A/N: Prompt: Celebrity Crush. Requested by Revang and this one is also AU! Enjoy!

Kagome would sooner die than admit it to anyone else, but she had a crush on Ito Sesshomaru.

Ito was a legend and well-believed to be the best corporate attorney in all of Japan. He was well-known for being ruthless and cunning, taking on cases for high-profile cases for corporations that most had deemed a total loss.

And then, somehow, Ito always won.

He was a law onto himself. Unlike other attorneys, his was a private practice and he had no legal secretaries or assistants to help him with his case load, though he could easily afford a fully-staffed office. If not on his own wages, than on that of his father's, who had been a judge before he'd moved into the political sphere. If it had been anyone else, they would have played up their father's connections but Ito refused to be associated with his father in the business world. Personally, it was rumored the two were close, but neither ever spoke about the other in public.

Kagome often searched for anything she could find on Ito, but it was slim pickings had had been over the last ten years he'd been running his practice. He'd caught her eye when she'd been following one case that had impacted Sango, her best friend, whose father had been sued by a company who accused him of stealing from the very company his firm had been hired to protect as security guards and bodyguards. They'd both been in high school, their senior year, and hadn't been prepared for the upheaval the case had brought.

Sango's father had found and hired Ito, a brand new attorney on the scene. It was a case Ito hadn't expected to win because he'd been going up against a juggernaut of a company and Sango's family had few, if any, assets they could liquidate to fuel the defense. Yet Ito hadn't batted an eye, even when Sango's family had all been terrified that if they'd lost the case, her father might have criminal charges pressed as well.

And yet Ito had won, successfully countersuing and proving that it had been a senior officer of the other company who had stolen the funds. Ito had taken it even further than that. He'd demanded the contract penalty for breaking the contract with Sango's father and had also demanded recompense for the damage to Sango's father's company's brand.

Ever since then, Ito had become Kagome's personal hero and she'd scoured the news, the web, and the gossip columns for any information or pictures she could find of him.

Unfortunately, no one knew anything about Ito's personal life at all, but Kagome, in her most private daydreams, pictured him living with her, whispering soft words of affection and cuddling her after a rough day. Not even Sango knew how much Kagome fantasized about a man she'd only met in passing a handful of times.

Well, she reflected, it's more like it's been a rough year.

And it had been. Kagome had taken over the orphanage next to her family's shrine when the old caretaker had died several months ago. It was that or allow the orphanage to close and she couldn't allow that. She was too close to all of the kids and all too aware of how they depended on the orphanage and its meager donations.

It was only after she'd taken over that she'd learned the prior caretaker, Tanaka-san, had been struggling to pay the bills and had taken out a huge mortgage to help make ends meet. The loan's payments were more than anyone could afford and still keep the children healthy, so Tanaka-san had taken out a second loan to pay the first.

It had gone from bad to worse.

The mortgage had been predatory, with an interest rate that skyrocketed each year, and it was now almost thirty-seven percent each year. She knew if she had the money, she could prove the mortgage brokers had taken advantage of the old and senile Tanaka-san, but she lacked the wealthy or political backing. Worse still, the mortgage company was now threatening to file legal action for default and they wanted to seize the property and rebuild.

She'd later found out they'd been intending that all along for a cheap and easy sale to build a large apartment building where her little orphanage sat.

Ito would know what to do but even if she could contact Ito, she couldn't afford to pay him.

She sighed heavily as she sat on the front steps outside the orphanage, out of view of the children. Sango had brought Miroku, her fiancé, over to volunteer so Kagome could regroup but she was no better off than she had been last night when she'd gotten the call that the bank would be foreclosing on on the property if she didn't pay in full within the next week.

"How do I tell the children I've failed?" She buried her head in her hands as she thought of the eleven children who depended on her, all of whom were considered 'undesirables' by most of the people who went looking to adopt children. Shippo, the prankster. Yuri, the one who loved playing with hair. Shiori, the quiet one. Souten, the one who declared herself Shippo's rival for Kagome's affections. Jin, the leader of all the kids. Airi, the—

A loud cough suddenly interrupted her thoughts and she blinked, suddenly seeing a man standing before her.

Or, well, a man's pants, at any rate, crisply ironed without a hint of stain or wrinkle.

"Woman."

She blinked again. The voice sounded familiar but she wasn't expecting any visitors. Certainly no one looking to adopt children, at least; she took great care to remember those days so she could prepare the children and the orphanage in advance. "Yes?" she said hesitantly as she stared at his shoes. They were leather, impeccably polished until they shone, without a hint of dirt on them despite the dirty stone steps he'd trekked up.

She guessed he had to be either rich or OCD.

He clicked his tongue and she jerked her head up to look at him in response. Her breath caught as she willed herself not to blush, recognizing who he was instantly.

Ito Sesshomaru.

"You are Higurashi Kagome, are you not?" he asked and though his tone was annoyed, his lips pulled in a small smirk of amusement at her reaction.

He knows my name, she thought to herself faintly, feeling weak at the way he rumbled it. "Yeah, that's me." She licked her dry lips, oblivious to how the motion seemed to distract him for a moment. "Um, hello, Ito-san. Welcome to Sunset Orphanage."

He eyed the orphanage behind her for a moment before his gaze drifted back to him. "I understand that you are in a bit of trouble."

"That's a bit of an understatement," she admitted dryly, thinking of all the problems currently plaguing her. She wondered idly who had been the one to contact Ito and why he'd come over to the orphanage in the first place. "Why are you here?"

His posture straightened. "I should think that is fairly obvious," he said flatly. "I am here to assist you with your current legal predicament, Kagome."

She gaped at him, unable to hide her flush as he used her personal name. They barely knew each other and yet it sounded so right to have him use her name. "Y-you are?"

He nodded as he gave her an amused grin, small though it was. "Come," he said, holding out a hand to help her up from her seat on one of the steps. "You will tell me more about your situation over lunch. I have the distinct impression that you have not been looking after yourself properly. Your friends will look after the children while we're away."

He was right, but she'd sooner die than admit it. "I can't pay you," she blurted as she took his hand.

"Perhaps I am not here for monetary reasons." He sniffed. "I would not accept funds from an impoverished orphanage, at any rate."

The look he gave her then couldn't be mistaken and yet she had trouble accepting it anyway. Ito, her hero, could not be looking at her with desire, with longing. He was too far out of her reach, even if he'd somehow been convinced to help her pro-bono—

"Kagome." He clicked his tongue at her distraction. "It seems that you have misunderstood my intentions, so let me be clear. I am here to assist you with your current legal troubles, free of charge. What is more, my father recently read of your orphanage in a little article in the newspaper—" Kagome remembered that interview last week when she'd been trying to drum up funds in a desperate attempt to save the place, "—and he has taken it upon himself to reach out amongst the community's wealthy men for funds and adoptions. I imagine you will find your orphanage well funded in the upcoming months, if nothing else."

She stared at him, unable to process what he was saying due to her own surprise.

"But I am not here to discuss my father nor his efforts with you. My father's actions are his own." Ito raised his chin. "I am here for you, Kagome. Your work at the orphanage, first as a volunteer and then as the manager, have surpassed all expectations. Your drive, your empathy, your desire to succeed have been the only things keeping the doors open. Perhaps you do not recall that we met some seven years before, here at this very orphanage, when I adopted an infant, Rin, but I certainly remember you."

Kagome's eyes widened. She'd remembered Rin's adoption, mostly because Rin's backstory had been so very tragic. Someone had simply left Rin outside in a basket on the steps of a senator's house and then vanished, abandoning the girl in the rain without so much ringing the doorbell to let anyone know the baby was there.

Kagome had named her Rin because she couldn't handle the idea of a girl without a name at her orphanage when the girl had been delivered the following morning, with the notice that someone would be along to adopt her.

But she hadn't realized the business man who'd adopted Rin had been Ito. How could she have missed it? She'd hero worshipped Ito and yet, she recalled the timeframe he'd visited. Her father had just passed away in a car accident and her younger brother had been diagnosed with cancer. Sota had eventually recovered, but Kagome hadn't been it the best frame of mind. Tanaka-san had handled most of the work and Kagome had only met the man who'd adopted Rin twice during the entire exchange.

She remembered the circumstances, though, because the entire case had been so odd. A baby, left at a senator's house—

The senator. Kagome's eyes widened, suddenly remembering whose house Rin had been abandoned at.

"She was left at your father's house," she blurted.

He nodded. "And she has been a member of our family ever since. All that remained was to formalize it."

The rest of his words hit her. "You're here for me," she repeated the words slowly, trying to process it.

He nodded again. "I did not think my affections would be returned," he murmured slowly, leading her down the steps. "You did nothing to acknowledge me."

She turned bright red. "I wasn't in a good frame of mind. It was a bad time for me."

"So I later learned." He moved to open the car door for her of an expensive black SUV. As she climbed inside, she noticed an empty booster seat in the backseat, decorated with little flower stickers. "Rin."

He chuckled as he helped her with the seatbelt. "Rin," he agreed. "You will meet her again later."

The later, laden with promise, had her flushing all over again. "Right, later." She bobbed her head, hoping she'd hidden how happy that promise made her.

He chuckled again as he shut the door, letting her know that her feelings hadn't escaped his notice. As he made his way to the driver's seat and climbed into the car, Kagome blurted, "This is real?"

"It is real," he confirmed, his lips pulling into another small smile. "There is a quiet cafe around the corner. We will talk more there of what the future will hold, Kagome." He indicated the vents. "If you become too chilled, feel free to adjust the vents or anything else in the car to your comfort."

And Kagome, thinking back to her silly daydreams, flushed with quiet delight. Ito Sesshomaru, as it turned out, was a gentle, sweet man.

And now, she thought faintly, he would be hers.