Ice Dreams
Chapter 2
She had loved skating for as long as she could remember. It started as a distraction, but that quickly changed into her sole reason for happiness. To her, when she was skating alone on her pond, it felt like the world was just her own. There was no sadness, no pain, and above all, no heartache to deter her of happiness. Alone, she could defy gravity and fly in the stars. It was a world that nobody invaded, not even her older twin Kikyo could come into this world. And that world would be hers for the rest of her life. She wouldn't let anybody in, she couldn't let anybody in.
Kikyo blew on her steaming tea before taking a tentative sip. With a sigh of content, she leaned back against her pillow and stared at her old skating partner. Usually, he held a permanent look of disgust and arrogance in those beautifully cold amber eyes. However, today, they were pensive and deep. Whatever held his mind in such consternation had to be significant, because Taiyoukai Sesshoumaru was fazed by almost nothing in the world. A smile quirked her cheek as a relatively good idea of what was putting him into such deep thought came upon her. She set her tea cup gently onto its matching plate and carefully held it in her lap. The sudden clink of dishes made him lift his head to meet her eyes.
"It's her, isn't it?" Kikyo asked quietly. She hid her smile when she saw an uncharacteristic frown on his face. His delicate features were unused to such a human reaction and the frown made his disquiet even more obvious. She calmly picked up her tea and took another sip. "You saw her skate, really skate?"
"How did you-" He started and immediately cut the sentence off. Kikyo almost laughed out loud at the man's embarrassment of being read. Whatever her younger twin was doing had to be good because this was the first time Kikyo had been able to read Sesshoumaru and not the other way around.
"She loved skating before I did and she loves it farther than I ever will. To her, it was a way to escape the sadness after father's absence. Skating became a world separating everybody else, even me. And I couldn't blame her for trying to find solace in loneliness." Kikyo said with a touch of melancholy. "It's why she doesn't trust people she hasn't known for years."
"And just how does this attribute to her," he clenched his teeth. "skating."
Kikyo gave a patient smile and took one last sip of tea to tease him even further. Sesshoumaru got the message and regained his composure.
"She believes completely in herself when she's on the ice. She holds no doubts or fears, and that is why her skating is amazing."
"I do not understand why she cannot do the same when there are other people around." He said through gritted teeth. What a fool she had made of him that night! His pride as a skater had been shattered by that girl.
Kikyo gave a sigh and shook her head. Why Kagome only skated for herself was something she had no right to tell. Either Sesshoumaru had to force it out of Kagome or Kagome would come to trust him and tell him herself.
"I know you're angry that she's a better skater than you are."
"Bah!" He said before shutting his mouth for the rest of his visit.
The wench was right when she said that he was angry because Kagome was a better skater. He was angry, extremely angry. Even if he trained to be at his peak, Sesshoumaru would never be able to reach where she was. She skated like if she didn't skate, something within her would die. There were no boundaries in her skating when he saw her that night. To be able to skate with absolute trust in one's self is a goal many skater's seek out. But it's difficult to brush away fear and self doubt when you're unleashing your soul on something as precarious as ice. The dangers of tearing vital muscles, breaking a neck or spine, or even committing the feared tragedy of falling are all elements of skating that it's dancers fear. In Kagome, he saw the pure soul of an ice skater. A soul that had nothing to fear and all to give. And that he was unable to do the same was what angered him even more.
Before Sesshoumaru could step in the limo, Miroku pulled him off to the side for a quiet chat.
"What is it?" Sesshoumaru growled. It was stupid enough that he was forced on this pointless trip, but that he had to spend it with her? Something inside murmured that he wanted to see her skate again, just like that night, but he squashed that voice down with annoyance.
"I know that Kagome appears to be a far from adequate skater, but can you at least try to skate with her? She doesn't lack talent, Sesshoumaru, she's far from that. She just needs a little help in tackling her stage fright." Miroku pleaded.
Without waiting for a reply, he ushered Sesshoumaru into the car and closed the door. Both skaters gave confused looks towards their manager as the car immediately jumped forward. Miroku gave a snigger as he headed back towards the warmth of his office.
"Wait a second! I thought this was a supervised trip!" Kagome exclaimed angrily. "Driver! Stop this car!"
"No can do, miss. I'm under orders to allow no stops until we reach the cabin." The driver said cheerfully and he pressed a button to close up the window between them. Sesshoumaru jabbed at the button that would lower the window but it gave no response. That sneaky, conniving idiot! So this was his plan all along. If he couldn't coerce the two to skate together, he would force them!
"That sneaky conniving idiot!" Kagome said aloud and Sesshoumaru almost did a double take at Kagome's identical reaction. Her sapphire eyes burned and for a brief moment, he saw the same passionate fire from that night. She felt his gaze and she turned to meet him eye to eye. His throat filled with an unacquainted need to speak, but she only gave him a scornful look and quickly turned her head to look at the swiftly passing scenery. Minutes stretched by so slowly that Sesshoumaru felt like an eternity had already passed them by. That he, the Sesshoumaru, could feel discomfort from a human being was only adding to the ever growing list of new emotions he had just begun to feel. It never used to be difficult to ignore anybody below his interest. Yet, it was challenging just to keep his eyes from looking at the quiet and calm figure beside him. Most girls would have begun to nervously fidget in his presence or blabber endlessly on the most idiotic nonsense. Yes…most girls would…
"I just want to get a few things made clear during this so called "excursion" of ours." She said, her low voice filling the car. She was actually quite pleasing to listen to; compared to the shrill cacophony he had endured in the past. He almost shook himself of that uncharacteristic thought but restrained the action, barely.
"Excursion?" He commented with amusement. He fought down a smile at the slight blush that warmed up her stoic face.
"You will respect my privacy. If I want to skate alone, I WILL skate alone." She snapped at him, half in anger at him and half at herself. Was he deliberately trying to make a fool of her? "You will not force me to skate with you because I have no intention in continuing our sham of a partnership. You will knock at my door if you require my attention. You will keep all sarcastic and unhelpful comments to yourself. You will- you will…" Kagome stuttered, losing her steam. Why couldn't she stay angry at him?
"A few things, you say? Is that all?" He said. He abruptly shut his mouth, did he just tease her then? She looked at him oddly for a second and he felt an uncomfortable heat flare on his cheeks. Her face broke out in a grin and she tried to contain her laughter but gave up after a few seconds. The strange heat in his cheeks died away and now all he could feel was humiliation. She was laughing at him…at the Taiyoukai Sesshoumaru. There was something inhumanely wrong with this girl.
"So you are human after all!" She said between her bursts of laughter. "That's the first time I've seen you blush!"
"A blush?" He said in stark disbelief. Impossible, he could never blush. A blush meant embarrassment, and he was never embarrassed, therefore it couldn't be a blush. A past lesson from his philosophy teacher came back to him: if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C… Why in the world was his mind going off on a random tangent? "Impossible." He said aloud with wavering certainty.
Her laughter grew even louder and she held her sides in pain. "Stop, oh stop, I can't take it anymore!"
He turned his head away from her but his ears could still hear her bell like laughter. There was a strange calmness in hearing her laugh and for a brief moment he felt comfortable with his bizarre behavior if it could create such easy happiness for her. He shut down his thoughts completely. The situation had reversed and now he was the sullen one looking out at the passing scenery in gloom while her occasional giggles filled the air.
It was the smallest cabin he had ever seen. For being the owner of an extremely prosperous ice rink, Miroku had chosen the tiniest cabin in the valley. The two stood, staring at the minuscule cabin, half in wonder and half in shock. The driver made good use of this time to drop off the luggage and speed away. Sesshoumaru was the first one to break out of his trance and he calmly picked up his luggage. Without waiting for her, he stepped into the house. He froze again and took a step forward when Kagome ran into him from behind. She was protesting when he felt her freeze as well. It was a honeymoon getaway cabin, literally. Except for the bathroom, the whole cabin was just one room. The kitchen and bedroom were connected so that neither person could escape from each other and Sesshoumaru didn't even have to look to know that there would be only one mattress, one blanket, and one pillow for the two of them.
"Oh my god…" Kagome breathed out as she surveyed their home for the next three days. "That son of a gun, I'm going to KILL him, I'm going to slaughter him, I'm going to castrate him-"
"Nothing you say will change the fact that we're stuck here. I doubt that our cell phones will have reception up in the mountains and Miroku" he twitched, "probably didn't leave a phone either." He said as he picked up his suitcase and set it down a few feet away.
"What are we going to do if there's an emergency!" Kagome exclaimed as she still stood where she was.
"I assume that Miroku believes that I will be able to handle whatever happens here." He said smoothly as he got his skates out. He had seen an immense pond behind the cabin and with them stranded here with no other form of entertainment, practice it was. He was wrapping a scarf around his neck for warmth when Kagome finally decided to give in and put down her suitcase as well. She placed it as far away from him as she could and opened it. She took out a pair of worn skates and placed it lovingly off to the side.
"I'm going to take a bath." She declared while creating a bundle of toiletries.
"Have fun with the mountain lions out there." He said as he slung his skates over his soldiers. She flinched, and then threw her bundle into her suitcase, taking out a scarf and a pair of gloves. She brushed past him and he unknowingly gave a smile while following her to the ice pond.
"Wow" She said as she viewed the pond. It was enormous and probably hand built so that it was a perfect ellipse. Miroku had even gone so far as to add a covered shelter with benches and modern lights all around the rink for night skating. She sat on the bench and pulled off her snow boots. She slipped on her ice skates and then stepped onto the rink, the calming sensation of skating was already soothing her irritated nerves. She skated around the rink; once, twice, three times. He watched her, waiting for her to begin that captivating skating but she only skated around the rink like one of those annoying talentless ice skaters that flocked to ice rinks for fun. He stepped onto the rink and warmed up his legs with a crossover all around the rink. He passed by her and only saw a look of content on her face. The frustration from before began to fill him as she continued to steadily skate around the rink. His eyes were so eager to see the same passion and beauty from that night but he saw only hesitation each time she passed by him. He stopped in front of her, causing her to stop. She furrowed her stormy blue eyes, already spotting the exasperation in his own icy gold eyes.
"What?" She said coolly.
"Why won't you skate?" He demanded.
"I was skating, if you haven't noticed, at least until you got in my way." She said sarcastically as she tried to skate past him. He blocked her.
"You know what I meant." He said coldly. "There isn't much time till the world championships-"
"Oh! I see!" She got on her tiptoes in a futile attempt to be on par with him. "That's what skating is to you, isn't it? Winning the world championship, being the best of the best, being nummmber 1?"
"Is there something wrong with achieving?" He hissed back at her. "I've worked my entire life towards the world championships and I'm not about to have it taken away because some little girl has stage fright."
"Working your entire life?" She snapped at him. "I pity you if that's what skating ever was! It's no wonder you've been working your entire life!"
"And you think you're any better? You don't let anybody see you skate and you show fear every time somebody is around. You're a coward who's afraid to share your talent with everybody else." He said furiously.
"I don't skate for others, I skate for myself." Kagome said quietly. "And you have no room to say that's selfish because at least I don't flaunt my skills like a circus act."
She skated towards the benches and threw her skates off. She stomped back towards the cabin, anger in every line of her body. He felt like tearing apart the entire forest in fury and spent most of an hour trying to calm himself into his normal disposition. He wanted to stay angry with her, but as time passed by he felt drained and tired. Now he could only see the sorrowful anger in her eyes. Angry at him, angry at his words, always angry.
When he entered the cabin, he found it empty and freezing. That idiot Miroku had even gone so far as to have no modern heating within the cabin whatsoever, forcing its inhabitants to build a fire and huddle together for warmth. The pervert's plans were becoming crystal clear to Sesshoumaru and he muttered a few rare curses as he trampled outside for firewood. The scenery had completely changed; a steady fall of snow had rendered most of the forest a foggy white. He shivered as a gust of wind blew past him, the storm had come quickly, too quickly. He had a feeling Miroku had planned for the storm as well. Where was the blasted girl? She wouldn't be so stupid as to rush off in a huff and get herself lost. He dropped the firewood and ran inside for his scarf and extra jacket.
Yes, she would.
uh…..yeah, graduation, trip to japan, um, way to many things going on. I managed to get this chapter out, by the skin of my teeth. It's a tad short, and I'm gonna move things a bit quickly because I want this story to be just a few chapters long. Enjoy! And leave a review! A long one! I love long reviews!
Leunra: hahaha, Miroku, that evil pervert. If you can't force them to cooperate, you force them some more. And I shudder to imagine the great Sesshoumaru in one of those tacky ice skating outfits for males. What I have in mind is more manly, and uh, well, it just looks good on him. Glad you like the story!
The Evil Liar: good point, one that will come up in the next chapter (most likely), yes, our Sesshoumaru is indeed a most mysterious person
Burntbanana: yup, I'm just going to move things along, this story is going to be a short one. Short and to the point. If I had less stories, I'd spend some more time on this, but this is just to bent writing frustrations…
Yes: wow, I didn't think this story would have that big of an impact, in fact, I was really not expecting much… but Sesshoumaru in a skating outfit is most amusing
Koorime13: I try to improve my writing, which makes me shun my earlier writing even more. I really really really wish I had the time to go over all my stories and change it so that the writing style isn't so….ugh.
FluffyDemonSheepdog: yay! I love it when I have few grammar and spelling mistakes! Thanks!
Shezel: this chapter wasn't quite as flowy as the first one. The first chapter just poured from my fingers while this one took a bit more thinking. I love modern plots too! It means I don't have to do any research to make sure things are right in my stories that are set in the past.
Anne: ugh, yes, what I've seen of ice skating is a few times on TV, but every time it took my breath away, which was what inspired me to start this story. I'm going to have to look into ice skating some more (uh, when I get the time), meanwhile, I apologize for any other mistakes I have and will make on ice skating.
Kawaiipie007: yeah, I feel so guilty for not updating my other stories, but I refuse to write if I have no inspiration or no clue on what to write… but I intend to write forever.