Inuyasha 1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Shopping destination; Hell.

The smell had to be the worst thing; it was the smell of far too many humans crowded into one small area. It invaded his senses, and for the first time in his long life the Inu Yokai cursed his sensitive nose. Normally this particular attribute served to be useful when hunting other demons and when hunting his own prey, but now he couldn't help but curse god.

The noise was also troubling, to say the least, as it bombarded his equally sensitive ears. The sound of hundreds of humans crowded into a small area all gabbling about their insignificant lives. He couldn't help but compare them to ignorant little worker ants, only noisier.

There was no comprehendible reason a proud Yokai such as he would ever cross the threshold of such an establishment as a 'Supermarket'. He disliked humans to say the absolute least and being surrounded by them was not at the top of his to do list.

In fact, if it were not for the five year old brown haired female clinging to his arm he would have swept from the shop in a terrible mood, or better still he would never have come to this place and remained in slightly happier ignorance. As it was he instead stood there fuming, an invisible aura of tetchiness warning the eager shoppers on some base level not to wander too close.

Many women stopped to stare at the beautiful silver haired man stood in the middle of this shopping establishment. They gawked at him until his cold golden eyes met theirs. That was enough to make them hurry on quickly. A bishounnen he might be, but the look of merciless anger that was barely concealed behind the golden orbs was enough to make the pluckiest woman turn and flee.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" the small female gushed completely impervious to the Yokai's discomfort as she used his long arm as a bungee cord. Her brown eyes were alight with pleasure at being taken out by her new guardian. She was far more excited than any other child on a quest for toys because_** her**_ Sesshoumaru-sama was taking her to buy new clothes!

Sesshoumaru made no reply to his young ward and instead looked at the huge selection of young girl's clothes and shoes that sprawled in front of his eyes. He had no idea why Rin had dragged him to this particular establishment where mass production was strife. He was wealthy enough to avoid places like this and shop elsewhere. However having never bought clothes for a young girl before he had no idea where he should be looking and so he had allowed his young ward to lead the way.

He was regretting the decision.

He was at a loss as to what to buy for the hyperactive child and was there really such a need for everything to be such a sickening shade of pink? He looked down at Rin who had proceeded to relinquish his hand and run down and along the isle half skipping with excitement.

It wasn't as if he could ask her what she needed. She was a child and would have no idea. He glared down at the basket he had picked up from outside the entrance of the shop as if it caused him physical pain just by being there. What truly bothered him was not the basket itself but the fact that this basket had been used by a tirade of humans. The only human he could sort of tolerate was Rin and he preferred to take her in small doses.

He watched as she tripped over her too small sandals and skidded a metre on the knees of her worn out jeans and came to a conclusion. She was going to need very sturdy clothes. Rin was not the least bit phased by her accident and pulled herself up off the dusty floor. She blithely wiped her dirty hands on her white t-shirt leaving two grey smudged handprints on the material. He quickly amended his mental calculations. She's need sturdy clothes that were not white.

He tensed as a young woman invaded his personal space. He wrinkled up his nose preparing himself for the pungent stench of human and found that instead of ghastly, her scent was more soothing, and reminded him of a summers day in a natural flower field.

He looked down at the offending female who had dared to brave the onslaught of his furious gaze. She was quite short with long ebony hair that had a soft wave to it and reached her waist. She had stormy blue eyes the colour of a cloudy sky that were currently concealed behind wire rimmed cats eye spectacles. She was dressed drably with a huge deep green sweater that was obviously not intended for her small frame but instead intended for a man and on her legs were plain black leggings that showed her slim legs.

She surveyed him as studiously as he was surveying her. She took in the crescent moon on his face, the long silver hair that just passed his shoulders, the twin strips on his cheek bones and the pointed ears and cold glower that marred his otherwise perfect features. She smirked and dumped a bundle of clothes into the basket he was holding.

She always helped someone in need as it was writ in her very nature but helping this annoyed Yokai was amusing her.

He looked down at the basket in shock. Did this female believe this basket to be her own? It seemed impossible to believe this as said basket was currently hung on his arm. He inspected the new contents of his basket with a critical eye and then raised an elegant eyebrow at what he saw inside. This woman had put into his basket a variety of girls clothes in a rainbow of colours that seemed to stray away from the violent eyeball searing pinks and the easily stained whites. They all seemed about Rin's size and they looked sturdy; the sort of clothes he had been intending on picking for his ward if he could have located them.

She smirked at the expression on his face and ducked past his arm to a pair of trainers just behind him and dumped them atop the haphazard pyramid of clothes.

"For her right?" she asked jerking a thumb in the direction of Rin who was standing next to a display with multicoloured skipping ropes looking besotted.

"Hn" he said

"That should do it" she said tossing a pair of blue sandals into the basket and dusting her hands. She smirked at his dubious expression and grinned "Does she need underwear?"

He looked at her with an expression of mixed disgust and loathing at his situation. "Hn" was his reply

She sniggered "I'll take that as a yes" she rolled her eyes at the uncommunicative bishounnen and walked away from him to another set of shelves where she picked up a few bumper packets of cotton underwear before dropping them into the basket also.

The Yokai glared at this impertinent woman who seemed to think this great Yokai incapable of the simple task of shopping for his ward. Though some part of his brain seemed to accept that this female was aiding him in his completely stranded state, he was not someone who took too kindly to help from someone who he deemed lower than himself. His pride got in the way.

She caught the look on his face and smirked wider. "There you go" she said not expecting any thanks.

"Hn" she was not disappointed

She saluted him cheekily and spun on her heel, picking her basket up from the floor she sauntered off. Her walk was provocative and a little smug. Sesshoumaru ground his teeth together when he realised that the little wench believed she had gotten one over on him. She was gloating.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin squealed her rubber soled shoes squeaked as she skidded to a hyperactive halt beside him. "Are they for me?" she asked picking through the pile of clothes and smiling broadly revealing the gap between her two front teeth. "Thank you, they're really good!"

He looked at the gratitude writ on her young face and sighed. He didn't deserve that. But there was something he was grateful for.

"Let us return home Rin" he said curtly relived to have an excuse to finally escape this godforsaken place. He took her small hand in his clawed one and dragged her away fuming silently.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha, that much is obvious. So don't sue me.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Time for School

This was not what he was planning on doing this morning he reflected as he pulled into the parking space and glanced into the passenger seat of his Ferrari at Rin who was dwarfed by the size of the huge chair that held her.

She clapped her hands together in glee "This is my school Sesshoumaru-sama!" she exclaimed reaching down to undo her seat belt.

He sighed. He had no idea how he had been coerced into doing this. He could have organised a town car to take her from his luxury penthouse to school but somehow with her large pleading chocolate eyes she had convinced him to drive her there himself. She had used the same trick to get to sleep in the same bed as him last night and now her scent clung to his skin. It was not entirely unwanted but a little annoying.

He watched as bedraggled mothers walking past his tinted windows pulled their fractious offspring away from his polished car in fear of sticky fingerprints and pissed owners.

He opened his door and exited the car with the maximum grace and minimum fuss. As he rose above his car and walked around to the passenger door to release his young ward, the other mothers in the playground swooned as one.

It was not every day that these harassed mothers saw a bishounnen such as this one and seeing a bishounnen such as him was usually reserved for television appearances.

He was out of place for a few more reasons than for just his dazzling beauty. He was clearly the most beautiful person in the playground and he was also the only male.

The women fixed their eyes on the six ft two tautly muscled man and had to pinch themselves to make sure he wasn't some kind of mirage.

He took Rin's arm and escorted her across the playground and through the sea of awe struck women like this happened to him everyday. Which granted this did happen a lot of the time but not usually to this scale or for this long. This silence was uncomfortable. Though usually he prayed to Kami for the humans to shut up their infernal racket now he was wishing they'd do something.

The females started gossiping again to their nearest neighbour about him and he wondered why in a brief minute of insanity he had wished for them to start clucking.

"I bet he's rich" one murmured

"Look at that suit" another mumbled "It's Armani"

It was like they didn't think he could hear them but hear them was all he could do. He was an Inu Yokai it was impossible for his keen sense of hearing to ignore the chatter that revolved solely around him. It may have been strange for someone of his wealth to be seen escorting a young girl to a public school.

"Houshi-sensei, Good morning" said Rin running over to a young woman who was putting out the plastic toys for the children to play with. She was tall and had the body of an Olympic swimmer with a reserved strength about her. She had dark brown hair and violet eyes which surveyed Sesshoumaru distrustfully.

"Good morning Rin-chan" she said smiling softly at the young girl "who is your friend?"

"That's Sesshoumaru-sama" she said grinning inanely "he's looking after me"

The young woman glanced at him once again and her private conclusion was that this man wasn't capable of looking after a plant let alone a five year old child.

Sesshoumaru had a good idea of what was going through her mind when she looked at him and although it made a refreshing change from being gushed over he was none too pleased at her obvious disdain for him.

"Houshi-sensei is my second favourite teacher after Higurashi-sensei" Rin told him earnestly

"Why thank you very much Rin" said a new and yet strangely familiar voice and Sesshoumaru focused on the young woman coming out from the school. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a red blouse with an open neck and black slightly heeled ballet pumps with small diamonds in each earlobe and a silver leaf on a silver chain around her neck. Even though her bedraggled clothing was gone and her spectacles missing in action it was unmistakably the woman from the supermarket.

His expression morphed from one of cool detachment to one of snide annoyance and he glared at the young woman who chuckled. This was not the response that Sesshoumaru's glares usually received and understandably he was a little miffed.

"Higurashi-sensei!" Rin was delirious and threw herself into the woman's arms

The woman caught the young child and spun her in a smooth and slow circle before placing her back onto the concrete.

"I'm Kagome Higurashi" she said smiling pleasantly "Rin's headmistress"

She did not hold a hand out for him to shake as she knew he would not take it. He nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"My name is Sesshoumaru Taisho" he said in his cold quiet and yet commanding voice.

"Taisho?" the woman named Houshi muttered under her breath as if trying to figure out where she had heard it before.

"I trust what I gave you met your standards?" she asked cocking a dark eyebrow and smiled crookedly.

"Hn" he said holding Rin's schoolbag out to his charge

She took it and smiled "Come and get me at half past three 'kay?" she said

"Hn" he said looking at her carefully for a moment before looking back to Kagome and then turning on his designer heel and leaving.

"He seems cheerful" Houshi-sensei muttered

"Sango" Kagome smiled "never judge a book by its cover"

"Hn" Sango said in a perfect imitation of Sesshoumaru. It was so good that the two old friends cracked up and started to laugh giddily as they welcomed the children into class.

That lunch break Kagome made her way through the scuffed hallways decorated with brightly coloured art that bombarded the senses and arrived in the staffroom to sit next to her two friends of many years: Sango and Ayame.

Sango taught the ten year olds and her ability to keep discipline was unrivalled amongst the other teachers. She had been married for a year to Miroku and was currently in the process of raising twins with him. God knows how they survived braining each other as they were known to get along like a house on fire; it was dangerous and unpredictable being around them.

Ayame was a wolf demon with red hair that she pulled into two sloppy pigtails and green eyes. Due to her slightly childish nature she got along famously with her class of seven year olds. She had a hard time with guys as she seemed to be going through a streak whereby she attracted total psychos.

"Hey" Kagome said grabbing a mug of coffee and sitting next to Sango on the browbeaten suspiciously brown sofa and pulling a green cushion into her lap.

"Hey" said Ayame putting down the magazine she had been reading and picking up her mug of tea

"I've got it!" Sango exclaimed and Kagome looked over at her friend half expecting her too have a crossword puzzle or something in front of her; but there was nothing there.

"What's with her?" Kagome looked to Ayame for enlightenment

"No idea" Ayame shrugged to exercise her point "she's been mumbling to herself since she got in here"

"I just remembered why I know the name Taisho!" she exclaimed

"Uh, duh; because it's the name of the worldwide publishing firm?" Ayame rolled her eyes

Sango hit her with Ayame's own discarded magazine "I know that" she grouched "but isn't it Kagome's cousin's new name, you know after she got married to Inuyasha!"

"Kikyo Taisho" Kagome nodded thoughtfully

"Any relation?" asked Ayame curiously

"Could be" Kagome mused "but Inuyasha has had a bad relationship with his family since his mother died and if her was a relation surely I would have met him at the wedding?"

"She has a point" Ayame turned to Sango

"Hmm" Sango was thoughtful "but if Inuyasha has a bad relationship with his family then he wouldn't necessarily go to the wedding now would he?"

"Maybe you're right" Kagome shrugged pulling her spectacles from her pocket and pulling up a Sudoku puzzle that she had gotten addicted too over the past few months.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Sango was curious "you seemed to be familiar with him"

"I met him once before" she said filling in the numbers with quick succession "but that's it really" she smirked as she remembered the first time she had met the Inu Yokai and that she had been wearing an old cast off sweater donated to her courtesy of Miroku. She hadn't exactly been at her best when she had seen him first. But he had been in such a foul mood she couldn't stop herself from interfering and teasing the deadly demon.

Her school was a school for both humans and Yokai's and even Hanyou and she was uniquely qualified to handle such an institution being a Miko or a priestess with strong spiritual powers. She masked them most of the time but they were always there. She had given her all in order to get the education board to authorise such a facility and it had taken her two years of work to prove she could handle it and too get the board to agree. She loved her school and all of the creatures inside it; teachers and pupils alike.

It was a safe haven and a place where all were welcome and none were shunned.

She had strived to set up this institute based on her childhood. When she was twelve she had been sent by her parents along with her cousin Kikyo to a private boarding academy where the students were required to stay during the school term which was where they had met Inuyasha for the first time. He had been fairly obvious with silver hair claws fangs and dog ears atop his head plus his hatred for everyone had made him pretty noticeable.

It was through friendship with the Inu Hanyou that Kagome had come to want a place where people like him and people like him could live in peace with one another. The ridicule he had put up with throughout his life struck at her heart and she knew that one weaker than him would have held their hands up to the world; defeated.

But her friend had never been one to admit defeat gracefully and simply throw in the towel and as such she was encouraged to help others that were like him but with less spunk.

Kagome sighed as the bell rang for the end of the school day and she watched the parents crowd into the courtyard and pick up their offspring. She closed the file she was working on and put it back in the filing cupboard. She had been appealing to get a money grant from the education board for a new computer suite for her pupils. It was an uphill battle against people who couldn't care less even though they had children of their own.

She sighed and pulled her hair down from it's sleek bun and let the ebony curtain cascade around her shoulders. She pulled her glasses from their perch on her nose and threw them onto the desk on top of the reorder forms for classroom supplies and pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb.

There was a short knock on the door of her office.

"Enter" she replied pleasantly

The door opened and Shippo walked inside. He was a Kitsune who worked as the teacher of the three year olds at the school and he was very popular amongst the children of the school for his bright orange hair and jovial attitude. The children loved to follow him around hanging onto his tail. He was a friend of Inuyasha's and she sometimes saw him outside school when they all met up for drinks.

"Hey Higurashi-sensei" he said smiling. She found it amusing how he always spoke formally inside school.

"Hey Shippo-kun" she smiled back, his mannerisms were contagious.

"Houshi-sensei says she needs to see you" said Shippo nodding at her to show he had delivered his message.

"Thanks" she walked around her desk and followed him out into the corridor.

She located Sango sitting on her desk rather than in the chair behind it watching over the only two students that had yet to be delivered home.

They were sat at the table each colouring a picture. Rin glanced up from her work and smiled a little at Kagome but she sensed it was a forced smile. She was waiting for Sesshoumaru to come and get her but he was already half an hour late.

The other child was used to waiting behind this long after school due to the fact that his guardian was Kagome. He was Ranmaru and he was seven years old and a Kelpie (an aquatic horse demon) and he had been in Kagome's care ever since he had lost his parents at birth to water poisoning and Inuyasha and Kikyo and Kagome had saved him. He had lived in peace with his human mother since then.

She walked up to the child and stroked his jet black curly hair he swivelled his black eyes up to her and she marvelled again at the beauty of those eyes with their smouldering depths.

"Hmm" Sango said brushing Rin's hair gently and beginning to pull it back into a French plait.

"Why are you doing that?" Kagome whispered into her friend's ear "he could be here any moment"

Ranmaru concentrated on his drawing and pretended he couldn't hear the conversation between the two women, it didn't matter that he could; the only person they didn't want to hear their hushed conversation was the human child.

"Humph" Sango let her disbelief be known with that small noise and Kagome rolled her eyes.

Ayame crashed into the classroom "Hey guys I have to go now" she said "I'm meeting someone!"

"Not another blind date!" Sango yelled at their friend but she was already gone fleeing down the corridor at a rate of knots. "I hope she took her pepper spray" she said worriedly

"She's a demon" Kagome pointed out

"Ayame-san needs to stop going out with dirt bags" Ranmaru stated casually causing both Kagome and Sango to glance down at the young demon in shock.

"Where'd you learn that expression?" Kagome was disapproving of a seven year old spouting such knowledge

"Inuyasha-ojisan" said Ranmaru simply glancing at his mother "was that wrong?"

"He's a dead dog" Kagome growled "how dare he teach my son profanities?"

Sango snickered "He tries to sensor himself" she said, she had come into contact with Inuyasha many a time due to his friendship with her husband

"You won't be laughing when the twins start picking up his language" Kagome warned

Sango looked grumpy for a moment and then they both looked at the clock and sighed 'Where the hell is Sesshoumaru?' they thought as one.

Sesshoumaru was losing the will to live. He was sat in the conference room listening to some company flunky's relentless and unimportant babble. His face was a carefully cultivated mask of interest but if you knew him well and few did you could tell he was bored out of his mind. He was also annoyed that this meeting was taking so damn long. Rin had told him half past three and it was nearing quarter past four.

"So that concludes that" said the plebeian and Sesshoumaru nearly got his hopes up until the monotonous human clicked onto the next slide in the slideshow "and now for the..."

Sesshoumaru stopped listening and stood suddenly.

The little man who had been talking gawked at him from behind bottle top spectacles as the Inu Yokai stood and picked up his coat from the back of his chair and folded it over his arm before stalking from the room like an irritable lion on the prowl.

Jaken his advisor scurried out behind the irritable demon "Sesshoumaru-sama" he whimpered "where are you going?"

Sesshoumaru glided to a halt and turned slowly on his heel his glowing golden eyes swivelling around to stare at the small man. Jaken gulped as his insignificant life flashed before his eyes. Sesshoumaru nodding in satisfaction before returning on his escape mission from his building.

He pulled into the car park at the school to see that there was only one car still there. It was a beaten up contraption that looked like it wasn't fit for human transportation. He sighed and walked up to the doors to find Rin stood there waiting for him.

He noticed the change in her hair and raised an eyebrow and she let out a yelp of glee and ran at him latching onto his long legs and hugging them effectively restricting his movements.

He glanced up at the stairs that led to the school to see a disgruntled looking Sango, an impatient looking Kagome and a Kelpie that he had yet to meet.

"Glad you could finally make it" Kagome was not impressed. Sango was just as annoyed but chose to say nothing as she stalked past him to the browbeaten car.

"Keys!" she yelled at Kagome

Kagome tossed the set of keys at her friend who deftly caught them and unlocked the car. Sesshoumaru spared a brief moment to wonder why anyone would lock that monstrosity of a car when it was not even worth stealing.

"Ran-chan" Kagome murmured to the boy stood in front of her with a bored expression on his youthful face "Get in the car with Sango"

He glanced up at her and then back at the Inu Yokai and walked exuding an aura of tranquillity around the older demon and opened the back door of the dilapidated automobile sitting inside.

"Please come to get her at a more suitable time tomorrow Sesshoumaru-san" Kagome chastised him "she relies on you being there"

He glared at this impertinent woman, how dare she dictate to him the great Sesshoumaru?

"It is none of your concern how this Sesshoumaru conducts himself" said Sesshoumaru coldly

She cocked her head to one side in surprise at his lengthy response "When it concerns one of my pupils it is of my concern." She told him

She was daring to speak back to him? Sesshoumaru seethed with barely concealed anger "Rin get into the vehicle" he said smoothly "This Sesshoumaru needs to talk with Sensei"

Kagome grinned at Rin as she walked by to get into the car and Rin returned the smile gently.

"So?" she asked brazenly putting a hand on her left hip and tilting her chin arrogantly. She was doing this on purpose to enrage him further but he was too pissed to notice.

"This Sesshoumaru would thank you not to be so rude to me wench" his words were spoken coldly with a certain amount of precision. Ranmaru winced in the car as he felt the older demon's Yokai crackle with rage. Kagome smirked as she too sensed his power.

"Rude?" she rolled her eyes "I'm not the one indulging in name calling. My name is Kagome"

He narrowed his eyes at her "This Sesshoumaru does not care as too what your name is" he snarled

"I thought so before" she said looking him up and down "but you have some sort of displaced resentment towards me don't you?"

"You are looking down on this Sesshoumaru" he stated "as if this Sesshoumaru is one of your pupils needing to be mollycoddled"

She smirked "My, my" she was being condescending on purpose now

He felt his anger bubble up to boiling point as this wench patronised him yet again.

He growled incoherently and his hands twitched by his sides.

Kagome inspected his face for a moment and the cracked up laughing. It was proper gut wrenching, belly aching, unstoppable, hysterical laughter that made her start to cry.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened as he examined the now bent double hysterical female. She was something else; by simply laughing she had managed to alleviate all his anger. She reacted to him like no other woman did. She was not afraid of him being a demon. She stood up to him and challenged him like she was the alpha. She could meet his eyes without being reduced to a puddle of shattered nerves. She did not gush over him.

She was different.

"I don't believe" she gasped recovering from her fit "that you let me bait you that much"

"Hn" he said calmer now and realising he had forgotten to add something to the list; she was able to make him lose his temper.

Sango got out of the car "Are you finished?" she demanded

"Yep," Kagome was happy "Bye Sesshoumaru"

He stood in the middle of the car park for a moment wondering what exactly was going on; he felt sort of light hearted?

A few long seconds later he realised she had addressed him without an honorific and he frowned. Didn't that suggest intimacy?

Then he shook his head in horror as he realised that he was actually wasting precious seconds of his time dwelling on the unusual female. He growled in frustration before getting into his car and angrily accelerating out of the car park.

A/N: again I own nothing so please tell me what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Alcohol

It had been a trying week for the Inu Yokai and he had retired to one of his favourite haunts once making sure that Rin was safely in the care of a nanny.

First of all his company had been out bid in a publishing war over a book that could be so popular that it would throw the recent bestsellers into shame. Secondly his secretary Kagura was 'subtly' dropping hints that she wouldn't mind sleeping with him. He shuddered as he repressed those memories.

He enjoyed this particular bar simply because it was not known by anyone that he knew and everyone gave him a large berth. He was known by the young bartender and so when he sat on his seat at the bar he didn't even have to ask and a glass of his preferred poison was placed in front of him.

He loosened his tie and then picked up and nursed the liquid gazing into its depths as if it would reveal the answer to his problems.

The door behind him opened and he sat up straighter as he recognised the summer scent that washed over him as Kagome Higurashi walked into the bar.

He glanced over his shoulder at the third of his problems as she caught his eye and grinned jovially before sitting in the barstool next to him.

The bartender raised an eyebrow at the seating arrangements and walked over to Sesshoumaru's unwanted companion.

"Sure you want to sit there Kags?" he asked flicking his dish towel over his shoulder

She smiled wider "Of course, annoying my friend here is a favourite past time of mine."

The bartender glanced at the depressed looking Yokai and chuckled.

"What'll it be?" he asked his cloudy blue eyes were alight with amusement as he tousled his deep brown hair

"Double gin and tonic" she said "hold the tonic"

The bartender chuckled and placed the drink in front of her "So it's been one of those days huh?"

"You don't want to know" she said knocking back the liquid in one "Another" she said bringing the glass down onto the bar.

He swiped the glass and refilled it before passing it back to her. She nursed the liquid this time and looked up into the eyes "My dear little brother" she said

"Souta" he rolled his eyes "whenever you address me like that I get uneasy"

"Souta-chan" she sighed "they still won't give me backing" she thunked her head onto the bar and then pulled it up again sharply as she realised there was a sticky substance where she had placed her forehead.

Sesshoumaru was trying not to listen to the confusing girl who he was still trying to work out but it was hard when she was so close that her scent was clouding his senses making him more drunk than the alcohol. He shook his head as if to dispel water from his ears but it didn't really help.

"You'll get it eventually" Souta consoled his older sister patting her on the shoulder

She rolled her eyes "That's what everyone except the board keeps saying" she grouched and then brightened as she remembered who she was next to.

"Ne, Sesshoumaru" she said elbowing him in the ribs and getting a bruised elbow for her troubles "Why so glum, chum?"

He looked at her with distaste evident on his perfect features and said nothing.

She sighed and flicked him on his crescent moon with her forefinger. He lost the distasteful expression and looked at her in shock.

"Talk to me" she commanded

And though the Yokai had a good mind to teach this wench her place he found himself obeying "It has nothing to do with you" he said coldly

"Souta!" she ordered slamming her empty glass back onto the bar. It was whisked away and replaced with more.

He watched this little pantomime with amusement in his eyes but not on his features. She caught it though he extinguished it immediately and smiled in return.

"So what's wrong in the world of Sesshy?" she asked

"Are you inebriated?" he glowered as she shortened his name and made him sound like a puppy of some kind.

"Nope" she grinned "just annoying"

"Hn"

"When I annoy you I seem to get a longer reply" she told him running a hand through her loose ebony locks and simultaneously running a finger around the rim of her glass.

"I have a problem with my secretary" he chose this problem as it wasn't to do with her and wasn't something confidential. It was mainly to shut her up but he also wanted to know is she could present him a solution to his hormonal wind sorceress problem.

"She's in love with you" Kagome stated and he nearly fell of the barstool in shock as she guessed before he had even revealed anything.

"Huh?" he said and then cursed silently as he realised in his bewilderment that he had only formed a half articulated response. He had said a word that wasn't even a real word; the shame.

"Well it was either that or she was stealing office supplies" she said twirling a strand of hair around her finger musingly "but her being in love with you is more likely"

He smirked back on familiar ground "All women are in love with this Sesshoumaru" he said

She looked at him side way through a curtain of her hair and snorted "Well aren't we high and mighty" she sniggered

He glowered at her and folded his arms defensively, did this mean she was not attracted to him? If so then this was something new to the Yokai and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. He was wrong footed and it bothered him.

"There are a few things you can do" she said recovering herself

"Which are?" he prompted as she stared off into space

She smiled "You could fire her" she said "which is an extremely cowardly thing to do"

"Hn"

"You could tell her that you are flattered but you don't want to be involved with anyone just now" she wrinkled her nose in distaste "but that's a cliché"

"Hn" he agreed with the last remark that was a cliché

"You could tell her that Rin doesn't like new women" she said "but that is also very cowardly"

"Hn"

"You could ignore her" she frowned "but she might try and rape you"

"Hn" he rolled his eyes at her vivid imagination

"Or" she paused for dramatic effect "you could tell her you're gay"

There was a brittle silence and then Kagome let out a squeal as her stool disappeared from beneath her and she clattered onto the floor. Sesshoumaru sat next to her in the exact same position like he hadn't just taken her chair.

"Ow" she stood and rubbed her ass

Sesshoumaru did something that she had never seen him do; he chuckled into his glass. She felt her jaw drop. His laugh was completely different from his usual cold voice and it warmed her as if she had just down another double Gin.

She grinned as Souta stared at the Inu Yokai in confusion; Sesshoumaru-san was capable of emotions other than disdain? He cleaned the glass he was holding wryly if there was one thing he was learning from being a bartender; the unexpected will happen.

A/N: we all know I don't own Inuyasha kay? I make no profit from this.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Christmas Spirit

Christmas. Sesshoumaru was not looking forward to this particular holiday. He had nothing against all of the humans and demons working in his building getting over excited and doing 'secret Santa' whatever that is. His particular problem fell into two categories.

The first minor problem was the amount of Christmas presents he was subjected to each morning on his desk. He had no idea how they got inside, he was the only one with a key. But every morning there were assorted boxes of chocolates and bizarrely women's underwear. This he didn't understand. Why were people sending a male female underwear? Jaken had attempted to explain that it was part of the human mating ritual but he couldn't see it to be honest.

But this was a small problem compared to the massively large problem of what he would be doing on Christmas day. He had received an invitation from his sister-in-law Kikyo to ask him to spend Christmas with his Half-brother and their offspring and to bring Rin. Sesshoumaru did not want to go.

The only problem with refusing this invitation was that Rin had seen it and really wanted to meet his brother. There had been no problem turning down the invitation last year when he had not yet acquired Rin but now any attempts at turning it down were met with a pair of puppy dog eyes.

That was not fair; he was supposed to be the Inu not her.

So this was how he found himself on an unfamiliar doorstep looking up at a small house that stunk of his half brother with Rin in tow.

He rapped twice on the wooden door and it was yanked out of his way immediately. Sesshoumaru blinked twice in surprise as his golden eyes met the cloudy blue eyes of Kagome. She was dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans that clung to his slim legs and a deep blue tight fitting sweater that was long on the sleeves.

He paused on the threshold of the house. Was she stalking him?

She grinned at his expression and guessed what he was thinking.

"Higurashi-sensei!" Rin was overjoyed and flung herself at the woman's waist squeezing tightly

"Merry Christmas Rin-chan" she said stroking the snow from the young girl's hair

"Why are you here?" Sesshoumaru recovered himself enough to sound accusatory

She smirked "It's my families Christmas"

Yet again Sesshoumaru was at a loss. Was she saying that she was married to his mutt of a half brother? For some reason this put him off balance and he glowered at her.

"Explain" he growled

"Charming as always" she rolled her eyes and gestured to follow her into the house.

"He actually came" came a new but not entirely unfamiliar voice and Sesshoumaru stepped inside the house to see the young bartender Souta stood inside the house with his arms folded and a dubious expression on his face.

"Keh" mumbled a very familiar voice as Inuyasha appeared from out of the small kitchen. He was wearing a red short sleeved t-shirt in a 'I'm not bothered by the cold' kind of way and blue jeans and was carrying a small silver haired dog eared child in his arms that was watching Sesshoumaru with wide hazel eyes full of curiosity.

"Rin" Kagome said kneeling down so she was on par with the child "Why don't you go into the lounge and play with Ran-chan?"

Rin nodded solemnly and skittered away down the corridor and into the front room.

Kikyo walked out of the kitchen and went to take the child from her husband when she saw Kagome do the cut throat sign. The way Kagome saw it if her violent friend was holding his baby he was less likely to attack. Kikyo caught on quickly and looked at the Inu Yokai coldly. She looked a lot like Kagome except she was slightly taller, her body shape was slightly more pear-shaped and her eyes were hazel instead of cloudy blue.

"So you finally decided to grace us with your presence" she said in a monotone that was both accusatory and bored at the same time.

"Hn" he said

"You could cut the tension with a knife" Souta said coming back out of the kitchen with a can of larger and a Gin for Kagome.

"Well as it's Christmas" Kagome said kicking Souta in the shins "let's try and remember that killing is a crime and go and sit down!"

"I wish you'd remember it was Christmas and stop beating on me" Souta muttered under his breath

*

Kikyo and her cousin were in the kitchen. Kagome wasn't exactly the best cook but Kikyo was rather good and with Kagome's assistance it was faster.

Souta came back into the room and sighed heavily.

"What are you doing in here?" Kagome asked "You're supposed to be out there making sure they don't kill each other!"

He sighed again "I couldn't take the atmosphere anymore!" he told them "I've seen pub brawls where the participants were in better moods. The only reason they haven't tried to kill each other yet is because there are three children in the room"

The door opened again and Ranmaru ran into the room and launched himself at his mother and wrapped his arms around her waist burying his face in her midriff.

"Don't make me go back in there!" he whimpered "their Yokai is going crazy!"

Kagome stroked his hair softly "If we aren't careful they'll upset Kyo too" she mused; it was already irritating her spiritual radar and she wasn't even in the same goddamn room.

They all jumped as suddenly baby wailing broke out from the direction of the front room.

Kikyo picked up her rolling pin with a determined but scarily relaxed expression and started out of the room but Kagome grabbed her elbow.

"I'll go" she murmured in her ear easing the rolling pin from her cousin's hand. Kikyo looked at the door and then at her cooking and conceded and let Kagome go. Kagome sighed in relief; she didn't want a murder on her hands and Kikyo could be violent when she wanted to be.

Ranmaru, worried about his mother, followed.

Inuyasha was absentmindedly trying to stop Kyo from squalling but he wasn't actually looking at the pup so the baby was not in the least soothed.

Kagome walked up to the Hanyou and took the child from him pulling him close and rocking him slowly. She started to croon to him a lullaby in a different language. It was the same her mother had used on her when she was small. The baby looked up at this woman who resembled his mother and grabbed a lock of her hair calming down.

Rin was watching the two brothers warily, unlike the two Yokai children she couldn't sense their animosity but she could certainly see their murderous expressions.

Kagome looked at the two brothers who were glaring at each other.

"Stop it now!" she ordered "I understand that there is some bad blood between you two but you are upsetting Ran-chan and Kyo-chan"

They both blinked and looked at her. "If you continue like this I will get Kikyo to put your food in a dog bowl and you can eat it off the floor"

Inuyasha smirked "Yeah, yeah keep your hair on Kags" he stood and relieved her of his child

"I guess that makes Inuyasha the bigger man" said Souta from the doorway before ducking away from Sesshoumaru's death glare.

"He is merely afraid of this Sesshoumaru" Sesshoumaru was calm and cocky

Inuyasha glared at him and then they were once again locked in a freaky staring competition. Kagome sighed.

"I didn't want to have to do this to you guys" she said taking Kyo from Inuyasha and taking a step back "Ran-chan, do your worst"

Ranmaru giggled kind of evilly and held out his hands one pointing at Inuyasha and the other at Sesshoumaru. Suddenly they both stopped staring at each other as they were sprayed with freezing cold demon conjured water.

"Now run!" Kagome squealed passing Kyo to Souta and grabbing her son around the waist and picking him up and running from the completely distracted, completely soaked and completely pissed brothers.

"She's so going down" Inuyasha growled shaking his entire body

"Just like a dog" Souta remarked to the baby in his arms who gurgled happily

"Ah" Kyo replied

"Exactly" he remarked dryly as the baby punched him in the nose with a flailing fist.

*

A few hours, two new changes of clothes and a personality transplant on Inuyasha's part later they all sat around the table together.

Sesshoumaru found himself in between the only two people who would sit next to him: Kagome and Rin. He had to admit that Kikyo was a good cook and now that Inuyasha was in a better mood he no longer wanted to kill the Hanyou as much. It would be a different story tomorrow.

Kikyo was also acting a bit more courteous around her brother-in-law now that her husband had calmed down.

Bizarrely Sesshoumaru found that he was having that feeling of light heartedness again. But he put that down to the unnamed concoction Souta was giving him to drink. It looked a bit like liquid gold but it was good.

He wondered if this was what people meant by Christmas spirit. He'd never experienced it before.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha and I didn't own Inuyasha in the previous chapter either. So please read and review. Whilst I was writing this I had a lot of fun imagining what Sesshoumaru would make of twenty first century traditions, so enjoy!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: New Year's Kisses

Kagome sat down at the low slung table and collapsed onto the leather sofa with her other friends following suit. Sango crashed in on her left side and Ayame and Kikyo fell into the right side. They were all struck with the New Year's excitement and had seriously enjoyed partying.

"God I'm exhausted" Sango gasped fanning herself with her hand

"Mommy's shouldn't try and party as hard" Ayame was teasing "you're too old!"

"Ayame" Kikyo was bored "You're a year older than her"

Ayame cupped her hands to her heart like Kikyo had just stabbed her in it "You cut me deeply"

"That makes you sadder than me" Sango grinned "you're a year older and still playing the field!"

"You make me seem like an old hag!" Ayame was annoyed "I'm only twenty seven!"

"Guys are like boxes of chocolate" said Sango wisely "if you leave it too long there are only nutty ones left"

Ayame kicked her under the table with her pointed toed stilettos and Kagome winced as she kicked her instead.

"Kagome's single too" Ayame folded her arms "pick on her for a change!"

"She's two years younger than you" Kikyo pointed out sipping from her glass with an unreadable expression as was her style.

Ayame was mutinous; they always picked on her like this "You guys are mean"

"And you have the mentality of a seven year old" Kagome sniggered

"It's nearly eleven" Sango said glancing at her watch and then squinting as she tried to read the numbers under the strobe light "We should go to Souta's pub for the closed party he was offering, Miroku, Shippo and Inuyasha will probably end up killing each other if we don't get there soon"

"Let's go" Ayame held her clutch bag into the air like it was a sword or something and she was declaring battle. They shook their heads good-naturedly; too tired to take the piss out of her any more.

Sesshoumaru was annoyed. He had been dragged along to his companies New Year's party against his will by Jaken. He would never have agreed to go if he had known what was going to happen when he got there.

He had fled through the back door and was know walking through the streets bitterly cold and very annoyed. As he walked he tried to avoid the increasing number of drunken people who spilled out onto the streets.

He began to vaguely recognise the neighbourhood but he had no idea why. He looked around carefully and spotted it. The small pub that was his frequent haunt. He paused before walking up to it; what if the Kagome woman was inside?

He shook his head. He was the great Sesshoumaru he had no concerns over whether the wench would be there or not. He walked up to the door and attempted to push it open only to find that it was locked. But he could hear people laughing inside.

The door was tugged out of his way and he looked down to see Kagome who looked up at him like he was an unwelcome mirage.

"Are you stalking me?" she asked putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head to one side.

"Hn" wasn't that the other way around?

She shivered as the cold night air hit her revealed skin. The cold was so cold it burned. Her attire of a short leather skirt and a deep blue off the shoulder shirt was not built for temperatures such as these.

"Get inside!" she yelped grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and dragging him inside. He glowered down at the warm hand that was currently attached to his arm. It wasn't that it was unpleasant it was simply that no one ever touched him. Except Rin.

She sort of seemed to realise what she had done and smirked up at him "Don't worry I'm not contagious"

"Hn"

"Hey" Souta nodded at Sesshoumaru and handed him the same concoction that he had been plied with at Christmas.

"Hn" he said looking at the golden liquid

"I call it a Sesshoumaru" Souta smirked

Sesshoumaru raised an elegant eyebrow and surveyed the other people in the bar. He recognised one of Rin's teachers, there was a female wolf demon, a man who had a faint aura that reminded him of monks of old, a male Kitsune, Kikyo and his mutt of a brother. Inuyasha was crashed out on the sofa unconscious with his mouth open slightly; snoring.

Catching the direction he was looking in Kagome laughed "He has a low alcohol tolerance"

"Hn" Sesshoumaru was not surprised and he smirked as Inuyasha's leg twitched in his sleep like a dog.

"Well you already know Sango" Kagome made introductions though judging by the look on the Inu Yokai's features he could care less. "That's her husband Miroku, the wolf demoness is Ayame and the Kitsune is Shippo" she smiled at her friends in an 'I'm sorry' kind of way "and this is Sesshoumaru"

"Hn"

"He's talkative" Ayame noted flippantly rolling her green eyes

"Turn it up!" Shippo yelled pointing at the TV "It's nearly midnight!"

"Calm down" Kikyo said coldly as was her nature "if you wake the Inu then you'll be wearing your drink"

Shippo looked down at her sheepishly and mimed zipping his mouth.

"It's his fault" Miroku said "he tried to out drink Kagome"

"Never been done" Souta said laughing

"It's not one of the attributes of me that I am proud of" Kagome rolled her eyes. Sesshoumaru looked across at the tiny female and wondered how she managed to drink his Hanyou brother under the table.

"Do you remember in collage when the guy tried to out drink you?" Sango reminisced

"And he ended up having his stomach pumped" Miroku chuckled

"And Kagome could still walk in a straight line" Ayame grinned "She even did a cartwheel"

"Yes we know already" Shippo rolled his eyes "Kagome is invincible"

"You guys should get a medal in exaggerations" Kagome sighed. He had only thrown up he hadn't needed his stomach pumped and she had never done a cartwheel she had just fallen over kind of circularly making it look as if she had done a cartwheel.

"Wake up mutt" Miroku said losing patience and kicking the cushion out from under the Hanyou's head

Inuyasha gave a huge snort and woke up with a start "Huh?"

"Very articulate" Sango said dryly

"Who woke me?" Inuyasha was pissed. He was far too pissed and sleepy to even notice his half brother.

"Him" Shippo and Miroku said in unison pointing to each other

Inuyasha looked from one to the other carefully before hitting Miroku around the head.

"Hey, how'd you know it was me" he said rubbing his overly abused head. He was Sango's punch bag of choice too.

"You smell like you're lying" he muttered closing his eyes and falling back to sleep instantly

Kikyo and Kagome rolled their eyes in synchronicity. He acted so much like a dog but hated to be called a mutt.

"Ten" said Shippo happily

"Nine" Sango chimed in and before Sesshoumaru could figure out what was happening they were all counting down to midnight.

"ZERO!" they all yelled as one and then started hugging and clapping and kissing.

Sesshoumaru glowered at them. He found this ritual of celebrating the New Year foolish, nothing had changed and nothing was new. He had no idea why they were so excited. But it was pretty amusing to watch them squealing, not that he allowed this emotion to grace his features.

Kagome finished hugging Ayame and jumped onto her little brother mussing his hair. She glanced over his shoulder at Sesshoumaru who was watching the proceedings with undisguised annoyance but she caught a glimmer off amusement in his gold eyes as they met her blue ones.

She released her brother and walked up to him.

"Happy New Year" she said and then before he could even comprehend what she was doing she got onto her tiptoes and kissed the Inu Yokai on his cheek.

He looked at her as her blue eyes glittered mischievously.

Oh yeah, that served the emotionally stunted Yokai right. For once when she looked at his handsome features he looked like he actually had no idea of how to respond. There was no expression of animosity and no cynicism. He almost looked innocent.

She twirled away from the Yokai and went over to hug Shippo tightly.

He watched her hug the Kitsune and blinked for the first time since she kissed him. His cheek where her lips had met his skin was tingling. What was this feeling?

What had this wench done to him? He felt his control slip and a small amount of red dusted his haughty cheek bones. He was embarrassed?

No, more than that; he was blushing?

He spun on his heel and nearly ran out of the door. He strode forcefully away from the pub as if he had an urgent purpose to see to, whereas his only mission was to get as far away from the woman as possible before she saw his embarrassment with her quick eyes and called him on it.

Was he attracted to this woman?

Kagome kissed Kikyo on both cheeks and looked back to where Sesshoumaru had been to find an empty void in his place.

'Oops' she thought to herself. Maybe she had offended the Yokai? After all he didn't really like humans at all. Maybe to him she smelt bad? She brushed her worries aside and decided to apologise next time she saw him.

Even if he was annoyed at her it had been worth it to see the look on his face. She traced a finger over her bottom lip and smiled. Interesting.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I never will. I make no profit from this except in bucketfuls of happiness. With thanks to the people who have reviewed: S3rrenity4193, Kouga'sGirl4eva, Serenity digo19, Kakashi and Sesshoumaru's Lady, Jung Ah and Luvspanky.

Also thanks to those who have favourited me.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Children

He was uncomfortable to say the least. He was sat on a park bench with his cashmere blend coat done up all the way to his chin to stave off the bitter January wind whilst watching Rin playing. It amazed him that she could still be so hyper when the temperature seemed to be freezing.

He noticed that the other children currently shrieking their way through the Antarctic playground were equally excited. So it wasn't a Rin thing but rather a small child thing? She did have a slightly warmer body temperature than him he supposed.

He had been in a horrible mood since Kagome had touched him and sent his thoughts into turmoil. He was Sesshoumaru Taisho and did not go into shock over something as stupid as a woman. He was acting like a goddamned virginal teenager for Christ's sake. How could he let a kiss confuse him this much?

His thoughts tailed off into a bizarre serious of rants as he tried to come up with a tally over how many women he had actually bedded in his long life.

Rin was studiously ignoring the bad vibes emanating from her guardian and steadily playing. She was used to him and his bad moods but now there was something completely different about this depression that hovered over his broad shoulders like an invisible cloud of doom.

His eyes fixed on the vast expanse of water just behind the playground that was optimistically called a duck pond. There were no ducks. They had obviously realised that swimming today was ridiculous and that sleeping huddled together was more appealing. Sesshoumaru didn't know about sleeping huddled together but he'd kill for a cup of coffee.

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat and watched in horror as an older girl shoved Rin away from the swings she was waiting patiently for a turn on.

She tottered backwards unsteadily and the backs of her knees hit into the low metal bar that surrounded the duck pond and she teetered into the abyss.

Sesshoumaru stood up in a hurry as he realised she was going to fall into the icy water and possibly catch pneumonia.

She fell backwards and nearly got severely drenched before a pair of child's arms caught her. Sesshoumaru's eyes widened in shock as he saw the young Kelpie demon under Kagome's care emerge from the water bone dry in his human form. He was standing on the surface of the rippling water as this was a normal occurrence and for him it was.

"Ranmaru-kun!" Rin exclaimed in shock

"You should be more careful" he told her

"Where'd you come from?" she asked in confusion

"The water" he told her

"But how?" she looked at him with confusion evident in her brown eyes. His black eyes with their shifting depths rolled in a way that was scarily reminiscent of his adopted mother.

"I'm an aquatic horse demon; a kelpie" he said

"An aqu-titic... an accutatit" she looked at him in confusion after mimicking the word failed drastically "What?"

Ranmaru smiled at the younger child's mispronunciation, the word was not foreign to him as he heard it all the time but to a human child it was something new. "It means I'm a water horse demon" he simplified things for her.

"You're a horse?" she demanded turning into a fan girl as Sesshoumaru watching the exchange smiled in amusement. Rin's little girl brain had kicked in when she heard the word horse; she loved horses.

Sesshoumaru was abruptly anxious; if the child was here then surely that meant that his mother had to be nearby and this small fact made him uneasy. He hadn't seen her since she had kissed him.

"My mother is buying a coffee" he told Sesshoumaru catching that the elder Yokai's attention was occupied on other things.

"Hn" Sesshoumaru glared at the young Yokai and Ranmaru wondered if the adult was still angry at him for drenching him at Christmas.

"Are you really a horse?" Rin would have been bouncing off the walls at this time if they weren't outside.

"Yes" he said

"Can you show me?" she demanded tugging on his sleeve

Ranmaru looked down at the girl "We're outside" he said patiently

"So?" she asked confused

"I can't transform in front of people" he said

"Why?"

"They'd get scared" he said solemnly

"Are you scary?" she asked looking up at him in awe

"No" he said "but it would be unexpected and scary"

"Oh" she pouted and scuffed the toe of her trainer along the floor in disappointment

Ranmaru noticed and showed a little maturity "I'll show you sometime" he said seriously patting her on her head

"Really? Do you promise?"

"En" he promised linking his pinkie finger with hers and shaking

"Here" said a familiar voice as a coffee was thrust into his clawed hands. He sighed as the scent of summer washed over him contrasting harshly with the bitter cold he felt biting his exposed face.

"Hn" he muttered avoiding eye contact.

"Ne" she said as the two children trotted off happily to go and play in the park again "did I do something to offend you?"

He glanced at her sideways in shock. She was wearing a long light blue woollen coat that came down to her knees. Her collar was turned up and she was wearing a deep green scarf twined around her neck a few times. Her nose was hidden in her collar to stop it freezing in the cold and her cheeks were red from the harsh temperature. But he couldn't help but see her as beautiful.

Where's that coming from? He pushed the thought firmly away and concentrated on her words.

He didn't know what to say to that last comment. He was not offended by any means; however he was confused that this human was able to evoke emotions within him that no other female ever had. After all she was just a human.

"This Sesshoumaru is not offended" he said carefully wondering if he was revealing what he was thinking by saying this.

She looked at him and brought her mouth out from inside her jacket in order to take a quick swig of her coffee "So I'm not on your hit list"

He smirked "If this Sesshoumaru had put you on his hit list you would be dead already"

She laughed and a shocked expression crossed her features "You just made a joke" she informed him

He gazed off into the sunset. So he had. What strange things this woman could make him do.

"It seems that way" he said

"Hmm" she said watching him be thoughtful and not angst ridden for once. She wondered what was wrong with him if he wasn't annoyed at her.

"How did you come across a child such as that?" he said looking over at Ranmaru

She was shocked; he was asking her, under his own free will, a question. This was progress. She smiled under the cover of her jacket and proceeded to answer in the shortest sentences possible hoping to prompt him to ask more questions. "We saved him"

"We?" he asked as they meandered over to the bench that was partially frozen

"It was summer and Inuyasha, Kikyo and I found him"

"What did you save him from?" he asked

"We holidayed at a lake" she said "there was a cosmetics company dumping into it"

"That would kill a Kelpie" he nodded "What about his biological parents?"

"They were already poisoned so badly that their prognosis was terminal" she had a faraway look in her eye

"Why did you take him?" he asked

"Kikyo wasn't exactly the maternal type back then" she chuckled "she has a way of talking to people like they're mentally incompetent"

"How does she cope with her child?" he asked

"She's different with Kyo-chan" she smiled "I think her maternal instincts took over"

"Just because people look like they can't look after a child doesn't mean they are completely incompetent" he told her coldly

"En, you look after Rin very well even though you look like you're going to end the world when you're in a bad mood"

"Thanks" he said dryly "but we weren't talking about this Sesshoumaru"

"Sure" she giggled

They parted ways as the sun disappeared. As Rin got into his car she waved at Ranmaru as he got a head start on racing Kagome home. She turned to Sesshoumaru to say goodbye.

Her heart almost stopped when he bent over to kiss her on her cheek. He smirked as he pulled back to see the young woman staring straight forward in blank shock. She thought she might be malfunctioning as she desperately tried to jam her heart back into her chest where it belonged as it was currently in her throat for some strange reason.

"Two can play at that game" he whispered in her ear before getting into his car and driving off.

Rin was looking at Sesshoumaru from the passenger seat agog with her eyes wide.

"Sesshoumaru-sama" she said "Do you like Higurashi-sensei?"

He smirked at his ward "This Sesshoumaru believes she remarked once that it was fun to annoy this Sesshoumaru, and so now is time for revenge"

Rin had no idea what he had just said but she understood one thing. Seeing Higurashi-sensei today had alleviated the depressing mood from around Sesshoumaru and she was happy for that at least.

Unseen to the child Sesshoumaru ran a finger across his lip and smirked.

Kagome cupped her cheek and watched the Ferrari drive away with wide eyes.

Huh?

Had he actually deigned to kiss her? And what did 'two can play at that' mean?

Didn't he hate humans? Damn those questions that weren't supposed to be rhetorical but received no answer from her addled brain anyway.

She began to get angry, did the arrogant bastard think she was another woman easily charmed? She had to admit he was handsome but that was about all she would admit.

_You like him._

The thought was unwanted and quickly shown the door as she threw it from her mind. Damn thoughts telling her what to do.

"Okasan!" her son yelled from the distance getting impatient with her just standing there hand on cheek.

"Hai, hai" she said sighing and following after him tracing a zigzag pattern on the icy pavement as she walked after her young son. There was complete confusion etched onto her pretty features.

Strange. That was what she decided as she stepped into her power shower that night after they got home. She let the water wash away her stress but the pounding jets couldn't erase her thoughts. She was sure he had kissed her because she could still feel it on her cheek even after washing.

She bounced onto her bed in her pyjamas and frowned at the ceiling. She turned onto her stomach and hugged a pillow. Who knew?

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha, please review. I do own Ran-chan so don't steal.

With thanks to Karen-chan who makes me laugh. Hope you like this chapter too!

Also to my two new reviewers Pflow and Regin. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Valentines Surprise

What is she doing? Sesshoumaru asked himself as he heard the sounds of his young ward crashing through the penthouse like a wrecking ball. It sounded like she was remodelling the goddamn place or destroying it. He turned in his bed the grey satin sheets getting tangled around his waist to look at the clock next to his bed. It was 10:00 am on a Sunday. A Sunday for Christ's sake, he was supposed to be able to sleep in until at least eleven on Sunday's.

He got out of the bed and changed into a pair of black linen trousers and a white linen shirt and tramped out into the corridor and followed her scent into the kitchen.

She was sat in her night dress and a pair of orange shorts in front of the cupboard he kept the cooking pots in. The cupboard was at present empty and she was surrounded in a sea of kitchen implements.

"Rin, what are you doing?" he asked wearily flicking a switch on the coffee machine and letting it whir into life; he had a feeling he was going to need a cup soon.

"I'm looking for glitter glue" she said frowning at the mess she had created but not remorsefully instead it was more accusatory.

Of all the answers he had been expecting this was not one of them. Jeez why him? And what the hell is glitter glue?

"Why?" he asked running a clawed hand through his silver hair and trying to remember to keep his temper. He was not in the best of moods when awoken from his slumber. Besides that, what person looked for glitter glue in a cupboard that's primary use was to store cooking utensils? He had no idea what glitter glue was but he was pretty sure it wasn't used in the kitchen.

"I'm making a Valentines Card" she told him earnestly

"Why?" he repeated

"It's February 14th" she told him scathingly rolling her eyes "Don't tell me you didn't know"

She was picking up mannerisms from Kagome he realised sighing. "I forgot" he said truthfully. He had never celebrated the corporate designed holiday and there had never been a woman whom he loved to give anything to.

"You should give Higurashi-sensei something" she told him sternly

He chose to ignore her "Who are you making one for?" he asked curiously

"Ranmaru-kun" she told him

"The Kelpie?" he asked in shock; she liked the water demon?

"En" she smiled "and then we can take it to his house after"

Wait, what? She wanted to take the card to his house. Then that meant he'd be visiting Kagome's house as well right? He wondered why he was anxious at such an idea. Then something occurred to him that made him slightly disappointed even though he tried to keep such ludicrous thoughts from his mind. Such thoughts made him sound like a besotted teenager and he was Sesshoumaru Taisho goddamn it.

"We don't know where they live" he patiently explained

"Yes we do" she told him going over to where she had left her school bag on one of the breakfast bar stools and pulled out a scrap of paper from the front pocket. "See?" she presented him with a piece of paper that was crumpled slightly and smelled of strawberries.

"Hn" he said

"So you need to help me find the glitter glue" she said

"This Sesshoumaru has no idea what glitter glue is" he told her dryly

"Oh dear" she said as they looked at each other "looks like we need to go shopping again"

Shopping? Surely she didn't mean that he was going back to that filthy supermarket she had dragged him to before.

From the determined expression on her features as she gave him his wallet he knew his fears to be true.

Kagome was curled up in her favourite comfy chair in her living room with a dreadfully cliqued romance novel in her hands and a blanket around her waist. Ayame had invited her out for drinks to celebrate being single on the one day of the year when single people realised how single they really were. She had declined and deigned to spend a night in with Ranmaru.

She had been wondering recently what exactly 'that Sesshoumaru' meant by his parting remark at the park, but her brain didn't seem to be functioning very well and so she had shoved it into the compartment of her brain labelled 'check again in three months' and moved on. Sort of.

He was laid out on the living room floor in front of her on his belly with his head propped in his hands watching a movie on TV. She had been told the title of said movie but she had already forgotten it. It seemed to involve a lot of smashing of cars though.

"Ano... Okasan" he said gaining her attention

"What?" she asked gazing at him over the rims of her spectacles

"Why aren't you doing anything on Valentine's day?" he asked his eyes glancing at the bouquet of flowers she had received this morning and haphazardly thrown into a vase.

"Because I don't believe in it" she said "It reduces people like Ayame-chan to wrecks"

"But that Hojo man asked you out didn't he?" he asked glancing at the bouquet of flowers that he had given her again

"That he did" she agreed

"So why don't you go?" he asked

"He's not my type" she told him. Hojo was nice and friendly and smiled at Ranmaru whenever he saw him but she sometimes thought he was a little too nice. She had grown up with Inuyasha as a best friend and Miroku as her resident pervert; she wasn't comfortable around guys that were really nice. It felt like she was being tricked or something. She knew that this made her sound kind of crazy but so what?

"I've seen guys ask you out" he said "but you hardly ever say yes"

"Mmm" she said chewing on a strand of her hair "I'm picky"

"Good" he muttered in a low tone, he didn't want his mother to end up and warped as his Aunt Ayame was. He spotted her chewing her hair and threw a magazine at her "Don't" he scolded

She chuckled as the roles were reversed between them.

"Hai, hai" she said rolling her eyes flippantly "What about you did you send a Valentines?"

He smirked in an Inuyasha reminiscent way "I don't send them, I get them"

She creased up laughing "My son, the little girl killer"

"Okasan" he rolled his eyes "I'm not going to kill them"

She grinned "I didn't mean it like that"

"I know" he smirked

She threw the magazine at him "Don't be pedantic"

"Huh?" he was confused now as her vocabulary flew over his head.

"Don't worry" she shook her head.

The door bell buzzed and they both looked at each other.

"Are you expecting someone?" she asked

"Are you?" Ranmaru asked "maybe Hojo hasn't given up?"

"I'm not that desirable" she scoffed

They both looked at the door and concentrated.

"I sense demon" Kagome sounded surprised and screwed up her eyes as she tried to recognise it "Oh, it's Sesshoumaru"

"I smell Rin" Ranmaru told her

"Are we having a joint hallucination?" she asked

"Okasan I'm seven" he said as her vocabulary went straight over his head again.

"Oops" she giggled "shall we see what they want?"

"Yeah" he grinned excited

She pulled back her front door to reveal a very harassed but casually dressed Sesshoumaru with a hyper Rin at his side bobbing up and down on her toes in excitement.

Even when dressed casually Sesshoumaru was enough of a bishounnen to make any woman swoon. Kagome carefully kept her mind out of the gutter and thanked god that she was wearing her half way decent black skinny jeans and emerald green wraparound dress shirt. This guy sprung up at the most inopportune moments; namely when she looked like something the cat had dragged in.

"Happy valentine's day!" Rin cheered

"What's that?" Ranmaru asked looking at the card barely concealed behind her back

She presented it to him with a flourish "It's for you" she declared. It was a huge pink card obviously hand decorated and cut into the shape of a heart. It was adorned with glitter glue and sparkles and seemed to be the half the size of Rin herself. Kagome inspected the art with teacher's eyes and found it adorable.

Ran looked at her and raised an eyebrow "You just wanted to see me transform" he said shrewdly

She gasped as he figured out her cunning plan "How'd you know?" she asked

"It is a hundred years too early for you to be smarter than me" he told her rolling his eyes again

She looked disheartened and he realised he had upset her "Come on" he grabbed her hand and dragged her into the living room "you can choose any movie to watch"

"Really?" she asked happy again and Ranmaru smirked at how simple minded she was.

"I think that means you're coming in" Kagome pointed out gazing at the harassed Yokai as he stood just outside their flat.

"Hn" he said stepping past her into the small sparsely furnished and clean flat.

"I've only seen you look like that once before" she said gesturing for him to sit at the kitchen table "And that was in the supermarket"

He groaned and leaned his head on the table. He had not had a good day and he was lucky that she was here now; her scent was all over the apartment and was soothing to his frayed nerves.

"I was going to offer you coffee" she giggled "but I get the feeling you could use something a little stronger"

He sighed; that sounded good. Maybe with the combination of her scent and alcohol he could stop reminiscing about his catastrophic day.

He heard her pop the cork out of a bottle and then a glass slid to him across the worn table. He picked it up and sniffed it curiously. He knew this wine, it was a good year and not cheap.

"Miroku gave it to me" she said sitting opposite him and propping her head in her left hand and leaning her left elbow on the table whilst running her fingers up and down the stem of her own glass "He has a thing about wine and it's what I always get from him on every occasion."

"Miroku" Sesshoumaru mused, the name was familiar

"You met him on New Year's Eve" she told him "he was the one who kicked Inuyasha"

"Ah" he said picking up his glass and taking a sip.

She laughed softly and this noise warmed him too. He was too damn exhausted to second guess his actions today and so he just went with it.

"What happened?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru made a Valentines card" he sounded tortured and she had to fight the impulse to laugh. "This Sesshoumaru learnt what glitter glue is and this Sesshoumaru went to a Supermarket again"

"Oh dear" she said standing and walking around so she was behind him and quickly and nimbly she began to massage his broad and tense shoulders. She was very good at this due to a lifetime of helping her grandfather with his back problems. She had to admit though; Sesshoumaru's shoulders were a lot more fun to massage.

He started as the strange female began to touch and massage his shoulders. What the hell? But then he began to relax; his head falling back onto the table as her capable fingers helped relieve the tension in his shoulders. Hmm, it felt quite nice.

She fought to stop herself from sniggering as he slumped onto her table. The Yokai had been humbled by a simple shoulder rub? If this was all it took to get him to melt she would have done it a long time ago. She almost laughed aloud as a new thought occurred to her; what if he started purring? After all he was an Inu Yokai was he not?

Or were dogs not capable of such things as purring?

There was a smash from the lounge and she jumped a mile and turned to go into the living room to see what the hell had happened.

As she stopped touching him the Inu Yokai brought his head off the table angrily and grabbed her wrist stopping her from reaching the room.

They both stared at their hands. Kagome was trying to figure out why he was stopping her and Sesshoumaru was staring at his arm like it had moved without his consent.

"Okasan" Ranmaru came into the kitchen completely oblivious to their current situation "Rin broke Ojiisan's vase"

Rin appeared behind him looking heartbroken with tears in the corners of her eyes.

Sesshoumaru dropped Kagome's wrist so fast you'd swear it had burned him or something.

***

"I'm really sorry" Rin said chewing on her bottom lip as Kagome wrapped the broken pieces of vase in newspaper and threw them out.

"I told you Rin-chan" she smiled at the little girl "it is fine I swear" she put her hand on her heart solemnly.

Rin smiled a little disheartened. Ranmaru hit her softly around the head with a sofa cushion. "Okasan said it's okay so it's okay" he told her sternly

"Go back to the movie" Kagome prompted smiling warmly

The two children tramped back into the lounge and she sat back down across from Sesshoumaru.

He was desperately trying to pretend he hadn't grabbed her hand and he figured that he would put the old saying into practise 'the best defence is a good offence'.

"This Sesshoumaru will buy you a new one" he told her

She gave a small smile "It's fine"

"But it belonged to your Otosan" he said "surely it was precious to you"

"He's dead" she shrugged "so it doesn't matter anymore"

"If he's dead then surely the vase would be more important to you" he was confused as seemed to be his constant state around the small female.

She smiled a little sadly "It's just a thing" she said smiling "it's not like I'm throwing away the memory of my father. I'll always have that so I don't mind"

He was uncomfortable about the sadness writ on her pretty face. "This Sesshoumaru will still replace it"

"It's fine" she insisted snapping out of her bizarre depression; she hardly ever got depressed and she preferred to be cheerful. By her rules if you went through life happy then you wouldn't miss anything. "I have other vases" she gestured at the vase full of flowers next to them.

"Hn" he glowered at the flowers as she took a waxy petal in between her two fingers and rubbed it absentmindedly. He caught a new scent when she did that. The scent of an unknown human male. "Were those a gift?"

She glanced at them and then shrugged "My neighbour dropped them off this morning" she was dismissive

"On Valentine's day?" he found himself curious as to the reasons behind the flowers and it annoyed him. But what annoyed him even more was the fact that she may have a human male competing for her attentions. He didn't know why this annoyed him and he wasn't going to go into that right now.

"En" she said sipping her wine

"Is he your mate?" he asked narrowing his golden eyes at her as she surveyed him over the rim of her glass.

She spluttered on her wine in shock. She had forgotten how such things worked in Yokai terms and the phrase 'mate' sounded a little obscure to her human brain. But she calmed down when she realised it was really a simple and innocent question.

"No he isn't my mate or my boyfriend" she said "he's just being friendly to a single mother with nowhere to go on Valentine's day except clubbing with her equally single best friend or staying in with her son"

Oops. She sort of realised how bitter she had sounded and blushed slightly.

Sesshoumaru had no idea as to the reasoning behind the blush on her cheeks but he had to admit it made her look even prettier. He wondered for a moment if thinking of the man who had given her the bouquet had made her blush and quashed the thought as if it were an irritable bug.

"You will receive a new vase" he decided

"No matter how much I tell you not to?" she asked

"Yes"

"Bastard" she remarked

"A Yokai such as this Sesshoumaru is never indebted to anyone" he said

"I don't want any goddamned vase!" she shouted realised she probably sounded like a bratty child

"Okasan" Ranmaru said standing on a stool in the kitchen to reach the cupboard where she kept the cookies "You shouldn't say a swear"

"Sorry" she was abashed at being caught swearing by her child

The small Yokai shook his head at her achieved his aim of the cookie jar and walked from the room.

Kagome blinked "Hey, where do you think you're going with the ENTIRE cookie jar?" she asked sprinting after him

"Busted" he giggled and raced away from his mother

Sesshoumaru did something he was doing more and more around the woman; he chuckled into his glass.

Kagome walked into her office the next day and dropped her proposals for the new computer suite in shock.

Sat on her desk was a huge crystal vase that probably weighed as much as she did. But that wasn't all; inside the vase were two dozen redder than red roses. There was a card.

She flipped it over and read the back.

'_**This Sesshoumaru is never indebted to anyone.'**_

Her first thought was: Jeez he even writes in third person

Her second was: I've never gotten roses before, it's kind of romantic

Her third was more verbal.

"Bastard" she said shaking her head. He'd won this battle but there was a war brewing.

A/N: once again I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from this. Thanks again to Karen-chan for help in proof reading. Also thanks go to my new reviewers SilentQuil23 and -san. Arigato and please keep reviewing.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Past-times and Jealousy

Kagome laughed at Ranmaru as she skated in front of him backwards, just out of reach as her young son tried desperately to catch up.

This was a favourite past time of theirs: skating.

"Okasan!" Ranmaru grumbled as he desperately tried to increase his speed to match her own. He was a Yokai and not used to losing a race of speed but she had been skating since before he was born.

"Nani?" she asked tauntingly bending down so she was more on level with the young demon

"No fair" he protested grumpily as even with an extra burst of speed she was still able to outskate him. His competitive seven year old male instinct said he should be able to beat her seeing as she was going backwards and he was going forwards.

She grinned "I believe it's a hundred year too early for you to be beating me"

He giggled "I can still beat you at swimming though" he told her

"Ran-chan, you can beat anyone at swimming" she told him rolling her eyes expressively and skating around so that she was at his side again. She took his hand in hers and dragged him along with her so that they could reach faster speeds.

They sped through the park together laughing like there were both seven.

"Isn't that Sesshoumaru-san?" Ranmaru asked as he laid eyes on a tall well built figure with long silver hair.

"Hmm, maybe" Kagome said and they skated towards the maybe Sesshoumaru.

As they drew nearer they saw that he was on his cell and as he hung up he turned and walked right into their path.

"Argh!" both she and Ranmaru cried as they made impact with someone who was most definitely Sesshoumaru.

The Inu Yokai was completely shocked as he got knocked off his feet by the flying female. Under the usual circumstances of his life he was not someone who got knocked over very easily. But he had certainly not expected one small woman to collide with him at such a speed.

He looked up at the light blue early spring sky and frowned. This was the first time in his life he had been effectively floored. And by a female no less.

He was Sesshoumaru Taisho, he had fought with all manner of Yokai and they had been carried away in body bags. And yet he had just been indignantly subjected to being thrown onto his back by a small female. A human.

He frowned as he looked up into something equally as blue, but it was not the sky. Her blue eyes regarded him suspiciously before she giggled slightly.

"I don't think I've ever seen Sesshoumaru Taisho in a more undignified position" she giggled again and he tried not to react as she sound of her laughter reverberated through her chest and into his own. He failed miserably as he glanced down at her cleavage.

"Hn" he said

"Okasan" Ranmaru piped up "why are you still on the ground?"

She looked up and around them and realised they had attracted quite a crowd. She soon realised why.

After all she was currently straddling a bishounnen in the middle of a public park. She blushed slightly and jumped to her feet, not an easy feat when wearing inline skates. She turned to offer him a hand to find he was already on his feet brushing his suit off.

"Are you okay?" she asked Ranmaru tousling his hair

"Hai" he said nodding at his mother "Are you okay Sesshoumaru-san?"

"Hn" he said looking down at the young Yokai

"Talkative as always" Kagome smirked

"Thank you for stopping Okasan before she hit the floor" Ranmaru said looking the elder Yokai in the eyes. Shadow black met vivid gold for a second and the elder Yokai nodded in acknowledgement before gently patting the child on the head.

Kagome watched the exchange with half a smile on her features. "Yokai bonding?" she asked

"Hn" Sesshoumaru said

"Okay then" she rolled her eyes "What are you doing here anyway Sesshoumaru?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru was making a call" he said not giving anything away

"Are you always this impossible to talk to?" she asked

"Hn" she took that as a yes

"Okasan, Okasan!" Ranmaru was excited and pulled on the hem of her t-shirt

"Hai?"

"Can we get ice-cream?" he pointed at the vendor

"Sure" Kagome grinned at her son mischievously "Sesshoumaru's treat"

He glared at the delusional female as she skated after her son to the ice cream truck. If she thought he was going to pay for the ice cream she has another thing coming.

"Come on Sesshoumaru!" she called waving an arm at him. Inexplicably he found himself following her and even paying for their ice creams.

The two adults sat on a bench whilst Ranmaru decided that chasing pigeons in roller skates was the funniest thing ever.

Kagome smiled as she licked her ice cream with her tongue and Sesshoumaru wondered how she could possibly stand to be wearing such short shorts in early May. He glared down at her legs as if they were causing him personal harm.

"Sesshoumaru" Kagome grinned "is there a reason you are staring at my legs?"

"Why are you not wearing decent clothes?" he asked her coldly

"Huh?"

"You should not show so much flesh, it is indecent" he told her

"Yeah, okay **Otosan**" she rolled her eyes sarcasm dripping from her tone "since when do you care?"

Good question. But he decided not to question his own motives and glared at the sky instead.

She shrugged, she was used to getting no answer from the silent stoic Sesshoumaru and continued to lick her ice cream, trying to catch the drips. "How come you didn't want one?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru doesn't eat things such as ice cream" he said haughtily

It was a high and mighty answer, but an answer none the less and she smiled at that.

"You don't know what you are missing" she said licking the ice cream again and getting a blob stuck to the end of her nose.

He chuckled softly as she went cross eyed to inspect the blob and without his brain giving him the conscious order to her leaned over and licked the blob of ice cream from her nose.

"You were right" he mused innocently "it is good"

She sat there in shock for a few moments before blushing a little "I would have given you some if you'd just asked" she muttered.

But he heard her anyway.

Why had he done that? Because he wanted to. Why did he want to? Because he was attracted to her...

Wait, no he was Sesshoumaru Taisho goddamn it he did not get attracted to rollerblading human women. He shook his head at the thought that she held any power over him.

_You might not get attracted to rollerblading human women, but you're most definitely attracted to her_. His inner voice was smug and he tried and failed to suppress it.

"Higurashi-san!" a male voice that was slightly too high pitched called and the two companions turned to see a human male running towards them. Sesshoumaru did not recognise him at first but then as he got closer he recognised the scent of the man from somewhere. He just didn't know where.

"Hojo-san" she smiled pleasantly at the man "What are you doing here?"

"I was walking my dog" he explained holding up the leash to a small Scottish terrier that was currently having a glaring contest with Sesshoumaru, or more like a battle of wills. The two humans watched as the terrier lost and slunk down into a submissive stance.

"You really are the alpha male huh?" Kagome asked Sesshoumaru. She hadn't seen him act that much like a dog before and it made her smile in amusement.

"Pleased to meet you" Hojo held out a hand for Sesshoumaru to shake only to have said hand ignored by the arrogant Yokai. Sesshoumaru glared at the man coldly as he realised where he had recognised the scent from. He was the male who had given Kagome the flowers.

_The rival._

The thought was unbidden and unwanted and pushed firmly from his mind for the second time that day. His inner voice was seriously giving him trouble lately.

"Um..." Hojo let his hand drop to his side as he wondered what on earth he had done to deserve the glare of death from the demon.

"Don't worry about him" Kagome stood and smiled at Hojo "he's always like that" she waved her hands trying to diffuse the situation and somehow lost her balance in her skates and fell forwards. Hojo caught her around the waist before she hit into the ground and she turned to smile her thanks at him. But his attention was elsewhere.

He was staring wide eyed at the now livid Yokai who stood and growled menacingly at the human who shivered in response.

Sesshoumaru tried to calm himself down as he took Kagome from the dumbstruck human and set her down on the bench.

She watched Sesshoumaru's livid expression and wondered if she was going to step in and stop him from disembowelling poor Hojo.

"I think you should leave" Sesshoumaru's tone could have frozen the sun and it left no room for argument. His eyes flashed blood red for a brief moment and then it was gone so fast Kagome wondered if she had imagined it.

"Um... sure good bye Higurashi-san" he whispered before turning and fleeing

"What was all that about?" she asked her Yokai companion as he sat next to her on the bench

"His voice was shrill" Sesshoumaru said "it grated on this Sesshoumaru's ears"

She raised her eye brows. If that was the case then what was with the scary expression and demon eyes that she may or may not have seen.

"You weren't... jealous... were you?" she asked in confusion

He looked at her. And she yelped softly, if looks could kill, she'd be in the bowls of hell.

"Stupid question!" she almost shouted "Sorry!" and looked away quickly. She truly didn't want to die today.

He smirked. It was the first time she had been afraid of him. What amused him the most was that she had been right and just hadn't realised it.

He began to glower again as he realised that was he was feeling was jealousy. Why was he jealous when the female did not belong to him?

There was that nagging voice at the back of his mind that was uttering the answer to this question. But he chose to ignore it; it had caused enough trouble for today.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I bow down to Rumiko Takahashi. With thanks to my latest reviewers -san, Vampire-princesses, taste the rainbow eat crayons, mmmyeah4 and Sousie. Hope everyone enjoyed, please review; )


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Lightning Strikes Twice: Kagome's many disasters

"Damn it" Kagome muttered as she opened the bonnet of her car and looked inside. She had no idea of what she was looking for of course but none the less she felt compelled to take a look inside in the vain hope that she would know what to do. She was not having the best of luck.

Souta would know what to do, but unfortunately she had forgotten to put him in her pocket when she left the house...

To be short she was slowly losing it.

She had broken down in what appeared to be the back arse of nowhere, with three small children asleep in the back in the middle of what seemed to be a small typhoon it was raining so hard.

She had looked quite presentable, but now she seemed to resemble a half drowned rat and her hair was sopping and stuck to her head and shoulders. She had also had the idiocy to get out of the car in the pouring rain with a white shirt on. The shirt had proceeded to quite gleefully go see through and display her red lace bra to any passing wildlife who was interested in such matters.

She slammed the bonnet down again and glanced into the back of her car at her sleeping cargo. Her son was currently asleep in between the two car seats that held Sango's twins. They were also asleep with Kei holding onto a lock of Ranmaru's hair in his tiny hand and Megumi still chewing on her own fist in her sleep.

At least they're dry, she sighed in a hard done by sort of way. Not that Ranmaru preferred being dry. In fact he never slept in the car because it was too dry, the only reason he had managed it was because it was raining. (At home he slept on a water bed because it was the closest thing to sleeping underwater). The sound of the pouring water was soothing to the young Kelpie.

She flipped her head and tossed her hair off her face wincing as it hit her back with a sickening slapping noise. She glared up at the sky grumpily and then quickly regretted it when she got rain in her eyes.

This was so annoying. It reminded her off a clique romance scene in a romantic movie whereby the heroine was stranded in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain and then her hero appears and takes care of it for her. It was enough to make you swoon, or barf.

She knew that her knight in shining armour was probably going to be a stray chicken farmer on a midnight excursion to shoot himself some foxes.

Speaking of foxes one was watching her from the hedgerow and they looked at each other for a moment.

"Can you help me?" she asked

The fox gave her a look which said 'crazy human, I can't even speak and you're asking me for help?' turned tail and disappeared into the night once more.

"And now I'm talking to foxes" she mused aloud as she went into the car to pull out her phone to call for help. She rooted through her bag and discovered it wasn't there...

So where was it? She dug through the front of the car tossing random junk that for some reason she felt the need to keep in her car though it provided no use in any shape or form except for insulation when it got cold and the heater was shot. She glanced into the back seat and groaned.

Megumi had it. In fact Megumi was not sucking her fist, oh no, instead she got gone for the culinary delights of Kagome's cell phone. There was baby drool on it.

"This keeps getting better" she muttered as she attempted to gently prise the phone from the child's drool covered hands.

Megumi was not letting go. She gently attempted yet again to pull the phone out of her mouth but the baby drool was not helping grip and Megumi appeared to have it in a death vice.

"Come on" she muttered as she leaned over the driver's seat and tried again to take it from the sleeping child without waking her. Every time she tried the child would make a noise of discomfiture and roll away from Kagome's hands in the car seat.

Her fingers slid from the slippery phone once again and she sighed sitting back on her haunches in the seat only to over balance and fall of the seat and end up with her legs in the air and her head on the brake pedal.

This was not her day. She pulled herself from the uncomfortable and embarrassing position to glare at the baby who had managed to win the battle of wills with her.

She was distracted from the bizarre and pointless battle with the sleeping child when she heard the crunch of gravel under tires and the flash of headlights appeared in her peripheral vision... ah her chicken farmer to the rescue.

The car parked up next to her and she couldn't help but wonder where she knew the four by four from...

And then when her rescuer got out of the car it hit her, and it wasn't lightning.

"Hojo-san?" she was shocked and kind of confused

"Higurashi-san!" he sounded happy to see her and her see through blouse whereas she was wondering if god hated her for something. "What are you doing here?" he asked

She rolled her eyes "Stargazing" she told him dryly

"Really?" he sounded excited and she sighed as she realised he wasn't one to understand satire.

"No Hojo-san my car broke down" she told him smiling and trying to push thoughts of braining Hojo with her handy socket wrench from her mind. "May I borrow your phone?" she asked

"Oh, it's okay" he smiled "I'll be able to fix it!"

"Um... do you have any experience in fixing cars?" she asked cautiously, either he didn't hear her or he pretended not to hear her. She was going for the latter.

He popped the bonnet and bent over to poke around inside.

She glared accusingly at the sky again but the sky was impassive to her discomfiture. It was mocking her.

***

She had no idea how this had happened, she was now sat in a tiny cafe with the children asleep in the back of Hojo's car.

She looked up when he came back to sit next to her again with the coffee he had ordered. There was no one else in the cafe and she was shivering in her wet shirt.

She wondered why he hadn't given her his jacket or something and then realised it was probably because without a jacket he got a good view of her bra and shivering breasts.

She took the coffee from him and sipped at it tentatively... it didn't taste like rohypnol, which is tasteless her brain reminded her. But then he was a nice guy. It did however taste like tap water and dirt disguised as coffee.

"Did you use their phone?" she asked

"Yeah but they won't have anyone to come out here for a few hours, it's off the beaten track" he smiled

Great. "Oh"

"So what were you doing in this neck of the woods?" he asked

"Driving" she said pointedly telling him it was none of his business

"My mother lives out here" he continued conversationally "I went to stay with her and my dad this weekend"

"Hmm"

"Did you know that behind you there is an entire field of cabbage, they're sold in supermarkets and they belonged to my great grandfather before he passed away..."

She was beginning to fall asleep from boredom and because it was half twelve. But mostly from boredom.

"Hey Sesshoumaru-san" a voice said and she spun to see the least likely person in the world stood at the counter conversing with the cook.

"Hey, just came by to tell you this Sesshoumaru is heading back now, and thanks for stocking the place up" he nodded to the cook and prepared to leave when he found that he recognised a scent in the small cafe.

To our poor drowned Kagome he looked like an angel sent from god to save her and she couldn't help but look at him with pleading eyes.

He turned to see the Kagome woman sat at a table with a see through sodden shirt on and a red lace bra looking decidedly wet.

Opposite her was that annoying human... Hojo his name was.

"What are you doing here?" he walked up to her and noticed when he got closer that her eyes were screaming 'get me out of here'.

"Oh" Hojo cut off his delightful spiel to look up at the towering Yokai. "You are the man from the park, Sesshoumaru-san right?"

"Most call this Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru-sama" he said coldly as he removed the jacket he was wearing and put it around Kagome's shoulders. She smiled and snuggled into its warmth which pleased the Yokai for some reason but he chose to ignore it. "Why are you here?" he directed this question at Kagome but the annoying man answered

"She was having car troubles and I helped her out" Hojo smiled cheerfully. He had decided that this man was far too cold for the happy Kagome and that she would be better off with him.

"Hn" Sesshoumaru glared at the insufferably rude and yet annoyingly cheerful human "And yet you did not remove your jacket to give to a cold lady?"

Hojo blushed a little "Um... I didn't notice"

"This Sesshoumaru was under the impression you noticed too much" his eyes bled red for a fraction of a second as he noticed the human's eyes graze Kagome's chest. He took Kagome's hand and yanked her from her seat.

"Where are we going?" she put the brakes on and dug her heels in

"This Sesshoumaru will take you home" he told her in a tone which suggested disobeying would lead to disembowelment

"But I have to wait for the tow!" she protested

His eyes flashed red again and she swallowed hard as he turned to her. However he merely picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. He dug in the pocket of his trousers and placed a card on the table where a bemused Hojo was still sat.

"Let me down" she banged her fists on his back futilely. He ignored her.

"Tell them to call me when they have fixed her car" he told the startled human before striding from the cafe and out to his car. He opened the passenger side door and threw her inside mindful of her head on the door frame.

"WAIT!" she yelled at him "Ranmaru-chan, Kei-chan and Megumi-chan are in the back of his car!"

He rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to cover his ears at the level of noise in her voice; he was surprised someone so small could emit so much noise.

"This Sesshoumaru shall fetch them" he told her in the sort of tone you used to placate a wounded wild animal.

She growled and he smirked. Hojo had apparently come to his senses and was outside the cafe now looking flabbergasted.

"Give this Sesshoumaru your keys" Sesshoumaru ordered. Hojo was still too shocked to do anything other than obey the Yokai and handed over his keys in a trance like state. Sesshoumaru removed the children from the car and placed them inside his own. He used his Yokai speed so they wouldn't notice or get wet in the now drizzling rain.

Hojo snapped out of it "Excuse me Sesshoumaru-san but Kagome and I were only having a coffee, you can't just—"

Sesshoumaru was in front of the human so fast he didn't even have chance to blink whilst Kagome was watching nervously from the front seat.

"This Sesshoumaru suggests that it is in your best interest to leave her alone" he said in a deadly calm voice as his eyes turned red and his feral side demanded the death of their rival. "You will not call her as familiarly as you just did and you will not pursue her anymore"

He paused to let the seriousness of the threat sink in and then rested his poison claws against the human's neck "Do you agree?"

Hojo felt his life flash in front of his eyes and swallowed hard "H-hai Sesshoumaru-sama" he stuttered and Sesshoumaru grinned feeling the red retract from his eyes as he walked away and got into the car.

"He looks like he's going to crap himself" Kagome told Sesshoumaru dryly as he pulled out of the small car-park

"Good" Sesshoumaru smirked

"Thanks" she whispered softly into the collar of his jacket. But he heard her none the less.

"May this Sesshoumaru ask a question?" he said

"You just did" she giggled and he growled shortly but not angrily, he growled to make her be serious "You may" she said

"What possessed you to wear a red bra with a white shirt?" he questioned and smirked as her mouth dropped open with an audible popping noise.

"Hentai" she growled

"If this Sesshoumaru is a Hentai what is that man?" Sesshoumaru questioned wryly not as angry as he should be at being called a Hentai, he had to admit his thoughts on the subject hadn't been pure.

"I don't think about what colour my underwear is" she shrugged

"Fair enough" he said in a tone that contradicted his words

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked

"If this Sesshoumaru can ask you one in turn" he said

"Does this mean we're having a conversation?" she muttered sarcastically

"Ask it" he sighed at her flippancy

"Why were you all the way out here?" she enquired

He nodded, that was an obvious question "There is a huge forest three miles back from the cafe, near there this Sesshoumaru has a log cabin"

"So you're a go out into the woods and think sort of guy?" she was incredulous; this did not fit with the mental image she had drawn up of him.

"No" he replied shortly "This Sesshoumaru goes out there to transform freely into this Sesshoumaru's Inu form"

"Wow" she said "what do you look like?"

"Big, white and covered in fur" he said dryly

"Aw, how cute" she said laughing

"You would not say that if you saw this Sesshoumaru" he told her smiling at the thought of her expression.

"Will you show me?" she asked

"Maybe in the future" he was deliberately vague "so what were you doing out here?"

"Taking Ran to the lake" she shrugged "he loves the water but a public pool has chlorine which is harmful to him"

"Whose children are the others?" he asked glancing back at the two decidedly human children in the back seat. One of them he noticed was sucking on a phone bizarrely enough.

"Keep your eyes on the road" she scolded him "those children belong to Miroku and Sango, I picked them up from their grandmother's house on the way back from the lake, I was supposed to drop them back and the car decided that it didn't want to be a part of my plans" she mentally cursed her crappy car.

"It was no surprise that the car broke" he said coldly but with a hint of teasing in his voice.

"Bad dog" she said

"Baka ningen" he said allowing a small smile to grace his lips she caught the smile, though he vanquished it immediately and she smiled in return.

_What a strange Yokai_

_What a confusing onna_

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha, thank you to those who reviewed on the last chapter: Arc-an Angel, mmmyeah4, Sesshomaru's Beautiful Kristin, SilentQuil23, Vampire-princesses, Kouga'sGirl4eva and llebreknit. Also, mina-san, don't forget to review onegai!

Ne llebreknit did you like? I wrote this because of your suggestion so I hope you did. Got to go and write more now while I'm on a role.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Let's go to the Festival

Kagome smiled as she watched Ranmaru run through the shrine gardens where the stalls were being set up for the night's festivals. He was playing with Inuyasha who had been dragged along to help set up the festival by Kikyo and her iron fist. Kyo was currently inside the shrine in the kitchen with Mrs Higurashi as she cooked for the festival.

"He's going to break something" Kikyo murmured watching her mate closely as she stood next to Kagome sweeping the shrine steps with her.

"It'll be fine" Kagome shrugged, because they were working their grandpa had somehow convinced them to wear traditional Miko garbs to tend to the shrine in. She couldn't help but feel stupid dressed in the red and white robe.

"You don't have to pay for it when he breaks something" Kikyo pointed out

"Yeah I guess" Kagome shrugged and then glanced at the silver watch on her slim wrist "Where the hell is Souta; he said he'd be here to help us set up"

"He does run a bar you know" Kikyo rolled her eyes in an accurate imitation of Kagome

"Yeah well he said he'd be here by now" Kagome was well aware of the fact that she sounded like a whiny child but she ignored it.

"Punctuality does not run in our bloodline" Kikyo shrugged and tactfully changed the subject "looks like a lot of people will be turning up for the festival tonight"

Kagome grinned "Yeah I handed out flyers to the kids in my school, their parents will hopefully be tempted to bring them"

"That was very devious young Kagome" Kikyo mock scolded but in such a voice that anyone who didn't know her would have presumed her statement to be serious.

"Devious is my middle name" Kagome shrugged and giggled

"Your middle name is Midoriko" Kikyo pointed out

"Yeah but that's not as much fun" Kagome giggled again as they finished sweeping the steps and went to return their brooms to the small shed like cupboard in one corner of the shrine yard.

"Will the Inu Yokai be coming?" Kikyo dug for information. She was pretty close to her younger cousin considering that they had spent most of their adolescence together and Sango and Ayame had pushed her to ask for information on the strange budding relationship between Kagome and the Yokai Lord.

"Hmm?" Kagome asked emerging from the depths of the shed where she had placed their brooms

"Will Sesshoumaru-san be coming?" Kikyo asked inquisitively

"Did Inuyasha invite him?" Kagome was confused

"No..." Kikyo hedged

"Well then he's probably not coming unless Rin-chan gave him the flyer" she shrugged

"Ah" Kikyo said walking away from her cousin her tone suggesting she had reached a conclusion "so that was the reason you handed flyers out at your school"

Kagome gasped in indignant shock "It was not! Kikyo!" she yelled at her cousins retreating back as she ran to catch up with her

"Don't lie" Kikyo said coolly

"Baka" Kagome muttered sullenly as she followed her cousin inside

Rin had been insistent that Higurashi-sensei wanted her to go to a festival of some sort held at the shrine in the town.

Sesshoumaru was not looking forward to this for a number of reasons. It had not been hard to convince Sesshoumaru, he was becoming increasingly weak to her puppy dog eyes. What was difficult was reassuring Sesshoumaru that he wasn't going to catch some disease from prolonged contact with humans.

He was led by Rin wearing her favourite orange and yellow chequered kimono and he was wearing a traditional family heirloom kimono that made him look more foreboding than he already did.

She was happy and he was feeling ill from the barrage of disgusting human scents that his poor sensitive nose was being subjected to.

"Are you okay Sesshoumaru-san?" a familiar voice asked him as Rin ran off to get something to eat. Sesshoumaru turned to see Ranmaru wearing a black kimono with a silver obi standing behind him and smiling sympathetically.

"The stench of too many human's is getting to this Sesshoumaru" he told the younger Yokai

"I suppose it's worse for you than it is for me" Ranmaru shrugged "what with you being an Inu Yokai and all"

"Indeed" he nodded to the younger Yokai

"Ne, Sesshoumaru-san" Ranmaru said

"Nani?"

"Do you like my Okasan?" he asked innocently

Sesshoumaru glared at the young Yokai who didn't bat an eyelid and just stared back at him "This Sesshoumaru has no affection for filthy humans" he said

"Right" Ranmaru said in a voice that suggested that he wasn't buying it as he rolled his eyes like his Okasan. "But she smells nice" he pointed out

"Indeed" the elder Yokai allowed

"Why thank you Sesshoumaru" Kagome's voice sounded from over his shoulder "that's probably the closest thing to a compliment I'm ever going to wring from you"

He turned to glower at her but couldn't quite pull it off as her appearance momentarily flummoxed him. She was wearing a light grey blue kimono that matched her eyes perfectly and a silver obi around her waist. Her hair was tied into an elegant twist atop her head which was adorned with intricate hair ornaments. She was capturing as much male attention as he was capturing female attention and that made Sesshoumaru angry for reasons that were not fathomable to the Yokai.

"You okay Sesshoumaru?" she asked prodding him in the forehead. He snapped from his trance and grabbed her wrist causing her to stop her ministrations

"Stop prodding this Sesshoumaru" he told her

Her response was to stick her tongue out at him which caused Sesshoumaru to glower and Ranmaru to giggle.

"Ran-chan, go play with Rin-chan she going to get lost if she wanders around her on her own" Kagome pointed at the distant skipping figure of Rin as she rounded a corner and disappeared

"Sure" he shrugged and ran off after her, he ran a little too fast for a human seven year old, but that was expected from the child Yokai.

"She is very hyper" Kagome noted

"She is a handful, even for this Sesshoumaru" Sesshoumaru intoned sounding bored

"Did you just admit to her being your weak spot?" she teased the Inu Yokai and he growled softly.

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly "I just remembered" she grabbed his wrist and dragged the stunned Yokai through the crowd towards the shrine.

She dropped his wrist as she reached the secluded area outside the shrine and took great pleasure in saying "Stay" to the Yokai before disappearing inside and returning with a plastic bag which she handed to him. He took it from her and looked inside; it was his jacket he had leant her last time he had met her. A though occurred to him.

"Has the human bothered you since?" he asked her

She raised a brow "I'm human too" she pointed out

He just looked at her

"No" she sighed as she realised she wasn't going to get any apologies from the Inu Yokai

He grinned kind of sinisterly at Kagome and she shivered slightly. "What did you say to him?" she demanded

"Nothing" he tried to appear innocent but failed to pull it off, surprisingly.

"Sesshoumaru you might just be evil" she said titling her head to one side

He scoffed "You just know noticed?" he asked and then growled when the unmistakeable scent of neko Yokai littered the breeze. She frowned as she wondered what he was growling about before with a lithe jump a slim teenage boy with waist length deep purple hair landed in front of Kagome with his back to the Inu Yokai. He appeared to have dropped from the tree above her. He looked exactly like any other human you could happen across except his grey eyes were not human but cat and his ears were pointed.

"Sasuke!" she exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the neko

"Kagome-neesan, it's been a while" the neko grinned and jumped out of the way as Sesshoumaru took a swipe for the neko. He landed gracefully next to the stunned Kagome.

"Why'd you do that?" she demanded glaring at Sesshoumaru

"The neko knows why" Sesshoumaru growled menacingly

The neko in question grinned slyly "It's okay neesan, I know why he did it. In fact I was hoping he would"

"Huh?" Kagome was lost

Sasuke bonked her on the back of her head "You need to remember what I tell you" he scolded her slipping an arm around her shoulders and causing Sesshoumaru to let out a low warning growl from between his teeth. Kagome didn't hear it, but Sasuke did and tightened his grip on her shoulders in response.

"What did you tell me?" she asked Sasuke

"In Yokai terms turning your back on another Yokai is considered the utmost of bad manners" Sasuke explained

"So why'd you do it?" Kagome asked in confusion

"Because like you my favourite past time is winding people up" he shrugged "like right now he wants' to rip my head off for touching you so casually"

"Baka Neko" Sesshoumaru growled

"I guess this dog is smarter than the rest" Sasuke rolled his eyes "where's Ran-chan?"

"Playing somewhere" she shrugged "if anyone tries to hurt him they'll get more than they bargained for, besides, Kikyo and Okasan and mina-san are around"

"Yeah" Sasuke let go of her shoulders and continued to watch the Inu Yokai curiously. His behaviour was confusing the neko, Sesshoumaru was acting like Kagome was his mate but she did not smell of him and his mark was not on her neck. Interesting.

"Where's Hana-chan?" Kagome asked

"She saw Kikyo-neesan and ran away before I could stop her" he rolled his eyes

"I thought you could control her" Kagome snickered

"Have you tried controlling her?" he sighed and pretended to be hard done by "the only small amount of control I have over her stems from the fact she's my mate, there really isn't much I can do beyond that"

He has a mate? Sesshoumaru asked himself in surprise and Sasuke grinned at the Yokai as he and Kagome walked past him.

***

It irked Sesshoumaru somewhat that Inuyasha already knew and was on good terms with the annoying neko who took great pleasure in winding everyone up, even if he seemed to be paying special attention to Sesshoumaru.

His mate Hana was immune to him it seemed, she was a neko Hanyou with small cat ears and the cat's eyes that Sasuke had in his possession.

It would have been a heart warming sight, if he had been one to employ such notions, looking at the scene of Inuyasha his wife and their pup along with Hana nestled in Sasuke's embrace and Ran and surprisingly Rin snuggled into the warmth of Kagome's sides whilst playing a game of 'thumb wars' across her lap. She looked completely relaxed as she held them to her sides with her arms around them carefully the picture of maternal care. She would make a fine mother.

Where'd that thought come from? The Inu Yokai asked himself whilst shaking his head.

"Hey!" Sasuke left Hana and Kagome to talk and walked up to the Inu Yokai who was still glowering at him, but not as fiercely as before.

"What?" Sesshoumaru snapped

"If you are going to treat her like your mate and growl at any male who approaches her then I suggest you bite the bullet and ask her out already" Sasuke said and then jumped out of the way to avoid Sesshoumaru's poison whip with lithe ease. "Touchy" he taunted as he went to sit with the group of ignorant beings again.

Sesshoumaru seethed silently at the sheer audacity of the neko. That particular breed of Yokai was of course known for being cheeky. But this went beyond cheek.

"Ano" Ranmaru had moved from underneath his mothers left arm and looked up at the elder Yokai who looked down at him with an eyebrow raised in askance "You're poison is flowing"

Sesshoumaru looked down at his claws that had started to bleed his toxic poisons without his consent and quickly stopped his poison with a sheepish expression on his face he glanced around at the rest of the humans, Hanyou and Yokai in the vicinity to see if they had noticed. No one had noticed. Except the damn neko who was currently laughing his head off whilst Hana asked him what was wrong.

Sesshoumaru had grown to the limits of his patience with the neko and stood and left the group. He hated to have to leave the calming scent of Kagome to venture forth into the disgusting smells of humans but the neko was too damn irritating to allow him to stay any longer.

He found that he had retraced his steps to the steps of the shrine where Kagome had led him earlier. He sat in the grassy area underneath the huge tree that leant on the shrine.

"What's wrong?" asked Kagome as she approached him quietly

"Nothing" he said

"Sure" her tone was laced with disbelief "That's why you're sulking under a tree like Inuyasha always used to do when something was bothering him."

"Don't compare me to the half breed" he was cocky

She started to laugh "It can't be that bad if you can still insult Inuyasha" she sat next to him on the grass underneath the tree.

"Hn" he rolled his eyes and then he thought of a way to direct the conversation away from himself "do you know the people who own the shrine?" after all he had seen her disappear inside to retrieve his suit jacket

"You could say that" she giggled "my Ojiisan owns the shrine and lives here with my Okasan"

"So you are descended from shrine folk" he said raising an eyebrow at the bizarre information

"Yep, try not to meet my Ojiisan though, he'll throw some sutra's that don't work on you and yell at you" she sniggered at the mental image of Sesshoumaru with a ward stuck to his forehead

"Sounds like he should be related to you" Sesshoumaru replied dryly

She elbowed him in the ribs, but the action inflicted more pain on her than on him and she grumbled while he bit back a laugh.

They sat in silence for a few moments as they listened to the sounds of the festival from behind the shrine. It wasn't an awkward silence per say, it was the silence you get when Kagome fumes whilst Sesshoumaru is there.

"Ne, Sesshoumaru"

"Hn?"

"Can I touch your markings?" she asked curiously leaning towards him expectantly

He raised an aristocratic eyebrow "Why?"

"Because I haven't touched them before" she pointed out

"This Sesshoumaru will not allow a lowly ningen to touch his person" he replied frigidly

She pouted and pounced on him straddling his lap as she attempted to touch his markings. He growled playfully and caught both her wrists effectively blocking her movements. She was secretly elated that the cumbersome and tetchy Inu Yokai was currently being playful with her.

"Aw, come on!" she protested thumping her forehead onto his he felt himself get lightheaded over the infiltration of her scent into his senses. His eyes closed in contentment and she smiled softly before becoming confused, after all it was him who had only a minute ago said he didn't want a ningen to touch him and now here she was sitting on his lap with her wrists in his hands and her forehead on his while he closed his eyes and sniffed her? It was kind of weird.

Then something occurred to her and she took advantage of his scent induced sedation to touch his nose with the index finger of her right hand.

His eyes snapped open and he surveyed the onna with his golden eyes.

"Your nose isn't wet" she noted and he rolled his eyes

"I am an Inu Yokai, not an Inu" he told her haughtily

"So?" she asked "You growl like one" she traced her finger over the crescent on his forehead and smiled at the texture it reminded her of her Obaasan's velvet lined jewellery box, soft smooth and a different texture to his actual skin. His eyes rolled back into his head without his conscious permission for them to do so.

"They went this way I'm sure of it" came Hana's voice as she pulled Sasuke into the clearing where Kagome and Sesshoumaru sat

"Come on let's leave them some privacy" he protested and then they laid eyes on Kagome and Sesshoumaru.

Hana blushed seventeen different hues of red at their compromising if misunderstood position and Kagome followed suit and stuttered slightly when she said.

"Um... whatever you're thinking is wrong" she bit out

Sasuke looked at them and started to howl with laughter regardless of the fact he was a neko and Sesshoumaru's reply was to growl at him low in his throat and Kagome in her current position felt rather than heard it.

"Demon be gone!" an old man appeared from seemingly thin air and slapped a sutra onto Sesshoumaru's surprised forehead causing Kagome to topple off his lap backwards in shock. A small part of Sesshoumaru's head told him he should have been able to detect the old man before he had been ineffectively warded but the other part of his brain was angry at the non reiyouku possessor who sought to subdue him; Sesshoumaru.

"Ojiisan, don't!" Kagome yanked him away from Sesshoumaru

"You can't kill him" Inuyasha who had appeared with Kikyo, Rin and Ranmaru in tow reminded his brother cockily earning him a growl

"This Sesshoumaru would perhaps need a different punching bag" Sesshoumaru cracked his knuckles menacingly in the direction of his half brother

"Now, now no fighting on shrine grounds" apparently Sasuke had recovered enough to mock him again, he was really beginning to dislike that neko.

"Hey, he's right you can't fight!" Kagome exclaimed laying a placating hand on the Inu Yokai's arm, this seemed to calm the annoyed Yokai which made the neko sniggered yet again.

This time it was Kagome that growled in Sasuke's direction, he was really not helping matters.

"Demon be gone!" the old man who had temporarily been forgotten tried yet again to ward Sesshoumaru.

"Otosan!" a new voice exclaimed and a petite, calm woman appeared from the shrine holding Kyo in her arms

The old man's sutra didn't quite make it to Sesshoumaru's forehead this time as he faltered upon hearing his daughter scolding him, he turned towards her sheepishly.

"Not again" she murmured

***

"You think he'd learn, after having so many demons in the family" Kagome remarked. She was sat in the family kitchen with Kikyo Inuyasha, Ranmaru and Kyo with her mother stood next to the kitchen window looking out at the old priest who was currently sulking in the garden. Sesshoumaru had departed instantly after the incident with Rin due to the fact that he could just tell that Sasuke was waiting to taunt him about the position he and Kagome had been found in. Sasuke had then left with Hana commenting on how there was no longer any one else to torment.

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks" Ranmaru shrugged

Inuyasha growled "Hey, that's an insult to actual dogs!"

"Save it" Kikyo intoned hitting him with Kyo's bottle

He gave her a reproachful stare but she ignored him and Kyo gurgled happily in his mothers arms, he was used to his parents having mild rows and loved it when his father was hit comically by his mother.

"Even the kid isn't on my side" Inuyasha grouched and Kyo grabbed hold of his nose and tugged

"I do hope Sesshoumaru-san isn't too upset about everything" Mrs Higurashi sighed

"Trust me, he's probably cursed us all by now, I'm surprised we're still alive" Inuyasha grouched

"He's not that bad!" Kagome protested

"Why are you defending him?" Inuyasha raised his eyebrows suggestively at her and she glared at him.

"Because he's my..." she trailed off, she wasn't sure what exactly Sesshoumaru was to her.

Ranmaru could sense his mothers discomfort and piped up "He's really nice!"

Inuyasha gave the young Yokai a look "Keh"

"Well maybe nice isn't right, but when he looks after Rin, he's nice to me and he likes Okasan"

Kagome went bright read at the last and Mrs Higurashi chuckled, it seemed like Kagome was following after her cousin and going for an Inu rather than a man. Not that she was complaining Kikyo and Inuyasha were blissfully happy and she wanted the same thing for her own daughter.

The door burst open and the old priest catapulted into the room with a new sutra and an expression of glee causing the Kelpie to wince and the Inu Hanyou to flatten his ears to his head, Kyo on the other hand buried his head in his mother's chest.

"I've perfected my sutras!" he yelled happily "and I need a Yokai to practise on" he turned to look at Ranmaru expectantly who wondered why his mother's Ojiisan had to be quiet so batty.

"You are not using sutra's on my son, no matter if they work or not" Kagome threatened

The old man gave a sigh and turned to Inuyasha "Guess you'll have to do instead" he said

"Aw, hell no" Inuyasha moaned; chaos ensued as one crazy old priest chased one annoyed Inu Hanyou around the small kitchen whilst trying to a voice the people currently occupying the small space.

"I wish those beads of subjugation from legends were real" Kikyo muttered under her breath.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha and make no profit from this. Anyway review onegai and thanks for reading. Thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter; Kouga'sGirl4eva, ruby red 1989, SilentQuil23, llebreknit, mmmyeah4 and Lina03


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Never Say Goodbye.

The large people carrier lay parked haphazardly alongside the river embankment obscuring the lesser travelled path that led through the thick foliage and down to the deceptively clean looking water of the river. The sun was bidding her goodbyes to the earth as she disappeared behind the horizon basking the scene in a gentle pink glow.

Kikyo stood around four metres away from the edge of the lake with a sombre expression on her pretty features. Kyo was in her arms eyes alert and wondering, he sensed that the mood was somehow more sedate than usual and did not fuss inside his mothers embrace. Inuyasha stood just behind Kikyo with an arm around her waist and his usual leather jacket covering his upper body.

Kagome stood closer to the lake than they did with her arms folded across her chest to stave off the coming chill that approached with the ending of the suns reign. A lonely tear made its way from the corner of her eye and rolled off her chin as she watched her son kneel at the water's edge.

Ranmaru's eyes were more shadowed than was usual for the calm but happy child. He did not cry but he knew Kagome did. He had one finger in the heavily polluted water that looked so pure upon a passing glance.

"I miss you" he breathed to the water and everyone who was old enough to remember smiled forlornly.

***

_It was midday and three teenagers could be seen making their way down from the small village to the lake they frequented every year of their holidays. The two girls were scantily clad in shorts and bikini tops and the Hanyou that followed them carrying their supplied had naught but a pair of shorts on._

"_Hurry up Inuyasha" the blue eyed teen called back to the Hanyou "I thought you were supposed to be stronger than us 'weak' humans and here you are slowing us down"_

"_Keh, shut up Kagome" he muttered picking up his pace and cursing for not tying his long silver hair back off his face._

"_You should have tied your hair back" Kikyo the girl with brown eyes told her boyfriend as she dropped speed so she was behind him. She pulled a fasten from her wrist and tied her boyfriends hair back from his neck._

"_You're too soft on him" Kagome called back as she gazed carefully at the thick thicket of branches to find the lesser travelled path that led to their favourite river. She found the path and gleefully skipped down it to skid to a halt beside the river. She frowned slightly as she saw a huge factory on the opposite side of the large river that hadn't been there last time they had come to the lake._

_Inuyasha was the next to breach the surrounding woods and his nose wrinkled up in disgust._

"_Ugh, it smells like smog" he muttered _

"_Ah" Kikyo looked up at the huge factory "That must be the new cosmetics company, there was something about it in the newspaper, the village people were against it for spoiling the scenery"_

"_Keh, stupid humans worrying about scenery" Inuyasha scoffed "they should be more worried about this stinking dirty air and that" he pointed at a pipe that ran from the huge factory and into the water._

"_They're dumping in the river?" Kagome was distraught "I'm not swimming in there now"_

_Inuyasha inhaled deeply and winced "This river smells like death" he said "everything that lived in it is either dead or dying"_

"_Shit!" Kagome and Inuyasha chorused as suddenly without warning a barrage of bubble broke the surface of the middle of the river. Kikyo jumped as well but her surprise was less verbal and she merely clung onto Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome's hand._

_They all nearly had a heart attack when a head emerged slowly from the centre of the river followed by slim female shoulders and a quivering body. She was completely dry and yet she was stood on the surface of the water. She was wearing a black traditional kimono and holding a bundle in her arms. At one time you could have called her beautiful but now she was merely ill. Her ebony hair hung lankly on her shoulders, her eyes gaunt and haunted, the bags beneath them clearly pronounced on her skin. Her pointed elfin ears were dry and flaky, a sure sign of aliment for a water demon such as she. The skin that was once pale ivory was now sickly green and looked clammy to the touch and her skin hung on the bones of her face making her look hollow. The kimono she was wearing was obviously too big for her, but it had once probably been skin fitting. Now she was so skeletal it hung off her._

_She extended the matchstick arms that were holding the bundle out and they feared the weakened arms might break with the exertion._

"_A Kelpie" Kikyo breathed_

"_Onegai" she rasped her voice as dry and painful as nails on a chalk board "help my baby"_

_Kagome kicked off her sandals within that instant and stepped into the water in the next holding out her arms for the injured Kelpie and her child. She waded to the middle of the lake just as the female Kelpie's legs gave out from under her and she fell to her knees on the surface of the water._

_She ignored the arm that was obviously meant to help her and instead shoved the child almost abruptly into Kagome's chest._

"_It's too late for me now" she whispered "I must go and join my mate"_

"_Nani?" Kagome asked her arms unconsciously tightening around the small bundle in her arms._

"_Look after my Ranmaru young Miko" the Kelpie smiled softly_

"_Wait!" Kagome yelped but the Kelpie ignored her._

_The kelpie closed her eyes with such finality that it held true to the image of the final nail on a coffin. As her eyes closed her breathing hitched and faltered and Inuyasha heard her heart splutter once before giving out. He silently concluded she had waited until her child had died before giving into the inescapable pull of her own demise._

_Her body fell backwards limply and as she hit into the surface of the water she exploded into a splash of water that cascaded in a small tidal wave over Kagome and the babe._

_As the wave cleared her eyes opened again to survey the spot where her body should have lain._

"_When a Kelpie dies their body returns to the water from which they were born" Kikyo explained her voice emotionless but her eyes holding tears, Inuyasha placed a comforting hand on her shoulder._

_Kagome turned slowly and trudged from the river before collapsing onto the bank with the pup cradled in her arms. _

"_You okay?" Inuyasha asked_

"_Yeah, I guess" she whispered and then she pulled back to look at the bundle she held. She uncovered Ranmaru's head and two huge deepest black orbs stared back at her with the intensity of a much older child. He breathed in deeply and coughed twice._

"_We need to get him to some fresh water and fast" said Inuyasha suddenly_

_For the next three months Kagome looked after her new son and nursed him back to health. That was the easy part, the young Yokai only needed a weekly trip to a body of pure water and then to be looked after as if he were a human child. The hard thing was the fact that if he wasn't in the water, feeding or sleeping he was bawling his eyes out._

_Inuyasha explained that the child was feeling abandoned, whilst he was too young to identify his parents by sight he knew their scent and had abruptly grasped that they were nowhere near him. He had no idea where they were and did the only thing he could to get them to come back; he cried._

_A less patient person would not have been able to withstand the constant crying, but Kagome persevered. She kept the child with her every second of the day and eventually after a few months he stopped crying for his parents._

_He no longer felt abandoned as he realised the scent of Kagome never left him. It was not the same but it was enough to console the child. He became Kagome's son..._

***

"Let's go" Inuyasha's gruff voice cut into the memory and they all turned to look at the Hanyou.

"Hai" Ranmaru said softly "let's go home Okasan" he took Kagome's hand and towed her away with him and she sniffled and wiped the tears that had fallen away with her hand.

He walked back to the others and Inuyasha ruffled his hair Kikyo squeezed his shoulder.

"Let's go get ice-cream" Kikyo proposed, same as she did every year

"Let's" said Ranmaru smiling softly

***

Sesshoumaru was busy tip tapping on his computer key board. The constant tittering of the keys clicking harmonising beautifully with the harsh rain as it hit upon the apartment.

It was early in the morning and Sesshoumaru was attempting to work but there was something bugging him. He glanced up from the screen and looked at Rin.

She was stretched out across the carpet in the front room wearing a pale white sun dress despite the horrible weather outside and flipping through his calendar as if looking for something.

He frowned as he surveyed the dress she was wearing. It was not the fact that she was wearing something hideously ill-suited to the current weather conditions, it was that the dress was obviously too small for her... and it was white.

He knew she couldn't have grown out of the clothes he had bought her that fast, she was human not Yokai and he also knew he had not purchased her anything in white. Which led to the assumption that she had purposely gone to the stored away too small clothes that lived in the bottom of her closet. The question was, why?

The dress was obviously too tight across her chest and too short on her legs, the sleeves were too small for her upper arms and seemed to be biting viciously into her flesh.

She seemed to have found the correct page in his calendar and was circling a date in the calendar with one small finger.

"Rin" he called to catch her attention

She looked up at him without the usual light in her eyes, which disturbed him to no end. "Nani?"

"Why are you wearing a dress that no longer fits you?" he asked in his usual calm and stoic voice

She gave him a hurt look, as if he'd just kicked her puppy, stood abruptly and raced from the room before slamming her bedroom door after her when she reached it. The sound of sobbing followed soon after and the Inu Yokai sat there at a loss, he had no idea what he had done and why she was so upset.

He got out of his chair and bent to pick up the calendar to see that she had been looking at and frowned as he read the date; June 19th.

The anniversary of her parents deaths.

He winced and ran a hand over his face; he just had to upset her when the anniversary was so close.

***

Kagome tied her hair back out of her face as she helped Shippo tidy the yard of the plastic toys left over at the end of the day.

"Did you notice?" Kagome asked

"What?" Shippo asked in surprise

"There's something wrong with Rin-chan" Kagome clarified she gestured through the window into the classroom where Rin and Ranmaru sat each drawing as they waited for their respective parents. Rin's head was down on the table and she wasn't talking a mile a minute or humming to herself, Kagome was right something was amiss.

"Maybe you should talk to her" Shippo suggested

Kagome nodded thoughtfully and glanced back through the window at the now diminutive figure of the once irrepressible Rin.

***

Kagome sat on the tiny chair opposite Rin and next to Ranmaru. She leant her head in one hand and smiled at the young girl.

"I like your bracelet Rin-chan" she commented. She had not seen the child wear jewellery before and was curious as to its origins, it did not look like the kind of bracelet a child should be in possession of; indeed it was three sizes too big for her wrist and she had to keep pushing it back up to her elbow every now and then. The bracelet itself looked to be made of white gold and hung from it were a variety of charms.

"It was my Okasan's" she whispered fingering the delicate chain

_Bingo_. Kagome suddenly realised what was wrong with Rin. Kagome remembered her parents from before they had died and if she was not mistaken it was nearly a year from their death. _Poor Rin, poor Sesshoumaru_.

Ranmaru too had caught the melancholy edge to her voice and the depressed edge to her scent. "On the weekend we went to visit my parents" he offered

Rin glanced up and frowned in confusion "I thought Higurashi-sensei was your Okasan"

"Iie, my blood parents died when I was a baby" he said smiling sadly "it's probably worse for you though, because you can remember your parents"

At this Rin promptly burst out crying and Ranmaru jumped a mile in shock before glancing to Kagome for help who shrugged helplessly. She stood and walked round the table to Rin before kneeling beside her and opening her arms wide to the little girl who practically threw herself into her arms. She held her close to her chest and stroked her hair softly, making cooing noises and trying not to wince at the level of noise her crying was releasing... directly in Kagome's ear.

It wasn't quiet sobbing, oh no, it was full blown shoulder heaving lung burning heart wracking sobs. And Kagome could do nothing but wait quietly for them to pass and for Rin to calm down.

Eventually the sobs quietened into deep shuddery hiccup laden breaths and Kagome deemed it excusable to talk to her now.

"What's wrong Rin-chan?" she asked softly

"I'm afraid"-sob- "that"- sob- "I'll"- shaky breath-"forget"- hiccup- "my Okasan" she wailed

Kagome smiled softly and hugged her again and Ranmaru stood and petted her head softly.

"I think I have an idea" Kagome offered and smiled reassuringly as Rin brought her face up to look at her, like a tortoise emerging from its shell.

***

Sesshoumaru balked as he opened the door into the classroom Rin usually waited for him in as he was bombarded by the scent of his young ward's tears. Abruptly he panicked and then after a moment of inhaling deeply he came to the conclusion that they were old tears, not recently shed.

He stepped fully into the classroom to spy Kagome, Ranmaru and Rin all sat around the low slung desk which was currently covered with all kinds of arts and crafts materials. Kagome had just finished fastening some sticky laminate over what appeared to be a photograph that sealed it back to a colourful piece of paper that was attached to a string. It was, he realised, a portable photo frame.

"It's my Okasan and my Otosan!" she enthused as she inspected Kagome's handiwork

"So now they'll always be with you" Ranmaru enthused "It was a good idea Okasan"

"Arigato Ran-chan" she smiled at her son and without glancing over at Sesshoumaru "come join us Sesshoumaru"

"Hn" he walked over to them and Rin propelled herself up and into his arms

"Look!" she shoved the photo frame on a ribbon under his nose, so close to his face that he had to cross his eyes to look at it causing Rin to giggle.

"Your parents" he said in a low monotone. He was confused as to why he felt... jealous? He wasn't sure why he should be feeling that way at all. He wasn't jealous that Kagome had helped Rin to cheer up, though that was the most obvious reason that popped into his mind. He was jealous because Rin had become depressed over her parents.

He knew it was wrong to be jealous of them, after all they were dead, but it didn't stop the sense of betrayal he felt that she had forgotten about him for a week while she was being depressed about her parents. He had never admitted it to anyone but he did love the small ningen girl and he couldn't help but want her to be happy with him.

Kagome smiled slightly at the turmoil in Sesshoumaru's eyes and wondered if she had it right when she guessed what was wrong.

***

They had relocated to the park a little ways away from the school, Kagome was sat on the railings and Sesshoumaru was stood by her side. Ranmaru was pushing Rin on the swings and you could tell that the older child was serrupticiously trying to be kinder to the young girl.

"I know how you feel" she said sweeping her hair back from her face

"This Sesshoumaru doubts it" he said frigidly

"Take the stick out of your ass and listen would you?" she rolled her eyes and he debated whether pushing her off the railings was too cruel.

"Hn"

She took that for a 'I'll listen' and began "Losing a parent is hard for a child" she said "they never really get over it but they do move on and live their lives, most of the time they can be happy but there is always something that reminds them of what they lost and when that happens they return to their memories and cling to the nostalgia of the way things used to be. In my case I used to go and climb inside my dad's wardrobe because his clothes still smelt like him, Souta was too young to ever really remember dad, kind of like Ran-chan was too young to remember his parents. I'm not sure which is worse, but for both my brother and Ran they were only left with their imagination. In Ran's case he had no one to even explain what his parents were like and nothing to remember them by."

Sesshoumaru nodded, he understood what it was like to lose a parent, but he doubted losing a parent as a young child was the same as losing a parent when you were in your mid twenties. His mothers passing had been by no means easy, but at least he knew what death was. Something that had only just been explained to Rin before her parents died. He could distinctly remember the first few weeks after she started to live with him, where she would sit on a chair in front of the window that overlooked the street and wait for her Otosan to come and get her.

"Hn"

What a great conversationalist "When we lose someone who was the main focus of our lives for so long we become afraid. First we are afraid that the pain will never let up, that it will cripple us. But then for me I became afraid that I would forget my father, forget what he looked like or what his voice sounded like or forget the really stupid jokes he would always tell at Christmas or forget how every Sunday morning he was make pancakes for us or forget what it sounded like when he played the piano for my mother" she smiled sadly and Sesshoumaru wondered what the hell he was supposed to do if she started crying on him or something. Lucky he was saved from the dilemma when she carried on.

"But you need to be their support, they may not seem as if they appreciate it sometimes" she smiled "especially if you tell them they aren't allowed to eat chocolate ice cream on the beige carpets" she was obviously reminiscing "but the point is they need you just as surely as you need them. Rin will never replace her parents with you, that is not what happens, rather she has carved out a new part of her heart just for you"

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at this and she smiled.

"You are her family now, don't forget it" she told him

"Hn"

She sighed "I'm trying to help you!" she bit out "the least you could do is answer or something"

"Arigato" he said softly and she nearly fell off the railing in shock. She never thought she'd hear Sesshoumaru say thank you but then she realised when it came to the small girl who was seemingly flying in the swings with her son, Sesshoumaru was softer.

She had thawed the ice prince out, only slightly, but there was a definite softness.

Kagome smiled and wondered if she could help melt him a little more.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from my ramblings. Anyway there's another chapter for you guys and it's kind of depressing but I just wanted to write it I guess. I hope you learned a little more about Ran-chan!

Sakura, thank you for reviewing and I know I've made some irritating mistakes but I really have a limited time to proof read and my life is so busy right now I'm just writing and forgoing all mistakes.

Also yes I do live in Europe; in fact I live in Wales, that little country next to England. Home of the sheep!

So to those lovely people who reviewed on Fanfiction dot net thank you: Kouga'sGirl4eva, sakura-chan2222, SilentQuil23, llebreknit, vixenia, mmmyeah4, Jiru-Rynn and kyekye!

And on Media Miner dot org thanks to Animegirl1 and mariposa_miko. Animegirl1 I agree festivals are fun! Mariposa_miko I have to say that you would be taking your life into your hand if you actually tried to wind up Sesshoumaru...

Anyway thanks for reading and REVIEW!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Never Ending Woe

Sesshoumaru was back in the bar in another terrible mood. This morning, Kagura, his secretary had declared her undying love for him in front of the entire secretarial pool. They had all stopped tip tapping immediately and gazed avidly at him waiting for his response.

He was regretting his words. Or rather his face was regretting his words judging by the vicious red slap print across the left side of his face. And on top of it all he was now going to have to find a new secretary as Kagura had stormed out of his office in a completely dangerous mood.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. He had learned that the hard way.

Souta had mentioned nothing about the mark and had just put a 'Sesshoumaru' (as he had christened the drink at Christmas) in front of him before bidding a hasty and strategic retreat.

He stared into the molten gold liquid and wondered what he could possibly do to alleviate the tension he was feeling.

A shoulder massage from Kagome.

His brain supplied the answer too fast for his liking. He didn't appreciate the fact that he actually seemed to enjoy her company. That girl had a strange effect on him and made him do thing without thinking. And he was Sesshoumaru he always thought before he acted.

The door behind him opened and an all too familiar scent washed over him.

Kagome.

He turned to look at her and swallowed hard.

She looked... windswept. Technically she looked like someone who had dressed up as a teacher to go to a costume party and had tried to look provocative.

She was wearing a short pencil skirt that was tight on her slim legs and a white blouse that had the first three buttons undone revealing the lilac lace of her bra. Her hose were laddered along the upper left thigh. Her hair was loose and tumbling over her shoulders, her cheeks were flushed from the cold outside and she was wearing her spectacles. They did not detract from her beauty. Her eyes were blue fire, she looked murderous.

Every man in the bar turned to look at her with lust in their eyes. All except her brother who laughed out loud. Sesshoumaru growled at the scent of arousal he picked up from every male except Souta.

"Bad day?" Souta asked as she walked up to the bar and sat heavily into the seat next to Sesshoumaru's.

She growled at him and he raised an eye brow. "I've got just the thing" he told her walking away whilst she massaged her temples with her thumb and forefinger.

He came back and put a glass down in front of her "Jamaican Whisky, it's strong enough to render a normal human paralytic" he told her "or kill a full size rhinoceros"

She looked at it for a moment her blue eyes unfocused before snatching it off the bar and downing it in one. She frowned and looked at her empty glass for a second before clicking her fingers "More"

"At least she's talking and not growling" Souta muttered as he walked away to get her a refill

"Your day looks as if it could've been as bad as this Sesshoumaru's" he said wryly

"It was worse" she growled turning to face him and then she noticed the slap mark "or maybe not"

"You first" he said leaning across and doing up two of the buttons on her shirt and glaring at the rest of the bar. Who all coughed shuffled in their seats and pretended they hadn't been ogling her.

"Thanks" she said absentmindedly noticing he was protecting her from her fans. Souta handed her the next glass and this time she decided to take it more slowly.

"What happened?" Souta asked bending over and leaning his arms on the bar to listen

"I got every board member on my side" she said

"Isn't that good?" Souta was confused

"Let me finish" she growled in a deadly 'I'm going to rip off your face' voice.

"Go on" Sesshoumaru prompted whilst Souta winced.

"Every board member except one" she glowered into the wood of the bar as if it had caused her personal harm but they both knew she was imagining him. "Naraku said no"

"Oh dear" Souta said sympathetically

"Your sympathy sounds suspiciously like mollycoddling" she flashed him a look and he backed off his hands in the air defensively

"Hey I wasn't being a jerk I swear" he said crossing his heart "I was being sincere!"

"He is such an ass!" she fumed "how dare he deny those kids their computers"

"Explain" Sesshoumaru barked at her making her jump slightly in her seat

"I wanted a grant from the education board to get a new computer suite built" she said "After practically three months of no results they all agreed except that one asshole"

"I think it's time to move on" Souta advised Sesshoumaru as she finished her glass and beckoned imperiously for another.

"So what happened to you?" she asked looking at his face. She needed a subject change before she beat the bar up like a toddler having a tantrum.

"This Sesshoumaru was slapped by a wind sorceress" he said annoyance seeping into his tone

"You let a woman slap you?" Kagome was amused "I didn't think that the great Sesshoumaru would allow such an atrocity"

He growled at her and she sniggered "Notice this Sesshoumaru did not bait you" he said narrowing his eyes at her

"Because that's my job" she said grinning "besides your problem is damn funny"

"Hn"

"Aww, come on don't close up on me now!" she flicked his ear and he turned around and flicked her forehead

"Do not flick this Sesshoumaru" he said

"But you let me touch you when we were at the festival!" she whined

"Do not make this Sesshoumaru repeat himself" he said catching her fingertips before she could touch his marking again.

"You guys look about five" Souta said dryly cleaning a glass with his dishtowel. They snapped back to their senses and looked in opposite directions in a small amount of embarrassment.

"Hai, hai" she laughed herself out of her embarrassment "back to your problem, why did a wind sorceress slap you?"

"This Sesshoumaru refused her" he said sighing as he remembered it again. He took a restorative sip of his drink.

"Ah" she said in understanding "let me guess; the wind sorceress is your secretary"

"Exactly" he said "now this Sesshoumaru needs a new secretary"

"So again" she said "why did she manage to slap you? You're a big Yokai couldn't you have stopped her?"

"Have you ever tried stopping the wind before?" he asked dryly

"Oh, I see" she nodded in understanding

"Ne, Oneechan" Souta said "back to your problem why do I know the name Naraku?"

"He's in the papers every other week" she said shrugging "he's incredibly rich and has a reach that extends all over the world. He's also a notorious playboy"

"Of course" Souta nodded in realisation and then he paused "I have a feeling I know the name from somewhere else though" he was musing and stared off into space as he tried to remember

Kagome panicked slightly as she thought that maybe her brother would remember and then exhaled in relief when he gave up and shrugged it off.

Sesshoumaru heard the change in heart rate because nothing escaped him and wondered why there was a need for such a reaction.

He knew Naraku too. He had met him a few times due to the fact they were of the same heightened social class. He looked at the woman's depressed face and decided he would fix that.

Her stomach grumbled suddenly. It was so loud that the old man who had been asleep on the left corner of the bar jumped in his sleep. She blushed furiously.

"Come" he said standing and grabbing her arm pulling her off her seat.

"Huh?" she squeaked as he dragged her from the bar "What's going on?"

He opened the passenger door to his Ferrari and threw her into the leather clad seat before shutting the door behind her.

She watched him walk around the car and get into the drivers seat. He started the engine calmly and pulled out of the tiny pub car park. His car was one of the only ones there and it was ludicrously upper class for such a dingy area.

"Sesshoumaru!" she yelled "what are you doing"

He rolled his eyes "This Sesshoumaru is taking you out to eat"

"I'm not hungry" she lied obstinately

He chuckled "Your stomach and your brain disagree with each other" he told her

"Bite me" she said wittily

"Are you giving this Sesshoumaru permission?" he smirked

"Cocky bastard" she snarled a small blush lighting up her cheeks

"Hn" he pulled up outside a huge building with a red carpet stretched outside the entrance. She could tell at first glance that this was an incredibly respectable establishment.

"If I look as bad as I feel I'm going to get turned away from this joint" she said

He rolled his eyes in imitation of her and got out of the car and walked around to her door opening it.

She sat there and looked at him folding her arms stubbornly across her chest in an 'I'm going nowhere' sort of way.

He sighed "Either you get out of the car or this Sesshoumaru will carry you" he was not amused

"You wouldn't" she narrowed her eyes at him distrustfully; he had picked her up once before but there had only been a cook and a Hojo present but now they were in a street filled with people.

"That sounds like a challenge" he said stooping down and grabbing her around the waist. She pounded her fists on his chest.

"Stop!" she hissed and he released her stepping back to survey the slightly flustered female

"Do you promise to go inside behave and eat?" he asked

"I'm not Rin" she said standing and stalking past him angry for being patronised.

He chuckled and followed after her.

She was trying not to be impressed, she really was. But it was hard. As soon as they had seen Sesshoumaru his car had been whisked away to their private garage and their coats had been whisked to a cloakroom that was the size of her bedroom and they were given a table looking out over the darkened city in their own private roped off section.

He was treated like royalty and every member of staff knew his name. As they walked through the restaurant he was stopped by a minor European principality, greeted by a Rock star and nodded at by a millionaire property tycoon.

She could almost compare the situation to Cinderella, except that she had been given a dress so she blended in whereas Kagome was still in her work clothes and stuck out like a neglected thumb. She was actually kind of glad for the private roped off section; it meant she didn't have to meet the disdainful stares of the rich women in the restaurant who wanted Sesshoumaru.

She stared at the table in silence feeling kind of insignificant.

"What's wrong?" he asked noticing her previous temper had dissipated somewhat.

"I feel this big" she said holding out her forefinger and thumb pressed together with no space between them. Melodramatic much?

"Why?"

"My flat is as big as their cupboard" she ticked the points off on her fingers "I'm in my teachers clothes, my hair is defying gravity there's so much flyaway, you have your own roped off section and you are getting greeted by minor European principalities as if it's nothing"

A waiter had snuck up her and she literally jumped in her seat when he put a flute of vintage champagne in an ice bucket down on the table.

"Compliments of the house" he said before walking off

"And you're getting vintage Champaign on the house" she said accusingly

"This Sesshoumaru did not take you as the jealous type" he was colder than ever

She grabbed an ice cube from the bucket and threw it at him "I'm not Jealous! So don't look down at me!"

He dodged the flying ice with ease and wondered what the waiter would think when he came back to find it on the floor. He was resisting the childish impulse to throw some ice at her and she how she liked it.

"So what is it?" he asked

"I don't fit here" she said shrugging "I feel bizarre"

"You are out of your depth and wrong footed" he nodded "now you understand what this Sesshoumaru feels when you are around"

"Huh?" she asked

"You are confusing" he stated in a matter of fact voice "and rude and annoying"

"Gee thanks" she rolled her eyes "Has anyone ever complimented you on how silver tongued and charming you are?"

He ignored the sarcasm as something occurred to him. "Surely the average income of a headmistress of a school is more than adequate to buy a large house than that flat"

"Don't knock my flat" she said "I like it"

"You were the one who compared it to the cloak room" he observed dryly

She fumed in silence as the waiter came and Sesshoumaru ordered for both of them.

"I'm perfectly capable of ordering for myself" she bit out

"Quiet" he said handing her a glass of Champaign

"Hn" she said in an uncanny imitation of her companion

"We were talking about your living accommodations" he reminded her

"My grandfather and mother run the family shrine" she said and grinned "You remember Ojiisan don't you?"

"The ningen who thought to place a sutra on this Sesshoumaru" he said frowning at the less than pleasant memory

"Anyway most of my money goes into repairs on the old thing, it's basically falling down. Souta always says it's held together by prayers"

"Surely it is their responsibility to look after the shrine"

"It's also my responsibility to look after the place I grew up in" she said coldly. She was pissed that he would suggest she would shirk her responsibilities like that.

"Hn" he said realising his mistake but not apologising, he had never really truly apologised ever.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked

"Hn"

She took this as a yes "How did you acquire Rin?" she asked "I know her parents died but..."

He could remember asking her the same question about her son "Her father was this Sesshoumaru 's driver and her mother this Sesshoumaru's cook. Rin grew up in my house mostly and so when they died she was left to me"

"You love her" she said. He had never said so aloud but she could tell for this Yokai the only way he would tolerate having a small human live with him was if he cared about her.

"Hn"

She hadn't expected him to admit it.

He wished he could admit it.

After a sublime meal of food Kagome didn't know existed he drove her to her flat.

"Where is your son?" he asked

"He is staying over his friends house" she said "did you believe I would have left him in the flat on his own?"

"Hn"

He walked her to her doorstep and she wondered why. He brain went into over drive. Was he going to kiss her again?

No, she was being stupid. He had kissed her for revenge.

"Night" she said smiling

"Good night" he said and kissed her on the forehead before.

Part of her brain was kind of happy he had kissed her again. The other part was screaming: _FOREHEAD? Am I that physically unappealing that he kisses me like I'm Rin?_

He watched her facial expressions and smirked a little. Throwing caution to the wind, just for that night he leant in again and gently kissed her lips. It was a delicate kiss, a gentle kiss but it was lingering. And when he eventually pulled away her brain had turned to mush, it was trying to figure out what the hell had just happened to shut down all motor functions. And it took her a while to realise he had bid her goodbye and was driving away.

She growled incoherently with her new confusion as she turned her key in the lock.

Stupid Inu Yokai and their amazing kissing. Then she almost hit herself on the head when she realised she had been reduced to a teenager by a peck on the lips. It was like she was fifteen all over again! It wasn't fair!

He drove away and wondered how he had managed to stop himself from kissing her thoroughly. With a normal female he would have bedded her by now. But then again their relationship wasn't exactly normal.

A small voice at the back of his head told him he hadn't tried to seduce her because she meant more to him than that, simply laying with her was not what he wanted, he wasn't sure what it was he wanted but he knew she calmed him like no other and he wasn't willing to give her up. He quashed it firmly just as he always did. Stupid voice telling Sesshoumaru Taisho unnecessary things.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from this.

Thanks go to those who reviewed on fanfiction dot net; llebreknit, j.d.y., darkangel0212, sess and kags always, iamyourmaster evil laughter, and mmmyeah4.

Thanks also go to the lovely people on dokuga:

Autumngold; he may appear soon, but he may not... thanks for reviewing.

Guess Who O.O; thanks for reviewing!

Thanks for reading and please review!


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: If you go down to the woods today

"This is not my idea of fun" Ayame whined as she loaded her rucksack into Kagome's car. She was wearing the oldest pair of jeans she possessed, her hair pulled into its conventional pigtails and a life guards sweatshirt over her t-shirt. She stomped her feet irritably and Ranmaru rolled his eyes and loaded a rucksack twice as big as him into the car.

"What are you complaining about now?" Sasuke asked appearing from nowhere with yet another bag to load into the poor sagging car. His hair was tied into a lose plait and he was wearing very beat up clothes.

"Shouldn't you have gone home by now?" she asked irritably

"Shouldn't you have a boyfriend by now?" he countered his eyes glinting mischievously

"This is why I hate cats!" she fumed

"That's stereotypical, a dog not liking a cat" Hana pulled the appearing from nowhere trick as well as Sasuke had and dumped her own bag into the car which was seriously looking unstable under the duress of so many bags.

"I'm a canine" Ayame retorted snapping her fangs "but I am by no means a dog"

"Dog, wolf what's the difference?" Sasuke taunted

"Cat, fox what's the difference?" Ayame asked grinning as both the cat demons snarled at her

"Break it up you guys, if you can't play nicely you don't get to come with us" Kagome chuckled at the scene and loaded the last bag into the poor car. She shut the door on their luggage with timid care, the car didn't look too sturdy under all that weight. She was wearing her old faded jeans and one of Sasuke's jumpers with her hair pulled into a messy topknot.

"He started it" Ayame was sullen

"He is nineteen" Kagome rolled her eyes "what's your excuse?"

Ayame said something under her breath that neither Yokai nor human could quite catch before getting in the car in a resigned fashion. Hana and Sasuke quickly followed suit leaving Kagome and Ranmaru to look at each other in perplexed annoyance.

"How'd this become an entire group outing?" she asked her son "wasn't it just supposed to be our weekly trip to the lake?"

"Yeah but since Sasuke-niichan and Hana-neechan are in town you invited them and then everyone else just invited themselves" Ranmaru was exasperated "even Rin-chan said she wanted to come"

"Rin?" Kagome was shocked and then was abruptly cut out of her thought processes as Ayame beeped her horn, universal language for 'get your butt in the damn car'. She grinned at her son and they both hopped inside.

***

"What are they doing?" Kagome asked as she, Kikyo, Sango and Hana lay sprawled out on the soft grass watching the guys try to pitch a tent and Ran play dotingly with Kyo.

"I don't know, it looks kinda like Ayame's fourth grade science project" Sango commented and Ayame who had been rummaging in the food basket a little while away growled at her.

"Ears from hell" Hana snickered earning another growl from Ayame.

They all jumped a few seconds later as a tent pole collapsed and hilarity ensued. Inuyasha was cursing, Miroku rolling his eyes and Sasuke, who hadn't been helping in the first place, more like baiting, was laughing and gloating.

"They should just have allowed Kagome to do it" Kikyo sighed; she knew as well as the men did that Kagome was the most seasoned camper amongst them.

"Let them flounder" Ayame advised as she thumped down on the ground next to them

"Sasuke is right" Hana grinned at Ayame "you really do have something against guys"

"Only when she's single" Sango commented

"You're supposed to be on my side Sango!" Ayame moped "why is everyone being so mean?"

"Why do you sound like a child?" Kikyo asked

"Why is everyone answering questions with questions today?" Kagome asked giggling

"Bastard tent!" Inuyasha had finally lost it

"It's impossible for the tent to be a bastard" Sasuke pointed out only to have to leap to his feet and run from the suddenly irate Inu Hanyou.

Kagome chuckled and then cocked her head to one side and listened intently to what she though sounded a lot like her ring tone, but muffled. Then she realised it was her phone.

"Why are you glaring at my daughter?" Sango asked in an amused tone as she noted her baby engaged in a bizarrely heated staring contest with her friend.

"Because our daughter is trying to ingest my phone, again" Kagome growled whilst staring at the little girl who gurgled flailing her fists and legs, catching Kagome on the chin with her bootie clad feet.

"Kagome's losing a battle of wills with a baby" Hana pointed out

Ayame was blasé "Let her have her mental breakdown; it's the weekend!"

"You know, saying 'it's the weekend' doesn't automatically excuse everything" Hana reprimanded

"Do I care?" Ayame asked lazily scratching her arm where some kind of bug had landed

Meanwhile Kagome was still otherwise engaged with the child who was staring up at her with huge eyes.

"Come on Megumi-chan, I just need my phone?" Kagome pleaded, by this time it had stopped ringing but she still needed to know who called, only her mother and grandfather had her phone if you discounted everyone else there. So she was a little anxious.

"There's an easier way to get that back you know" Sango said pulling her own phone from a pocket and waggling it in front of the babies face. The child spat Kagome's phone out so fast you'd swear it was bitter poison and dived upon her mother's phone eagerly inserting the new tasty morsel into her gummy mouth.

"Could have told me that earlier" Kagome muttered as she dried off the phone on Sasuke's sweatshirt, hoping he wouldn't notice but knowing she was living in denial. He was a demon after all.

"That was cool, she sure switches chew toys quickly" Hana commented

"She has a thing for that particular brand of phone" Sango shrugged

"You're all insane" Kikyo murmured as she bounced Sango's son on her knee whilst watching Kyo and Ranmaru play.

Kagome walked a little ways away from the group and was about to redial the unknown number that had called her when it began to ring again.

"Mushi, mushi?" she answered

There was a slight pause in which her mystery caller gave a small smirk, unbeknownst to her "Ka-go-me" he purred low and intentionally seductive but laced with a certain malice that set her on edge. She knew who it was immediately.

"What the hell do you want?" she ground out, subconsciously pacing away from the group in her agitation.

"What a charming greeting Ka-go-me" he over emphasised her name again making her shiver.

"Naraku, what do you want, and whilst we're on that subject how'd you get this number?" she demanded harshly

He laughed softly "I am fastidious Ka-go-me" he said

"You're an asshole" she reminded him

"Such harsh name calling" he chuckled "but Ka-go-me you should know that it is your fault"

"How is you being a selfish pig my fault?" she snarled softly, wary of her conversation being overheard

"But is it not your selfish ways that denied the school its new computer suite?" he asked softly "Ka-go-me"

"What?"

"If you had accepted my offer the children would have benefitted" he crooned "you selfishness denied them that"

"How dare you twist my actions?" she demanded harshly

"You can still reconsider" he interjected silkily

"I'd rather not" she replied shortly before hanging up abruptly. She pressed the phone to her forehead and sighed running her other hand over the top of her head, pulling it from its ponytail to fall around her shoulders again. A heavy sigh escaped her lips; she'd had enough of this.

A loud growl caught her attention and she turned round to see Inuyasha attempting to chase Sasuke up a tree. Sasuke was swaying in the top most branches, his face a picture of glee and Inuyasha looked like he was going to maul him. That was if he ever recovered enough sense to be able to jump up there, it was known amongst his friends that whilst drunken or angry he was spectacularly useless at most physical things.

"Ran-chan!" Kagome called out gently and the kelpie heard her even over Inuyasha's anger and Sasuke's baiting.

"Hai, Okasan?" Ran asked blowing a dandelion at Kyo. Who clapped and giggled and tried to catch the clocks, his ears flipping them away. One landed on his nose and he crossed his eyes to look at it inadvertently rolling from a sitting position onto his back, he gurgled again.

"Let's go to the river ne?" she smiled at him and his eyes lit up

"Hai!" he grinned

She smiled and they walked together down towards the cool lake that was thankfully unpolluted, or at least as clean as it could be in the modern era. Kagome knew that no matter how clean it was Ranmaru would purge its impurities anyway. All kelpies can purge small amounts of impurities fro bodies of water, only serious pollution can kill them. He wouldn't use his true form either. It was instinctual for young Yokai to only revert to their true form once in a completely safe area, as a young Yokai they were easy prey for other Yokai.

He walked over to the water and then grinning at his mother walked out onto the surface of it, his feet leaving barely discernable ripples behind him.

"Come on Okasan!" he enthused doing a quick seven- year- old- half-cartwheel on the surface and sticking his tongue out.

"Yeah, yeah" she rolled her eyes and pulled off her layers of clothing to reveal a dark blue bikini that consisted of your average top but a shirt like bottom part with a flower printed over one hip. She grinned and slipped smoothly into the water.

"It's different" Ranmaru was referring to her choice in attire

"Hana" the name was suffice, Hana loved shopping for everyone and anyone and didn't know how to take no as an answer.

"Normally it covers your tummy" he frowned

"What?" she demanded

"You're really pale" he said grinning

She growled at him and attempted to splash him, failing miserably of course. No one has ever managed to successfully splash a kelpie. He stuck his tongue out.

"Cannon ball!" a new familiar voice yelled and Kagome held up her arms as a small tsunami engulfed her, thoroughly soaking her through. She shook her hair off like a dog. Ran of course was untouched.

"Rin-chan?" Kagome spluttered as she flipped her hair from her eyes

"Higurashi-sensei!" Rin enthused, singing Kagome's title and giggling madly. She was wearing a lime green one piece bathing suit with a white and green polka dotted skirt attached. Her hair was pulled into identical bunches.

"What are you doing here?" Ranmaru asked now laid on his stomach on the surface of the water his head propped in his hands.

"I told you I was coming" she put her chin into the air as if angry at him but soon overcame it when she realised what he was doing "Cool!"

"What?"

"That!"

"Oh" he was nonchalant "So?"

"Teach me" she commanded

"Can't"

"Why?"

"You can't learn how to do it, you either can or not" he explained simply

"That sucks" she lamented

"For you"

"How come you can?"

"I'm a Kelpie, I told you" he rolled his eyes and she huffed at him folding her arms.

"Rin-chan" Kagome interjected "How are you here?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama brought me!" she grinned at her sensei "aren't you happy?"

Trying to ignore the last question Kagome soldiered on "Does he know you're here on your own Rin-chan?"

"Probably" she hedged

"What do you mean probably?" Kagome asked in her best 'concerned teacher' voice.

"I didn't tell him" Rin sniffed "but he always knows everything anyway"

Kagome grinned "Maybe you should go back and tell him where you are" she suggested

"No need" Rin said looking over Kagome's shoulder and grinning hugely.

With a sense of impending doom similar to when one makes a crass comment about a person, only to find said person behind them, Kagome turned around.

And fell over.

She fell onto her butt in the shallow water and stared up at it. The first thing that popped into her head was 'where'd the sky go?' and then she realised it was probably still there, just concealed behind the huge white fluffy dog.

With red eyes, the size of her shrine, the crescent marking, the hissing claws that cut into the earth, the floppy ears and the messes of shaggy fur he was a cross between cute and terrifying. So Kagome settled for being stupefied.

Sesshoumaru regarded the fallen human with detached amusement. Suddenly the reason Rin had been so adamant about coming with him to the cabin this weekend was obvious. She normally didn't care for the cabin, it being too cold and isolated for her happy sociable temperament. She seemed to not only be obsessed by her teacher but also seemed to have befriended the orphaned kelpie inadvertently.

Rin sprang from the water and ran up to him happily pouncing on the fluffy looking fur of his right front paw and laughing.

"Cool" Ranmaru said craning his neck up to see the massive Inu's head

Kagome stood up shakily "Holy shi—" she attempted to say and then Ran drenched her in another, slightly larger tidal wave of water

"What was that for?" she demanded when she could finally speak again

"You were going to say a bad word" he told her with a grin

She stuck her tongue out at him and then turned back to the Inu "I'm guessing that's Sesshoumaru?" she asked

"Yep" Rin grinned

"He wasn't kidding" Kagome noted "he really is big, white and covered in fur"

Sesshoumaru gave a couch like laugh and Kagome grinned.

"What you didn't mention is that you're cute!" she enthused clapping like she was Rin.

He huffed slightly and bent his huge head down to her level, she had just about enough time to register the mischievous glint in his now ruby eyes before he nudged her with his nose and sent her falling back onto her butt; again.

She growled and Sesshoumaru gave a dog like chuckle. In his Inu form he was loath to keep up his usual uncaring unemotional facade and was noticeably more relaxed.

"Ran-chan?" she turned to look at her son

"Yeah?"

"Any way for me to get up there?" she asked

Ranmaru grinned and pressed his palms to the surface of the water. Kagome squealed as she was pushed up and out of the lake by a huge funnel of water.

She laughed as the pressurised water formed a platform under her knees so that she was steadily being raised to the eye level of the Inu that towered over them. She reached his eye level and they just looked at each other for a while.

She was knelt on a pressurised magical funnel of water that was levitating her. This made Sesshoumaru smile inwardly, apparently the kelpie she cared for was exceptionally strong, this was no small feat for a pup of his age.

She stood shakily atop her makeshift platform and smirking slightly dangerously she flung herself across the two metre gap between her tower and Sesshoumaru's nose.

She landed with a muffled thump on his nose and fisted her hands in his fur to keep herself there. She giggled again as she watched the Inu cross his red eyes in order to look at her properly. He wondered if she actually realised she had just straddled his face in her bikini. Maybe she did, but probably not, she was not so brazen as to do so consciously without blushing.

"Now what are you going to do?" she asked "retaliation is futile, anything you do will result in my back going crunch"

He wondered for a bizarre second what she would do if he licked her in retaliation, she was after all dangerously close to his mouth and then he decided he was above that.

_What makes you believe this Sesshoumaru cares if you live? _He whispered inside her mind

She blinked a few times "Are you talking inside my head?" she questioned the dog beneath her

_Yes_

"I didn't know you could do that!" she yelped

_Since when are you obliged to know everything about this Sesshoumaru?_

"You're still an ass even when you're a dog then" she said rolling her eyes and then she punched his muzzle "and was that a death threat?"

_Maybe_

"I'm not afraid of you" she told him stubbornly

_We'll see_

"What does that mean?" she demanded

She soon found out when the muzzle she was sitting on disappeared. She was left to free fall.

She screamed as the air rushed by and closed her eyes tight as she waited for the inevitable harsh impact with the unforgiving ground.

She opened her eyes unsteadily as she realised that she hadn't hit anything yet.

Sesshoumaru's head, his human one, was looking down at her with one eyebrow raised.

"You were right, you are not afraid of this Sesshoumaru, you were terrified" he gloated

"Bastard" she growled at him as she punched his chest. She looked down at him, he was holding her gently in his arms he'd obviously caught her. What she couldn't work out though, was where his clothes had come from. "How come you're not naked?"

At this his other eyebrow joined its twin at his hair line "Would you prefer this Sesshoumaru to be so?" he smirked a predatory gleam in his eyes.

She glowered at him as a light blush dusted her cheeks "Not what I meant" she reprimanded him "I meant that you didn't have any clothes a second ago, where'd they come from?"

"This Sesshoumaru was wearing them before this Sesshoumaru transformed" he told her

"So where'd they go?" she asked dubiously

"This Sesshoumaru does not care, it is magic and does not have to follow a pattern which you deduce as normal" he informed her

"You mean you don't know" she pointed out

He growled at her

"Touchy" she muttered

"Sesshoumaru-sama, why are you still holding Higurashi-sensei?" Rin piped up and the two adults twitched, they had forgotten that there were children present.

Sesshoumaru swung Kagome down to the ground and deposited her on her feet. Where she frowned at him. "I still haven't forgiven you for dropping me you know"

"This Sesshoumaru rescued you did he not?" he said looking at her impassively

She rolled her eyes "You're impossible"

"And you are infuriating" he replied

They both stiffened in shock as a new tsunami of water almost knocked Kagome over, the only thing stopping her from being sprawled on her ass for the second time in the day being Sesshoumaru's hand grabbing her around the elbow.

"We challenge you to a water fight" Ranmaru proclaimed "me and Rin against you two"

Kagome glanced up at Sesshoumaru who was as sopping wet as she was and fought the urge to dissolve into giggling mush. She was fighting an entirely different urge a few seconds later as he discarded his shirt and stepped into the water smirking dangerously. She stood on the bank and sort of stared stupidly at the two strips on his hips. She smirked as she wondered if he'd let her touch those as he had the one's on his face, but with her tongue instead. And then mentally slapped herself for having such Hentai thoughts when children were present. Sesshoumaru turned to look at her over her shoulder and by the way his eyebrow was raised she realised he knew exactly what kind of reaction she had to him. Damn him and his nose. She joined him in the water and promptly soaked him.

"Okasan, you're supposed to be on Sesshoumaru-san's side" Ranmaru protested

"I know" she said sweetly and then balked a minute later as Sesshoumaru in all his water bejewelled glory emerged from the water, picked her up and threw her into a deeper part of the water with an almighty splash.

She emerged and flipped her hair over his shoulder "Oh, it is so on!" she growled and the children smiled.

"We should go back" Ranmaru told Rin quietly

"Why?" she sulked, she was enjoying the fight

"I can smell food, I think Miroku-ojisan has started cooking" he told her

"Yay!" she clapped her hands together and Ranmaru lead her away from the oblivious fighting adults and towards their nearby camp. He was quite content to let them have their time together.

God knows how much time later, after experiencing flying a few times Kagome realised the distinct lacking of Ranmaru and Rin.

"Where are the children?" she asked as she glanced around the river edge, the sun was setting she noted dumbly. She turned back to Sesshoumaru in time to notice he wasn't there and shrieked as he picked her up and tossed her again.

She landed with a huge splash and glared at him from where she had plunged just her head above the water.

He smirked "They went to your camp a while ago" he said waiting for her retaliation he was surprised when she didn't move from where she was.

She was frowning down at the water as if it had done her a personal grievance.

"What is it?" he asked

"It's gone" she mumbled

"What is?" he asked

"My bikini top" she muttered

He fought to stop the stupid smile that wished to spread across his features and slowly advanced upon the small woman.

Kagome's eyes widened as she realised he was advancing upon her with a distinctly non-innocent look upon his features. She backed up as far as she could go until her bare back met with the rough surface of one of the rocks that lined the small lake. She squeaked as a frog jumped off the rock and over her shoulder before returning to staring at Sesshoumaru. A dear caught in headlights.

He cornered her against the rock an arm either side of her shoulders, caging her in. She looked up at him and crossed her arms over her breasts, suddenly hyper aware of their proximity. His golden eyes were smouldering, making it peculiarly hard to breathe and she looked down to avoid eye contact with the Inu.

"Do you yield?" he asked leaning into her space, breathing her breaths.

"Um..." she said as he removed his left hand from the wall and swept her damp hair from a pale shoulder.

"Am I interrupting something?" came a greatly amused voice and then both turned horror writ upon their faces to see Sasuke perched upon the rock Kagome was trapped against, grinning his best Cheshire cat smile.

Sesshoumaru stepped back from Kagome to glare and the neko and growl menacingly. Kagome used this movement to escape onto the bank of the lake and grab her t-shirt pulling it on quickly.

"What are you doing here Sasuke?" she asked

"It's getting late, we were worried" he explained "we also wanted to ask Sesshoumaru-sama if Rin-chan could stay with us tonight, she's fallen asleep in a mess of children and we can't move her"

Sesshoumaru nodded in acceptance, still glowering.

"Oh, I'll be come back in a minute, just let me say goodbye" she said

Sasuke turned to leave but not before he tossed his parting remark over his shoulder "Just as long as saying goodbye is all you're going to be doing" his eyes flashed and he disappeared.

"This Sesshoumaru is beginning to understand why common Inu hate common neko" Sesshoumaru growled as he hauled himself from the water.

"Bye" she said smiling at him and turning to follow Sasuke, leaving Sesshoumaru feeling strangely disappointed. Until she paused at the tree line and turned flitting back to his side.

She smiled the warm half light of the setting sun illuminating her pale skin strands of her wet hair still clinging to her cheeks. She rested a hand on one broad shoulder, stood on her tip toes and pressed her soft lips to his in a chaste kiss. She smiled again and disappeared back to her camp.

Sesshoumaru watched her go fighting the smile before letting it break free, there was after all no one here to see him. He cast his eyes back out to the lake and smirked.

There it was, the elusive bikini top, floating harmlessly across the surface. He retrieved it and his shirt and turned in the direction of his cabin. Surely she would not miss it and if she did it was tough, he refused to relinquish his prize.

A/N: we all know that I don't own Inuyasha right? Good. So there goes the thirteenth chapter! *dances like the freak she is* what did you think guys? Thank you for reading and now onto my favourite part of these here authors notes the review replies!

On a big thanks goes to: Vampire-princesses, darke wulf, Megumi Yamanashi, TheAnonymus, mmmyeah4, llebreknit, ruby red 1989 and Dominant-Snowcone.

On Dokuga:

Eliza: Don't worry this isn't a sad fic I promise, thank you very muchly for reviewing!

Rei: You make me laugh, but not in a nasty way, promise! Thank you for reading and reviewing twice!

autumngold: if things become to intimate too fast then it's not as realistic don't you think? I agree with you there, thanks for reviewing!

UtterChaos247: Thanks I'm glad you liked it!

Now what should we all do? REVIEW!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Meet the Pack

Kagome was sat in her mother's kitchen cross-legged on the table as she used to sit in her childhood years. Watching her mother potter around the kitchen cooking for the coming day.

"How long has it been since someone requested a wedding?" Kagome asked, it was rare that the shrine got asked to do such ceremonies. In this era culture went out the window and most preferred a western ceremony. Not to mention their shrine was small and only well known within their small neighbourhood, not many people thought about it when planning a wedding. Kagome couldn't remember the last time it had happened.

He mother chuckled "I think it was last year"

"I don't remember"

"You were on holiday" her mother waved a hand dismissively

"Ojiisan sure is happy" Kagome commented as they watched him order people about in the back garden. They had volunteered to help, but by the looks on their faces they were regretting the offer.

"His passion is tradition" her mother commented "he will never miss out on a chance to bust out those robes either"

"I don't suppose so" Kagome shrugged "just as long as he doesn't try to get me into those old Miko robes"

"Don't let him hear you disrespect your heritage dear" her mother grinned

"Never" Kagome put a finger to her lips

Souta crashed into the kitchen from the back door opened the fridge and downed and entire pitcher of orange juice before turning to them. "He's on a rampage" he told them

"Let him have his fun" their mother cajoled

"How'd you escape?" Kagome asked

"He asked me to give this to you" he held out an old scroll

"What is it?" she asked taking it from him and putting her glasses on

"I don't know" he shrugged "I just took it and ran"

She opened it to find not text as she had first anticipated but instead a portrait of someone who bore a striking resemblance to Sesshoumaru. The only reason she knew it wasn't him was because there was no crescent moon and the marking on his cheeks were jagged like lightning. He also wore his hair in a top knot and for some reason she couldn't see Sesshoumaru doing the same thing.

"Oh, yes" her mother nodded "I remember, your Ojiisan found that out after the festival. It's over five hundred years old. That demon is your friend's father"

"Touga-sama" she nodded looking down at it again, he was recognisable even back then.

"Why do we have a scroll of him?" Souta asked

"We have many artefacts here at the shrine" their mother explained "I think Otosan just donated some to a museum, but he didn't want to donate that one, rather he wanted to give it to Sesshoumaru's father"

"This was made five hundred years ago and the subject matter is still alive?" Souta raised a brow

"He's a demon you dolt" Kagome rolled her eyes "of course he's still alive, he lives with Inuyasha's mom Izayoi in Hokkaido"

"Wow" Souta whistled "must suck for Izayoi though, I mean she's gonna get old and he's gonna stay the same"

"Easy solution" Kagome shrugged "tie their lives"

"Huh?"

"Souta!" her mother hit him with a spatula "did you not listen to us when we taught you of the old ways?"

"Um... no" he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head

"It's like a demon wedding ceremony" Kagome explained

"Like mating?"

"Mating is where a mark is left during intercourse" her mother grinned "this is what happens before a tying ceremony to ensure sexual compatibility and to ensure the safety of their chosen. In demon society sex comes before marriage whereas in traditional human society it is the other way around"

"No matter how old you get hearing your mother talk about sex is still creepy" Souta acknowledged frowning "but continue"

His mother laughed "The tying ceremony is simple and needs no one present except the couple but sometimes gathering are held, especially if one half of the partnership is human. They perform a blood ritual where they mix their blood with an ancient potion and drink from it and then say the old vows."

"But in this case the 'till death do us part' bit is more true than in human culture" Kagome picked up where her mother had left off "it wasn't discovered until demon human bonding became accepted but if a human ties their blood with a demon their natural life mimics that of their partner. They can still die from say being run over but their natural lives are extended"

"And you expected me to absorb this at the age of seven?" Souta accused his mother

She grinned "Kagome didn't seem to have any problems with it"

"Well she's always been obsessed with demons" Souta grinned and ducked as a shoe came flying at him.

"At least I have the attention span to get obsessed with something" she pointed out and then paused thoughtfully "I'll go see Inuyasha about it"

"You can't dear" her mother smiled "they went on holiday to Okinawa remember?"

"Oh, yeah" she paused and sighed "Looks like I'm off to see the Sesshoumaru then"

"Eager?" Souta asked

"I still have another shoe you know"

"Why do you two always regress into children when you come back here?" their mother asked

"Routine" they answered as one before pouting and laughing.

***

"Taisho-sama?" his receptionist asked trepidation clouding her voice, she had been hired after Kagura's rather abrupt and displeased departure and had about as much back bone as a worm. He sighed and looked up from his computer screen. She was stood in the doorway her eyes sticking out from behind the door and not much else. She looked like a startled colt and he had to try hard not to scare her for fear that she would flee.

"Hn?" he really needed to lean her name, but it was just so... pointless. She'd have an emotional breakdown and leave soon. They always did.

"There's someone here to see you" she whispered

"Do they have an appointment?"

"No"

"Then why bother this Sesshoumaru?" he asked raising a brow "are you incompetent?"

Her eyes got wider and she looked as if she was going to cry but whatever she may have been about to say was clouded by Kagome pushing her way through the door.

"Be nice" she warned him grinning slightly

His assistant was still looking unsure "It is fine, she is acceptable"

The relieved assistant fled and he fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"She seems..."

"Inept" Sesshoumaru provided "sit, cease the small talk. Why are you here?"

She sat and cross her legs "Pushy now aren't we?"

"This Sesshoumaru is busy" he told her

She rolled her eyes "So? Tell me something I don't know"

"If you knew this Sesshoumaru was busy why did you come?" he asked

"Does your father call you every week like he does Inuyasha?" she asked hedging her bets that like Inuyasha had always done the older son would also receive the weekly nagging from their jovial father. She was hoping it would be soon, if not it would be pointless to call him at all and she could just give Sesshoumaru the scroll. But she wanted to speak to Touga again, she hadn't in a while and she missed his infectious tenacity.

He growled "Yes, every Thursday at three in the afternoon, no fail"

"Oh" she glanced at the clock "I guess I came on time then"

"Why do you require to speak to this Sesshoumaru's sire?" he asked

"I have something of his" she said

He raised a brow "And pray tell what is it?"

"Um..." she pretended to think about it "nothing to do with you?"

The phone rang and Kagome pounced on it.

"Touga-sama!" she yelped as Sesshoumaru growled and tried to take it from her without hurting her or the breaking the phone.

"Kagome-chan?" Touga was surprised "What are you doing with Sesshoumaru?"

"He's trying to steal the phone" she told him accidentally elbowing him in the face and wincing as he growled again "as such fighting has ensued"

"Ah" Touga chuckled "put me on video conference"

Soon Kagome was sat on the arm of Sesshoumaru's chair looking at Touga on the computer screen. He hadn't changed much since Kagome had last seen him, hell he hadn't changed much from five hundred years ago. But he, needless to say, wasn't wearing his armour. His hair was still pulled into a top knot, he still had the blue lightning marks on his cheeks and his jovial attitude was not affected by the passage of time.

"It's been too long my dear" Touga smiled "you need to come and visit"

"Thanks Touga-sama" she smiled

"I miss that young Kelpie of yours, always such a docile child" he smiled; there was a chuckle from somewhere off camera as Izayoi appeared in the frame, her long black hair fell down past her waist and her eyes were still as kind as ever.

"I don't remember it quite like that dear; you were the one complaining about the god awful noise"

Touga was sheepish as she took up residency on his lap "Well I did have the most sensitive ears in the house" he offered

She smiled "Yes dear" the patronising tone was hard to miss

"Hello Izayoi-san" Kagome smiled

"Kagome-chan, it has been a while" the petite woman smiled

"It has, how are you?" Kagome grinned

"Very well my dear" she smiled "immortality has that effect" she joked

"That's kind of why I'm here" Kagome smiled "I have a painting of you, Touga, from five hundred years ago, I figured you might like it back"

Touga grinned exposing his fangs "That is a brilliant coincidence Kagome!" he boomed making Izayoi grin in anticipation "This weekend Sesshoumaru is coming to the manor! You should bring Ranmaru, Sesshoumaru will drive you"

"Father" Sesshoumaru growled out "This Sesshoumaru did not agree to go this weekend"

"Well now I have offered to have you and your ward in my home Sesshoumaru" Touga smirked "It is rude to reject us, after all I want to meet her for more than a brief moment before you whisk her away"

"Father" Sesshoumaru said in a warning tone

"Then it is decided" he said grinning in an amused tone at his frustrated son "You will pick Kagome up from her house on Saturday morning, I will be expecting you Sesshoumaru"

The link was disconnected and Sesshoumaru was left to glare at his computer screen as if it had done him personal harm.

"He's always been unstoppable" Kagome removed herself from her perch on the side of his chair and grabbed her bag preparing to leave "I guess I'll see you on Saturday then"

"There is no need for your presence, give this Sesshoumaru the portrait and this Sesshoumaru shall take it to them and leave" he said

"You think he's just going to let you leave?"

He paused as he considered that, she was right his father was not known to give up on something once he desired it. It was why he was so powerful. "There is still no need for you"

She grinned "Are you so sure?" she asked "if you go alone you will be their sole focus, no one but Rin to hide behind."

He cursed almost silently and frowned at her. She was right if Rin, the young kelpie and this annoying woman were there he would be spared the majority of the attention. "Very well"

"See you on Saturday" she smiled and left his office with a click of her heels and a twirl of her long coat.

***

The phone rang. But Kagome already knew who it was, if she had looked at the phone it would have been another unrecognised number and she would once again have been on the receiving end of his not so subtle hints. Naraku. No thank you. She was going to enjoy her weekend and didn't need him depressing her before it began. Grabbing her keys she exited the house post haste, closing the door on the ringing noise.

"Are you excited?" Kagome asked Ranmaru as she grabbed the bag she had packed for them and dragged it down the staircase.

"Yeah, last time I saw them was ages ago" Ranmaru grinned "it's funny"

"Funny?" she asked as they made it out of the building

"Even Sesshoumaru-san has someone who can boss him around" he explained

"You're right" Kagome grinned "that is kinda funny"

Sesshoumaru pulled up next to them, his usual car out of sorts in her working class neighbourhood, she grinned he would never tone it down, regardless of where he was. Undeniably Sesshoumaru.

She flung their bag in the back and got into the passenger seat whilst Ran climbed into the plush backseat next to Rin. The cream leather encased them both.

"Hi" she said grinning at Sesshoumaru

"Hn"

"This is going to be a long trip" she rolled her eyes, sometimes she wished for a conversationalist.

My sentiments exactly, he thought as he put the car into gear and sped off towards their destination trying to vent his frustration on something that wasn't liable to die.

The plane touched down in Hokkaido one and a half hours later and they were greeted by Touga's driver in a perfectly gorgeous car that got them ogled by quite a few other airport users.

Rin had fallen asleep in the plane, though she had woken up at touchdown she was asleep once again with Sesshoumaru holding her as they all settled into the back of the town car.

"It's Sakura season huh?" Kagome remarked as she watched the Sakura tree's fly by through the windows of the car.

"It is in Hokkaido during May through June" Sesshoumaru commented

"How far away is the manor from the airport?" she asked yawning slightly as Ranmaru set up residency of her lap, he had been tired too on the plane but being a kelpie his intrinsic fear of being somewhere high had made him unable to sleep.

"Half an hour at best" he told her "why do you not know?"

"I haven't seen them in two years, they didn't have the Hokkaido manor back then." She shrugged

"We should be there soon, this Sesshoumaru has recognised the landmarks" he said

She glanced out of the window again "Ooh, hot springs"

He raised a brow and shook his head in good natured tolerance, not something the Yokai did very often.

They pulled up outside the manor and were immediately pounced upon by Touga, whom despite being over seven hundred years old was more hyper than the children.

"Kagome" he swung her around so fast she barely got to look upon the glorious, sprawling, western styled manor.

"You'll make her sick" Izayoi chastised

"Touga-sama" she laughed as he set her back on her feet gently

"Ah, always so tiny Kagome" he surveyed her and frowned "is it possible to be that short?"

"Touga-sama I am perfectly capable of a mean right hook" Kagome warned "Inuyasha can vouch for that"

He chuckled and looked around, sniffing subtly "And where is my emotionally stunted son?"

"He escaped" Izayoi smiled chucking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the manor whilst helping young Rin from the car.

"He was never one for hugs" Touga mused thoughtfully. Kagome snorted.

***

Touga and Kagome had relocated to his study. It was purely Touga; a combination of random disarray of faxes, invoices, letters and bills scattered across the desk and yet there was a quiet semblance of order in the way he kept his bookshelves arranged alphabetically by author. There was a huge bay window that overlooked the vast back garden where Izayoi and the children could be seen and heard playing.

Sesshoumaru had also relocated to the study, he was playing chaperone to make sure his father didn't start telling the woman embarrassing stories, he remembered the humiliation of such very clearly and would rather prevent than do damage control. He did not like to be embarrassed. Nor did he appreciate anyone knowing anything about him that he was unaware of them knowing.

"Here" she passed the scroll of Touga's portrait across the desk to him

He surveyed it balefully and smiled "Ah, yes I remember this; a beautiful peasant girl convinced me into letting her paint it" he sighed and his eyes became distant and Sesshoumaru cleared his throat.

"She is not here to listen to your recollections of previous conquests father" Sesshoumaru reminded him

Touga grinned "What can I say my son, it is not my fault that women are attracted to me" the devilish grin widened "nor is it a sin to indulge in that"

Kagome giggled, she had always known Touga to be an insufferable flirt and new well enough that if Izayoi had been in the room he would have been singing a different tune.

"It is unbecoming of one who used to be a lord" Sesshoumaru chastised no emotion evident in his voice.

"I am a former lord Sesshoumaru" Touga smiled "now that I have relinquished that title I am free to do what I please"

Kagome watched the two of them carefully. She had heard Touga and Inuyasha interact many a time, all laughing, teasing and banter, with Sesshoumaru however Touga adopted a more formal speech pattern to reflect Sesshoumaru. It was interesting to say the least.

"Hn" Sesshoumaru glowered at his sire but said no more

"If you have finished" his father smirked crookedly, he did love getting one over on his stubborn son "We should go to the dining room, you must be hungry"

Sesshoumaru said nothing but Kagome gave her affirmation and they followed Touga from the room.

***

Dinner was a lively affair, the children chattering and giggling manically at their end of the table. Kagome and Touga engaged in their own little bit of banter with Izayoi pitching in every now and then to tease Touga. The only one who seemed to be discontented was Sesshoumaru; he said nothing, barely ate and refused the offer of wine.

After the meal was over Touga and Izayoi decided they had been long enough without children and took it upon themselves to put the two children to bed. Kagome laughed and Sesshoumaru tersely allowed it before stalking from the dining room and out onto the balcony.

This balcony was lined with ivy clinging and twisting around the banister, it was semi circular and quite large and Sesshoumaru was leaning his elbows down onto the lower banister whilst looking out over the darkened gardens below him. There was a slight breeze that lifted and played with his silver hair giving him an ethereal quality and the fireflies dancing around him did little to detract from the beauty of the scene.

"Penny for them" she said coming to stand next to him leaning her lower back against the banner and titling her head back to stare up into the star sprinkled sky.

"Hn"

At least it was acknowledgement, she thought sardonically as she looked at his stoic face. She had no idea what was going on between the two of them, were they dating? Did Sesshoumaru even employ that human past time? Did he even like her or was she just something to pass the time? So many questions that were not meant to be rhetorical but ended up being that way.

But there was something more. She had presumed before that his ire with his father was nothing more than the usual. After all Sesshoumaru was not known for being overly sociable but it appeared to be a bit more deep-rooted than that and she wondered if it was open for discussion.

"Sesshoumaru?"

"Hn?"

"How old are you?" she asked

"Four hundred and thirty-seven" he told her in a bored voice

"Wow" she muttered. Sure she had known Inuyasha, Ayame, Sasuke and the like for a while but she had known them for the entirety of their human aging. For demons the aging was weird. They aged differently, when they were born they were more alert and learnt to move freely without help quicker, their bone structure less delicate. It was possible, though not advisable, to drop a Yokai baby and receive no lasting harm. Then they aged much the same as human's did up until the age of around twenty five at which point they stopped aging as a human would. A Yokai then aged one year to every two-hundred human years. It was why they were considered immortal. Which explained why Sesshoumaru only looked to be at most twenty-seven.

Something occurred to her "Doesn't that mean you are past the age to take a mate?" she asked in confusion

"Correct" he sighed "but this Sesshoumaru has never felt the need to be tied to one"

"Really?" she questioned "So how old exactly is Touga?"

"This Sesshoumaru believes he is approaching seven hundred and fifty, or there about" he said

"Your mother... what happened to her?" she ventured closing her eyes tight shut wary of his response should she have overstepped her boundaries.

"She died when I was only twenty three in human years" he said slowly as if he were contemplating something. He glowered up at his father's room, Kagome catching the direction turned to see the rooms where Touga resided. Contempt flashed in his eyes for a moment followed swiftly by a sadness that was so consuming it nearly made Kagome breathless with it's intensity. It was replaced a few seconds later by a smouldering anger that merged both previous emotions in perfect harmony.

"I'm sorry" there was a pause while she tried to work out a way to soften what she was going to say next. She realised belatedly that there was no way and just blurted it out. "Do you blame Touga?" she asked

He exhaled sharply and then inhaled slowly and she allowed one of her eyes to open to survey him, he looked like he was fighting himself.

"You don't have to answer... sorry if I overstepped the mark" she stopped talking and took to staring back at the sky again there was a tense silence

"She died from a rare Yokai illness, few knew what it was and there was no cure" he chuckled humourlessly "now of course we have found a cure...too little too late." He sighed "When she died my father was visiting a woman at the time" he growled "he has always been a philanderer"

"Even now?" Kagome asked in trepidation, she wasn't sure if she could deal with that.

"He has matured enough that he is faithful to his current onna" he said

"But you still resent him?"

"It is more that this Sesshoumaru resents his flirtatious behaviour" he shrugged

"Oh" she sighed and then she remembered what he had said about mating "is that why you don't have a mate?"

"This Sesshoumaru believes that if he will ever have a mate and a bonded one then that should mean they would be one and not many. This Sesshoumaru has honour enough that he would not disgrace his chosen by taking someone else into his bed. As such, if this Sesshoumaru should tie himself to only one then this Sesshoumaru is entitled to as much time as he likes in which to chose the onna" he said mulishly

"I get that" she nodded and the grinned "I had no idea you were a romantic though Sesshoumaru" she giggled at the sharp look he flung her way.

He growled low in his chest but it was more playful than annoyed, she was amazed at how well she was able to differentiate between his growls.

"I feel sorry for Touga though" she smirked a sudden playful nature overcoming her "he's never gonna get any grandkids out of you, you're so damned picky!" she grinned as he growled.

On the balcony above the playfully bickering couple another couple stood and watched carefully, unseen by those below.

"She's good for him" Izayoi commented "he's actually engaging in teasing and it's not vindictive"

"I agree" Touga smiled, he had to admit he had been worried about his older sons distance from the rest of the world as well as his unwillingness to take a mate of his own.

"Seems like you really were bad when you were younger" Izayoi turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow

He backed off holding his palms out to her in surrender "Hey now, you can't be angry at that, you weren't even born"

"I may consider forgiving you" she said as she floated past him into their bed room she turned her head back over her shoulder and grinned "eventually"

***

Kagome frowned as light invaded her mind, non too subtly trying to lure her sleep befuddled mind into a state of wakefulness but in a fit of stubborn pique she stayed resolutely on the comfortable boundary between sleep and wakefulness.

Then both her pillows and her blankets disappeared with one fail swoop and she rolled to find them only to fall from her nice warm bed onto the not so nice cold wooden floor with a thump. That certainly woke her up.

She tossed her curtain of black onyx hair from her eyes and gave the smirking Sesshoumaru the dirtiest look she could muster that early in the morning. Which to be fair wasn't exactly terrifying, she was analogous to a bunny growling at a fox; stupid and about to be eaten.

"Time to get up" he said and then an eyebrow was raised as she didn't move, instead she groaned and thumped her head onto the floorboards. "Are you always this lazy?" he enquired

"Mornings are not my favourite time of day" she confessed and then she glared up at him "now get out so I can get dressed"

A bemused Sesshoumaru found himself in the hallway three minutes later. After refusing to move the woman had thrown him from the room forcibly and slammed the door on his face. He was still trying to come to terms with the thing, whether he should be insulted or amused.

"My son, when waking a woman in the morning always be gentle or rest with their ire for the rest of the day" Touga advised on his way down to breakfast, he grinned to himself when he heard Sesshoumaru growl in reply.

Sesshoumaru was loathe to concede that his sire could ever speak words of wisdom but it appeared the advice given to him earlier had been justifiably sound. Kagome was not amused.

She was cranky and irate and if your name wasn't Ran or Rin you were liable to be physically abused for talking to her. This amused Sesshoumaru, he had never known her to abuse people incessantly but apparently sleep deprivation did that to her.

She stayed surly and foul tempered for most of the day until Izayoi took matters into her own hands and lead them all down to the huge green expanse of Izayoi's maze crafted from her won plans it was huge intricate and she loved it. It seemed to snap Kagome from her anger as she looked at it with the eyes of a child.

"Wow!" she enthused

"Amazing!" Ranmaru was agog

"Cool!" Rin gasped

"It's made from my design" Izayoi grinned "It's demon proof so that Touga can't scent his way around it" she giggled as Touga pouted

"Can we play in it?" Rin asked gleefully

"Hai, let's make teams to try and find the centre" said Izayoi grinning "Sesshoumaru can go with Kagome-chan, Rin can come with me and Touga and Ranmaru can go together" she clapped her hands together in childlike contentment

"Is that okay?" Kagome asked Ranmaru

"Of course" he shrugged in the carefree manner that only children possess

"Let's go!" Rin giggled towing Izayoi along behind her into the maze. Closely followed by Touga and Ranmaru.

"That was subtle" she muttered

"Hn" Sesshoumaru was not impressed

"I wonder what they're up to" she pondered as she started into the maze. She paused, realising Sesshoumaru wasn't behind her, reached back and grabbed him by his shirt pulling him none to gently in after her.

"Can you smell anything?" she was curious about what Izayoi had said

"No" he paused looking disconcerted, his nose wrinkled, his brow furrowed and the steps he took were suddenly not as confident as usual "seems Izayoi did a good job"

"Are you okay?" she asked "you seem out of sorts"

"An Inu Yokai relies greatly on their sense of smell" he explained "since this maze has eliminated that this Sesshoumaru has to adapt, it would be as if this Sesshoumaru had covered one of your eyes, you would still be able to walk but your depth perception would be off"

"Oh, I get it" she nodded as they progressed deeper into the maze

"You seem to have cheered up" he noted

"I'm fickle when I comes to that sort of thing" she shrugged "holding grudges is a waste of time, it just takes me a while to realise that"

"Apparently so" he acknowledged

And they both walked on in companionable silence. Kagome leading, Sesshoumaru trying to adjust to having no sense of smell. He wondered how exactly Izayoi had managed to negate his sense of smell, he could still hear; Izayoi and Rin were nearby but his father and the kelpie where further into the maze so that he could only just hear them. Which made him wonder just how large the maze was.

"Hey" she hummed

"Yes?"

"How big do you think this place is?" she questioned innocently enough. He looked at her strangely for a moment before deciding it was just a coincidence and that she couldn't read minds. If she could read minds she'd be even more annoying.

"This Sesshoumaru would guess about three acres"

"You mean you don't actually know?" she gasped pretending to be shocked, he gave her his 'shut up or die' look and she complied falling once again into silence.

"So..." she mused wondering if she could get away with asking another question. "why don't you like Inuyasha?"

"That question should be obvious" he told her scathingly

"You don't like humans?" she pondered "but you haven't killed me yet, you love Rin and Izayoi doesn't seem to annoy you that much"

"That is not the problem" Sesshoumaru confided "while all ningen are below this Sesshoumaru—" he paid no attention to her snort of derision "Inuyasha and this Sesshoumaru are on uncomfortable terms for other reasons"

"Like?"

"He is a brat"

"That's part of his charm" she giggled at his disbelieving expression

"He becomes jealous easily" Sesshoumaru continued

"Kikyo has nearly killed him on many an occasion" Kagome grinned "but that's always amusing to watch"

"He is overly possessive, like a child"

"Tell me about it" she rolled her eyes

"What do you mean woman?" he raised a brow

"When we were younger Kikyo may have been his girl friend but that didn't mean he was going to let any of the guys go out with me" she sighed good naturedly

"Hn" he frowned at her "and yet you defend him, he is but a child"

"Sesshoumaru, you just told me last night that you're four hundred and thirty-seven" she snickered "of course Inuyasha seems immature"

"He is an idiot" Sesshoumaru said coldly

"Yeah" she smiled indulgently "but he's our idiot"

He watched as she walked on and allowed himself to smile softly before quickly banishing the expression. It seemed the woman understood more about pack than he had expected for a human, she was correct, regardless of the Hanyou's behaviour he was still their Hanyou. Their resident moron with a loud mouth and a temper that was easy to ignite, but their responsibility none the less.

They rounded the corner into the centre of the well and Kagome squealed and clapped her hands together in glee. In the small centre of the maze was an idyllic little gazebo constructed from wood painted bright red with red roses cultivated to twine around it.

Sesshoumaru raised a brow as he realised what was coming.

He could hear the heartbeats of the other four as they prepared to appear from behind the gazebo and decided he didn't care.

They sprung from their hiding places giggling like loons only to tackle Kagome to the bottom of a dog pile. A very ungainly dog pile. He smirked.

It seemed his pack was growing, whether he liked it or not.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha. Okay so how did everyone like it? An extra long chapter to celelbrate this fic getting nominated for best AU on Dokuga! *dances like a loon* Whoever nominated me I am your new best friend! Anyway thanks for reading and review!

Review replies fanfiction dot net: j.d.y, Vampire-princesses, llebreknit, drkkizzes12, kagome past and present x2 and angel19872006.

On Dokuga a big hug goes to autumngold; thanks for your review!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Confrontation

"Kagome!" Sango sprinted into her friends office the next Monday without bothering to knock, Ayame was in tow.

"What is it?" she half growled, she was still pissed about the Naraku issue. No matter that she may have forgotten it for a short while whilst being with Sesshoumaru.

"We got it!" Ayame squealed throwing a letter onto the table

Kagome picked it up and noticed that it was addressed to her and yet had already been opened and read "You know reading other peoples mail is a crime right?" she said pulling the letter from the envelope and skimming it.

Her jaw dropped open.

Naraku had given her the backing she needed: she was getting the computer suite!

Her first reaction was absolute joy.

And then came the suspicion.

"Kagome?" Sango asked "Why aren't you happy?"

"Yeah, I mean you've been trying to get the grant for ages!" Ayame chimed in

"It smells fishy" she said "no scratch that, this smells like a certain dog"

"Kagome?" they both squawked as she grabbed her purse and stalked out of her office

"Kagome, where are you going?" Ayame yelled

"I'm hunting a dog" she snarled

"Huh?" Sango asked

"That woman exists in a world of her own" Ayame said

"Hey, you actually sounded smart just then" Sango giggled

"Ha ha" Ayame drawled rolling her eyes

Sesshoumaru was contented at knowing he had helped Kagome and knocked the smarmy Naraku down a peg or three too. He sat in his office working on his computer when his new secretary started shouting.

"Hey, hey you can't go in there!"

The door to his office was thrown open and Kagome stood there his flushed secretary behind her. Her eyes were like blue fire, she was livid.

"You got Naraku to agree" she said in a voice shaking with suppressed rage

"It's okay Yuka" he consoled his latest secretary who sat down again shrugging

"Did you or did you not get Naraku to agree?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru did not" he said

"Do not lie to me" she snarled "I know for a fact that Naraku would never let me have the money"

"Why?" he asked

"Because I refused to go out with him after the first meeting when I first proposed the suite" she said "he isn't someone who forgets being jilted it seems"

"Which is why Souta knew his name" Sesshoumaru put the pieces into place. She flushed, he was right; she had complained over a double Gin to Souta that he was still pestering her.

She had tried to keep the stalker like tendencies of Naraku to herself, but she had gotten mildly intoxicated and blabbed some of her problems to Souta one evening.

"The point is that I did not need you to stick your nose into my business" she barked "I am not some poor defenceless female who needs you to solve her every problem!"

He narrowed his eyes feeling his own temper bubble dangerously close to the surface. As he saw it she was pack, and as her alpha it was his responsibility to make sure her needs were met, she would not challenge him on this.

"I was going to get that on my own. I have worked hard every day of my life to get all that I have now and I needed none of your help"

"You should be grateful" he snarled

"Grateful?" she was incredulous

"Yes" he snarled "I solved your insignificant little problem"

"Insignificant?" she demanded getting closer to the desk and slamming her hands onto the wood. "Well I'm sorry if the wants of a head teacher pale in significance to the problems of the great Sesshoumaru-_**sama**_" she added the honorific sarcastically

"This Sesshoumaru helped you" he was cold "say thank you"

"No!" she yelled "I practically built that school with my own two hands, I spent years convincing people that it was a good idea and then you swan in and pretend like you care!"

"You are jealous that this Sesshoumaru succeeded where you failed" he said shortly

She slapped him "Stop being such an arrogant cocky son of a goddamn bitch" she yelled "people in this planet survive on their own without people like you messing with them"

He stood, he was seriously pissed. She had slapped him, Sesshoumaru Taisho. Not only that but she was throwing his help back in his face.

"Are you going to hit me Sesshoumaru?" she asked as she watched his hands twitch at his sides

"Apologise" he ordered

"You know what?" she said her eyes narrowing "I don't think I will" she walked to the door of his office "Sayonara"

"Get back woman!" he roared but she was already in the lift and the doors slid closed over her hostile being.

"Damn it" he growled

***

It had been two months since the argument and Souta was worried. The Inu Yokai currently occupying his usual seat at the bar was as usual in a terrible mood.

But that wasn't why he was worried. Today the mood he was in wasn't really terrible and more likely borderline homicidal. The aura of death he was projecting into the bar had caused all of the customers to take seats in the little tables away from the bar and one by one they were slowly leaving the pub, fearing for their lives.

Even Toji, the resident drunk who was always asleep in his corner of the pub was awake and glancing shiftily at the Inu Yokai in a worried kind of way.

Souta sighed. The Yokai was singlehandedly clearing out the entire pub; this was not good for his earnings. He'd been doing this nearly three times every week since he had fought with Kagome.

Sesshoumaru was ranting to himself in an undertone and every now and then Souta caught words like 'wench' 'apologise' and 'Naraku'.

The phone behind the bar rang and grateful for the interruption from musing over his dwindling profits Souta picking it up.

"Mushi, mushi" he said

Sesshoumaru glared at the phone as his sensitive ears caught Kagome's voice at the other end of the line.

"Souta?" she asked

"Yeah?" he asked turned his back on the demon who was watching like some kind of hawk

"Is he there?" she asked

"En" he said "Where are you?"

"I'm outside, I was going to come in, but if he's there then I'll not bother" she said

Sesshoumaru stood and threw a twenty onto the bar and stalked outside.

"Uh oh" Souta said

"What do you mean uh oh?" she asked and then she felt a familiar aura prickle her Miko senses and she turned around to see Sesshoumaru.

"Aw, crap" she hung up the phone and bid a strategic retreat.

"You are avoiding this Sesshoumaru" he stated following her

"I'm sorry do I know you?" she asked flinging him a wan smile that seethed with anger before retreating at a faster pace.

"Stop" he snarled

"I don't listen to you" she said "leave me alone!"

She got into her broken down in need of a new engine car and tried to put her keys in the ignition but failed as he hands were shaking with suppressed anger. She didn't want to blow up at him again because that would only serve to make him angrier at her, plus when incensed she tended to blurt out hateful things. And that wasn't her style.

"I said stop" he ordered holding onto the cars side

"Let go Taisho-san" she said

Shocked, he did as she said and she drove away in her battered car.

It was the first time she had called him by his last name. And on top of that she had used a suffix.

But that wasn't what had made him let go. He had let go because he had seen a single solitary tear make its way from the corner of her eye down to her cheek.

***

"Damn it" she said as she pulled up outside her flat. Sure she had been angry but she was also upset and somehow that had won out as the dominant emotion and she had actually shed a tear.

Now that she was away from him she was bawling like a baby and she had no idea how to stop.

"Stupid, tear ducts" she muttered opening the door to her flat.

Sasuke started. He had been over to look after Ranmaru for a while.

Kagome looked over at her friend through her crying eyes and then fell over the welcome mat straight onto her face.

"Ow!" she bellowed "Stupid mat!"

"Kagome are you crying?" Sasuke asked getting up cautiously

"No" Kagome shook off her helping arm and stood on her own "I'm not crying, I just fell over the mat is all"

"Kagome" Sasuke was sympathetic "do you want to talk about it?"

"About the mat?" Kagome was flippant "there's not much to tell"

"Kags" he said

"I'm really fine" she said grabbing her friends arm and throwing him unceremoniously out of the apartment and closing the door. Once the door was closed Kagome slid down the door onto the floor and sat there staring at nothing.

Ranmaru looked at his mother and frowned. Someone had to do something.

Outside Sasuke had come to pretty much the same conclusion, he and Hana had been planning on going back home soon, their annual visit almost being over. But at this latest revelation he wasn't so sure. The Inu was an idiot if he let Kagome slip through his fingers, opportunities like Kagome only came around once in a lifetime, regardless of how long one lived.

***

Sesshoumaru walked through the door into the apartment and collapsed onto the couch in confusion. He had been angry at her but now he was just plain confused; why was she crying?

What reason was there to cry?

He felt terrible as he sort of realised that whatever her reason for crying was, it was probably interconnected with him.

"Why me?" he asked aloud

Rin sighed from within her room; adults were so tiring.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from this. Please review and I hope everyone liked it. This was kinda short huh? I just wanted to get our confrontation out of the way so that the good times (sort of) could roll.

Thanks to those who reviewed on Fanfiction: j.d.y. , llebreknit, Vampire-princesses, Kagome past and present, tinabugX2, HakuoBlake and XxLovesxInuyashaxX

Thanks go out to Inu_inu_luvluv and marposia_miko on

Also big thanks to those who reviewed on Dokuga: autumngold and Mander B, thanks for the reviews you guys!


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Council of War

"We have to do something" Ranmaru told his younger companion as they stood by the old tree together at break time.

"Why?" she asked shrugging "they're supposed to be grownups"

"Grownups can be stupid too Rin-chan" he told her

"Hn" she thought about it and Ranmaru was slightly worried by how much like Sesshoumaru she sounded when she went 'hn' "Fine, I'll help you. But under one rule"

"What?" he asked

"Transform" she commanded

"You never give up huh?" he said rolling his eyes like his mother

"No" she folded her arms

"Fine" he grabbed her wrist and dragged her to an empty classroom

"What are you guys doing in here?" Shippo asked in surprise as he came across the two children

"I'm showing her my true form" he told the teacher earnestly

"Oh" he said raising a brow

Ranmaru closed his eyes and he was hidden from Rin's view by a wall of water that seemed to be flowing upwards and then became a whirlwind made from water. The water subsided into nothing and instead a small foal stood in front of her. He was midnight black without a hint of white on him and Ranmaru's eyes gazed steadily at the young girl from the horse's body. If he had been a horse at the age of seven he would have been matured and had an adult's physique. However Kelpie children age at the same rate as human children do and do not reach maturity until later.

"Neat" Shippo said

Rin's eyes went all glassy "So, cute" she threw her arms around his neck "I want to keep you!"

"I'm not a pet" Ranmaru remarked dryly "Please let me go"

"Oh" she stepped back

The wall of water appeared again but this time it flowed downwards and did a whirlwind but in the opposite anticlockwise direction and then when it dispersed she was staring at the human form of Ranmaru.

"Possibly the coolest transformation ever" Shippo said

"Shippo-sensei" the children called Shippo by his first name always, no one really knew why. "Can you help us?" Rin asked

"What do you want me to do?" he asked

"Get Sango-Obasan and Ayame-Obasan and bring them here" Ranmaru instructed taking control in a commanding manner reminiscent of Kikyo.

Ten minutes later Sango, Ayame and Shippo were staring down at a very determined Ranmaru and an expectant Rin.

"You need to help us make them be friends again" Ranmaru instructed

"Why?" Sango asked. As far as she saw it Sesshoumaru was a jerk and Kagome was well rid of him.

"Yeah" Ayame said "he is rude and obnoxious and totally wrong for Kagome"

"I have no idea what's going on" Shippo said looking at each person in turn

"Sesshoumaru-sama and Higurashi-sensei had a fight" Rin explained

"I don't know what obnotos—" Ran began

"Obnoxious" Sango corrected

"Whatever" he rolled his eyes "I don't know what that means but I know Okasan is upset"

"No" they all said as one

"She's better off without him" Sango said

"Just wait" Ayame told Ranmaru "in a few weeks she'll be back to her old self"

Ranmaru sighed.

Rin noticed that no one had mentioned how Sesshoumaru was doing but then again he wasn't exactly their friend; Kagome was their priority. Sesshoumaru was hers.

He watched and he waited but nothing good seemed to be happening. She would insist she was fine but she stopped reading the books published by Taisho inc, she threw out the roses he had bought her and the vase that had been sitting on her bedside table; the one he had bought her, was relegated to the very back of the living room dresser where no one could see it. She stopped watching romantic movies and threw away her much loved copy of pride and prejudice. She went to kickboxing every other night instead of just on Thursday's and she went jogging every Saturday. Those that knew Kagome well knew that when she was upset she threw herself into fitness.

Whenever Taisho corp. was in the newspaper she threw it out before even reading it.

Sasuke called often, but she refused to speak to him. Never a good sign, if she couldn't speak to Sasuke there was normally something she needed to hide from the overly intuitive neko.

"Okasan?" Ranmaru was sat on a cushion on the floor of the living room watching TV when he heard a loud screeching noise followed by a thunk

"I'm fine" she called. She was saying that a lot recently.

Ranmaru unfolded his legs and walked into her room. She was in her closet dragging Kick-san out of hibernation.

"Oh no" he said in horror. Kick-san was an automated punching mannequin. Parts of him light up and instruct you to kick him, she got him from Sango last birthday and had only ever used him once, when she had broken up from her previous boyfriend.

"What do you mean oh no?" she laughed "is it so wrong I want to use this?"

"The last time you used Kick-san was when—"

"I know" she cut him short "but that was then and this is now"

Yeah right. He set his mouth in determination, next time he went to school he was calling another meeting and this time he was going to get his own way. In the mean time he needed to call Sasuke and give him an update.

***

Sango and Kagome jogged over the crest o the hill together both panting slightly from exertion.

"Can I ask you something?" Sango began tremulously

"Maybe" Kagome hedged

"Why are you so upset about this whole thing with Sesshoumaru?" Sango asked

Kagome blinked at her friend in surprise "Huh?"

"It was just you needed the backing and he provided it, shouldn't you be happy?"

Kagome smiled slightly "I thought you'd understand, Kikyo did instantly. It's not about him helping me it's about many things. First you know I'm not one to be reliant on anyone else"

"Yeah"

They had slowed to a brisk walk now to keep up with the conversation. "Well I built up that school myself, it's my baby and everything to do with it is my job. To interfere is like saying that I couldn't have done it on my own, it's stripping me of my standing." She sighed "maybe I'm being selfish but to me it was my challenge to overcome, I don't need Sesshoumaru to prove he's better than me by dealing with this, I already knew he could have solved my problems for me. But I didn't ask him, I didn't want that"

"But independence only goes so far..." Sango couldn't help but interject

"I waited three years to get the approval for the school, I slaved day in day out. I met with everyone I could possibly think of. But in the end I won, it worked and I was able to create what I had envisioned. I did it without pity, but I needed the support of everyone. I still managed to do it. This in comparison was so much easier, just another battle of wills with some conglomerate jerk who thought he was better than me. It would have worked out eventually."

"I suppose"

"But that's not all of it" she frowned "I never told Sesshoumaru about Naraku's intimidation and insistence on me dating him. But I didn't really want to talk about it" she sighed again "so maybe it's my fault that now to Naraku I look like I can't help myself, I look weak and it makes me angry. He probably thinks I need some demon like Sesshoumaru to look after me or else I'll flounder and fail"

"why do you care what he thinks?" Sango asked

"Because Sango, Naraku is a predator, as soon as he finds out that I am weak and that I am unprotected it's only so long before he'll strike"

"Is it getting that bad?" Sango asked worriedly

Kagome gave a wan smile "No, I'm fine" she was lying through her teeth but at this point she really didn't want anyone else sticking their noses in her life. "Look I'm gonna run on my own for a while okay?"

Before Sango could even think about answering Kagome was gone.

***

Kagome stretched outside her flat just after her run and smiled. She loved running; how there was nothing but you and the road and no one could touch you. At least once she was alone.

"Hello Ka-go-me" came a silky smooth voice

She tensed and slowly turned to see Naraku stood behind her.

He, as usual, was radiating an aura of pure maliciousness as he smiled sedately at her.

"Leave me alone" she snapped turning to go into the building. On the surface she was angry but underneath it all she was terrified, he knew where she lived and he was still calling her nightly. She was not happy with her newly acquired stalker.

"That's really no way to thank me is it?" he asked putting a hand on her arm to stop her

She punched him in the face with enough force to knock him onto the ground. "I said leave me alone"

She got into the flat block and ran up the stairs three at a time.

"I'm not going to leave you alone until you give me a proper thank you!" he yelled after the Miko

***

Rin was having just as many problems as Ranmaru. Sesshoumaru was not taking being separated from Kagome any better than she was taking being separated from him. He however had a different way of coping. It was called sleep with a different woman every night of the week and then pump iron for seven hours.

His mood was so volatile it was liable to blow up at any wrong movements.

His employees walked on eggshells around him like they were wary gazelle being prowled in a wide open valley by the tetchiest lion to ever walk the lands.

Since his argument with Kagome he had fired seventeen people, made five people cry and his secretary had resigned and joined a convent to ward off 'the dreaded demon'.

The Yokai had realised a little too late the depth of his feelings for the only woman to ever get under his skin and he was lashing out at everyone who wasn't called Rin.

Sasuke who had gotten annoyed at Kagome's refusal to even talk to him over the phone went to his apartment complex to talk to him. But didn't get any further than the lift when he felt the enormous youki that threatened death to anyone who dared approach. At that he couldn't help but smile; at least the feeling was mutual. Sesshoumaru seemed to be hurting as badly as Kagome apparently was.

A conference meeting was called, or a council of war as Shippo called it.

"Do you still think this will all just blow over?" Ranmaru was gleeful, he had proved the adults wrong; it was a high point in his seven years of life.

"Yeah, yeah" Ayame flicked him on the nose playfully "You told us so"

"So what do we do?" Shippo asked sitting on a desk "She won't even speak to the neko"

"Well we need to help them" Sango said "last time we went jogging together she started to cry"

"Yeah, Kags deserves to be happy" Ayame was dreaming "just like me and Kouga-kun"

"Who's Kouga?" Shippo whispered to Sango

""You've only been on two dates with the guy," Sango hit Ayame with a piece of card that was left over from the last arts and crafts lesson "Don't go getting starry eyed until at least the third date"

"So what do we do?" Rin was annoyed at the arguing adults; there were more important issues to contemplate.

"I don't know" Sango admitted "the last time I tried to ask her she just kept punching the punch bag until I couldn't even hear myself think anymore"

"Yep" Ayame nodded "the last time we went clubbing together a Yokai hit on her and wouldn't leave her alone so she sent him flying across the room with her reiyouku"

"She's pretty annoyed" Shippo nodded "I saw her soda get stuck in the vending machine, she punched it and kicked it. She probably would have broken it if I hadn't helped her"

"Think how I feel" Rin said "Sesshoumaru- sama has never been this angry before"

They all thought back to the times they had met the Inu Yokai and tried to imagine him in a worse mood. It wasn't a pretty mental image.

"I have an idea" Ranmaru grinned evilly and they all listened to his plan in awe.

"You came up with that on your own?" Sango was in awe of the young one

"Kikyo-Obasan and Sasuke-niichan helped a little" he conceded "but I'm sure it'll work"

"Well" Shippo was sombre "It was nice knowing you guys"

"What are you talking about Shippo, we aren't dying or anything" Ayame rolled her eyes

"Yeah but if this plan fails and they find out we are dead beings walking" he said

"It has to work" Ranmaru was adamant

"En!" Rin nodded

A/N: I think we've established I don't own Inuyasha! Okay thanks to all who reviewed on the last chapter and to those who didn't understand Kagome's anger I hope this explains it. Thanks for your reviews I truly love them! With that in mind please review and thanks for reading!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Almost

Sasuke had convinced Kagome that if she was really as 'fine' as she wanted them to believe she wouldn't mind going out on a date with someone. Not being one to back down from any challenge, ever, Kagome had reluctantly accepted. Deciding she would show Sasuke up a bit she let him arrange the date.

She had called in the aid of Hana to dress her appropriately and the girl had risen to the challenge quite spectacularly. She surveyed herself critically in the mirror and smiled it wasn't something she'd usually be comfortable in but she'd be damned if she didn't look good. The dress she had been ordered into was perfect. A cobalt blue crepe, bias cut, layered so that it was not indecent. There was a silver crescent moon clasp on the shoulder studded with intricate jewels of a slightly darker blue and she tried desperately to ignore the similarities between it and the markings on a certain Yokai she knew all too well. She looked ethereal and unmovable.

Ranmaru watched his mother and smirked, it was time for phase one, if Rin had managed her side of the plan that is. He silently bumped fists with Hana who was babysitting and they shared the smile of co-conspirators.

Rin was having problems, her Sesshoumaru-sama was going to the restaurant she had suggested, but he was taking another lady. She had asked him to go because the owner was a friend of her parents and they would like him to go. This was not a lie but it wasn't strictly the main reason she wanted to go. This Yura lady was slightly strange and Rin could already tell she'd have a sleepover and then leave like all the others. She was really not liking how this was turning out. She picked up the phone.

Ranmaru hung up the phone and glanced at Hana "This is not good" he told her

"Nope" she replied looking worried, the phone rang again, startling them and Hana picked up.

"Yes?"

It was Sasuke "I'm in the cafe across the street from the restaurant and the guy that just introduced himself as her date is so not Sesshoumaru" Sasuke looked the man up and down "Unless Sesshoumaru dyed his hair black and got a star tattoo on his forehead"

"Oh, for the love of all that is demonic" Hana sighed "Sesshoumaru is coming, but with some other woman too"

"Damn it" Sasuke said

"That backfired rather spectacularly" Hana commented

There was a pause "Or not" Sasuke mused "Jealousy can sometimes be a marvellous catalyst"

"Fine, come home then" she told him before hanging up and relaying the information to one curious kelpie demon

"That still doesn't explain who that guy is though" Ranmaru murmured

***

"I'm Bankotsu" the man who had met her at the restaurant introduced himself gallantly. She appraised him quickly, something akin to Hanyou the young male had long black hair he pulled into a plait and a curious demon star tattoo on his forehead, which was more of a reminder than she needed at the moment.

"I'm Kagome" she smiled as he pulled out her chair for her "I'm sorry about Sasuke coercing you into this"

The man stiffened for a moment and accidentally knocked his cutlery to the floor, which he bent to retrieve before smiling, slightly abashed. "I was not forced Kagome-san, I feel honoured to dine with you"

She smiled wondering why he seemed so discomforted "How do you know Sasuke?"

He swallowed hard before answering "My brother is an interior designer, and Sasuke used him"

"Ah, for the new apartment he and Hana bought in Kyoto?" she asked interested

"I think so" he said sighing slightly in relief, he exhaled again in relief as the waiter came and asked what kind of beverage they would like. He hoped she had stopped with the questions of this 'Sasuke', he was not sure how much longer he could keep bluffing before he made a detrimental mistake. When Naraku had called to remind him of that withstanding favour his first reaction had been to reject anything that was offered, but this seemed rather simple for someone with a background in the mafia, all he had to do was wine and dine the girl. And then when the evening was complete get her into Naraku's town car, conscious or unconscious it didn't matter in the least.

"So, what do you do?" she asked when they had procured a bottle of the house white.

"I work for one of Japan's biggest conglomerates, Onigumo industries" he revealed and noticed her sharp intake of breath and the dark look at the mention "Are you troubled Kagome-san?"

"No, I'm fine" she smiled a little wanly "I've just had some sour dealings with them in the past"

"Really?" he was interested, Naraku had not revealed anything as to why he wanted the woman and he was naturally curios as to why he needed to kidnap the poor woman.

"Yes" she was still looking faintly murderous "but that is not the conversation I really need to be having right now" she breathed in deeply and smiled again "So tell me about yourself, you said you had a brother?"

Curiosity not one bit sated he sighed and decided to simply engage in the conversation, after all she was a perfectly desirable woman.

***

Sesshoumaru walked into the restaurant the Rin had bizarrely decided he was going to with his usual air of 'I own you all' exuding him in waves and one prattling woman on his arm.

He was unused to such a concept as a woman talking to him about her life, except of course the one woman who continued to plague his dreams intently, and was wondering if she actually thought she was going to have a relationship with her. He did not have relationships, he had Rin but she was under his protection and then there was whatever had happened between him and Kagome but this insufferable woman did not seem to realise she was there purely as a prelude to her main purpose, to warm his bed and vent his pent up rage.

It was simply not polite to just lay with the girl.

The waiter led them to a table and he tensed as the scent of summer rolled through his mind and clogged his senses. The power of that scent only intensified by absence. Kagome.

From his table at the back of the restaurant he could see every other table and it took him no preamble to find the woman. She was absolutely mesmerising, a Greek goddess in that dress. And then he bit back a possessive snarl because she was wearing it for him, for that insignificant being sat opposite her.

Yura was still chattering, laying her hand on his arm to both create a false feeling of intimacy and try and regain his attention. But he was lost to her, his attentions fixed firmly upon Kagome. His Kagome.

He watched as she stiffened and he knew she had felt him there and he smiled. She darted a nervous glance over her shoulder and when she caught sight of him her eyes narrowed and she glared at him viscously. Before turning back to her date as if nothing had happened.

He growled and the woman he was sharing a table with tensed slightly. Staring at Kagome's back reproachfully for a moment he turned his eyes back to the woman and pretended to pay attention to her whilst his other senses homed in on Kagome.

***

It had been exceptionally hard concentrating on her meal and Bankotsu whilst an irate Inu was sat in the corner of the restaurant listening to everything, his aura fluctuating wildly.

When Bankotsu suggested they leave she had jumped at the chance, uncaring as to how it would look to the man she was currently on a date with and they left the restaurant post haste.

Sesshoumaru frowned as the male stood to leave, his movement bringing with it a faint scent of something that was familiar and at the same time not. It took Sesshoumaru about three minutes, at which time they were making their way to the quiet backstreet car park, to identify the scent. It was chloroform.

So crude, he thought. Chloroform was a stupid way to knock someone out for it truly was not proficient in that purpose. But it was still widely used and he doubted that there was another more asinine reason behind having it.

He stood threw some bills on the table and flung himself from the restaurant only to be stopped abruptly by Yura who was now clinging to her arm. With a growl he tried to throw her off but as a demoness she wasn't exactly easy to dislodge.

"Won't you take this car?" Bankotsu asked opening the door of the town car for Kagome. She was about to get in and thank him for his offer when she paused, why would a middle manager at a Conglomerate have procured a town car? It made no sense.

She turned to him, suspicious now to see him advance on her with a cloth. The sweet cloying smell gave him away and she backed away from both him and the car.

"We can either do this the easy way or the hard way" he threatened

She flared her Miko powers in warning and he chuckled

"I may have been marked but I assure you I am not a demon, I cannot be purified" he advanced upon her again, certain of victory. Until she smashed her fist upwards into his nose revelling in the ripping sound as the cartilage tore.

He gasped and tried to stem the blood flow "Bitch" he growled backhanding her hard enough to send her tumbling down to the asphalt.

What came next was a huge shock to both the hired villain and the fallen Kagome. Bankotsu went flying through the air.

Sesshoumaru in his ethereal glory stood in front of Kagome snarling and snapping viscously, all reason gone, to leave nought but red in his eyes.

He advanced slowly on his victim as if taunting him before lifting the poor human from the ground by his neck and snarling out a vindictive chuckle at his helpless prey.

Kagome who now had a split lip and a sore jaw pulled herself to shaky feet and ran at Sesshoumaru. Regardless of what this man may or may not have just tried to do to her she would not allow Sesshoumaru to become a killer.

She ran at him and began pummelling on his back with her small fists.

"Damn it Sesshoumaru you will stop this now!" she barked at him and then winced as the man was dropped to the floor without a further thought.

Sesshoumaru spun to face Kagome eyes still red and primal and yet she didn't feel the instinctive rise of her reiyouku, it seemed her powers trusted this demon. Or recognised the futility in fighting one of such power. Somehow her second reasoning wasn't as comforting to her.

Bankotsu took his chance and scrambled.

He backed her up until her back came into contact with the hood of the car. She swallowed hard as he continued to advance and nearly shrieked at his sudden movement before he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head, splaying her onto the hood. She wondered for a bizarre second what the hell was going on with the driver of the car she was lying on right now. But that thought was pushed firmly from her mind as his lips crashed down upon hers.

This kiss was unlike the others. This kiss was ruthless and dominating, crushing and possessive. He suckled her bleeding lip and at her gasp forced his tongue into her mouth and began to plunder ruthlessly. She moaned and he pressed her further back into the car and she began to reciprocate the kiss. She couldn't quite remember in that moment why exactly she had even been angry at him and when he moved down to kiss, lick and nip at her neck all coherent thought vanished.

She was jolted back to earth however when his free hand began to move over her body. She was suddenly overwhelmed by how wrong this was. She was still angry at him, some might call her fickle but she stuck to her ideals, and this was obviously breaking her principle of independence.

She shoved the Inu off of her and glared at him as she watched his eyes return to their usual gold.

"I hate you" she growled because no matter how much she had enjoyed that kiss it didn't count because he had forced her. She grabbed the hem of her skirt and ran from him.

Sesshoumaru watched her go with agonised eyes and fought the urge to whimper when he once again caught the scent of her tears. He had made her cry, again. He really needed to stop doing that.

He frowned as he realised there was a stunned human in the car he was stood in front of. He knocked on the window and it rolled down to reveal the old human male

"This Sesshoumaru suggests you leave whilst you still have the necessary limbs required to do so" he said not at all surprised when he was obeyed without preamble.

***

"Hello Ka-go-me" she shuddered at the voice on the other end of the phone, she so needed to get her number changed.

"I'm not in the mood" she muttered as she gazed out of the window at the passing traffic as her taxi took her home

"Too bad if I am Ka-go-me"

"Get to the point scumbag" she said tiredly

"My associate is at the hospital" Naraku sounded briefly annoyed "but then we have you and your Yokai friend to thank for that"

"So he was yours" she said growling lowly

"Yes but know this now Ka-go-me" he paused "I will have you reconsider. This is all your fault you know, if you hadn't whored yourself out to a certain Inu Yokai things could have been so much better"

The line went dead and she closed her eyes. Refusing to let the tears fall. There was so much, too much to deal with right now and it was drowning her.

"What next?"

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. I've had some reviews about how Kagome won't be able to forgive Sesshoumaru for sleeping with other women, but to be honest Sesshoumaru was angry and lonely when he was sleeping with the other women, plus he no longer had any ties to her. Of course Kagome won't just forgive and forget but she'll try because she loves him, even if it doesn't resolve itself for a long while it will eventually I promise. There are several things she won't abide by and some of them are people taking away her independence and one of the others is lying. I think that though Sesshoumaru was sleeping around she wouldn't be able to hold it against him considering that they weren't going out, even though she might have wanted to, as long as he will admit he has done it then she should be able to forgive him. Kagome is being childish and she can admit that perhaps she shouldn't hold a grudge over something like this but in the end her pride triumphed and she lashed out at Sesshoumaru. I've experienced a similar situation in my life which is kinda what this is modelled on.

So anyway I hope you guys stick with this! Thank you very much to everyone who reviews!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Stalemate

Kikyo watched her cousin lay into her punch bag and rolled her eyes at Ranmaru who shrugged at her.

"Kagome, I don't think the bag can take much more" Kikyo warned

"Don't care" Kagome fumed

"Why are you so angry anyway?" Kikyo demanded

"He kissed me" she bit out

"And that's a bad thing?" Kikyo asked raising a brow

"It is when I didn't want him to, or even if I did..." she trailed off and looked confused "whatever he's still an ass"

"Kagome"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember when we were around twelve and we went to that summer camp together?"

"Yeah"

"Do you remember how we had to choose what activities we were going to be doing for the two weeks?"

"Yeah and you chose swimming for me even though you knew I couldn't swim" Kagome mock glared at her cousin

"You were really angry at me for a very long time because I'd done it without your permission, but by the end of the camp you could swim really well"

"Please don't tell me you're trying to draw parallels between camp and my situation with Sesshoumaru" Kagome pouted

"I'm trying to point out that when someone wrongs you like that you seem to handle the grudge in a very petty manner. Sesshoumaru was doing something he thought would help you, maybe he was being presumptuous but he was in the end trying to help" Kikyo fixed her cousin with a gimlet stare "I'd be very disappointed with you if you didn't forgive him"

"But he's sleeping with other women!" Kagome exclaimed

"You are shunning him Kagome, what other choices does he have. Think of it from his perspective, you've thrown back his generosity in his face and as such you've insulted his pride. It's probably the first time any female has ever turned Sesshoumaru down like that and in retaliation he's sleeping with a lot of women" Kikyo shrugged "I don't see the problem"

Kagome did a gold-fish impression as she gazed at her cousin, she'd never heard her talk for that long before and she was being told off?

"I'm being a brat" Kagome said slowly looking down at the floor of her flat she bit her bottom lip hard enough to make it bleed. She met Kikyo's eyes "I need to apologise right?"

Kikyo nodded sagely and watched her cousin walk into her bedroom and shut the door. She wondered if their relationship would be able to go back to the way it had been.

***

Kagome looked at herself in her mirror.

"I'm sorry" she said calmly "I probably shouldn't have been such an ass about everything but I'm not used to depending on people. I didn't mean most of the things I've said to you recently, when I'm angry my temper generally makes me say things I don't really mean" she threw herself onto the bed and started to pummel the pillows. "It sounds ridiculous!" she fumed "why can't I apologise?"

The phone rang and she nearly fell off the bed in shock she picked up the phone and put it straight back down again, there was only one person who called her at such obtrusive times. And to be honest she wasn't in the mood to deal with Naraku.

She gazed up at the ceiling. "Guess I have to be the bigger man... woman"

***

Sesshoumaru was not in the least amused. He was sat in the coffee shop, as instructed, waiting for Kagome to put in an appearance, but after recent events he wasn't sure whether she was going to slap him again or not.

He wondered if she wanted an apology, because he refused to give one. He wouldn't apologise for doing something to help her, someone he thought of as a member of his pack.

"Hi" Kagome's voice snapped him out of his reverie as she sat down opposite him.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"Okay" she inhaled deeply "I want to apologise for being a brat and for saying that I hated you. I don't really hate you but when I get angry I tend to say things I don't mean" she rubbed the bridge of her nose "I'm not used to people doing things without my consent and I tend to be really agitated when they do"

"That was agitated?" he raised a brow

She blushed "Okay, so maybe I threw a full scale temper tantrum"

"Quite possibly"

"I'm trying to apologise here and you're not making it any easier" she accused

He regarded her in silence and she sighed.

"I am sorry" she said "but if we are going to have any kind of relationship you need to inform me about things before you go making huge decisions on your own"

"This Sesshoumaru is Inu" he informed her "Inu help their pack and for that this Sesshoumaru will not apologise"

"Um... okay, I guess" she frowned at him "where does this leave us, I mean I swallowed a lot of pride to do this today and I don't even know what to do now. I mean do we go back to our previous relationship, whatever that was?"

"This Sesshoumaru believes this is called a stalemate"

"Neither had triumphed" she closed her eyes "but we have both failed"

"Indeed"

"I just wanted you to know I'm not angry anymore, but I don't know what to do anymore" she rubbed the bridge of her nose again

"Perhaps we carry on as we did before" he suggested hopefully

"But what were we before all this?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru does not know" he admitted

"I guess we're just acquaintances" she suggested

He frowned, that was not nearly intimate enough for his liking. "That is agreeable"

She sighed, that hadn't been the answer she's really wanted. "Before we move on to anything more intimate it would be nice for you to respect me"

"It would be agreeable if you would not disrespect me too" he pointed out

"Yeah" she mumbled "bye then" and she shot from the cafe, leaving behind a severely confused Sesshoumaru. Had they just made up or not?

***

The next two months the two lived inside their little stalemate. When they met they were polite and cordial, there was no yelling but there was definitely no banter as there had always been between the pair. Ranmaru and Rin were at a loss, they weren't fighting anymore but the casual indifference was nearly as bad.

It seemed a new plan was in order.

***

Sesshoumaru glared up at the school building, he was really not looking forward to this. It was Rin's parents evening and as such he was required to attend because of his role as Rin's guardian. This meant he was probably going to come into contact with Kagome again.

Rin was acting impervious to the Yokai's misgivings as she skipped along merrily at his side.

The evening had been bearable, at least if he ignored the fact that the entire teaching staff was watching him and that Kagome was ignoring him it went plenty well.

He watched the other parents mill around and cast him calculating looks but didn't care. He was looking for someone in particular. He spotted Kagome leave the main hall and snarled softly as he watched someone who looked particularly familiar follow her.

Kagome leant her forehead against the cool wall of the corridor, she really loved parents evenings where she got to learn more about her pupils but Sesshoumaru's presence was giving her a headache. She hadn't known how to define their relationship before the argument and she sure as hell didn't know how to define it now.

"Ka-Go-Me" said a voice that she really didn't need to hear right now. She spun around to see the small demon boy she knew from Ayame's class with the taller more menacing figure of Naraku.

"Naraku-san" she acknowledged

"I take it you know my nephew, Hakudoshi"

The small silver haired boy glared at Naraku, absolute hatred clearly visible in his eyes.

"Yes" Kagome smiled at the boy who gave a polite nod in return "he is talented in Maths"

Hakudoshi looked stunned for a moment before offering a small smile which Kagome returned wholeheartedly.

Naraku frowned at the child "Go back to the hall"

The child gave him one last look filled with loathing before turning and doing as he was asked.

"So, Ka-Go-Me" he said smoothly as he stepped closer to her, successfully infringing on her personal space. She didn't want to admit it but this man scared her and though outwardly she appeared calm her heart was beating a mile per minute. She knew she couldn't use her reiyouku whilst there were so many demons in the building; she would incur panic.

"Please stay away from me" she commanded backing up so that her back pressed against the wall.

He smirked and leaned in closer before pulling away as if he had been shocked and glaring at the third figure suddenly present in the corridor.

"This Sesshoumaru believes that you should be going" Sesshoumaru stared Naraku down and Naraku gave a noise of derision before stalking off.

Sesshoumaru watched him leave and shook his head. "He is more trouble than he is worth" he said before turning back to Kagome "are you okay?"

She dived at him and hugged him so hard he wondered if she were not Yokai. But the moment passed so quick that it left him breathless.

She sprung away from him and bowed before smiling slightly "Arigato"

The Yokai nodded at her "You are welcome"

Two children watched from the darkness and smiled slightly, this was much better.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. Slowly but steadily! Kagome snapped out of it with help from Kikyo and they're even being civil! Thank you all for your kind reviews!


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Kiss and Make Up?

Sesshoumaru lay out on his bed and stared at the ceiling. It was pissing him off that no matter how many women he bedded he could never get Kagome out of his head. This was all the stupid woman's fault.

"Argh" he said aloud cursing himself, the school, Naraku and Kagome. Not to mention God who was probably laughing at him enjoying the pain he was inflicting on the haughty Sesshoumaru. The universe was exacting its revenge.

He had come to realise over the days without the woman in his life that for unnameable reasons he cared for the annoying female.

"Damn it!" he said sitting up and putting his head in his hands. Of all the enemies Sesshoumaru had ever faced his own wandering affections had never been one of them before.

Even if he could admit that he had been purposely keeping his own mind in the dark about his feelings he would never, not even if the apocalypse rained down on him tomorrow, admit it aloud.

He had never apologised to anyone in his long life and he knew his pride would never let him apologise to Kagome for going behind her back.

The phone beside his bed rang and he snatched it off the receiver having to remind himself that it wasn't the phones fault and restraining his strength. He only just managed to avoid breaking the handset.

"Speak" he barked in his most irritated tone

"Sesshoumaru-sama there is a Naraku-san wishing to seek an audience with you" the doorman was not in the least phased by Sesshoumaru's murderous temper and spoke calmly.

Sesshoumaru smiled but there was no humour in it; merely blood lust. If he couldn't take his anger for his situation out on Kagome then who better to take it out on than the Hanyou.

"Tell him I'll be right down" Sesshoumaru said

"Very well Sesshoumaru-sama" the man hung up

Sesshoumaru walked out onto the walk outside his building and looked at the Hanyou his distaste and anger clearly evident.

"What?" he was terse, it wouldn't take much to convince Sesshoumaru to tear the Hanyou's head off and the aura of crackling rage and pent up aggression was almost tangible around him.

Naraku sniggered "Don't blame me for your own mistakes Sesshoumaru-_**sama**_" there was no mistaking the sarcasm dripping from Naraku's tongue as he said this.

"What do you mean?" Sesshoumaru's voice was devoid of all emotion, which made it all the more terrifying as his raging aura swelled to astronomic proportions, swirling and ebbing around him.

"You screwed up your relationship on your own" Naraku's voice was silky "do not blame your shortcomings on me"

Sesshoumaru growled low in his chest at the audacity of the Hanyou and fought to regain control over his own temper. He was Sesshoumaru goddamn it, he didn't get goaded by a mere Hanyou. A certain human woman yes, but not by this disgusting creature. His scent alone was enough to make Sesshoumaru want to kill him for polluting up the air with the stench.

"Temper, temper" he smiled in satisfaction at hearing the Inu Yokai growl in anger. Naraku resented people who were above him, his wealth came from inheritance whereas Sesshoumaru had inherited and then built upon that. Naraku glared at the man his father wished he had become.

"You should not insult this Sesshoumaru to alleviate your own insecurities" Sesshoumaru hit the nail on the head.

Naraku smirked and dropped his ace onto the table "You are quite self assured aren't you. I bet that little slut told you she had rejected me, the reality is she begged me to go out with her"

Sesshoumaru saw red and Naraku grimaced as the Yokai's eyes flashed scarlet. Sesshoumaru grabbed the Hanyou around the neck and lifted him off the ground with ease.

The Hanyou gasped and whimpered trying to get the supply of oxygen into his lungs.

"Hey, Naraku" came a voice

Sesshoumaru dropped his grip on the Hanyou's neck and turned to see Kagome stood a few feet behind him with Ranmaru half hidden behind her slim body.

Naraku coughed and spluttered as he suddenly regained the ability to breathe.

"No one calls me a slut" she said in a tone that carefully concealed her anger, but her hands were balled up into fists and were trembling with anger. "Especially not in front of my son"

He glared at her "And?" he tempted fate

She smirked and threw out her hand as if she were going to throw a tennis ball at him. Instead Miko energy shot from her palm in it's pink or maybe purple beauty and hit the Hanyou square in the chest sending him sailing four foot through the air.

"If you ever come near me, my child or anyone I know ever again I will purify you to high hell" she snarled

Sesshoumaru was confused and astounded. Not that it showed on his face of course. The woman was a Miko?

Which of course would explain the fact that she had no fear of him. And it also explained the fact that her family lived in a shrine. But he should have sensed a Miko of that power. Surely.

"That guy makes me want to throw something" she said as they relocated inside his apartment. They were sat on the sofa together and Rin had dragged Ranmaru into her room to play with her on her new game.

"You did throw something" he reminded her dryly "he went pretty far"

She rolled her eyes and then seemed to remember she was annoyed at him and glared at the floor.

"Why were you outside the building?" he asked realising it was a bizarre coincidence

"Hn" she said sighing as she imitated the Inu Yokai, it made him smile slightly, though he hid it quickly "it was Ran-chan's ingenious plan. He told me that Rin-chan was sick and that we needed to go and check on her"

"He fooled you" he stated dryly

"Yeah, well" she muttered, she had started defensive and then lost her argument as she realised she had no grounds for arguing. She had been tricked by a seven year old.

"You kept something from this Sesshoumaru" he informed her, he was angry but the fact that she was there again close enough to touch, close enough to get drunk off her scent made the anger dulled somewhat.

"I did?" she played innocent batting her eyelids

"Why didn't you tell this Sesshoumaru you were a Miko?" he asked

"You never asked" she said "and I cloak it because once Yokai know you're a Miko they seem to want to kill you more."

"Hn" he looked at her disapprovingly "apologise and this Sesshoumaru might forgive you"

"What?" she yelped "no way!"

"Apologise wench"

"NO!"

"Apologise"

"NO!"

"You are being ridiculous" he told her

"Fine!" she threw her hands up into the air in defeat giggling at his teasing, they'd slipped back into their old routine banter "_**I'm sorry**_"

It was possibly the most sarcastic apology in the history of apologies, but he smirked as they both knew that he had won that particular battle.

"Now it's your turn" she said falling back into the normal easy banter between the two of them

"To what?" he asked feigning ignorance

"Apologise" she growled teasingly

"Why?" he was cocky "this Sesshoumaru has done nothing wrong"

"You went behind my back and interfered in my life without permission" she said folding her arms

"This Sesshoumaru was helping" he insisted

"Apologise"

"No" he shook his head

"Apologise"

"No"

"Now who's being ridiculous?" she asked rolling her eyes and pushing her hair back off her face.

"You" he said "You are the one being ridiculous if you expect this Sesshoumaru to apologise"

"What?" she shrieked "how unreasonable are you?"

She jabbed him in the chest with a finger "I apologised to now's your turn"

"No" he said grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him sharply so that her surprised hands met his chest abruptly. He put one clawed finger beneath her chin and titled her lips up to meet his.

Her eyes remained open for a few seconds in indignant shock and then she gradually relaxed into the kiss. This was less rough than that kiss at the car park but it was no less possessive. The part of her brain that was cynical and proper tried to grab her inhibitions as they fluttered from her head and eloped with her sense of equilibrium. She felt his hand go around her back and she leaned more into the kiss. Screw it; that was the only thing literate coming from her mind right now. Her brain appeared to have melted.

Sesshoumaru pulled back from the kiss and smirked as her lips protested the action and sought out his.

She abruptly came back to her senses as he stopped kissing her. She lassoed her equilibrium and her inhibitions and dragged them, kicking and screaming, back to her side as she fought for breath.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded "what kind of person forces a kiss on someone"

He smirked "If you had truly wanted this Sesshoumaru to stop then you could have stopped me" he said

She flushed furiously as she kind of realised he was exactly right. Damn him and his intoxicating presence. She looked into his molten golden eyes and felt her inhibitions trying to wriggle free again. The small voice in the back of her head that warned her when she had, had too much to drink shouted at her 'look away from the hypnotic eyes' but to no avail.

"This Sesshoumaru will show you how very sorry he is" he said picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder before proceeding to his bedroom

"Hey, where are you taking me!" she panicked "Stop, put me down, let go!"

"Kagome" he said "Shut up"

She stopped kicking and froze in shock, he had just called her by her name for the first time... and it sounded delicious coming from him. As he kicked open the bedroom door she regained control of her motor functions and squealed.

"ARGH!"

Meanwhile in Rin's room the two children were sat on the rug that was as deep and soft as any blanket playing her new game.

Rin frowned as she heard a strange noise, otherwise known as Kagome's strangled ARGH. But of course the small girl had no idea of that. "Ranmaru-kun, did you just hear something?"

"Like what?" he asked his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated.

"It sounded like a parrot was choking" she told him innocently

"Don't worry about it" he said "Get the treasure chest Rin-chan!"

She turned her attention back to the game.

Kagome opened her eyes and stared at an unfamiliar ceiling before throwing a hand over her eyes to block out the sun's rays. She frowned as she felt a pain in her neck and sat up and gently touched the mating mark Sesshoumaru had placed on her that now took the form of a crescent moon. It looked like she had a pale blue tattoo.

She growled and hit him with a pillow.

"Hn?" he asked blearily

"What's with this?" she demanded

"Shut up" he said and grabbed her around the waist falling back to sleep with her stranded in the barrier of his hard chest and strong arms. She fumed silently for a while and then found herself falling back to sleep as she listened to the steady thrumming of his heart beat.

When Ranmaru woke up he was worried. He frowned at the fuzzy white carpet he had fallen asleep on and wriggled his nose when the fibre's started to tickle it. He sat up and rubbed a hand through his hair that was flattened to the left side of his face where he'd been laying on it, he gazed around the room and recognised it as Rin's. The game was currently beeping at them from the television screen telling them they had died and Rin was curled into a small ball with her legs tucked into her chest breathing softly.

"Rin-chan wake up" he advised shaking her by her shoulder to wake her.

"Hmm?" she sat up and rubbed her eyes blearily "Is it morning?"

"Yeah" Ranmaru stood up and stretched his arms above his head

"Why are you still here Ranmaru-kun?" she was sleepily confused

"I have no idea" he said opening her bedroom door and walking out into the hall whilst a curious Rin followed.

They came into the kitchen where Kagome was sat at the table with a mug of coffee clasped between her two hands and Sesshoumaru was sat opposite her his mug on the table. They both started guiltily as the children came into the room.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin was perplexed "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

Before he could answer Ranmaru did "Okasan is wearing it" he pointed out

"Oh" The two children stared at the two adult's in confusion. The two adults were caught between wanting to laugh aloud at the bizarre predicament and wanting the ground to open up and swallow them. Luckily for the adults the children were far too young to understand what was going on, or so they thought.

"So that means you kissed and made up right?" Rin clapped her hands together happily

"No" Ranmaru was calm "they mated"

In amazing synchronicity the two adults choked on their coffee and spat it all over the table whilst Rin giggled at the display.

"What's 'mated' mean?" Rin asked

"Yeah Ran-chan" Kagome recovered slowly and looked at her child in disbelief she absentmindedly covered the mark on her neck with her hand "what do you mean?"

"I don't really know" he shrugged "but when Sango-Obasan and Miroku-ojisan spend the night in the same room Miroku-ojisan says they only mated. And you two smell like each other now"

"He's a dead man" Kagome promised whilst Sesshoumaru started to laugh

"Yay!" Rin cheered "Sesshoumaru-sama is laughing!"

"So does that mean we are living here now?" Ranmaru asked

"Don't be cheeky!" Kagome was horrified and she stood chasing Rin and Ranmaru into Rin's room. "Play!" she ordered

"Hai, Okasan" Ranmaru and Rin chorused.

Kagome walked back over to the table and groaned in exasperation. "Now Rin's calling me Okasan too?"

"Isn't that good?" Sesshoumaru stood and wrapped his arms around her waist leaning his chin on her head "Doesn't this mean we have a happy ending?"

"If you think for one minute you're getting off the hook that easily then you are sadly mistaken" she prodded a finger into his chest "I saw you in the papers with another woman on your arm every week!"

"And?"

Her eyes narrowed and she bit her lip "what guarantee do you have that you won't do the same thing if we argue now we're together?"

Her insecurity was obvious and he underlying anger was terrifying. He pulled her into his chest again and leant his chin on her head.

"You know about demons?"

"Yeah"

"We're you ever taught the specifics about Inu Yokai?"

"Not really" she looked exasperated "but what's that go to do—"

"Inu Yokai and most other canine Yokai are completely monogamous. They mate for life." He touched the crescent moon on her throat "until you ask this Sesshoumaru to take this off it will remain."

"So you'd be faithful, but only because of that?" she was getting steadily angrier.

He sighed "Let this Sesshoumaru finish" he scolded "this Sesshoumaru's instincts will refuse to take another, as will this Sesshoumaru's mind and heart" he groaned "this Sesshoumaru hates talking about things like this"

"I can tell" she remarked dryly "um... why did you sleep with them?"

"This Sesshoumaru was angry, this Sesshoumaru thought that if this Sesshoumaru forgot about you then this Sesshoumaru would stop missing you so much"

Her nose wrinkled "You ever do that to me again and I'll castrate you" her tone implied her seriousness and he fought the urge to flinch.

"Very well" he smiled and kissed her gently

"And they all lived happily ever after" Rin whispered to Ranmaru as they watched their parents kiss each other.

"There's no such thing as a happy ending" Ranmaru shut the door and laughed at her

"Why?" she demanded, she was very much into the phase of knights and princesses and happily ever afters.

"A happy ending means one thing" Ranmaru grinned at the younger girl "The story isn't over"

A/N: he's right ya know the story isn't over just yet so stay tuned for some fluffiness that will make your teeth rot coupled with a little more angst, cause we all know there are loose ends that need tying ne? I don't own Inuyasha! Thank you all so much for your reviews and support!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: We Will Be Experiencing Some Turbulence

Love is a strange thing. And most often it is not voiced, but there unmentioned and unquestioned. Sometimes however love needs to be voiced to be understood because insecurities leave us doubting and troubled. Not everything is black and white.

Kagome and Sesshoumaru were mated and as such in human terms were considered somewhere between lovers and married. It was strange and... loud.

Arguments were strife and they had only been this way for a month.

Kagome was sat in a cafe with Sango and Kikyo watching the bustling crowds wander past.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sango asked in confusion

"Oh, come on!" Kagome stormed "I can't let him buy me the stupid dress!"

"Why?" Sango was still plenty confused

"It's symbolic" Kagome growled "I can't let him start paying for everything, I pay for myself. If I let him provide for me I'm regressing"

"There's a difference between independence and stubbornness" Kikyo pointed out sipping her coffee "you found that out last time, at least he's not going behind your back" she paused "besides you overreact way too much with things that threaten your independence"

"Yeah but if I agree to this the next thing you know I'll be moving in with him" Kagome glowered at her coffee

"And why is that a bad thing?" Sango asked

Kagome smiled a little sadly "Things have been left unsaid" she told them rubbing the mark on her neck absentmindedly.

***

Sesshoumaru watched his mate dig through her clothes determinedly and he wondered what she thought she was going to find in there. He was half reclined on her bed watching her with one eyebrow raised.

He had been invited to yet another Charity ball and even though he normally managed to worm his way out of the ghastly things, his irate PR manager had tracked him down and begged just short of crying. Sesshoumaru had acquiesced in the end, albeit morosely. So as such he had invited Kagome to go with him, with the obvious offer that he would buy her a dress.

So far he wasn't having much luck on that offer. She had point blank refused, ranted at him for a few minutes and then left his apartment. So now he was sat on her slightly sagging bed watching her with an eyebrow raised, wondering exactly what she thought was going to materialise just because she wanted it to do so. Sure she had a will of iron, but even she could not make dresses materialise from nothing.

He could feel her frustration, ire and stubborn belief radiating from the mark she bore on her neck and wondered whose stupid idea it had been to let the male side of the mating partnership privy to all of the female's emotions. He had learnt not to tell her what she was feeling though, she got really angry when he did that. And as much as her fury was amusing, she tended to break things when storming away in a fit of pique, like her body. That he was not fond of.

He frowned as a blue shirt hit him in the head and pulled it off his head to look at her again. She had dropped to her knees and was rooting around in the bottom of the endless closet now. He smirked.

Kagome shrieked in shock as she was lifted from her kneeling position and pulled into strong arms that constricted around her, inescapable and yet gentle.

He sat back on the bed with his small mate in his lap and leaned his chin on her shoulder.

"As much as the stubbornness is an intrinsic part of you, this is becoming tedious" he pointed out, a certain smugness tainting his voice.

She tried and failed to dig him in the ribs with her elbow and growled "Not fair"

"No one said that this Sesshoumaru had to be fair" he pointed out

"I don't want you to buy me a dress!" she was exasperated

"This Sesshoumaru had not bought you a single thing since we became mated" he sighed, he was not normally the sort of being who would placate someone, ever. And yet that was what he was preparing himself to do "Perhaps this once is acceptable?"

"The vase" she reminded him

"At the time we were not mated" he pointed out

She sighed "You think I'm being petty?"

"No, too stubborn to function" he chided and she groaned

"Am not"

"Now you have rapidly regressed to the age of Rin" he smirked

"Alright" she sighed, making it sound like he was marching her off to get her ass branded like a cattle or something equally as heinous rather than offering to buy her a dress.

Suddenly she stiffened and crowed happily "I've got it!"

"What?" Sesshoumaru asked

"The dress I wore when I went out with that creep Bankotsu!" she leapt from his lap and dived into the closet once more.

"This Sesshoumaru would appreciate it if you didn't wear the dress you wore to meet him" he said in a calm-ish voice. He was having problems repressing the residual rage he felt from that night.

She ignored him and let out a triumphant noise as she seized hold of the dress from the depths of her closet. She stood and held it against her body, smoothing it down across her curves.

"It won't work" Sesshoumaru commented

She turned to glare daggers at the Yokai "And why not?"

"It is torn" he said walking over to her and pointing at the long gash hiding in the seams at the bottom.

"What!" she yelped "how?"

"That night was not exactly uneventful" he pointed out

"Fine" she threw it in the approximate direction of the bin in a huff "You can buy me the dress"

Sesshoumaru smiled like the wolf that had cornered the unsuspecting sheep "Very well"

She gulped.

***

Why me? The thought was buzzing through Kagome's head as she surveyed the room full of very important people whose names she forgot as soon as they were mentioned. She was clinging to Sesshoumaru's arm like it was a life preserver and she was drowning.

At least she looked the part. She was wearing a ridiculously expensive dress by some designer. It was black with a knotted front and hung off the shoulders falling to just below the knee. She had to admit it was the most expensive thing, if you didn't count the flat, that she owned. And that alone was enough to bring out her insecurity complex.

Her shoes were getting funny looks. Could they tell she had bought them at a market for next to nothing? How could they possibly know? She gripped tighter onto Sesshoumaru's arm, wondering if she should have taken him up on the offer to buy those shoes that had gone so beautifully with the dress.

Sesshoumaru grit his teeth together and wondered how on earth his little Miko was managing to stand up under the weight of her insecurity, agitation and bizarrely enough boredom. He was having problems appearing impassive.

He tensed as the aura of maliciousness that was Naraku rolled over them and sighed internally as Kagome stopped being insecure and became both angry and scared. How did the woman cope with so many emotions at once?

He felt the rise in her reiyouku and placed a hand over hers on his arm "You cannot purify him here Kagome" he felt her calm down slightly, as she always did when he called her name. He was amazed words could have that effect on a being, but thankful at that point in time.

"Sesshoumaru-sama" Naraku said smoothly sliding into their personal space with the fluidity of a weasel, there was an accessory-like demoness on his arm, eyes fixed on Sesshoumaru. She was seemingly trying to seduce Sesshoumaru with her eyes. He was less than impressed.

Kagome bristled at the look the demoness was giving Sesshoumaru. She was very beautiful, ice blond hair, long claws painted red, haughty lime green eyes, high cheekbones and an impossible pout that was painted a dark plum colour. Her dress matched her shoes which matched her clutch. Obviously no expense had been spared.

"Naraku" Sesshoumaru said, his voice ice and untouchable

"It's been a long while since we last talked" Naraku smiled slimily at Kagome who glowered back at him.

"That would be because you are a sore loser" Sesshoumaru stated in his usual impassive monotone

"Hmph" Naraku muttered "have you met Azami? She's a writer for one of Japan's leading Tabloid newspapers"

"No" Sesshoumaru stated baldly

"Don't be silly Sesshoumaru-kun" Azami purred "we have met a number of times before" no one present missed the innuendo and Kagome had to remember that purifying people for being bitchy was wrong.

"Really?" Sesshoumaru raised a brow "it must have been an unremarkable encounter then"

Azami tensed and flushed furiously before giving Kagome a look that should have killed. "And who is this? A ningen Sesshoumaru, your tastes have changed" she paused and smiled, dripping vindictive poison.

Sesshoumaru was about to rip her head off, when they were told that dinner had been served and he realised that he wasn't allowed to disembowel in public.

The seating gods obviously didn't much like Kagome and as such she was sat on a different table from Sesshoumaru, directly opposite the 'lovely' Azami.

"So Kagome" Azami started and Kagome noted the distinct lacking of any honorific. "How long have you known Sesshoumaru-kun?"

"About a year" Kagome stated calmly

"Really?" Azami feigned surprise "but you were only marked a short while ago"

"Yes"

"You must be quite extraordinary for a human, after all you were able to capture Sesshoumaru's eye" she twirled her hair around her finger

"I guess" Kagome frowned at the plate

"But I don't see it" Azami continued in the same 'I'm being friendly' tone "I mean you're just a working class, unremarkable ningen" she frowned slightly "how do you keep his attention?"

"What do you mean?" Kagome ground out between gritted teeth

"I mean, with just a weak ningen partner, surely you must know that Sesshoumaru-kun will be looking elsewhere for company" she smiled vindictively "or did you really think you were enough to satisfy him?"

"Well you obviously weren't considering you were never marked" Kagome bit out, her hackles rising. This was hitting a sore spot that she was still trying to come to terms with. She could still remember how much it had hurt her when he had slept with all those women. And they hadn't even been mated at the time.

Azami glowered slightly "but you are not tied to him yet, still so disposable"

"Really?" Kagome asked idly "and there was me thinking a mating mark meant we were compatible"

This earned her another grimace "It must be nice" she sighed whimsically

"What?"

"Being mated to someone who buys you things" she glanced down meaningfully at her dress "I can imagine it is a novel experience for you, but not unwelcome"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What do you work as?"

"A head teacher"

"Precisely, it must be nice now not to have to worry about money anymore, now that you have Sesshoumaru to pay for you" she smiled

"I'm not a gold digger" Kagome growled

"Oh, I suppose not" she glanced at Kagome's accessories and wrinkled her nose "I guess that you can't mean that much to him if he only bought you a dress" she paused and put a finger to her chin thoughtfully "like some kind of mistress" she laughed maliciously

Kagome glanced at the people near them, but they seemed to be on Azami's side, all demons and all feigning ignorance at the less than polite turn their conversation had taken. And, she noted with some dismay they were all women and all probably jealous.

"I like my independence" she stated blandly

"I should imagine that you have moved into Sesshoumaru's place already" Azami smiled

"I have not"

"Why ever not?" she sounded confused but was obviously gleeful

"Like I said I like my independence" Kagome repeated. It was hard to sit there and listen to this woman dig up all her anxieties about her relationship with Sesshoumaru.

"Really?" she asked in a tone that suggested she doubted it. "So you and Sesshoumaru-kun are happy?"

"Yes"

"No arguments?"

This time it was Kagome who winced and Azami smiled her sharks smile "So I guess that means that your Tying should happen fairly soon"

"Perhaps"

Azami grinned wider "Oh dear, not very sure are you" she paused for effect "never mind, at least you know he loves you"

Kagome closed her eyes for a second and balled her hands into fists. Azami smiled in victory and left Kagome to brood, engaging in decidedly more gentile small talk with the others on the table.

Kagome ate in silence; she just wanted to go home. No scratch that, she wanted to stop feeling so goddamn insecure. This journalist certainly knew how to dish it; Kagome had been reduced to a bundle of indecision and apprehension.

Did he love her?

***

Sesshoumaru was watching his mate carefully. She was sat in the huge white swivel chair in the living room in his apartment with a pile of paperwork on her lap, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.

The children were spending the day out with Miroku and Sango at some kind a special park. He hadn't really understood that, weren't all parks the same? According to Ranmaru this one was the 'coolest'.

Normal enough, except that he was being bombarded with waves of insecurity and depression from the mating bond. And he had no idea how to stop it.

She had been like that since the charity ball, and refused to tell him why. He knew it had something to do with Azami but she was surprisingly silent on the matter.

"Kagome" he said softly

She looked up at him slowly, her hair hanging in her eyes clasping her folder to her chest in a pose that was achingly innocent.

"Yes?"

"Have you thought any more about moving in?" he asked

She stiffened "Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"Why do you want me to move in with you Sesshoumaru?"she asked slowly, her eyes obscured by her hair as she looked down at her lap.

"It makes sense" he said shrugging nonchalantly "we are constantly having to cart the children from one place to another, and there is hardly any room in your flat"

Her shoulders shook violently once and she shoved the file into the bag resting at her feet before standing abruptly, shouldering her bag, shoving her shoes on, donning her coat and walking towards the door.

He was seized by sudden paralysis as her emotions rolled over him in waves; hurt, anger, disappointment and most prominent of all, betrayal.

"Kagome?" he whispered

She whipped around to look at him tears whipping off her face to hit the wall next to her. The smell of them was acrid to him and his head spun to come up with reasoning behind her actions.

"If that's the only reason you can give me then I won't waste any more of our time" she said softly as new tears ran down the tracks on her face "Sayonara"

The door slammed with a reverberating force.

Sesshoumaru blinked. The tears that had hit the wall rolled slowly down.

And Sesshoumaru was left alone. Again.

***

Kagome sat in the cafe a couple of streets away from Ayame's flat, where Ran was currently holed up. She sighed as she glanced at the falling snow, it was almost October and already attempting to snow. It was getting late and she wasn't in the best part of town. But she couldn't bring herself to care. In fact she could really drum up much enthusiasm for anything since she had walked out on Sesshoumaru.

It had only been a week. And yet that week stretched out as an infinite moment, empty and devoid of purpose. Eating away at her with the loneliness of the thing. She didn't know what to do any more.

Sighing, as seemed to be the norm for her, she vacated the warm booth and stepped out onto the pavement wincing as the biting cold wormed its way through her thin jacket. After a moment she relaxed into it as her face became numb, it was suiting considering that's what the rest of her felt like too. Hollow.

She decided to take the alley that ran along the side of the cafe due to the quicker route.

Regret soon followed this decision as she walked straight into Naraku. She tumbled backwards, regaining her balanced to stand little over a metre away from him.

"Why?" she murmured through trembling lips

"Why what my little Ka-Go-Me?" he smirked as he moved closer to her

"Why me?" she asked

"You are a Miko, pure and righteous, it is written in my very nature to taint that purity" he smirked "won't you be tainted by me?"

"Leave me alone!" she attempted to purify him but nothing happened

"Your powers are tied to your emotions, as long as you feel so desolate you can do nothing" his eyes flashed with a mad desire before he reached forward and cupped a cheek in his palm. He pulled her to him and attempted to drag her with him to god knows where, she slapped him across the face and he slapped her harder in retaliation before grabbing her by her shoulders. Her lip split and was beginning to bleed and one side of her face was red.

"No!" she cried shoving her hands against his chest and running along the alleyway, away from him. She cursed herself as her foot got caught on her other foot and she crashed down hard on to the concrete beneath her.

Naraku loomed over her and cracked his knuckles "I'm going to enjoy this" he chuckled "you're coming with me"

She shrieked and lashed out with her foot, kicking at his hand only to have him capture her ankle and drag her along the cold, wet concrete to him. As he reeled her in part of her brain spared a moment to wonder what the hissing noise was...

Then Naraku tensed, releasing her ankle abruptly and arched his back, hissing in pain. But there was the other hissing noise too. Naraku fell to his knees and Kagome scrambled backwards rapidly.

Behind Naraku stood Sesshoumaru his aura swirling around him, he was so furious his eyes had bleed completely red, and his aura had actually taken on a visual appearance crackling around him and causing his long hair to billow out.

"Leave, now" he growled at Naraku and the Hanyou realising he was going to die if he didn't take the advice quickly vanished into the night.

Sesshoumaru turned blood red eyes on one completely stunned Miko and pounced upon her. Knocking the wind from her he pulled her into a bone crushing hug and bit into her neck where his mark still lay.

"Ah!" she winced but did not try to move, she guessed he was punishing her, but to be honest she still didn't care. She hadn't allowed her heart to begin beating again, not when he could have helped her because it was 'logical' or some other reason. Sometimes enough was enough.

"Why did you go?" he asked pulling back slightly so that obsidian could gaze into topaz.

"You didn't want me"

"What gave you that impression?"

"You never told me you loved me"

"Neither did you" he stated shaking his head at her "This Sesshoumaru is not used to having to express emotions, this Sesshoumaru does not know how to be in a relationship"

"You were insecure too?" she asked carefully

He sighed "More like presumptuous. This Sesshoumaru thought that because this Sesshoumaru was kinder to you than others you would understand"

"I can't read minds" she sighed and leant her head on his shoulder

"I love you Kagome" he whispered, he had spoken her name again and for once he spoke in first person.

She gave a hiccupping laugh "I love you too" she murmured into his throat

"Words do not make sense to this Sesshoumaru" he frowned as he rested his chin on her head "Why do you take so much comfort from them rather than from actions?"

"You prefer actions?" she asked

"Hn"

She chuckled even if it was slightly breathless "Then I guess we should just compromise" she said looping an arm around his neck and pulling her body up his so that she could kiss him. She poured all of her love into that one kiss and felt him respond in kind.

They were finally...home.

A/N: There will be more... I'd like to throw Naraku into hell before I complete, but there will be some sugary sweetness to compliment that! There will be another chapter and an epilogue. I don't own Inuyasha and I'd like to thank everyone who has ever reviewed.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Four Plus One Equals Disaster.

Kagome flung the little stick at the bin and watched as it bounced off the rim and hit the wall and growled under her breath. She opened the door and stalked out into the longue cursing god and everyone else she could think of that would have a hand in this bizarre turn of events.

"Well?" Sango asked, she was sitting next to Ayame on the plush white sofa in Sesshoumaru and her apartment. Kikyo was sat opposite them.

There had been quite a few fireworks since the couple had started going out and their rows were legendary. There had been a huge argument over her moving in, but she had conceded. There had been an even bigger argument over him working weekends and he had conceded. The relationship was all about give and take, which basically meant neither wanted to give and they both wanted to take.

The tying ceremony had been basically the only thing that went according to plan and without argument. They had held it in Touga's oldest manor house and invited immediate family only. It had been a bizarre day and Kagome was still trying to cope with her non-human-ness

How they stayed together was anyone's guess but Kikyo who knew her cousin well pointed out that she was truly happy. When she was not murderously angry of course. Sango often wondered if there was a middle ground between the two emotions as Kagome always seemed to be either livid or on cloud nine.

"Positive" she snarled

"I don't know why you're so riled up" Ayame said

"You are a good mother to Ranmaru, you work with children all the time" Kikyo pointed out "You can handle having your own"

Kagome mulled this one over and the other women watched nervously waiting for her reaction.

"I suppose" she muttered grumpily but smiling a bit at the same time. She did love children and she was practically the mother of two children already, the only difference was that she hadn't given birth to them.

And that this baby would be half demon half human, a Hanyou. And all hers.

"You're what?" Inuyasha spat out the coffee he had just swallowed as they all sat down in Kikyo's living room. She had gone there with her cousin for coffee and a chat. But they had both forgotten about the presence of the Inu Hanyou. He was sat at a chair in the corner of the room rocking Kyo's baby rocker with his foot.

"Pregnant" Kikyo rolled her eyes

"You probably shouldn't have told him" Kagome was worried "I mean I should tell Sesshoumaru first right?"

"Yeah but you told Kikyo" Inuyasha pointed out

"She was there when I started throwing up" Kagome rolled her eyes "not really much of a secret"

"Keh" the Hanyou was dismissive

"What is with this?" Kagome demanded rubbing her stomach "I thought it was morning sickness not all day round sickness"

"It affects everyone differently" said Kikyo shrugging "I wasn't that bad with sickness"

"What she was bad with was her stomach becoming public property" Inuyasha reminisced grinning

Kikyo shot him her very best death glare and he rolled his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked

"When it's obvious that you're pregnant old ladies at bus stops, women behind the tills at supermarket and shopping assistants to name a few grope your stomach" Kikyo shuddered at the memory and Kagome grinned. Kikyo had always been like that; she hated to be touched. She could stand Kagome and Inuyasha didn't even bother her anymore and of course Kyo was her child but to everyone else the Kikyo was off limits.

"Your stomach becomes public property" Kagome surmised

"Yep" Inuyasha patted Kikyo's stomach reminiscently and she bent said hand back on his wrist until it threatened to snap off and he yelped in pain.

They watched Kagome get into her car and pull out of their driveway.

"Will the baby be okay?" Kikyo was worried, uncharacteristically so

"The strength of a Hanyou's will depends on the strength of the parents" Inuyasha understood her at once and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "The mother is one of the most powerful Miko still alive and the father is Sesshoumaru, enough said"

Kikyo nodded thoughtfully and Inuyasha thought of something else "If the mother is human and yet incredibly powerful then the pup could even be pure Yokai" there was a pause

Kikyo's eyes widened "Could Kagome do that?" she asked

"She's the strongest Miko I've ever met" Inuyasha shrugged

Kagome came out of the corner store with a new pregnancy test and a determined expression. She wasn't looking where she was going and walked straight into a broad chest, bounced off it and nearly fell over.

"Sorry" she apologised

"Kagome!" Ayame said appearing at the side of the owner of the broad chest who was looking down at her with his blue eyes.

"Hi, Ayame" Kagome smiled

"This is Kouga, the guy I was telling you about" said Ayame beaming so hard it looked painful

"Pleased to meet you" Kagome held out her hand to shake. He took her hand and brought it to his nose sniffing the skin inside her wrist and then he flipped back her hair from her neck and examined the pale crescent moon mark on her pale skin.

"What the" she snatched her hand back and stepped away from the demon

"I thought so" the wolf demon said "you are the woman of Sesshoumaru-san"

"You know Sesshoumaru?" she asked

"We go way back, around three hundred years or so" Kouga nodded

"What are you doing here Kags?" Ayame asked waving her hands to dispel the strangely tense atmosphere

"I bought another" she said subtly leaving out what exactly she had purchased in front of company she didn't really know that well.

"Another?" Ayame rolled her eyes "Isn't that the fifth one already?"

"Seventh" said Kagome smiling "well I have to go and pick up Rin-chan and Ran-chan, Sango was looking after them but I said I'd pick them up at six and it's half past already"

"Sure" Ayame smiled

"Nice meeting you Koga" she nodded to the wolf "Ja ne Ayame"

"She's pregnant" Kouga said as they watched Kagome walk away

"How'd you know?" Ayame nearly fell over in her shock

"She the smell from her is more than just the smell of contact, she smells of fusion" Kouga nodded at his explanation

"I wonder how Sesshoumaru will handle it" Ayame mused

"I'm not sure" Kouga was kind of concerned for the unknown girl "Sesshoumaru has always hated Hanyou's. I wonder if he can make an exception for his own child"

Ayame realised what he meant and her eyes widened in concern, he noticed and rushed to quash it.

"I'm sure it'll be fine" he said grabbing her hand in his and dragging her down the street "Come on Ayame-chan I thought we were going out!"

She laughed as his unbridled enthusiasm rubbed off on her and she followed him through the pressing crowds.

Kagome opened the door to Miroku and Sango's house and was nearly knocked over backwards by the onslaught of her two small children as they hurled themselves against each leg.

"Okasan!" they chorused happily

"Hello Ran-chan, Rin-chan where's Sango?"

"I'm here" Sango appeared from the living room with a twin propped on each hip. Megumi was holding a plastic block with a number and a letter on it and waving it happily whilst staring at Kagome with her huge violet eyes and Kei was as usual simply holding onto a strand of his mother's hair. The small child was the quietest and most serene baby anyone had ever known, he rarely cried and was so laid back it was laughable. But Kei was always watching with attentive violet eyes.

"You look overwhelmed" said Kagome smiling at the slightly harassed mother.

"I've been looking after four children and Miroku has vanished" she rolled her eyes. Her husband had a knack for vanishing whenever they were overwhelmed with children or chores.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow" said Kagome smiling at her friend and walking to her car awkwardly due to the two children attached to each leg.

Sesshoumaru was in a foul mood as was the norm for him. However recently the employees at his work were even more jumpy around him as some mornings he came into the office mildly scornful which is the equivalent of euphoric from Sesshoumaru and then other mornings the look on his face indicated the coming of the next apocalypse.

Today he was doing his least favourite thing. He was doing his own filing. He hadn't had much luck with secretaries recently, some fell in love with him, some were afraid of him and started crying and one had even left to live in convent to keep him away from her. It was his entire fault that he was in this predicament but he insisted on blaming it on other people. It was more his style.

His phone rang and he sighed with happiness as he was given a genuine excuse to stop with the dreaded filing.

"Speak" he ordered picking up the phone

"Hello Sesshoumaru" it was Naraku, Sesshoumaru grit his teeth and slammed the phone back down onto the receiver. His bad mood worsened and a temp who had been walking past his office felt a shiver go down her spine as she detected something off in her surroundings, she scurried off quickly.

The phone rang again and he snatched the phone off the hook.

"Speak" he snarled

"It's rude to just hang up on me" Naraku chuckled "I was simply going to tell you that I've become an investor in your company, so there will be many more times when we cross paths. Maybe I'll even get to see your tasty girlfriend again hmm?"

Naraku smirked as there was a loud bang and the tone sounded signifying that the phone had conversation was over.

Sesshoumaru was seething and having problems keeping his Yokai in check, his eyes were flashing from amber to red as he tried to control himself. He usually had no problems holding in his demon but sometimes when he got this incensed his demon would rear its ugly head roaring in its restraints as it desperately tried to take charge.

The phone rang again and he nearly crushed the phone as he picked it from the cradle.

"WHAT?" he was livid

"...um..." the terrified receptionist forgot how to speak for a second "Your car is here Sesshoumaru-sama" she murmured

He was embarrassed at getting so mad at her "Thank you"

"Okasan!" Rin ran into the kitchen and grabbed the leg of Kagome's black jeans

"Yes?" she asked looking down at the little girl who had flushed cheeks and a stubborn expression.

"Ranmaru-kun will not let me play with his paint!" she exclaimed "he says I'll ruin it!"

"Because you will ruin it" Ranmaru called from his bedroom

"Okasan!" she moaned in distress

"I'm sure Ran-chan won't mind if you do a different painting next to him or something" Kagome tried to be a peacemaker but to be honest she was on edge expecting Sesshoumaru home.

"I don't mind that!" Ranmaru called "but this painting is special so Rin isn't allowed to help, is all"

"Okay" she was a little down trodden but accepted the solution and scurried off back to his room. To give the two children credit they had adapted from being only children to having an instant sort of sibling pretty quickly, they very occasionally had arguments and Ran tried to placate Rin most of the time.

The door opened and slammed shut and Kagome walked to greet Sesshoumaru and then stopped dead when she saw his livid expression, a second later his Yokai rolled over her senses like a cloud of noxious poison and she gasped at the sheer power of his aura.

"Damn that Hanyou!" he snarled to himself. "This Sesshoumaru will kill him and eliminate the Hanyou scum from the earth"

She would have found his crackling rage funny if she hadn't had a terrifying epiphany. Sesshoumaru hated half breeds or Hanyou.

So that meant he would hate the child growing inside her too.

Her brain tried to convince her it was just Naraku; after all she hated Naraku too. But then she remembered how he had acted to his Hanyou brother at Christmas and at other times. Whenever the two were in the same room together trouble ensued.

Sesshoumaru was oblivious to his chosen's inner turmoil as he kicked off his shoes and walked up to her hugging her and burying his face in her hair to let her summer scent warm him and calm him down. There was something slightly different about her scent today, it smelt somehow more fragile.

He noticed that she stood stiffly in his embrace and pulled back to study her face.

"What's wrong Kagome?" he asked in concern brushing her hair back from her face, now that he was focusing he could feel the fear, apprehension and dread emanating from their bond and it was making him worry.

"Nothing" she shrugged out from his arms and walked into the kitchen to check on the dinner she was cooking. She had gotten the recipe of Kikyo and she didn't want it to burn.

Rin sighed as she accidentally dropped her paint brush and it bounced off the desk giving her a green stripe across the back of her hand. She padded down the hallway and into the bathroom of Kagome and Sesshoumaru's room and washed her hands in the sink back over turning the bin and standing on it. She went to place the bin back in it's original position and noticed a small white stick on the floor that someone had obviously attempted to throw away. Picking it up she turned it over to read a word that she had not yet learned in school.

She walked into the kitchen and pulled on the jean leg of Kagome's jeans again with the plastic stick in hand.

"Okasan" she said

"Hai, Rin-chan?" Kagome asked not really looking at the little girl but instead searching through the drawers for a wooden spoon.

"What's this?" she waved the stick through the air.

Sesshoumaru came out of their room changed into normal clothes and frowned at the small stick Rin was waving at her mother.

"Where'd you get that?" Kagome asked flustered she snatched it from the young girls hand and held it out of reach. Only to find it snatched from her hand as Sesshoumaru appeared behind her.

He read the small word written in pink, it said positive.

"Um..." Kagome flushed; busted! "It's not mine"

"Don't lie" he said softly wondering why in god's name she was trying to keep it from him. "This Sesshoumaru can smell you on it and no one else except Rin; and it isn't hers"

Rin frowned from one adult to the other as she tried to figure out what was happening and Ranmaru appeared behind her and joined her in watching the adults.

"Yeah" she hid her face in her hair

"Why did you attempt to hide it from this Sesshoumaru?" he asked carefully, he was incredibly happy at the fact she was pregnant with his child but he couldn't figure out what the hell she was thinking.

"You hate Hanyou" she stated in a whisper and he watched a solitary tear make it's way down her cheek.

He sighed heavily at how unpredictable she could be; why did she jump to these weird conclusions all on her own. He smoothed a hand threw her hair and put his other on her shoulder bringing her towards him so he could embrace her.

"This Sesshoumaru did not know that you could be stupid, perhaps words are necessary again to alleviate the doubt " he smiled into her hair "I love you and I will also love the child, regardless of what it is"

"B-but..." she stuttered

"But nothing, this Sesshoumaru loves you and Rin does he not? And you are both humans, the things this Sesshoumaru does not tolerate very well"

"Really?" she asked softly and he felt her fists grab hold of his shirt

"Really" he said

She hit him around the head with her hand "Then tell me before I freak out idiot!" she yelled

How quickly her moods changed, he thought as he smiled wryly.

"How was this Sesshoumaru supposed to realise the foolish thoughts going through your mind?" he asked "This Sesshoumaru knew not that you were capable of such idiocy"

She was about to hit him again when she noticed the copious amounts of smoke billowing from the oven.

"This is your fault!" she snarled

They ordered in for tea after studying the charred remain of dinner and deciding it wasn't worth risking their lives. They ordered take out instead.

Kagome hung up the phone and turned back to Sesshoumaru who was gazing at her thoughtfully.

"What?" she asked

"This Sesshoumaru just remembered something" he told her "there is a rule that if the mother of a pup is human and yet a powerful Miko then the baby can sometimes be full Yokai"

"Seriously?" she was sceptical "because the biology lessons I took don't really support your hypothesis"

He snorted "Human science has nothing on Yokai magic"

She hit him with the oven gloves and accused him of being species-ist.

After dinner they cleared up a few things with the children.

"So Okasan is going to have a baby?" Ranmaru surmised nodding his head

"Yep" said Kagome

"The baby will be a Hanyou then, like Inuyasha-ojisan" Ranmaru said he knew that Inuyasha's parents had been a demon and a human.

"That is right" Sesshoumaru nodded at the young boy deciding not to mention the possibility of it being pure as he wasn't sure how his adopted pup would cope with the news "but hopefully being a Hanyou will be where the similarities between them end, I do not want my pup to be as ridiculous as that dog"

Kagome chuckled "Dog? Let me tell you a little tale about a pot and a kettle" she grinned

He rolled his eyes in a perfect imitation of her and she stuck her tongue out.

Then they all turned to Rin-chan who had remained silent throughout the discussion chewing a strand of her hair absentmindedly; a bad habit she had picked up from Kagome.

"Okasan" she got Kagome's attention "Sesshoumaru-sama,"

"Yes Rin-chan?" Kagome asked

"Where do babies come from?"

They all stared at Rin for a while before Ran piped up "Yeah, Okasan where do babies come from?"

Kagome and Sesshoumaru looked at each other in horror and then at the two curious children. Then Kagome collapsed onto the table laughing so hard she thought she might be sick.

Sesshoumaru glared at her and then smirked and stood taking the dinner plates with him "You tell them" he said

She stopped laughing abruptly and her eyes widened as she saw how perfectly serious he was.

"Nooooo!" she wailed "Sesshoumaru don't make me do this on my own!"

His reply was a smug chuckle.

"So, Okasan" Ranmaru said

"Where do babies come from?" the two children chorused

"Oh god" she thunked her head on the table.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. One more chapter is all you get before this most epic quest is finished! Please review, reviews keep me writing.


	22. Epilogue

Epilogue: Can you count?

Kagome waddled through the apartment, growling about something or other while Ranmaru and Rin watched in amusement. She raised an eyebrow at her children in a way reminiscent of Sesshoumaru and they had to force themselves to remain silent, if they had laughed they had a funny feeling she'd be most unimpressed.

Kagome's pregnancy had been progressing normally up until a point when the doctor had informed her that she had exceeded all expectations. She was going to be the mother of triplets, of course being a Yokai doctor he could shed no light on whether her children would be Hanyou or not. His best guess would be that they would be more than likely a mixture of both Hanyou and Yokai in the litter. Kagome had not been impressed at him calling her children a litter, but she hadn't purified him. Sesshoumaru had asked nicely, she acquiesced.

She was three days overdue at this point and in her eyes as big as an elephant. She and Sesshoumaru were having even more arguments than usual. Or rather she was feeling smothered by his incessantly overprotective nature and he was ignoring her complaints completely. She had been happy that he had been called into the office on urgent business. It gave her time to breathe.

"Argh!" she exclaimed.

"Okasan?" Rin asked timidly.

"What?" she asked in a completely defeated voice.

"Are you okay?"

"No" she answered shortly "I've had enough of being so elephantine!"

"Mama is an elephant" Ranmaru giggled

Kagome growled at him and winced as her babies decided to practise their kickboxing- again. She tugged at the maternity tent she had been coerced into wearing by Hana and Kikyo. Hana and Sasuke were in town again purely for the birth of Kagome's children and looking forward to it as a child looks forward to Christmas.

She was not in the best mood, her stomach twinged and the babies seemed to be performing acrobatics.

"Do we still have ice cream?" Rin asked, used to her mothers' mood swings she knew the only thing that could really placate her was pistachio ice-cream, Rin thought it was yucky but at least it made her mother less grouchy.

"I'm all for that plan." Kagome commented digging in the freezer she unearthed ice cream for both her and the two children who preferred strawberry flavour.

They decided they'd eat it in Sesshoumaru and Kagome's bed, because Kagome was feeling vindictive and loved the imagined expression on Sesshoumaru's face when they got sticky ice cream mess all over his bed.

They'd been arguing a lot over the pregnancy, he wanted a natural birth at home and she refused to turn her nose up at modern medicine, she wanted to go to the hospital. They were still fighting over it, or as Kikyo had told them; they were at an impasse.

Whatever. She was entitled to give birth in whatever way she felt appropriate, after all he wasn't going to be doing anything. She shook her head as she realised her thoughts were getting a tad violent and concentrated on her ice cream.

She fidgeted on the bed for a moment as she felt the most peculiar feeling, like she was peeing. Except she wasn't, it was just a steady trickle of fluids. It appeared her waters had broken, her babies had decided they wanted to see the world at last. She sort of sat there wondering what the hell she was supposed to do. And then the twinges got more pronounced causing her to clutch her stomach and wince.

"Um... Okasan" Ranmaru ventured timidly "what's that smell?"

"Aw crap" she groaned "best call Sesshoumaru"

Under the circumstances she was surprisingly calm, but then she could have been in shock. She wasn't sure.

"Baby!" Rin squealed in understanding

And then all hell broke loose.

***

Sesshoumaru was not having the best day. First Jaken had called and implored him to visit his company and be away from his overdue pregnant mate and now he had discovered the need behind his return to the office. Naraku was poaching his most valued employee's from the company, offering them phenomenally better wages and he was left with an ever depleting workforce. Only the most loyal had remained, and even they were few in number. His slammed a palm down onto his desk and growled.

Jaken poked his head around the door letting loose a terrified sound as his lord's aura buffered against him like a sail in a storm.

"Um... Sesshoumaru-sama we just lost Takumi-san and Sumika-san" Jaken admitted nervously.

Sesshoumaru growled harshly "Get Azami on the line, it's time this Sesshoumaru played his ace"

***

"What do you mean he's not picking up?" Kagome demanded Kikyo and Inuyasha had arrived when she had called both completely confused by the fact that she was pacing around irately.

"I guess he's busy" Kikyo shrugged.

"I'm going to neuter him" Kagome vowed.

"What's neuter mean?" Rin asked happily, she was still eating ice cream on the bed.

"Never mind, why don't you go and play with Ran and Ayame okay?" she ushered the small child out of the bedroom and helped her mate wrestle Kagome onto the bed.

She groaned. "It hurts Kikyo"

"I know honey" she said soothingly she turned to Inuyasha "Call an ambulance and Sasuke, now!"

***

"It's good to hear from you Sesshoumaru-kun" Azami purred, Sesshoumaru was stood in the board room using the phone and at the same time finding his evidence. He had ordered for no interruptions and terrified workers had obeyed seamlessly.

"Azami, cease your incessant chattering" he snapped "are you loyal to Naraku?"

"No" she said bluntly "he's an ass."

"Good, now this is what I want you to do" he smiled as he located the CD.

***

"I win!" Kagome exclaimed before letting out a groan scream as Inuyasha laid her onto a hospital bed they had procured upon arrival.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Sesshoumaru wanted a home birth" Kikyo shrugged.

Kagome clamped down hard on her cousins arm and then groaned "bring him here, now"

"Her contractions are only five minutes apart" a nurse commented as another ushered Sasuke and Inuyasha from the room.

"Stay with me!" Kagome choked, clutching onto Kikyo's arm.

"I'm not going anywhere, I'm right here" Kikyo cooed calmingly.

"Who's the husband?" someone asked.

"Not a husband, her mate. Sesshoumaru Taisho of Taisho Publishing" Kikyo said "but he's not picking up"

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome whimpered.

***

"It's nice of you to invite me over Sesshoumaru-sama" Naraku said smiling smarmily as he sat down at the head of the table in the board room. Sesshoumaru sat near to him, his laptop open on the table. "but I can't imagine what prompted this impromptu visit"

Sesshoumaru smiled placidly, his eyes cold and promising death. "Of course you poaching people from this Sesshoumaru's company has no relevance" he said silkily

"That's just business, I'm sure you understand" Naraku smiled condescendingly

"This Sesshoumaru understands" Sesshoumaru was still smiling and Naraku was being to feel uncomfortable. "And if you continue in your futile attempts to ruin this Sesshoumaru's company then this Sesshoumaru shall annihilate you" his smile grew wider and he turned the laptop to face Naraku and pressed play.

Naraku's eyes widened in horror. The scene of him accosting Kagome was playing out in front of him obviously from some kind of shop security camera, then another clip was played, this one of Bankotsu trying to force Kagome into his private town car. Sesshoumaru laid some documents on the table and Naraku balked as he realised they were Kagome's call records, showing the numerous times he had called her.

"This Sesshoumaru spoke to Azami, she is perfectly willing to run a story on your stalking habits. And this Sesshoumaru will take the evidence of your assault on Kagome to the police, Bankotsu is willing to testify that you coerced him into kidnap." Sesshoumaru smiled wider as he watched Naraku's world collapse down around him. "but as you understand, it's just business"

"What do you want?" Naraku growled

"This Sesshoumaru desires nothing half-breed" Sesshoumaru smirked "This Sesshoumaru demands that you rescind your stock and leave Japan"

"What?" he was livid

"Or go to prison, you decide" Sesshoumaru shrugged

"Fine" he spat

"Good, if you ever come near this Sesshoumaru or his pack again, make no mistake, prison will look like the easy option out" his warning held the promise of intent

Ten minutes later Naraku had given his stock over to Sesshoumaru and left the building in a blinding rage. Sesshoumaru smirked and picked up the phone.

"Azami? Run your story" Sesshoumaru hung up and prepared to call the police. No one harmed what was his.

***

"Look" Inuyasha yelled at the woman who claimed to be his half brothers newest assistant "Just put the damn ass on the phone"

"I'm sorry but he said I wasn't supposed to bother him" the poor woman sounded terrified.

Sasuke could see this getting out of hand fast and skilfully wrestled the phone from the Hanyou.

"I'm Sasuke, can I ask your name?"

"Ami" she said tremulously.

"Can you remember the worst mood Sesshoumaru has ever been in?" he prompted whilst in the background Inuyasha whined about him taking too long.

"Yes" she trembled with the memory.

"Now imagine what it would be like if he discovered that you had kept him from the side of his mate when she was giving birth to his children" Sasuke prompted.

There was a sharp inhalation and the woman began to hyperventilate "I'll get him" she squealed and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

***

Sesshoumaru paid no heed to his half-breed brother, or the neko outside the hospital, and instead strode straight through the waiting area and like the crazed soon to be parent he was hunted down his mate, his eyes blood red.

He burst through the doors of Kagome's delivery room and half pounced on her. She was propped up in the bed looking at him blearily, twin bundles in each arm. Kikyo was holding a bundle too. But the bundles were not his main focus.

"Kagome?" he asked softly looking to her cousin who was massaging her abused hand.

"You're lucky you weren't here" Kagome mumbled in the tone she used when she was dead on her feet "I would've burst your eardrums"

"You are okay?"

"Mmm, I'm okay just tired" she yawned hugely

"The pups?"

"Fine, healthy" she chuckled "two boys and one girl"

"Here" Kikyo carefully handed Sesshoumaru the minute bundle she was holding. "I'll leave you two, bye Kagome."

"Mmm"

Sesshoumaru peered down at the small bundle. This was his first born, with the crescent moon gracing his forehead, he had a small silver sprinkling of fluff on his head and tiny claws but no fangs and as it opened it bleary eyes he looked back into his own perfectly copied ones. He had crests across his face that made him almost identical to Sesshoumaru.

"That one's gonna be called mini Sesshoumaru" she told him with a lopsided grin "It doesn't look like I had any effect on him"

"He is pure Yokai" Sesshoumaru commented

"Yep, the other two are something kinda like three quarters Yokai, it's like I got rid of all his human side and then the other two tired me out and I only managed to do some on them." she chuckled

He gazed down at his other children. The female was the smallest, the youngest but she too had a scrap of silver hair and tiny flaps of dog ears that protruded from her skull, and she was the only pup that had an aura of a Miko about them. Her eyes were blue like her mothers and she looked down her nose at him as if to say 'and where do you think you've been?' They both laughed slightly at that expression on her face.

The other boy, the middle child had dark hair like his mothers and there was a strange abundance of it, he had small dog ears like his sister and carried the same facial and blue body stripes as his grandfather Touga did and the same golden eyes as his father. He surveyed his father and then sneezed. Causing them to laugh, again.

"They are mine" he said slowly, like he was trying to wrap his mind around the fact.

"They are ours" she corrected

***

Seven years later.

The triplets had grown up strong, guarded closely by their parents and loved fiercely by their older siblings.

The eldest male had been named Akira. He was slightly too smart for his age and appeared to take immense satisfaction in winding up anyone and everyone, particularly his two sisters and his uncle Inuyasha. Sasuke and the child got along famously, much to Sesshoumaru's dismay.

Shouhei, the second son was relaxed and mellow, often found stopping Akira from tormenting someone, the child was impossible to rile up and most who knew him couldn't figure out where he had gotten the calm gene from. Both his mother and father were famous for their tempers and he didn't seem to even have one. He was protective of his family though, loyal and stubborn when it came to them.

Chikako, the youngest and the only girl in the first litter loved everyone. She could be a little gullible at times and had a bizarre fascination with bats, but she charmed everyone she met effortlessly so that they fell in love with her. She possessed her mother's Miko abilities and loved to practise them with her. Rin constantly dressed her up as if Chikako was her personal life size doll, but she didn't really seem to mind.

Ranmaru was now fourteen and cheeky as ever, but mildly so. He appeared to have a number of female fans but didn't seem to care very much. He thought his entire family was stupid and tried to avoid them as much as was humanly possible. But if they ever thought he was avoiding them too much everyone (except Sesshoumaru) dog piled him. He learnt not to avoid them so often. Rin was tolerated and he could deal with everyone, but he preferred them in small doses.

Rin, now twelve was at the awkward age all humans seemed to have to go through. Ranmaru never seemed to go through anything similar, but then most demons didn't. She had started to befriend some not so nice girls who just wanted to be around Ranmaru and as such he had soaked them in a demonic tidal wave. Needless to say she wasn't friends with them anymore.

Sesshoumaru was as dry and cold as normal, apart from when his facade cracked and his family dog piled him. Kagome was still cheerful sprinkled with annoying and prone to violence when annoyed. But such was life.

"Akira!" Chikako whined "that's mine!" she attempted to tackle him, failed miserably and slid on her stomach across the hard wood floor and into the wall.

"They're all mental" Ranmaru remarked to Rin as the two older children watched two of the triplets fight.

"What does he have?" Rin asked

"Some doll?" Ranmaru shrugged "all I know is I'm getting annoyed pretty fast" he blinked as his mobile buzzed.

"Who is it?" she asked

"Mamoru" Ranmaru said "Do you wanna come out with us?"

"Who's going?" she asked, she enjoyed going out with her brother and his friends because they were older and it made all the girls in her year at school jealous.

"Ah," he grimaced "Emi's going and you and her..." he trailed off not needing to say anymore. They didn't get along very well.

"I'll pass" she shrugged and then grimaced as Chikako accidentally ran into her legs, knocking her over into Ranmaru, and landing them sprawled in a pile on the floor.

"Akira!" Rin growled "Get here now and give it back or I'll sick Ranmaru on you!"

Akira appeared standing behind them and looking smug "why would I be afraid of a horse?"

"So dead" Ranmaru muttered getting to his feet "I propose we give this puppy a bath" he grinned evilly as his two sisters cheered and they marched Akira forcefully into the bathroom. They were without mercy.

That was how Kagome found them when she left her bedroom and her computer to discover the source of the ruckus.

What greeted her made her laugh so hard it hurt.

A disgruntled Akira sat in the bath, soap bubbles making him look like a half melted snowman while he was scrubbed thoroughly by his sisters, held in place by a chuckling Shouhei and doused routinely by a smirking Ranmaru.

"What'd he do?" she asked.

"A lot of stuff" Ranmaru shrugged "like usual"

They all jumped out of their skin as Sesshoumaru appeared in the doorway and looked at them all, eyebrow raised.

"You need to remember how outnumbered you are in this house Akira." Sesshoumaru advised his son with a slightly evil smirk. Akira pouted.

"He's not the only one out numbered" Kagome reminded him and a second later Sesshoumaru found himself staring at the ceiling to his bathroom as his entire family tackled him to the ground, giggling like idiots. At the bottom of the dog pile he noticed that even Akira and Ranmaru had joined in and sighed. They may have been annoying but they were his.

His family. Through thick and thin. Enduring dog piling and temper tantrums. Definitely his family.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. I hope you enjoyed this little ditty of mine; it was lots of fun to write. Eventually I'm going to go back through it and correct my grammar (because I can't punctuate). Thanks so much to anyone who has ever reviewed you guys are the best!


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Inuyasha, Romance