Phew, I totally uploaded a bunch (okay, two) new stories really quickly because I've been trying to publish them FOREVER (a week) and fanfic has been blocking me. Annoying. Anyway, these are already written but I'm going to upload them a little slowly so you can savor them. But as all know, my patience is about as long as my attention span and I'll crack and want to read your thoughts and upload like crazy anyway. Le sigh, when will I ever learn?
XOXO
Az.
Consciousness returned slowly to Kagome and with it came a massive headache.
"Ugh." She winced as she tried to open her eyes. The sun had set but the starlight seemed unnaturally bright as she could clearly see the individual blades of grass in front of her.
She could also hear Inuyasha yelling unnecessarily close by.
"-IF YOUR STUPID SWORD KILLED HER I'M GOING TO RIP YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES AND BURY YOU WITH NARAKU YOU BASTARD!" He bellowed.
I'm fine. She tried to say but her throat felt parched and no words came out.
"Calm down Inuyasha." Miroku's voice filtered through her fuzzy brain. "Kagome-sama is still breathing, it will just take her longer to regain consciousness than your brother since she does not have the regenerating capabilities of a youkai."
"Keh. I know that." Inuyasha's gruff snort belied the anxiety she could hear in his voice.
With a huge effort she pushed to a sitting position and looked up at her worried friend. She could tell even in the dim lighting that there was a darkness behind his eyes, a certain human quality that set him apart from Sesshomaru. He continued to glare at her and she tried to think of some way to avoid the inevitable lecture.
She settled for a small gesture of affection and lay her head against his hip. He froze and a wave of what she could only describe as 'total freak-out' washed off of him.
"I'm fine Inuyasha." She murmured, shocking herself with the deepness of her own voice. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Really." Her voice still carried a deep timbre, deeper than Miroku's. "What the-? What's wrong with my voice?" She coughed into her hand, her clawed hand, with magenta striped wrists.
Dread built up inside her.
"Oh no." She whispered.
Her eyes dragged towards her silent friends of their own volition. There, lying on the grass in between Sango and Shippo, was a pair of brown shoes, attached to long legs that disappeared into a short green skirt, and…
"No no no!" She leapt to her feet and flailed for a moment with her one arm as she adjusted to her new higher center of gravity. "NO!"
"Calm down Sesshomaru-sama." Miroku stepped protectively in front of Kagome's body, lying unconscious a good fifteen feet away from her.
"I'm not freaking Sesshomaru! I'm me! What the hell!" She started hyperventilating. "I'm… no… I can't… how did… Eek!" Her new masculine voice managed a good impersonation of a very unmanly squeak.
A soft sigh easily registered in her new youkai-enhanced ears and she whirled on her own body as it raised both arms and looked at them curiously.
"Hn." Kagome's voice came out of her mouth with decidedly Sesshomaru-y inflection.
"YOU!" Kagome growled, flexing her clawed hand. "FIX THIS NOW!"
"Be silent." Sesshomaru pushed up to his feet in her body. "And calm before you lose control of my youki."
"HOW THE HELL CAN I BE-" She roared, which turned into a real roar as the human-shaped body she'd been inhabiting transformed abruptly to a gigantic three-legged white dog.
"I did warn you." Sesshomaru-in-Kagome sighed.
Oh great! Now I'm a dog! A giant freaking dog with freaking corrosive battery-acid drool and I'M GONNA FALL OVER! SHIT! She wobbled in a valiant attempt to stay posed on three legs but pitched muzzle-first into the clearing. This is so unfair! Oh god what am I going to tell my mother! She's never let me keep a dog before and now I AM a dog and and and…
She howled and sniffled until she felt one of her whiskers jerked violently and yelped.
She focused on the mirror-image of herself standing in front of her and growled.
Sesshomaru just glared through her blue eyes and Kagome felt a little like cowering.
Wow I'm pretty scary when I want to be. She stared at her body.
"Now that I have your attention. You must calm yourself and remember what it feels to be human before you poison the whole of the western lands."
She whined helplessly and struggled into a sitting position.
Sesshomaru sighed. "Think of your body as being smaller, more compact, having fingers, toes…"
Kagome whined more and Sesshomaru rolled his newly blue eyes.
"Kagome-sama…?" Miroku ventured, looking between the two of them like he was not entirely sure which to address. His decision was made as Kagome whimpered pitifully and he smiled up at her reassuringly. "Perhaps if you recalled what… uh… what Sesshomaru looks like in his humanoid form."
Easy for you to say! You're not a giant dog who's going to live in a giant dog house because she's stuck in ginormo mode for the rest of her stupid life. Kagome chuffed but finally closed her eyes and thought about Sesshomaru.
If she was perfectly honest then it wasn't the first time she'd ever thought about the taiyoukai. Not that there's anything wrong with that! How could any girl completely ignore the whole deadly-exotic thing? With all that ridiculously pretty silver hair that she'd bet her eyeteeth was as heavy and luxuriant as silk and those deeply golden eyes that just scream 'I'm-going-to-devour-you'—albeit not usually in a good way but still…
While she was at it she might as well think about the sexy tattoo-like markings. She knew he had the obvious moon on his forehead and the two stripes on his cheekbones (which were unfairly high) and his wrist but she suspected that he might have had a few stripes hiding in other places on his body. Maybe his hips, that'd be pretty hot.
Now that she had the basics she could mentally dress him.
He always dresses really well. I bet he spent centuries figuring out that outfit. She swallowed a giggle, she was pretty sure the world would implode if Sesshomaru giggled, even if it was just because his body was possessed by a teenage girl.
The white and red haori, the white hakama, the black boots, the fluffy boa-thing that he always carried around and her favorite for last; the spiky black armor. The way it casually rested just below one shoulder was really pretty sultry and-
"Hey!" She realized Inuyasha was shaking her shoulder. "Snap out of it!"
"Huh? Oh. I did it?" She asked in her new strangely husky voice.
"I'm very impressed Sessh… Kagome… chan." Sango gave her an appraising look. "It takes a great deal of concentration and focus for demons to obtain a humanoid form."
"Th-thanks." Kagome stammered, not at all sure how to feel about the entire situation.
"Hn. It seems as though you have an excellent memory." Sesshomaru murmured as he breezed past her, managing to make her body look more graceful than it ever had before. "You recalled my form QUITE easily."
"Oh you jerk!" She growled back but was grateful to note that apparently youkai don't blush.
"Shall we continue…?" Miroku suggested hesitantly, then frowned thoughtfully. "Although I suppose it's somewhat pointless for you to try to go home at the moment Kagome-sama."
"Aw damnit! This sucks!" Kagome snarled, dripping poison from her hand.
"Control yourself miko." Sesshomaru commented idly.
"Shut up!" She clenched the fist and welcomed the momentary sting of pain before the poison receded. "Besides. You're the miko now." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"That's something I never thought I'd see Sesshomaru-sama do." Shippo stifled a giggle unsuccessfully. "Guess that really is Okaasan in there!"
"We will go to my home." Sesshomaru stated firmly, straightening his green skirt with a flick. "It will be safest and my library is extensive."
Miroku's eyes lit up at the word 'library' but Inuyasha scowled.
Kagome sighed. "I think it's the best we've got. Oh hey, did we defeat Naraku?" She looked around hopefully.
Miroku couldn't help the broad smile that spread across his face then as he whipped off his prayer beads, showing a curse-free palm. "I apologize for my cavalier attitude towards your situation but our greatest enemy is in fact defeated… a bit anticlimactic but I'm still quite content with the outcome."
"Woo hoo!" Kagome whooped and jumped in the air. "That's AWESOME news!"
"Human." Sesshomaru managed to make Kagome's voice sound positively frigid. "Never. Do that with my body again."
"Don't get yo-… er… MY panties in a twist buster! We defeated Naraku and I feel like celebrating! Maybe I'll dance around and skip next."
"You wouldn't dare." He narrowed his eyes at her.
Kagome stalked towards Sesshomaru and enjoyed his faintly uncomfortable expression as he had to look up to meet her golden eyes. "Who's the human now Sesshomaru-sama?"
Just a quick note about the pronouns: I'm going to continue using their respective pronouns (Kagome: she, her, etc) because Kagome and Sesshomaru see themselves and each other as being their proper genders, regardless of the packaging, and since they're the main characters so mote it be.
