Kagome's POV

When I saw the castle in sight I jumped off of Kirara giving her the signal to change back. I saw everyone pause when I got off of Kirara but they kept going. That is until they realized I wasn't following them anymore.

"What are you doing girl?" Wolfram barked at me.

I glared at him "As it is Kirara is tired, plus she is still injured from our fight with Kagura. So I am not going to push her and I am letting her rest. Now do you all actually expect me to walk the rest of the way to Yuuri's castle while you are all on horses?" I gave them a 'really' look.

"You can ride with me if you want Kagome." Yuuri said smiling at me.

I shook my head at him though "Thanks for the offer Yuuri, but it will not look good if their King comes home riding double with someone they don't know. Don't you think?"

"It's no problem really." Yuuri said with a determined look on his face. Still I shook my head at him, that wouldn't do at all.

Then Conrad spoke up "You may ride with me if you would like Lady Kagome." I glared at him a bit for the use of Lady, but then I smiled at him.

"I would like that very much, thank you Conrad!" With no trouble at all I jumped up onto the back of his horse and promptly made myself comfortable. I bent down and whispered in Kirara's ear, loud enough for Conrad to hear but not anyone else "Hey Kirara, go ride with Gwendal. He's been eyeing you sense you got here, I think you have a new fan." Kirara smiled, as much as a cat can smile, up at me. She had noticed it as well. She climbed up to my head then jumped off of me and landed right on Gwendal's lap. Gwendal started for a second until he noticed what had landed in his lap. I called out to him "Oh hey Kirara must like you, you won't mind holding on to her until we get to the castle will you?"

Gwendal huffed at me "I guess I can if I must." He said with an impassive face. I looked down to see him petting Kirara like she was the cutest thing ever, which she is. I smiled to myself, mission accomplished. I could tell that he had wanted to pet her from the first moment, but had too much pride to ask.

I heard Conrad murmur to me "That was nice of you."

I smiled into his back "Yeah well, he's one of the ones here that don't annoy me so far. Plus he kinda reminds me of Sesshomaru with that emotional mask on, I can already tell that it is rare for him to smile. I don't mind giving him the means to smile, on the inside at least." I giggled "You can tell he is practically in bliss at the moment." Conrad laughed as well and agreed with me. We rode in silence for a few minutes until I brought up something that had been bothering me "Hey Conrad can I ask you a question?"

"I think you just did, but go on."

I punched him slightly "Hey." He chuckled a bit then I continued "When Yuuri was introducing everyone I noticed that when he introduced you, you flinched a bit. It was hardly noticeable at all, but it was still there. Why was that?"

I heard him sigh a bit "That is because that is not my name Lady Kagome."

That surprised me "What do you mean that is not your name?" I was a bit confused.

"My name is Conrart not Conrad. Yuuri had a hard time pronouncing it so he calls me Conrad." He explained to me. You could tell from the tone in his voice that he absolutely adored my cousin.

I laughed a bit at that, loud enough to get everyone to look at me in question then look away again when I stopped laughing. "Sorry, that sounds like Yuuri though. Well if it makes it any better I will call you Conrart. I can pronounce it just fine. Plus I know how annoying it can be to be called something other than your real name."

We were almost to the castle when I heard Conrart ask me a question "What did you mean when you said that Gwendal was one of the ones that didn't annoy you?"

I was a bit surprised at his question, but I saw no reason to not tell him "Well Wolfram I don't like at all, mostly because he threatened me with a sword before even talking to me. Gunter is nice and all, but the way he talks gives me a headache. Yozak seems very nice, but I can tell that he has a darker side and to be honest that scares me a bit. I have never trusted Murata, even when we were little. He's always annoyed me, always seemed superior in a way even though he was playing dumb. You I don't mind, you seem like a very normal and loyal person. Plus it helps a bit that you did save my life. Gwendal didn't jump to any conclusions like Wolfram did, plus he can't be a horrible person if his weakness is cute things." I laughed.

"What about Yuuri?" Conrart asked me.

"Yuuri?" I paused for a moment trying to figure out how to phrase my thoughts. "Yuuri is like my brother. I would trust him with my life and I would give my life for him. When my dad died, for a while my mom just couldn't deal with the grief. So my aunt Jenny brought me and my little brother Sota into her house. That was the first time that I met Yuuri. At first I wasn't overly fond of him but that changed very fast. When I was little I was teased all the time because of my name. They thought that it would be funny to play the 'Kagome Kagome' game with me because my name was Kagome. At first they thought it would be funny, but then they got scared of me when I always guessed who was behind me correctly. To hide their fear they would always claim that I was cheating. It was no different in Yuuri's town then in mine. Yuuri found me one day stuck in the middle of a Kagome game. Knowing how much I hate that game he pushed his way through the kids, grabbed my hand, and just pulled me away. Those kids never bothered me again. I guess I can say the same for Shori, he is like the older brother I never had. I love them both so much, they are more like siblings then cousins. When I had to leave I was very conflicted. On one hand I was extremely happy that mom was good again and that I would get to live with her again. On the other hand I was super sad that I had to leave Yuuri and Shori. Sota was too little at the time to remember any of our time there, we lived with them for three years though. We wrote letters to each other all of the time, but we lived too far away from each other to freely visit each other. So sadly for a while we drew apart. To be honest, I don't think we had any contact with each other for an entire year. The last letter I got from Yuuri was a little over a year ago, but the last time I saw him was probably close to four years now. So to answer your question I absolutely love Yuuri."

Conrart looked back at me, awe in his eyes "With how close you two are I'm surprised that Yuuri has never talked about you before. He talks about his home and family a lot. I wonder why?" he said the last bit almost to himself, but I still heard him.

"That is probably because he felt guilty, I know I did."

"What do you mean?"

"Well our birthdays are close together and both of our adventures started when we were fifteen. That was a little over a year ago now. Both of us were having adventures we didn't want to tell the other about because we didn't want to worry each other. We never used to lie to each other before. Then suddenly we felt the need to lie to each other. Not to make an excuse for me or anything, but for me time doesn't pause in my world when I go to the feudal era. For how long I am gone in the feudal era is how long I am gone in my world. Then to top it off I have to keep up with my school work, it's hard. Really hard, I haven't really had time to just stop and write a letter you know. Between fighting demons, searching for jewel shards, fighting Naraku, and trying to keep up with school I hardly have any breathing time these days."

"Lady Kagome…"

I could tell that he was about to say more, but I didn't really want to talk about it. Even though I brought it up. I decided to interrupt him "Oh hey look we're almost there. Wow this is a really impressive castle. It's almost as pretty as Lord Sesshomaru's castle, but not quite."

"Somebody else's castle beats this one? This is the best castle in the country." Conrart must have caught on that I wanted a discussion change, thank you.

"Oh yeah, you should see Lord Sesshomaru's castle. It is so pretty. It is tall, majestic, and really white. There is this beautiful garden that he has, I hadn't thought he would do stuff like that, but it was the most amazing garden I have ever seen. He had flowers in it I have never even seen before, it was incredible. I wish I could go back there sometime."

"That sound like an incredible castle. Can't you go back to it at any time?"

I groaned "No. You can only get there if Sesshomaru is there and invites you in. There is a barrier of types around it that only lets people in with his permission. And the great Lord Sesshomaru practically hates humans. He told me that the time I was there was a one-time event. His ward Rin was sick and he was not qualified for looking after a sick little human child. He wanted me to use my Miko-ki to help her get better faster. The healing only took a few days, a week at the most. I ended up staying there almost three months."

"Why in the world did you stay there so long?" I could tell that he connected that I would be missing from my time for three months.

"After I got done healing Rin I wasn't exactly there of my own free will. He took it upon himself to thank me for healing Rin by training me to use a sword. I told him very firmly that I didn't want or need to learn how to use a sword, but he wasn't taking no for an answer. He told me that he was tired of seeing me useless on the battle field. So for the next three months I had constant sword training. He didn't let me leave until he deemed me worthy enough to hold my own against most people."

"How did you get proficient enough with a sword in three months?" He was looking at me incredulously.

I shuttered at the thought of Sesshomaru's training program "You've never trained with Sesshomaru before. Pray that you never do. Because he is a demon he doesn't understand the term tired. He would literally train me until I fell unconscious from exhaustion. He would then give me a half a day after I woke up to catch up on things I needed to take care of. Then no matter where I was he would find me and start attacking me again. After the second time that happened I tried the approach of not having my sword with me when he attacked, that was a horrible mistake. He still attacked me ruthlessly and I was stuck with nothing to defend myself with. He told me then that the enemy wouldn't give me time to go fetch a sword and that I should keep it on me at all times. That was a very tense half an hour of dodging his attacks until I got to my sword." I shuttered again. "I never want to have to go through that again, EVER."

It was then that I noticed that sometime during our conversation everyone else had started listening in. I hadn't even noticed that we had been talking loud enough for everyone else to hear us. Oh well, it's not like I was trying to hide anything. I just hope that Gwendal didn't hear the part about me giving him a reason to smile. That would just be so embarrassing. It happened that I was saved from any potential embarrassment because we had made it to the castle. We, well Yuuri, was welcomed by a group of people. He was obviously very loved as King. I saw a streak of red hair and for a moment I thought that it was Shippo. The red streak ran through the crowd and latched onto Yuuri's stomach.

"Hey Greta, I missed you. Have you been behaving?"

"Yeah, I've been learning a lot from Anissa!" I saw almost everyone freeze and shiver at the name Anissa, but I brushed it off.

I walked over to Yuuri "Hey Yuuri, who is this cutie?"

Greta looked up at me, she really was cute. She reminded me a lot of Shippo, I instantly loved her. "Oh Kagome, this is my daughter Greta. Greta this is my cousin Kagome." Yuuri introduced us.

"Adopted right?" I said very slowly.

Yuuri laughed "Yes Adopted."

Greta came over to me, she looked a bit nervous "You're related to Yuuri? From his world? Like Uncle Shori?"

I kneeled down so I was at the same height as her "Yes I am. I am very glad that I get to meet you."

A smile burst onto her face, with an expression like that she reminded me of Rin. "Do you want to play with me?" She seemed so excited by the fact that she would have someone to play with that I just couldn't say no.

"Alright." I turned to Yuuri "I'll meet up with you guys later, first I have to go play with this adorable little cousin of mine. See you guys later!" I laughed as Greta pulled me away. She was just so cute!

I felt one of the auras of the group I had been traveling with start to follow us. I turned away and the smile that was on my face dropped instantly. "Why are you following us Wolfram?" I asked.

He glared at me "I don't trust you with my daughter." He told me with the most serious look on his face.

My eyes went wide "Your… daughter…?" in my mind I connected the pieces. "So that means you and Yuuri are…" I couldn't finish the sentence. It didn't make sense, Yuuri did not roll that way. The very idea was just absurd.

"We are engaged." He finished my sentence for me.

My eyes grew even wider, then I couldn't hold it in anymore. At first just one burst of laughter got out, I held it back extremely fast though. I didn't want to make the situation any worse. But when I saw the look on his face I couldn't help myself. I started laughing hard and loud. The worse thing was I couldn't stop laughing, it just kept coming. The only things that were going through my mind was Yuuri's expressions of getting married to another boy. I fell to the ground holding my sides, they were starting to hurt from how hard I was laughing. Tears were rolling down my face, but I just couldn't stop. I knew that I should, laughing any longer would make Wolfram furious with me, but as soon as I would start to stop another image of Yuuri's face would pop up in my mind making me laugh even harder.

"How… how did…. That… happen?" I asked between peals of laughter.

Wolfram stared at me through narrowed eyes. He knew that I didn't know about the customs here though, so I'm pretty sure that I was getting a light treatment. "He slapped me."

I waited for more, but he didn't offer anything else. "What does slapping you have to do with marriage?" I had finally stopped my laughing. Greta was looking at me amused, I guess it wasn't often that someone just started laughing in one of her father's faces.

"That is custom here. To slap someone on their left cheek is to ask for their marriage. It was when Yuuri first got here. I said something to make him mad and he slapped me. We tried to get him to take it back, but he wouldn't. He didn't know the consequences. So from there we were engaged to be married. At first I hated the idea, but now I will do anything for Yuuri." He paused looking at me meaningfully "I will make this clear Kagome. I do not trust you, and I don't plan to start trusting you anytime soon. The sooner you leave, the better."

I smirked at him, I was used to the better than thee attitudes "You might want to think that through Wolfram. When I leave, I'm going to be leaving with Yuuri. How do you feel about that?" That thought had never crossed his mind and when I planted it there it grew like a weed. I giggled a bit then grabbed Greta's hand and started running away from the flabbergasted boy. Great laughed at my antics and decided to join me. For the rest of the evening Greta and I played a very long and intense game of hide and seek from Wolfram. Who knows how long the game would have lasted if Conrart hadn't come and stopped it.

Greta and I were in a tree, both of us trying to hold in our laughter. Wolfram was so intent on finding us, he would have too if he would just look up. He was almost directly underneath us, but he didn't even register that we were there. Suddenly I saw Conrart come up and calm Wolfram down. "Wolfram what are you doing?"

"I am trying to find my daughter and that witch Kagome. She's going to put a spell on Greta if I don't find them soon." I raised an eyebrow at that. I was no witch, I was a Miko. There is a big difference.

"I doubt Kagome has any ill intensions here. It is time for dinner, come on inside."

"But I still haven't found Greta and Kagome!"

Conrart sighed "All of you come on in for dinner. Yuuri is waiting." Then he looked straight up at us. Wolfram followed his gaze and saw us there holding back laughter.

I sighed "Alright, I was getting hungry anyway." I instructed Greta to hold onto the branch, we were pretty high up. Then I dropped down to the ground, landing in a crouch. Both of them were looking at me in shock, probably wondering how I didn't stumble from that height. Then I turned around and shouted up to Greta "Alright, drop on down. Don't worry I'll catch you."

Greta trusted me completely and let go of the branch. I heard Wolfram and Conrart gasp and try to help me catch her, but they wouldn't be able to get to me in time. I reached up and caught Greta by the armpits then to lessen the momentum I spun us around in a semi-circle. Then when the momentum died down I placed her feet on the ground. "There you go." I turned around and smiled at the boys "Alright let's go eat."

"Yeah, you'll sit by me right Kagome?"

I smiled at her "Of course Greta, I wouldn't have it any other way." Greta squealed in delight, grabbed my hand, and started dragging me towards supper. Oh this supper was going to be interesting, that is for sure.