A/N: Sorry for the long wait, been working some stuff out. I felt like putting a little humor in here and hopefully you catch it, if not.. oh well. Enjoy and leave some lovins! XO


Chapter Seven

Meals with the lord

The sound of the door slamming open woke Kagome out of her restless sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and groaned when she sat up. She felt she had knots in her neck and it was all do to the restless sleep she had last night sleeping on the wooden floors. She quickly reminded herself that her brother had been through worse and what she had been going through would have been a breeze for Souta.
When she looked down at herself she realized that she was nude and Miroku's voice broke the silence as he, what looked like to Kagome, pranced into the room.

"Rise and shine, beautiful!" Miroku called as he clapped his hands together and made his way to the chained and very nude girl.

Kagome made a squeak and tried to cover at least her breasts in an attempt of modesty. The chains rattled with all her movements and just made it seem more obvious to her lack of dress state.

Miroku laughed as he approached her and threw a towel on her form, it quickly was covering her exposed areas.

"Did Sesshomaru send you?" Kagome asked a little outraged that he sent Miroku. How many times is this servant going to see her nude?

Miroku waved his hand and laughed as he approached her, "Of course, of course! But I wouldn't say his name without some kind of proper title in front of it." He tisked as he knelt down. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a key and started to fumble with her chains.

"You're in a lively mood." Kagome narrowed her eyes as she watched his face as he worked away releasing her from the chains. She gripped the towel closer to her chest wishing Sesshomaru didn't have a knack for ripping her clothes.

Miroku let out a little laugh and looked into her eyes, stopping what he was doing, "What makes you say that?"

Kagome frowned a little, making her lower lip jut out just a little, "Haven't seen you all cheery. But what do I know? I have only been here for…" she trailed off as she tried to think how long she had been there. It felt like forever.

"Only a night dear." Miroku smiled at her but it seemed to look like a sad smile to her.

"That's right." Kagome mumbled and let out a huff.

Miroku looked back down at her wrists and unlocked her chains and set them down on the ground. He stood up and grabbed her hand to help her stand up. "As of today, you will be helping the servants." Miroku said cheerfully.

Kagome tilted her head to the side and raised her eyebrows, "Do what?"

Miroku turned and tugged Kagome along with him out of the bedroom; he kept his hand on her lower back as he led her through the maze like hallway. "Master Sesshomaru has decided that the best route to keep you out of trouble is to have you work around the castle with myself and other servants. He said you have a knack for wondering around and that we might as well show you what is and isn't allowed and where you can cannot be." He said with a laugh in his voice.

"That's odd." Kagome said thoughtfully.

"What is dear?" his hand started to move slowly down to her rear and rub gently.

Kagome turned beet red and whipped around to look at him, her mouth opened ready to start yelling at him.

He laughed and waved his hand in front of him, "Sorry, sorry! You are just so cute. My hand has a mind of its own. Continue." He chuckled and started to walk again.

Kagome snapped her mouth shut and pulled the towel around her more and started to follow him again. She let out a sigh and looked at him from the corner of her eye, "What is odd is that I'm here in place of my brother. He wasn't treated this way. He was held in a cell." She pointed out.

Miroku let out a groan and looked at her, "You should really stop bringing that up."

Kagome fisted her hands and glared at Miroku. "What do you mean by that?"

"Your brother is no longer here. You are. If I were you, I would go with the motions and be thankful that you aren't being tortured and held in a cell like your brother was." Miroku's voice went sullen and his eyes started to haze, like as if he was hurting thinking about her brother.

Kagome bit her tongue and kept following Miroku as he led her back to her side of the wing and to her room. On her bed was a brown dress that she would have worn back at home, but she was sure it was now her uniform.

"I will be waiting in the kitchen; do you remember how to get there?"

Kagome nodded once and the doors closed to her room. She let out a breath and didn't realize she was holding onto it until she released it. She felt like today was going to be a long day and knew she was going to be right about it.

xXx

"Okay Kagome, this is Sango. She is the second in charge." Miroku pulled Sango close to him, but she noticed the annoyed look on Sango's face. Probably because his hand was on her butt like what he tried to do with Kagome.

She was quite beautiful. She had fare skin, raven hair that was pulled up into a bun and a soft pink pastel work dress on with an apron around her waist. Kagome smiled at her. "I'm Kagome."

Sango peeled herself away from Miroku and stepped towards Kagome with a smile, "I heard. I'm Sango and it's a great pleasure to finally meet you." She gave Kagome a tiny bow.

Kagome blushed and let out a nervous laugh and looked away while pushing back some hair.

"So now that the two of you have met, it's time to get ready for breakfast." Miroku clapped his hands together. "Kagome, you will help Sango set up the dining room for the meal."

Kagome looked back at Miroku and raised her eyebrows, she knew something was up but just couldn't put her finger on it. He was acting weird and she had no idea why and what it was. She followed Sango out of the kitchen. They walked down the long hallway and veered left through double doors. In the room there was a large table with scarlet red table cloth covering the dark wood. There was a fireplace and two large leather seats that sat in front of it. On one wall there was a wooden cupboard that probably held all the plates, bowls and silver wear. The room was all wood and the ceiling was high and in the middle was a large window to show the dark sky and a few stars.

"Beautiful huh?" Sango's voice broke Kagome out of her trance.

She blinked and looked to her side and saw that Sango was staring at her but with a smile. Kagome nodded and watched as Sango walked ahead of her and went straight to the cupboard and grabbed two plates and set them down. Kagome raised her eyebrows and watched as she prepared the table for two people.

"Who is he planning on eating with?"

Sango looked up and raised her eyebrows, "Miroku didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Sango stepped away from the table and slowly walked over to her, "You have to eat each meal with Lord Sesshomaru."

"I was requested last night to eat dinner with Sess- Lord Sesshomaru, but I refused. I honestly don't want to eat with-"

"Aww, why not?" A little voice asked that broke Kagome off.

She quickly turned and saw a little boy with red hair and a cute face run toward her, "I'm Shippo!" he squealed excited and hugged her legs.

Kagome laughed and bent down so she was face to face with the little boy, "I'm Kagome."

Shippo laughed and placed his hands on her bent knees, "I know that, silly. Everyone here knows who you are."

Kagome raised her eyebrows and half smiled, "Is that so?"

He nodded vigorously, "MHM! We all think you're going to break the curse!" He cheered and beamed up at her.

"The curse? So then it's true?" Kagome asked a little excited that her assumptions might be true.

Sango quickly pulled the little boy away from Kagome and gave a nervous laugh as she covered his tiny mouth, "He's but a child. He knows nothing much at all. Come, we still need to get everything ready." Sango quickly pulled Shippo out of the room leaving Kagome kneeling there confused.

She stood up and turned so she was once again facing the room and staring at the table.

"I trust you slept well?" There was no mistaking for that deep sinister voice.

Kagome went stiff and she felt chills spread through her body. She slowly turned and saw Sesshomaru filling the large doorway, his presence reaching out to her and overcrowding her.

She nodded once and stared at him, his deep golden eyes set on her and his lips set in a line looking neither happy nor sad. His eyes flickered and looked her over once then back up to her face. A blush rose up to her cheeks and she had no idea why.

He took a few steps toward her and he was in her personal space, his face mere inches away from hers. She tilted her head back to look up into his eyes and his claws were tangling themselves in her raven hair.

Kagome's heart raced in her chest and tried to make sense out of why he was acting this way. She pushed her hands out onto his chest and tried to push away from him, but he grasped onto her hair tighter and jerked her against him. His body heat radiated through his armor and clothes and straight through her.

His eyes narrowed more and as he leaned in more and placed his nose into her hair and took in a deep breath. Kagome felt like at any moment if she went stiffer, she was sure to break into a million pieces. She had no idea what the Lord was doing and why. He pulled away from her and walked past her to the fireplace.

"Leave." He softly commanded.

Kagome moved her feet and quickly left the room and into the kitchen, wanting to know what just happened.

Did the creep just sniff my hair?

Kagome went into the kitchen and the smell of breakfast hit her and made her mouth water.

"What's wrong?" Miroku asked as he turned and looked at her.

Kagome shook her head, "Nothing."

Miroku raised his eyebrows and turned and went back to working on getting part of the food ready. The main cook was over at the stove, she was an old woman and probably at one point was as tall as Kagome, but because of her hunched state, she was much shorter.

"Kagome, it is requested by the Lord that you change out of your servant garments and into something nicer. Follow me." Sango said as she came into the kitchen, with Shippo following behind her.

Kagome looked at her and raised her eyebrows, "Shouldn't I be helping preparing breakfast though?" She asked, hoping to get out eating breakfast with Sesshomaru.

Sango shook her head and smiled, "It was requested by the Lord that you do this."

Kagome's shoulders slumped and she sighed, "Okay." She mumbled and followed Sango and Shippo.

Kagome was uncomfortably seated across from Sesshomaru to where he can watch her as she ate. She was dressed up and of course the dress itself didn't do much with help with covering up her chest. She stared down at her plate that hadn't been touched and felt bad that she was refusing to eat. It honestly looked good, but she didn't want to eat in front of Sesshomaru.

"Eat." He commanded softly.

She looked up and saw that his plate hadn't been touched either. "You first."

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow but quickly it was back in its normal state. "I don't like repeating myself."

Kagome looked away from him and lifted up her chin and closed her eyes. "Neither do I."

She felt a little bold and a little good to be defiant against him, but she knew it wouldn't last long. He had no problem with punishing her.

She waited for him to say something, but nothing came. She waited for him to rip her out of her seat, but that didn't happen. She opened her eyes and looked back at where he was sitting and he was watching her.

She narrowed her eyes back at him and stared at him without blinking, trying to show she wasn't afraid of him.

"Such confidence." He murmured. "Shall I take you back up to the cell?" a faint smirk appeared then disappeared.

Kagome kept her eyes narrowed, not being all too serious about it, strangely she was teasing him but she found much amusement from it all.

Sesshomaru stood up slowly; flicked back his hair with his eyes closed then slowly slid his eyes open and had them narrowed at the girl, who still glared at him teasingly.

"Such immaturity."

Kagome's eyes slowly widened then she smiled faintly and watched as Sesshomaru calmly walked around the table and stopped by her chair and stared down at her with an icy glare then walked out of the room.

She looked behind her to see if he was really gone then looked down at her uneaten plate and started to eat in peace. A small piece of her felt guilty for practically chasing Sesshomaru out of the room. She knew she would have to find him after dinner and apologize and try to at least make peace with him.