InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Problem ❯ All Greek ( Chapter 7 )

Quote: Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. - HL Mencken

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

 

 

 

Chapter 7: All Greek

 

 

Despite the fact that the sun was now high in the sky (it was a little past 12pm), I felt cold the whole time. It was freezing and I briefly wondered if Japan may have gone through an ice age period during the feudal era that had never been recorded in history. But my logic, thank heaven, was quick to push that idea out of my head and had me reaching into my backpack for a third sweater to pull over my head. Fleecy and soft as it was, the sweater was enough to quell my shivering for the time being.

For the first time since yesterday, I was walking behind Sesshoumaru again, not because he chose to put the distance between us, but because I did. I was still too overwhelmed by the happenings of today morning to even dare to step any closer to him. I was still ashamed of my stupidity over the matter, but was over most of the guilt. After all, it was only natural for me to be curious about the light. But still, I could not bring myself to look at Sesshoumaru, knowing that I had been stupid enough to follow a potentially dangerous thing in the feudal era, follow it despite all the warnings that my senses had given me. And to think, this was the feudal era, where at any turn there were demons, never mind humans, who would have been glad to have killed me just to get their hands on the jewel shards. I knew I lacked common sense…but this…this was even beyond me. This was why I couldn't bring myself to walk beside Sesshoumaru or even to look at him. Yet still, I knew that I had to thank him sooner or later.

For his part, Sesshoumaru was doing a convincing job of acting as though nothing of great consequence had happened. In a way, I was thankful. If it had been Inuyasha, he would have no doubt yelled himself sore telling me how stupid I had been. While that would have been annoying, it would have been an excuse for me to speak up and justify my actions to him. With Sesshoumaru, all the initiative seemed to lie at my feet.

Then I stopped, reminding myself that saving my life did take some initiative.

This was quickly becoming a problem. One moment I would be thinking something, my mind working to justify things, and the next moment, it would come to a screeching halt, reminding me that I was overlooking things. That I was being unfair and prejudiced. And, as life would have, as soon as this thought would cross my mind, it was sure to be followed by further questions and doubts. Then my mind would again try and think out and started the whole cycle all over again.

Sigh.

Truth be told, I was confused. Sure, I'd been confused pretty much the whole time I had known him. I mean he was Inuyasha's big brother but had been as hostile as any enemy that we had come across of, if not more so. He acted the part of a villain but looked more the part of the silent guard. He was cold and dispassionate, but proud and honourable. If this wasn't enough, he claimed to hate humans, but allowed Rin to travel with him and even seemed to watch over her. Like I said, having known Sesshoumaru for some two years, I was prepared to be confused by him. But this was a whole new level of confusion.

The first time he had saved my life, there was a legitimate - or so by his standards - reason to his actions that even I could see. I had been surprised, yes, but not all so confused, especially as I had had little time to dwell on the matter what with the events that had followed. Today morning was another matter as his reasons were less obvious and spare time abundant.

Lunch came and went and all the while I remained confused and quiet, my mind tied in a web of its own and the weight of my gratitude heavy on my shoulders. The more I thought about it, the more I mulled over things, the grey stood out more and more, leaving behind only one speck of white that my mind was forced to focus on. No matter what, the fact remained, I owed Sesshoumaru my life and I owed him a thank you at the least.

And as the day wore on and we undoubtedly were nearing our supposed destination, I knew I had little time left. I had to thank Sesshoumaru, and I had to do it soon. Thankfully, when it came down to it, I was not one to buckle under pressure. I had not yielded to Naraku, to Subaki's spell, to the pressure that Kikyo's presence left on our group. I hadn't survived all that only to fail when it came to such a simple matter. After all, I had thanked Sesshoumaru before, several times in fact. I should be able to do it again. A part of my brain wanted to point out that this wasn't as simple a matter as my life had been saved from my own stupidity and these conditions made it all that much more difficult. But I persistently shoved the traitorous voice aside, knowing that my character itself demanded me to speak up.

So at little after three, completely unsure of what I was doing but nevertheless bent on doing it, I sped up and walked up to and past Sesshoumaru, coming to a stop directly before him.

Looking at me blankly, Sesshoumaru came to a stop as well, quietly waiting for me to either do something or move out of the way. His look was wearing down on my already frayed nerves so that I was forced to lift a hand to my neck, rubbing it in an attempt to ease myself.

“Um…listen, Sesshoumaru,” I said but quickly added at his frown, “-sama.” His brows smoothed over again, and I tried anew, gathering my nerves so I could speak up. It was slightly weird that it took so much effort for me to thank him when normally it came to me as second nature. But I knew where my trouble came from and wanted all the more to do the deed. “Uh, right, well, here's the thing, what I wanted to say - no, um, I mean -,”

“Speak your mind woman.”

“Okay, so there's no stalling with you, is there?” I snapped, already on edge with nerves. Seriously, I had to do something about my temper. Soon.

Sesshoumaru just looked at me.

I sighed and tried again. “Sorry, scratch that. Look, I just wanted to thank you for…you know…”

Sesshoumaru was staring at me, slightly frowning, whether in anger or annoyance I did not know. But I did know frowning was not a sign of acceptance. With a bout of resolution, I squared my shoulders, prepared for whatever that was to come.

“I did not do it to earn myself your gratitude,” he finally said in a cool tone.

I shook my head, a faint smile on my face. “No, god forbid,” and I let out a nervous laugh that died a quick death under his cool gaze. “I didn't mean it like that at all. I just wanted to thank you.”

“It was of no consequence.” His eyebrows contracted further.

“Yes, well,” I said in a serious and sincere voice, “Thanks anyway.”

He frowned at me for a second longer, his eyes strange and unreadable as they studied me. Then, he just stepped past me and resumed walking; I guess this was as much of an acceptance as I could expect from him.

I ran to catch up and stood in front of him again; there was still one more thing left. He looked at me with slightly wider eyes; I guess he was surprised. Mmm…duh! “Just one more thing if you bear with me.” A shadow of a frown was back over his features.

“Speak,” he commanded solemnly, his eyes boring deep within me.

I swallowed and went into it heads first. “I'm sorry.”

There were a few minutes of silence as we stared at each other, one calculating, and the other searching. Sesshoumaru was the first to speak up. “What for?”

I dropped my gaze, feeling the effects of my shame again. “For not giving you the courtesy of waiting for you to tell me about the spell. For blindly getting myself into a situation that caused you the inconvenience of saving me. I'm just sorry that after two years, I'm still stupid enough to pull a sleeping beauty. That was about the stupidest thing I'd done.”

A short pause, and then, “A sleeping beauty?”

Startled, I looked up to see Sesshoumaru's raised eyebrow and couldn't help but smile. “Sorry. Sleeping Beauty was a princess that follows a hypnotic light set up by a witch bent on her death. It's just a story of course.” A week ago, if anyone had told me that I would be explaining a fairy tale to Sesshoumaru, I would have thought they were crazy.

“I see,” Sesshoumaru said slowly, the raised brow more pronounced.

I just shrugged and looked back down on the ground. “Anyways, I'm sorry. It was very stupid of me.”

“As you have said several times,” came Sesshoumaru's voice, quiet and smooth as usual.

“Yeah, well it's true.” And I meant it.

Again, as per custom with our conversations, there was yet another stretch of silence. And as per custom with Sesshoumaru, I could feel his eyes boring into me like a relentless drill. Then I heard the slight ruffling of fabric and found that he was standing hardly a step away from me, coming dangerously close to impaling me with the teeth of his armour (who on Earth designed that thing anyway?). Confused and a bit scared, I remained immobile. Was he mad?

I felt a hand - a clawed hand - rest beneath my chin, tipping my face upward and leaving me to look at the demon before me. Sesshoumaru's far taller form towered over me, an undistinguishable look that I just could not place on his face. The intensity of the gold in his eyes served only to widen mine in shock and take what little breath I had left in me. I could feel goose pimples rising all along my skin. That look should be made illegal. “True as it maybe, I have come to expect differently from you and shall continue to do so.”

I didn't know how to take these words, succeeding only in turning red as he continued to stare down at me with that gleam in his eyes.

His hand still holding my chin in place, Sesshoumaru's eyes grew more intense, bending and reflecting the sun's rays. “You,” he said almost contemplatively, “You are different from other humans…”

Suddenly he clamped his jaw shut, his hand dropping from my chin as he stepped away from me, leaving behind the ghost of its warmth. The look in his eyes was one of pure anger or confusion, I couldn't tell which.

I decided it was high time for me to do something.

…only…what?

I cleared my throat in preparation - for something - anything. “Uh…”

Either because or not because of my intelligent statement, Sesshoumaru blinked suddenly, his face falling behind its notorious, blank mask. Without much ado - in fact, without any ado - he sidestepped me and continued along the road that we'd been on previously. Without stopping or turning to look at me, he said, “We shall be reaching Jaken and Rin before sunset.”

Feeling confused and more addled than ever before, I ran to catch up.

---

 

True to his word, the pink tinges in the sky were hardly discernable when I first began to hear voices. At first it was a little more than a gentle murmur on the wind, but soon, with each step bringing me closer to the source, I began to hear the small giggling voice of a child (no doubt Rin) and the occasional croak (who else but Jaken?). I could feel the excitement rising within me, pushing behind the total state of confusion that Sesshoumaru had left me in; I was perhaps seconds away from meeting Rin - properly that is.

I had seen her before, but that meeting consisted of her lying unconscious in my arms until when she did wake up and then merely ran off after her lord, throwing a hasty goodbye at me and Inuyasha. This was different. It had to be.

Curious (and maybe just a tiny itty bitty bit nosy), I strained my ears, wanting to hear what they were talking about.

“I said no, now leave me alone you horrible human spawn.”

That had to be Jaken.

“But Jaken-sama, Rin thinks you would look so pretty with them.”

I felt my eyebrow rising. Jaken…? Pretty…?

“For the last time, I don't want any flowers anywhere near me!”

“But they're yellow and the stalks are green. It would be so perfect for Jaken-sama's colouring!”

Apparently the child was persistent. I dared to look up at Sesshoumaru as we walked, hoping to catch his reaction to this. His face was blankly without expression…so much for that.

“RIN! I SAID NO!” There was an unmistakable note of panic in Jaken's voice.

Suddenly the sounds of his squawking were magnified at an alarming pitch.

“Get, get away from ME!”

The child's giggles rose to my ears, a definite evil pitch in it as I just began to make out their forms through the forest wall. What could be deciphered as an orange and black blur was running around a small clearing in tow of a second blur (green), aka Jaken. They were circling around what appeared to be the two headed dragon that I had seen Sesshoumaru with before. I watched, my mouth hanging slightly open, as this odd ritual (which would soon become a normal thing in my life) folded out before me. If this was what Rin was like, I could already tell, I was going to love her. I could feel laughter beginning to rise from within me, and only the thought of keeping our presence a secret to prolong the show kept me from bursting with it.

Covering my mouth with a hand, once more I looked to see what Sesshoumaru's reaction was. I could spot another misplaced gleam in his eyes as he stared at the duo in the clearing, but this time I could recognize it as amusement. Odd as it was to see Sesshoumaru - innocently - amused by anything, the look made him look calmer, more human. Almost absently, I made sure to remember the way light seemed to glow from his eyes.

No doubt, feeling my eyes on him, Sesshoumaru turned from the clearing as well, his eyes falling on me. I was rather relieved to see that the gleam remained in his eyes and so smiled at him. Suddenly he came to a stop, his eyes turning serious again. I stopped too, wondering what the hell was coming up next. Very quietly, Sesshoumaru bent to the ground and picked up a large pebble.

“Jaken-sama! You can't run from Rin forever! Sesshoumaru-sama told Jaken-sama to stay with Rin!”

Some hurried grumbling was heard as the green blur flashed by us again. “Leave me alone. If Sesshoumaru-sama hears of this, he'll skin you al—,”

That's about all that was heard from Jaken as, suddenly, the pebble had connected with his head strongly enough to send him keeling forward to the ground where he remained.

At this, Rin also stopped, only frozen for a second before a blindingly bright smile took over her face and she made a bee-line toward where the rock had come from. “SESSHOUMARU-SAME IS BACK! HE'S COME TO TAKE RIN WITH HIM!”

Apparently Jaken getting spontaneously hit by mysterious rocks was a familiar happening in their group. Perhaps something as common as Miroku getting slapped?

Halfway through her run toward us, the little girl came to a sudden stop. Smiling broadly, she turned on her heels and dashed back to the fallen Jaken, throwing the yellow and green lei mercilessly over his head. That done and accomplished she ran back in her original destination.

This was about the last straw for me. I burst out with laughter, my shoulders shaking as I sank to ground without support to hold me up. The child was simply adorable.

It took me a while to recover from my fit of laughter, especially since I had kept it in for so long, but eventually I was able to tone it down to a light giggle, wiping a stray tear from my eyes. With a happy sigh that comes only after a good laugh, I turned back to the others. While Sesshoumaru was standing silently like one of the many trees that surrounded him, the girl now next to his left leg (she barely came up to his hips) was staring at me as though she didn't know whether to be scared of me or amused. Once more sighing, I turned a smile onto her, trying to convey that I was a friend.

Rin looked at me carefully for a few minutes, her eyes squinting as she thought hard about something, before she turned to look up at Sesshoumaru. “Sesshoumaru-sama, who's the Lady?”

Her question asked, Rin continued to stare up at Sesshoumaru, patiently awaiting his answer.

Sesshoumaru turned his calm gaze onto me before answering. “Rin,” he began in a commanding voice, “this is Kagome. She will be travelling with us.”

Up till now, I had been staring at Rin, watching as she turned her head to look back at me. But at the sound of my name, my head immediately snapped to Sesshoumaru, my eyes slightly widening in surprise. I hadn't even known he knew my name.

The child let out a sudden gasp and clapped her hands excitedly before her, drawing some of my attention back to her. “Wahhhh…so she is Kagome-sama?!” Her eyes were wide and I couldn't help but giggle at her antics.

I rose back to my feet and dusted my pants before I spoke again. “Yep, that's my name. Only you could just call me Kagome. I much prefer that.”

Eyes wide as saucers, the girl made her way towards me, stopping just close enough to stare up at me in a similar manner that she had done with Sesshoumaru. “Kagome-sama is too kind. But Rin has heard too much about Kagome-sama.”

Slightly uncomfortable with the implications of that (but I suppose travelling with Inuyasha was bound to put my name in a dark light, especially in his half-brother's view), I let out a pacifying smile to calm both myself and the child. “Really Rin, just plain old Kagome will do for me.”

The child was silent for a minute longer before she said. “What if Rin calls you Kagome-chan?” Apparently Sesshoumaru hadn't been kidding when he said she `had a better appreciation for rank'.

I smiled at her, looking quite satisfied with her chosen title. “That'll be just fine.”

Got to tell you though, I was confused by her enthusiasm, but we all know me being confused is nothing new. Then again, perhaps, especially judging by her previous actions toward Jaken, the child was just enthusiastic in general.

As it was already pretty much dark by this time, it was decided that we would spend the night resting and start our journey back. Seeing as how I had had yet another extremely trying day, I saw no need to object and was more than happy to oblige the decision maker. We walked back to Rin and Jaken's camp (Jake still on the ground with swirling eyes) and used my matches to replenish Rin's dying fire nestled a little ways away from the two-headed dragon (Rin told me his name was Ah-un). Rin was very amused by the display and feeling finally relaxed, I ploughed into the explanation of how the matches worked. I was sure she didn't understand half of what I said, but I continued on, half aware that she wasn't the only listener.

A little after we had the fire going, Jaken woke up, looking at first a bit woozy and greener than usual. He lifted a hand to his head where now a large bump stuck out just below his hat signifying the place where the rock had hit him. a look of recognition stealing over him, Jaken quickly glanced around for his master. Once found, he threw himself at Sesshoumaru's feet, a mixture of apologies, welcomes, and other nonsense coming out of his mouth in a winded speech, coming to a stop only when Sesshoumaru spared him a particularly fierce look. This left the imp spluttering, still completely unaware of the lei that sat around his neck.

While all this was happening, I couldn't help but stare at them, my laughter rising again once I'd spotted a small twitch of Sesshoumaru's right eye. Rin just went about her business as though nothing extraordinary was happening, far more interested trying to open a package of ramen that I had given her. Giggling at the three of them, I went back to digging through my backpack for pots, plates, and the whatnot.

Unfortunately, at the sound of my chuckle, Jaken had realised that there was another person in their group. A person that happened to be the travelling miko of his master's brother's much despised group. Let me just say, neither his shock at my presence nor his following reaction were flattering to me. But after two years of hearing the common insults thrown at humans by demons, I could hardly get worked up over it. Instead, I smiled a little smile, and look innocently at Jaken. “Wow…I guess Rin was right. Yellow and green really are your colour.”

It took him a while to make the connection, but once he did, he turned a questionable shade of brown (green mixed with red gives you brown) and decided to remain silent for the rest of the evening.

I had much fun cooking with Rin. It felt so good to be around a happy person after three straight days with only Sesshoumaru to accompany me. He was far too confusing and unpredictable, where as Rin had a light and happy manner, and seemed to completely like me, which again, was a change. I could feel my tension unwinding, and when I finally went to sleep, I made sure that Rin was tucked in right beside me.

---

 

Having had had a refreshingly good night of sleep, I woke up feeling happy and cheerful the next day. Like yesterday, it promised to be a beautifully sunny day without a cloud to be spotted. And like yesterday, it was colder than it had ever been at this time of the year, almost like the opposite of global warming. I stayed in my sleeping bag quite a while after I had woken up, refusing to give up on the warm confines of it. Instead, I focused my attention on the little girl that was asleep in my arms. In her sleep, her face looked calm and radiant, just like a child's should be. The little pony tail on her head, already messy at the best of times, was almost indistinguishable. With a happy smile on my face, I reached and smoothed it over as gently as I could.

Once that was done, I stretched my arms and what other limbs I had, enjoying the silent pops as my joints clinked into place. Of course, I tried to not think of a picture for this; no one should have that in mind this early in the morning. I looked around the little camp, noting the quite atmosphere before my eyes were quickly caught by a stack of twigs right by the dimming fire. Unlike the nights before, my fire had survived the night. But still, there beside it, was a stack of fire wood that I was sure had not been placed there by me. And as Rin had remained in my sleeping bag the whole night, I knew that she could not have had anything to do with it. Plus, like Jaken and Ah-un (other possible culprits - not that gathering wood was a crime), she had not been present the other two nights. Perhaps it was time to ask Sesshoumaru about it, maybe he had noticed something while I slept. But, perhaps justifiably, I shied away from the idea of further questioning the taiyoukai. He had not had what I would call a positive response to my questioning. I decided to wait one more night. I would gather extra firewood myself tonight and see what happens. Maybe it all really is just my imagination. -Fat chance!

Even though no words were spoken (yeah right, like he ever would), I could feel Sesshoumaru's eyes on me, and after trying to fruitlessly ignore it for a few minutes, I gave up and turned to him. What with the smallness of the clearing, the large space that Ah-un took up, and all of the rest of our presence, Sesshoumaru was sitting closer to me than he had the other two nights and it was easy for me to search his face.

The look on his face wasn't one of anger or despise, yet it was not his signature blank look either. There was substance to it like the look of amusement that I had seen on him yesterday, though I didn't think he was entertained by anything at the moment. I suppose then, this was something that Rin brought out in him, though I doubted that even he was aware of it, and even if he was, definitely not fully. I let the smile slide over my lips at the thought, and for the first time looked at him without trying to make anything out of it.

His skin was smooth and flawless, its pale colour emphasising his markings, the red stripes and the crescent moon on his forehead. His eyes, though it was still pretty dark, shone with an intensity that reminded me of fire, bold and brilliant, mesmerising over all. I felt almost as though I were hypnotised, dimly aware that I had hardly blinked in the past minute. Something was calling to me, tempting me to reach out and touch the markings of his face. I could only be glad that even if I were weak enough to give into the feeling that he was far away enough to make it impossible. Still though, the feeling nagged at the back of my mind so that I couldn't help but blush at my own thoughts. It did not help that Sesshoumaru's gaze remained just as avidly on me and Rin.

Luckily, my attention was soon caught by a telltale stirring in the air about me. Happy to have a reason to look away from the demon, I concentrated what little powers that I had, trying to pinpoint what it was. It hardly took me any effort, and I quickly recognized it as `the presence'. The memories of the glowing eyes still fresh in my mind, I could feel fear growing in me and I instinctively tightened my hold on Rin. Like yesterday and the days before, the feeling remained neutral, neither threatening nor reassuring. Assuming that with Sesshoumaru less than five feet away from me little bad could actually happen, I sat up on my elbows and looked around for anything suspicious.

The early morning's blue light only just touched by the orange of my fire, gleamed off the stark branches of the trees around the clearing. It was slightly creepy but nothing out of the norm. Ah-un and Jaken, along with Rin, continued to remain peacefully asleep, none of them seemingly aware of the presence that so bothered me. Of course, that could have been because they were asleep.

Finally resigning, I looked at Sesshoumaru for…well anything.

…aaaaand I received nothing.

Sigh…I don't know…what with all that's happened since yesterday, I might have gotten a little ahead of myself. Note to self: do NOT expect ANY thing from Sesshoumaru.

Sadly, or perhaps not, by the time I was finished rolling my eyes at the cruelty of it all, there was no trace of the feeling left to keep me on the alert. With yet another sigh, I decided that perhaps it was best to ignore it for the time being and move on with the rest of my day.

Much to the chagrin of my self and my skin, I crawled out of my sleeping bag, hissing against the cold. I pulled myself as close as safety would allow to the fire, allowing it to reheat me while I put in some of my mysteriously gathered wood into it. Without moving away from the fire, I reached across for my backpack, pulling out a kettle and some bottled water remaining from yesterday to boil. Once the almost frozen water was in the kettle and warming slowly - very slowly what with all the cold - over the fire, I turned to Sesshoumaru.

I guess he had been watching what I had been doing so that when I turned to him it was to find that his eyes were still on me. “Um…is there any water nearby? Preferably warm, but I'm not too picky.”

It was time for a bath.

For maybe ten seconds I was subject to Sesshoumaru's scrutinising eyes before he let up and gracefully rose to his feet. He walked over to Jaken, nudging him on the side to wake him up. The toad let out a squawk at the manner in which he was awoken which only earned him a harder nudge. I guess, sometimes Sesshoumaru could be on the funny side.

Once Jaken was sufficiently awake, he was left with instructions to watch over Rin and reminded that if anything were to go wrong, it would not be good news for Jaken's mortality. All this was said as casually as though he was talking about the weather; I was no longer surprised that the topic of the weather could then in turn be quite dangerous.

Turning to me, Sesshoumaru said, “Come.”

Smiling brightly at both Sesshoumaru's actions and my own thoughts, I grabbed my bag and followed Sesshoumaru. We walked silently through the forest, once more, neither of us in the mood to talk. Or so I thought.

We had walked for maybe less than five minutes when Sesshoumaru surprised me by saying, “I assume you wish to bathe.”

Blinking back my surprise, I answered. “That's the plan.”

He nodded his head in recognition, his eyes fast on the path ahead. Stifling a yawn, I allowed silence to take over us again. Again, though, the silence was broken by Sesshoumaru.

“I shall also bathe after you are done.”

“Uh…okay.” I looked at him from the corner of my eyes, wondering if there was more to be said on the topic.

Apparently there wasn't as Sesshoumaru remained silent. But now, the silence seemed odd and uncomfortable and I immediately sought to correct it.

“So…how's it going?”

Honestly, what was wrong with me?!

Sesshoumaru's eyes turned from their scrutiny of the path to fasten on me and I let out a nervous laugh but decided to see what his answer was. Looking at it from an objective viewpoint, I guess this could be somewhat funny. Then again, my position wasn't the objective.

“Excuse me?”

The look in his eyes was definitely one of incredulity. Again I laughed nervously, rubbing my neck. “I meant, how are you…like today…morning.”

I was studied by his eyes so carefully that I made myself turn back to face the road, my face once more red with an embarrassed blush.

“Well enough considering the current situation.”

“Ah, right, that's good,” I said hurriedly, surprised that I had even gotten that much of an answer. Really, I should have learned by now, there was no predicting what Sesshoumaru would do next. The idea of an instructions manual was convenient, just not realistic. I was half expecting him to ask me how I was (you apparently never know), but all I did get was another nod of acknowledgement.

After a few more minutes of silence, I was led to a river. I looked at it, rather dismayed and turned to Sesshoumaru, somehow or other having the nerve to say the first thing that came to my mind. “So…no hot springs, eh?”

I'd only said it as a joke and nearly laughed when Sesshoumaru's eyebrow rose at the comment. Instead I just smiled - smirked - at him and went to get my shampoo, soap, and anything else necessary for a bath. By the time I had all that I needed, I looked up to see that Sesshoumaru had gone and placed himself somewhere behind the tree line. I smiled at his hidden form, and thanked him before undressing. It was really nice of him to pay me enough respect to allow me my privacy. I frowned, realising that he had done so from the start, despite a spell that forced him to stay within twenty yards of me.

The water was unsympathetically cold, and more than ever, I wished that I could just go home and take a bath there. But for now, that option was…well, not an option. In any case, I made the whole affair as quick as I possibly could, and was out and shivering within ten minutes. I towelled myself dry and threw on maybe ten layers of clothing (realistically, it was three shirts, nylons, and sweat pants). Then I wrapped the towel around my head and went to find Sesshoumaru.

His bath must have been faster than mine, but unfortunately for him, he had no extra layers of clothes at hand to make up for the body heat that he had lost. Not that he showed any signs of his discomfort. But I wasn't fooled. Even demons can turn blue when they're cold enough. Smiling widely (some might say insanely but I choose not credit them), though keeping back from actually laughing, I dug through my bag and threw him the extra blanket that I had brought for especially cold nights. It was pretty thin and light, but it would suffice. I didn't wait for him to reject it.

Skipping along a little ahead of my demon shadow, I looked up at the now much brighter sky. Yep, it was going to be a beautiful day.

 

 

XXX

Yo and hello. Sorry for the two day delay, but as y'all know, I can do worse than that so let's all just be happy and ignore that.

Thanks and thanks to all those who reviewed. I can never get enough of them, which is why I got a bit sad that I didn't get as many last chapter as I normally do. But oh well, I guess it just didn't deserve as many.

I was feeling kind of disappointed this past week and therefore couldn't find much aspiration. It's my own fault. I found a couple of really good fanfics recently, and am now doubting my own abilities. It doesn't help that the Canuks lost to the worst team in the league…for a second time. Another oh well, I guess.

Anyhow…next chapter, there will be some fast forwarding to be done if I want to get to the good parts. So…hopefully, it'll be up either Thursday or Friday. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we.

PS. And of course, happy Chinese new year to all those who celebrate it. What year is it? I heard it on the radio yesterday, but can't remember. And year of the fire horse…sounds cool. I wish I was born on that year. But I'll just settle with tiger which I also like.