The week passed by quickly with Sesshomaru and Kouga training her to fight with a wooden practice sword, her skill was growing daily much to the approval of both demons. The day before they reached Totosai's mountain Sesshomaru decided it was time to pair off with her in a sparring match, he felt it was time to put her skills to use against an opponent.

Being careful he took offense and had her block each of his strikes slowly adding speed, but never reaching his full potential against her. When he was satisfied with her blocks he took defense and let her pick a speed she was comfortable with, as the weapons slowly began to blur he hid a smile. She learned quick and was excelling at the sword, she would be able to adequately defend herself when she acquired her sword on the morrow.

Calling a halt he had Kouga step in and said "Now Kagome, you and Kouga will be sparring in earnest. Defend yourself and try to disarm or land a designated kill spot on your opponent, don't go too hard on her Kouga."

"Never intended to." Replied Kouga cheerfully.

Kagome put all her effort into defeating Kouga, but nothing she did could gain her a kill strike or even to disarm him. She had been sparring him for at least an hour and she was tiring now. Blinking sweat out of her eyes she felt the stick come to rest against her throat, sighing she looked up at Kouga's grinning face and the approval written across it for all to see.

Shippo said "Wow oka-san that was something! You nearly had him for a while!" He wrapped his arms around her neck and smiled at her.

"Yes, you did quite well for your first sparring match. With more time and practice you shall be a challenging opponent."

Kagome's tired features lit up with all the praise she was receiving from the males that traveled with her. She was happy that she was proving to be an adept pupil, with all the training over the past week Inuyasha's attacks felt like they had occurred years ago. Kagome had decided to put it all behind her and focus on those that truly seemed to care about her, Inuyasha had never tried to teach her how to defend herself and now she knew why. He had wanted her helpless so that when he was finally freed of the subjugation beads he would have an easier time taking his revenge.

Sitting down and leaning against a tree she inhaled deeply several times to slow her breathing and calm her rushing heart. Shippo cradled in her arms already worn out and asleep from the long day of traveling, glancing at Sesshomaru she said "Once we get my weapons can we seek out Sango and Miroku?"

Sesshomaru inclined his head and said "Of course, but we shall be stopping and collecting Rin and Jaken now that the worst has passed."

"I can't wait to see Rin" Kagome sighed and continued on "I suppose I should go bathe now." Standing she set Shippo on her sleeping bag and gathered her bathing supplies before strapping the knife to her arm and walking out of camp. Her confidence in herself was beginning to grow once more with all the new knowledge she had been acquiring, her abilities to distinguish different scents and sounds was growing daily. Sesshomaru and Kouga were the best teachers she could've asked for, where Sesshomaru's silent approval made her feel warmth spread inside of herself his vocal approval made her glow with pride. Kouga approved of everything she did and he was always vocal, so it didn't mean quite as much to her as the approval of the stoic demon lord.

Kagome finished bathing without any trouble and returned to camp to find that Kouga had decided it was time to head back to his own lands for a few weeks. Sighing in disappointment over the loss of her talkative friend she sat down next to the fire and put on a pot of water for rice and the pot for tea.

Kagome shook Shippo gently and said "Supper's ready."

Once they had eaten Shippo curled up in Kagome's sleeping bag as Kagome stood with the dishes to head to the spring where she had bathed earlier. Night had fallen so Sesshomaru stood and followed her to ensure she didn't have any problems.

Sesshomaru watched her closely wondering why she was still so silent, her usual personality was quite chatter-some he recalled. Maybe Inuyasha's attacks had bothered her more than she let on? He watched as a root caught her foot and she began to fall, he quickly caught her and sat her back safely on her feet, her very blue eyes met his golden ones.

Kagome blushed in embarrassment and said "Forgive me for my clumsiness, I never seem to do anything right especially compared to Kikyo as Inuyasha always reminded me." A bitter edge crept into her voice as tears began to well in her eyes.

"Why compare yourself to her with his words? You may have been her reincarnation but that doesn't mean you and her were one and the same, for only a short time of training with the practice sword you are doing well with it. It is not your fault that you never received any of the training the former Shikon miko received, you are not of this time."

Kagome stared at Sesshomaru in surprise the tears slipping unnoticed by her down her cheeks "I had never thought of it that way, do you suppose Inuyasha had a reason for never teaching me to defend myself with close distance weaponry?"

"I would imagine that he wanted to keep you inferior so that he could hurt you with his harsh comparisons to the dead miko."

Kagome's tears were still falling silently while she considered what Sesshomaru had revealed about the hanyou, why didn't she see his cruelty for what it really was a lot sooner? She had always known that she was a shard detector for him, but she had thought they were at least friends.

Sesshomaru sighed mentally and closed the distance between him and Kagome before going about the task of soothing her aching heart, damn that wolf for running off at a delicate time like this. But he didn't care for the image of Kouga in this same position comforting the delicate looking female he held against him as she cried quietly.

When she was done she looked up at Sesshomaru and said "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so weak and useless."

"You are not useless, you with a little help from your friends and myself brought down Naraku, without you he would still be wreaking havoc on the lands. And you certainly aren't weak either, you survived Inuyasha's attempts to break you and are moving past them quite well." Looking down into her wide startled eyes he had the sudden irresistible urge to lean down and kiss her, when her eyes fluttered shut trustingly he could no longer resist. Her scent washed over him and he enjoyed having it so thick in his nose, her lips were soft and pliable letting him control and deepen the kiss.

Kagome was mildly pleased by Sesshomaru's kiss, it was oh so tender and sweet, not like the friendly kisses Kouga had given her. She gasped when she felt his tongue begin a dance for dominance with her own as he pulled her tighter against him, and then something else occurred to her. Kagome's hands came up and she violently shoved Sesshomaru away from her, his eyes were startled and just a little confused as she saw the emotions normally hidden war within the golden depths of his eyes.

"I'm sorry, we shouldn't, I shouldn't have let you do that. It's not that…. I enjoyed it…. Truly I did….. But… umph mmph…

Her words were cut off as Sesshomaru pushed her up against a tree and covered her mouth with his own, when she quit struggling he pulled back and said quietly "If you enjoyed it and I enjoyed it, why shouldn't we do this?" as his lips came back down onto hers, effectively cutting off any replies she might have. What am I doing? I shouldn't be standing here with her pressed tightly against me kissing her, I do not want nor need a mate at this time. It is nice standing here being intimate with someone as selfless as this young onna before me, but this can not be allowed to occur again…

Sesshomaru broke off the kiss and walked away to stand next to the spring as he waited for her to gather her thoughts and set about cleaning up the dishes from her supper. His mind kept replaying the kiss and he tried to shut it down, but every time he succeeded all it took was a glance at the female to start it up again. And if that wasn't bad enough, he stifled the irritated growl before it could emerge, he was flashing back to the images of her nude in his arms as he tried to bathe her without seeing her.

Biting down on his inner cheek hard enough to taste blood he fought to lock the images and this kiss away into the back of his mind, never again would he lose control over his behavior again he swore silently. This woman set off every alarm bell he had when it came to staying un-mated and he felt like he was in a losing battle against his natural urges. Emotions he had long ago locked away were beginning to emerge and he hated them, it wasn't Kagome's fault for this pitfall, it was his by his own doings. That fateful day when he had revived a young girl from death, she had opened up his once cold dead heart and now he wasn't able to reverse his demise.

He could stop it though, by ignoring his urges and locking away his desires for the once miko. It's not like he felt anything other than pity for her and a budding lust it would seem, damn who was he trying to kid? He certainly couldn't hide from himself so what was the point? He admired the little onna that was bent over washing her dishes, she was the most intriguing female he had ever met even when she had been human. He let out a quiet breath and thought to himself, admiration will never be enough of a reason to take her. Besides I said the wolf could have her and I will not go back on my word, no matter if I admire her or not.

Kagome didn't know what to think as she sat there washing her dishes on autopilot, Sesshomaru had initiated not one but three kisses and then dropped her like she was carrying the bubonic plague. She was so confused now, and judging from the look in his eyes so was he.

-33-33-

Kouga wasn't a fool he knew Sesshomaru had stopped traveling with Kagome to the springs when she went to bathe because he had told him he intended to court her and take her as his mate. Well he "left" so things would go back to the way they had been when he'd first arrived to the small group. Watching quietly from under a cloaking spell he had acquired recently he was pleased to see that Sesshomaru hadn't wasted any time in kissing her. It appeared that the demon lord was just as surprised by this development as Kagome was and he reacted the only way he knew after the third kiss, he distanced himself from her.

Kouga smiled grimly as he devised a plan to push the two closer together, he needed to seek out a very old and very powerful rival and lure him to Kagome. The only way for Sesshomaru to come to terms with himself was to endanger Kagome, Kouga would of course be nearby to aid if it got out of hand. But only if it appeared that his friend was truly in danger of losing her life, luckily Sesshomaru had Tensaiga so if things spiraled downhill too quickly it wouldn't be the end of Kagome's life.

He needed to ensure Kagome was grateful enough to sacrifice her body and soul to Sesshomaru when Sesshomaru became fully aware of his desire for her. For this kind of thing he needed to enlist a sneaky little kitsune or a whole pack of them, they would be able to keep Sesshomaru and Kagome hopping so much that neither one would realize what happened until it was too late to back down.

Kouga's smile was positively feral with glee at his plans to bring the two together, with the proper execution it would be reality in a short amount of time. Besides he could probably enlist Ayame to his devious scheme as well, she would probably be more than thrilled to get Kagome out of Kouga's reach.