The following days passed in normal succession. Few leads to Naraku had been uncovered, and those few were shotty at best. Each night Kagome continued her lucid dreams and she became more and more aware of another self in those dreams.
The dream Kagome began shaping out her own small identity in the real Kagome's spirit.
Dreaming ceased to be a spectator's experience and Kagome found herself having the option of free will, the power of movement, of choice. She spent increasingly more and more time accompanying the Sesshomaru her subconscious conjured up. He became increasingly real, too. She hadn't seen him since that night at the hot springs, so she couldn't yet be sure if these dreams and this Sesshomaru were real or simply figments of her own creation. No, she wasn't sure, but she did at least know that these meetings brought her some sort of odd solace. Some feeling of relief from the aching need to know what was going on and why everything that was happening was. In her dreams, sitting casually with the once-monster of her own past, she simply felt… good.
The breeze lifted slightly, tasting of brine and water. Gulls could be heard in the far distance, in harmony with the breaking of waves.
Small feet with stubby toes dug into the warm damp sand and she sighed softly to herself. Kagome's head dipped back as far as her neck would allow. She sat next to him, her palms supporting the brunt of her weight in the ever-giving sand. She looked to the sky, all curious eyes and soft waves.
"What is it now? That you are thinking of?" Sesshomaru's voice lilted above the ebb of tide. She'd never heard it so soft and at ease anywhere else.
"I don't know yet. I'm waiting for it to come to me." She pulled her chin back down to its normal position and smiled a little in his direction. A man beneath him would have thought her flirting, but he knew Kagome better than that. She was truly so naïve sometimes.
"I do wonder if you remember these dreams." She continued nonchalantly, giving her shoulder a small shrug. He merely smirked a little and turned his gaze back to the ocean.
"It would be better if I didn't, if you didn't either. We both know that." She sighed and agreed in a small voice.
"I'll come for you again, soon. I cannot be so quick with Rin. She is growing quickly, you know. Quite the rambunctious little human girl. I do believe she is beginning to favor you."
At this, Kagome's smile returned.
"I adore her, she is such a sweetheart. Will you bring her next time?"
"Surely, she would love to visit. I fear my company does not suit her as well as yours might. As I said, rambunctious."
Kagome laughed and tossed a small handful of sand at him. It didn't really reach but that didn't really matter. She knew he was teasing her and she was playing along, never intending him true harm. They'd become good friends, after all.
Good friends. That was all. And they were satisfied. A good, impartial friend was what she'd needed recently and it was something he'd always needed, all along.
Here, in their own little warped world, they were the only ones. There was no human nor demon, nor slave nor lord. He was not ashamed of her, and she was not subjective to him. Here they were equals and they were close.
"And what news of your home? Is your family well?"
"Mom and Gramps are fine, Souta was just dumped recently, though." She frowned a little. "Poor kid's heartbroken. He'll be over it soon, I hope. It's kinda why I came home this time… He's growing up and… he was always there for me when Inuyasha and I got into it." Her smile was gone, but pride and trust and love lit her eyes. She was very protective over that little boy and he knew it.
A lesser man would have thought her upset, but he knew her better.
Suddenly her smile was shining again (really, this girl had to be bipolar) and she jumped to her feet, twirling to meet him with her hands behind her back, like an eager child.
"Let's have an adventure!" She beamed.
"An adventure? Of what sort?" Her smile caught on in this place and the freedom of it spread across his lips, too.
"We've been meeting here for a while now, let's go somewhere new." She worried her lip for a small while and then bounced up and down on her toes. "I know! I want to show you something."
She offered her hand to him, and even though they both knew he by no means needed it, he took it and stood alongside her. She backed away, smiling expectantly. His chest swelled a little and he thought: A lesser man would be overcome with foolish pride.
Slowly, very slowly, for he loved to see her awe at the sight, Sesshomaru allowed his most basic wall slip away and his skin glistened silver white. His jaw pulled back and his nose arced forward, elongating his face in a most animalistic way. Golden bronze eyes faded to ruby and fangs, claws and fur grew beyond human form.
Kagome's eyes grew wider and wider. What a magnificent sight it was to see him transform! Her smiled shined brightly as she waited for him to lower his shoulders so that she might crawl up and sit a the base of his neck, holding onto the shimmering white fur there.
When she reached her favorite spot to settle in, she leaned down to whisper in his ear.
To the far west there is an ocean and beyond that, a new land. I'm taking you to see the Grand Canyon.
It was twilight by the time he'd bounded into the low mountains of the valley she'd been so excited to see. Of course, it was just as she'd imagined it would be; this was a dream after all. Deep pinks and slowly darkening blues highlighted the sky, bouncing off the red stone gullies and mesas. Shadows were setting deeply into the ravines so beautifully hewn out of the one massive set. Kagome didn't climb down but rather ran her fingers though the soft fur surrounding her; her eyes caught and changed colors, reflecting the sky on two chocolate brown canvases.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? Do you like it?"
The giant head before her dipped slightly in what she figured was a nod, but suddenly, she was alone in the thin air, enveloped in a flash of light and falling steadily. Her voice cracked, ready to scream, but before she could an arm reached out and caught her. She was pulled hard into his chest as the two of them, one looking very human and the other very much like a demigod, fell. He smirked a little, and they gently descended to the stone flat below them. She barely even felt the landing, but he didn't quite let her go when her feet touched the earth.
Shakily, she looked up at him, her face still wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Her heart fluttered in her chest, her stomach still doing little summersaults from the fall. His hand tightened infinitesimally around her waist. She felt his heart flutter, too, underneath her fingertips.
Too close. Too close! Her mind hollered at her, somewhere beyond his eyes. Apparently, his mind was yelling at him, too. They both stayed like that for some seconds before he let her go. She forced her attention to the setting sun across the canyon and tried to play the red of her cheeks off as its warm rays on her skin. She was too busy with herself to notice he was looking away from her, the tiniest bit red, too.
They spent the rest of the evening watching the sun play off the mesa and its stunning outcropping, and then bore witness to the stars playing on their dark field of blue.
Little more was said for some time before Kagome, ever the buoyant one, lightened the mood again with her aimless rambling.
A lesser man would have ruined his friendship with this girl. But Sesshomaru was stronger than that.
Slowly the scenery faded into grey and small holes deteriorated, piece by piece sending small glittering sparks into what remained of their dream. Kagome smiled and said goodbye, that she so looked forward to seeing him and his Rin soon. He promised it would not be much longer and smiled back as he, too, faded away…