A/N: So sorry for the wait! My excuse? Sesshomaru and Kagome eloped to Hawaii because I was being too slow with their relationship, and they didn't want to hide it any more…. This is also known as writer's block.

Hiei's.punk.rocker.girl: Yes, Kagome's done it this time, eh? (By the way, thanks for being one of my best reviewers! )

Kalliel: At least you're not blind enough to read this!

sess9: Inuyasha… I kinda forgot about him. Well, he'll be coming in later, I have this nice little plot turn that will probably make everyone want to kill me, and it involves Inuyasha, so stay tuned!

Thanks to all my other reviewers too!

Beta Read by Kalliel/ Banana Rum

--

Chapter 9: Unexpected Arrival

Kagome gasped. 'I'm really doomed now.'

Sesshomaru didn't seem to care much, though. That gave Kagome even the faintest glimmer of hope. When he opened his mouth to speak, it vanished, and hid away somewhere behind her. Damn.

"Why are you here?" He asked, sounding bored. Although he sounded calm on the outside, he was worried. Here he was, naked, in front of this girl who should have died or been disposed of long ago!

"I'm leaving," Kagome informed him. She cocked her head to one side. "Why are you here, anyway?"

Sesshomaru replied, "That is none of you business. Go."

Kagome turned to go, but slipped on a puddle of water. "Ahh!"

Sesshomaru looked on as Kagome stood up, angrily muttering about water hazards. She moaned when she noticed the back of her shirt and skirt was completely soaked.

His face showed concern for the briefest moment before returning to its boredom.

"Are you leaving now?" he asked, his voice softening slightly.

Kagome grumbled, "Why do you want me to leave so soon?"

He didn't think when he said it. "Because I don't want you anywhere near me."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. So that's the way it was. "Well, I hate you! You're a jerk! All you do is order or kill everyone in sight, without a single thought of what they might think!"

"I do think about them," Sesshomaru said, so quietly the words were drowned out by Kagome stomping her foot on the ground.

"Haven't you ever thought about me? I have a family I want to go home to, and you had no business taking me here!" Kagome shouted. 'Not that I mind so much anymore. But he still annoys me a lot!'

"You would rather have died? I remember you saying you wanted to," Sesshomaru shot back, his patience growing thin. 'She can be the most irritating person in the world when she's like this.'

"Not anymore," she blushed. If he knew what she was thinking…

"Enjoy your fantasies of being loved by this Sesshomaru, for they are not true," Sesshomaru regretted his words, but he could not fall in love with her, even the idea was absurd.

"I never thought that way! It's probably you who's wondering if I'll ever return your love!" With that final retort, Kagome spun on her heel and walked out. 'What luck I have. I have to go and see him, and on top of that, he can read my mind!' Her thoughts flashed to a depressive image of him standing there…without clothes…

She quickly started to think of something else. 'Now, where am I? ... Although he did look kind of se-'

She stopped. 'No, no, don't think like that!'

Kagome managed to make it back to her room without any more bad thoughts about Sesshomaru. She sat down on her futon, noticing that it had been recently cleaned.

'I wonder where Hatsue is…' Kagome wondered idly.

A moment later, Hatsue walked in, glaring at Kagome. "Lady, where were you? I was looking for you! And you're not supposed to be wandering about."

"I was at the hot springs?" Kagome said, cringing. 'Now I've done it.'

"Lady! Every room here is off-limits except this one." Hatsue reprimanded. "Was there any one else in there?"

Kagome, for once in her stupid, deceptive life told the truth for once. "Sesshomaru was in there," she said evenly.

Hatsue gasped. "That's…. that's… horrible! Why was he there?"

Obviously, her mind couldn't have picked what WASN'T the worst time to turn saintly on her. "Relaxing, I guess," Kagome said, vaguely. "Isn't that was hot springs are for?"

"Was he in one?" Hatsue asked, somewhat eagerly. "Did you see him…?"

"Yes," Kagome said, blushing. "I didn't mean to, though! I thought he was a servant and threw a statue at him." She laughed at the expression on Hatsue's face.

"Really?" Hatsue seemed horrified and pleased at the same time. "You threw a large projectile at him?"

Kagome smiled. "Yes. It was interesting, certainly."

--

Sesshomaru watched Kagome stomp out of the room. He mentally sighed.

As he got up, the water slid off his body and back into the hot spring. He put his only slightly damp clothing on, and walked out, following the wet footprints of Kagome for a while before turning to his own quarters.

Once inside, he sat down, thinking deeply. It was time to get his thoughts turned around for the better. This meant that there would be no more Kagome occupying his thoughts.

Night fell, and the room was blanketed in darkness. Sesshomaru's sharp eyes easily penetrated through the black as he lay down on his futon and fell in to a troubled sleep.

--

She spun around him, falling over and landing in a heap a few feet away, laughing breathlessly. She smiled up at him toothily; her baby teeth had started to fall out. She got up and began to twirl again, still laughing. He felt a smile on his own face, and he started to chuckle along with her.

They were dancing a ridiculous dance, jumping and spinning on the soft spring grass. She was singing, in her high, young voice, a little out of tune, but sweet. Some song he couldn't identify wrapped around him, and he hummed and added to the noise.

Then she was dead at his feet, frowning at him. A burning stake through her heart, rising five feet into the air, protruded from her body. He fell to his knees, and sobbed, holding her close. She was cursing him, somehow.

She was upright, walking towards him. An eerie grin flickered on her face, the stake still in her. She had grown claws, and sprung at him, pinning him down beneath her. She lowered her head and kissed him, and blood filled his mouth. He spat it out, and she talked to him; words he had never heard her say before.

"You didn't help me. You bastard, you sick, twisted bastard, I loved you, and you didn't save me. I'm dead, you're poor little bitch is dead, are you happy now?" She leered at him, and pulled the stake out of her own heart and plunged it in his.

She was sobbing over his body. He watched as she lifted his corpse with relative ease, and dropping it again, crying for him and herself. She stroked his hair, jerking a few strands out and tying them into a braid, which she then tucked into her kimono. She was talking again. He strained to hear her, his normally excellent hearing impaired.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I'll come to you tomorrow, at dawn. Wait for me, my love."

His vision was crisscrossed with black, and all went dark.

--

Someone was knocking on the shoji. Sesshomaru grumbled, and ignored it, until it became so incessant that he stood up, irritated, to see who would need him so badly.

No one was there. He lay back down, annoyed. He had almost fallen asleep when the knocking started again.

He didn't move. The sound continued. Then a voice behind him said, "It rude not to greet your guests."

He started, but noticed that there wasn't a single person in the vicinity. Besides, if there was, he would have known.

"Come on, Lord Sesshomaru! You know who I am, or you will know soon. Either way, stand and face me respectfully!" The voice sounded childish.

"Who are you?" Sesshomaru asked gruffly, turning around. Still no one that he could see, smell, or, when he reached out in front of himself, touch. "Show yourself!"

"But I want to have fun, first," the voice pouted. "I've traveled a long way. Have it your way, then."

A shape began to materialize in front of him. It took the form of a young girl, some of her black hair pulled into a messy ponytail and her kimono travel-worn.

"It can't be," Sesshomaru said, awed. "Rin? Why are you here?"

"You blame me for wanting to see you. I want to be with you, Lord Sesshomaru," Rin smiled. There was a bouquet of flowers in her left hand. "I got these for you, before I died. I found them again! Isn't that great?"

"Rin… why are you here?" Sesshomaru was stunned, struggling not to show it.

"I told you! Are you deaf now that I've died?" Rin replied cheerfully, her voice holding a hint of sadness.

"No, why do you venture from the land of the dead to visit the living? It is forbidden," Sesshomaru said.

"Aren't you glad to see me, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin said, her happy demeanor dropping. "I'm not staying forever!"

"For how long, then?" he asked quietly. 'It's not that I don't want you here.'

"Until you die! That'll be for another couple thousand years, won't it?" Rin thrust out the flowers. "Here. They won't wilt. I think," her forehead creased in thought. "No, they won't! They'll be a symbol of us being together forever!"

"You cannot stay here." Sesshomaru ordered, his heart wrenching when he remembered the day she had died, and now seeing her before him. It seemed so impossible, yet it was true. Too good to last for long, no matter how much he wanted her to stay.

Rin frowned. "But I want to!" She whined. She placed the flowers on the ground, then went to Sesshomaru and hugged him gently. "I want to be with you."

Her head pressed into his stomach, and her voice became a muffled sob. "When I died, I thought I would never see you again. I'm not happy being dead. I want to be alive again," she cried. "It wasn't Jaken's fault. He thought I was a demon." She looked up at him. "I was playing with him, but he didn't know it. I was hiding from him."

Sesshomaru hesitantly started to hug her back, but forced himself not to. "Rin, you have to go." He sounded sad. "If you could stay here…. with me… I would be…. happy, but…."

"I can," Rin said, her emotion changing back to a subdued happiness. "I don't think anyone will realize I'm gone. There are a lot of people there. Not too many trying to go back to the living, though." She looked mischievous. "I snuck out a couple of nights ago. Have any strange dreams lately?"

"You caused that dream last night? You were dead, and so was I…." Sesshomaru stopped. He remembered the dream all too well, Rin with a burning stake through her heart…

"I said to wait for me."

"Go away."

Rin glared at him. "You don't want me? I came all the way here. I thought I had

learned something in death. I did, but maybe it's not enough for you." The last statement

was almost a question. She doubted his loyalty to her.

But where did his loyalties lie? With her- beautiful and wild, yet slightly

repulsive at the same time- or with Kagome, who, he had to admit, was growing on

him. 'I can't choose today.'

"I'll think about it. This is a serious matter, not to be taken lightly," Sesshomaru

glanced at her, and turned away. "Leave me now."

"How about I go scare Kagome? That would be fun!" Rin shouted. Sesshomaru

protested.

"No! Don't!" But she was gone. He sighed. Then he heard her voice.

"One last- ah, point- no one will be able to see me, or anything I've given you-

unless I directly talk to them. That means that if anyone was listening in right now, they

would have thought you were crazy. Bye!"

Sesshomaru didn't look to see if she had gone.

--

Kagome sipped her tea quietly, trying not to slurp. When Hatsue had flitted off

yet again, she found herself alone- again. Not that she minded.

'Why does Hatsue always have to go somewhere? She's never around for more

than five minutes,' Kagome wondered. She had given Kagome tea and rushed off. 'Where did the tea come from?'

Anyway, here she was alone, and not about to sneak around again. 'I've had

enough of wandering aimlessly through the castle.'

The minutes ticked by, and the silence almost became unbearable. Kagome shut

it out, and waited for something to happen.

Something did.

"Hello, Kagome," a voice said, right in her ear.

Kagome yelped, and turned around to see a ghost. Her eyes went wide, and she

almost fainted at the sight. "Wh-who are you?" she asked fearfully.

The ghost laughed merrily. "I'm Rin." Seeing Kagome's look, she added, "Yes,

I'm dead, and I just came from visiting with my Lord Sesshomaru!"

Kagome blinked. "Then why are you here if you're a ghost?" 'And when did

Sesshomaru become yours?'

"I'm here because I want to be with Lord Sesshomaru! And I will be, forever," Rin proclaimed, angrily.

Kagome bristled. "Sesshomaru isn't some plaything you can say is yours. Besides, you're dead; you're not supposed to be here."

Rin leaned closer to Kagome, who could smell the scent of death cloaking her. "I know more than you'll ever know alive," Rin hissed. "Death changes a person."

Kagome turned her head away. "I thought you would be at least a little like the Rin Sesshomaru cared for. It seems you aren't."

"He loves me." Rin spoke with such certainty that Kagome openly stared at her.

"How can you be so sure?" she asked, swallowing nervously.

Rin sneered. "By disposing of you."

--

A/N: Well, we finally got some Sess/Kag action, but ::sob:: they're both so stubborn! They just argue and argue! I shouldn't be complaining, though, because I'm the one who wrote it, oh well.

And Rin is back with a vengeance! Yippee! I was kinda starting to miss her. What will she do next?! ::fake gasp:: I don't know!

Innocent will either be updated early or on the usual Saturday. I'll try not to be late again!

Please review.