Sesshoumaru watched as she wrung the water from her hair, the front of her haori translucent where her dark heavy waves had rested. Even now, he considered reaching for her again–ripping off her clothes and his own, bearing her to the rock below and making her take whatever he saw fit to give her. Damn the wolves. Damn Naraku and his minions. Damn the Inu no Taishou and his swords. Damn the gods themselves.

Sesshoumaru feared no one. He answered to no one. He did as he pleased. If he desired her, then so be it. He would have her, as often as he chose–however he chose.

Such was his right and his will. Such was her fate to accept it.

Yet she tested him as much as she tempted him. He could see that this was in her nature. Even had she been born into this feudal era, he suspected she would be the same. So willful, so wanton…she seemed accustomed to acting on her impulses unchecked, her strength and her passion giving her free rein over lesser beings–lesser males, like Kouga and Inuyasha. But Sesshoumaru was a daiyoukai, and he would remind her of her place.

Blood rising at the thought, he stepped forward to remind her once again.

Running her fingers through her damp hair, she met his gaze as he approached her, a smile pulling at her lips. “Ready to head back?”

Something in her expression gave him pause. Turning from him, she slipped the straps of her pack over her shoulders, taking up her bow and quiver as well. The horse youkai tossed his bright orange mane as she mounted him with easy grace, her clear blue eyes focused in the direction of the campsite. Clothed and armed astride her fiery steed, her delicate features set with purpose, she seemed almost another woman entirely.

The Priestess of the Shikon no Tama, Sesshoumaru reflected as he looked upon her.

Only a few years ago, she could not have been less worthy to the claim, but the title suited her now. Once more he was struck by how rapidly humans progressed and changed–not merely as individuals, but as a collective. What little he had gleaned from her of the future reinforced this notion in his mind. Beset with such a fleeting mortal lifespan, her kind lived with an urgency and intensity that galvanized the world around them–the others around them. Kagome was not the only one who had changed these past two years–he, too, had changed.

She had changed him.

Regarding her now, he both wondered and he feared, how she might change him still.

Drawing up beside her, Sesshoumaru looked with her to the west. “Let us return,” he said.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi