As Lovers Go by Nefertiri

How the Mighty Fall

(A/N:) Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I thank you all for not suing me or beating me with a stick for what I've done with the characters ;-)

Warnings: Rated for violence and sexual contents in later chapters.

This is my first Inuyasha fic ever! So please be kind and patient;-) R&R!!

As Lovers Go

Chapter1: How the Mighty Fall

Sesshoumaru swept his light whip at the dragon youkai in front of him and started to run towards the momentarily distracted beast with supernatural speed.

The bloodlust obvious in his eyes, he lifted his free hand and tore open the dragon's side with his poisonous claws, marvelling at the feeling of slicing hide and flesh alike. Blood splashed out of the wound as the beast screamed in agony, but instead of being weakened it just attacked more fiercely.

The Lord of the Western Lands hardly managed to doge its claws, as it lashed out at him angrily.

He was bleeding from several severe injuries all over his body, too, and felt his usual strength slowly failing him. His armour had been broken by the beast earlier and lay now useless on the ground beneath him.

'Why can't it just die?' he wondered to himself while he made a dive for Toukijin, which he had lost earlier in battle and which was now lying in the grass behind the dragon.

Before he could reach the sword the beast swept its deadly claws at him again. Sesshoumaru felt the sharp claws tearing at the skin of his arm, but he managed to get away with Toukijin fast enough to avoid another severe gash.

While he passed by the form of the other dragon youkai he had just slain, he noticed that it hadn't turned to dust jet, but instead was reforming its body around a pinkish glowing object. His delicate eyebrows shot up in surprise.

A shard of the Shikon No Tama? Instantly he sprinted over to the corpse and took the jewel shard away. When he tried to jump high into the air again, he failed miserably and nearly fell over, hissing from the increasing pain.

Never in his life he had felt such agony, his whole body was aching and his vision was blurring slightly. He touched his aching abdomen tentatively. Lifting his now blood covered hand, he growled in anger and frustration. That beast had just dared to shed his blood, he would make it pay.

The jewel shard explained the astonishing power of the dead youkai, probably the other one had also a shard as it seemed to be even stronger.

Sesshoumaru turned around, this time more carefully, to face the dragon youkai, which came running after him, hissing dangerously: "Thisss isss how the mighty fall, Taiyoukai of the Wessst."

Forcing his eyes to concentrate on the approaching form he could detect a purple glow through on of the gashes at the beast's foreleg.

He made his mind up quickly. "This remains, yet, to be proven, intruder," he drawled icily.

Pulling all his left strength together Sesshoumaru ran towards the beast. Although he felt himself moving much slower than usually, his actions had the desired effect.

When the dragon stopped to pull itself up to its full high, flapping its wings menacingly at Sesshoumaru, he flew into the air and wielded Toukijin at its right foreleg.

When the sword made impact, he felt it cutting through the youkai's flesh and bone. Hot blood splattered all over his face and on his already blood soaked garments.

The beast let out a piercing howl when its leg containing the jewel shard fell to the ground in some distance.

But before the dying dragon youkai collapsed on the ground, it hit Sesshoumaru's tight with its sparked tail hard, while he was on his way back to the ground. He screamed in pain when he heard his bones break and his vision went suddenly black.

Landing face down in the dirt, it took him all his willpower to look up and check on the beast. It lay in the grass dying a short distance away from him. He saw it turning into dust when its last breath had escaped its flaring nostrils.

Farer away he noticed three jewel shards where the beast's foreleg had been. Obviously they had been to far away from their owner to keep it alive.

Now, as the adrenaline slowly left his body, he felt his powers leaving along with it. The enormous blood loss was draining all his energy.

Sesshoumaru tried to get up but failed and fell back to the by now blood soaked ground. Knowing that he would surely die if he didn't succeed in getting up and back to his castle soon, he tried again. He managed to pull the unharmed leg under his body, supporting his upper body with his arms, he pushed up.

Moaning in agony he again fell back to the ground. More pain shot through his body from the impact. It was useless, he was too weak.

Slowly the Western Lord’s eyes slid close as he drifted into unconsciousness.

~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo

Kagome just couldn't go on any more. She had been running all day, deeper and deeper into the forest, farther and farther away from the place were Inuyasha and her friends had battled some of Naraku's monsters.

Now she didn't understand anymore why she had listened to Inuyasha as he had screamed for her to run away as fast as possible.

One of the youkai had followed her into the forest and had hunted her mercilessly. But somehow it had lost her and she could escape.

She sighed in frustration, now she was in a godforsaken place in the woods and had no idea how to get back to her friends. Kagome just hoped they were all well and would find her soon.

'Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku and my dear, little Shippo... I just hope you are all fine,' she thought.

Sitting down on a rock nearby, she put her yellow backpack next to bow and arrows down on the ground. She took out a bottle of water and drank thirstily.

Then she felt it: Jewel shards, four of them to be more precisely and the presence of a powerful youkai.

'Oh no, and I thought I ran it out.' Kagome grabbed her bow, arrows and backpack and hid behind a tree.

Nothing happened. The shards didn't move, neither did the youkai. She waited another few minutes before she stepped from behind the tree and walked carefully in the direction of the shards.

In front of a clearing she came to an halt and surveyed it, careful not to give away her presence.

On the other side of the clearing a demon was lying in the grass, obviously badly hurt and bleeding from several wounds.

Then she saw three pieces of the Shikon glittering in the grass. Looking back to the youkai, her eyes widened in recognition. "Sesshoumaru", she whispered before she ran over to his still form.

Kneeling besides him she considered whether it was a wise thing to help him or not. Probably he would kill her, but eying his battered body more closely she came to the conclusion that he wasn't a thread at the moment.

Still she didn't know what to do. Inuyasha would be furious if she helped his hated half-brother.

But she couldn't leave him here on his own, he would probably die. As for Kagome all life was sacred she didn't hesitate anymore.

'Nobody will die if I can help it, not even Sesshoumaru,' she thought with resolution.

Carefully, as not to do more damage to the Western Lord's body, she turned him around.

She gasped, when she saw the real extend of his injuries: Two deep gashes which lead from his stomach to his ribs, she actually could see one of them. Another wound was on his upper arm and his right leg was broken and lay beneath him in an abnormal angle.

There were also some bruises and minor gashes on his chest and face. Kagome was shocked beyond all means, what the hell could have done this to him?

Suddenly she remembered the jewel pieces, probably he had fought and killed the thing carrying them.

Then she noticed another curious fact: 'How did he get back that arm of his so quickly?'

It seemed to be his own, not attached or anything, but more like it had really regenerated itself.

Before examining Sesshoumaru's injuries any further, she fetched the Shikon shards, purified them with her touch and added them to the incomplete jewel dangling from a chain around her neck.

Then she went back to kneel next to the injured taiyoukai. He had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and Kagome felt his temperature. Obviously he had high fever which had to be caused by an infection in his wounds.

'Probably he has been lying here for some time,' she thought, 'he is lucky to be still alive. But what do I do now?'

First she needed some water to clean him up. After some searching she found a little river and filled a bowl from her backpack with water.

Returning to the still unconscious demon lord, she took a washcloth and started to clean him. It took her quite a while as blood and dirt were all over him and she had to remove it carefully.

Kagome decided to remove his tattered, blood soaked haori and kimono completely, too. Peeling the layers of cloth from his upper body and tossing the dirty silk aside, she couldn't stop herself from noticing his beauty, despite the state he was in.

If it weren't for the ugly wounds, cuts and bruises, his body would be perfect. Brushing a few silver stands from his face absentmindedly, she noticed that it looked peaceful and almost angelic when it was relaxed and held not the usual stoic and cold expression.

'Bad, bad Kagome! How can you think such things about HIM?? The guy tries to kill you and your friends on a regular basis!' She scolded herself mentally and went back to cleaning his wounds and body.

After accomplishing the task she disinfected his wounds with some alcohol she brought with her for emergencies.

She couldn't stitch the gashes together before she wasn't sure that the infection was gone, so she just put some herbs on the wounds, as Kaede had taught her, and bandaged them.

Then she rearranged his broken leg and bandaged it along with a stick, which she had found earlier, to keep it straight. As his pants were made of the finest and thinnest silk Kagome had ever touched, it wasn't necessary to remove them. A fact for which she was, indeed, very grateful.

She knew from experience with Inuyasha that demon blood mended broken bones very well. For Inuyasha it had never taken longer than a week to heel a broken limb and it should go a lot faster with a full blood demon like Sesshoumaru.

Kagome sat back on the ground next to her patient. Her body was exhausted and protested against any movement she made.

It was almost evening by now and the clearing was darkening slowly. Suddenly Kagome felt a wet drop on her nose, then another one on her hand.

Looking up to the sky she sighed. 'Gods, what have I done to deserve this. As if it wouldn't be enough to trap me in the middle of the forest with a nearly dead Sesshoumaru! Why does it have to rain today of all days??'

Carefully she got up again, stretching her aching back and arms. Looking around the clearing she searched for some kind of shelter. All she saw was a big tree with some bushes next to it, whose branches and leaves seemed to offer some protection from the rain.

'It'll have to do. There isn't much choice anyway.'

She looked down to the taiyoukai's still form. 'But how do I get him there?'

After some considerations, Kagome realized that there was no other possibility than dragging him over. Shrugging she knelt down above his head, put her arms under his and pulled.

'Puuh, he is heavy.'

Pulling some more, she heard him moan in protest, although still unconscious. Apparently she was inflicting more pain on his body.

"I'm sorry. But I can't let you get all wet out here."

That was really sick, she was talking to a unconscious demon lord while dragging him over a clearing! Sometimes she desired nothing more than to be back home in her comfortable, warm house, with warm food and a warm bed to sleep in, without having ever heard of the feudal era! This definitely was one of these moments!

After having succeeded in moving Sesshoumaru over to the bushes she went back into the now pouring rain to get her backpack, bow, arrows and the things she had removed earlier from the taiyoukai's body.

When she returned to their shelter she was really wet. The water was dripping from her hair and clothes, as she put down his belongings next to him.

'Luckily my backpack is waterproof,' Kagome thought as she pulled some dry clothes out of it.

Eyeing Sesshoumaru closely, Kagome decided that it was save to change next to him. And after casting a glace around the satisfyingly empty clearing, she changed out of her usual school uniform into a pair of jeans and a white jumper.

Being now much warmer, she felt better almost immediately. When she lit a fire to prepare her dinner of instant noodles, she noticed that the demon next to her was shivering violently from cold and fever. He had wrapped his tail around himself for warmth unconsciously, but it evidently didn't help much.

'Somehow I need to keep him warm, too,' she mused.

Then she remembered the second sleeping back she had brought along. Kagome smoothed it out next to him and somehow also managed to put him into it.

She closed the zipper around him and pulled his hair out of his face, which she noticed was partly also stained with blood.

His face held a frown and his head tossed from time to time, while he was absorbed in feverish dreams. She definitely had to do something about the fever.

As she hadn't brought any antibiotics or other medicine to get the fever down, there was no other possibility than some herbs, which might help, and cold water to lower his temperature.

Kagome cleared the bowl of the remaining dirty water, which she had fetched earlier, and placed it out into the falling rain to refill it. Meanwhile her noodles were finished and she started to eat hungrily.

Sitting there, eating her dinner, she realized how tiered and groggy she really was and it was quite hard to keep her eyes open when she had finished her noodles.

Kagome put her eating bowl also in the rain to clean it and fetched the other one.

Then she took a fresh wash cloth from her backpack, dipped it into the bowl with cold rain water and put it on Sesshoumaru's forehead.

Far too tired to do anything else she smoothed out her own sleeping bag next to him and crawled in, pulling her bow and arrows towards her, just in case.... But she prayed to all gods she knew that nothing would come for them tonight, as in her current state she wasn't able to stay awake and fend off any more monsters. Then she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and drifted off to sleep.

oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo

Kagome woke in the middle of the night from a strange sound. Her eyes shot open and it took her a moment to remember were she was and what had happened to her.

Then there was that curious sound again and Kagome sat upright in her sleeping bag, bow and arrow ready to take aim. She looked around to detect the source of the noise.

Her gaze fell on Sesshoumaru's sleeping form; he was tossing in the sleeping bag, talking and murmuring in his sleep, still suffering from the effects of his fever. Kagome sighed in relief and put her bow down again, when she noticed that she woke from the sound of his voice.

Then she crawled out of her sleeping bag and crouched next to the distressed Taiyoukai. The washcloth had fallen from his forehead some time ago because of his trashing. Taking it from the grass she dipped it into the bowl again and started to wash the sweat off his face.

He was definitely talking, but in some language Kagome didn't understand. She wondered of what horrors he was dreaming.

Although the demon lord was their sworn enemy it pained her to see him like that: Suffering from his wounds and shaking violently because of the chill and his fever, Kagome felt honestly sorry for him. She was cold, too, and shivered slightly, but she couldn't go back to sleep and leave him like that.

Putting the wet cloth back on his forehead, she started to stroke his face, talking gently to him: "Shhhhh, you don't need to worry. There's nothing to be afraid of, it's just a bad dream."

As if he was able to hear and process her hushed words of comfort, his tossing and turning ceased slowly.

Kagome smiled slightly despite the situation and went on caressing his face and hair, it was so much softer than she had expected, like liquid silk.

But his skin was so very hot. The fever seemed to have risen during the night. Kagome didn't know much about how a youkai body reacted to illness, but such high fever would most likely kill a human.

She was afraid, she didn't want him to die, but she didn't know what else to do to help him. Still she wasn't able to comprehend why she was so eager to keep him alive. Presumably because of the simple fact that he was hurt and needed help, and Kagome, being the kind person she was, would never refuse help when somebody needed it.

"You don't need to be afraid, I won't let you die. You will be better tomorrow, I promise. Everything is better in the morning, you know? Each new day brings new hope. It is bright and warm, and the chill and the terrors of the night are gone. Don't you know?"

One single tear rolled down her face. She hadn't realized before, but she was so very desperate. Every noise the wind and the down pouring rain caused scared the hell out of her. She was cold and lonely and frightened.

The ongoing rain made it nearly impossible for Inuyasha to find her scent and follow her; only in case he was still alive and well enough to search for her.

Another tear escaped her. "Inuyasha, where are you? Please, please find me here," she whispered. Then she pulled her sleeping bag towards her and lay down next to Sesshoumaru, curling up to his feverishly hot body.

'I need some sleep, I can't go on like this.' Kagome hid her face in the futon and willed herself to sleep.

oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo

Kagome woke very comfortable and warm the next morning. Opening her eyes and blinking lazily she noticed he surrounding.

The rain had stopped and the autumn sun was rising slowly behind the clouds. Again the events of the last day and night flashed through her mind.

She raised her head to check that they were still alone on the clearing, when she realized that it had been lying on Sesshoumaru's chest. Kagome blushed a deep shade of red and moved a little bit away from his body.

The demon lord seemed to be still unconscious. Extending her small hand to his forehead, she noticed that he didn't feel as hot as he had last night. She traced the crescent moon on his forehead and noticed that it felt smooth, like the rest of his skin, but still too hot.

Sighing in relief that the fever wasn't at least that high anymore, she put the wet washcloth back to his forehead.

"I told you, you would be better in the morning," the girl lectured the taiyoukai.

Then she got up and relit the fire to make some tea and breakfast. Taking her kettle and her wash bag with her, she went to the stream and cleaned herself.

After returning to their little camp she set the kettle to boil. While waiting for the water to boil, she cleaned the eating bowl she had used last night and hung her wet uniform on a low branch to dry over the fire.

When she was about to put the remains of Sesshoumaru's clothes out of the way she noticed another jewel splitter falling out of it.

'Ah, there's the fourth one. But why did he have it in his garments?' she pondered. Kagome was really curious about what had happened to the Western Lord.

When she noticed his weapons still lying where she had put them last night, she decided that it would be safer to take them out of his reach, just in case.... His belt, containing his other belongings, stayed next to his unconscious form.

The rest of the morning passed quite uneventful. Kagome arranged her little camp as comfortable as possible and shortly before lunchtime she went to look for some herbs in the woods.

Having changed Sesshoumaru's bandages earlier, she now was looking for something to lower the still high temperature. Soon she found what she had sought and returned.

Kagome set the kettle to boil again. Kaede had told her, that these herbs only took effect if they were prepared and consumed like tea. When the water was boiling finally, she took it of the fire and threw some of the herbs in, waiting for the water to change colour.

Sesshoumaru felt horrible. His body was aching all over and he was cold. Unable to open his eyes or process what had happened to him he almost drifted of into blackness again.

Then his sensitive nose picked up a scent. It smelt like spring, like sunlight on a meadow full of flowers. But it was autumn, how was that possible?

Still in a haze he noticed the scent becoming more intense and then he felt warmth around him. He heard the melodic voice of a girl talking to him, although he couldn't quite make out the words.

Then he felt somebody touching his face. Although the touch was very gentle, his instincts screamed at him to move away from it, fast. But as his mind protested by the mere thought of movement and he was so very intrigued by the pleasant scent of spring and sunlight, he stayed still.

Absentmindedly, the Western Lord felt his head being lifted carefully. Thinking about it, he rather liked the warm touch. Sesshoumaru noticed that something warm and hard pressed against his lips, which seemed to part on their own free will.

Then a hot fluid was poured into his mouth and he was suddenly yanked out of his dazed state back into reality because it was really HOT and tasted HORRIBLE!

Coughing and sputtering violently he opened his eyes, only to close them again this instant because of the pain the coughing caused his body. Lying completely still he waited till it ebbed away slightly.

"I'm sorry. It was too hot, wasn't it?" the melodic voice said gently and full of regret. This time he understood the words clearly.

"I'll just wait till it has cooled down and we try again," she stated, sounding almost cheeringly again.

'Noooo! I will refuse to swallow another drop of this disgusting thing!' his mind screamed, almost in panic.

Carefully he opened his eyes again. He saw the delicate form of a human girl, with raven hair and strange clothing, who was currently cleaning the remains of the liquid off his chest.

She didn't seem to notice that he was looking at her.

Kagome scolded herself mentally for being so stupid. Why hadn't she thought about it to let the medicine cool before pouring it down his throat. Sesshoumaru was in enough pain as it was without her doing.

Carefully she cleaned away the drops of liquid, which he had spit out all over his chest.

When she had finished, she looked up to clean his face and let out a shriek of surprise falling back on her rear, as she noticed two amber pools watching her intently.

oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo

(A/N:) A cliffy! "smirk" I know, I'm evil.

If you liked the story and want me to continue or have any suggestions for improvements send a review (pretty please)!

I apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes. Unfortunately English is not my native language.