In this final chapter I am using the song Famous Last Words by Billy Joel. I do not own it.

One last song. He told himself, just one more and then I can be through with everything.

Sitting here in Avalon / looking at the pouring rain

Sesshomaru glanced out the window and chuckled at the rain now coming through the open widow

Summertime has come and gone / and everybody's home again

Everyone all tucked in. Cozy and tight in their beds

Closing down for the season / I found the last of the souvenirs

He had gone through all of his trunks and such earlier today, remembering how blissfully unaware he had been before he met Kagome

I can still taste the wedding cake / and it's sweet after all these years

Another stupid human tradition he had gone through to please her and her family, but it was fun. Although it had taken three dry cleaning sessions to get the cake out of his suit

These are the last words I have to say / That's why this took so long to write

It had taken him years to come to this point

There will be other words some other day

No more words, words were empty. Her favorite saying was "You actions ring so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what you say." No matter how many times he told her he loved her, or how many times he had said he would stop, that final action had proved who he really was

But that's the story of my life

Nothing ever went right anymore

There's comfort in my coffee cup / and apples in the early fall

He picked up his now cold coffee and drank the rest in one gulp

They're pulling all the moorings up / and gathering at the Legion Hall

The demons were making one final stand against the humans, one last time they would fight, and Sesshomaru knew they would lose

They swept away all the streamers / after the Labor Day parade

Actually, it was the New Years parade

Nothing left for a dream now / only one final serenade

One last song

And these are the last words I have to say / Before another age goes by

Without him, he would take part in it no more

With all those other songs I'll have to play / But that's the story of my life

No more songs, no more words, one more action, to prove to her

And it's so clear standing here where I am / Ain't that what justice is for?

He saw everything he had ever done in painful clarity

Frankly, my dear / I don't give a damn anymore

But he did, and that was the problem

Stack the chairs on the table tops / Hang the sheets on the chandeliers

Clean it all up, and close the doors

It slows down but it never stops / Ain't it sweet after all these years

The pace of the world would just get faster and faster until the human race burnt themselves out, until there was nothing left

And these are the last words I have to say / It's always hard to say goodbye

He had nothing to say goodbye to

But now it's time to put this book away / Ain't that the story of my life

It was time to close the book of his life, a book that was never meant to be closed. Time to put it back on the shelf and hide it so that no one would ever know of his mistake again. But perhaps, someone would pick that book up at the crossroads of their life and read, they would choose the road he had given up and live unlike he had.

Sesshomaru reached out and grasped the hilt of his broken sword, the sword meant to give life would now give it in a different way, it would let him rest. It would let him escape all that he had done, and sleep would be welcome. In one hand he held the sword, a relic from what had been, in the other was an empty coffee cup, perhaps a foretelling of what the world would come to, empty and dead. He laughed and dropped the cup, watching it shatter and spread across the floor. He was done, done with the world, done with himself. He raised the sword and watched it glimmer in the light. He slowly rotated the chair so his back was to the door and he faced the night through the open window.

"I am so sorry Kagome." He spoke the words softly before bringing the sharpened edge of the sword to his neck, the one way to kill a demon, take it's head or it's heart. "You already have my heart Kagome, finish the job and have my head." He raised the sword to strike but mid slash, something grabbed his arm. He snarled and leaped to his feet, claws extended and ready to kill whomever had stopped him. But before he could rip out their throat, his other wrist was caught as well. Two white, delicate hands held his arms in place, and two icy blue eyes held his demon at bay.

"I don't want your head Sesshomaru." Kagome whispered before she let go of him and he fell to the floor, tears rolling down his face.

"You came back, why have you come back? Do you wish to mock me? Do you wish to see the one who caused you so much pain in misery?" He lashed out with his words, spite dripping from each letter.

"I have come to heal you Sesshomaru, and to heal myself."

"Go away, go away. Just leave me alone." He pushed her away as she reached out, but she stubbornly took his head and laid it on her chest. She ran slender fingers through his hair and the muscles in his body went limp. A deep, contented rumble sounded in his chest.

"You were always stubborn. You would never let go of anything. Not even me." She laughed quietly as he draped his strong arms around her slender form possessively. "Why would you kill yourself?"

"I do not deserve you." He growled, and nuzzled her neck.

"Why would you think that? Actions speak louder than words Sesshomaru, and yours are screaming for me to come back."

"You forgive me?" He lifted his head and looked at her.

"I forgave you the minute it happened, but you wouldn't forgive yourself." She pushed a stray lock of white hair behind his ear.

"You were all that was holding me together." He spoke softly and traced a finger around her face. "And then you left." They just sat their and stared at each other for a few minutes before Kagome started laughing.

"Look at this, the once universally feared demon lord is sitting on the floor crying in clothes that haven't been changed for several days." she smiled mockingly at him.

"Are you calling me weak?" He demanded, his old spark and pride back in his eyes. "I am not so weak I cannot protect what is mine." He swept her up in his arms and got to his feet, cradling her gently in his arms. "I will never do anything to hurt you again. Never, ever." He whispered in her ear and walked out of the room and back into his life.

Sigh it is finally done! Wow, that ending didn't turn out as I wanted it to, but I guess it works. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, it helped so much. So the vote was for a happy ending, and it is more happy then if I had let him kill himself, so I hope that it is satisfying! Thanks again to my wonderful reviewers!