On the Outside by SunsetMiko

Awakening

Chapter 22 - Awakening

*Sacrifice and Price * (Stella's Soundtrack Challenge)

Sesshoumaru awoke with a groan. He hurt a great deal more than he expected and he was surprised that he had been injured enough to pass out. Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be a scratch on him, but when he'd been surrounded by his old group of so-called friends, he hadn't fought back as he usually would have. Inuyasha had been the victim of many such group attacks in the past, most often initiated by Sesshoumaru, and so the taiyoukai felt that he deserved to experience what he'd put his own brother through.

He had allowed them to hit him and barely defended himself. All the while he had witnessed Inuyasha's struggles to get to him to help. He had never once helped his brother when he was being beaten, had often been the one doing the beating, and yet the hanyou fought with all he had to stop it when it was happening to him. The guilt was overwhelming and at that point, he stopped fighting back entirely. He deserved every bit of pain he received and more.

The taiyoukai felt a cool, gentle touch on his cheek and slowly opened his one good eye. He was shocked to find Kagome sitting beside him on the cot in the nurse's office, cleaning his wounds. She wiped the blood from his chin and he swore he saw tears in the corners of her eyes threatening to fall. He never meant for this to happen. He didn't want Kagome to see the fight or its results, and now here she was, nearly crying over his injuries.

"Kag... Kagome?"

"What the hell is the matter with you?" she asked. "Why did you let them do this to you?"

"I deserved it," he said hoarsely.

"Like hell you did!" Inuyasha chimed in. "Why the hell didn't you fight back? We you know you could have taken them all!"

*Transitory Time* (Stella's Soundtrack Challenge)

Sesshoumaru merely shook his head, groaning as the movement alerted him to the throbbing in his skull. He'd definitely had his brains knocked around and he had the headache to prove it. He was soaking in the attention from Kagome as much as possible, because he knew it wouldn't last long.

"You saved me?" he inquired, running foggy memories of the fight through his aching mind.

"I couldn't stand there and let them beat you to a pulp! I had to do something." Kagome reached for an icepack, wrapped it in a towel, and gently pressed it over his swollen eye. "I put steri-strips on your lip. Hopefully it'll heal together alright."

"Thank you," he said, giving her that lovesick look again, the one that made her heart ache.

"This doesn't change anything," she informed the taiyoukai. "I haven't forgiven you." That said, the miko rose and rushed away. She was no longer able to hold back her tears and she didn't want Sesshoumaru to see her cry.

"It changed everything," Inuyasha said from beside his brother. "You should have seen the way she dove in to save you, the way she looked at you. She might not want to admit it, but she still cares about you, man."

Though it was crooked and odd looking with his swollen and split lip, the taiyoukai smiled.

- *If I Had Not Met You * (Stella's Soundtrack Challenge)

Kagome sat in the handicapped bathroom bawling her eyes out. It hurt so much to see Sesshoumaru so terribly injured and knowing that she couldn't wrap her arms around him and make it all better. Just touching him the way she had when she put up her barrier brought back so many memories and she found herself wishing that she'd never met the taiyoukai. If she hadn't met him, they wouldn't have been friends for year, only for her to find out that he was a vicious bigot. She wouldn't have had to lose him, to cut him out of her life for Inuyasha's sake. She wouldn't be crying now.

Yes, it would have been better to have never met him. Yes, she would be giving up years of happy memories, but the pain at that moment was unbearable and she would have given anything to make it end. It felt like she'd lost her best friend, her secret love, for nothing. Suddenly he and Inuyasha were the best of friends, like none of the terrible things between them had ever happened. She didn't understand how the hanyou could simply erase it all and be fine with his brother. It didn't make sense. It wasn't that easy.

She had gotten over her anger, but she was still hurt that the taiyoukai had chosen hate over their friendship, only to turn around and do exactly the opposite. Why couldn't he have done it when she asked him to? Why couldn't he stop being so mean and hateful when she begged him to simply leave Inuyasha alone? He didn't have to befriend him. All she wanted was for him to leave the hanyou be and he couldn't do that for her. Now that he had, it felt like all her pain had been for nothing, which made it hurt all the more.