Chapter 4 – To Prank

Routine had once again made its way to the shiro.

After the news that a miko was going to reside there in order to teach Rin about the human ways of living, most youkai in the place were apprehensive. They knew of the hatred priestesses bore for them, the fact that their Lord allowed this was insane and though a few of them went to complain, the only answer they received was that if the miko did anything against them, she would be dealt with.

Weeks passed by and the miko did nothing wrong, not even looked at them in the usual and prejudiced way. In fact, she was surprisingly friendly and after a while, the residents of the shiro stopped looking behind their backs all the time. She was good and kept Rin in place, the number of pranks had decreased greatly ever since she came around, which made everyone grateful.

Kagome unknowingly gained the respect of some youkai there because of her friendly nature and her control over the small girl's mischievous ways. Sure, now the pranks were more sophisticated because of the kitsune's help, but being pranked only once a week was better than almost every day.

And so, everyone in the shiro had a new routine, one that did not involve having to be careful as they entered a new room in fear of having mud thrown at their faces while Rin tried to escape from her lessons. All was well in their lives and Sakura couldn't be happier for having the idea of keeping the human with them, you could often see her skipping around and smiling brightly whenever she saw the woman.

''Rin-chan!" Kagome's loud voice suddenly made every youkai stop frozen in place, the human rarely raised her voice and when she did, something was bound to happen.

Not wanting to be the newest victim of Rin's mischievous personality, every single youkai in the area vanished to find a place to hide, it was better to be safe than sorry.

''Shippo, I already told you that you have to bath, stop running away from me!" Kagome shouted again as she ran through the halls.

She turned left and was almost reaching them when they took a sharp turn to the right and she cursed mentally, panting because she had to be running for at least ten minutes and was certainly lost with all the turns she took while chasing the children.

''I swear to Kami that when I get you two…'' Kagome shouted, letting her threat in the air as she leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

After resting for no more than ten seconds, the miko started to run again and when she was about to shout, she paused and frowned. Rin and Shippo were frozen in the middle of the hall and when Kagome got closer, her eyes widened in horror as she stared at the scene in front of her.

There, standing right in front of two frightened children, stood the Lord of the West, covered from head to toe in some kind of purple powder. Kagome could do nothing but stare at the scene, her Lord's eyes were slightly narrowed and Shippo had ran to hide behind Rin, who in turn, was doing her best to smile innocently at the daiyoukai.

''Oh Kami,'' Kagome groaned, knowing they would be in trouble. ''What did I tell you two about pranking the others?''

''Everyone's a target?'' Rin said, turning to smile sweetly at the miko.

''Everything is allowed as long as no one dies or gets badly hurt?'' Shippo tried, making Kagome narrow her eyes at him.

''And?'' She asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest and tapping her foot on the floor.

''Um, we can't prank Jaken that much because he might go insane?'' Rin tried again.

''No, I said that you could prank anyone you wanted as long as you two knew said youkai wouldn't try to kill you both,'' Kagome said, sighing. ''And that Sesshoumaru-sama was to be left alone since he is the Lord of the West and has important things to do. Now, apologize!''

Pouting and frowning, both kids turned to face the Lord of the West again, who watched the scene with a bored look in his eyes. ''We are very sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama,'' Shippo said, peeking from Rin's back.

''We didn't mean to get you,'' Rin said, smiling shamelessly at her Lord. ''That was meant for Kagome-chan, we even got the powder to smell like her favorite flower so she wouldn't get that mad!''

''Hey!" Kagome said as she glared at them. ''You two were luring me to this place? I can't believe it!''

''If you look at the bright side mama, you escaped!" Shippo said, trying to stifle a giggle as he stared at the now purple inuyoukai.

''Rin, kit.'' Said inuyoukai suddenly spoke, making everyone's eyes widen. ''I believe you both should be bathing.''

Knowing that this was a warning, both children ran away as if their lives depended on that, leaving Kagome alone with a very annoyed demon. Straightening her back and cleaning her throat, the miko looked around and noticed that not even the maids she would usually see were there. Whenever she shouted at the little ones, the youkai around the place vanished from her sight, already knowing that the children would do something mischievous.

''Um, we should probably get you cleaned.'' The woman spoke as stood awkwardly in front of her Lord, feeling anxious with his intense stare. She couldn't be blamed for feeling nervous in his presence when they were alone though, he had been merciful enough to let her and her son stay but she hadn't seen him around frequently.

Kagome could count all the moments she saw him on her fingers, ignoring her hallucination from when she had a fever. She faintly remembered seeing his face and touching his hair once he left the room the day she woke up from her slumber, but reasoned that it was probably a made up memory since she could also remember a bright light surrounding her as something exploded and there was no way that happened in real life. It was probably the fever getting to her head and making her delirious, Sakura had said that she was burning for a whole week before they managed to make her temperature come back to normal.

During the first days in the shiro, Sakura and Jaken were always around her, making sure she wasn't planning anything fishy and seeing if she was really capable of being Rin's mentor. After a while, they left her alone but Kagome could sometimes feel the daiyoukai's presence in the place, as if he was constantly staring at her back.

On rare occasions he would join her and the children, sitting at the farthest corner of the room and simply staring at them. Kagome knew he was doing this for Rin's safety, seeing if she was really worth of taking care of his ward, and she couldn't really blame him for that.

Rin was his and he took care of what belonged to him, and in a way he also made sure she was safe, Kagome more than once felt a few hateful stares as she walked through the halls and Sesshoumaru's presence calmed her down. Even though she barely saw him, he brought a sense of security that she had long forgotten, Kagome trusted him and somehow knew that nothing would happen to her or her son as long as he was there. That, however, didn't mean she was comfortable standing directly in front of a slightly pissed off inuyoukai.

''Hn.'' Sesshoumaru merely said, turning around and walking away.

Not knowing what to do, Kagome chose to follow him, looking at the ground during the whole time because she knew that if she looked at him, she would burst out laughing. The mighty Lord of the Western Lands was covered in purple powder from head to toe and smelling like lilacs, she had to stifle a laugh when she realized how funny the situation was.

He moved calmly through the halls, and after turning left twice, he opened one of the doors and gracefully stepped into one of the bathing chambers. Kagome quickly moved around the place to grab a towel and a few small bottles of what Sakura called shampoo. Kagome had never heard of these things before and discovered that the green eyed youkai had created them, their purpose was to keep the hair healthy and silky. When she questioned why would they need something like that when they were youkai, Sakura had explained to her that they simply liked to smell fresh, and that the magical property of her product gave their hair an extra shine.

After she gathered her things, Kagome turned around and shrugged when she saw that the inuyoukai was already in the water, fully clothed. It was a smart move because she was sure the powder would be hard to get off once it had dried completely, and though his clothes weren't completely ruined, he would have a little bit of trouble while trying to fix them.

''Um, do I need to do anything else?'' Kagome spoke as she put the small bottles on the ground next to the water.

Slowly, the Western Lord stopped washing his face and turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. It took all of Kagome's willpower to keep her from laughing at the sight, his face looked worse now that the powder entered in contact with the water and turned into some kind of paint, making his face look completely purple.

Not daring to open her mouth because she knew she would laugh, Kagome picked the towel and kneeled, motioning for him to come closer. After a few second of silence and another raised eyebrow, he did what she wanted and she slowly raised her hand to clean his face.

His eyes never left her face and she fought harder to keep herself from laughing, focusing on cleaning all the paint off his face. It ended up being harder than what she thought, Kagome had tried to gently clean him but the paint just wasn't coming off, so she had to resort to brute force and hope she wouldn't die because of this.

She silently cursed Shippo and Rin for putting her in this situation, just what in Kami's sake did they use to create this stupid powder? The thing was horrible to wash away and she was starting to fear having her hand chopped off because she was being too harsh while cleaning the daiyoukai's face.

After a while, she finished cleaning both this face and a part of his neck, silently thanking the Gods for his haori and hakama taking most of the damage. Sighing and then smiling softly, she spoke. ''Well, we're done, now we only need to wash your hair, do you need help?"

Sesshoumaru stood silently as he stared at her, making Kagome fidget in place. Her question was a dumb one, she had noticed that he only had one arm and sometimes wondered what happened, and even though he did everything perfectly fine as if the missing limb didn't matter, she knew he wouldn't be able to wash off the paint from his hair without help.

''Ignore my question and just turn around, will you?'' She sighed as she quietly waited for him do what she asked for. Once he did and she made sure he wasn't going to look at her anymore, she bit her lip and smiled at the thought of touching his hair.

From all the youkai she saw during her life, the daiyoukai managed to stand out not only because of the markings on his face that she had tried to ignore as she removed the purple paint, but because his hair seemed so soft that she couldn't help but want to touch it whenever she saw him.

Slowly moving her hands, Kagome let out a happy sigh when she touched a few strands, it was even softer than what she hallucinated. Moving quickly, she thanked the Gods for only a few strands being dirtied, it was a sin to taint such a beautiful hair.

After she made sure it was wet, she moved to grab the shampoo bottle and put a generous amount in her hand, if she had trouble in washing the paint away from his face, she had no doubt the hair would be even worse.

Time passed by and Kagome grew frustrated as she washed his hair for the third time and saw that it still had purple stains. Groaning in annoyance because she didn't want to be rough and tangle the strands, she asked the daiyoukai to dive and stay underwater for one more time.

Turning to face her, no doubt wondering why it was taking so long, the inuyoukai stared at the miko with a questioning glance and she pouted.

''It's not coming off! I don't know how they made this stupid powder but I'm so going to get them for trying to prank me.'' She huffed crossing her arms in front of her chest. When he kept staring at her and not doing what she wanted, she smiled shamelessly at him and spoke. ''At least purple looks good on you, my Lord.''

''Hn.'' Kagome could swear he snorted, but such a disrespectful act wouldn't come from her Lord, obviously.

He did what she said and after using two whole bottles of Sakura's creation, Kagome's job was finally done and she smiled in relief. Maybe she had spent a bit too much time washing his hair just for the sake of touching it but who could blame her? She doubted any other human had ever done this and it was her first and last opportunity to touch the silky strands, she took the chance and didn't regret it, not even when she left the room under Sesshoumaru's questioning stare, no doubt knowing that she wanted to burst out laughing.

Her arms hurt when she left the room, her hands were a pale lilac color after spending so much time touching the paint and there was powder under her nails, but instead of feeling tired, Kagome walked away trying to control her giggles, the image of the Western Lord with his face painted purple was something she was sure she would never forget.