InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Gods And Demons ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Author Notes:

So, Sesshoumaru and Kagome are still walking south, in search of the spear. She's limping because she tripped, he's not caring because he's him.

_________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________

Sesshoumaru was amused. He had been watching the injured miko attempting to keep up with him for the past several hours and it was possibly the most humorous thing he had seen in a long time. She looked as though she would topple over any second, but somehow managed to catch herself just a moment before.

It was terribly funny, at least he thought so.

If he smirks at me one more time I swear I'm gonna purify his face, Kagome growled to herself as she struggled to keep up with her taiyoukai guide. His pace was even faster than Inuyasha's and her ankle was throbbing so much she felt as though it were going to pop right off her leg and walk away in protest.

To put it lightly, she was not happy, but she wasn't about to let him know that. So, she bit down on her lip and refused it acknowledge her screaming limb.

Shut up, stupid body parts! She growled to her misbehaving appendage. Don't make me hurt you...me...whatever!

Sesshoumaru quickened his strides and listened as the girl's pace rose to match his. He knew her ankle hurt her, he could smell her pain, but she would not slow. She is much too stubborn, he thought to himself. No wonder she is always around my loathsome half-brother.

"Nice day for a walk isn't it?" Kagome asked him in an overly cheery attitude, trying not to sound out of breath. She knew he was trying to get her to ask him to slow down, she knew it would satisfy his twisted sense of humor. Not that he had a sense of humor. It was more like a really creepy smirk that he got whenever something was writhing in pain, or dying, or - in her case - limping like an old man with gout.

"Miko, I would hardly call what you are doing 'walking'," he said in his usual bored manner, not even sparing her a glance. Kagome narrowed her eyes, her false smile slipping off her face as she tried to lessen her obvious limp.

I wish I could sit him like Inuyasha! She thought furiously and then smirked as an image of Sesshoumaru being magically pounded into the dirt came to mind.

She imagined it would go something like this:

"Sesshoumaru, sit boy!"

Wham!

Sesshoumaru transforms into a giant, acid breathing dog and devours her.

She half cringed, half laugh at the thought of subduing the demon lord. I wouldn't live to do it a second time, but it would be sooooo worth it.

Sesshoumaru noticed her mischievous grin and wondered if the woman was daft. He had made a joke at her expense, she should not find it humorous.

"And would you stop doing that?" Kagome snapped as she caught him looking at her, quickly disposing of her smirk as though she were afraid he could read her thoughts behind it.

Sesshoumaru raised a brow.

"All the staring! Stop it, it's creepy," she said matter-of-factly. "Not to mention rude."

"Indeed," he said dryly and refocused his golden eyes to the path in front of him.

They walked in an uneasy silence for the remainder of the day. Uneasy meaning that Kagome was twitching from lack of conversation, and Sesshoumaru was unaffected. Which, now that Kagome thought about it, was a fairly accurate portrayal of their respective characters: Twitchy and Unaffected. Like some horribly animated cartoon show of a squirrel and a particularly aloof cat.

"Hey, let's make camp," she finally gave in as the sun began to slip below the horizon. They had been walking for at least six hours and even though she didn't know how much farther they had to go to get to this spear, she really didn't care. She was tired, and irritated, and about to put her fist through a tree.

Which would not be a good idea seeing as she wasn't actually strong enough to do such a thing and would probably only end up with some broken fingers and another mocking huff from her companion.

"You wish to stop so soon?" Sesshoumaru smirked humorlessly - the first thing he had said in SIX hours. "With your apparent stamina I expect we could travel another few miles."

Kagome threw him a harsh glare, realizing that he was making fun of her. "You think you're pretty clever don't you?"

"You are entirely too stubborn for your own good, miko, that is what I think."

"UGH!" Kagome growled. "That's it! We're making camp, and that's final!" Kagome watched as he flipped his long, silver hair over his shoulder and turned his back to her. He settled himself against the largest tree bordering the small clearing they had happened upon and stared off into the distance.

Kagome dropped her bag to the ground and glared at him. "Aren't you even going to help me?" She huffed.

"No," he said simply, as though it was the most ridiculous question anyone had ever asked him.

"And why not?" She demanded, placing her hands on her hips. She wasn't usually this temperamental, but the youkai lord had been subtly pushing her buttons all day and she was snapping from exhaustion.

"If it will stop your nagging, I will help you gather provisions," he sighed. He was really starting to regret his decision not to gut the priestess. Sure there was that whole problem of the god who had threatened to make him into an ornamental wall hanging should he harm her, but the headache she had managed to give him almost made him wish the god would just chop off his head and put him out of his misery.

The school girl considered his offer, looking intently at his face to try and gauge if he was being serious, or just mocking her again. She could never tell with him, his expression never changed.

"No, I don't want your help if your going to act like that. You should do it because you want to do it, not because you want to shut me up!" She decided and then sighed exhaustedly. "You know what? Never mind. I'm going to go soak my ankle, I'll be back soon. Try not to have too much fun while I'm gone," she grumbled sarcastically.

The taiyoukai watched as the miko grabbed her bag and limped off into the forest, wondering why on earth she expected him to want to gather fire wood.

Insufferable humans.

***

Kagome was fed up. In under 24 hours he had managed to completely exhaust her in every way possible. Her limbs screamed from the miles they had walked, her head throbbed from the frustration he had put her through, and her throat ached from yelling. She was a mess and it was all his fault!

"He's even more annoying than Inuyasha!" Kagome groaned at the dripping wash cloth she held in her hands. The stream she found was much too shallow to bath in, but she could easily dangle her feet into the cooling water and wipe some of the dried sweat from her forehead. It felt good, not as good as an actual bath, but at least she wouldn't smell...as much.

Ugh, I just want to get this over with! What is it about me that attracts all the wrong male attention? The boy she loved could barely look her in the eyes, but the perverted god she had just met had no problem whisking her away and declaring that she would be his bride. Not to mention the overly friendly wolf that claimed her as 'his woman' every time they met.

Yeah, her life kinda sucked. She truly and sincerely believed that her life could not possibly suck anymore unless she were dead, but apparently the cruel hands of fate knew no bounds.

Suddenly Kagome stiffened, some unseen disturbance tickling her senses like a drip of ice water being dropped on her neck and leaving her shivering as it trickled down her back. An unsettling aura pushed against her senses, causing her miko powers to spark uncomfortably.

Something was out there, something demonic, and it wasn't her taiyoukai companion.

"Whose t-there!" She stuttered, her voice sounding pathetic and small even to her own ears, "show yourself."

"Ah, observant are we?" A cold voice hissed into the night much closer than expected, causing Kagome to gasp and drop her rag.

"W-who are you? What do you want?" She demanded, wrenching her feet from the cool stream to scramble to her feet.

"Do not fret, little morsel, I do not kill pretty ladies," a dark shadow spoke as it slowly crept from the line of trees across the stream from the shaking girl. "I have something much more...enjoyable planned for you."

Kagome backed away slowly without taking her eyes off of the menacing figure only a few yards away from her. "S-sorry, but I really should be getting back to my friend," she smiled nervously as her back came to rest against the trunk of a tree.

The shadow stopped pacing and took an aggressive step forward. "Do not spoil my good time, little morsel!"

Kagome didn't wait for the demon to pounce before turning sharply and dodging the tree at her back, running as fast as she could into the forest. Not a second later she heard wood splinter as her chaser collided with said tree in his haste to catch her. She could hear his wicked laugh as he ran after her, snickering threats that could not be heard over her frantic panting. Branches and thorns tore her arms and clothes as she continued to run in what she hoped was the direction of the campsite. She didn't know what she would do once she got there, she only hoped that Sesshoumaru's presence might be enough to scare the lesser youkai away.

"You cannot run forever!" The other demon said gleefully just as Kagome's foot caught on a root and she fell to her hands and knees.

I'm gonna lose my virginity covered in dirt and leaves! She thought intelligibly. I'm about to get raped, and all I can think about is the fact that I'm covered in dirt and leaves! What is wrong with me? I should keep running...

She whimpered as she struggled to regain her footing, but she knew it was too late. She had nowhere to run, nothing to defend herself with, and no one to save her.

"Inuyasha!" He called desperately.

"Ah, you might as well stay on the ground, little morsel, I will make this qui-"

Kagome gasped as she heard the demon's cruel voice cut off with a sickening gurgle. She whipped her head around to see a tall figure clad in white holding her chaser in the air with one hand, his claws deeply imbedded in the youkai's throat.

Sesshoumaru stood completely silent, the only sign of his deadly intent was in the icy, heart-stopping glare he sent to the poor creature before dropping the choking demon to the ground. He sputtered in agony before finally slumping to the floor in a pool of his own, disgusting blood.

The taiyoukai watched the show before him with a look of mild distaste. He had thought perhaps this was the maiden snatcher he had originally set out to find, but this demon was far to weak to garner such a reputation. No, this youkai was just a low-level waist of time.

He flicked the blood from his claws and turned his cold, golden eyes to Kagome. "You will do better to take of yourself in the future, miko, if you die, my life is forfeit as well."

The look of awed wonder quickly slid from her face into a scowl. Kagome never really liked having to be rescued, but she was certainly appreciative every time she was. But her rescues had usually been orchestrated out of love or kindness, not because she was holding a demon lord's life in her hands. It made her feel dirty and worthless, like she was just a thing to be guarded and nothing more.

Which, in all reality, she was, but she still didn't like feeling that way.

"Sorry," she muttered, any joy she felt for his rescue quickly fading with his increasingly cold indifference. "I could've taken care of him myself if I had my bow."

"Then why are you without it?" He asked without looking at her as she stood and brushed the dirt off of her scraped knees.

"I lost it," she grumbled.

Sesshoumaru gave her a withering glare, undoubtedly trying to resist the urge to dismember her for her stupidity.

"I know, I'm an idiot for losing it," she huffed before he could take any drastic actions against her person. "I'm human and stupid and forgetful, but there's nothing I can do about it now, and if I don't want to lose all of my other things, I need to go get my bag. I left it back at the river when that lunatic attacked me."

"Then I will go with you," he announced stiffly, "I do not trust that you won't fall in the stream and drown." He perused that mental image for a moment and found it quite amusing, once this was over perhaps he could drown her himself.

"How sweet," Kagome said, rolling her eyes and limping back the way she had come. She was bleeding and sweaty and covered in dirt and she really didn't appreciate being told what a helpless damsel she was.

In truth, all these things were tolerable, the thing that distressed her the most was the intensity in which she suddenly missed Inuyasha.

He would have rescued her just the same as his half-brother, probably with a lot more shouting and swearing, but just as effectively nonetheless. He would have killed her tormenter, turned to her with a scowl and told her what a baka she was, but at the same time would have grabbed her hand and lifted her to her feet with such obvious care that she would only be able to smile.

Well, she certainly wasn't smiling now. Nope, Lord Stick-Up-The-Ass only made her want to sneer. Permanently. Yup, her face would surely be stuck in a constant show of distaste if she stayed with him too long.

The sooner we find this spear, the better, Kagome sighed inwardly.

It took twenty minutes to find her bag, wash her newly acquired cuts, and make their way back to the campsite. All of this was done in silence of course, because the great lord of the west was quickly proving to Kagome that he was the most unsociable creature in all of japan. Possibly the whole planet.

That stick must've been really wedged up there.

When they finally made it back to the clearing, Sesshoumaru abruptly faded back into the woods before quickly reappearing with a bundle of wood and throwing it on the ground at Kagome's feet. She stared at him with a slightly awed look as he simply reclaimed his station at the base of the tree.

"Thanks," Kagome managed, as she continued to stare at the youkai lord. Great, now she felt guilty for having ill thoughts about the jerk. It wasn't like he just professed his deepest and most heart-felt apology for every wrong he had ever done to her, but still, it was pleasantly unexpected.

He gave a quick nod of his regal head before going back to his favorite pastime of ignoring the world around him.

"And thanks for saving me, I was kind of a jerk to you before," she mumbled, shifting uncomfortably as she remembered yelling at him and then storming off.

"I do not wish to die on behalf of your human weaknesses, miko," he said coldly.

And just like that he ruins it, I almost thought he could possibly be hiding a good guy deep within that stoic, self-important facade, she thought, shaking her head. Oh well, at least he hasn't tried to melt me...yet.

"You could just say 'no problem' and be happy," she sighed, arranging the wood into a pile and quickly lighting a match so that Sesshoumaru wouldn't see it. She wasn't exactly ready to tell him about the convenient little invention from the future as it would undoubtedly lead to other, more tricky inquisitions.

"Hn," was his only response.

Kagome decided that she was too exhausted to even try to make dinner or change into her pajamas...if Taka and Hakuchou had even left her pajamas. They seemed to have thought that outfitting Kagome with a new, more era appropriate, wardrobe was the best thing that had ever happened to them. And even if they wouldn't admit how much they enjoyed the task, Kagome was not about to ruin their fun.

She smiled as she thought of her two bird friends, they had given her some rather scanty clothing, but it was undoubtedly beautiful - not to mention a lot easier to maneuver in than her previous blouse and skirt outfit. The silk yukatas were as light as a feather, but as durable as thick cotton, making Kagome suspect that they were woven with some sort of magic.

Whatever, they were comfortable enough to sleep in and she was tired enough to do it. She pulled the worn sleeping bag from her pack and quickly settled herself by the fire.

"Goodnight Sesshoumaru," she said quietly.

The only sounds came from the crackling fire before her.

_________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________

Chapter Notes:

Hm, Kagome being chased by a perverted demon, who would have seen that coming? Oh, and Sesshoumaru coming to save her, that was really unexpected too. I really need to stop being so surprising lol.

Review?