Secrets. Things which are personal in nature and are considered to be embarrassing, humiliating, or otherwise shameful for the public to know; many people keep secrets, some for themselves, some for others. Many things are kept secret; they may be as trivial as the location of money to as personal as a sexual fetish, or the inability to give birth. All intelligent things keep secrets, humans, demons, even Dragons. For one being to entrust another being with a secret is a powerful gesture of goodwill and trust.
Sango lay on her side, her back away from the others. She sighed heavily, her mind roaming to her broken heart. Dominic was not far from her, sleeping between her and Kagome. Inuyasha seemed distrustful of him and Miroku had not taken much of a shine to him either. Dom did not seem to mind though, the girls liked him, or they seemed to, anyway. Kagome had always been nice to him while they were in school, so she said, so they naturally got along. Sango had seemed unusually interested in the future boy too, perhaps because he was not like most other men. Dom turned on his side to find Sango facing him the two looked surprised that the other was awake.
"Hey. Couldn't sleep either huh?" Dom asked.
"No, I couldn't…" Sango's words seemed to trail off.
"You alright?" Dom asked again.
"I'm fine, really." Came Sango's reply.
"No, you're not. You know that don't work on me." Dominic shot back. Sango smiled at him.
"I guess not." She replied.
"What is it?"
"It's just that…well..."
"Come on, you can tell me, I won't say nothin'."
Sango blew out a breath.
"Well, you see. I used to like Miroku, I liked him a lot. I thought he used to like me that way too, he'd always grope me inappropriately, but I liked it. Recently though, he just doesn't pay attention to me."
Dom tilted his head inquisitively.
"How come?"
"It's none of your business." Sango's sudden changed of tone, from shy to harsh was unexpected.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." Dom's expression saddened and he turned over again.
"Wait. No. It's not what I meant, I'm just, it's, complicated." Sango reached out and placed her hand on Dom's shoulder. Slowly he turned back over. "I can't give birth. Miroku knows, but he and I are the only ones. I can't bring myself to tell the others."
Dominic felt terrible for her. Things were so radically different in the Feudal Era. He reached his hand over and placed it over Sango's gently squeezing it.
"I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say." He said.
"Please, don't tell the others."
"I won't. Promise." Dom replied and smiled. "Your secret is safe with me."
"Thank you." Sango looked like a huge wait had been lifted from her shoulders.
In the depths of the dragon's cave Draco felt the twitch of the Breath. He gave a growl and rose. With a quick snort and thump of his thick scaly tail, he began to awaken his comrades.
"Come, my men. I can feel the Breath. It calls to me. Can you not feel it?" the massive dragon asked his brothers. A number of positive replies arose.
"Yes, I can feel it too." Ho-Chi said.
"We should act now; follow the call while we can." Donovan said. A chorus of agreements followed. Draco and Ho-Chi nodded.
"Anido! Anido, rouse the others we go now." Ho-Chi said to one of his brothers. Moments later the dragons flew from their nest.
Sango and Dominic spent most of the night whispering to each other. Sango told the boy of her exploits of being a demon slayer and what her life was like in her village before Naraku had destroyed it. Sango's life had been incredibly tragic, and Dom would often hold her hand or brush a tear away. Sango, who would normally be apprehensive of an outsider, allowed him to. She opened up to him. She was not sure why. He did not seem to care about undressing her. His large brown eyes stayed fixed to her own set of mocha ones. Dominic's expression showed he actually cared about her and that her life was important.
As the night went on Sango asked her newfound companion to tell her about the modern world. She gazed at him as he explained about his and Kagome's shared world; he gesticulated wildly during his stories. He later explained he could not help but talk with his hands. Sango giggled and smiled at him.
"Hey, I think that's the first time I saw you truly smile since we met." Dominic said and Sango turned a light shade of pink. "I like it, don't hide your smile Sango, it's so pretty. It'd be a shame for the world not to see it."
Sango continued to turn redder. Dominic took hold of her hand and rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand. Sango smiled at him again. "Ah there it is, thatta girl." Dom said smiling back. He leaned in close to her and Sango closed the distance between them as well. Slowly their lips met each other, eyes closed. The gem went wild pulsating rapidly. They broke apart suddenly as a howl filled the air.
It was early morning as Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Shippo, Sango and Dominic swaggered out of the hut. The skies were darkened with storm clouds and dragons filled the skies. Their roaring and howling had been going on for the past half hour.
"What the hell do they want anyway?" Inuyasha barked.
"It would seem they have found what they are looking for." Miroku replied.
"Yea, ok, but what are they looking for?" Dom asked.
"Good question." Sango added her slayer uniform on, her boomerang across her back. The first dragon descended. Its giant claws crashing onto the ground and its wings spread outwards in a challenging pose.
"I have come for The Breath give it to me." Draco said, glowering at them.
"The what?" Kagome asked.
"Screw this." Inuyasha whipped out Tetsusaiga and swung. "Windscar!" he yelled. The beams of yellow energy snaked across the ground. Donovan dived and landed directly in its path. The attack struck the powerful beast tearing its thick scaly hide and cleaving flesh from bone. Draco looked down at his fallen comrade gasping for breath.
"I go first Draco." He said and was still. Draco roared as the others did as well.
"You've killed him! You've killed my only living son!" the dragon screamed.
"Even a dragon could not stand up to Inuyasha's power…" Miroku was astonished.
Inuyasha had apparently never displayed such power before, or at least not often. The dragons spoke amongst themselves demanding war and blood for that which was spilled.
"I have had enough of this; you humans will die now!" Draco snarled. Sango readied her weapon, as Miroku prepped Shakujo, and Kagome drew an arrow. Dom suddenly realized he had no weapon, nothing to fight with. Then it hit him. He ran out between the two groups.
"Stop it! Enough!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. Draco and Inuyasha did not back down.
"Why should a dragon such as me listen to a tiny human such as you?" Draco snarled.
"Because, I've got something you want. This is it isn't it?" Dom held up the jewel.
"The Breath, he has the Breath. Kill him now." Ho-Chi said.
"You want someone's blood because we've spilled your own. That's understandable. But don't hurt them." Dominic pointed behind him at the group. Sango noticed his finger was dead on her. "You take me instead."
"What?!" Kagome and Sango both exploded.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sango yelled, her heart aching and afraid.
"Dominic, don't be stupid!" Kagome snapped.
"I've got this!" he yelled back.
"You offer yourself to us without regard of what we'll do to you? We could torture you for years on end making your life very long and very miserable. We could make you beg for death for ten years before we oblige. Are you ready to endure that for these worthless humans?" Draco threatened.
"Firstly, you wouldn't do that, I know because one of you tried to eat me the other day. Secondly, even though I've barely met these people, something deep inside me tells me that they're good upstanding people who deserve a good, long, happy, life. If it takes me dying to give them that then so be it."
"Noble sacrifice human. Very noble. Very wise too." Draco paused for a moment and went into thought. Sango took the chance and rushed forward. She grabbed a hold of Dom and made sure he couldn't move. The jewel pulsated wildly, matching their hearts.
"Sango, what're you- "
"If you take him, you'll take me too. Do you want the blood of a female, who you're so desperately lacking, on your hands?" she yelled, having observed no obvious females in the group of male dragons. Draco's eyes went upwards.
"You are no dragon. You would die out of love for this boy?" he asked. Sango stared into his large yellow eyes.
"Yes" she responded. Inuyasha and Kagome immediately rushed forward to pry the two apart and away from the hungry looking and threatening dragons. As the four touched instantly the jewel glowed brightly and grew hot. Dominic dropped the stoned and there was a blinding red flash. The four were thrown away from the gateway that had opened. There in the middle of the rice paddies was a swirling vortex, on the other side lush green jungle with clear blue skies and dragons flying everywhere.
"The Breath." Ho-Chi whispered.
"You have opened the pathway for us. I will spare your lives humans. I must ask you though, to safeguard our home. Our lives will forever be in your hands. We owe you much young ones." Draco bowed to them low and then strode off into the swirling vortex. Ho-chi and the other dragons followed and as the last ones' tails slipped past the opening, it snapped shut in a whirl of wind, the ruby on the ground glowed.
"Wow. That was something else huh?" Dom said sitting up. Sango was sprawled across his lap on her stomach. Kagome sat on her knees and looked blankly at the area where the vortex had been. Her head seemed to swim. It all seemed like a dream. Inuyasha went to her side and place a hand on her shoulder asking if she was ok.
"Sango, are you alright?" Dom asked. The demon exterminator hid her face from him. She was too scared to look. "Sango?" he asked again. She knew he was not going away, not with her on his lap. Slowly Sango looked up at Dominic. "Hey, there you are." He said smiling.
"I'm sorry. You must hate me. I ran at you and defied you and…"
"Shhh. It's ok. I don't hate you. I like you now more than ever." Sango began to turn red. "Did you really mean what you said back there?"
Sango looked down and nodded. Dom pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
"I would too." Dominic said and Sango began to cry, sniffling into his shoulder as she nuzzled his neck.
Two Years Later
Kagome and Dominic walked around the Tokyo Museum of Natural History. Dom had on a wild Hawaiian design T-shirt and fedora hat and Kagome her usual white and green school uniform. The two stopped at the recently opened Feudal Japanese Exhibited. The center piece was a red ruby roughly two inches across and hexagonal in shape. The Dragon's Breath. As they walked down the steps of the museum heading for the bus stop Dom turned to Kagome.
"Well, that's all settled, the dragon's get to live in a utopia peacefully undisturbed in the highest security building in all of Japan. I get to go back with you to the Feudal Era to Sango and everyone lives happily ever after." Kagome simply smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Things are going well between you and Sango then?" Kagome asked as they sat on a bench, waiting for the bus to arrive.
"Yeah, it's really great. I feel happy around her." He said and drew his cell phone out of his left pocket and a gold band glinted on his left ring finger. Kagome absent mindedly tucked a tuft of black hair behind her left ear, a gold band reflecting the afternoon light on her own ring finger.
Dominic grinned at her as the bus pulled up and the two of them headed for the Higurashi family shrine, where they would slip down the Bone Eater's Well, and to their respective and awaiting partners.