Review Responses:
Kavfh: Thanks for reviewing!
Scorpio Angel 3000: Lol, we'll see.
PyslightlySycoh: He is. Well, maybe not him, but the ears.
IcyAsh: That's great, I'm glad.
Kimitoshi: :D :D :D
inu.-sess.fan: Awww... that's super-tough luck. And I'm not a guy, but I know that for them, being hit anywhere between the legs hurts.
Mistress Koishii: Lol. I didn't know how the readers would react to the paintings but I guess most people like them :D
fluffychick15: Thanks for the review!
Elmo's song: Lol, I'll keep that in mind...
daniy: Yeah, me too. Sigh... :)
dancing-by-moonlight: Lol. I think you'll like the end pairings, but you'll have to suffer a bit more first.
lyn: Thanks, your reviews are always appreciated.
stoictimer: Sess/Kagura? Ok, they went to school together, they're distant cousins and Kagura helps out with Rin. Kinda weird... but yeah. Thanks for reviewing! :D
Dragen Eyez: Lol. I love it when you love it.
Demented-DragonQueen: Thanks. One more chapter, coming right up...
The-Wind-Dragon-Caller: I dedicate the chapter to all my friends, because recently we all came down with the flu. XD
TeNshI nO Hi: Lol, thanks.
Kirei Baka Kasumi: Thanks! :D :D :D
ricebaby: Wow, thanks. But I mustn't lie... I don't proof read. Something about proof reading just doesn't work with me.
yuya2: J'ai pris des cours. And thanks for reviewing.
FrAn-KuN: Thanks for the review!
NefCanuck: Yeah lol, it's ALWAYS the ears.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No annoying A/Ns today.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chapter 14: The Last to Fall
"Talking portraits," muttered Kagome.
"Really?" asked Inuyasha.
"Trust me. Your ancestors were doddering idiots."
"I agree with you on that point," he said, allowing his head to fall back on his pillow.
"Anything else I need to know before wandering these halls unattended?" Kagome asked, feeding him a spoonful of soup.
"Uhhh... stay out of Sesshoumaru's study. He doesn't let anyone in."
"Yes, sir! Need anything else?"
"A hug?"
Kagome considered the offer. "Nah, I'll get the germs," she decided.
"Meanie," Inuyasha sulked.
"Fine," Kagome said with an exaggerated sigh. She hugged the hanyou warmly.
"See you later!" She tweaked his ears affectionately and slipped out of the room.
Didn't Kaede mention the studies were on the second floor...?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Inuyasha's study was a mess – papers everywhere, soccer balls, a beat-up sword and a ripped couch in front of a smashed TV.
Inutaisho's study had been locked.
Sesshoumaru's study was decorated to artless perfection, with everything neat and spotless and wonderfully impersonal. For the life of her Kagome couldn't figure out why he didn't want anyone in there. She'd hoped to find some completely embarrassing baby photos or something...
But, nothing.
Sighing, she heaved herself onto the chair behind his desk and typed imaginary words onto the computer in front of her.
His laptop, which had appeared dead, flickered on.
A tiny message box at the bottom right hand corner of her screen flickered on. You have twenty-three new email messages.
Another popped up almost immediately. You have forty-seven contacts online.
A third box appeared. WindDemoness56 says: Hi Sesshie-kun!
Sesshie-kun? thought Kagome, suppressing giggles. She had no idea her boss used MSN, much less that he had the nickname Sesshie-kun.
WindDemoness56's display picture was an easily recognizable one. Kagura.
She typed back.
IceLord (Busy): Hi Kagura. Sesshoumaru's not here, this is Kagome.
WindDemoness56: You're still at the mansion? I left hours ago. Does Sesshoumaru know you're using his precious laptop?
IceLord (Busy): What precious laptop? He has fifty.
WindDemoness56: True, true. How's Rin?
IceLord (Busy): Don't know; I've been with Inuyasha and a few old portraits only.
WindDemoness56: The old Inuyoukai? Lol, I thought I was the only one. Say, go read Sesshoumaru's diary and tell me what it says.
IceLord (Busy): He keeps one? Where? (I'm changing this MSN nickname!)
Kagome quickly deleted IceLord (Busy) and changed it. Sesshoumaru had the strangest, and funniest way of arranging his contacts. While people had 'friends' and 'family' as groups, he had 'stuck up snobs', 'unreasonable customers', 'grumpy old assholes' and 'annoying hanyous'. Surprise, surprise – the people under 'annoying hanyous' were InuYashaSama and NarakuHentai.
WindDemoness56: I'm guessing you're in his study, that's the only place where he has MSN. Ok, there's three drawers on his computer table. The middle one has a lock on it, but it's a false drawer. Open the bottom drawer, and there will be a combination lock. Press 2887740 and the middle drawer will open. It's in there.
IceLord's Secretary: Ok, I'm searching...
WindDemoness56: Ever wondered why he's so protective of his study? He doesn't even know I've been in here. I spied on him once, that's how I know.
IceLord's Secretary: You know he has you under the category 'stuck up snobs'?
WindDemoness56: I knew it! Who cares, I've got him under 'hopeless arrogant jerks' anyways.
IceLord's Secretary: Hey, there are like seventeen diaries in here. Each one for every year since he started school... how adorable.
WindDemoness56: Heck, I didn't know that. Read the first one!
IceLord's Secretary: Holy fuck! Sesshoumaru was a cute baby!
WindDemoness56: Lucky you. Wish I was there reading with you.
There was a prolonged wait on Kagura's end. Probably Kagome was too busy reading to answer.
WindDemoness56: Kagome...? You there?
WindDemoness56: Kagome!
IceLord (Furious): Kaze-san, remind me to kill you next time I see you.
"Shit," cursed Kagura. Only one person called her Kaze-san...
They were in for it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He was perfectly happy standing there watching Kagome squirm under his glare.
"Uhh... Hello?" Kagome said uneasily.
"Hand it over," Sesshoumaru said. She surrendered the book quietly, and he tucked it back in the drawer. He then peered over her shoulder, before leaning forward and typing furiously.
IceLord (Furious): Kagura, in case you get any bad ideas, I was not a cute baby.
WindDemoness56: I bet you were, too.
IceLord (Furious): Don't push it, Kagura.
WindDemoness56: Ok, sorry, alright? I'm sure you were the ugliest baby ever. Happy?
IceLord (Furious): No. And for the record, I don't have fifty laptops.
WindDemoness56: Whatever. How's Rin?
IceLord (Furious): Sleeping. The last I checked, dad, Kaede and Jaken are sick too.
WindDemoness56: That son-of-a-bitch toad? YES!!!! Hey, ask Kagome what's her email address.
IceLord (Furious): Kagome: screw-me-senseless, at hotmail dot com...
"What?" asked Kagome. "Stop gaping at me. It's a good email address."
"I was not staring," Sesshoumaru snapped.
"You were too."
WindDemoness56: Whoa, Kagome. Nice one.
IceLord (Furious): I'm going off now.
"Ok, what possessed you to come in here?" Sesshoumaru asked, shutting his laptop lid.
"I was looking for Inuyasha's study and came to the wrong place," Kagome lied.
"Liar," he said.
"Fine! I was searching for extremely embarrassing child photos of you so I could take them and blackmail you, ok?"
"Liar again," he said.
"Do you play a musical instrument?"
"Yes. And stop avoiding the question."
"Because I have an amazingly big crush on you and I want to search for your personal items as souvenirs."
He shook his head slightly. "You're a terrible, terrible liar."
"Ok! I don't know why, happy?"
"That sounds about right," he said.
"Sorry, ok?"
"That sounds better."
Something told her that she wasn't going to get fired.
"You know, you were a cute baby."
"Shut up."
"It's true!" Kagome sang, waving a stack of photos in front of him. "I must say though, your hair looked good shoulder-length. But you could've layered it a bit..."
"Four-year-old boys don't layer their hair!"
"Oh my god... Sesshoumaru, you used to smile!"
"I did not! Just give those back!" He snatched for them.
"Later," Kagome said, stepping out of his reach.
"Come back here!" he said, grabbing her arm.
"No!" Kagome said, stepping backwards...
And catching her foot on the corner leg of the table...
And falling backwards...
And bringing Sesshoumaru down with her.
The infamous man-atop-girl position.
"Get off!" ordered Kagome.
"Give me those pictures first," he said, "or we'll wait until Jaken comes and starts a slut lecture."
"Jerk!" yelled Kagome. "You're just... mean."
He grabbed the pictures. "Thank you very much." He got off her and pulled her to her feet.
Kaede shut the door quietly. She was an old woman with the flu – she wasn't thinking rationally.
Her eyes were going blind. She needed glasses. And a pill for hallucinations.
She could've sworn...
"Stop it, Kaede," she told herself sternly. "Sesshoumaru would never, never... Not with a human..."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That's right. Tomorrow, Sesshoumaru would have Kagome transferred back to Inuyasha, or to Miroku, or someone.
He wasn't upset that she'd used his MSN account to chat nonsense with Kagura. He wasn't upset that she'd read his diary. He wasn't even upset about the baby picture thing.
That was the problem – he wasn't upset.
Had Kagome been Jaken, she would have been long dead and buried. But Kagome, being Kagome, had gotten away unscathed.
It wasn't good. It wasn't right.
But before he knew it, he had added Kagome to his MSN contact list.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kagome looked around Inuyasha's room and spotted his computer.
She would use it. Inuyasha wouldn't mind, unlike somebody.
Switching it on, she noticed the internet was on. There must've been router connection throughout the house...
A few clicks signed her on to MSN.
IceLord (Furious) has added you to his contact list. Allow, or block?
"Allow," muttered Kagome, clicking on it. She had a mere hundred and twenty something contacts, one more would be good. Sesshoumaru had almost three times as many.
IceLord (Furious): Using Inuyasha's computer now?
ShrineMaiden: Yes. And he's nice about it.
IceLord (Furious): You're a miko?
ShrineMaiden: No. I live in a shrine. Did you get Jakotsu's note about a change in meeting times?
IceLord (Furious): No.
ShrineMaiden: The meeting's postponed till next week; the client is down with the flu.
IceLord (Furious): I see.
The IceLord didn't reply after that. Kagome couldn't have cared – she was still seething over the picture incident. Did he have to be so protective of them?
She read a few emails, typed her fan fiction, read her reviews, and played around with Inuyasha's ears before going back to MSN.
ShrineMaiden: Still online sulking?
IceLord: Of course not. Do I look like I sulk?
ShrineMaiden: Yes. Hey, why do you go on MSN? I would've thought it was below you.
IceLord: It is.
ShrineMaiden: -.- Why are you on, then?
No answer. A thought struck Kagome. She added Kagura to her list.
WindDemoness56 (Flu): Hey Kagome.
ShrineMaiden: Hi. Do you know if Sesshoumaru plays computer games?
WindDemoness56 (Flu): Hell yeah. Gunbound, Warcraft 3... He's got all of them. Except 'The Sims'.
ShrineMaiden: Thanks, I owe you.
"Thank you, Souta," whispered Kagome. She hadn't believed her brother when he's said she'd thank him one day. All she'd done was curse because he had made her learn his computer games...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sesshoumaru glared at his Warcraft III screen. He'd always gotten easy victories, but now there was this one person...
His Night Elves started bashing the opponent's Undead camp. Taking out a pair of earphones, he plugged them in so the yelling wouldn't wake Rin.
Finally he was winning. He directed his troops to decimate the last of the Undead survivors. A glance at Rin from over his computer top showed that she was still sleeping.
Got you, Sesshoumaru said silently as he destroyed another building.
An agonized cry from Rin made him look up instantly.
She was too warm... too flushed.
Scooping her up, he rushed to the bathroom...
Forgetting about his game.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kagome uncovered her eyes.
His troops had just... stopped. Just seconds ago, they had been on a rampaging strike, tearing down her buildings and killing her troops.
Oh well, thought Kagome. A few clicks with her mouse and her last two soldiers began killing off his men. A few more clicks and she began demolishing his base camp.
Sesshoumaru may have been the victor of the squash game way back in New York, but she had won the round of Warcraft.
Closing her game window, she went back to MSN. Souta was on.
ShrineMaiden: Hey Souta, who gave you permission to be on so late?
PlayboyJunior: Kagome? Where are you? Mom's already sleeping.
ShrineMaiden: Inuyasha from work is sick and I'm at his place. I won't be coming home tonight.
PlayboyJunior: O.o Inuyasha Taisho? That rich guy? Tsk, Kagome.
ShrineMaiden: It's not what you think! And go to bed soon.
She went back to her conversation with Sesshoumaru.
ShrineMaiden: Are you there?
ShrineMaiden: Sesshoumaru...?
ShrineMaiden: Hey, I just played you on Warcraft. Losing one game isn't the end of the world.
ShrineMaiden: Sesshoumaru???
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kagome quietly crept out of Inuyasha's room and made her way across the hall to Sesshoumaru's.
She opened the door silently, careful not to wake Rin.
"The heck..." she muttered. Rin wasn't sleeping – she wasn't even in bed.
There were sliding shoji screens one wall, where light shone through into the dim room. Kagome followed and slid open the doors.
Sesshoumaru looked up and nodded at her sharply.
"What happened to Rin?" asked Kagome, cupping the girl's flushed cheeks.
"Here," he said, handing her a frozen cold cloth and a thermometer. "Help out a little."
"Sure." Kagome popped the thermometer in Rin's mouth and pressed the cloth to her forehead. "By the way, nice bathroom." Hell, the place doubled her bedroom size.
"Right," he said, using a Swiss Army knife to chop a pill into two, which he gave to Kagome.
"Umm... Thirty-nine point nine and rising," Kagome said, staring at the thermometer, before taking it out and easing the pill between Rin's lips gently.
He snatched the thermometer from her, looked at it, and looked back at Kagome.
Her eyes met his in agreement.
Two minutes later they were speeding down the hill, Sesshoumaru driving, Rin in Kagome's lap.
"Which hospital are we going to again?" Kagome asked.
"I forgot the name," Sesshoumaru said shortly, concentrating on speeding instead.
"I see..." Kagome said, pulling Rin closer.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"The flu has been making its rounds this season," chatted the doctor as he took Rin's temperature.
"Yeah," Kagome said politely.
"Ouch. That's a high temperature indeed. Well, you know children; she probably got it from school somewhere. I think for now there's little we can do, asides from monitoring the fever. If by dawn the fever hasn't subsided then we'll try an intravenous drip, but seeing as she's only eight I hate IV drips," carried on the doctor.
"For the love of god, just shut up," snapped Sesshoumaru.
The doctor didn't look upset. "I'm sure you're anxious about your daughter, sir. But we'll just keep her overnight in Pediatrics, where she will be in good hands, don't you worry..."
"Crazy," muttered Sesshoumaru, grabbing Kagome and heading outside to wait.
"Not crazy," Kagome said, "just talkative".
"Yeah, and he'll be so busy talking he won't notice if a child dies."
"Oh, you're nervous!" Kagome realized with a smile. "Sesshie-kun's nervous."
He glared and sat down hard on a cushioned bench.
"She'll be fine," Kagome said gently.
Sighing, Kagome sat down next to him. They were probably going to be there the whole night. Not that it would be long – it was already in the early morning hours.
A nurse, blushing furiously, approached them. "I need the parents to sign, please," she stammered, her face pink, her eyes deliberately avoiding Sesshoumaru's.
"I'll do it," Kagome said, taking the clipboard. Well, secretaries did that, didn't they? She leaned in for a conspiratorial whisper. "He's single."
"Really?" the nurse whispered back, her eyes wide.
"Yeah. I'm only a secretary; the kid's his by adoption." Kagome knew his sensitive hearing was picking up every word. "And trust me, you don't get rich, hot, unattached young men nowadays."
"Kagome, that's enough," growled Sesshoumaru.
"Sorry," she said, winking at the nurse. She began filling in the form.
"You have to sign here," Kagome said, giving Sesshoumaru the pen.
He signed and handed it back.
Kagome sighed and settled down to wait.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kaede woke up, fully energized. She knew her herbs worked. Just a few doses and a night's rest and she was fine! Unlike those young people, who insisted on doctors' prescriptions and were still sick upstairs.
Oh well, there was breakfast to be cooked, more herbal doses to be dished up, and a whole house to be cleaned.
Stifling a yawn, she entered the kitchen. No one was up yet, it seemed.
A piece of paper on the table drew her attention. Kaede left her kitchen spick and span – everyone knew better than to mess it up a bit. She went over and picked it up.
Kaede:
Rin's really ill and Sesshoumaru's taking her to the hospital. I'm guessing we'll be there quite awhile, maybe the whole night.
Kagome
"Ok," Kaede said grimly. "Time to wake Jaken up."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kagome beside him had long fallen asleep, but Sesshoumaru was determined to keep awake. How undignified – to fall asleep in full view of the world on a hospital bench, of all places.
Four cokes, five bags of chips and six magazines later, Kaede appeared with Jaken and Kagura.
"How is she?" asked Kagura anxiously.
"If she hasn't gotten better by now, the doctor will start her on IV."
"Needles?" asked Jaken, looking aghast. "Needles?"
"And when I say, use the old herb recipes, nobody agrees," complained Kaede.
"I did," Kagura said, "and I'm fine now, thank you very much."
"So did I," Jaken was quick to add. Kaede was the best housekeeper to be found in Japan, but her drink-your-herbal-brew lectures were really sometimes annoying.
Kagome stirred and woke up, covering her mouth to hide a yawn. She looked at the new arrivals through sleepy eyes.
"Did I miss something?"
"No," smiled Kaede.
A nurse came out carrying Rin. "She's pretty fine now, though she still has a bit of a temperature. She did ask for a Sesshoumaru."
"I'll take her," Kagura volunteered. "Oh, poor dear. Still flushed. Hey, Kaede, her colour looks a bit like Sesshoumaru's."
"What?" asked Sesshoumaru.
"And Kagome, too," Kaede added.
Jaken reached for Sesshoumaru, who brushed him off in annoyance. "Definitely a fever."
"I'd agree," Kaede said, feeling Kagome's forehead.
"So what do you say? Bed rest and ice packs for them both, in our tender care?" Kagura grinned.
And even Rin smiled at the look on Sesshoumaru's face.