Weeks passed by and Sesshoumaru and Kagome became closer with every passing day. There were still rifts with no hope of bridging and many, many boundaries that were not to be crossed. There were also many, many inside jokes between the two of them and it was sometimes hard for Kagome to keep her giggles contained during the class when he let one of those jokes loose.

The close-up trip was now upon them and it was time to leave. It was 4:45 AM and the participants were shivering their goodbyes to parents and huddling together to keep warm. Sesshoumaru was immune to the cold by now and was simply standing by the bus. The only indication that he was even breathing was the steam coming from his mouth at regular intervals. He only busied himself when Kagome arrived, to distract him from monopolizing her company.

Kagome was a morning person when she woke up super-early, before the rest of the world, so she was just cold instead of cold and cranky. They boarded the bus, waving goodbye to doting parents and finally taking off for the airport.

The airport was crowded. It was also loud. Sesshoumaru's eye twitched as he looked at the writhing mass of humanity in front of him. A spurt of laughter made him look down and glare at Kagome.

"Your eye twitched." she told him humorously.

He looked back at the people in front of him with the same terrified stare, "I think I'm in hell." he said.

"It's not that bad." she told him, wheeling her luggage ahead to catch up with her classmates who were getting ahead of her. Sesshoumaru fell back to walk next to his co-chaperone, Mr. Ichiro.

Mr. Ichiro started talking to his fellow teacher, "Miss Higurashi is mature for her age." he said. Sesshoumaru looked at him warily, trying to place the tone of his statement.

The teacher continued, "Talking to her, it is easy to forget that she's only sixteen."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. They continued their walk in a tense silence. Sesshoumaru brooded the entire time. How much did this guy know and how much was he going to keep to himself?

AS it turned out, the airport wasn't as much of a hell as he thought it would be. The program was well organized and things went smoothly. Boarding the plane, croweded as it was, wasn't entirely unpleasant. He watched as everybody excitedly chose seats and arranged themselves sitting next to their friends.

He forced himself not to sit next to her. It was hard, but he did it.

Kagome herself couldn't muster up enough courage to sit next to him. All she wanted was a window seat anyway, so she grabbed the first one she saw. It was right next to the wing of the plane. She sat down and dropped her carry-on backpack at her feet, digging inside it for her travel gear. Her ipod out, her book in hand, and she was ready. She looked at the book again and ended up returning it to her bag. Who was she kidding? Travel was all about the music.

She strapped in her seatbelt and waited. Ten minutes later, the plane was rolling over the blacktop and she could feel the machine pick up speed. She really felt like she was travelling by herself since she didn't know the classmates next to her very well. They had been introduced, but attempts at conversation had failed, so they were very content to keep to themselves.

Mmmm, Kagome thought contentedly, all a person needs to have a nice trip is music and a window. She didn't see why Sesshoumaru thought it was hell. Unless...

Was this his first time flying? There was no way. Then again, he had been sullen and ornery the netire time they were waiting to board the plane. She'd have to ask him about it when they landed in America.

For the time being, she was happy to just sit and listen to music, watching the clouds fly past her window. They way they were all lined up, flowing in the opposite direction, Kagome felt like she was going against the traffic on an air-highway. She went to lean her head on the window to get a better view. And then she sneezed, the force of it sending her head to bang against the window she was headed for.

She hated it when sneezes snuck up on her like that. When she knew it was coming, she could make her sneezes kind of cute. But when she wasn't paying attention, they were obnoxious. And loud. Even through her ipod, she could hear all conversation on the plane come to a sudden stop at the loud boom of a sneeze. She sighed and sunk into her seat as the murmurs started up again.

"Bless you." the girl next to her giggled.

"Thank you." Kagome sniffed and rubbed her nose, before touching her sore head, "Owww.." she groaned.

Thank goodness she hadn't sat next to him. Sesshoumaru would never let her live the sneeze down if he heard it.

The rest of the plane-ride went on, sneeze-free, until a voice came on, warning them of the coming landing and telling all passengers to turn off electronic devices for various unimportant reasons.

Kagome ws always reluctant to turn her music off but she did, and shoved the ipod into her pocket. When they landed, she decided to stand up and stretch out her stiff muscles. Plane rides were always unbelievable uncomfortable, whether you were entertained or not.

Once that was done, she sat back in her seat. Curious as to where the rest of her class was, she peaked over the heardrest of her chair and looked straight into smugly amused golden eyes.

He was sitting right behind her. How dare he smirk like that?

"That was quite a sneeze." he said and raised an eyebrow at her, still smirking.

She scrunched up her nose at him, "It was, wasn't it."

Her row started getting off the plane then, and she stood to make her way to the center aisle. She was acutely aware of the man walking closely behind her. As they left they plane she smiled warmly at at the pilot. A short walk through the suction tube and then they airport opened up before them.

Kagome loved the airport. She loved the hustle and bustle. She loved all the different people going to so many different places. But most of all, she loved the moving sidewalk.

"What on earth are you doing?" Sesshoumaru asked her as she slid her feet backwards on the forward moving sidewalk.

"Moonwalking." she answered seriously. He shook his head in defeat, an amused smile twitching the corners of his mouth.

"You are a strange one." he said, stepping onto solid, unmoving carpet.

"Normal's too boring." she explained.

The class retreived their luggage together and boarded the bus that was waiting to take them to their hotel in Washington D.C. Kagome sat close enough to Sesshoumaru to allow for conversation between them. By his questions, Kagome guessed he had been coming up with them the whole plane ride.

"What does your Bible teach you?" he asked in his familiar, abrupt manner.

"Everything we need to know, but most of it's kind of obvious." she answered with a smile, thinking of a familiar poster entitled 'Everything I need to know, I learned from the Bible'.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Happiness makes you smile." she told him.

"Obvious." he echoed her earlier comment.

"A kind word soothes angry feelings." she said.

"Obvious." he repeated.

"It's better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." she smiled.

Sesshoumaru laughed at this. "I didn't know the Bible could be humorous." he said.

"Oh yeah," Kagome said, "It's got everything. There's anger, war, betrayal, miracles, adultery, murder, power struggles, hate, and Jesus tells the Pharisees off, like, five times." she continued, "The Jesus-Pharisee exchanges are actually my favorite."

"You just love any kind of witty banter, don't you?" he asked.

"That's what makes things intersting", she said mischeviously, "I can't banter to save my life, but it's my favorite thing to read in a story."

A girl sitting in the back of the bus interrupted their conversation with a question, "So, where are we staying at, anyway?" she asked.

"We are going to the Keybridge Marriott Hotel which you will now see to your left, if you look out the window." They all looked and sure enough, there it was. It was a nice hotel, too. They all started talking excitedly amongst themselves, including Kagome and her seat-mate, Sesshoumaru having been cut from the conversation. That doesn't mean he didn't listen, though.

"I hope I brought enough clothes." the girl sitting next to Kagome worried.

"You could always re-wear some things." Kagome offered.

"That's true." the girl said, brightening up a bit.

"And if all else fails," Kagome continued, "you can borrow some of my clothes." she smiled at the girl.

"Thanks, I'll remember that." the girl smiled back.

"I'm going to be in style for this trip," Kagome joked, "Me and mom went shopping." The girl laughed.

Sesshoumaru smiled to himself. Kagome wasn't style-challenged exactly, she just had a style that was entirely her own. She wore what was comfortable and looked nice. He didn't know how she did it, but she made clashing colors work.

"They arrived at the hotel and unloaded the bus. Dragging their luggage to the front entrance, they all looked around at this new place. Sesshoumaru opened the door for the mostly female group, noticing Kagome was the last to come in. She was also the only one to thank him for holding the door.

Then came the messy business of assigning rooms and moving in. After that was done, the students had the rest of the afternoon to explore the hotel. And while they wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting natives, Sesshoumaru would hide under a book in the lobby.

Kagome didn't know what to do with herself. There were so many options. She didn't work well with options. She could go to the lobby and read a book. She could explore on her own. She could daydream to music in her hotel room. Or she could just wander. This is what she decided to do in the long run, and she grabbed her ipod before heading out the door. She put her headphones on in the elevator and looked up at the mirror-ceiling. She put her hands in her pockets as she walked out toward the lobby and came across a hotel gift store/coffee shop. On a far wall in the store, there was everything but the kitchen sink. it was her entire supply of make-up, toilettries, medicine, and then some. Cool.

Bored more than thirsty, she grabbed an interesting looking bottle of juice from the refrigerator next to the everything-wall. She paid for it and then headed to the lobby, where she decided she would sit and watch people and daydream, while listening to her ipod.

She hated being bored.

Sesshoumaru didn't like being bored either, but he dealt with it much better than she did. He had a book, he had a chair, he was good.

About five minutes into Kagome's daydreaming, which somehow turned into a Sesshoumaru special, she looked at the sitting area adjacent to the lobby behind her. And there he sat. her stmach immediately explded into butterflies at seeing him this unexpectedly. He was wearing glasses. What a good-looking dork.

He was intently analyzing whatever he was reading, too. She looked at the familiar cover and title and smiled. Pride and Prejudice. He just couldn't stand not knowing when she talked about the book. Wait a minute.. That was her book he was holding. How did he get it?

She didn't know yet, what kind of freakish abilities vampires had. Did he teleport into her room, unseen, and snatch the book? Did he simply think of it, to have the book appear in his hands *POOF!*.

NO! He got inside her mind and hypnotized her, so she would have no memory of herself bringing the book to him in a drooling, vampire-trance. She huffed in disbelief at his impertinence and disregard for privacy and personal space and belongings. She walked over to where he sat and sat down on the chair opposite him. He looked over his glasses at her and then looked back at what he was reading. Kagome crossed her arms with an attitude.

"Where'd ya get the book?" was her loaded question.

"I was walking behind you while exiting the plane and I took it from your open bag." he said smoothly.

"Oh." she looked down and felt her cheeks getting red from embarrassment at having thought such outlandish things.

"What?" he asked, looking up at her red cheeks.

"Nothing." she quickly answered and put her headphones back in her ears before walking away to explore her hotel room.

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Sorry it took so long!

I actually went on close-up myself, for election week, and it was the most fun ive had in years! I'm trying my best to describe the places we went and the experiences we had. Sorry again for the wait!

REview please!