Work Text:
Kagome stood on the decorative bridge in the garden, the red paint vivid under its thin white coat. The tip of her nose was growing numb but she couldn’t go back inside yet. The world was heavy and grey today and it was hard to breathe. It helped standing out here, in the clean air, seeing her breath coming out in puffs of mist. Each exhale a reminder that she was alive.
Behind her, the snow crunched under a heavy step.
And Kagome’s head swam. Her breath stopped by the blood gurgling in her throat, her tongue drowning in the sharp metal tang. Claws sank into her skin, rending, tearing, pulling her apart. Darkness loomed at the edges of vision. The bottomless void of death, always looming close. Much, much too close. She was a creature of ice and pain and the darkness rushing at her had fangs.
“—gome. Kagome. Please. Come back to me.”
His desperate words sounded off. Like she was underwater, in the bottom of the ocean. She focused on the fierce gold of his eyes. The warm weight of his hands clutching her shoulders. On the sound of his voice as he kept repeating her name.
She drew a shaky breath. Another. A third. And slowly started to remember that death hadn’t won that day. That Sesshoumaru had found her in time. That he’d cut through the dark shackles and brought her back to life.
She realised she was cold. Standing on the bridge in the garden. That Sesshoumaru’s concerned gaze was riveted on her. That he was still calling her name. That the beginning of frostbite was burning on the tracks the tears had carved down her cheeks.
Her trembling lips managed to form words, an effort that left her exhausted. “I’m all right. I’m here.”
Sesshoumaru growled and pulled her into his arms. Her hands fisted in the front of his kimono, her forehead snug against his collarbone.
“I’m alive,” she mumbled into his chest, the heartbeat in her ears the sweetest song of all.