Title: Searching

Type: One-shot.

Genre: Angst.

Dedication: Anyone who bothers to read this shot in the dark.

Summary: Kagome comes across a grieving Sesshoumaru.

Notes: Pick a pairing. SK or SR? You chose. Though I prefer you think SR.

)-(

He could hear them coming. Steps uneven, hearts racing. He could hear them coming, yet he really didn't care.

Ash mingled with fresh earth beneath his feet. Lingering, he could feel her lingering. An echoing laugh, a light tug on his hair; her spirit running with the winds as she had once run with him. Sesshoumaru turned, face solemn, eyes silent. Tenseiga hung like deadweight at his hip.

"Rin is cold, Sesshoumaru-sama. Why is Rin so cold?"

Twigs snapped, those unwanted scents drawing closer. He raised a hand, letting it fall to his blade with a soft swish of heavy silk; the hilt of a sword. He had hidden all his desperate want, and it still failed him. Failed her. Rin taken from him by a human sickness he would never know.

"Rin's eyes are open, Sesshoumaru-sama. Why can't Rin see you?"

It was the half-breed and his wench. They were making a beeline for him, moving quickly; not allowing him his one moment to grieve.

"Dammit, Kagome! He'll kill you!" His half-brother's voice sounded desperate.

They were upon him now, the untrained miko stepping from the sanctity of the thick trees into his view. Her head was turned, looking back at the hanyou while she spoke. "I just feel like something-"

"Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha growled, interrupting. He moved in front of her, eyes hard and weapon drawn.

The demon was still.

"Stop," the girl pleaded. "Don't you dare attack him, Inuyasha."

"Why the hell not?" The half demon countered, tensing.

"He hasn't made any move to hurt us yet!"

"Yet."

"You-" Kagome froze. Sesshoumaru was retreating. She stepped around the stunned Inuyasha and followed. "Ano, Sesshoumaru! Onegai! Wait!"

The inu youkai stalled a second, his body listening to her when his mind would not. His voice was tired, "What is it you want from me, human?"

The miko looked from the fresh earth to his form, and she pressed a hand to her cheek. "Rin is-"

"Dead," Sesshoumaru finished darkly. He felt his hand itch; his claws burn to draw blood from this woman's flesh. He wanted to hurt her.

- Kill her for approaching him and speaking to him and daring to pity him -

- But he would not. He would not because when he did turn to let his gaze fall upon her, he did not see a useless, human woman. The glow in her eyes made his heart bleed. It was not right for her to resemble what was taken from him.

"I'm… sorry," she fumbled for words.

The world buckled under his weight.

Kagome watched him go; knowing the hollow gnawing in her chest to help him was in vain. "It is not much," she whispered, "but if you remember her, Sesshoumaru, she will wait for you at the gate."

"I know," he breathed.

"I will find you, Sesshoumaru-sama. Rin will find you."