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Chapter 4: Scents
Before Kagome had a chance to respond to this, Sesshomaru interrupted her thoughts, "your human stench offends This One. You must bathe then I will tend to your wounds." Not giving her a chance to protest he picked her up – kimono and all, although it would have fallen off if she hadn't grabbed it reflexively – and started walking to the hot spring that he could smell a short distance away.
On his way out of camp he grabbed the infamous yellow pack. During one of Rin's many visits the Miko had taken his ward for a bath. Once they had returned, both smelled pleasantly of unfamiliar things. When the curious inuyoukai inquired – he knew of the most expensive soaps but never had smelled such a thing before – she had explained that it was called 'shampoo', 'conditioner' and 'strawberry body wash', items made by her people that lived very far away. He could only hope that her pack still contained these items.
He was lucky that there was a nearby hot spring, it was still early spring and the streams were still much too cold for human bathing. The inuyoukai didn't even want to think about what he would have done if he didn't have the chance to bathe her.
And that's what it would be of course – him bathing her. She wouldn't be able to stand on her own nor be able to see to remove the bandages and wash carefully around the still open wounds. It was either do a servant's job or live with her stench for an immeasurable amount of time. The answer was simple really.
Only a few minutes later they arrived at their destination. She had stopped trying to fight him. When all was said and done, she knew she could never overpower him, injured or not. He was a daiyoukai and she was an untrained human Miko. The most she could do was give him a zap or offend his senses.
She was jostled from her thoughts as she was set down against a rock, the soil damp against her skin. She could hear the sound of the zipper on her bag and the clattering of its contents as Sesshomaru looked through it for her bath products. Recognizing three sickeningly pink bottles, he grabbed them, quickly giving them a sniff to confirm that they were indeed what he had smelled before.
Kagome could hear Sesshomaru moving about this time. She didn't know if perhaps she was simply paying more attention to her other senses or if it was because he was purposely making more noise - but why would he do that – either way it was more comforting to have a clue as to what was going on.
When Sesshomaru returned to her side, he spoke yet again, "You will hand over this one's kimono."
"What? No!" There was no way she was going to give the only thing covering her over so easily.
"Hn," was his only response before grabbing the kimono and deftly plucking it out of her hands.
With an indignant squeak, she attempted to cover her bandaged chest. "How could you do that? Pervert!"
"This one does not need to explain himself to you, but think about it Miko. Who do you think placed these bandages on you in the first place? Your body isn't anything I haven't already seen, nor is it anything that I wish to see."