20Chapter 5: A Choice Stolen, A Selfish Decision
"From the very start."
Shivers of horror ran down Kagome's spine, her blood flowing faster-almost raging under her skin.
It was almost inconceivable.
The tension in the air was electrifying. Visible statics of power flashed as the sound of Kagome's breaths became heavier and heavier-she was almost hyperventilating now, but Sesshoumaru could only stand still and watch. Not daring to utter a single sound.
Paper thin lips pressed closer, almost non-existent.
"H-How?...How?"
Muscles clenched and unclenched in rapid succession. The minute sound of his breath passing through pale dogwood lips and the detached look in his eyes, Kagome was nearly fooled by his aloof demeanor, but she knew better.
Sesshoumaru couldn't help but be unable to stop his mouth from twitching, her question raised alarms in his mind, but he knew, despite not wanting it to be so-that he owed her answers. It had been a long time coming-this moment. After all, he had prolonged this discussion long enough, and it was her choice that he stole from her.
She deserved to know.
Calm, collected, and impenetrable. Those were what Sesshoumaru embodied, but in this moment, he felt anything but.
"You were dying, and This Sesshoumaru-I tried everything."
It was almost instantaneous-Kagome's reaction. The furrowed brows, the gaping wide mouth, the sharp intake of air. She could count on a single hand the amount of times Sesshoumaru broke Court dialect, and not a single one had been anything but in dire circumstances.
It was one shock after another.
"To save you was to give you another chance with Inuyasha, " and though his face betrayed nothing, his voice wavered, "I had no other choice."
Out of the thousands of outcomes that she had faced, the thousands of paths that she had walked, the thousands of mistakes that she had made, none of them had prepared her for this one.
"It was my life for yours, my future with you, for Inuyasha." Had Kagome not seen his facade break the moment he had said 'Inuyasha', had she not heard the cracks in his voice-a testament to the discomfort and strain he was under just to explain...to her his reasoning to the decisions he made...she might have continued to think that he - "You have been brought back."
She shut her eyes, and breathed in deeply, the sharp tang of smoke and fire hitting her as she shook her head and replied softly-afraid of the answer she awaited. "For what...purpose?"
His stare was almost unbearable now, "For me."
A/N: I'm a little unnerved at the fact that dialogue between the two of them makes it hard for me to write as expressively and creatively as my past chapters...but...ugh...not to mention the chunky bits that hardly flow as smoothly as I'd like. So I'm sure I'll come back to re-write this chapter once more.