InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Problem ❯ Skeletons in the Closet ( Chapter 11 )

Quote: -A bird does not sing because it has an answer - it sings because it has a song.

- Democracy is three wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.

 

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it again? Must you rub it in? Fine, fine, I don't own Inuyasha.

 

Chapter 11: Skeletons in the Closet

 

It is a strange feeling to find that you are a problem for someone else. It's strange to know that the things that you do or say are a source of trouble, even though you don't really know what kind of trouble that is. It's especially strange when the person having the problem is the last person you would think capable of being troubled by a human. To know that Sesshoumaru thought I was a problem was big news. Well…maybe not exactly big news, more like - oh what's the word - strange.

But at the same time, cool.

Cool because it was comforting. Comforting because he was levelled with me in that sense. Because he found me as much of a problem as I found him. This was awesome, brilliant, fabulous. I loved it.

It was a beautiful day, really marvellous - or rather, it was going to be one. I didn't need to consult a meteorologist of any sort; I could tell. There wasn't a cloud to be seen, which after three straight days of rain was absolutely fantastic by itself. It was still pretty dark and the moon was still pretty visible, but the birds were already out and chirping happily. It might have been annoying if I was still trying to sleep, but it wasn't because I wasn't trying to sleep. I had woken up over half an hour ago (disturbed to consciousness by the `presence') and was now sitting by the edge of another hot spring, waiting for Sesshoumaru to finish with his bath so that I could go in after him. I was glad it was a hot spring and not just a random body of water because it was yet another especially cold day. I was really looking forward to taking my bath.

I had tried to convince Rin to come and take a bath with me, but the girl had flat out refused. Apparently, after three days of being exposed to water, she didn't think her skin could afford to be exposed to anymore. I let her slide this time, knowing that we were hardly a day away from Kaede's and I could have her bathe there.

Since she had refused to take a bath, I had given her free reign of my bag so she could find something to eat for breakfast (we were still without fire as it had only stopped raining last night and so had to settle for raw food). And as I sat waiting for Sesshoumaru to finish (he must have been going over fifteen minutes now), I munched on some bread and oranges. You know, it's always good to have a balanced meal. It really helps build up your energy so you can last for hours.

I stretched my arms, very much awaiting the moment I could sink into the soothingly warm water of the spring. The past few days had been tense, although admittedly, a hell of a lot less tense once me and Sesshoumaru had had our little talk. I guess when he told me about him having a plan to lift the spell I was just that relieved to know that this was coming to an end sooner than indefinitely. And for his part, Sesshoumaru just seemed that much calmer in response. For one, he had returned to walking alongside us and he even spoke to me a couple of times. Specifically speaking, he gave a nod of his head in the mornings when I was saying my good mornings, and last night he asked me whether I knew of any hot springs that we could camp by. Of course, being so close to Kaede's, I was very familiar to these parts of the forest and directed him to this specific spring (coincidentally, Miroku had once confessed to first seeing me and Inuyasha near this spring). And when I talked to him, which I did more than in the past, he just listened to me and sometimes made actual comments. I even managed to sneak in a couple of jokes here and there and not only did I not die, but I caught him smirk at one of them. We had definitely come a long ways from where we had been upon leaving my friends.

I looked at my watch and realised that Sesshoumaru had been in the spring for over twenty minutes. I wondered what was taking him so long. I really, really wanted to go in already.

The curious thing was, while I could understand my own feelings and know why I was willing to be on such better terms with Sesshoumaru, I wasn't all too sure of his reasons. I mean, I had yet to answer his questions about my home. Our conversation two days ago pretty much ended with him telling me I was a problem. Really, what could I have said to that? Thanks? Anyway.

Despite this, Sesshoumaru was unmistakably more tolerant of me. Even I couldn't fool myself out of believing it. Maybe he thought that I was going to tell him sooner or later and he could sense I was debating it in my head. The guy is no doubt a very observant person, I wouldn't put it past him. In any case, I was sure that my own new attitude toward him was little motive.

By now, I was impatiently drumming my fingers on the ground, wondering if I should call out to him and ask him to come out. I really wanted my bath. And if he continued to dawdle about in there, when it was my turn, he would no doubt want to cut it short. I let out a sound half between a snort and a grunt. As though I was about to give up any of my bath time. Clearly the guy had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Don't be too shocked. You should by now, I'm not exactly a sane person in my own head. As for being sane otherwise, well, the jury is still out with that one. But it does make for some good entertainment.

At this point, I heard some minor splashing from behind me and smiled happily: finally, it was my turn. I waited for Sesshoumaru to come out, trying to resist the temptation to just take a peak (bumping into him and seeing him undress six days ago had not been good for my imagination). Really, sometimes even I didn't know what was the matter with me. Okay, sure, it would be natural to want to stare at Sesshoumaru if he were anyone else. But he wasn't just another hot guy, he was Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's half-brother. It was one of those things that I should never even think about (like the forbidden apple), but then here I was, doing exactly that.

I gave my head a good shake and forced myself to take another bite of my toast.

---

 

Ahhhhh, this is more like it.

I sat down in the shallow end of the spring, leaning back against a humongous rock. Actually, me and this rock went way back into my early travels in feudal Japan. The first time I came to this spring in specific was only just a little after we had met up with Shippo and just a little before meeting Miroku. Actually, I had met Miroku the very next—

Hey…wait a minute…

….nooooo...it couldn't be…he wouldn't…

Oh hell, and I had been naked too!

That lecher! I will kill him the next time I see him. Better yet, I'll tell Sango about it and leave matters in her hand.

…Breath in…out…in…out. That's it. Remember, you're supposed to be a miko, a bringer of peace.

I'm going to flay his ass the minute I see him!

“I suggest you calm yourself.”

I think I was airborne for a whole minute. Upon descent (not a good thing at all), my foot slipped and I ended up going under the water.

As though that weren't enough, before I could find my feet and pull myself up, a striped hand reached beneath the water's surface, wrapped around my wrist, and pulled me back up.

I came up gasping for air, fighting to stay underneath the water's surface. But the hand was persistent and held me up. Of course, I should have learned by now that fighting with Sesshoumaru was next to pointless. I skimmed around for Sesshoumaru, spotted him sitting actually rather stiff as a rock on the rock I had been leaning against, one hand stretched out to hold on to me, staring at me. Almost immediately, I felt as though something was wrong with him. I hoped to all that was holy that he couldn't really see anything and that my bathing suit was still fully in tact.

Coughing and spluttering, I managed to gasp out, “Okay, okay, I'm up. Let go now.”

I thought I saw him smirk but all he did was to let go. I immediately shrunk back under the water so that only my nose and above could be seen. Then I remembered I would need to talk and moved so that my mouth was also above water. For someone from the twenty first century that travelled with Miroku, I was being mighty shy all of a sudden.

Anyway, moving on. Sesshoumaru continued to sit on top of the rock, legs and hands crossed. He kept his eyes on my face and I was grateful for that. But it didn't explain what he was doing here. Shouldn't he be standing in the woods somewhere like usual?

I took a deep breath, hoping to calm myself so that I didn't sound too resentful. “Uh…what do you want?”

“You are taking too long. If you wish to reach my half-brother before sunset, we must depart soon.”

My left eye twitched.

I can't believe he just said that. The nerve of this guy!

I huffed, indignant. “Me? I'm taking too long?” Forget modesty; forget protocol. I rose to my feet and pinned him with as an angry a glare as I could muster, completely missing the spark in his eyes (maybe I need glasses). “If your highness, the Rapunzel, hadn't spent half the morning tending to your hair then I would have been finished with my bath too!” I was relying on him having no idea what I meant to avoid retaliation.

And maybe I was just that lucky, because Sesshoumaru didn't seem fazed at all, a slow smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. That's about when I noticed the gleam in his eyes and a suspicion grew over me: he was messing with me. I pursed my lips, all my gusto gone to the wind upon this realisation.

Who would have thought Sesshoumaru had it in him to joke. Too bad I had to be the object of it. I had half a mind to keep from grabbing his arm and pulling him with all his clothes and armour right into the spring. What a fine joke that would be.

…but, that wouldn't make my situation any better.

Finally I rolled my eyes, deciding to be the bigger person.

“Alright, ha ha, now seriously, what are you doing here? I was in the middle of a bath you know.”

Almost immediately, his eyebrow shot up on his forehead, the smirk blending back into the neutral mask. “I can see that.”

“Yeah, well, then, what is it?”

He didn't say anything else but instead lifted a finger to point somewhere over my head. Curiously, I turned and followed the path of his finger with my eyes. I didn't have to search for long to find what it was. There, in the far distance just within the scope of my vision, I could see a red dot hopping along the treetops, coming straight toward us, followed by a fainter, yellow, dot. It was Inuyasha, and behind him was Kirara.

Immediately I felt a huge smile spreading over my face, my heart lightening of a weight I didn't know it was holding. My friends were here and were coming for me. I didn't stop to ponder why it was that they were on their way toward me and not waiting at Kaede's as planned. I wanted to jump up into the air and click my heels together. Then, with a sudden jolt, I remembered where I was, who I was with, and the state of my dress - undress. It would not do to have Inuyasha find me in the middle of a hot spring with nothing but my swimsuit on and Sesshoumaru right there with me.

I quickly swung around only to find that Sesshoumaru was no longer sitting on the rock. I just spotted the back of his head gleam in the faint sunlight as he disappeared into the tree line. I nearly yelled out where he was going but came up with the answer on my own: he did not want to be there either upon Inuyasha's arrival. I guess this was my cue to dress.

---

 

I had barely had time to pull my sweater over my head and zip up my pants before I heard Inuyasha calling my name. I whirled around and had a glimpse of red before Inuyasha had pulled me into a hug, holding on to me so tight that I could hardly breath.

“Kagome, I was so worried. I was sure the bastard had killed you. Are you alright? I'll kill him.” He was mumbling all this so fast that I could hardly even decipher what he said. But I got the general picture and I tried to pull back to figure out what was going on - or to breathe.

Then, if possible, I felt the muscles of his body tense even further. In a flash he had let go of me and for a second I was afraid that he was going to go attack Sesshoumaru. Then I remembered that it wasn't my place to worry about Sesshoumaru. Wide-eyed, I took a step back to looked at Inuyasha and the first thing I noticed were the worry lines etched onto Inuyasha's face as he glanced around, his nose twitching as it searched for something.

Then I heard a soft thump and turned to see Kirara land on the ground a few foot away from Inuyasha, atop her both Sango and Miroku. I didn't see Shippo anywhere though. Torn between seeing to Inuyasha and what he was up to and going to my friends whom I hadn't seen for almost a week and missed dearly, I opted for throwing them a baffled glance, clearly asking what was wrong with Inuyasha.

In a moment though, before much else could be done or said, Inuyasha leapt in the air and headed for the trees. I almost ran after him, completely confused as to what was going on.

“Kagome-chan!”

It was Sango. She had jumped off Kirara's back and was running towards me. If Inuyasha were to attack Sesshoumaru, I was sure Sesshoumaru would be fine. If Sesshoumaru had kept me alive this long, I didn't see why he would kill Inuyasha. But he still ran the risk of getting hurt. No, I couldn't just let him go and attack Sesshoumaru and hope for the best. I breathed in as deeply as I could, and then yelled out “sit”. Somewhere in the forest, a cloud of birds rose into the air, accompanied by the sounds of swearing. Okay, for now, Inuyasha was under control.

That done, I finally turned to Sango (I didn't need to run to her or anything because she had already pretty much reached me). We hugged, Sango tighter than I would have expected. From over her shoulder, I saw Miroku also make his way to me, a look of great relief on his face. Why was everyone so worried? Had something bad happened?

“Guys -,” I started but was cut off by Sango who had yet to let go.

“Kagome-chan, I'm so glad you're alright. We were so worried. Thank god, you are safe.”

“Sango, what—,”

“You!” she suddenly exclaimed, finally letting go of me as she pointed an accusing finger to somewhere behind me. Honestly, I don't think things can get anymore confusing.

I whirled around to see what - or rather who she was pointing at.

It was Sesshoumaru.

Sometime since Inuyasha had ran into the forest when I had last looked that way, Sesshoumaru had walked back out and was now leaning against the nearest tree with a frosty - not just detached - expression on his face. By the slight height to the position of his eyebrows, I could tell he didn't know what was going on either.

“You bastard!” Sango was yelling, looking as angry as I had ever seen her. “Where do you get off trying to hurt Kagome?”

I think my jaw was hanging somewhere below my knees. Did Sango know what she was doing? Better yet, what the hell was she doing? I half expected Miroku to go and try to calm her down or something, but he only walked up to Sango, and I could see him getting ready for a fight.

“Sango?” I said quickly, very much minding the antipathy radiating off Sesshoumaru. “Sesshoumaru hasn't hurt me.”

There was a tense silence and both Sango and Miroku spun around to look at me.

“H-h-he…what?” Sango could only stutter.

I lifted an eyebrow, probably more lost because Sango and Miroku looked so shocked by this piece of news. I repeated myself in hopes of clearing things up. Where would they get the notion that Sesshoumaru had hurt me?

Slowly, after a long of minute of staring at me without even blinking, Sango and Miroku turned to look at each other. Miroku looked as though he thought he should have known better. Known what better, I didn't know. Then Sango walked back to me, and to my surprise, began to examine me. She lifted my hair, looked at the skin beneath it, put it back down, and then did the same thing with my arms. Then she cupped my head in her heads turning it from side to side to take a look at every inch of it. In my defence, I was way too taken aback to protest.

When satisfied, she took a step back, facing Miroku again. “She's fine.” You know, the way she said it, it was almost as though even she couldn't believe it.

Okay, I was starting to get irritated now. Wasn't I standing right there in front of them, alive and healthy? Why was it so hard to believe?

“Sesshoumaru didn't attack her,” Sango said to Miroku.

“No, he hasn't,” Miroku agreed.

I just looked at the two much like others often do to me. This was weird…even by my standards.

As Miroku and Sango continued to work out the meaning of `Sesshoumaru hasn't hurt me', I turned to see how Sesshoumaru was dealing with this. I would have thought that he would be staring at my two friends with pretty much the same expression as before, but instead I found him staring at me, as though he himself was having difficulty understanding what I had said. It was my turn to raise my eyebrow at him but more in the `No! Not you too!' sort of way.

The confusion in his eyes melted back behind his indifferent mask, but he kept his eyes on me as he finally spoke. “Inuyasha will be released from his `position' soon.”

Okay, I got what he meant. `Inuyasha was going to be capable of moving again soon and we best go keep an eye on him or else he'll cause trouble.' And I agreed. Plus, he was pretty close to where we'd camped and I didn't want him to scare Rin or something.

“Listen,” I said, turning to face Miroku and Sango again. “I think we—woa!”

I was interrupted by Sango practically tackling me to the ground as she dove in for another hug, this one possibly tighter than before.

“Sango,” I managed to gasp. “Air…”

As though just coming to her senses, she loosened her hold on me and sucked in air greedily. Then, pinning her with a disconcerted look, I said, “I gather you guys really thought I was dead.” A look at the pair of them and I knew my sarcasm was past them for the moment. This was serious and so it had to be dealt with quickly. “Trust me guys, I'm fine.” I gave them by best reassuring smile then continued. “Now, let's go find Inuyasha and see if we can get this thing - whatever it is - sorted out.”

---

 

Sango and Miroku were walking beside me, Kirara a little behind us, and Sesshoumaru…well far behind us. The whole time I was aware of both their eyes on me. I tried asking a few questions to fill up the silence, but mostly, my friends were too occupied with watching me to do much else.

After walking a short distance of sixty feet, we came across Rin and what appeared to be a muss covered rock. It was actually Jaken. Rin was bent over him, prodding him with a stick, pulling back, stifling a giggle, and starting all over again. I wondered why Jaken wasn't retaliating or anything, but as I got closer it was to see that he had been knocked unconscious again. I had a half urge to giggle myself, but decided against it. “What happened to him, Rin?” I asked once I was close enough so I didn't need to yell.

Rin looked up at the sound of my voice then smiled brightly as she ran up to me and threw her arms around my legs. She looked up and said, “Rin was just hiding behind a tree, wondering why Sesshoumaru-sama looked upset, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, the man with the red clothes fell down from the sky right on top of Jaken-sama. And then,” she made a squishing sound and pretended to fall to the ground.

I looked at her, still lying on the ground, admittedly doing a pretty good, and funny impression of Jaken lying a few feet away. Poor guy, I hadn't meant to get him.

Stifling a giggle of my own, I asked, “Then where did the man in red go?”

Rin got off her spot on the ground and gauged her place in the forest. Then she pointed toward where we'd camped. “That way, nee-san.”

I had to go all the way to our camp before I spotted Inuyasha. He was pacing from side to side, looking royally pissed off and mumbling random swear words under his breath. Aw, I'd missed Inuyasha so much. For a second I had to stop and wonder why he was just standing by our camp. I mean he'd been in such a frenzy to get to Sesshoumaru that I was surprised he wasn't attacking Sesshoumaru even then. Then it occurred to me that he had probably sensed us coming toward him and was waiting for us to get to him. He was, it had to be said, showing a remarkable amount of patience by keeping from attacking. It made me wonder again what had worried the three of them so much to begin with. Sure, travelling with Sesshoumaru was bound to have its dangers for a human like me. And let's be honest, me and Sesshoumaru didn't exactly have a best-friends track record. I could see them being worried for me. But it had been their idea for me to go along with him - or rather, they hadn't objected much. And from what I remember, Inuyasha had been the most cooperating of all. So…why the sudden change?

As soon as Inuyasha spotted me, he stomped angrily up to me, glaring full force (keep in mind, I had seen him like this enough to find it less than impressing, especially since I had never in the first place). Calmly, I waited for him to say something.

And he got right to it.

"Where do you get off saying the 's' word when I'm trying to save you?!" Don't be fooled by the lowercase letters, he was yelling.

"Yeah, that's nice and all," I questioned right back, "but what exactly were you trying to save me from?"

For a second, Inuyasha just blinked at me stupidly as though completely incapable of understanding the words coming out of my mouth. Then he blinked, anger flashing back into his eyes. "Are you retarded?" I appreciated that he had to question that. "From Sesshoumaru of course!"

I looked at Inuyasha, my anger reluctant to rile up so easily after not having seen him for a week, but really, he was making it harder than it should have been. "Inuyasha, why would I need saving from Sesshoumaru? And I mean under the current circumstances."

I could feel the little tiny hairs on the back of my neck sticking up as I felt Sesshoumaru's eyes on me.

Inuyasha looked at me baffled again, then looked to Sango and Miroku over my shoulder, clearly looking for help.

"Perhaps," and this was Miroku finally talking. I turned to look at him, then had to step back a little as Sesshoumaru was standing almost directly behind me and left me with little view of Miroku. For a second I couldn't think of anything other than how close he was then, conscientiously pulling myself together, I looked up at him. I wish I hadn't. I wasn't prepared for the intensity in his being. Swallowing, I turned to Miroku. "Perhaps we were misinformed."

It was my turn to stare, looking between my three friends unsurely. It was Sesshoumaru who spoke up next much to the surprise of...well, everyone.

"And who misinformed you?"

I felt odd, distracted and when he spoke, I jumped at the sound of his voice coming from so close to me. I hoped no one noticed my groundless uneasiness.

As always, Miroku was the one least fazed. "Naraku."

I in a matter of a split second, I saw Sesshoumaru's eyes flicker as though he had just understood something and I though, perhaps for the first time, he looked uncomfortable rather than just tense. This, if not Miroku's answer, distracted me from my own discomfort and piqued my interest.

"Naraku?" I repeated, looking from Miroku to Inuyasha, to Sango, then back to Miroku. This was more serious than I'd thought. If Naraku had told them about Sesshoumaru getting mad at me after the attack, a fight would almost be inevitable. I didn't want anybody getting hurt. But then...why on Earth would Naraku even bother? Was he that bored?

Miroku nodded in response.

"We were very worried," Sango said, stepping up to stand just in front of me. "We thought you were dead."

I looked to Inuyasha and saw him looking at me with great concern again; I couldn't help feeling moved. I knew that, what with our history, Inuyasha cared a lot for me. It was just nice to have proof of it every once in a while. "Naraku told you I was dead?"

The frown on Inuyasha's face deepened as he nodded. Then he heaved a great sigh, looked at his brother then back to me. "Apparently he lied."

I tried a smile. "Apparently." Then, with a sigh of my own, I sat down on the ground, coincidentally, right by my sleeping bag. This wasn't exactly how I had imagined reuniting with my friends to be like, but I guess it was fine. I braved another smile and looked up at them, silently asking them to sit and relax a little. Inuyasha decided that he was fine where he was, but both Sango and Miroku came to join me on my sleeping bag. I hugged them both. It wasn't the warm picture I had imagined, but I could feel the presence of my friends and I was acutely aware of how much I had missed them this past week.

Silently, attracting minimal attention, Sesshoumaru moved so that he was leaning against a tree at the far side of the clearing. He had his eyes closed and his arms crossed across his chest. I had the distinct feeling that he was no less uncomfortable than before and at the same time he wanted to be as far away from us as possible. I didn't like the notion.

"So," I said after a few minutes of meditation, "now that we agree that Naraku lied and I'm alive and healthy, can one of you tell me what exactly it was that he said?"

With one arm still loosely around my shoulder, Sango was the one to answer. "Well, you probably think it was stupid of us to even take Naraku seriously, but he came searching for your shards."

Immediately, my eyebrow rose in question. Naraku would have known that I wasn't dead and even if I was, the shards would not be with my friends. He would have known via his saimyousho that I was with Sesshoumaru, the shards with me.

Seeing the look on my face, Sango continued. Apparently, Naraku had come, Kagura along side him, demanding for the jewel shards. He'd said now that I was dead, the shards were bound to soon fall into his hands so Inuyasha and co might as well give them to him. When my friends had asked him why he would even think I was dead he had just laughed and said he had had no doubt that Sesshoumaru would rise up to the occasion.

I sat there, quite unsure of what to make out of this. I could see how the idea of my death would goad Inuyasha to attack Sesshoumaru, a fight that would end with at least one of them dead. But why bother claiming to be looking for the shards? To sell the idea?

"There's more," Miroku, our resident philosopher, added, brushing on my thoughts. "When it turned out that the shards were not with us, Naraku seemed genuinely angry. He stormed away, leaving behind Kagura and a horde of demons for us to deal with."

"I had Kagura cornered," Inuyasha said. "But even I don't think she knew what Naraku was on about."

"So you think he actually thought you had the shards?"

I didn't need their answers, I could just tell by the looks on their faces. And I trusted them to have thought out the situation far better than I could have. But Naraku would have been able to see the jewels were with me. He had even sent a demon after them. Unless...

"When did you say this happened?"

Miroku and Sango looked to each other, gauging the time, and then Miroku answered. “I believe it was only the third day you had left. We wanted to come find you to see if it was true, but by then any track left behind had been erased by the rain.”

Three days after I had left. That was the same day the saimyousho had come. “In the morning?”

Miroku nodded, clearly surprised by my guess. “Very early in the morning, in fact.”

Slowly, I raised my eyes to look at Sesshoumaru. Was he paying attention? I saw that he no longer had his eyes closed but was staring calmly at the ground, almost bored. But then - and here I may be being unreasonable - I had a strong hunch that he wasn't at all.

“How did you know, Kagome-sama?”

“Just a guess really.” Then I lifted my hand and pointed toward where I could sense the saimyousho. “I think Naraku's been watching us since the third day. I started sensing them just a little before noon, so I'm guessing he sent them to check up on the shards or something.”

All three of my friend's heads snapped in the direction of the bees, and Inuyasha immediately jumped to kill them. The deed was done before I could say or do anything. But I was glad because my miko senses needed rest.

“I was so concentrated on having you back,” Sango said, looking on edge, “I didn't even notice them.”

Inuyasha jumped back to where he had been before and said, “It doesn't matter. They're dead now.”

He was right. But now I was more confused than before. I didn't understand what Naraku was up to. It could have made sense if he had sent the saimyousho before going to Inuyasha. Otherwise, why would he even assume that Sesshoumaru was going to kill me? Why would Sesshoumaru go out of his way to kill me?

Then a new idea occurred to me. What if Naraku had already known about the spell, before sending the saimyousho? I could see him thinking that Sesshoumaru would kill me just to be rid of me, and that left the shards in my friends' hands. So he came looking for them. But then, that would mean he had to know that the spell bound Sesshoumaru to me. And how could he possibly know about the spell to begin with? I didn't think Naraku made an ideal confidant for Sesshoumaru. Plus, from the moment the spell was cast, Sesshoumaru had been with me. He couldn't have been the one to tell Naraku.

But what if Naraku knew about the spell because he had been involved in casting it?

“Kagome-chan?”

I nearly jumped ten feet into the air, just barely stifling a scream. This was not my day for surprises, it would seem. Breathing far faster than usual, I looked to Sango, silently asking her what she wanted.

She had a vague smile on her face so that i knew she had enjoyed scaring me however unintentionally it was done. She pointed to somewhere into the tree line past where Sesshoumaru was still leaning against a tree. A bit peeved but curious, I followed the path of her finger and spotted Rin's head sticking out from behind Sesshoumaru's tree. “And who's that?”

I looked to Sango for a second with surprise, then remembered that neither she nor Miroku had ever met Rin before. So I called her to me. She cast a glance at my friends, focusing on Inuyasha last and the longest, then made a bee-line for me where she proceeded to place herself in my lap. I hugged her close and made the necessary introductions, hoping Sesshoumaru found nothing wrong with me doing that. If he did, he said nothing. Rin got up and bowed to each of my friends as I introduced them, showing great politeness and I knew that was mostly because she travelled with Sesshoumaru. But even though she was the very epitome of manners, I didn't sense any of the warmth I had felt from her upon meeting her. I don't mean her manners were an act or anything. Just that she'd been just so much more…animated when meeting me.

I wondered why this was.

As Rin approached Sango and Miroku, my eyes slid from them to focus on Sesshoumaru. He was watching the little girl, in his eyes a steady look of—what? Love? Care? Both words seemed to not match with his profile. But I couldn't come up with anything else.

Then, the golden orbs moved so that they settled on me and for once I put a word to one of the many different gleams in his eyes: concern.

XXX

 

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, whoever you are I thank you for your review. Kudos to you and I hope you know why. My second kudos goes to none other than Advi. I know I could have responded to your review directly, but I figured since I have to do Kelly's here, might as well put you down here as well. Hope you don't mind. So now, to the point, kudos to you too.

Okay, the above note was written well over a week ago. Since then I've heard some very bad news. And I'm pissed off. So please excuse my swearing. FUCKING STAPLES HASN'T EVEN SENT MY LAPTOP IN FOR REPAIRS YET!! The assholes. I'm so mad. Fuck it man. And I've been calling almost everyday and dropping in to check on my baby and they're like yeah, its at the repair depot. Fucking liars. I'm pissed. So badly. Argh.

Coincidently, this is also why this chapter was so late in coming. I had done and ready to go almost a week ago. Now I'm all distracted and I'm not even sure about how well the chapter flows. And I know there were a few other people I wanted to thank down here, but now I can't remember cause I'm so mad. So sorry. Hope you'll forgive me.

Anywho, hope you liked this chapter…and my rant. Till next time.