A/N: Hello everyone, I know it’s been what, 3 months since I last updated? But I’m updating this story now. (I may or may not update my other stories.)

Disclaimer: I DON’T own Sesshoumaru, or any other characters that could ever show up in this story that aren’t mine.

Keiko woke up the next morning with a bad hangover. The light filtering though the curtains was like a wall of pain. Her head was pounding, and beside her a distinctly male voice groaned in pain. Needless to say, her head felt like it was going to explode, or implode, which ever happened first. “What the hell happened last night?” She asked, her voice low.

“You got into a drinking contest,” he answered. “I really don’t know how I got drunk though.”

“Sesshoumaru, why exactly are you here anyway?” She asked. The inability to remember the previous night’s activities was not a happy experience.

Before he could answer, there was a knock at the door. Now, we all know that drunk people have a hard enough time remembering to close the door, how can we expect them to have remembered to lock the door. Due to this fact, Setsura had no problem entering the room uninvited. Jason followed him in. “See? I told you they slept together,” Jason said in an “I told you so” tone. Keiko decided that burying herself further into the bed would be a good idea, did just that. She made sure she could still see them.

Setsura looked somewhat disappointed, and jealous at the same moment. “I never said they didn’t,” He replied. “After all, I could hear them.” His voice had turned icy, and Jason shrank under his gaze. “Well, Ladies, time to get up,” Setsura said, throwing open the curtains. Keiko had thought the light filtering through the curtains had been painful, but this was agony, almost.

“Setsura, you know as well as I do that I’m not a woman,” Sesshoumaru growled. Setsura merely shrugged.

“Listen you two, we’re going to be very busy all day, since we’re leaving tomorrow, and I need you two to get up so that we’re ready on time.”

“Already? He certainly was quick about this,” Sesshoumaru said, surprised.

“Yes, now get up.”

Grumbling about how it was too early to get up, Sesshoumaru forced himself to get up and get dressed. He showed a complete disregard for decency while doing this.

He still had his shirt off when she noticed that he had scratches all down his back (which had nearly healed during the night), and bite marks on his neck and shoulders (also nearly healed). The night before had no doubt been a rough one. She felt her own neck and shoulders, and was relieved to find that any bites she had sustained were fully healed. It was a relief to know she wasn’t still wounded from the night before, if she’d ever been wounded, but she felt bad about hurting him badly enough for his injuries to only now be healing fully.

“Umm, if you don’t mind, I’d like some privacy,” She told the others. Setsura and Jason Left immediately. Sesshoumaru followed after a few seconds, but Keiko stopped him at the door. “Sesshoumaru, I’m sorry about hurting you,” she apologized.

“It’s fine,” he answered, before leaving. Keiko was still worried, so she hurried to get dressed. She could hear Setsura and Sesshoumaru arguing outside, and she knew it was about her. When she emerged into the hallway, the others fell silent. Deciding that getting into this would only be more trouble than it was worth, she continued down the hallway. In the main room of the guild home, Sakura was busy cleaning all of the weapons and putting them in boxes. She looked to be in a much better mood than usual, and Keiko decided that she would be a good person to ask about their destination. “Sakura, good morning!” she called across the room, still try to figure out how to get over there without making the human jealous.

“Hello, Keiko,” Sakura answered, polishing a heavy-looking broadsword. Keiko finally got to Sakura’s side of the room (over all the boxes and clutter) by the time Sakura had finished with this sword, and moved on to and axe.

“Hey, do you know where were going?” Keiko asked.

“Verindall,” Sakura replied. “I can’t wait to get there, I’ve heard that it’s always snowing there. The children make men out of the snow, and throw the snow at each other,” She paused. “But it’ll take us a couple months to get there.”

“Oh, wow, I’ve never been there. My father got formally banned from that country for trying to seduce their princess, but that was before he married my mother,” Keiko said.

“Hello Keiko,” Keiko had been so busy conversing with Sakura that she hadn’t realized the Sasuki had come up behind her. Her hugged her from behind, and Keiko felt very uncomfortable.

“Umm, hello Sasuki,” She said. “Could you please not hug me?”

“Why not?”

“We barely know each other,” she replied.

“Fine,” he said, letting go of her. “Listen, I’ve got some things that I want you to get from town,” he said, handing her a list.

“A kitten?” Keiko asked, after looking over the list.

“...yes, a kitten,” he replied.

“Okay, I’ll go take care of this now,” Keiko said.

The market was full of stalls, and packed with people. Looking around, Keiko spotted a man giving away kittens. He had a small boy standing next to him. This boy had black hair and green eyes. He had cute little dog ears. Walking over to the man, she picked out a kitten. It was a pure black one, kind of scrawny, but its purple eyes shone with spirit. Curious, she inquired about the boy, seeing as he didn’t look like he belonged there. The boy was, maybe, five or six, as far as Keiko could tell, and he looked a little bit scared.

“The Boy’s mother recently passed away, and his father is nowhere to be found,” The man replied. “He likes the kittens, I keep trying to get him to go away, but he keeps coming back.”

“Oh, that’s sad, you should be nicer to this boy,” She said. Kneeling down in front of the boy, she looked into his green eyes. “Hi, I’m Keiko, what’s your name?”

“My mommy told me not to talk to strangers,” the little boy replied.

“That was smart of her,” She said.

“Do you know where my mommy is?” The boy looked hopeful. “I can’t find her anywhere.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re mommy isn’t alive anymore,” Keiko said sadly.

“but, mommy promised- She said she’d always be there for me,” the boy sobbed.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but you’re an orphan now,” Keiko said. Suddenly her eyes lit up with an idea. “Tell you what, You can come with me and my friends to Verindall.”

“Verindall?” The boy had stopped crying, since he was distracted.

“Yeah, they have snow there, it’s supposed to be lots of fun, you can make snow people out of it, and throw it at other people, and it doesn’t hurt,” She was smiling childishly.

“Okay!” The boy exclaimed, jumping up.

“Do you think you can keep a hold on the kitten until I get done shopping for my friend? It’ll only take a few minutes,” She asked.

“Yeah!” The boy said. He’d totally forgotten his mother in the excitement; Keiko was glad that he wasn’t crying anymore. She handed him the kitten, and noticed that the kitten seemed to like him a lot.

About twenty minutes later, she had finished the shopping, the merchants having been more than happy to deliver everything for her. After purchasing the last thing on the list and telling the man where to have it taken for delivery, she bought the boy an apple turnover. Keiko held the cat while they walked so that the boy could eat.

She got back just as the last merchant was leaving, and Sasuki was still outside. Noticing the boy, Sasuki came over to them. “When I wrote for you to get something for yourself, I didn’t mean an orphan,” He said, smiling.

“I know, but-“ She started.

“It’s okay,” he said, interrupting her. “He looks like a strong little guy.” Sasuki turned to the boy. “What’s your name?”

The boy was hiding behind Keiko, apparently shy since he had a protector. Keiko nudged him in front of her. “It’s okay, he’s one of my friends.”

“Okay,” he said meekly.

“Well?” Sasuki said impatiently.

“My name’s Rengai,” he said.

“I’m Sasuki,” Sasuki said. Turning back to Keiko, he nodded before going inside.

Inside, things were moving quickly; Sesshoumaru, Setsura, and Jason were all busy moving heavy boxes out to a wagon. Sakura was packing things into boxes carefully, and Sasuki was out over looking everything. Keiko took Rengai to her room. He was really tired, so he took a nap, and Keiko went out to help with everything. The kitten stayed with Rengai.

Hours later, they had finished. Sasuki had taken leave of being overseer an hour before hand, so that he could cook the evening’s meal. Rengai was still asleep when Keiko went to tell him that dinner was ready, and she woke him up when she entered the room. “Come on Rengai, it’s time for dinner,” she said, smiling.

“Okay, mama,” Rengai said. In his half-asleep state, he’d seen his mother, not Keiko. It was an easy mistake for the boy to make, his mother having looked considerably similar to his new guardian.

He and Keiko entered the room together, meeting the stares of Sesshoumaru, Jason, and Sakura with silence. They sat down near Setsura, and began eating. Incidentally, Sasuki had placed himself right next to Keiko. Ever the gentleman, he poured Keiko a drink, and handed it to her.

“Keiko, I didn’t know you had a kid,” Jason said.

“He’s not mine,” she answered, half tempted to throw her drink at him.

“She brought home an orphan Jason,” Sasuki said.

“Oh,” Jason said.

They ate in silence for a while, but Keiko soon started up the conversation again.

All too soon, dinner was over and Keiko made arrangements for Rengai to stay in Sesshoumaru’s room for the night. Feeling tired, Keiko went to bed as soon as she entered her room. Her dreams were restless though, and in the middle of the night, a tall figure stepped into her room...

She was running from him again. She knew that if he caught her, he would do terrible things. She kept running, not daring to even look back. Ahead of her was a dead end. She could feel him catching up to her.

Suddenly she tripped, landing hard. In a matter of seconds, he had turned her onto her back. He was on top of her now, doing terrible things. His face escaped her, but she could feel his hands on her body. She could feel him biting her neck. Some how, in this twisted vision, her clothes had merely dissolved into thin air. She couldn’t even move on her own now.

The pain. The pain. It was all she could think of. It was unbearable, she cried out.

When she cried out, Sasuki had been startled. He knew she wouldn’t be able to wake for another 5 hours. The drug he’d slipped her at dinner had been quite potent, but she wasn’t supposed to cry out either. Deciding he’d done enough to her, he pulled his clothes on and left.

Setsura, having been startled awake by Keiko’s cry, was out in the hall when he emerged. Sasuki only gave him a look. Setsura said nothing, knowing that if he said anything, he would soon find himself dead.

Suddenly, he was gone. His menacing presence no longer invaded her every thought. Everything was lighter suddenly, and she was filled with a warmth that could only be described as pure love. The world of her mind became a pale place of love. She could feel herself being healed by this light. It was helping her to survive.

Soon enough, a red protective creature joined this pale white being. She could feel the need to protect her radiating from it. She knew nothing else would happen to her if this creature could help it.

With the red one came a yellow being. It was confused, but helpful. The yellow one only wanted to help, but it didn’t know how. It could only show sadness.

She knew these beings were trying to help her; she only had to help them help her. She took a few deep breaths, and thought it over. It dawned on her, if sleeping was what got her here, she would have to sleep in order to get out. Laying down on the ground, she closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep...

A/N: Ok, so seriously, when I first wrote this out, I had never planned on the little kid being part of the story, in fact, Rengai didn’t even come into existence until after I’d watched bleach on Saturday, and decided I wanted to name a character something close to the name of the guy who’s name closely resembles Rengai... XD ... so please, pronounce “Rengai” as “renji”...k? Review please!

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