Title: The Seeds of a Rose

Author: The Laughing Corpse

A/N: First and foremost this collection was under Adorkablebanana and it still is under Adorkablebanana at AFF(dot)net only in it's original uncensored version. But this fic collection is being reuploaded under TLC so no one gets confused and thinks I'm plagarizing, ahaha.

"The Seeds of a Rose" is a FxF collection of one shots that range from R to G. The pairings vary. I don't mind taking pairing requests and challenges. I'm very open to alternative pairings. I do appreciate all types of reviews, except flames that consist of homophobic remarks.

It's all fine and dandy if you didn't like my fic idea or writing style, but I don't take kindly to comments that are very anti-yuri/anti-shoujo-ai. Not your cup of tea? Then don't read. Please respect the taste and preferences of others.

Please remember to review. Reviews are my food. They motivate the procreation of plot bunnies.

Title: If Tomorrow Never Comes
Author: The Laughing Corpse
Genre: One shot, Yuri, one shot, angst, anime/manga.
Fandom: InuYasha
Rating: R
Summary: Residing in nature's infidelity can corrupt the soul once and awhile. Can the cycle be broken or does it continue? KagomexKikyou.
A/N: Originally under Adorkablebanana and reuploaded at TLC. It's still up under Adorkablebanana at AFF(dot)net. Enjoy.
Warnings: Girl on Girl action. Watered down, edited version.
Disclaimer: I don't make money or own InuYasha. Rumiko Takahashi-san and Viz own the rights.

If tomorrow never comes

To forsaken a memory, to forsaken the past forsakes the future of the dead.

-Willow of dreams.

She stood standing still on top of the cliff, staring out into the empty black void called space. Alone starring off as if calling for the opening in dimensions, calling forward to come claim her again.

Often she visited the dry well, the former passage way to home and back here again. The dry well's desolated hole stopped bringing her back, abandoning her to remain here in the past to live with everyone aside her original family.

She climbed over the wooden rim of the well, falling inside the rabbit hole expecting for the familiar blue shimmer, awaiting for the transcending sensation to wave over her body.

It never came.

The rattling thud impacting throughout her frame reached the recesses of her insides the instant she hit the bottom.

She laid curled on the cold youkai carcass infested ground, her prune body coiled in the fetal position. She cried for what seemed to have been hours, her pain inside and outside collided meshing into one dire ache. She wanted to go home.

She wanted to see her mother's face, her brother, her grandfather, heck, even Hojou and the trio. She missed them a lot. She missed the pleasant walks through the shrine on sunny days, she missed the technology the future world provided, she missed the purring sounds of her large house cat Buuyo as she scratched behind a fuzzy orange ear. She missed it all. The choice to pick one world laid on the palm of her small hands, it laid opened to her most desires.

The tama of chaotic souls laid waiting for her full and hardy, pure and clean, it laid waiting for the wish, the final wish. The Shikon cease, the hum and vibrating cool and hot water-like fissure heighten the closer she came to making her wish as if it wanted out, an escape as she does this very moment.

She made the one selfless wish to seal her and the millions of other fates. She closed the hole she drowned in for good.

She shut the door to the other side. She sealed the passage home biding her family farewell for good. Again she reflected: No more school, no more discussions between mother and daughter, no more fighting Souta, no more gossiping with the girls, no more diverting pressuring dates from Hojou, no more ranting with her Grandfather, no more anything.

Home away 510 years is forever gone, she said goodbye.

She wept for the longest time, her grief remaining in this cruel authenticity. Her permanent stay in the Feudal Era forsaken her family.

Goodbye's aren't good enough. She didn't say goodbye. It isn't fair. Nothing is fair anymore.

The walls always seem to enclose, and her inner walls she built so long ago to protect herself swayed. Never more, never more.

The fleeting thought maybe she's crazy crossed her mind. Probably, maybe her sanity snapped it's leash escaping her mental crevices fleeing to the light she hopelessly ran forth to.

Insanity is the answer…

"Kagome! Where are you?" a voice called, his voice. "Are you all right?" He leapt into the well moderately acknowledging her daily visits. When she was nowhere to be found here is always the final option. She remained silent, waiting, wiping her rolling tears not wanting him to find them, if he did she'll never hear the end of it.

She nodded in response as he checked her sprained ankle the fall caused. Sweet and almost thoughtful, he undid his hair band he wears nowadays, no longer letting out free the silver wild mane she grown to admire over the years. In equal silence he wrapped the red band round her swollen ankle. "Why did you do it again?" he sounded angry, and he was, her foolish daily antics finally earned her a wound.

She strayed away from those piercing eyes. Gold eyes slanting sternly, everyday he bellows, everyday he harps day in and day out over her foolishness. He started again, beginning the scowling she learned to adapt to.

Then the face came. The innocent, heartfelt, wounded face her expression etched when he yelled at her. The days Kagome threw his remarks back at him faded.

His heart was touched melting into ache. Kagome clearly saw it and she hated it, she despised the face he unveiled to her and only to her when disappointment ebbs.

Why must you suffer for her? Why must you choke for her, choke down your woes and agonies?

She sighs, pulling him into an embrace and quickly rearranging her features as happy and content as a child, another lie to enforce. "I'm okay. My bracelet just fell I came to retrieve it today," she fibbed, sticking a genuinely false smile enough to trick him she felt better and nothing in the world differed.

His arms curled around her slender frame, holding her. Intertwining long, slender clawed fingers in her raven locks, slowly silky strands slipped through his fingers, he whispered, his hot breaths tickling the shell of her ear, sounding much kinder and gentler just for her, only for her. "Don't do it anymore, Kagome."

"Fine… InuYasha." She lied again becoming the master of lies. She might as well string it all the way through, she was a very good liar. He kissed her, she kissed him back, they seared each others lips in the bottom of the well, gently pacing themselves and following the small intimate code they learned while spending two full years under matrimony; a peach is a peach, a plum is a plum, but a kiss isn't a kiss without some tongue.

I'll give you my heart for as long as I can stand it.

Fourteen full days has passed, her bandaged foot has healed and she walks about testing her foot's capacity. It's sturdy enough to trot on, and she is happy by this no longer having her husband lugging her on his back for each action of the day. Bearing a burden on others' backs is the least thing she desires to accomplish. Kagome wants everyone happy.

Miroku approached her gifting her with bundles of treats Sango and him brought from other villages during their small journey servicing and completing holy duties. Seeing and hearing about Kagome's depression rose a soft ale surfacing their hearts.

Watching Kagome buried in indecipherable distress worries them. They attempt to cheer her up cheer, to bring the smile of the sun back to her.

They join her on the fallen, rotten trunk watching together the sunset commencing the coming nightfall. Sango comforts her holding her to her warmth and Miroku squeezes her shoulder mildly encouraging her to speak up. "Kagome-san, whatever is troubling you, you can tell us. Don't be afraid," said the houshi, his concerned eyes gazing upon her glistening eyes, windows to her entrapped grief.

Sango pulled her into her arms as Kagome once done while she was low. Soothing her for as much as she and the monk can provide. Kagome cries on her shoulder, she cries for her, she cries for the trouble she is provoking for everything.

Why must thou weep for me? Why must one distress for the other? Mostly why for me?

"Everything will be fine. Don't cry," Sango said gently, stroking the dark curtain of Kagome's hair draping over her flushed face.

"Kagome-san we're here for you, through thick and thin like in the past," Miroku said leaning closer to see her expression and offer more words of encouragement.

She sobbed harder forcing Sango's heart to cry as well, the slayer's callous exterior failed to allow her to shed a single tear. The pain she indulged in infected her too, Sango frowned. The inner demon Kagome fought hard against and was winning her in, pulling her in through her heart and sneaking slyly through the penetrable cracks she missed to mend.

The tears flowing reminded Sango of her ghosts. Sango wanted to weep in the recognition for Kohaku's memory. The younger slayer died when the jewel recombinant itself. Miroku was left to sweep the shattered pieces connecting them back to a replica, a phantom copy of her original heart.

The definition to reattach the souls to originality fails to enlighten us, me , you, I.

Once upon a time a Priestess held a power to purify the most tyrant of youkai, overthrowing them from their high horse and fry them to a crisp.

Once upon a time a Priest entrusted the Shikon-no-tama in the unsullied hands of a shrine maiden. She accepted the duty honorably never protesting or questioning her entrustment. She graciously held her hex and pride in stride, wearing the mask the world believed to be her true self.

"Kikyou-sama! Wow, your amazing!"

"Kikyou-sama you've done the impossible again!"

"Thank you, Miko-sama."

Praises to a mask, petty idolizations for her masquerade, appeasing the public for her civic duty. All meager meaningless drabble.

She once thought this was what she was meant for, the meaning of her existence.

Once upon a time a hanyou stole the jewel rousing the village's fears and an arrow pinned him to a tree. He growled curses and obscenities. He was the one who unveiled the mask…

All too long ago, fifty-two years to be accurate, they strode together hand in hand until he struck her in the back, then she struck him. Verse visa; vice versa, equal in the crime, two sides of a coin.

He remained bound to a tree. She died a painful, resentful death, and spiteful thoughts along with bitter woes incinerated along with her.

Her younger sibling, her only blood, left to fend for herself. Kaede lived her remainder of her life in silent sorrow, her childhood tarnished living lonesome and grieving and she gave up all fantasies, all hopes to raise a family, fall in love, and live free as a bird to undertake her womanhood in chastity.

Those who cry for the dead, those who tear themselves limb by limb for a corpse died themselves.

Spring is quiet. The season blossomed beautiful flowers, sprouting to life and bright open petals. Unfolding themselves to show fresh colors among the cold iced ground, exchanging the gray for bright hues. Winter's harsh attitude frosted the world and today spring has sprung, the busy bees buzzing along pollinating other flowers.

She sat there beneath a rejuvenating tree reacting to the seasons changes, coming to life once again. Where life commenced she decayed. Her soul decayed even as frozen over beauty remained resilient. She leaned back on her opposite element, the tree is life and she's death.

She's the winter's chill frozen over.

Today she feels tired the floating energy flaunting about wore her out.

The fine line she walks between the worlds defied common logic yet she's careful death and life do not intermix. She found out the hard way, after the completion of the jewel and when he made his decision. He chose her.

Did you forget the past? Did you bury me for good and skipped to her? Why me? Why me? Why wasn't I good enough?

The hanyou picked that girl over herself. He grounded his path taking Kagome with him by his side, leaving her to reminiscent behind in the swallowing shadows. Duty fore filled, journey complete, jewel reattached ceasing to exist becoming a former folklore future generations will awe to hear. Everything enclosed there's nothing left for her to wander the earth as the living dead anymore.

Kikyou sighs sorrowfully, filling her surrounding patch of a corner with frost. She drops her head, raven hair curtaining her face and letting the stoic mask slip off. Just this once was alright, just this once.

He left her…he left her to rot alone, replacing her for a reflection she wouldn't agree to join with. A "reflection" no one understood wasn't her and the same with Kagome. They are entirely different individuals.

He left her after all. The changes she altered for exchanging a miko's life for a normal one were drastic and against all odds. She wanted it. She wanted normality, unrequited normality. She pined for children to surround her and could call her own. She desired a lover, a faithful one to stick by her side to morning to dusk, round the clock until the time ticks by following old age and even in death they'd be adjoined.

Though none came true, she spent her youth alone. She may as well let bygone bygones.

Stiff and feeling much of the cold solid gloom reinforced she stayed rooted to her seat. Her pride bruised and most of all disappointment hitting a new low. Two crystalline tear drops slid down her cheeks. For this one time she'll let her mask fall.

I step at a time walking the path of destiny. One step at a time…

"Goodbye, be safe," she said, for once she sincerely bid him a worried filled farewell. He tapped his lips against hers turning to leave and saluting his farewell following the departing Monk and Exterminator.

Youkai infested lands called them to slay the vermin also leaving for a necessary visit to the doctor to prepare for the birth of the child Sango carried in her swelled womb. Kagome is left behind once again, her health frail and incapable of travel. She grown thin and very pale, her naturally bouncy glossy hair hung limp and stringy.

The kitsune Shippou grown into a fine boy, more mature and responsible he agreed to keep watch over her. He promised his word to InuYasha and did as he was told.

They disappeared into the distance.

She was left to sulk. Shooing the Kitsune away from the hut. She wanted to be alone. Shippou disobeyed her, he plants himself next to her, refusal written in his teal defiant eyes slanting as she fights on. "No and that's final," he laid out flat. Roughly grounding his stance.

Kagome sighs, returning to bed preferring the soft dark comfort to the bright pitiless outside. Shippou asks her something, she curtly cuts him off brushing the fox away. "Get out, and stay out."

Grunting he grouchily stormed off, planting himself in front of the hut. She lets him, she didn't care much for anything anymore to begin with.

Caring vanished to oblivion. Her heart froze pumped reptilian blood, frigid and icy. Shutting her pink swollen eyes, she doses to the swamping darkness even behind her lids she revisits Hell. Her inner demons rising racing her mind, visions the past scarred her mind branded her memories.

She wishes the ghosts would leave her alone.

Hell scratches behind the closed doors. They won't leave.

Escape is what she needs escape.

Belonging is necessary. Fitting in is important.

Days later she explored the familiar land revisiting the forbidden place, a restricted area where so many scars developed. She came on her own her friends wondrous to her disappearance and gone searching for her.

She scampered the grassed earth, hair dancing behind her, the wind breezing her unkempt mane and brushing a cooling breeze across her flushed skin. She stopped, halting in her tracks. That's where she found her…she found the ghostly figure, a collection reminding her the cause she remained here. "Kikyou," she breathed.

Artic sullen eyes bore into her reincarnation's empty ones. The eyes that once held bright vivid life.

She smirked then began laughing, cackling like a mad woman. Her miseries are put to waste.

She found her rival, anticipating she overflowed in felicity. This supposed joy was absent the readable book of despair, misfortune, and destitution flopping open for her to study said everything. She laughed more bitterly, dropping her readied arrow and bow to the ground.

She came to find her and here she was. Avenging her lost seemed pointless, the idea ludicrous now. The pleasure in reaping her soul and life away all looked lame and uneventful.

Why does this knowledge anger and pain her more?

"I could have sworn you lived a better life but… seeing the sadness engulfing you is too pitiful to even witness."

Kagome didn't bother to retort. She instead agreed with her obvious observation, she laughed bitterly herself. "Yes it is…this is why I envy you."

"Envy for what pray tell?"

"For having nothing to go back to. For being the shadow InuYasha looks for in my eyes."

Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me why I'm a reflection, an image for despair?

"He loved me first. I was the first woman he ever loved."

"I know. In the end he learned to love me…"

"He forgot about me. Live with the fate life tossed you, I have nothing, you do, cease this empty distress."

Kikyou sighed, turning away. Her eyes shined in a combination of anger and disappointment. Kagome watched her disappear.

Her voice rings in her head, her mock tone draws her attention away from the world. InuYasha often shakes her shoulders to reel her mind back to the world. Kagome can't help it even after she apologizes. She can't help thinking about Kikyou.

Kagome can't prevent her mind going back to Kikyou more than she did before.

"Kikyou-sama, thank you for helping us."

"It is my duty," Kikyou said turning away. She hurries away from the village because that girl reminds her of Kagome.

Why do you haunt me? Are the living suppose to haunt the dead?

You watch the patterns in the ceiling change shape, trying to make out the shapes the way you dreamed.

To rid herself of the frustration taking hold she turns, adjusting the arrow. Points it at the village girl. She releases the arrow.

Be gone vile girl.

Kagome crosses paths with Kikyou once more. Truthfully Kagome sought out the other for unknown reasons.

Kikyou, silent and composed as ever, sat beneath a tree. Kagome invites herself to sit beside her resuming to a topic of conversation surprising Kikyou with the healthy, almost lively manner caressing her.

"Why are you here again?" One finally asks.

"Why are you here?" countered Kagome.

"I don't know."

"Neither do I."

The struggle to see one another becomes far too strong.

Too strong to be normal.

Kagome ran into Kikyou again. The visits converting into a routine. An unhealthy routine. The angry, vexed flicker across the undead Priestess' eyes convinces Kagome to further probe her over the matter. Kikyou snaps.

Her delicate, well constructed composure erupts and surfacing a fierce bareness Kagome is stunned to witness. And she's very afraid. The fine nails biting into her tender flesh, threatening to shred out the tendons of her neck, the cold hand's grip tightened and Kagome gasped, tears leaking her blurring eyes.

"S-Stop…"

"What is it that you want? Do you find enjoyment mocking me? Mocking my existence by paying me visits?" Harsh and cruel her tone left no ghosts of kindness and serenity.

Kagome stared above her the ire filled woman straddling her, choking her little by little. Her head was beginning to slur. "No….stop…" her pleas reached Kikyou's ears but her rage refused to let out.

"I warned you to stay away, you foolish girl. The consequences of your actions will bring justice."

She won't let the crying doubt, the crying prickle of despondency sweep her judgment. She won't. The tears flooding the girl's eyes as Kagome steadied her gaze hypnotized Kikyou, the quivering caresses her warm hands over her cold wrists slacked her resolve. She released her, weakening before the girl's very eyes. "Why do you haunt me? Why don't you leave me be?" Kikyou cried, falling in the weak embrace the girl underneath her spared without regrets.

Where is god? Where has god's injustices fallen to? You are so cruel.

The world paused it's rotation for them. It halted to a complete stop. They studied one another each finding nothing but…equality, nothing but the same and yet a difference keeping them to themselves. They stared into the mirroring image they fixed themselves in each woman having the same problem only on reverse.

And another problem deepening the pain.

"Why? I don't know. All I know is, I love you," whispered Kagome's hoarse voice drifting in the night.

One more of the many nights Kagome escaped to flee to where Kikyou waited. The look of need dominant in their eyes said: "We need …"

"Escape," Kikyou finished. Nearly coy she undid her hair, freeing the long raven tresses.

Fidelity twisted into infidelity. Sinning seemed to point to the light. InuYasha doesn't have to know.

He won't know if no one tells him.

I hate you and you hate me, then why is it I can't leave you? Can't stop wanting you? Can't end loving you?

They wrestled to the cold ground ripping each other's garments, tossing possessions elsewhere uncaringly. Engulfing ripe bosoms, first Kagome suckled Kikyou's then she pinched her perked tip nipping the pointed nipple.

Exchanging heated kisses covering every inch flesh stretched out to, they dueled for dominance fighting for the top position.

Kikyou won the battle but not the war. Above her Kagome marveled the woman's pure unsullied beauty.

Lusty eyes locked with her hazed eyes, she leaned forward capturing the girl's swollen pink lips, their tongues twisted and twirled. Groping, clutching, squeezing, searching hands covered heated skin. Licks, nips, kisses tingled their bodies.

The sensation of scalding flesh pressed against her cold flesh shared a momentary taste of life, the warm beating writhing below Kikyou animating her. Just for now. Moans slipping from her lips as Kagome inserted slender fingers into Kikyou's parted damp center. Kikyou jerked in soft to quickly pacing thrusts.

Howling ones names the fiery scorching friction between them climaxed. They came once and another throughout the night.

The relentless empty void filled.

In her arms. In the arms of her rival. Escape can be found in the most strangest places.

If tomorrow never comes they at least stepped into a arrow of light.

This is all I ever wanted , what you wanted, what we wanted. This is why you were created.

The End.