I guess I forgot that I already uploaded Chapter 3. Ah well. I was going to do some other stuff to this one before I posted it, but seeing as how I haven't touched it in over 9 months I might as well load it now.

Inu 1/2

Book 2

Chapter 4

Sesshomaru? HERE? You've gotta be KIDDING me!

Kagome sat at her desk, math book in hand. English hadn't exactly been a snap, but she'd passed it... At least... she hoped she'd passed it. Nothing to do but wait for the grades now and dive into studying for tomorrow's two tests. Math was one. History was the other. Well, history ought to be easy as long as they stuck to feudal stuff. She'd have no problem. Hell, she'd even bring in some people from the feudal era if she thought it would help her grade any. She didn't think her teacher would be too impressed, but it'd be worth a try. She let out a sigh as she flipped the page of her math book, studying the formula for volume.

The rest of the family was already in bed. She really ought to be, but she needed to study. Math wasn't her best subject by any means and it was only succeeding in making her head hurt.

She sighed again, pushing back from the desk. She stood up and stretched a little deciding to take a little break. She slunk out of her room and tiptoed down the stairs.

"Maybe there's still some senbei left I can munch on..." she thought to herself as she entered the kitchen.

There were no little rice crackers to be found, much to Kagome's dismay. She silently cursed Sota figuring it must have been him that ate them, and she slammed the cabinet door. She went to the fridge.

"Ooo!" she exclaimed as she grabbed up a triangle shaped cake. "All mine..." she sing-songed as she quickly readied it to be devoured.

A few minutes passed and she was happy. Her cake was eaten and though she figured she'd get in trouble for it tomorrow, she was full at the moment and that is what counted. She relaxed as she sat on her little floor cushion and laid her fork beside her empty plate. She leaned back a little, her eyes closing and she almost... almost fell asleep. She shook herself awake and decided that it was dangerous to lounge around after eating so much cake.

She was about to go up the stairs when she felt it.

Her brow furrowed.

"No... He wouldn't..." She paused, one hand on the banister. She sighed angrily. "Yes... He would." Almost growling in anger, she turned and headed for the genkan and the front door.

"Barely a day! I should have known..." She tromped stubbornly out toward the wellhouse. Halfway there, she started yelling.

"Inu-Yasha, I told you TWO WEEKS! We made a deal! If you think I'm coming back with you you're--" she entered the wellhouse and looked around. Where was he?...

Fear suddenly gripped her.

"I-Inu-Yasha?..." she called out hurridly into the darkness of the wellhouse.

Something was wrong. She felt a sense of dread filling her.

"Inu-Yasha?" she called again, rushing to look over the side of the well. Maybe he was hurt! Maybe he couldn't make it out of the well. Maybe--

She looked down at the form of a demon at the bottom of the well. Her breath caught as she saw the white hair and all of the blood. For a moment, she thought it was him, but then a new sense of dread filled her as she realized who it truly was.

Sesshomaru's eyes fell on her lazily, almost as if he didn't see her or didn't care. Kagome held her breath as she watched his eyelids lower.

Sesshomaru.

Her blood ran ice cold.

Sesshomaru was in her world. Oh God. Oh God... He was hurt but... Oh God.

She stared down at him, shaking from fear. She stared for what seemed like forever.

She turned away from the well wide-eyed. She paced. She looked down.

He wasn't waking up.

She paced some more.

She might have paced longer, but even in unconsciousness, Sesshomaru's pain sent shudders through him and one of the tremors upset his broken arm and a whine escaped him.

She stopped.

She looked down again.

She bit her lip.

She went to get a ladder.

Now, hauling the dead weight of a large demon up a ladder is not the most easy of tasks and it took Kagome, addled by anxiety over the identity of her load, a good hour, but haul him out of the well, she did. Then she spent several minutes staring at him, pale-faced and shaking and doing her best not to run in the other direction.

Sesshomaru.

In her world.

Oh God.

What was going to happen when he woke up? He'd tried to kill her once before and that was with Inu-Yasha present. She'd only lived because the spell on the Tetsusaiga shielded her. There was no way to get out of it if he tried to kill her now. There was no way to save her family, either.

She looked at him, lying there on the dirt floor of the wellhouse, his body spasming occassionally, his left arm bending at an unnatuarl angle and his abdomen all but torn wide open.

Okay, so maybe he was in no shape to fight... and maybe if she patched him up enough he'd be grateful enough not to kill her.

She bit her lip.

Not bloody likely.
She could always call Inu-Yasha here. If the demon tried anything, Inu-Yasha could subdue him in this condition. Actually, if she had a weapon, maybe even she could. Okay. That might work. She began to look around for a baseball bat. Or a machine gun.

---------

Warmth suffused his limbs. He felt a stiffness to his body. Perhaps he had slept wrong. He felt the softness of a bed under his back, the warmth around him, the smell he knew so well. He breathed it in. Kagome. He turned his head, his eyes opening groggily, focussing lazily.

His eyes widened.

She stared at him from the chair at her desk, turned to face him. Her breath caught quickly as she saw him wake and turn toward her. She was terrified. He smelt it on her. In her hands she held something. A board with a nail in it. He almost smiled at the absurdity of it, but he was too confused. What was wrong? Why was this happening?

He looked at her in confusion. He wanted to feel her against him. He'd had the most horrible dream. He'd lost her in it. He'd almost died. But she was here now. It would be alright. He would feel her hand on his head and he would forget that he hated it. He just wanted to make that look on her face go away. He wanted to make the fear smell go away.

He raised his head a little and meant to roll toward the edge of the bed, but the moment he moved pain wracked his body, rolling through him, shaking him as if he were a doll.

He heard a swear escape his lips and he lay back against the pillow, sweat beading his forehead.

His groggy flight from the forrest came back to him. How could he have forgotten that?

Blood loss. Sleep deprevation. Poison madness.

Ah yes.

He stared at the ceiling.

He was alive.

He was hurt.

He was a demon.

He was not just a demon, but a demon who had tried to kill her. Ahhh. The terrified look on her face. Yes, that was probably reason enough for it.

Across the room, our of reach of his good arm, Kagome shifted in her chair. She was shaking. The room still stank from her fear.

"If you..." she started, her voice faltering. She licked her lips and started again. "If you hurt me or anyone in my family Inu-Yasha will find out and he will kill you."

It was only a half-lie if even that. Inu-Yasha would find out because he would come here eventually to get Kagome and he would not hesitate to kill Sesshomaru. Not here. That had been part of their truce-- he was not to go anywhere near Kagome. Sesshomaru also had the sneaking suspicion that if Kagome were truly imperiled in her world Inu-Yasha would be able to tell somehow and come running back. In his current state even Kagome might be able to handle him. Provided she kept her board with the nail... Maybe even without it.

Sesshomaru continued to stare at the ceiling.

"I w--" he started his voice shuddering and stopping in his throat as his abdomen contracted.His eyes squeezed shut against the pain. It was some few minutes before he opened his eyes again. Instead of trying to talk again he merely nodded and that he did only slightly.

Kagome swallowed nervously, setting her board aside.

She stood up, crossing her arms and trying to look imposing, her face stern but fear still hanging about her like a cloud.

"Do you want some water," she said as a statement.

Sesshomaru looked at her moving his eyes to scan her face. He tilted his head in a very slight nod.

Kagome nodded curtly in return and she left the room quickly returning just as quickly and shutting her door behind her. She held a glass of water shakily in her hands when she returned and she thrust it out to Sesshomaru with a, "Here."

He tried to move his right arm, but the poison stiffness was not yet worn off from his limbs. Doubtless, it wouldn't last long, but he had had scant time to recover.

He exhaled, from the exertion of trying to move and the exhaling itself drew another spasm from his abdomin as it clenched. He closed his eyes tightly from the pain and opened them again when it subsided. He glanced at Kagome. She eyed him carefully. He glared at her trying to get her to understand.

"You ... you can't move..." she realized. His gaze softened and he nodded slightly again.

She looked away from him for a minute as if deciding something.

"Alright... fine..." she muttered to herself. She came as close to the bed as she dared and held the glass to Sesshomaru's lips. She tipped it ever so slightly and Sesshomaru drank slowly. He closed his eyes as he drank, not realizing how thirsty he was. It had been days since he'd last had water. There hadn't been time in the fight. He felt the last of the water trickle into this mouth and he felt the cool glass being drawn away. He lay there for a moment, breathing softly, his eyes still closed. He wetted his lips and tasted the dried blood there. He opened his eyes half-way and looked for Kagome.

She had retreated to the chair again and she stared at him. The fear smell was easing a little, edging toward something like pity. He must be hurt badly to evoke pity in his enemies.

He tried his voice again, softer this time, barely above a whisper. It pained him. He wanted to thank her, but he knew she would mistrust it. He couldn't blaim her. Monthes ago he had been a murderous bastard. She didn't know of the change in him.

"Why..." he began, surprised that his voice sounded so strange to his ears. He realized he had paused and began again. "Why do you help me..." He dared not speak any louder, afraid it would require too much from him and he would go into spasms again.

Kagome looked at him fiercely, feigned anger the only way she knew to stave off the fear she felt.

"Because you're hurt," she said matter-of-factly. "And you may have tried to kill me before, but you're still Inu-Yasha's brother and whether he wants to admit or not, I think it would hurt him if you died." She kept her eyes trained on him. "Though I wouldn't be so broken up about it..." she added under her breath.

Sesshomaru blinked. He turned his eyes from her.

"We have called a truce, my brother and I..." he said in his quiet whisper, trying to embue it with as much spite as he could. He resented that she hated him. He didn't want to admit that it hurt.

Kagome's brow furrowed. "You two?..." She didn't believe him.

Sesshomaru nodded slightly, shutting his eyes.

"I'll believe it when I see it.." she said, still staring at him.

"Believe what you will."he said, finally, flatly. He shut his eyes again feeling the need to sleep and heal. He breathed slowly for a while, but her ever-present fear hung about the room like a cloud. Finally, he opened his eyes. "Girl-- Leave me be. You have my word that no harm will befall you or your family. I must rest and your presense hinders that."

Kagome snorted in disbelief. "Sorry, but I don't put too much stock in your word. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

At that, Sesshomaru raised his voice. "Do not insult me, Girl," he growled, but his abdomen clenched and he closed his eyes, snarling against the pain. He coughed, his lips growing bloody. He licked them purposefully and swallowed slowly, forcing himself to calm down. He looked at her then with real contempt, angry and offended more than he would admit. He spoke again, softer this time, but his voice was still harsh. "I have honor enough to not harm the woman who has saved my life. Though if you wish to make an enemy of me anew, insulting my honor is a good way to do it." He stared at the ceiling again. "Now leave me."

Kagome blinked, surprised and not a little scared. Sesshomaru had such command in his voice that her body wanted to comply with everything he said even if her mind didn't. Still, he was in no shape to hurt anyone. He had proven that just now; the simple act of raising his voice had sent him into a fit. She bit her lip.

"Don't order me around, Sesshomaru," she said, finally with less coviction than she had planned. Reguardless, she stood against her better judgement, casting a contemptuous glance at Sesshomaru. She left the room, shutting the door behind her.

In the bed Sesshomaru stared in a little disbelief, wondering if her stubbornness had worn off. Then he heard the soft thud against the door. She was going to sleep with her back against it, playing sentry for her sleeping family.

Sesshomaru let out a sigh and shut his eyes. He was so tired... As he neared sleep the pain dulled and gradually, he drifted off.

Next time: I forget. It's been a long time...