Once again thanks for all the reviews guys! They really help encourage me to continue writing! :) Keep them up! So due to popular demand, from here on out I'm going to try and make the chapters longer, one step at a time, so be patient with me. As always, enjoy!

PICK UP

Kagome's phone rang. She was still giggly from her and Sango's conversation when she picked up. "Hello?" She asked a little breathlessly.

"Kagome." Sesshomaru's voice rumbled on the other line. The memory of Sesshomaru's husky voice from her dream the night before floated forward from the back of her mind, making Kagome blush furiously. This reaction was not lost on Sango who was observing her friend's behavior like a hawk, her interest clearly piqued and humor shining in her eyes.

"Y-yes?" She asked frowning and turning away from her friend, whose gleeful grin was distracting.

"I have a client that I am meeting with this afternoon," his deep baritone rumbled from the receiver. "This will be taking place at two o'clock."

It was obviously an invitation.

"I'm free all day today," Kagome replied. "Where are you taking her?"

"A carnival on the pier," Sesshomaru responded in a weary tone.

He's not very excited about this, Kagome thought, and voiced her concern.

"You're not very excited about this," She said. Sesshomaru murmured an affirmative. Kagome waited expectantly.

Sesshomaru momentarily hesitated voicing why he wasn't "excited about this". But he dismissed that feeling almost immediately: he had an obligation to tell Kagome why he felt the way he did. Because she was paying him to inspire her with ideas.

That was what he was telling himself anyway.

Because he certainly could not be feeling anything more than camaraderie when it came to Kagome. He wouldn't allow himself to.

"This client is in her mid-thirties," he explained "she has issues with letting go of her youth, and so she wants a date setting that can rekindle her feelings of adolescence."

Kagome nodded. "And what's better than a carnival on the pier to take her back to the days of her youth," she said.

"Correct."

"Ok. So do I meet you there...?"

"No," Sesshomaru said, surprising her. "You would undoubtedly be incredibly late if you used that contraption of yours."

"Undoubtedly," Kagome agreed, a smile curling her lips. Unaware of her body's actions, Kagome swayed her hips as one would to a song playing on the radio; her left hand reaching up to twirl a strand of her hair around her forefinger.

Sango watched as her friend began to sway side to side. Sango raised an eyebrow questioningly as she resisted the strong urge to pick up the phone in the other room to hear the other side of this conversation.

"Hn," Sesshomaru responded. "I am on my way to your apartment to pick you up."

Kagome was shocked. "Wait. Right now? But it's not even close to two!"

"Kagome it's already twelve-thirty," Sango said. Her friend whipped around to face her and Sango pointed to the clock hanging on the wall.

"The pier we are going to is an hour away," Sesshomaru explained.

"Shit!" Kagome said, where had the time gone? "How far are you?"

"Fifteen minutes," Sesshomaru said.

"AND YOU'RE CALLING ME NOW?!" Kagome practically screamed into Sesshomaru's ear, before she hung up on him.

Sesshomaru frowned; that could have gone better.

Kagome slammed her phone back down onto its cradle and glanced around her apartment, she honestly didn't know what needed to be addressed first: her messy kitchen, the front room's dire semblance, or her own appearance, all of which weren't very impressive to look upon.

"FUCK!" Kagome cried, she felt as though she were turning around in circles. "I don't even know which to fix first!"

"Kagome," Sango said, forcing her friend to remain calm. "Go and get dressed, I'll take care of the apartment."

"Are you sure?" Kagome asked uncertainly.

"Yes," Sango, ever the voice of reason, said, "Now go get ready! He'll be here any minute, crazy!"

"Sango you're the most amazing friend in the entire world!" Kagome exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, now go."

Kagome didn't need to be told twice; she retreated quickly back to her bedroom, leaving Sango to mull over the recent developments.

Sango waited until she was sure her friend was in her bedroom. She only turned to survey the work she had ahead of her when she heard Kagome's shower turn on.

"Interesting," Sango muttered thoughtfully.

Sesshomaru frowned as he tossed his phone down onto the passenger seat of his car and continued at his current pace.

He began to think back on Kagome's reaction to the news of his arrival; he wondered if she hadn't overreacted just a tad. She is definitely a strange one, he mused. Of course he had known his fair share of unusual females in the forms of full-blooded youkai, back when there were still full-blooded youkai roaming around the earth. But human females were the strangest thing of all, and he suspected that Kagome was the ruler of the strange human women.

He vaguely wondered if the strangeness that came with human women were a genetic trait or one that was simply acquired. If the former, he thought, than it wouldn't be long before his Rin began to act erratically. That thought caused Sesshomaru's fingers to clench the steering wheel, his heart to squeeze and involuntarily press his foot further down onto the gas, making the car speed up far past the speed limit.

Disregarding his unlawful driving, as he swerved between cars and in and out of lanes, Sesshomaru contemplated what he would do about Rin. Humans grew up so incredibly fast, at an almost impossible rate. That, or youkai simply aged terribly slow. Either way, he knew that although Rin was only a child of eight now, it would not be long before she would be a young woman of eighteen and he did not know how to feel about that.

He had to face facts that his Rin was growing up. And she would become just like every human woman he came into contact with: absolutely insane.

There was only one thing to do.

He would simply not allow it to happen. He would fight fang and claw to ensure the sanity of not only himself, but of his poor adoptive daughter who he would not hold accountable at all for her future unstable actions.

Before he was even aware of it, Sesshomaru was parked in the back of Kagome's apartment complex. His mind was still wrapped around his growing problem of Rin growing up as he got out of his car, headed up the stairs of the building to number six where Kagome lived.

He knocked lightly yet purposefully on the door's surface. A smell caught his attention first. He looked down. A fat beige cat with dark brown markings sat beside where Sesshomaru stood, his attention also focused on the door. Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you also live here?" Sesshomaru asked his companion.

The cat mewed loudly in an affirmative.

Suddenly the door opened, and Sesshomaru was taken aback to see not chocolate brown eyes from beneath messy dark bangs greeting him, but hazel eyes underneath tidy bangs and a face that was very serious instead of the easy pleasantness that usually graced Kagome's features.

" 'The Honorable Lord', I presume?" the woman who answered the door asked in a somewhat mocking manner.

"The best friend," Sesshomaru said referring to her. It wasn't a question.

"Come on in," She said turning around and walking ahead of him into the apartment.

The cat walked in ahead of both of them, getting a running start before he leaped onto the kitchen counter where he began to meow for his food.

"Hey Buyo," the woman said smiling in greeting.

Sesshomaru entered the apartment, closing the door softly behind him. He turned to survey where Kagome lived.

The walls were painted white, and there were barely any photographs hanging from the wall. All the furniture was black and leather; overall the apartment had a black and white color scheme. Sesshomaru frowned. This didn't suit Kagome's bubbly and colorful nature; he had expected much more of a mixed color palate.

"Sesshomaru," Kagome's voice said with bubbly cheerfulness, drawing Sesshomaru out of his thoughts. He turned away from his view of the front room to survey his business partner.

Kagome came out from a hallway beside the kitchen. She wore her hair tied back into a curly ponytail, a dark blue tank top and light turquoise shorts that reached just slightly past her thighs. Her aura emanated a shimmering pink that glowed softly around her.

Sesshomaru was taken with her legs. Last night the dress Kagome wore to the restaurant had not gone an inch below her knees, and Sesshomaru was not aware of how spectacular her legs looked. They were lean and strong, no doubt from biking everywhere so much, he mused. He forced his gaze back upward, but as slow as possible so he could take in every inch of her. He memorized the curvature of her hips, the soft line of her waist, her breasts...

Sesshomaru blinked quickly. He mentally reprimanded himself. Kagome was his business partner! It would not help matters if he began to think this way. He forced himself to behave as he met Kagome's gaze.

"Sorry about freaking out earlier," Kagome apologized, "I overreacted and that wasn't fair of me to do. Right! Introductions." She quickly turned to the woman who was seated at the kitchen counter, petting the feline- "Buyo", he recalled her saying- who purred happily as he ate.

"Sesshomaru this is Sango, my best friend and editor," Kagome said, as Sango waved. "And Sango this is Sesshomaru, my inspiration."

Sesshomaru was taken aback by her choice of words. Her inspiration? Did she really think of him as such? An odd feeling of warmth spread from his belly. 'Her inspiration.' He liked the sound of that.

"Charmed," Sango said, humor playing in her eyes.

"Hn," Sesshomaru said simply, ignoring the glittering of her eyes. "Are you ready?"

"Almost," Kagome answered. "I just need one last thing and then we can go. Sorry about making you wait," she apologized.

There was a guilty expression on her face, and the way that her eyebrows were turned upwards, the small crinkle of her nose that made her look...positively adorable. Sesshomaru forced himself to shrug in reply. Kagome smiled and went back to her bedroom.

Sesshomaru was taken aback by his feelings of this woman. Her expression had made him feel even worse about his earlier behavior, since it was apparent she hadn't noticed his ogling.

But Sango had.

She had found it almost impossibly hard to keep from bursting into delighted laughter as she watched the youkai linger over her friend's legs. If only he'd seen her high school uniform, Sango thought to herself with a smile. Knowing Kagome, she knew the youkai and her would be alone for a few more minutes as Kagome would be preparing a bag to take with her that would have all sorts of things in case a different manner of things were to occur.

She decided to have some fun with the demon.

"I don't know if Kagome told you," Sango said, making easy conversation, "but we were friends in high school."

Sesshomaru frowned. "I wasn't aware. She told me you were friends in college."

"We knew each other in high school, but we became close in college," Sango explained.

"Hn." Sesshomaru responded.

Sango whispered, knowing the youkai had amazing hearing and would understand that this was meant for his ears only. "And if you liked the way Kagome looked in those shorts, you should have seen her in our school's uniform."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened, and his mask of indifference slipped as a flash of shock and the shame at being caught came over his face.

Sango chuckled, shaking her head. "Don't worry, she didn't notice. Kagome never notices when guys like her; she always thinks that everyone overlooks her, when that's just not true."

She looked up at her companion's face. He watched her expectantly, his golden gaze intense on hers and a serious expression on his face. "They practically trip over themselves to get her attention," she murmured.

Sesshomaru turned thoughtfully away, letting this information sink in.

"I was the one who even pointed out that her old boyfriend was even interested in her," Sango continued.

This took Sesshomaru by surprise. "She had been courted before?" He asked, turning back to her.

Sango nodded. "From our junior year of high school to sophomore year of college," she said. "His name's Hojo." She made sure that this next bit wouldn't get past the youkai, though she was sure he was keeping track of the conversation just fine. "She won't get over him."

Sesshomaru pondered over this. Won't?

"She claims she can't, but I know she's really holding on because the break-up hurt so much." Sango said. "That's why she hasn't dated anyone since."

"Hn," Sesshomaru murmured, turning away, as he was not sure how to feel about this new found information.

"I think you'll be the one who can change all that," she whispered again. Sesshomaru turned back to look at her. A smile curved her lips, and her eyes shone with humor and a hope of some kind.

He turned away again. Had Kagome's best friend just given him her permission to court her best friend? He frowned thoughtfully.

"You're a youkai aren't you?" Sango asked.

"Inu-youkai," he muttered absentmindedly, still mulling over what Sango had just said.

"Inu-youkai, huh? Well good to know I'd have a challenge on my hands."

Sesshomaru's brow furrowed, and he turned back to Sango. Her eyes held a ferocity and her face was contorted in hostility. "I come from a long line of expert demon slayers. Although it's out-lawed to hunt youkai, don't think I won't kill you in a minute if you hurt my best friend. And don't assume I don't know how."

Sesshomaru's expression was blank. It had certainly been a long while, a few centuries in fact, since anyone, youkai or human, had blatantly threatened his life to his face. Surely this Sango wasn't as able-bodied in battle as she so unashamedly claimed she was? Sesshomaru decided he'd rather not take the chance to find out. So as an answer, he gave a curt nod in acknowledgment of her threat and filed it away for the future as a reminder to tread carefully.

And like a light switch, the friendly editor replaced this hostile demon slayer. "Good. I think you guys are going to make it, Sesshomaru, and that we're going to get along just fine."

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Kagome said, sprinting into the room. "Ready?"

Sesshomaru nodded as Kagome led the way out of the apartment, "See you later, Sango!"

"Have fun you two!" Sango called out, keeping eye contact with the Inu-youkai. "Take care of her, Sesshomaru." She murmured.

He would have to, less he would face the wrath of Sango. But in reply, Sesshomaru simply said "Hn" as the door shut behind them.