I don't own anything, including a calendar, apparently. Finals got crazy, and everything just sort of crashed together, much like my excuses. Hope you all enjoy! This is going to get pretty crazy, I just hope you still enjoy reading. I'm kind of insecure about that... Whatever, no one cares what I feel, you're here for the story! Here it is:

They say sticks and stones may break bones, but what does it take to break the spirit? A simple shot, even if that shot is a misfire.

A silver streak shot through the trees, branches falling behind it. The moonlight shot off of it's pearly fur, and seemed to lay all emphasis on its teeth, which were fully bared. It was following a scent path, and it knew the scent well, though it was the one that had soaked his home not nearly enough. Sesshomaru crashed through entire trees, searching for a sign. She had been carried by that man to a neighboring village and then disappeared. Who was that man? Sesshomaru had never seen him before. Before long, he had reverted to his human-esque form, collapsing on the hard forest floor. He let out a weak bark, for using his form while angry burnt him out quickly. Coming back to his feet, he meandered his way to a tree, recognizing it immediately. The clearing up ahead was where he had taken Kagome. Closing his eyes, he could remember what she had looked like, and (thanks to the memory transfer) how she had felt. He didn't feel physical pain often, but he knew how much she had hurt at the time. Why was it like this? Why had they been thrown together only to be torn apart time and time again? Sesshomaru had been wondering this for a substantial amount of times while running for her. Forcing his way to the center of the clearing, he sat down in the leaves. Maybe... No, that wasn't something to ponder. Yet he did. Sitting in the pine needles and maple leaves, Sesshomaru came upon the most painful thought he was able. Maybe... Maybe Kagome didn't love him back.

The thought sent cold glass through his chest region. He had assumed she felt the same way. He didn't have a lot of experience detecting it, so it was possible. The thought... It scared him. And not much did.

His thoughts were cut short when his head swiveled to the source of a smell that he had been programmed to detect. Someone else had come to their spot. Someone who had been there at the time.

"Yo, Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha stood alone, sword in front of him. "Get ready to-" his sentence trailed off as he sniffed the air. "You're weak."

Sesshomaru growled lowly.

"No, I mean you're weaker than usual. Keh, what's wrong? No one to fight?" He looked around. "Where's Kagome?"

Sesshomaru stood up as much as he could. He leaned on the tree heavily. "Have you seen her?" His eyes burned with intensity.

"What?" The hanyou stared at him.

Sesshomaru was in front of him in seconds. "Where. Is. She?" He had a firm grip on the collar of his hakama. The demon could barely hold himself up, yet he looked as though he would run wherever Inuyasha pointed.

"You lost her?" The half demon was incredulous. The demon sagged into his arms, his eyes barely open.

"Jeez-" Inuyasha held him up, searching his torn yukata for Ah-Un's whistle. He gave up awkwardly groping his half-brother's matted mokomoko and whistled as loudly as he could, signaling the dragon. He lifted the demon onto the dragon's back, and stood back to allow him room to fly away. Ah-Un simply sat there. "Go on, ya dumb animal. Take him home." Inuyasha waved his hand toward the air. One of Ah-Un's heads gestured towards the demon.

"I'm not goin'. Go on to the castle." He waved him away.

The dragon continued to point towards it's back.

"Alright, dummy." Inuyasha jumped onto the saddle, making sure Sesshomaru stayed steady as Ah-Un took off.

"Why'd you push yourself so bad, huh?" He stared at his brother, confused. He'd never seen him so determined.

"D'you fall for her, too?" He smiled self-depreciatingly at the skyline. Sesshomaru stirred, but didn't wake up.

"Yeah, Kagome'll do that to ya. Heh, I had to go back to Kikyo just to forget about her. I wonder who she left you for, huh? Some stronger demon?" He looked back down at the sleeping form, who turned over to lay on his back.

"Yeah, me too."

Once the men had reached the castle, Sesshomaru had become slightly more lucid. His eyes opened to see Inuyasha awkwardly balancing him on his shoulder as a support.

"I... I must find her." His voice was low, but Inuyasha heard him perfectly.

"No. You're going to bed." It wasn't a suggestion.

He looked at the hanyou. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because nothing's gonna kill you but me." He smiled as he struggled to hold Sesshomaru up. He looked forward, determined to get Sesshomaru into the castle undetected. He had guards that could kill him. That were told to kill him.

"Sesshomaru, can you walk?" Inuyasha started to lean away from him. The demon swayed, and muttered a small "no". Perfect.

Meanwhile, Kagome was waking up from the worst sleep of her life. She looked at her hand, where she had seen the tip of Seto's tail had last been buried. There was nothing there, causing her to think that was a dream. Had it been a dream?

Seto came into the dungeon. She remembered how tortured he had looked the night before. She noticed her power was still with her. "Why aren't you taking my energy?" She met his eyes. He smiled softly.

"I don't think you'll attack. I saw how you looked last night. You feel too attached." He came and knelt beside her again. "You fell asleep after I showed you my tail. I don't know what happened."

She squinted at the bright illumination cast throughout the room from the fire. He placed his hand on her cheek, caressing it. Normally, she wouldn't have embraced the feeling, and in her mind, she didn't. Her stomach jumped, but her mind stayed steely. Why was she leaning into his hand like a cat to it's owner? She attempted to berate him, but all that left her lips was "it's like you see right through me."

Why did all of her accusations come out as flirtatious remarks? In her mind she raged, but their conversation was one often held by lovers. Seto chuckled, standing up. "Now that there's nothing you can do, I suppose it's time your confusion should be explained."

As he stood, she reached towards his hand with both of hers, though in her mind she had already torn his limbs from their sockets.

"The venom you so willingly reached for has some... Regrettable side effects. For you, mostly. It keeps you completely docile, but it does that through increasing your levels of affection. Therefore, you now are... Well, infatuated. Not mentally, but subconsciously."

The confession changed nothing in her bodily language, but she already began to feel suffocated in her mind.

"This will be incredibly advantageous to me, however," he continued. "Imagine the man you love running to the rescue, only to see her in the arms of her kidnapper, with no way to voice her love! I am sure that will serve better than any other torture I could give you." Kagome could do nothing but stare. She pounded at the walls of confinement her skull had become, hoping to get any type of message across.

"It's a shame, too. You see, hanyou have a certain telekinetic level of communication. But I can do more. I can listen to them without detection."

Kagome may have looked infatuated, but she had heard everything. But why was he telling her this?

"I can hear your Master, now."

He's bluffing. Sesshomaru isn't a hanyou.

"Ah, you were hanyou at some point, Kagome. I can hear you. But it wasn't Sesshomaru I listened to."

Inuyasha.

"So, that's his name. Yes, right now they are talking about you. This Sesshomaru, he is quite taken by you. I would even say... Your love is returned."

Her heart jumped. But in the back of her mind, she pictured Sesshomaru running to save her, only to see the look on his face when it isn't his arms she runs into.

"Yes, that is what would happen. It's risky, though. It could kill one of you. Maybe not him, if he's just now realized how much he loves you."

'If it has to be like this,' she thought. 'I'd be glad to die.'

And for the first time, she wished he would stay away.

The Lord of The Western Lands awoke to an alarmingly bright light shining directly in his eyes. How long had he been asleep? He looked out the window, not quite ready to face the disapproving hanyou sitting at the foot of his bed, undoubtedly full of questions. Questions of which he'd rather not relive the answers.

"So lover boy, you awake?"

His mind was still working at a desultory pace as he ignored the elision of that sentence. He looked up, a bit lost.

"'Lover Boy'?"

"That's why you exhausted yourself last night, isn't it? Because Kagome's gone?"

Sesshomaru's eyes turned cold. "Yes. She is... Gone. Regrettably."

"'Regrettable,' he says. Like that's all it is. Sesshomaru I think I know when someone, especially my brother-"

"Half-Brother." Sesshomaru growled.

"-half-brother, is head over freakin' heels for someone! Even with that icicle shoved up your-"

"Enough." The demon held up a hand towards his brother. Sesshomaru had not considered that his emotional responses were anything but minute. Clearly the emotions must be very strong, if even his dunce of a brother could detect it. Truly, the boy was pitiful in the romance department.

'You aren't much better,' he thought to himself.

"What're we gonna do, Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha's eyes had the shining tint of concern.

"I cannot ask you to come with me. You do not know how powerful this demon is."

"Psh.." Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "How powerful can he be, if I've been fighting you all my life?"

"That is the exact thing, Inuyasha. I've fought with myself all of my life, yet I still cannot even track him." The Western Lord turned away.

"Perhaps it is a lost cause."

Whoops; there's a cliffy. How'd that get in there? *evil laughter*

I'm CoolMintFire, 50% fabulous, 50% pain, 100% reason to remember the name.

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Kisses!