Title: Lost and Found.
Theme: Sport – Dokuga_Contest, Weekly Perfection #62 [orig. posted 11.23.2009]
Word count: 400 on the dot – I shamelessly admit using her dying words to cut down the word count. Good thing it only added to the effect. *_*

Rated PG-13
Genre: General/Bittersweet/Romance
Canon Universe + Deviation. (But of course.)
Disclaimer: InuYasha and its characters belong to Takahashi-sensei.

Summary: True to her character, in her dying moments, Kagome manages to piss Sesshoumaru off, and make him play a game with her.
Warnings: A character death, though not for very long. …Well, sort of?… And! Even though he is 200 or 700 years older than Kagome, I insist that Sesshoumaru is not a pedophile. * resolute stare*

AN: This is a little thank-you treat for my readers for hounding me (in various ways) to get Insanity running again. Well, the intention is for this to be a treat, but if you've read this at Dokuga_Contest, I suppose it's not much of one… Sorry?

Also, while I do have collections of these un- or inter-related drabbles…. Sometimes some pieces just work nicer standing alone. But then again, I've been itching to write a sequel to this piece, so that might just crop up one day….

Also, this story placed second for that week's prompt. Thanks to all who voted~!

Please enjoy~

~* Lost and Found *~

Sengoku Jidai:

"Sorry to leave you alone, Sessh-m-ru," Kagome slurred.

"If you are sorry," he scolded, shifting her, "then do not leave."

"Don't get…-to too much trouble while'm gone, okay?" she smiled, ignoring him.

"While you are gone?" he asked, only half-focused on her words, shaking Tenseiga furiously.

"Yeah…" she said, then coughed, and he threw the useless sword away to fill both arms with the woman. "'Til you… find me again," she explained, her eyes closing.

He jostled her, unwilling to give her up yet, each slowing beat of her heart taking her farther away.

"Kagome," he called.

"Mmm…Like, a game'a tag," she finally responded, and he felt like jostling her again, for talking about nonsensical things when she was about to die on him.

"Or hunting," she continued, driving him crazy with helplessness and anger and desperation. "Your fav- sport," she remarked, smiling again, eyes still closed.

"But, it migh- take a while fer me to remember… you," she frowned slightly, blood oozing from her lips and caressing the delicate line of her jaw. "So don't get mad, m'kay?"

"Silly woman," he said, burying his nose in her hair and pressing his lips to her ear, "this Sesshoumaru did not permit you to go and get yourself killed."

"C-control freak," she retorted, a tear wetting his cheek and her lips kissing his jaw with her last smile.

Tokyo, 1996:

"Hey, hey, how 'bout it, sweetie? I'll show you a good time!"

Kagome tried to shrink from him again, searching the crowd for someone to help her. No one did.

"Please leave me alone," she repeated, walking briskly, only to be blocked again.

"Aw, come'n! Don't be a spoilsport," he insisted, this time grabbing her arm and tugging her along.

Suddenly, a tattooed hand cut in between them, and Kagome barely had time to take a breath before the newcomer's other hand snaked into her hair and warm lips pressed soft upon her own.

The kiss was short, and she noted how this man kept himself between Kagome and the harasser, so Kagome mentally approved of her savior, and played along. Her blush of appreciation, however, wasn't faked as she looked up into the man's handsome, though oddly tattooed face.

"Sorry, honey," she said, smiling sheepishly, "did you wait long?"

"Yes," he answered, taking her around the waist and touching foreheads with her. "Very, very long."