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Chapter Text

It had been a while since they'd fought someone with dark magic, but Kagome knew it would happen at some point. Things had been too quiet since Naraku's defeat—at least since she'd returned to the past—and it was only a matter of time before someone got cocky enough to try and take his place.

Lightning crackled past her ear, bringing her out of her musings, and she rolled her shoulders. Nocking an arrow with ease, she aimed at the woman. Kagome couldn't tell if there was any humanity left in her, as her hands had morphed into talons, scales as dark as her hair climbing up her arms and gleaming in the moonlight.

Power did funny things to people, and this creature had some major anger issues that she'd repressed long enough for the hate to manifest itself into something more tangible. There were rumours of a lover's quarrel—possibly a triangle filled with unrequited love on her part—and that knowledge had Kagome hesitating.

Could she have ended up like this?

She'd been there, experiencing heartbreak again and again, but she'd had Sango to pull her out of it. Hell, the mission had done the same, keeping her focused even when all she wanted to do was break down and cry. She'd used her temper to shield herself each time Inuyasha had chosen Kikyou over her, and eventually, a satisfying numbness had set in.

Breathing deeply, she aimed again. She'd never let herself sink this low. The woman had wanted to cause chaos, to rip out the hearts of those who'd spurned her and relish in the destruction that came with it.

Power pooled around the tip of her arrow, drawing the woman's attention, and they struck at the same time. Sparks of reiki trailed behind the fletching as it flew through the air, the ground catching fire when it pierced her heart. Even as she gasped for air, the woman sneered, dark eyes glowing with Kagome's power.

"You will not escape unscathed, miko," she hissed.

Kagome stayed on the defensive, scanning the area for accomplices. Finding no one, she straightened, watching as her chest turned to ash. "This wasn't my fight until you attacked the village."

"You have the jewel," she argued.

"The jewel is gone. And would never have granted your wish, anyway." Her fingers gripped her bow, wishing there had been another outcome.

The woman fell to her knees, body cracking and decaying. "You know nothing of wishes."

"I know power won't solve them. You have to choose your happy ending." She winced at her words. She'd never done anything to find her own happily ever after, remaining in limbo after returning to the past.

"Let us see what chooses you, then," she said, and sighing, Kagome threw up a barrier. She knew the drill: they'd use the final burst of power to try and attack her. It wasn't like she'd never seen it before. Shouldering her bow, she waited for the woman to take her final breath. There wasn't even a ripple against her barrier, and then there was nothing.

Sending her power into the ground, she purified the area. The barrier disappeared as she stepped through it, and she approached the scorched bit of dirt, her spent arrow lying in the middle of it. "No point in wasting it," she thought aloud, picking it up. She touched the tip, wincing when it drew blood.

A sudden wave of nausea washed over her, and she staggered. Cursing, she realized too late that the head was stained with the woman's blood. She slumped against her bow, trying to stay upright, but it was a losing battle, and darkness claimed her before she hit the ground.

Chapter Text

The dream was pleasant, as dreams went, but the fact that Kagome knew it was a dream told her how much trouble she was in. She felt so stupid. Of course a creature born of hate and jealousy would manage to curse her with something as simple as her own blood.

She continued to walk around, the landscape covered in stardust. So far, nothing had attacked her, but she wasn't out of the woods yet. The venom that had radiated from the woman's aura spoke of nothing but vengeance and malice. She doubted she'd be stuck here forever, but she wasn't sure if getting out relied on her own choices or those of others.

Multiple people had seen her draw the harpy away from the village, so it was only a matter of time before someone—likely Inuyasha—found her and brought her back. The only problem was trying to wake up. She'd pinched herself several times and even used her reiki, but so far, nothing had worked.

There wasn't even any scenery in the dream, so it had to be something on the outside. She snorted; maybe it would be as simple as letting the curse burn through her. She sighed, hands dragging through her hair.

If only.

Even if it was just that, Inuyasha was likely to freak out and badger Kaede about it, demanding all kinds of remedies—oral and otherwise. He never had any patience, not when a member of his pack was involved, and he'd likely convince everyone things were worse than they actually were. It was one of his more endearing qualities, but he usually missed a crucial detail amid his cries and grumbles.

There was a soft snicker, and Kagome whirled around. The landscape shifted from pastels to shades, and Kagome crossed her arms. "Having fun?" she asked in a bored tone.

"Not as much as you're going to have," the disembodied voice said. "I have seen your heart, and things are much more complicated than I imagined."

Rolling her eyes, Kagome continued walking, hoping to put some distance between her and whatever was taunting her but doubting she'd have any luck. "And why is that?"

"There is no love in your heart," it said, following her.

She snorted. "What would a vengeful spirit know of love?"

"It's not what I know but what I can feel," it replied. "You wish for love but have yet to find it." The voice began to cackle. "And now you will never recover without it." A blast of reiki silenced the jeers, though Kagome had no idea if that was due to the offensive attack. She couldn't even be sure she was in control of the dream.

Nothing changed, and she couldn't hear anything from the outside world. Time was fickle, especially in different dimensions, so it could've been five minutes or five days since she'd pricked her finger. At least she didn't feel tired here, so she could remain alert if the voice stirred up trouble.

Maybe someone would just kiss her, and she'd wake up.

Chapter Text

She'd thought she'd heard a shriek of fury as the clouds dissipated, but Kagome was more concerned that everything felt solid again. She blinked in surprise, looking around the inside of her hut.

Had it actually been a dream?

Pulling her blankets off, she grimaced as she stared down at her red miko robes. Everyone knew she preferred the blue ones. There was no way she'd put these on herself. Testing her legs and finding them in perfect working order, she pushed off the ground, interrupting the mumbling from the next room.

Kaede and Inuyasha looked up in surprise as she steadied herself against the doorway, and the elder miko smacked Inuyasha's knee with her cane. "Ye could have told me the spell was already broken."

Inuyasha flushed, holding up both hands. "It wasn't me!"

Kaede shook her head. "There is no need to embellish a story that has already found its ending," she said, shuffling over to Kagome. She inspected her face, using her cane to turn it this way and that before checking her pulse. "It's good to see ye up and about after such a nasty encounter."

Kagome met Inuyasha's gaze. "I was brought back from the forest?" she asked.

"We were quite worried when you didn't return right away, but your knight in shining armour was there to rescue you." Kaede looked quite smug. "Though he claimed not to have the cure for the curse she put on you."

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head, hands stuffed into his sleeves. "I told ya, I didn't have anything to do with it!" He ducked Kaede's cane.

"It isn't nice to lie to your elders," she snapped, putting in a few more jabs until Inuyasha was cowering behind his chair. She sniffed, then shifted toward the door. "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. I'm sure ye have much to discuss." The flap slid closed behind her, and Kagome cast a questioning brow at her friend.

He flushed darker, crossing his arms. "Old bat doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Care to enlighten me?" Kagome said, slumping down into a chair across from him. She wasn't dizzy or out of sorts, but she still felt like she'd been hit by a bus.

Golden eyes darted between her and the floor, and she started tapping her foot expectantly. "Keh, after you went and got yerself cursed, it took us a bit to figure out how to bring you out of it."

"Define 'us'," she said.

Inuyasha leaned back in his chair. "Me, Kaede, Miroku, Sango, and the squirt," he replied. "Sango brought in some strong-smelling herbs that she uses when the other slayers are knocked out, but we knew it was something more powerful than that. You can thank Rin for figuring it out." Kagome's brows shot up. Rin had refused Kaede's offer to become her pupil, deciding instead to train with Kohaku to become a slayer. Her knowledge of curses would be limited as the next villager. "We wrote it off at first, especially since it came from one of your books, but she was adamant, and the toad actually backed her up."

"Jaken?" Now she was questioning whether she was still dreaming. "Why would he help?"

"To defend Rin," Inuyasha replied, as if the answer was obvious. "He didn't like us laughing at her."

"I'm sure he didn't."

"Hey! You would've too if you'd heard her answer!" he argued. "How were we to know yer stupid fairy tales were based off youkai legends?"

Apprehension made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she swallowed slowly. "What was the remedy she suggested?" she asked quietly.

"True love's kiss."

Chapter Text

Kagome shook her head for what felt like the thousandth time. There was no way someone kissing her had pulled her out of the harpy's curse. She'd thought about it, sure, but it was too pure for someone filled with so much rage.

It didn't help that everyone in the village was convinced that Inuyasha had woken her up, either. She loved him dearly, but not in that way, and she knew he didn't feel like that towards her—even without his constant scowl whenever someone congratulated him on bringing her back. They kept asking why she put her blue hakama back on when the red ones matched his firerat so well. She was tempted to dye them a completely different colour, like green or purple, just to spite them.

"I didn't kiss ya," he grumbled as they sat by the river's edge.

"I know," she replied, scrubbing her clothes clean. Inuyasha had already finished his chores, a myriad of pots and cups drying next to him.

"I thought about it." Kagome raised an eyebrow, and his ears twitched. "Not like that, but Miroku thought it might work even if the love part meant friendship."

Her eyes glittered with tears, and she splashed water at him. "And yet you still pretend to be this bitter old man most of the time."

"Keh! That mushy stuff ain't my style," he said, splashing her back. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Miroku was just tryin' to cop a feel when you were unconscious."

"Wouldn't put it past him," she muttered, making a mental note to add to the lumps on his head the next time she saw him.

Inuyasha leaned back on the grass. "I still don't know who woke ya up, though. All the signs of you needin' a kiss were there." He gave her a sideways glance. "You pinin' after someone I don't know about?"

It was a joke, but she splashed again anyway. "Yeah, right. When have I had time to do something like that?"

Inuyasha grabbed a pot, shielding himself from the spray. "It ain't like I've been paying attention!" His shoulders slumped, and shame clouded his aura. "I wasn't even the one to bring you back after bein' attacked.

Kagome's eyes widened. This was the first she'd heard of it. "But Kaede said—"

He snorted. "Like I said, the old bat is delusional. She reads as many fairy tales as Rin does."

She snatched the pot away, poking him in the side. "Reading is good for you. You should try it sometime. It might fill in the space between your ears!" They threw playful insults at each other, each one more ridiculous than the next, and soon, the two of them were laughing so hard neither could get a word out.

Wiping her eyes, she returned to her laundry, spreading it out on the grass to eliminate as many wrinkles as possible.

"You should probably thank him."

"Who?" she asked, not looking up from her task.

"Sesshoumaru." Kagome's head whipped around, hands stilling in the water, but Inuyasha just shrugged. "He was the one who found ya. Didn't stick around too long afterward, though. Guess he was just passing through and felt generous."

Chapter Text

Even with his semi-regular visits to the village, the Western Lord was hard to pin down. Rin was preparing to leave with Sango and Kohaku, and though there were only a few days before that happened, Sesshoumaru had yet to show his face. Kagome couldn't say she found it odd, as she'd never tracked his visits before, but she was starting to get frustrated, as the task of thanking him for rescuing her was an easy one to accomplish, and she had other things to think about.

Namely, who loved her enough to break the curse.

The parallels to a particular fairy tale hadn't gone unnoticed, especially after she'd explained what had happened with the woman's blood on her arrow. But she hadn't been asleep for 100 years, and there hadn't been a sword-wielding prince in shimmering armour fighting off dragons and thorn bushes to prove his devotion.

The story had changed over the years, even in her time, spinning it in a way that spoke of both parties being in love with each other from the start, but the original had them both being human, so the prince couldn't have been around when the princess was first cursed.

Kagome clicked her tongue. Maybe that's where she needed to start her search. If all fairy tales were based on youkai legends, then the prince could've been youkai from the start. Maybe he had spent 100 years trying to find the princess. She'd always thought it meant that the prince's love had been so strong that it had broken the spell.

Could true love do that?

Rin was still young enough to be swayed by such notions, but Kagome was a realist. Inuyasha's love was that of a platonic soulmate, not a romantic one, and no one else had been seen going near her hut.

It was baffling.

Someone had, hence her being conscious now, but no one was owning up to it. And if they were that intent on hiding their feelings, Kagome could only hazard the reason behind it. That wasn't to say she hadn't thought about it or come up with a million guesses as to what that reason was, but none of them were practical, and it only caused her frustration to grow.

If they loved her enough to break the curse, wouldn't that be something to boast about? She gnawed on her lip, fingers tapping anxiously against her hip. She'd encountered a variety of creatures on her quest for the shards, but none of them seemed like the type to stay quiet about it.

Maybe she should be thankful for that. If it had been Kouga, he would've shouted it from the rooftops until she woke up. She snorted. He likely wouldn't have left her side, which crossed him off her list. She started to count them off on her fingers but lost count when a familiar youki brushed against her senses.

It wasn't intentional, and he'd done his best to hide it, but she quickly turned toward the treeline, intent on crossing one thing off her to-do list. Then, maybe she'd be able to concentrate on more significant matters.

Chapter Text

It was late for one of his visits, the sun having just disappeared beyond the horizon. Plants swayed as she walked by. She wasn't in a hurry and had assumed that he would meet her halfway, but it appeared Sesshoumaru had other things on his mind as well, his aura hovering on the edge of the village.

Maybe he was preparing a gift for Rin.

She found him pacing between a small grove of trees, hands clenching and unclenching every time he turned. Whisps of twilight reflected off his hair, and she took a moment just to observe. She couldn't remember being this close to him without the threat of death licking at their heels. He truly was breathtaking.

Not wanting to be caught staring, she flared her aura. He stiffened but didn't turn around, and she leaned against the nearest tree. "You'll dig yourself into a hole if you keep that up."

"Why are you here?" he asked.

Straight to the point. "I wanted to thank you for saving me," she said.

He flinched, head tilting enough so he could see her. Amber eyes glowed in the dim light, aura completely hidden. "According to who?"

"Inuyasha," she replied. "He said you brought me back after I was attacked." Was it supposed to be a secret?

He relaxed, finally turning to face her. "Anyone else would have done the same."

"And if they had, I'd be thanking them instead." She offered him a smile, and he brushed past her, heading away from the village. Kagome frowned and tried to catch up. "Aren't you here to see Rin?"

"There are other things I must attend to," he said, though his feet never left the ground. He clearly didn't want to share, so she shrugged, keeping pace.

"I should probably thank her too," she mused. "If she hadn't mentioned the fairy tales, I'd probably still be asleep."

Sesshoumaru stopped again, having yet to break through the treeline. "How so?"

"The curse required 'true love's kiss' in order to be broken." She sighed wistfully. "There are a few stories from my time where women get poisoned or cursed, and then a prince swoops in, kisses them, and they live happily ever after."

There was a spike in youki, and she turned around, eyebrows raised at his dark expression. "How can they be happy if they have only just met?"

Her snort turned into full-blown laughter, and soon she was wiping her eyes. "You would ask that."

"It is a logical question."

"I know, I know," she said, still giggling. "No one talks about what happens after the story ends, but that's why people enjoy them. You're not supposed to question it. The damsel gets in trouble, the prince rescues her, and poof, happy ending."

"You are no damsel." There was a bite to his tone that hadn't been there before. It was considerable praise from someone like him, and she preened at the acknowledgement.

"And Inuyasha is no prince." Sesshoumaru's eyes widened, and she chuckled, waving to the village. "They all think he's the one who kissed me and broke the curse." She couldn't fault them for it; they'd been together from the moment he'd been released from Goshinboku, and now that things had settled down, everyone expected the same for them, too.

Kagome was so busy scowling that she didn't see Sesshoumaru move closer, almost pinning her against the tree she'd been standing next to. She swallowed at the proximity, staring up at him. He was fighting something, his youki in turmoil, and she blinked owlishly up at him. "Inuyasha was not the one to break the curse."

'Of course not.'

'That's ridiculous.'

'Even if he had kissed me, I wouldn't have woken up.'

Each phrase ran through her mind, threatening to burst from her mouth, but she bit them back, keeping eye contact. "How do you know that?"

His pupils constricted, hands clenched at his side. She was used to him being impassive or condescending. He'd rarely shown actual anger, and right now, he was bordering on rage. Nostrils flared as he struggled to control himself, the crimson eventually fading. "Because I did."

Her eyes widened a moment before her face flamed, all coherent thoughts leaving her mind. She had no memory of the curse breaking; there had been a surge of fury when the clouds disappeared, but nothing from the outside world. And no one had said anything about sensing or even seeing Sesshoumaru in the village around that time.

"Did you know about the curse?" she asked, heart beating wildly.

"No." He finally looked away. "I wished to check on you."

"After bringing me back."

"Hnn."

"And then?" She watched him closely, not wanting to miss the slightest change in emotion, and his ears slowly turned pink.

"A lapse in judgment," he murmured. He was struggling with something, hands continuing to flex. Kagome kept still, not wanting to spook him. The back of his claws brushed her temple, and he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. A trail of heat and youki followed, and she leaned into the touch.

"It was enough to wake me up," she said. She'd defeated the woman without issue, but the darkness within her had been powerful, and she wouldn't have been released from the spell if what Sesshoumaru felt for her was a passing fancy.

If she had been a passing fancy.

The harpy had thought Kagome would be lost within her curse forever because she didn't love anyone. She couldn't anticipate someone else feeling so deeply for her that it would be enough. Heat crept into Kagome's face.

Neither of them moved, but she felt him relax. Youki receded, but his hand remained, thumb stroking her jaw. Anticipation burned the back of her throat, but he didn't say anything, forcing her to break the silence. "Are you going to kiss me again?"

Whatever he'd thought she was going to say, it wasn't that, and his eyes widened. "Do you wish me to?"

"Well, I'm not about to ask Inuyasha to do it," she said. "He's not the prince-type, remember?"

This time, the stripes on his cheeks darkened. "And I am?"

A slow smile made its way onto her face. "That depends. How are you at happy endings?"

He breathed deeply, then pressed their foreheads together. "If you are involved, I am capable of anything."

She grabbed his collar, tugging slightly. "Prove it." The kiss was gentle, and the image of him kneeling next to her when she was unconscious, his lips pressed against her temple, flashed through her mind. As she went up on tiptoe, he cupped her cheek, his other hand gripping the tree behind her to steady himself.

When he pulled back, his eyes were half-lidded but wary, and her smile widened. "Definitely prince-like."

"Still not a damsel."

Kagome's chin tilted, eyes sparkling in the twilight. "You wouldn't be getting a happy ending if I was." His response was to steal another kiss. She'd never read a fairy tale like theirs, but she was more than willing to write her own.