AN: I know this one is a little shorter, but it made sense to break off the story here, rather than later, so I'm sorry for that. But it's still two whole chapters at once! That... kinda makes up for how long it takes me to post such middling chappies... no, it doesn't. :( I'm sorry.
"This'll be an interesting exercise," Susan whispered in Kagome's ear as they and Sesshoumaru walked through the lobby of their work, Jaken scurrying behind to catch up. "Try and see if you can tell who's a demon and who's a human."
"What?" Kagome glanced at Susan in shock. "There are more demons who work here?"
"Of course. Demons gotta eat, too, ya know."
Kagome stared hard at the people who passed by. When they got into the elevator, she kept her eyes peeled until the doors shut off the group from everyone else.
"Are you in need of glasses?"
Kagome smiled sweetly up at her employer. "Why no, Mr. Takamatsu, I'm trying to point out demons. Have you any idea what one looks like?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered down to her and his voice carried a heavy warning on it when he spoke. "When they aren't using glamours, it is very easy to "point out" demons."
The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened to a busy floor. Kagome's stomach turned when she noticed the lit-up number 12.
"The trick is doing it when they're disguised," Susan agreed, allowing Sesshoumaru to walk off the elevator first. "Try sensing it out with your powers rather than looking. Your abilities are like a muscle – you have to keep flexing and using them to strengthen them."
"Sorta like that mouth of yours, eh Windy?"
"Har har, Kouga," Susan continued walking behind Sesshoumaru as the ruggedly handsome man trotted up beside the two women. "That's the best you can do? In the words of Steven Pearl: I can't believe that out of ten thousand sperm, you were the fastest."
Kagome choked back a guffaw, but Kouga seemed unfazed.
"Just try not to touch any of the computers – we wouldn't want to spend precious time trying to thaw them out from your frigidness."
"I can think of something I'd like to-"
"Hey, Kagome," Kouga interrupted Susan with a dazzling grin at Kagome. It was almost wolfish, a trait Kagome was finding to be something rather consistent with the charming buck. "Everything going good?"
"Wonderful, Mr. Okada."
"I told you, Kagome; call me Kouga."
"Mr. Okada…"
"Kagome…"
Kouga's grin pulled up further in one corner and Kagome could swear his canine tooth was rather more… canine than before.
"By the way, you smell great today, Kagome."
"Okada." Sesshoumaru turned so suddenly that Kagome nearly bumped into him. He placed his hand on her shoulder and drew her to his side as Susan and Kouga skidded to a stop.
"Takamatsu." Kouga frowned at his boss.
"Do not harass my secretary, Okada, or I will take it out of your hide." Sesshoumaru issued the warning in an almost bored tone of voice, but his eyes were sharp as he stared down at Kouga.
Kagome was positive that if Kouga had hackles, he'd be bristling them like a dog as he practically growled back a reply.
But Kagome didn't hear him as her mind detached itself from the conversation. Hackles, growling, canine teeth and wolfish grins. Those were all strangely consistent descriptions for Mr. Okada in Kagome's inner monologue that would normally just be a coincidence. However, with recent enlightenments…
Kagome looked harder at Kouga Okada as he argued (somewhat politely… okay, at best: restrained) with his/their boss.
Look beyond, look beyond…
In a different time, in a different place, Kagome would tap her sparkly, red heels together and start chanting. But this was not that time or place.
Something flickered around Kouga's head. Kagome looked again and the flicker lasted longer, changing Kouga's rounded, human ear to a pointy elfin shape. She gasped and it changed back.
Sesshoumaru and Kouga halted their argument to look at Kagome who immediately turned bright red. Susan was smirking in a triumphant sort of way behind Kouga's shoulder.
"You're…" Kagome dropped her voice to a whisper and stepped closer to Kouga who lowered his head confusedly to hear her better. "You're an elf!"
There was a moment of silence before raucous laughter broke out.
"Oh god!" Susan cried, wiping a tear from the corner of one eye. "An elf!"
Kouga scowled as Susan howled and even Sesshoumaru had to fight a smile that tugged at his lips.
"A wolf-elf?" Kagome clarified uncertainly.
Susan had to bend over, holding her stomach with both arms, she was laughing so hard.
"I'm not an elf!" Kouga bit out. "Shut up, Susan!"
"But…" Kagome continued on tentatively, wondering what could possibly be so funny about being an elf. "But your ears… they're pointy."
Suddenly, Kouga Okada was not the charming young director of computer technology he had always appeared towards Kagome. Suddenly, he was a menacing figure – an unknown species with unknown abilities towering over a much smaller young woman. His blue eyes seemed to have darkened to an almost black and his face was pulled into a teeth-bearing growl.
"And how would you know about that?"
"Enough, Okada." Sesshoumaru stepped in once more, his face retaining its stoic composure in the face of Kouga's hostility.
"She knows, Takamatsu," Kouga growled. "Are you going to kill her?"
"Oh, just shove it, Kouga," Susan rolled her eyes, clearly finished amusing herself and now somewhat annoyed. "She's a witch."
Kouga's face lost its ferociousness and settled into unhappy unsettlement. "Aw, fuck. Another Kagura?"
"Another what?" Kagome asked.
"Kagura." Kouga repeated. "Windy, over there." He jerked a thumb at Susan.
"It's my nickname, I guess," Susan shrugged. "It's a type of Japanese dance."
"You're not Japanese," Kagome pointed out.
"Wow," Susan said sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. What a revelation. Of course, I know that – Flea-Bite over here named me that."
Kouga shrugged sheepishly. "Aw, it was nuthin'."
Susan rolled her eyes.
At the end of the day, Kagome had successfully pointed out four more non-humans, excluding Jaken. (Who didn't count anyway because she'd always sort of suspected he was inhumanly cruel and rude. Smelly, little munchkin. Now she had no problem saying that! He almost technically was one!)
She was sitting at her desk, typing out a few emails Sesshoumaru had outlined for her when her cell-phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Kagome?"
"Sango?"
"Oh my god, Kagome! What happened? Who was that guy on your phone? Miroku said he seemed really mad and then he just hung up on us!"
Kagome glanced at the closed door Sesshoumaru sat behind. Quickly, she spun away from his office and hunched over the phone.
"I have some big news, Sango," Kagome whispered. "I get off work in an hour; can I come over?"
"Of course! We'll pick you up, but what's the matter? Why are you whispering?"
"Nothing, it's nothing, Sango. I just don't want my boss to hear-"
"You don't want this Sesshoumaru to hear what, exactly?"
Kagome shot up from her hunchback position in her chair like the cap off a soda bottle that'd been shook too many times. Her cell phone made a magnificent arc in the air, flipping over and over until it crashed into tiny, little-
No, Sesshoumaru caught it. Neatly, with one hand, the big, bad demon caught Kagome's cell phone and put it to his ear.
Even Kagome, with her less than extraordinary hearing, could make out the sound of Sango's cries through the portable telephone.
"You," Sesshoumaru said into the phone. "were on the phone earlier with my assistant. Do you realize she is working right now?"
Kagome could hear Sango trying to apologize but even though Kagome knew Sango was sputtering, she couldn't make out the words.
"Higurashi is very busy right now," Sesshoumaru smoothly interrupted Sango who fell dead silent as soon as he spoke. "You will regiment your time with her to the hours she is not spending servicing me."
Sesshoumaru clicked the End button with his thumb and placed the cell phone on Kagome's desk.
Kagome stared up at him.
Sesshoumaru felt oddly pleased with her silence in a way he had never felt about a silence before. It wasn't just the fact that he no longer had to listen to her voice, it was that she looked so awed, so dumbstruck, so impressed-
"I can't believe you just said that," Kagome interrupted Sesshoumaru's train of thought. "That was the most awkward phrasing I have ever heard. In my life."
A moment passes before Sesshoumaru realized what she was referring to, but he tried not to let it show in his face, despite feeling heat crawl up the ridges of his ears.
"You are my assistant," he spoke. "My servant, you serve me. It is not difficult to determine that, even if your American colloquialism makes you hear something different initially."
"It's still awkward," Kagome mumbled as she grabbed her cell phone off the desk.
Sesshoumaru felt a need to sigh, but refrained.
"Leave, Higurashi," Sesshoumaru instructed. "Kagura will teach you some things you need to know. Particularly restraint."
Kagome stood behind her desk and felt the wild need to bow. Maybe it was the dignity and natural authority Sesshoumaru showed, but she felt like if this were five hundred years ago, and they were in Japan, he'd be some great warlord or something. The guy was practically made to be bowed to.
It was an aspect of his character that she could majorly respect.
But when she left, it was with a wave, and not a bow.
AN: Ha ha, that Kagome...