Title: Road to Rio
Category: Romance
Pairing: Kagome/Sesshoumaru
Special Note: The title of this story is an homage to the great movie classic, Road to Rio, starring the ultimate comedy team, funny manBob Hope and straight man Bing Crosby. If this story goes well, I may do a series of "Road to..." stories.
Summary:Due to a food poisoning disaster the CEO of Aisu Medical Technology is forced to take drastic measures, enlisting the help of his Research and Development Department to cover for an important business trip. The destination? Rio De Janeiro. Can a hardened businessman and absent-minded scientist compromise enought to not kill each other?
Rating: For the most part I will rate this PG-13 for language. There will most likely be sexual innuendo or blatant love scenes at some point, but they will be clearly labeled accordingly.
Disclaimer: Blah blah, not mine. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Sesshoumaru pressed a cool bottle of water against his brow and sighed. The minute sign of discomfort was unusual for the stoic man, but given the circumstances he was felt he was entitled.

No doubt the capacity of the airbus as it flew over the lush tropical landscape was breaking numerous international safety laws, and the lack of air-conditioning in the ancient aircraft was beyond brutal in his usual three-piece suit. But the piercing wails of the small child in the seat behind had pushed him beyond caring about anything but getting off of the damnable plane at the soonest opportunity.

If things had gone as planned, he would be sitting in a luxurious suite planning the sales strategies for the next week. If things had gone as planned, he would have been able to relax and watch the well-oiled machine that was his Sales department handle the press releases and circulate product information for the upcoming convention. If things had gone as planned, he would be riding in first-class upon his scheduled flight, blissfully sleeping through a non-stop trip.

But alas, things had not gone as planned.

The first disaster had struck three days ago when his now-unemployed secretary had failed to inform him that the convention dates had been changed from the 21st to the 10th of the month. She was a bit of an absent-minded twit to begin with, but there was no excuse for a mistake of such magnitude. After all, she had sent in the confirmation fax for their attendance two months prior when the dates were originally changed. If his head of Public Relations, Kagura, hadn't stormed into his office with a press-release from the hotel, they might have very well arrived nearly two weeks later to find an empty convention center.

It had been a day of finger-pointing, panic, and pink slips as they had frantically made new reservations. In a last-ditch effort to rally the troops, the Sales Department had gathered its staff to work on their presentations until late into the night at a local hotel suite. The next morning the presentations and releases had been finished…but so had the Sales Department.

One bad order of shrimp puffs and my Sales Department turns into invalids. Inexcusable. Sesshoumaru clenched his jaw in frustration at the situation.

With their flight scheduled to leave the next morning, his staff had scrambled to find replacements. In the end he was left with himself, a junior salesperson (who had missed the shrimp puffs fiasco), and one seriously caffeinated PR rep. They were understaffed but it wasn't as though they could just pick random company employees to attend. They were already at a disadvantage because Kagura wasn't familiar with the details of product development. He had been prepared to cancel their attendance to the convention altogether when Kagura had told him she had found a solution, and to meet her at the airport in the morning.

So at seven this next morning Sesshoumaru had arrived at the airport to find the results of Kagura's unconventional plan. Three unfamiliar faces were mixed into the crowd and Kagura had rushed him onto the plane, insisting that she would explain everything on the way. The woman was no fool, and had waited until they were 10,000 feet in the air before explaining that she had enlisted the help of the three most senior employees in Research and Development to come to their aid.

"All we need are experts on how the products were developed and the science of what makes them tick. Who better to explain the in and outs of the product than the ones who created them?" Kagura had argued. "They aren't as slick as our sales staff, but they are mainly for answering product questions, not schmoozing clients."

"They look like they haven't set foot out of a laboratory in a couple months." Sesshoumaru had pointed out dryly as he observed the three who were huddled in deep conversation in a nearby row. The two men and one small woman looked as though they had slept in their clothing, and none seemed to have very outgoing personalities. "They hardly appear to have the ability to mingle and interact with potential investors."

Kagura had waved her hand distractedly at his concerns. "Don't underestimate them based on their appearances. I've known their department head, Kagome Higurashi, since we were in college together. She is a capable and motivating leader."

Sesshoumaru had raised and eyebrow at that knowledge, knowing that Kagura was very stingy with her praise.. He would hardly have expected the unassuming woman to be the leader of the group. She barely looked old enough to be out of high school, much less the head of a department at Aisu Medical Technology Corporation, the star division of Genwaku Industries.

"They're a mess right now because they were up all night packing and preparing for the last-minute flight, but they'll clean up just fine." Kagura had reassured him.

By then he was beyond the point of arguing and relented. By the time they landed for their connecting flight in Los Angeles he had felt as though their luck was finally turning around.

Oh, how very wrong he had been.

The airline had lost the reservations for their connecting flight to Rio de Janeiro, and the only other available flight flew first to Bogotá, Columbia in a 747 and then switched over to a smaller aircraft to continue across the jungles and mountains to Rio.

The airline attendant had been generous when she had called the plane small. It barely fit twenty people on a good day, and today was not a good day. Sesshoumaru couldn't prove it, but he swore he heard a chicken squawking beyond the colicky screams of the neighboring infant.

Had they not been running so late already he would have refused to set foot on the rusted, barely-airworthy contraption. As Sesshoumaru had stepped inside the moldy innards of the cabin he had been overwhelmed by the smell of stale sweat and other things he would rather not dwell on. His only saving grace was that he had managed to claim the only two-person row near the front, and that his companion was not one of the miscreants causing the chaos behind him.

Sesshoumaru glanced at the petite woman sitting next him covertly, pressing the cool water bottle to the side of his temple in the hopes that it would ease the headache he had been bearing for the past three hours. Even Kagura, who usually just laughed off his foul moods, had deserted him when she had seen the look on his face as they boarded the airbus. But the scholarly and unassuming Kagome had merely given him an understanding smile as she entered the cabin, wordlessly scooting into the window seat.

Not at all intimidated by his dark scowl she had patted his hand as she sat down. "Whoever designed this plane didn't give much thought to comfort, did they? I'll squeeze in over here and you sit on the aisle so you can stretch your legs out a bit."

Surprisingly, her words had soothed rather than irritated him. If anyone else had said such a thing he would have felt as though they were being condescending, but her sincerity was obvious. And so despite his tendency to ignore everyone and everything around him, Sesshoumaru found himself waiting for her to speak again, curious of what she might say next. But he had been disappointed when she simply curled up in her seat and dozed off within minutes of taking off.

No one had any right to look so peaceful in the noise and heat of the cramped cabin. Sesshoumaru examined her more closely in her sleep, confirming that she was indeed as petite as she had seemed from a distance. Her delicate features were at odds with the bulky grey cardigan she had pulled tightly around her, and a pair of decidedly unfashionable glasses were perched atop her head. She had pulled her dark hair back in a sad attempt of a bun, the ends sticking out every which way, and it was much longer than he had first guessed. From the wisps of hair that had fallen loose of the bun, it appeared to fall well past her waist in glossy waves.

Not exactly the most reassuring replacement for his sales team, he decided. She looked like the absent-minded scientist that she was, not a charismatic sales whiz that she could close the deals that this quarter's earnings were depending on. She hadn't even given a second thought to plopping down next to the man who was essentially her new boss! He had only taken over control of Aisu Corp. from his father six short months ago, and they had not met until now. He would have expected a bit more professionalism, business etiquette, and…..anxiety on her part.

It seemed that all of his employees were a bit intimidated by him, and he liked it that way. Kagura was the sole exception, and he assumed it was because they were so much alike. It had been obvious from the day they first met that they were both blunt and aloof individuals that expected the best from everyone around them. Anything less was not acceptable, and that expectation tended to keep people on their toes, nervous and fidgety whenever they spoke to him. Sesshoumaru frowned briefly and glanced down at his companion. Either he was losing his touch or Kagome was made of stronger stuff than she appeared to be.

Suddenly, the aircraft jerked violently in the air with a loud clanking noise, snapping him out of his reverie. The disturbance was significant enough that the passengers went silent in surprise. Frowning in irritation at the latest problem in the trip from hell, Sesshoumaru was startled as he felt a small hand gripping tightly at his arm. He turned to his side and found his previously calm companion gazing worriedly out of the window, blinking the sleep from her eyes in confusion.

"W-What happened?" Kagome slurred sleepily, her gaze locked on the landscape below them. "Are we landing soon? I just heard a loud noise and it woke me up…"

Sesshoumaru looked at the woman in wonder. She didn't seem to realize she was nervously twisting the fine silk of his jacket sleeve between her fingers, or that she was gnawing at her lower lip. "I believe it is just some turbulence that the pilot is working through." He reassured her smoothly as he tugged at his sleeve, trying to work it out of her grip.

Not noticing his battle with her fingers, Kagome still didn't turn from the window. "I've never flown on an actual plane before. I mean I obviously know how they…" She stopped in mid-sentence to yawn wearily. "…how they work, and the physics behind how they stay in the air, but I still don't want to be on one."

Wonderful. A panicky scientist with a fear of flying. Can this day possibly get any worse?

Of course it could. At that very moment the plane made another loud noise and dipped even closer to the jungle below. The child in the row behind them chose that moment to begin its screams anew and not a few other passengers began to shriek and panic at the sudden descent.

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." Kagome quoted in a soft voice. "Or at least Madame Curie thought so." The fingers that clenched his wrist belied her calm demeanor though. "I took a sleeping pill before we took off this morning, and then another in Mexico City. It seemed the best way to deal with the flights…" She trailed off as the plane started to shake harder.

Grasping for a way to distract her Sesshoumaru said the first thing that came to mind. "If you look just over there you will see the Sugarloaf and Corcovado Mountains soon."

"Y-you can?" Kagome asked nervously as she peered farther to the right. "How can you be sure?"

"I have been to Rio before, and the planes always circle that way before landing." He continued matter-of-factly, trying to keep the conversation going. "Its hard to believe it, but even after traveling for so many hours it's actually still Sunday."

"Because we passed so many time zones?" She asked. "That is correct."

Kagome nodded slowly. "I guess that makes s-sense."

"And if you watch the sun set from Copacabana Beach-"

"Like in the song?" She interrupted in surprise.

He nodded and chuckled before continuing. "If you watch the sun set from the beach it seems as though the sky is melting into the mountains. And if you look very carefully you can make out the shadow of the Christ the Redeemer statue."

Kagome fell silent and Sesshoumaru watched her profile curiously. Then she smiled slowly at the landscape below. "It sounds wonderful. Do you think we'll have time to see it while we're there?"

He was taken aback by her cheerful enthusiasm in the midst of the chaos. More than a few passengers were clutching rosaries and praying loudly in Spanish. And if there had been any oxygen masks in the dismal and painfully outdated aircraft, they would have fallen by now. Perhaps the sleeping pills were affecting her a bit more than he had thought "I…do not see why not. Everyone will have ample personal time between meetings."

Kagome turned finally and gifted him with a smile as bright as the sun, the tears she had been trying to hide drying on her cheeks. "It's a date then."

Sesshoumaru sucked in his breath as his violet eyes met her soft grey ones, framed by long lashes. They were the most expressive eyes he had ever seen, one look in her eyes and you would see every emotion she felt plain as day.

She leaned forward slightly and whispered conspiratorially. "I haven't had a chance for a break in months with the way work has been piling up, after all."

Sesshoumaru tried to shake himself out his daze, replying in a monotone voice. "I'll be sure to lodge a complaint with the management."

Kagome laughed softly at his unintentional joke and tucked her legs beneath her to curl against the seat again, this time slightly facing him. The plane began to even out and was steady as it circled towards the city, the danger seeming to have passed. "I have a good feeling about this trip." She yawned widely, pulling her cardigan tighter around her body.

"Considering the way it has gone so far, that is either incredibly optimistic, or incredibly naive." He replied incredulously, smoothing out the wrinkles in his sleeve. "We've barely scraped together enough people to cover the investors-half of which are better trained to use test tubes rather than sales projections-, we missed our flight, and we nearly crashed into the jungle on this death-trap. I fail to see how you can be so sure the trip will go well."

"But we have three extremely knowledgeable substitutes for your salespeople, we didn't crash, and if we hadn't missed our flight I wouldn't have gotten such a lovely surprise." Kagome murmured sleepily from besides him.

"Nice surprise?" Sesshoumaru's eyebrows rose in puzzlement.

"Wouldn't have gotten to talk to you…" A loud yawn interjected her words. "..and wouldn't have known what a nice person you are."

Sesshoumaru then felt a weight against his shoulder and turned to find his companion had fallen asleep once again, and he was the pillow of choice.