Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

How does a cookie crumble?

Piece by piece.

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Rotting, Rotten

This was how it was supposed to be, always. Sesshomaru was sure of it. He felt powerful; strong enough to kill quickly and merciless enough to toy with his victim first. Here was his redemption, his breath, his glory. This girl, gasping for breath and flailing, panicked and deathly white would be the first, the pinnacle of change. He would kill her and forget everything else.

He would become himself.

He would.

Suddenly his strained, stretched smile melted away into nothingness. Long black strands of hair had fallen forward onto the girl's blue-tinged face and onto his arm. He gently brushed her bangs out of her eyes with his free hand.

Brown eyes, hnn?

Sesshomaru lessened the strength of his grip on her throat and leaned forward slowly. In all her shock, the girl had never once looked away since he confronted her and he respected that, used that; the full force of his gaze bored into her until it darted to her quivering lips and defiant, angry, scared chin. He stopped a hair's breath away from her ear. "Death," Sesshomaru murmured softly, "is prolific. It bears fruit. It grows. It abounds." His eyes drifted shut and he allowed himself to enjoy the warmth of her body so close to his. It would be the last time.

He continued. "It spreads." She could breathe easier now; he had loosened his grip on her throat so that his hand fit no tighter than a choker around her neck. The girl knew better than to move, though, and they both knew it. She would be dead the second she so much as twitched.

"It kills."

He was so close that he could feel her pulse jump. Her heart race. He could hear her shaky question before she even asked it.

"Did it… did it k-kill you too?"

Did it? He breathed in the scent of her hair and opened his eyes slowly.

"Yes."

And his crushing hold was back on her throat.

She closed her own eyes this time, effectively looking into herself and away from him. Sesshomaru felt that this was appropriate.

And feeling the chill of loneliness once again course through his veins, he stood, dragging the girl up with him until she was up in the air, feet dangling and hands at her sides, helpless. She still wasn't looking at him.

It was the last time he would feel. He ignored the presence of Rin six feet below his feet and the presence of the human girl less than a foot above his head and he –

I am not sorry.

Fell back as his nose was crushed with all the force of a pissed-off hanyou's foot.

Inuyasha caught a falling Kagome in his arms and scowled at her bruised neck. What a fucking nuisance.

"Do you see what I mean now?"

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AN: *Sighs* The end of another chapter, although I'm not so pleased with this one. It feels like it's so incomplete, so filler-ish but… eh, it is what it is. But on to another topic… :) for the wildcard that was last chapter; I know it was definitely unexpected. But what I had been considering (keeping Sesshomaru despondent and sad and consequently playing on Kagome's soft heart enough to convince Inuyasha to let Sesshomaru join their group of two) just seemed too easy. This cookie is going to be much tougher to crack than that! Plus, I had a feeling that a lot of people were going to expect that, so I kind of threw a little loop in there :). But I hope you still enjoy this story and this chapter… if only a little bit.

Feedback, please! Lend me your thoughts!