Disclaimer: Do you know it takes me about...twenty seconds to write a disclaimer, even though everyone already knows that I DON'T OWN INUYASHA!

SesshLG: Be prepared, it gets a little weird from here.

Sesshomaru: What do you mean, woman?

Shippo: Do Sesshomaru and Kagome kiss!

Inuyasha: Shut it, pipsqueak! We all know who Kagome's gonna kiss, and sure ain't going to be my bastard brother, Sesshomaru!

SesshLG: WHO'S WRITING THE STORY HERE! (ZAP!) Anyone else want to get on my nerves today? I'm feeling very...irascible.

Inuyasha: (Twitching)

SesshLG: You have been warned. The story does get weird, so bear with me.

Chapter 5

"Higurashi? Higurashi!"

Four days later, when it is finally Friday…

"SIT!" yelled the post-snoozing Kagome. She blinked and yawned. "Oops, I'm sorry, Mr. Yoshiako."

"Don't tell your teacher to sit!"

"Yes, sir." 'I'm so glad today is Friday…soon there won't be anymore school, and I'll watch Sess…zzz.'

"HIGURASHI!"

"SIT!"

After school, her two best friends, Yumi and Emi, ran up to Kagome, yelling her name excitedly.

"Hey, Kagome! Nice wake up call!" they teased.

"Ah, shut up!"

They laughed, patting her on the shoulder.

"Hey, hey," Yumi giggled.

"We've been worried about you," Emi reasoned.

"We've been to your house, but your gramps always says that you're sick, and we can't come in," Yumi told her.

"Really…" Kagome sighed.

"Yes, really!"

"Ugh…oh, cool!" Kagome said.

"What?"

"Look," Kagome pointed. "A new jewelry booth is over there! Want to get something, maybe?"

"My yen is totally depleted," groaned Yumi

"Same here."

"Well, I think I should get something," Kagome told them. "I forgot that other necklace at home, and it feels weird without it."

"You mean that one with that broken jewel?" Yumi asked. "Is it me, or does it get, like, bigger?"

"Your imagination..." Kagome replied. "Ooh, look at that one!" Kagome squealed, running to the booth, the duo following behind her. "Isn't it just so cute?"

Emi and Yumi nodded at the talisman the miko pointed to. It was a blue and pinkish mix, with beaded silver hearts and one big silver moon in the middle.

"Ah, so you like this one?" asked the vendor, an old lady with a astute look in her eye. "A good choice."

"'Love in true form,'" Kagome read. "It says that it will reveal my perfect soul mate. 'And the silver moon and the golden light, together as one-here lies the one you will adore.'"

"It is said that different charms attract different people, based on who they should end up with," the wise lady told her. "This says that you will be most happy with one who symbolizes the mysterious moon."

"Wow…I'll take this!" Kagome awed, giving her the money. "In fact, I'll put this on right now!"

The girls thanked her and kept walking. Kagome tucked the moon under her shirt, smiling.

"I think Kagome found her soul mate," Yumi groaned. "A necklace!"

"I love this…hey, want to go eat something?" Kagome said. "Can't say the lunch filled me up!"

"Octopus! Yuck!"

"I totally agree, girl!"

"Hey, I know where we can go!" Emi exclaimed. "Let's go to the ice cream shop- Frozen Delight!"

"YEAH!"

The three girls rushed over to their favorite ice cream place, dashing through the door and straight to the cash register. The cashier smiled politely, but an employee cleaning tables lay low.

"I'll have 'Puppy Love!'" said Kagome.

"Make mine a Chocolate."

"Anything that isn't made of octopus!" Emi laughed. "Make mine 'All American!'"

"Jeez, always the weird flavors, Emi!" Kagome giggled.

"You should speak! I've never seen anyone else with ice cream called 'Puppy Love!'" she retorted.

When they got their ice cream, they sat down at the nearest booth. "So, what's the latest gossip?" asked Kagome.

"You were actually in school an entire week!"

"I know, I'll never get into a good school at this rate!" the miko sighed. "I'm always so busy."

"Yeah, busy getting sick!" Yumi said.

"Must be the cafeteria food!"

The girls screamed with laughter, Emi almost dropping her ice cream. 'If only they knew!' thought Kagome.

"Cleaning boy!" Kagome stopped laughing enough to listen to the cashier yelling at the employee, who perked up from his current table. "Think you can do the other side now, maybe?"

The boy left the now sparkling table he had just cleaned, hurrying over to the other side, his long silver ponytail flipping behind him under his hat. Kagome noticed a magenta striped hand gripping the cleaning cloth.

A magenta striped hand? Familiar...unless someone in the present era all of a sudden decided that he wanted to morph into Barney...nah.

"SESSHOMARU!" shouted Kagome, standing up with her hands flat on the table. Her silver ice cream started melting in the cup. The cashier and her friends clutched their chests at the noise.

"…" the boy didn't respond, except for a low growl.

Kagome ran up to him and hugged him, oblivious of the girls and cashier. "What are you doing here?"

"Working," he replied softly. 'Is she going to let go of me any time soon? She's embarrassing herself.'

"I forgot I told you to get a job," she said sheepishly, releasing the rumbling Tai-youkai. "That would actually explain the fact that you come home a little later than me. My mistake."

"Indeed…"

"How'd you get a job so quickly?" she asked.

"I'm a very successful person, Kagome," Sesshomaru answered. "You should expect a lot from me."

"I know, but less than five whole days…oh…"

"What is it?"

"You…you said my name," she whispered, smiling. She gazed at his gleaming eyes.

"…Kagome?"

Snapped back to reality, and no longer in Sesshomaru/Kagome world, Kagome blushed, hard.

"Kagome, you're totally out of it," Emi said, worriedly.

Apparently Sesshomaru had already returned to the world, posting on his normal stoic expression.

"Good reason, too," giggled Yumi. Emi hid, embarrassed to be seen by this new, tall man.

'He…smiled, and said my name…ooh…'

A faint, silver light came from beneath the miko's shirt, too faint for the girls or cashier to notice it. Sesshomaru's eyes darted to the light.

"Uh…" Kagome's eyes glazed over.

"Shake her, quick, before she starts drooling," Yumi told Emi. Emi obliged, shaking her hard.

"What's the big idea?" she groaned unconsciously.

"You were dead, girl."

'Please let me die! UNDERWORLD HERE I COME!' Kagome's eyes began to glaze over again.

"We're losing her!" cried Yumi.

"Kagome!"

'Leave me and save yourselves from the youkai…Do not worry, I will learn to love the underworld.'

'This is quite enjoyable,' Sesshomaru purred in his head. 'I don't think I'll ever tell her I can hear her thoughts.'

"Help the customers, please!" the cashier told Sesshomaru sternly, who narrowed his eyes from the distraction.

"Sesshy…" drooled Kagome. His eyes opened.

"Sesshy…?" asked Yumi, confused.

"Sesshy…! That must be the light!" cried out Emi.

"No, Kagome! Stay away from the Sesshy-I mean light!" Yumi wailed.

Forgetting his normal self, Sesshomaru began to laugh softly, amused.

"Why are you laughing? Our friend is going towards the Sesshy-I mean the light!" snapped Yumi.

Sesshomaru, enjoying it, continued to chuckle. "Then let Kagome go towards the Sesshy, if that's what she wants."

"What!" the two screamed in unison. The cashier decided to take a break and went in back.

"You want her to die?"

"No…"

"What, then-"

Kagome let out a sigh and began to sway. 'Sesshy, Sesshy, Sesshy…I'm going to make a song about Sesshy…'

Sesshomaru laughed harder. 'I haven't had this much fun in such a long time…'

"Stop laughing, you cold person!" Emi shrieked.

'Not any more,' he thought. He bent down a little, facing the fantasizing girl, who was in her own world.

'I love Sesshy…other words to song…I love Sesshy…Ooh, I know! 'What a girl wants, what a girl needs…'

"Kagome," he said softly. "Sesshy's right here. Wake up from your dream; it's even better in reality."

The faint glow from under Kagome's shirt returned, then stopped. Her eyes reversed to normal.

"Ugh…" Kagome moaned, and then fell forward slowly. Sesshomaru caught her. "Thank you, Sesshy."

"Welcome back to reality." The Tai-youkai grinned. "I think you worried your friends here."

"It felt like something…" the miko groaned. "It's like it brain-washed…wait, friends? My friends?"

"Right here!"

"Duh, Kagome."

"What just happened?" wailed Emi. "I'm so confused."

"Oh my GOD!" exclaimed Kagome, pushing herself from Sesshomaru's arms, who let out a displeased growl.

"We thought you died, girl!" Yumi said.

"What are you talking about?" Kagome asked.

"You looked like you were brain-dead," Emi told her. "And you kept muttering 'Sesshy,' and this guy…"

Silence fell between the four people. Kagome looked at the girls, who looked at

Sesshomaru, who stared.

"Who…who is this guy anyway, Kagome?" Emi asked. "Do you like, know him? You were talking to him before you passed out or went into that trance. He seemed to know you."

Kagome sighed. Sesshomaru let himself go into his usual Tai-youkai expression, emotionless.

"You just had to work here, didn't you?" Kagome groaned.

"…"

"Since Sesshomaru here isn't liable to say much, I might as well tell you that I already know him."

"Good guy, then?"

"Let's just say it is a rocky relationship." 'Hah! Well I can't say 'he was trying to kill me!'

Sesshomaru began to regret his action-how could he ever want to have killed…wait, WHAT? Regret? No one makes the Great Sesshomaru regret! WITCH!

"Ah, wait!" Yumi brightened. "This is the guy that you always get mad when we pester you about him!"

"That would explain the jerk part of him," Emi whispered to Yumi, who nodded in agreement.

"He's not a jerk, Emi!" Kagome snapped. "And…he's not that guy that I am so called 'seeing.'"

The girls gasped.

"Stupid…Inuyasha…" the Tai-youkai growled softly. She elbowed him.

"Yes, Sesshomaru," Kagome muttered. "No, the one that you guys are thinking about is his younger half-brother. And for the record, I am not going out with that stupid, unfeeling jerk."

"But…" Emi stammered.

"You love him…" Yumi finished. "You said so yourself…"

Sesshomaru's chest began to hurt, but it wasn't like any other wound he ever had before, it seemed…worse. Like…falling into glass…

Speared by the broken glass mountains…

The entire shop was shaking, an air of despair swirling around it. Sesshomaru flexed his hands.

"MY SHOP!"

The cashier's voice rang out from below them, the voice quieter by the second. The girls screamed. The room got hotter and hotter, a light bouncing back and forth around it, crazy.

Behind Kagome flashed a pillar of silver light, a loud and infuriated roar coming from within it.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome gasped.

Emi and Yumi huddled together as they watched, horrified, all of the air gone from their lungs.

The pillar flashed brightly, and all the girls were blinded. Kagome, shielded with her miko power, opened her eyes, and gasped.

'He's transformed into his wild youkai but somewhat humanoid self!' "SESSHOMARU, STOP!"

The Tai-youkai seemed deaf to her words, his eyes blood shot. The working vest outfit was gone, leaving only a white undershirt and the light blue pants, which were slightly ripped.

"What are you talking about Kagome!" Emi screamed.

"How is that your Sesshomaru?" cried Yumi. "He's totally inhuman!"

"Exactly!" Kagome admitted, shouting. "He's not human, he's a youkai! A TAI-youkai to be exact…"

"Such fancy taste," Yumi said sarcastically. "A LORD…"

"Wouldn't that make him MORE powerful!" Emi wailed.

'Oh God, she's right! If he's barely using any energy on this power, there's no telling what he could do!'