Chapter 8: Meet the Family

Kagome woke up with a crick in her neck. She lifted her hands to rub at the soreness, shivering as something silky brushed her hands when she moved them. What was that?

Her eyes fluttered open and she shifted a bit, casting a glance towards her lap, thinking Buyo must've come in and leapt up into her lap whilst she slept. What met her eyes was a mass of white hair. She reached down hesitantly, pulling the hair aside. Thinking...perhaps it was Inuyasha. Maybe she WOULDN'T have to explain to herself and to a demon lord, why he had been sleeping with his head in her lap.

Nope...most definitely Sesshomaru. Then how? He must've fallen asleep while she was rubbing his ears. She remembered, he was angry at that moment, so she didn't dare stop. Must've both fallen asleep...

Okay...that still didn't help her to know how to get out of her current predicament. And she had school! She squirmed and began to draw herself up. But the demon lord's eyelids fluttered and he let out a soft growl, meaning she was waking him up with her movements...

She froze and grit her teeth. She was stuck...unless she wished to face the demon lord's wrath.

She began to rub his ears again, wondering if she could lull him into a deep sleep and then pull free... As she looked down at him she couldn't help it, she reached to stroke at the stripes along his cheeks. They were so soft...almost fuzzy... He wasn't dangerous when he was like this. He turned his head in his sleep, nuzzling her hand and she froze up again. He did NOT just do that.

Her fingers retreated to his ears again and she rubbed until he seemed sound asleep. Then she eased out from under him, leaving the demon lord sprawled out on her floor.

She went to take a quick shower, rushing about to get ready for school.

Later on when Sesshomaru awoke he founded himself with a note taped to his forehead. What the heck? He pulled it off and found a list of 'To Do's'.

He growled. Damn human ordering him around...

Sesshomaru, Please be nice to my family... I'm at school again. Only my mother and Jii-chan will be home... Please avoid Jii-chan...just...please.

Also... Some things for you to do today.

1- Take a shower.
2- Take a pill with your breakfast. (ask mom for some meat or something)
3- Let Mom change your bandages.

Not that hard, right?

He snorted and tore the note up. Like hell we would do what that girl wanted. He'd take a shower for his own benefit. But he wasn't taking a damn pill, and he didn't need a human woman to change his bandages.

He went to the bathroom and found the counter was covered with an array of strange items... He began to dig through them all, finding the oddest bunch of tubes. Little did he know he had found just discovered the hoard of Kagome's make up. Oh well, he sniffed some of it and found it didn't smell good, so went to take his shower, which wasn't as big a disaster as his first.

When he came out he looked at his wound in the mirror...seems like the girl's 'antibiotics' were working. Which surprised him. Those nasty tasting pills were helping him?

The wound was starting to heal... That's when he realized that he hadn't been as weak as he had been past mornings. Hmm...maybe he owed these futuristic humans a few points.

He dressed in his pants and was left wondering just where his shirts and armor were at... He only had his pants. How odd. He shrugged. For now he had no idea how to return to his own time, so he was better off just behaving himself and taking those pills.

A thought crossed his mind, 'If I keep refusing them she'll rub my ears again...' He snorted instantly, what was that thought! He wanted a human girl to rub his ears! Heh. The voice came back into his mind, 'You never let anyone touch you...you know you desire it.' He growled and refused to listen to that voice anymore, blocking it out and going to the drawer where he had seen Ms. Higurashi put the pill bottle in. He would take the pill now and--

Whatever his thoughts had been they were cut off and his jaw dropped a little bit. He had found Kagome's underwear drawer... He quickly closed it and tapped his claws along the top of the dresser, growling. Part of him wanted to look again...

He pulled the drawer open and snatched up the bottle quickly, closing his eyes to ignore the feel of the silky items against his hand. He had the bottle, the drawer was slammed shut...all was good.

He growled. He needed to get out more if a few under garments were enough to get him going. But they were so tiny and-- He cut off those thoughts and growled, hitting the dresser and telling himself, "No."

Sesshomaru pulled away from the dresser and tried to open the bottle. Cursing when it refused to do so for him. Along the top the words read, 'Child Proof'. He growled and restrained the urge to just tear the top open... But that was something Inuyasha would do, he would just make the human woman downstairs open it. He knew Ms. Higurashi was home, he could hear her moving about.

He went to the door and opened it, carrying the bottle with him as he went down the stairs more easily than he had the other day. Following the sound of a knife on a cutting board into the kitchen.

The woman from yesterday was standing at a counter, chopping up vegetables. She calmly glanced over her shoulder at him and then smiled. "Good Morning." She said. He nodded and stepped forward, setting the bottle down on the counter right in front of her.

She set the knife aside and looked at him, hiding her surprise that he could not open it himself and asking, "You want any breakfast?"

His stomach growled in response and the Lord just nodded his head a tiny bit. She nodded and picked up the bottle, saying as she opened it, "Just push down and twist to the left...suppose it's more difficult with only one hand."

He said nothing and she set one of the pills on the counter before him and closed the bottle, going to the fridge and saying, "Kagome said you're a picky eater, you only eat raw meat then?"

He nodded, having to do it twice because the woman hadn't seen him the first time.

She pulled a package of chicken out of the fridge. Catching him staring at the refrigerator as if it were the oddest thing he had ever seen. Deciding to strike up a conversation she went to get another cutting board and began to prepare the chicken, saying, "That's a Refrigerator... we use it to store perishable food like meat, milk, cheese, and some fruits. Stuff like that."

He was still looked at the fridge, but he nodded his head, obviously listening to her. Perhaps even fascinated by the information.

After a while she passed a plate of the raw meat to him with a fork and then washed her hands to go back to chopping up carrots.

He began to eat in silence, throwing the pill down with one of the chunks of chicken and making the funniest face when he actually bit down on the pill and realized it was meant to be swallowed whole. It tasted disgusting!

Ms. Higurashi was actually chuckling as she saw that look on his face and got him a glass of water, which he gladly chugged down. Coughing when he drank it too fast.

He stood there for a moment after he was finished and watched the woman package the sliced carrots away and put them in the ...the refrigerator. Yes, he had it memorized now. An ingenious idea, one might add.

The woman took his plate and cleaned it, putting it into some sort of box under the counter that had racks for plates and such... More odd things. But before he could ask about it she spoke.

"Your wound is healing over a lot better. Suppose your immune system just needed a bit of a nudge to get rid of that infection. Which is what you must've had. So now your wound will heal much faster. But you might as well keep taking the pills until the wound is completely healed over."

He nodded softly and spoke for the first time she had ever heard him, "You are a healer?"

She shook her head, "No, not a healer so much as I just learned a few things from raising two children."

"They are both at school?" He asked. Seeming to have decided it was alright to ask all his questions.

"Yes, Kagome and Souta are both at school right now."

He nodded and then said, "You have no servants...even though it is obvious you are wealthy enough to send your children to school."

She laughed very softly, "We are not wealthy. It is public school that they go to."

"Public?... All humans go to school?"

Ms. Higurashi nodded, and it continued on like this for most of the morning. Her cleaning up around the kitchen and the house, with the demon lord asking any questions that came to his mind. His natural drive to understand everything having been sparked.

After a while a young boy came storming into the house, saying, "I'm home!" Sesshomaru turned his head and watched the eight year old come running into the house, tossing his book bag in the entry as he went. His cold mask returned and he observed the boy in silence.

Souta came into the living room where Ms. Higurashi was dusting and did not notice the demon lord seated on the couch. Saying, "I have soccer practice tonight, so you gotta come. Alright?"

Ms. Higurashi smiled and said, "Yes, fine."

Souta turned then and spotted Sesshomaru, his eyes widening, "Whoa! Dude! You look like Inuyasha!"

Sesshomaru snorted and said, "I have heard that before."

Souta walked over to him and stared at him for a moment. "Oh...you're Inuyasha's older brother! The Ice Prince!"

Sesshomaru arched a brow at the boy, "...Ice Prince?"

Souta nodded, "Kagome said some stuff about ya once."

Ms. Higurashi called back, saying, "Souta, you have to get ready for practice."

"Yeah, yeah..." He didn't seem so interested in soccer anymore and said, "You're cool."

Cool?...Like... Cold to go along with the Ice Prince comment? Hmm. Strange.

Souta turned and went running up the stairs, saying, "I'll be ready in thirty minutes!"

The front door chose to open then and Kagome came in, bending down to pick up Souta's discarded book bag and setting it up against the wall with her own. She entered the living room, seeing her mother first and saying, "Hey." Then she froze up, seeing the demon lord seated on the couch watching her.

She took a moment, not knowing just what to say, her mouth opening and closing a few times.

"Girl, you look like a fish. Now tell me what hay means as a greeting."

Kagome's mouth shut fast and she looked at him, saying, "H-E-Y, not H-A-Y. It's a greeting."

He nodded and surprised her by looking thoughtful. Then actually asked a question, what had him so talkative? "Then what does that little boy mean by calling me cool? Does he mean to add it to the nickname 'Ice Prince' you have applied to me?"

Kagome paled a bit...had Souta told Sesshomaru all the things she said about him? "Ahem... cool is spelled the same. But it means the same thing as awesome, or --well... it's a compliment."

He nodded and kept looking at her, making her squirm a bit. "So...uh... did you take your medicine this morning?"

He nodded again and she had no idea what to say, so she just went over to her mom. Who said, "You'll have to cook dinner for yourself and Jii-chan tonight, I have to take Souta to soccer practice."

Kagome nodded and said, "Alright..." Looking at Sesshomaru and saying, "Your wound is healing but you should still have salve and a bandage over it."

He rose to his feet and shot across the room to stand right in front of Kagome in a split instant. Surprising both Kagome and her mother. "You will cease to give this Sesshomaru orders, woman. You need only to return me to my own time...as I am healed enough."

Kagome looked at him and took on a stubborn stance, "Tomorrow we will see if your wound is healed to my standard of 'enough'. And then I might take you back."

Sesshomaru scowled at Kagome, he was not used to females standing up to him, especially not human females. He was taken slightly aback. But he narrowed his eyes at her, saying, "You test my patience."

But suddenly he felt an overwhelming flash of pain as Kagome prodded him lightly in the abdomen and he hissed, taking a step back.

"There. You're not healed enough to go back to the Sengoku Jidai. So stop pestering me and sit down."

Sesshomaru's eyes flashed red, how dare she! But he saw how Ms. Higurashi watched and frowned...and decided he shouldn't do anything... Besides, Kagome was his ticket home. So he just growled and stepped back, saying, "Tomorrow I will be leaving."

Kagome just flashed him a smile and said, "Of course, Sesshomaru-sama." She had a way of using his title to make it sound disrespectful.

He stepped back and sat down stiffly on the couch. His tail switching side to side in irritation. He wasn't so much angry at the girl as he was at himself for having no comeback pop into his mind. He would just have to give the human the Ace for the moment.

--

Later that day, Kagome came down from her room to find Sesshomaru had been more formerly introduced to the TV. He didn't even glance in her direction when she came into the room with bandages and such. She looked at what he was watching...a Soap Opera. She saw the look on his face as he watched it and was just waiting for him to say, 'No, Jeffery, no!"

She giggled at that thought and he broke his gaze from the screen to look at her, his mask slipping into place as he did so.

She smiled at him, catching him completely off guard. And she took the controller from him, switching it to cartoons and saying, "These are better for your brain than what you were watching." He snorted, but the pull of Tom and Jerry was too much and soon enough he was watching that intently.

"Can you sit up?" She asked. He grunted and did so, distracted. And he ignored the cold salve she wiped onto his wounds. She leaned close and began to wrap the bandage about his stomach and he felt her black hair tickling at his bare chest and actually shivered. She glanced up at him and pulled her hair back. "Sorry."

He said nothing and she moved back, finished with the bandages and going to wash her hands. She returned to the room and watched his eyes following the cartoon characters on the screen...sheesh... he was addicted.

"Sesshomaru." He glanced in her direction. "What do you want for dinner?"

He shrugged and she rolled her eyes. Turning and going into the kitchen to start cooking. Hearing her grandfather's door upstairs open as the old man came down for the smell of dinner. Buyo had been in Jii-chan's room and came down, going straight into the living room to puff up and hiss at Sesshomaru. Who paid no attention to the cat whatsoever. Imagining the cat being struck upside the head with an iron in the place of Tom.

He didn't even notice the old man enter the room, until he shouted, "DEMON!"

Kagome didn't know what happened but when she entered the living room in a hurry she found a red-eyed demon lord glaring at her grandfather, plastered in sutra charms.

If she hadn't been concerned for her Jii-chan's safety she would have been rolling on the floor laughing. In this case, however, she ran forward and got in front of her grandfather, saying, "Jii-chan, this is Sesshomaru-sama. He's my guest! Please don't do anything!" She took a moment to calm the old man, and then saw Sesshomaru was still very angry.

She rushed across the room to pull the sutra's out of the demon lord's hair, not even realizing that her fingers went straight to his ears and began to scratch.

The red eyes watching the old man across the room slowly faded back to golden and the taut muscles loosened. The demon lord went lax, leaning back against Kagome. Who drew away slowly. Those golden eyes following her as she pulled off the last few sutras and then went over to her grandfather, tapping on his shoulder to draw him out of his own trance.

He had just watched his grand daughter petting that demon like it was a dog, and now it looked rather subdued... for the moment at least. She spoke, saying, "Jii-chan, dinner is ready. Just go sit at the table."

She turned and looked back at Sesshomaru, saying, "Have a seat at the table as well, turn off the TV."

Sesshomaru had no idea why he did what she told him to, but the TV went off and he rose gracefully to his feet and followed the old man to the dining room where a rectangular table sat, able to seat six people easily.

The old man's scent said he was nervous, but Sesshomaru just calmly seated himself at the table, sitting on the closest side that was against the wall. The human male went to the far end, sitting at the head of the table in silence.

Kagome flashed them both a smile from in the kitchen and rounded the table, bringing three plates. Kagome's grandfather eyed his plate, smiling at his granddaughter as she sat the plate of food before him first, then set an identical plate in the place she would sit, at the other end of the table. Facing her grandfather, with Sesshomaru to her left. She placed a plate of beef before Sesshomaru, having made the raw meat look a bit organized, more like a formal plate than just a pile of beef slices.

He could feel the old man's eyes on him and growled, glancing down the table at Jii-chan. Who shrank a bit. Sesshomaru smirked, that was... until he felt Kagome kick him from under the table...

They ate in silence from then on.

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My eighth chapter! OMG! Lol. I had fun writing this one when I actually found time. Being swamped by people role-playing with me as I was, lol. But I wouldn't let you people down! GROUP HUG! Awwwwwww.

Definitions-

Jii-chan- Japanese for Grandfather

Sutra- a Buddhist scroll. Miroku uses these to 'ward off demons'. Kagome's grandfather is a monk that uses sutras, but sadly...none of his have any power.

Reviews- This time I think I gotcha all.

Sheenachi- I live in Oklahoma, but if my mom did that I would freak! Lol. "Honey, if you've had him in here for three days you should've been able to get him to take more than just his shirt off!" Talk about that being a scary but cool mom. Hehehe.

regretfully-yours-Cassy-chan- I'm sorry to go with the crowd. - But I will just say my screen names are just about as long. -

1kenshinlover- Will do! Thank you. It's my longest chapter! -

Kiraracutie4-

You: MORE MORE MORE MORE!

Me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

- Lol, JK.

Serenity-moon1- Thank you! - It's hard to portray Sesshomaru's character in a way all people agree to though...

Kagamoesiun- On the note of romance... that's what I'll be working towards. But I have no straight out plan... Just expect it. -

Are-en1- Thank you. I'm updating as fast as the story comes to me. -

Kari Konoko- - Mine is a newer computer, but whenever my sister gets on it a new problem tries to pop up. Lol.

Dawnmiko- Thank you! - Will be working towards a chapter a day, I think. - Btw, I LOVE your penname.

Kagome113287- Will do! -