yeah.

AN: Don't forget to review ;)