Hello, all! Sorry, I changed the plot of this whole thing, but I didn't what to kid myself any more. My life is too crazy, I will never be able to finish this unless it's simpler.

I should never have started it when I couldn't finish it, and I'm sorry to anyone who suffered in any way as a result. Sorry! So sorry.

But this will be fun too. It'll be more light-hearted with plenty of fluffiness and humour. Just what I like.

Maybe you'll like it too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, only my original characters and this fanfiction written purely for my pleasure, but also for the pleasure of my readers and Sesshoumaru, sit! fans.

Thank you all for your support of the orginal fic. I'll do my best to make this ten times better!

By the way, VampireDragonGirl66 gave me the final push to start this. Also TomatoLove and Serena Lockhart. I have SO many ideas. Bwahahaha! Please enjoy, because I will enjoy every moment of writing this.

I will reply to anonymous reviews in the chapters and to signed ones through the review reply button thingy…Just so everyone knows. The only way I'd miss out on replying to someone who took the time to tell me what they think is: accidentally!

A special thanks to Angel-Dust-Ryuuki, who took the time to give me more reviews at once in Sesshoumaru, Sit! than I've had in a long time, and even reviewed the sequel. Thank you, ADR! I love you! XD

And a welcome back to my dear Kyuuketsuki-san, angelblue240, and yuri0219! I missed you Kyuu!

A huge thanks to pumkinpi, who is reviewing every single chapter she reads and then some. I just love her XD

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the original characters. Sue me not! (Not that you could. I don't even live in the same country. Bwahaha!).

Chapter 1

Huffing was the only sign of human presence in the shadowed forest. Well into the afternoon of a frigid winter meant that not many animals were about, as opposed to the warmer weather near noon drawing many creatures out into the sun.

A dainty, pale hand stuck out of the darkened well, a ring glinting clearly in the remaining light of the day.

Amaya struggled to pull herself over the frosty rim without slipping back down into her time, and gave a quick prayer of thanks when she finally stood on firm ground. She knew she would need a lot more praying to escape Sesshoumaru's wrath.

She'd left for home despite his strict orders that she stay in the castle with him. She hadn't argued much at the time, just in case he got it into his head to take more drastic measures to keep her in the feudal era, like lock her in a room or have s spidery bodyguard tail her or whatever. As if!

She didn't like being bossed around the first time she met him and she wasn't going to put up with it now. Sesshoumaru was far too protective, and since he had no good reason for her not to visit her family she would ignore him. She loved him, they were engaged, but she needed to see her family every once in a while, for God's sake! It wasn't like she would be gutted on the way to and from there!

A subtle shaking of a nearby bush had her frozen in place with ears perked. Oh, man. She knew that sound. She knew that summery smell. She wasn't ready for this.

She was better off gutted!

"Amaya."

The cold, deep voice coming from just behind her shocked her only a little. She jumped slightly and turned around to a predictably controlled face. Sesshoumaru was as silent as always, lethally fast…and very angry. He was also beautiful, but he became irritated when she said so, and anyway it didn't take away from the intimidating air he was currently giving off.

"Sesshoumaru," she retorted after a moment of stunned silence.

It wasn't that long ago that she had confessed her love for him, and he for her –not quite, but close enough. She was no longer worried that he would kill her at the very first opportunity, even though his current bottled fury was quite menacing.

"I missed you," she added carefully when he simply glared at her, standing there with his snowy white hair blowing softly in the icy breeze.

That made his brow twitch just the tiniest bit, but his expression remained fixed. "You disobeyed me."

Amaya closed her eyes and prayed for patience. Her significant other was too much sometimes. He ordered her and expected her to bend her will to his, just like that, no explanations required. She wanted so badly to say 'And this is new?' because really, it wasn't. She went against him back when they were practically enemies and he longed to kill her. She went to her parents' place after he asked/told her to stay with him as his life-mate too. New? I think not!

"I needed to visit my parents, and you never tell me why I can't go. You just stand there all high and mighty and look at me like the answer to my question is obvious," she explained evenly. "I can't stay away too long. My parents are just getting used to the idea of my engagement to an otherworldly being. And I missed them." She'd explained this before, and she didn't expect it to soften him up now any more than it did the last time she said it.

His eyes narrowed and his mouth hardened. "You should not be going anywhere beyond my reach, and certainly not alone."

"But Inuyasha watches over this place, I told you that. I'm covered!"

"I do not trust him with your life, woman. I never want you to go anywhere without my permission again."

Amaya pressed her lips together in an effort not to shout at him. He was just being overprotective, and overbossy. Jeez! "I will not!" she ground out, making his frown deepen. "You're being ridiculous! Kagome comes and goes a lot more freely than I and I don't have a Shikon no Tama on me the way she does."

He bared his teeth at her words and stepped forward threateningly. "Amaya," he said warningly. "Come here."

Those two words always made her legs pleasantly wobbly. Even when he said them like he wanted to take her over his knee. "Why?" she ventured suspiciously, squashing the irrational urge to run to him. He had a pale, striped hand held out to her beckoningly, but he wasn't waiting for her to answer his summons, and was instead walking towards her gracefully.

Frozen in place, she stared at his approach, dread and longing mixed together in a confusing swirl of emotion.

Sesshoumaru could be very gentle. So much so that she found herself falling in love with him over and over again. But he could also be vindictive. Not towards her, however. For her he reserved those little harmless punishments that drove her crazy and mollified him. Like sicking his spider youkai guards on her when she blatantly defied him. She hated spiders!

"What?" she snapped breathlessly when he was towering over her.

His breath huffed out smoky-white in the frosty weather, and he reached out to slowly unwrap the wooly red scarf from around her neck. Her lips parted in awareness and confusion while she wondered what he was up to, and whether he would kiss her despite her misbehavior and sassy attitude.

"Red in the middle of winter. Are you out of your mind?" he said in controlled anger, breaking the hypnotic spell he had over her completely. She blinked up at him and then frowned in offense while simultaneously blushing in embarrassment. Oh. She'd forgotten red was too aggressive to wear in winter, when it was most likely to attract all sorts of hostile demons. It was like waving a flag in front of a bull.

"Um…" she began awkwardly, gaze shifting away. "It's hard to remember…details like that when I'm not so used to things here yet," she mumbled and tried to fidget out of the scarf he was holding her captive with.

"This is why I do not allow you out on your own. Foolish woman."

She snapped her heated gaze back up to his and opened her mouth to hiss something rude at him. He wrapped the scarf around her mouth, making her sputter instead. She unwrapped it and tossed it at the snow-speckled ground furiously while the offending demon simply walked away with an all too self-satisfied air.

"Arrrrgh!" she growled and shook her fist in his direction.

He knew very well she would follow no matter how angry he made her, and she knew he would want her to come no matter how angry she made him. What they didn't know was how far each of them would go to protect and preserve the life and happiness of the other. Not yet.

Amaya shuffled to march beside her demon, glaring ahead and making up her mind not to speak to him until he apologized for his rudeness, or kissed her into forgetting about it. Sesshoumaru was a good kisser. A very good kisser. But she wasn't thinking about that now. She wasn't! Now she was focusing on how angry she was at him for treating her concerns with such casual indifference and lack of understanding.

She startled slightly, not expecting him to suddenly walk so close beside her, and then to casually wrap his pelt around her shoulders, not missing a beat.

She frowned up at him, torn between taking it off and tossing it in his face and snuggling closer. So she just walked on, doing neither. She did nothing when he pulled her close almost imperceptibly and stroked her arm distractedly.

She wasn't so sure why she was angry at him any more, and when they stood at the entrance to their castle and he kissed her…she didn't think she ever was.

Ah! NOW I remember why I was angry, Amaya thought furiously. She sat cross-legged on her fluffy wine-colored bed and stared narrow-eyed at the door ahead. Two spider youkai were standing guard. Sesshoumaru had ordered them there before he left for some tribal lords meeting or other…He went to a lot of those all of a sudden, and he said it was so he could ready the way for her.

Getting a bunch of old coots used to the idea of her, if Kagome was to be believed, was almost impossible, and she –Amaya- and Sesshoumaru would have a lot to deal with before they got any peace, if they ever did.

For once, that wasn't what was on her mind. Now she was occupied with the possibilities for vengeance! She hated it when Sesshoumaru treated her like a child to take care of, and the only way she hadn't scratched his eyes out with frustration was because she loved him so damn much, and because she knew he didn't know how else to protect her. Most of the time they'd spent together she was the thorn in his side, his great subduer, and she had stuck his face in the dirt so many times she was amazed she had lived through it.

OH, FOR THE POWER TO DO THAT NOW!

But she was overreacting. He wanted her protected from…something, and the spiders were just a perk. For him.

She sighed and flopped back on the bed, thinking of what to do next. She couldn't just stay home and wait for him for the rest of her life…

Yes, this was home to her now, and she loved it as dearly as if she had lived here a thousand years. Still, having grown up in the 20th century, she couldn't imagine being home-bound in the way Sesshoumaru thought was necessary to protect her.

So what to do to get past that hurdle? She didn't want to put herself in danger, and there were only two ways she could think of currently to minimize the threat:

Learning some serious self-defense and/or demon slaying and/or demon purification techniques…and/or something similar.

Becoming a demon herself, and enjoy all the added power and abilities that entailed.

Unfortunately, demons weren't like vampires. One biting or scratching her will only hurt like a mother and possibly give her an infection. As for the taijiya/miko/martial artist approach, that would take years. Not impossible to do if she had a say in it, but who would train her? Sango, the soon-to-be mother? Kagome, who was only now getting acquainted with the more intense side of her powers? No. The old miko Kaede was too old and too occupied with training and looking after Rin, for that matter.

So what to do? There had to be some way to get empowered enough to live normally…ish. She just couldn't argue with Sesshoumaru for every scrap of freedom she wanted! Oh, she knew he wasn't trying to take her freedom away. She knew Sesshoumaru enough to understand he wasn't like that. He was a bit possessive, but mostly he protected his own. With his life if it came down to it. Her humanity just put her in constant jeopardy.

And the question remained: what to do?

Sesshoumaru repressed a threatening snarl and continued to stare coolly at the young demon before him.

His new ally was a handsome, pale-eyed dog demon that Sesshoumaru never imagined he would ever have to deal with. However, Shinjishi and he had a few things in common that would keep the worst of the dangers at bay. For one, they were both powerful rulers of their own lands, a force to be reckoned with.

Amaya thought he was meeting with allies to accustom the old fools to the idea of a human wife for a demon lord.

Not! As his fiancé constantly exclaimed. He knew better. He wasn't foolish enough to step even a foot on former-ally lands. They would have made an attempt on his life, taking for granted that his choice of such a weak mate made him weak in turn. Sesshoumaru would have had to kill the fool, and the fool's allies would have taken that excuse to rise against him, crying murder.

No, he knew much better. He also expected they were waiting for just such a move. Sesshoumary wondered who would have been sacrificed among their men to initiate the Western Lands' downfall.

Oh, yes. He knew he wasn't invincible. Not when he was faced with so many powerful enemies, not when he had someone beside himself to protect.

With Lord Shinjishi, however, even a thousand lords would pause in fear. Shinjishi was close in power to Sesshoumaru himself, but of another sort. Together, they were a terror to the rest of the lands.

Fortunately for the rest of those lands, he and Shinjishi despised one another, and would never have come together like this if not for their unusual circumstances.

"I believe it is time we all got together. My mate is unbearably curious about your woman," the demon with the unusual blue eyes drawled, smiling unpleasantly.

"I wonder," said Sesshoumaru with loaded calm. "why you don't refer to Amaya as my mate as well."

"There is little difference, no need to feel offended." Shinjishi smiled patronizingly.

A soft growl escaped the Western lord. He knew exactly what the irksome blue-eyed demon was insinuating, and he didn't like to be reminded of it. Amaya wouldn't like it any better once she knew. That is, when Shinjishi's fiancé mentioned the bit of fact upon their meeting.

Come to think of it, Amaya would be down right furious with him for withholding that information.

At least that is what he expected. However, Amaya tended to surprise him with her reactions, many times responding completely differently than what he had foreseen. That is what he dreaded most;

What if she reacted in a way worse than mere anger?

To Be Continued…

Read and review please! I updated a lot faster than I had planned. How could I not, with all those beautiful reviews to spur me on? Thank you guys!