Chapter 10

Fury, Nerves, And A Welcomed Change

Kagome stirred in her sleep snuggling her head into her pillow. 'That's weird,' Kagome thought when she realized how hard and firm her pillow was. Without opening her eyes she felt around. Her hand ran down something smooth, and firm, that dipped in some places. Through her sleep-filled mind awareness finally hit what it was she feeling. Instantly she opened her eyes and lifted her head looking straight into Sesshomaru's eyes.

"What the hell?" Kagome exclaimed as she hopped out of bed after realizing she was sprawled across Sesshomaru's half naked body. Sesshomaru just chuckled at her response and waited for the onslaught to begin.

"Why was I in your bed?" She demanded.

"You fell asleep during the movie," Sesshomaru replied keeping it simple.

"And you couldn't wake me so I could go home."

"You were sleeping peacefully and I didn't want to wake you."

"You could have left me on the couch or put me in a guest room, not your BED. I thought we were going to take it slow?"

"We are."

Kagome gestured to herself and the bed starting to get frustrated by his answers. "You call this taking it slow."

"Yes. I saw no harm in sharing a bed. We have done it before in the past."

"We were younger then. It's not appropriate now since we're adults. What would people think?"

"I don't care what the others think," Sesshomaru said lying in bed with his hand behind his head watching Kagome rant and rave as she looked for her clothes. "If you don't want anybody to know then I suggest you keep your voice down. You're going to wake the others who live in this house." He finished as he reached over to turn off the alarm clock that went off.

"You set the alarm?" Kagome asked getting slightly distracted from interrogating Sesshomaru.

"You have to be up at four don't you."

The distraction then brought Kagome's attention to her lack of cloths. "You undressed me?" She asked in shock.

Sesshomaru braced himself for the anger he knew would flare up at his answer. "Partially. I took your jeans off."

"Why am I not wearing a bra? Did you take that off to?" Kagome asked starting to freak out about the idea.

"No you did. After I removed your pants I propped you up thinking about whether or not I should remove your bra and you woke up and took it off yourself. At the time you were okay with sharing a bed with me."

Kagome had already started to get dressed. "I wasn't fully awake and you had to have known that and you could have just left my clothes on. It makes me wonder about your motives."

"I thought you would be more comfortable without them on, I'm sorry if I made the wrong assumption," He paused then added with a slight smirk. "And as for motives I would question yours."

"Mine?" Kagome replied confused.

"I was the one who woke up with you sprawled across the top of me."

"Oooo, I changed my mind. I'm not giving you a second chance and I want nothing to do with you," Kagome fumed as she stomped to the bedroom door.

"Be ready at 7:00 tonight, I'm taking you out to dinner."

"Didn't you hear me? I'm not going anywhere with you," She replied turning and pointing a finger in his direction before leaving his room.

'This is going to be fun,' Sesshomaru thought as he chuckled to himself. One thing he loved about Kagome was her fiery temper. He reset the alarm then went back to sleep. He didn't have to be up until six.

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"Sorry I'm late," Kagome rushed up to Sango and Ayame at the hay barn.

"Not a problem."

"So how was your night with Sesshomaru, is that why you're late?" Ayame asked with a knowing look.

"How did you know I was with Sesshomaru last night?" Kagome answered noticing the look Sango was giving Ayame.

"Oh… um… I can smell him on you," Ayame backtracked realizing her slip.

Kagome watched their exchange when realization hit that she was set up. "You guys set me up didn't you? And that's why you were acting all wired yesterday and apologizing." She directed the last part to Sango.

"Yes. Don't be mad though. We thought it was the best thing to do. You and Sesshomaru really do belong together," Sango replied, as she hopped on the quad while Kagome and Ayame did the same after loading the flatbed cart with hay.

"I'm not mad. A little irritated, but not mad. I kinda thought there was something up, you all were acting odd. I just couldn't figure out what. And last night really wasn't that bad."

"How was it? It's obvious you were with him last night, and I don't mean just hanging out," Ayame said with a grin on her face.

"Nothing happened."

"Not even making out. His scent is all over you."

"No. But I did fall asleep and… I… did sleep in his bed with him last night," Kagome stuttered then blurted out knowing she was going to regret mentioning what happened, especially to Ayame. "And we just slept."

"You just slept? That's hard to believe. If he took me to his room I would be all over him."

"Well that's not me."

"So what's the deal then between the two of you?" Sango asked expectantly.

"I guess we're sort of together," Kagome answered hesitantly. "We're going to take it slow."

"Why are you acting all hesitant?"

"I'm just nervous about the whole thing. I've gone out on a few dates but nothing serious and it scares me a little."

"You'll be fine. And if you have any questions you can always ask us. Right Sango?"

"Right."

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Kagome's heart started to race when Sesshomaru turned and smiled when she arrived at the track for the workouts. She instantly turned her head not wanting Sesshomaru to see her blush from the memories of earlier that morning, even though nothing happened. Since things had changed between her and Sesshomaru she was a little nervous about riding in front of him. She made a few minor mistakes during the workouts not being able to completely control her nerves. Even Katrina had to get after her to concentrate during their training session. All in all it wasn't too bad of a morning and her friends were going to give her a hard time about this knowing why she couldn't concentrate.

After the workouts were done, Kagome rode Storm over to the starting gates. Bankotsu decided that it was time to start working him in the gates again. He was never behaved about it and if they were planning to race him he was going to have to learn how to load properly and stand quietly in the gate without acting up. Bankotsu had a hard time getting Inutaisho to allow Kagome to ride Fire Storm into the gates but in the end Inutaisho agreed. He figured that Bankotsu was right and that if Fire Storm was going to learn to behave in the gates Kagome was the one to get him to do it.

Bankotsu walked over to Kagome to give her his instruction. "We're going to take it slow and see how he does. If he's behaving himself we'll move to the next step and so on. Let me know if it feels like he's going to act up or do something stupid and we'll end for the day and continue tomorrow. We don't want to push him and we still have plenty of time to get him ready since were probably not going to race him as a two year old."

"Gotcha."

"Go ahead and walk him into the gate. We're going to leave the front and back doors open and then back him out when I say to. If he feels okay we'll move onto the next step. He's been through all this before so I'm not expecting any problems, but with him you never know what to expect. So go ahead and walk him in."

Kagome squeezed her legs asking Storm to move forward and he did so obediently. As they got almost to the gate he started to hesitate. Kagome gave him a few small kicks and used her voice to encouraging him on. He walked into the gate and Kagome stopped him. When Bankotsu gave her the word she backed him out. They did that a few more times until Storm walked willingly into the gate. Next they shut the back door leaving the front open. Storm jumped slightly from the clanking the door made when it was shut. Jakotsu opened the gate and Kagome backed him out. Since he was behaving and not showing any signs of misbehaving they shut the front door leaving the back door open the next time Kagome walked him in.

"How does he feel?" Bankotsu asked after Kagome backed Fire Storm out of the gate.

"He feels great. No hesitating or jumping when the gates close now. He doesn't seem to be nervous standing in the gate either."

"Okay. Take him back in and this time were going to close both doors. If you sense any change at all let me know immediately."

"Okay," Kagome responded as she headed to the gates again.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Sesshomaru asked his father.

"I've already been over this with you this is our best choice."

"We could use someone else. We don't need to endanger Kagome."

"I can't play favorites. End of discussion."

Sesshomaru dropped the subject for the moment not wanting to anger his father.

Kagome walked Storm into the gate Koga closed the front gate as Jakotsu shut the back. Storm stood quietly at first then started to fidget.

"He's getting a little nervous," Kagome mention, and immediately Jakotsu opened the back gate. Kagome backed Storm out. "You want me to try again?" Kagome turned towards Bankotsu.

"How badly was he acting?"

"He just fidgeted a bit. It was almost not even noticeable."

"Hm… I think maybe we should end on that. This has been the best he's acted in the gate I don't want to push him. We can pick up tomorrow where we left off."

Sesshomaru walked into the barn, after the gate work, as Kagome was finishing up grooming Storm while she talked with her friends. He walked right up to her grabbing her chin and gently tilted her head up slightly before placing a gentle kiss on her lips. Kagome's heart started racing again as a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Be ready at seven," He said before turning around and heading out of the barn.

"I told you I wasn't going," Kagome said to his retreating form with a little irritation.

"Seven," he repeated as he left the barn.

Sango was the first to come out of shock from the intimate display from Sesshomaru. "What was that about?"

"He wants to take me out to dinner. And I'm not going. I already told him that this morning when he mentioned it."

"You're not still mad at him are you?" Ayame asked.

"No. I was over being mad by the time I got to the hay barn this morning. He doesn't need to know that though. Plus he probably wants to take me to a fancy restaurant and I don't have anything to wear."

"That's a load of crap. You know you can barrow something of mine. We wear the same size," Kikyo said.

"I'm still not going."

Later in the afternoon the girls were laying out in one of the farms pastures talking and picking out forms in the clouds. Kagome's phone signaled that there was a voice mail on it.

"That's weird I didn't even hear it ring," Kagome said checking the message.

'Just wanted to remind you to be ready at seven,' the first message from Sesshomaru said as she groaned knowing he was enjoying this. The next message played after she deleted the first one. 'Don't say you don't have anything to wear, because I left you something on your bed in your apartment for you, see you at seven.' The last message said.

"Well," Sango asked as Kagome hung up her phone.

"It was Sesshomaru telling me to be ready at seven."

"He sure is persistent," Ayame said as she laughed.

"I guess we should go over to the house to pick something out for you to wear then," Kikyo added.

"Don't bother. He left me two messages, and the second one said he bought me something and left it in my apartment."

"That's funny. He knows you to well," Sango said trying to hold in her laughter.

Ayame was the first to jump to her feet grabbing Kagome's hand and pulling her to her feet. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get you ready for your big date and I can't wait to see what he got for you to wear."

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Ayame and Sango worked on Kagome's hair putting it up in the back leaving a few strands down on the sides in ringlets. Kikyo worked on her makeup leaving it simple, as Kagome protested, with just a bit of eyeliner and a light shade of lipstick. The girls were happy with their work when they were done. And helped get her dressed in the black lacy form fitting cocktail dress that hung just above her knees. Sesshomaru had also bought her a pair of black low-heeled shoes to go with it.

Now Kagome waited nervously watching the clock for Sesshomaru to arrive. She was about ready to just head over to his house and meet him there when there was a knock at the door. She took a deep breath and then answered it.

"Wow. You look beautiful," Sesshomaru complimented her after she opened the door.

"Thanks. So do you," Kagome said nervously then added stumbling over her words. "Um… I mean you look… great."

"Thank you. Shall we," He replied holding out his arm to her. Kagome slipped her arm through his and he led her down the stairs to his car. He opened the passenger side door and helped her in. He shut the door and headed to the driver's side getting in, then headed down the drive.

"Thanks for the dress and shoes," Kagome said after they were seated and were waiting to place their order.

"You're welcome."

"How did you know what size I wear?" Kagome asked as the waiter arrived to take their order, putting Sesshomaru's answer on hold.

"Izayoi helped me after lunch with her my father and Inuyasha," Sesshomaru answered after the waiter had taken their orders.

"Oh."

"Just pretend we're not on a date and we are two friends again going out to dinner together," Sesshomaru suggested breaking the silence that settled between them and trying to ease Kagome's nerves.

"I don't know if I can."

"Just relax and try. Are you sure you're going to put off the Olympic trials next year?" Sesshomaru started the conversation.

"I think it would be best. I think it would be easier to concentrate on Storm's races if I wasn't doing both. I'll still keep schooling River and taking lessons so we stay in shape though."

"It's a shame. I think you would have made it," Sesshomaru said trying to keep the conversation going.

"There is always next time. And I'm sure I'll be busy enough that the time will fly by."

"You have a point. My father and Bankotsu are thinking of waiting for next year when Fire Storm is three to start running him."

"I thought they were aiming him for the Triple Crown races. Isn't that cutting it to close?"

"Not really. It's not ideal but doable. Half the year is gone and he still needs some work. It makes more sense to not rush him and wait for the new year and enter him in one or two Derby prep races."

"I guess it does make sense. So did I wake everybody this morning?"

"Yes."

"That's why Kikyo wasn't surprised when I told her. I feel bad about it."

"Don't. They're all happy we're over are differences."

After dinner Sesshomaru and Kagome drove home in silence. The evening had gone quite well with the conversation continuing all through dinner. Sesshomaru got out and ran around to the passenger side door opening it before Kagome could and helped her out. Then he walked her up to her door placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Thanks for dinner. I really had a great time."

"I'm glad you did," Sesshomaru said, then added before leaving. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Yeah I'll see you too."