This was originally started for a prompt a long time ago: First Time. I never finished this the way I wanted to and instead ended up writing "Pillow Talk" instead and submitting it for the prompt. Eventually, I liked what I ended up with for this- so here it is: Skinny Dipping. It's a piece with humor because I can and maybe (if you squint a little) romance. Anyway, please enjoy and review!


Kagome glared at the body of water in front of her. There was a large rock that nearly divided the pond in half. After being spewed earlier with demon guts, the group had decided to clean up. It just so happened that the nearest body of water was a cold pond with a large rock in the middle that effectively split the pond in half.

"No!" Deciding to wait it out, she sighed and moved away from the bank. When the group had first suggested splitting up and bathing on the two opposite sides of the water she'd been wary. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't wary- she just flat out refused.

Bathing like that reminded her of skinny dipping. She'd never done it and she wasn't going to let her first time be in the feudal era. She just wanted to be a normal girl sometimes! Why oh why couldn't it be someone else or some other situation.

"Just suck up and deal with the cold water." Inuyasha scoffed already starting to disrobe a little. He disappeared so that he could hardly be seen over the huge boulder sticking out of the water. Miroku soon followed him.

Sango, who seemed to sense where her friend's apprehension was coming from tried to assuage her friend's fears. She herself was slightly against the idea but she knew that if she didn't get the smell of the dead demon off her soon other lower demons would start to find their way towards their little group. They were already a little tired and it was nearing nighttime so she decided to just deal with the situation. It seemed Kagome wasn't ready for that.

"Kagome, Miroku's not going to cross that barrier. Trust me." She stated trying to get Kagome to see reason.

Kagome huffed, submitting to her task. Great, her first time doing anything remotely close to skinny dipping and here she was washing demon guts off of her body! Hastily, she slipped into the water and shuddered at the coolness. The sooner she finished the better.

An hour and a half later, Kagome sighed as she walked back to the tiny pond. Really did Inuyasha have to spill the ramen all over her? It may have been an accident when he'd flicked over the pot but she had had enough of bathing in cold water for one day.

She slipped once again into the cold water glad that after this her warm sleeping bag was waiting for her. It also helped that it was the middle of the summer she mused. It was the first time she was bathing alone at night and oddly enough she enjoyed it. A sudden rustling caused her to turn around. Moments later the sound came again and she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of the eye.

"Fuck." Kagome didn't curse often. When she did however there was usually something that either really angered her or made her wish the ground would swallow her whole. This time she wished she could disappear. There on the rock was a piece of white clothing with a familiar red hexagonal design.

She slowly inched towards the shore intent on hopefully getting away from Sesshomaru undetected. The possibility of that was extremely slim but she decided to ignore that fact and calmly set her hands on the bank.

"You need not fear me miko." Gasping, Kagome flushed but stopped what she was doing and squeaked when Sesshomaru's head emerged on the other side of the bank. He looked at her and flashed a feral grin. "After all, I've entertained better looking females before."

Kagome's mouth opened in silent shock. She never took insults lightly and Sesshomaru wasn't going to be forgiven that easily. She knew that there were prettier women out there but she was content with how she'd turned out. Leave it to Sesshomaru to bring all her insecurities to the surface.

"Look," she began continuing their banter, "just because I'm not your type you don't have to rub it in. I'll have you know that I'm considered beautiful where I come from."

That was a lie and she knew it. While she did get the occasional stare from classmates when she visited school, other than Hojo, no boy had really ever asked her out. She wondered whether or not to count Koga and decided to- he was always claiming something about her being his woman anyway.

"Hmm." There was a pause and then Sesshomaru smirked. He could smell her deceit. Deciding to bait her some more he spoke again. "Rise then, this Sesshomaru needs to perhaps reassess his assumption of you."

Whatever Kagome expected wasn't what happened. She was absolutely positive that Sesshomaru was being controlled by some foreign entity or that it was Sesshomaru's long lost twin brother who'd suddenly come to visit. That was the only explanation because never in her life would she have pegged Sesshomaru to do this. Yes he may personify sex but she failed to believe that he would ever look at a human that way.

"I've got to go." Quickly shuffling out of the water she wrapped her towel around herself and turned. He was still sitting by the bank and watching her. She groaned inwardly, knowing that she'd involuntarily given him a peep show. Grabbing her clothes, she shuffled into the woods and slipped into them. When she reemerged Sesshomaru was still laying by the bank, watching her.

"Look, let's pretend this never happened okay?" Kagome began shuffling her feet under the weight of his gaze. "Now that I know you like to take nighttime baths, I'll stay away from water then." She turned to walk away when his voice stopped her in her tracks.

"No, you'll join me again." He smirked at her. "And next time there won't be a rock to separate us." Deciding she'd had enough, she ran away only stopping when she was back in the camp with her friends. They all shot her worried looks and Inuyasha sniffed curiously in her direction pinning her with a stare.

"Look I just don't want to talk about it all right? Remind me to never go bathing at night again!" She unfurled her sleeping bag and curled into it trying to remove Sesshomaru's face from her mind. It was decided, today was her first and last time taking nighttime baths.