The Path We Walk by Hairann

Crossing Paths and Reflections...

The wind began howling around the clearing as the last rays of the sun disappeared behind the trees leaving the occupants with only the light from their small fire to illuminate their way.

Please be okay momma. A young kit thought to himself as he peeled back the fabric of a shredded white shirt and began cleaning off the dried on blood that caked a young woman's back.

A soft moan was all that was heard as he wiped the wet cloth across her back gently trying to clean off the wounds. "I'm here momma it's okay." the kit assured her in a whisper as he rinsed out the cloth in a bucket of water near by and began cleaning the wound again.

Once it was cleaned to his satisfaction, the young kit climbed into an over-sized yellow backpack grabbing a small white box with a red cross on the front. Raising it up above his head, he pushed it over the rim of the bag, landing on the ground with a soft thud, and he scurried back out of the bag. After dragging it back to the young woman, he opened it revealing various medical supplies from the future as well as herbs and medicines from the present day.

Searching through it he quickly found a small brown bottle with a white lid that he had seen the young woman use on occasion to keep wounds from getting infected. "This is gonna sting momma." the young kit warned her, as he remembered she did when ever she used it on others, never minding the fact that she was unable to hear him in her unconscious state. And sure enough, the moment the fizzing, clear liquid came in contact with the wounds, the young woman hissed in pain.

"It's okay momma, it's okay." the kit whispered softly as he ran his clawed hand through her hair in effort to calm her down. After a few moments she settled back down and whimpered softly, leaning into his hand, but did not wake. Sighing softly, the kit put the bottle away and began blowing on her back to both dry the wounds and help her to relax, as he had seen her do when ever she used the bottle on battle wounds.

Once it was dry, he used his claws to slice through what was left of her shirt, to keep the bloody and filthy shirt from undoing his hard work of keeping her wounds from becoming infected, and began to cover the wounds in white gauze. When he was finished, he covered her with a blanket and moved to tend to the fire near by. As he stirred the unburnt branches to help them catch, he began humming a soft tune, she had hummed when ever he was scared, and the first real smile, in hours, graced his lips when he saw her settle into a peaceful slumber.

"Master Jaken look what Rin made for you!" a young girl called out cheerfully as she raced toward him with a crowns of wild flowers in her raised hand and a bright smile on her face.

"Silly human why would I want that?" Jaken asked after turning his attention from the fire he was tending and rolled his eyes when he saw what she was referring to.

"Because it will make Master Jaken pretty." Rin explained with a grin as she tried to place the crown on the top of his head.

"Why would I want to look pretty?! I'm a demon! Silly girl." Jaken mumbled as he ran away from her.

"But Lord Sesshoumaru is pretty and he's a demon." Rin replied a bit confused as she stopped chasing after the small demon. Jaken screeched and turned back to her in disbelief.

"Onna no baka! Lord Sesshoumaru is male, pretty is a word for females!" Jaken yelled shaking his head.

"But Rin thinks Lord Sesshoumaru is pretty." Rin insisted sticking out her tongue at Jaken.

"Rin!" Jaken growled, as well as a toad demon could growl, and charged toward the young girl who squeaked and ran away from him giggling. "Take that back!" Jaken demanded as he chased her as she zigzagged across the clearing.

"No!" Rin yelled back laughing as she looked over her shoulder to stick out her tongue at him again. As she went to turn back around, she bumped into something hard and fell back to the ground. Looking up she saw an endless figure in white until her eyes finally found his golden ones and a smile appeared on her face.

"Lord Sesshoumaru you're back!" Rin cheered as she jumped up and hugged the side of his leg.

"Ng." was his reply as he patted her on the head once before walking away to sit down next to a tree and leaning against it.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?" Rin asked quietly as she walked over to him. He turned to look at her in his way of telling her to continue, which she of course did. "Master Jaken said that Lord Sesshoumaru couldn't be pretty cause it's a word for females but Rin thinks Lord Sesshoumaru is pretty. Can Rin think that?" Rin asked softly as she found her toes to be very interesting as they played in the dirt.

He raised one of his elegant eyebrows at her. Pretty? Sesshoumaru thought with a mental smirk. "If Rin thinks this Sesshoumaru is pretty than this Sesshomaru must be pretty." Sesshoumaru replied giving himself another mental smirk when he saw Jaken's jaw drop to the ground.

Rin looked up at him with her ever present grin and remembered the crown in her hand. "Here Lord Sesshoumaru." Rin said as she reached up and place it atop of his head. A slight nod of his head was his only reply and after flashing him another toothy grin, Rin skipped off to the fire where Jaken was busy fixing their dinner.

Blood. Sesshoumaru thought to himself as he stopped walking early the next morning and sniffed the air around him. The scent seemed familiar to him but he couldn't quite place who it belonged to. He couldn't care less if some human was bleeding to death some where, however he wasn't about to have Rin see what ever lay ahead.

"Stay." Sesshoumaru called over his shoulder as he headed off in the direction the scent was coming from.

"Master Jaken where is Lord Sesshoumaru going?" Rin asked curiously as she turned to look at Jaken who let go of Ah-Un's reins and sat down leaning against him.

"Did Lord Sesshoumaru say where he was going?" Jaken asked looking up at her.

"No." Rin replied shaking her head wondering what Jaken was getting at.

"Then how am I supposed to know?" Jaken asked as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"Cause Master Jaken knows everything." Rin replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Jaken opened his eyes to stare at her for a moment before smirking and gesturing for her to join him. With a smile Rin skipped over to him and sat down leaning against Ah-Un as well. "I do not know Rin. But I am sure Lord Sesshoumaru will be back soon." Jaken assured her as he closed his eyes again.

"If not can Rin go pick flowers?" Rin asked after a moment when she noticed they were surrounded by them.

"Yes if Lord Sesshoumaru isn't back soon you may pick the flowers nearby. But for now stop talking." Jaken grumbled shaking his head at the young girl who was now giggling beside him.

Shippo yawned as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and made his way over to the fire to rebuild it and began making breakfast once he had it going. I hope momma wakes up soon. It's hard to do all this by myself. Shippo thought to himself with a sigh walking over to the young woman who was still out cold.

"I'll be right back momma, going to get some water." Shippo informed her as he grabbed the bucket and started making his way down to a river near by.

After filling the bucket, he began dragging it back to camp, once again wishing he was older so a task this simple wouldn't be so hard. When he arrived back at camp, he saw a great demon lord standing far too close to his adoptive mother for his liking, and letting go of the bucket, he rushed back into camp to stand in front of the still unconscious woman.

"Get away from my mother!" Shippo yelled with more bravery than he felt as called fox fire to his hand and tried to will his legs to stop shaking.

After following the scent back to a small clearing, Sesshoumaru spotted the young girl he knew to be his brother's wench covered with a blanket lying near the fire and completely oblivious to his presence. He briefly wondered how stupid she would have to be not to know he was there but the sounds of her even breathing informed him she was asleep.

The breeze brought to him the scent of the kit she traveled with heading back toward the camp but he ignored it in favor of waking her up and demanding to know why she was on his land. He moved toward her to do just that, when the kit appeared in front of him with a small amount of fox fire in his hand.

"Get away from my mother!" the kit screamed at him putting up a front even though he could very easily smell the scent of fear pouring off of him. Had he been anyone else, Sesshoumaru would have started laughing at the small display of bravery, but seeing as he was Sesshoumaru, he merely raised one of his delicate eye brows at the kit.

"Shippo." came a hoarse whisper from behind the kit and he turned quickly forgetting about the demon lord to rush to the girl's side.

"Momma!" Shippo cried out as he buried his head into her chest and began crying. "I was so scared when you wouldn't wake up!" Shippo informed her in between sobs and she reached her hand up to pat his back.

"I'm sorry little one, I did not mean to scare you. Everything will be okay don't worry." she assured him as she took her gaze off of him to look up at the demon lord. "Forgive me Lord Sesshoumaru, I did not realize we had crossed into your land. We will leave." Kagome informed him before setting Shippo onto the ground and pulling the blanket tight against her body.

"Momma you mustn't move! You'll reopen your wounds!" Shippo insisted as she stood up shakily and reached into her bag for a change of clothes.

"Do not worry little one. I must get dressed. I highly doubt Lord Sesshoumaru wants to see this ningen in nothing but a blanket." Kagome informed him as she turned and began putting on her miko garments while holding the blanket up. It was not easy, but after a few awkward minutes she had managed to get dressed and began rolling up her blanket.

"We will be gone with in the hour. Once again I am sorry Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagome said with a slight bow as she turned back to the demon lord and refrained from gasping from the pain in her back, but didn't manage to keep the pain off of her face.

"Why do you use the honorific?" Sesshoumaru asked after finally deciding which one of the many questions he had going through his mind to voice.

"You are a lord are you not?" Kagome asked looking up from the bag she had finished putting the blanket in. His response was a look that clearly said 'as if it mattered in the past' and Kagome sighed shaking her head.

"If I had used the honorifics around Inuyasha it would have caused more problems and that was the last thing I needed with him." Kagome explained as she went to collect other things from around the camp but was stopped by Shippo.

"Rest momma I will do it." Shippo insisted as he began packing up the first aid kit and with a smile Kagome sat back down to rest.

"Where is the half breed?" Sesshoumaru asked redirecting her attention back to him.

"He is dead Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagome replied sadly as she looked down at the ground and heard a slight sniffle coming from Shippo. Looking back up she noticed Sesshoumaru was giving her a look that said to continue and so she did. "He fulfilled his promise." Kagome explained shaking her head.

"Baka." Sesshoumaru mumbled knowing full well what promise she referred to.

"I would have to agree with you on that one Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagome said with a smirk before wincing in pain when she moved her back the wrong way.

"Momma! You shouldn't move." Shippo insisted as he rushed back over to her side to make sure she was alright.

"Stay. Leave tomorrow." Sesshoumaru demanded more than offered giving her no way to say no.

Kagome smiled up at him for a moment before she got an idea. "Lord Sesshoumaru is your ward around?" Kagome asked and a slight nod was his only response. "Well since there is nothing I can offer you to say thanks. How about I make her breakfast to give your retainer, Jaken, a break?" Kagome suggested after noticing the breakfast Shippo had started earlier was far past the point of being burnt.

Sesshoumaru gave a slight nod of his head before turning and heading back the way he came. "Shippo can you catch some small game for us?" Kagome asked turning back to the kit as she began digging around in her bag for her cooking utensils after taking the uneatable food off of the fire.

"Hai Momma." Shippo said with a grin as he ran over to the bucket he had abandoned earlier and brought it back to her before heading out of the clearing in search of breakfast.

"Kagome!" Rin squealed with delight as she rushed into the clearing and saw her tending to breakfast that was currently cooking over the fire.

"Hello Rin-chan." Kagome said with a smile as the young girl rushed over and hugged her. She bit back a gasp when she touched the wound on her back and forced her smile to remain on her face. "Are you hungry?" Kagome asked looking up to see the girl nodding enthusiastically. "Good." Kagome said as she turned back to the fire and began dishing out the food.

After setting the two kids down with their plates she handed one to Jaken and as he was about to refuse she glared at him with a look that said 'shut up and eat'. Grumbling about stupid wenches he too began eating.

"Guessing you don't want any Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagome commented more than asked as she looked over at him. A raised eye brow was the only response she received. "Thought so." Kagome mumbled to herself as she walked back over to the fire and picked up her own plate.

"Where are the others?" Rin asked after a few minutes when she realized they weren't around.

"Sango, Miroku and Kirara are back trying to restore the slayers' village." Kagome replied looking over at the young girl.

"What about Inuyasha?" Rin asked after a moment, oblivious to the cringe his name caused in Kagome and Shippo.

"Eat Rin." Sesshoumaru's words were spoken in his normal cold voice but even those who were not used to being around him could tell it was slightly softer than it would have been had he been talking to anyone else.

Kagome looked over and smiled her thanks to him as Rin went back to eating and dropping the conversation. She really wasn't looking forward to having to explain to the little girl that he had followed the undead miko to hell.

Translations

Kit-Young Kitsune(sp) or fox demon

Onna no baka-Stupid girl

Miko-priestess

Ningen-human

Hai-yes

-Chan- Honorific added for younger children or girls/woman of equal standing.

AN: Well there's the first chapter. Please R&R, good and bad reviews are both welcome however I will just ignore flames.