Sesshomaru woke up and put his hand to his face. His body felt horrible, something he hadn't felt since he was beaten by InuYasha and he cut off his arm.

"Morning, starshine." Kagome said next to him and he turned.

Seeing that he was in Kagome's bed, he lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Why am I sharing a sleeping mat with you?"

"Because you could have killed yourself last night and I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"What are you talking about?"

"You ate an entire bag of chocolate. That's bad for dogs… and apparently youkai ones as well."

"This Sesshomaru was not aware that this 'chocolate' was poisonous. Why did you not tell me? I am new to this land; it is your duty to warn me of such hazards."

"Yeah, well, Lord Sesshomaru should learn some restraint. Even humans can't eat a whole bag of Reese cups without getting sick."

Sesshomaru sat up and found himself pointing at his hostess.

"I did not ask to come here with you. I was forced to do so because you injured your foot. It is not my fault that your future world has things that I do not know. If you were to come to my home in the Western Lands, I would warn you about things that could harm you. It is only customary for a host to be courteous enough to give out that information!"

Kagome was shocked at the rant he had just given but even more shocked that he was pointing at him with an arm that shouldn't exist.

"Um… Sesshomaru, your arm…"

"What of it?"

"It's um…"

Sesshomaru looked at his arm and blinked. It was the arm that InuYasha had cut off. Or so he thought he'd cut it off. Did it grow back?

"Explain this."

"How the heck should I know? You're the one with youkai blood."

"Even this Sesshomaru cannot make an arm grow back this fast. I sense that there is something else going on. Are you well enough to leave this dwelling?"

"I should be good enough to go back."

"Good. I will meet you downstairs after you have readied yourself."

Sesshomaru leapt out of the bed and left the room.

Kagome stared after him and shook her head.

"Oh no, it's not like you weren't dying this morning. Pfft, of course not." She said to herself as she got ready as best as she could with her foot hurting her.

"And besides, he's still going to have to carry me because my foot hurts like hell." She grumbled, going through her shirts.

As Sesshomaru waited for Kagome, he looked at his arm that had been missing for such a long time. He'd forgotten it was missing, using his only remaining arm out of instinct and necessity. Even when he was a full youkai, his arm could not have grown back as fast as it had, literally overnight. Now that he was a hanyou, it definitely wouldn't have grown back that fast… probably not at all. Something else was happening…

"You're going to have to carry me down the stairs." Kagome said from the top of the stairs.

Sesshomaru looked up at her and sighed, going up the stairs to get her. He grabbed her up and carried her down. He started out the front door but Kagome smacked his back a couple of times.

"Stop! Stop! I have to pack for the journey!"

"We must get back."

"I know that but I still have to pack. Stop getting your panties in a wad!"

Although Sesshomaru wasn't sure what that meant, he set her down and crossed his arms, waiting for her to do whatever it was she was doing. She grabbed her strange yellow sack and began to stick things in it. She then grabbed two boxes and handed them to him.

"Here, hold these so I don't forget them."

Sesshomaru looked down at the boxes. Ra-men… I've seen these before.

"Are these essential to the journey?"

"They're a payback on a bet I made figuratively with InuYasha."

"And what bet was that?"

"That you wouldn't bring me home in place of him."

"I see. I assume you lost this bet."

"Well, like I said, it was figuratively. I kind of said it in my head but I feel like I owe him anyway. There, now I'm done." She said, putting her backpack on her shoulders. "I have to use crutches so-"

Sesshomaru grabbed her backpack off of her back, swung her up in his arms, and firmly placed the boxes in her own arms in one fell swoop.

"We do not have time for your sticks. I do not want to be in this body anymore and I fear that there is something amiss. For now, I am grateful I have my other arm back but I digress that it is still suspicious."

He carried her to the shrine and Sesshomaru looked in.

"Do I jump in again?"

"Yup, same thing."

He got up on the edge of the well and then jumped in.

Shippo paced beside the well, wishing Kagome would hurry up and come back. InuYasha needed her help! As if his prayer had been answered, the Bone Eater's Well lit up and he could hear voices below him.

"Wait, Sesshomaru, what are you doing?"

"Please try not to land on your hurt foot."

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to throw you."

"THROW ME?!" she screamed.

That was all she got to say as she really was thrown and Shippo saw her hands grab the sides of the well in desperation. He ran over and looked down.

"Kagome!"

"Shippo, please help me get up! I can't use my foot to help me. If I fall I could really hurt my foot again."

Shippo tried as best as he could when Sesshomaru flew out of the well and grabbed Kagome's hand, lifting her out with no issue.

"That may not have seemed practical but I assure you I would have caught you if you had fallen."

For some reason that made Kagome stop. It wasn't kind and yet, the words were. The fact that he had no intent of letting her hurt herself again was something Kagome didn't think of. She swallowed a little and nodded.

"I… I know that but seriously, why couldn't you have just climbed up with me on your back?"

"I am tired of carrying you around."

He turned away from her and started walking toward the village. Kagome sighed and picked up a rock, chucking it at Sesshomaru. It hit him in the back and he turned.

"Was that necessary?"

"Yes, it was. You brought me here without my crutches. That sounds like a problem since I can't walk long distances on my broken foot. If you had thought for a second about what I needed instead of caring about yourself-"

Sesshomaru went past her quick as lightning and jumped into the well. The light shown and he was gone. Kagome blanched at the well and then looked at Shippo.

"Did he just…"

"It looks like it… Oh, Kagome, InuYasha really needs you."

"Why, what's wrong?" she asked, leaning on the well to get off of her foot.

"When you left he met up with that Kikyo lady and she tried to get him to go with her. He said he would never got with her but she said she'd be back later. He started feeling funny and then he… he… oh Kagome!" he cried.

Kagome picked him up as he cried in her shirt and she pat him on the back.

"It's alright, Shippo."

"Here."

Kagome looked up as Sesshomaru made a face at her as he handed her her crutches. She took them and got up.

"Hand me my bag."

Sesshomaru did so as he picked up the boxes and went along, Kagome trying to catch up on her crutches.

InuYasha was waiting for Kagome and Sesshomaru to get back. He still wasn't over the ordeal just yet but he was going to live with it. He saw Sesshomaru coming up and leaned on Tessaiga from where it rested on his shoulder and locked with his legs. He frowned when he didn't see Kagome but he wasn't feeling like getting up and yelling just yet. He'd be patient… As Sesshomaru got closer, InuYasha noticed he was carrying the boxes with two arms and sighed, realizing what must have happened.

When Sesshomaru saw InuYasha sitting on the porch of the house the old woman was in, he noticed that he looked a little different. He brought the boxes to the porch and dropped them there.

"The miko said she owed these to you."

"What is it?" he asked, lifting and eyebrow and leaning forward.

"Ra-men."

"It's just ramen, idiot…" He looked up at him. "I see you got your arm back."

Sesshomaru turned his head and nodded a little.

"I see you lost yours."

"Well I'm sure it was weirder on my end than yours. Imagine just waking up and finding that it's gone?"

"I have lived with that for a while." Sesshomaru said with a look.

"Where's Kagome? Did you leave her again?"

"She is about. She is walking on sticks at the moment and the fox child is talking rather discursively. I almost died in her home world and I do not feel like babying her anymore." Sesshomaru turned to InuYasha quickly. "You need to teach your human to control her wants. She is quite needy."

InuYasha laughed. "Yeah, sure…"

Sesshomaru was surprised. "You are quite blasé today. What happened to your boisterous attitude?"

"Seems it was given to you." InuYasha said with a tired smile. "I spoke with Kikyo, before she tried to make me come with her, and she said that everything about us is switching. Since it's your body versus mine, that's why the arm thing happened and it looks like our demeanors may be changing."

"That explains a lot… Although it does not explain why this was done to us."

"I don't know either. I didn't get that far with her before she tried to do something to me. I'm not sure what she was doing… Either way, I'm apparently figuring out how to control my emotions and such and you're starting to experience not having a mental block."

"I do not like this."

"I don't either. Oh, there's Kagome."

Kagome finally got over to them and almost collapsed on the stairs to the porch.

"Are you alright, InuYasha?"

"I'm fine. You don't look like you're in good shape though." He said with a small smirk.

"Well, your brother left me. You don't look any different to me… Shippo, you said he was different!"

"He is! Look!" he said, pointing.

Kagome looked and then realized that InuYasha's arm was missing. The same one that Sesshomaru was missing just some days ago.

"Y- you're arm…" she said softly, getting up the stairs a little more dignified. "Are you in a lot of pain?"

"No, that's the weird thing. It's as if I've always never had it. There wasn't even any pain when I lost it either. I just woke up and it was gone." He said with a frown to his empty sleeve. "Pretty weird though, right? Whoa, hey, what's wrong?"

Kagome had fallen to her knees as best as she could and wrapped her arms around him, beginning to cry. InuYasha smiled a little and moved Tessaiga out of the way so he could touch her softly on the back.

"Aw, come on Kagome, don't cry. You know I hate crying."

"I'm sorry it's just… You lost your arm!"

"Eh, what are you gonna do? I can't just stick it back on…"

"I know but that's not fair! What does Kikyo want? What was the purpose of all of this?"

"I wish I knew. For now, you'll have to deal with me not being complete." Kagome pulled back as he lifted at eyebrow at her. "Will that be okay with you?"

"Of course it will… Um… although…"

"Hmm?"

"The necklace… I don't think it works anymore."

"So?"

"I mean, don't you want to take it off before you turn back into a hanyou again? If you take it off now…"

"It's not hurting anything."

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. "Again, for a person who doesn't want to be bound, you are quite content on letting this human rule your every move."

"I don't rule his every move. If I had another rosary I'd put it around your neck and tell you to sit a bunch of times."

"I am lucky that I do not have such-"

"Wakarimashita!"

Sesshomaru blinked as Rin peaked around and grinned at him.

"I got you, Lord Sesshomaru!"

Kagome smirked a little as Sesshomaru looked and found that he had his own set of prayer beads around his neck. InuYasha started laughing.

"Serves you right, asshole!" he said, laughing harder.

Rin looked at InuYasha and Kagome and then at Sesshomaru.

"Lord Sesshomaru? Have I done something funny?"

Sesshomaru didn't answer, trying not to look as brooding as he felt. Outsmarted by a little girl and she doesn't even know what she's done. he thought. Good thing whenever we start looking for that damned miko, Rin will stay behind.

oh sessh, a little girl got you. yes, those are real subjugation beads. i'm sure it's not that hard to make some *shrug* and his command word is 'gotcha'. dunno how that will work since 'sit' is such a direct command (which is why it brings inuyasha to the ground) but 'gotcha' and 'beloved' aren't. i guess it would just make them stop in their tracks of whatever they were doing...

anyway, so it looks like inuyasha is getting calmer while the sessh is... not. he's not very polite as we have seen. he's funny.