Hiya! This part of Chapter 16 is a little on the silly side so forgive me for that. There is still one more part of Chapter 16 to go (16c) but I wanted to upload 16b tonight. With any luck, 16c will be out tomorrow.

I do hope you like what happens. *grin* Thanks for reading even though I'm taking a god-awful long time to post!

By the bye, if the characters seem a bit out-of-character, please bear with me. :-)



-Celyia, celyia@yahoo.com





Chapter 16B



Jaken sat upon the wooden floor, feet touching slightly as he looked up at the woman who addressed him suddenly.

"Sakeno," she said, her eyes pushed into a small slit by the weight of the fat she carried upon her small frame. "Quite a good job! Quite a good job, indeed. Did you see Sakeno-chan's sewing, Mariko-san? Beautiful for being her first try at stitching."

Mariko turned slowly to the youkai, her arthritic hands reaching slowly out for the cloth. Growling as he immediately yanked his prized cloth back from the woman's gnarled fingers, Jaken held his sewing achievement close to his chest.

"Patience, child. I only wish to see your progress," Mariko chuckled, her voice unsteady from age and humour.

"It's all right, Sakeno-chan," the fat woman said, her jowls bobbing as she nodded her head. Jaken frowned slightly as the woman… Kutsui?… placed a meaty hand upon his shoulder. "It's yours. No one will take it away."

Jaken looked dangerously at the impertinent human hand that rested so innocuously upon him. Oh, what he would give to have his Staff with him now! Even then, though, he'd be unable to use it. After all, if Sesshoumaru-sama wanted a report on the activities of these rebellious women, Sesshoumaru-sama would get it.

Once again, he bowed down to his master's seemingly infinite knowledge. How the youkai lord knew these women were plotting world domination, he couldn't decide. But he hadn't been in the room for ten minutes before these wily old hags began to fill him in on their plans, which included among other things:

1) Lessons on how to make any man their slave
2) Premeditated murder (I'm gonna kill him!) and
3) What should be cooked for the evening meal.

It was enough to alternatively turn the old youkai's blood cold, when, that is, he wasn't filled with a new respect for feminine ruthlessness.

"I knew it!" another woman tsked suddenly as she turned the full strength of her small eyes upon Jaken's tiny form. "Such horrible manners the child has! But what could you expect from such a homely, scrawny thing?"

Horrible manners? Homely? Jaken felt his chest puff out with pride as he continued to sew.

"Really, Eiko-san!" Kutsui interjected, her kindly face blushing as she looked down. "The child has no mother! How would you expect her to learn manners?"

"Oh, nonsense! She doesn't need a mother to know how to behave," Eiko continued blissfully as she continued sewing. "If she were a good sort of girl, she would know her manners without having to be told. I knew my manners. My daughter Puki knew her manners. Right after I gave birth to my little dear, Puki knew how to behave in polite company, she did. No, no. No, what Sakeno needs is some good, old fashioned discipline. Discipline, I say. I keep telling you, without it the world will decay into … into … well, it will become untidy," Eiko insisted, her mouth tripping over the sound as if it were the most offensive word in the entire language. "Without a firm hand to discipline, the entire world would fall into untidiness."

"Kami-sama forbid," Mariko muttered dryly. "Better to have put the child out of her misery than to have her untidy."

"Exactly, Mariko-san," Eiko agreed, completely oblivious to the old woman's sarcasm.

"Don't worry, child," Kutsui smiled as she patted Jaken on the head. "I think you are doing a wonderful job."

Jaken grunted in reply as he lifted up the cloth to the weakened light. Actually, he thought as his increasingly knowledgeable eyes scanned over his work of the past few hours, it wasn't too bad. No, not bad at all. Hmm. Wait. What is that?

"Fuck!" he started suddenly, unaware of the looks of the shocked women. "I dropped a stitch!"



* * *




She tried to hide her smile, a part of her instinctively knowing he'd react badly if he saw it, but she was only partially successful.

But there is just something so sweet, Kagome thought as she watched the curious golden eyes that seemed to drink in everything even as they hid behind the impassive face, about a grown man being so intrigued by everyday life.

Sweet?

Good lord, Kagome! The girl scolded herself silently as she continued walking beside the youkai lord, while I'm certain there are many adjectives out there that describe Sesshoumaru, sweet just isn't one of them.

Still, she thought as she fully extended her legs in order to keep up with the youkai's long strides, the more time she spent around Inuyasha's older brother, the more she wondered about him.

"Yeah, anyway," Kagome muttered, feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the silence. Oh, why did she let Rin and Shippou run off to play? "So what do you think of the village?"

Silence.

The young miko looked at the incredibly stubborn man and shrugged her slender shoulders.

"I love it, personally," Kagome chattered, only to wince as momentarily as she decided she sounded like a fool. But still, someone had to talk and it was obvious it wouldn't be the youkai. "When I first came here, it shocked me. Things were so different here from everything I've ever known, you know? But now, it's like I can't imagine things not being this way. Even with no running water. But gawd! What I'd give for electricity sometimes!"

Quietly, she looked up at the beautiful face in order to try to gauge Sesshoumaru's expression. No luck. The guy has to be made out of porcelain or something, she huffed to herself. At least, he hadn't told her to shut up yet. Or, Kagome decided as her eyes fell to his well-sharpened claws, hadn't just killed her. That's always a plus.

"But the people here are really nice. They've made me feel welcome…"

"You are bleeding," the youkai lord stated softly, his carefully modulated voice indifferent.

The girl stopped dead in her tracks, her face an inhumanly brilliant shade of red that wouldn't be seen again until Ronald McDonald would don a gaudy wig in about 500 years.

"You …" she faltered as she looked nervously down at her skirt.

"I, Sesshoumaru, cannot only smell the blood but the infection, as well. While I do not normally delve into the piddling concerns of humans, you did assist the child and therefore, I will make a slight exception."

Infection?

OH! Her foot! The youkai was referring to her injured foot, not… Kagome, she told herself firmly, soooo do not go there.

Laughing nervously and in relief, the young woman nodded her head. "Oh, I forgot. I knew my foot," she tried to emphasize the word subtly but subtlety had never been the girl's strong suit, " was feeling a bit sore today, but, well... After everything that's happened over the last couple of days, I forgot to tell Kaede-baa-chan about my foot."

The youkai lord nodded once, the movement barely perceptible even from only a couple feet away. Still, she thought a she looked down at her foot, (He didn't just slow down, did he? There's no way. Okay, he did slow down. But…naaah. He's probably tired from his injuries and stuff.) it was amusing that now she remembered her own injury, how much it hurt!

"So why have you not healed it yet?"

The girl blinked as she looked up at the youkai.

"Because I forgot to show Kaede?"

For the first time since she met him, a bit of emotion other than anger and indifference slipped onto Sesshoumaru's cool visage. "Why have you not healed it yourself?" he demanded, his voice fogged with a few clouds of exasperation.

Kagome frowned as she continued watching him. "I guess because Kaede is always so willing to help me. And when she heals, it takes a lot less time than when I do it."

Sesshoumaru growled slightly as he headed into the nearest hut.

"You can't go in there!" Kagome started as she tried to remember whose hut the youkai was now violating. Sesshoumaru didn't even bother to glance back at the girl as he pushed his way in.

Dammit.

Kagome jogged after the youkai, her mind whirling with activity as she tried to think of a decent excuse to give the owners of the hut as she entered it herself.

"I'm so sorr… hey, it's empty," the young woman frowned as she looked around the newly built hut curiously. "Why is it empty?"

"Sit."

Kagome immediately sat down at the edge of a pallet.

"Now just wait a second," the girl protested as she started to stand back up, embarrassed at her own reaction. Suddenly, a slander hand pressed down on her shoulder, forcing the miko back down.

"Sit," the youkai growled.

This is just odd, she thought as she hid her confused eyes from Sesshoumaru. I don't think I like being "sitted" very much, she groaned silently as she felt the youkai looking her over.

Uneasily, she glanced around the room, willing her eyes to look at everything except for the creature currently keeping her company.

"OH!" Kagome exclaimed, speaking a little louder than usual in order to fill in the ghastly silence. "It's a wedding hut! That's right. Puki and Ryouku are getting married. Oh, that explains everything!" She spared a quick glance to the youkai lord, only to blush at the slight amusement tugging at his lips. "We have to leave here. We aren't supposed to be violating their wedding hut. It's really bad luck…"

"Take off the footwear."

"I mean, I'd feel so bad if they ended up getting divorced…"

"Miko, remove the footwear."

"Wait. I don't even think you guys have divorces in this age, huh… Hey, don't do that! I can take off my own dumb shoe, got it?"

The youkai growled warningly as he plucked the girl's hands away from her foot, his earlier amusement evidently long gone. Soundlessly, he pulled off the white sock, only to wrinkle his nose at the putrid smell of infection.

"Oh, it didn't look like that this morning," Kagome mumbled dumbly as she felt her blood warm her cheeks. Sesshoumaru, though, didn't even spare her a look.

This guy sure has talent at making people feel stupid, she thought as she decided to refrain from speaking.

She bit her lip as his claw pierced the skin, the tender flesh tinted an unhealthy green. It hurt like hell, but she refused to give the youkai the pleasure of hearing her scream.

"This is the wound you received in the forest?" Sesshoumaru asked, his voice missing its usual bite.

Kagome just nodded, trying to force the memory from her mind. But he saved your life, a part of her insisted as she remembered feel of the weight of his body as it pressed against her and the pain that broke into his startling golden eyes.

Why did he save my life, anyway?

Why?

She needed to ask. It wasn't as if Kagome wanted to ask, but a part of her needed to know. Why save the life of your enemy especially at the risk of your own well being? Why would Sesshoumaru, a man Kagome had always thought of as being one of the most dangerous and heartless of her enemies, save her life?

And why on earth was he tending to her foot now?

Kagome looked down at the youkai, whose hand gently gripped the bottom of her foot as his keen eyes explored the surface. His fingers were warm and strong, knowledgeable too for even though he poked and prodded the injured limb, Kagome felt very little pain.

In fact, she thought as she noticed the slight creasing around his eyes (is that a sign of him concentrating?) that even though it was against everything she had come to believe about the youkai during the last few years, Kagome was willing to bet her entire collection of shikon shards that Sesshoumaru had done this before.

"I'm sorry for being such a bother," Kagome said suddenly, her voice filled with a timidity that she had never heard come from her throat before. It felt… awkward, to say the least. "I should have gotten it looked at but things happened so fast here that it slipped my mind. It just didn't hurt at all."

Sesshoumaru remained silent as he continued lancing the worst of the infection.

"I just wanted to say thank you for helping me…"

"Had you waited much longer, you would have lost the foot."

Kagome blinked as the words floated up to her ears.

"Huh?"

"The infection is quite advanced, especially since it has only been two days. Nonetheless, the rotting is beginning to set in."

Rotting? Kagome wondered in horror. How could her foot … oh, god. Is he talking about gangrene? Kagome forced herself to look down at her injury, only to grumble as the obstinate man shaded her own foot from view. Gangrene, god! Even in my age there is no cure for advanced gangrene.

"But that's impossible!"

The youkai just looked up at her, his eyes disinterested.

"Obviously, it is not."

"But it was fine!"

"No, it was not. Even your inferior human senses should have noticed it."

"Inferior human senses? Could you even BE more pompous?"

"Yes."

Kagome shook her head, caught between a giggle and outrage. There had been no sarcasm in his response, just perfect honesty. In fact, the youkai probably had no clue what he just sounded like.

She felt the weight of his golden eyes as they swung up to her face, undoubtedly annoyed at her sudden laughter. Grinning like a fool, she met his eyes, only to be blown away by the amusement hiding behind the normally passionless orbs.

Magnetic.

There was something so captivating about those eyes that were filled with the humour she had never knew the demon possessed. Her giggles slowly faded as she stared directly into those eyes, unable or unwilling to break the gaze. It wasn't her imagination. It couldn't be.

Sesshoumaru, the great lord of the west, had been teasing her.

Okay, the world can now end, she thought, a part of her elated by this discovery, as the golden eyes appeared to soften. Needless to say, this is precisely why she was thrown so off guard when, a moment later, Sesshoumaru jabbed a sharp claw coated in a green poison directly into her wound.





Responses to Chapter 15 and below will be at the end of 16c. :-) And sorry about the cliffhanger (does that even qualify as one? :-) but I couldn't resist! Muahaha. We are SO close to finishing Part 1. I'm hoping to get back to my old schedule of posting a new chapter at least once a week so hopefully the beginning of Part 2 (chapter 17) should be up next week! Thanks, folks!