Title: Come Away With Me
Disclaimer: No, no, no! Over THERE! points at RT
Rating: PG-13 ( T )
Spoilers: If you haven't read up to Volume Six of the manga yet, you've got a lot (and I mean a lot) of catching up to do. Myself, I gave up somewhere around Volume Nineteen.

Summary: What if the attempted kidnaping had been successful...? M/K

Last chapter based directly on the manga.

Chapter Two: Things Happen

Kagome sighed with exasperation. Traveling today had not been pleasant, what with a pouting half-demon stumbling along behind her, muttering curses she was sure hadn't carried over to her time period.

Finally, as her patience finally wore itself out, she snapped. "Man, how long are you gonna sulk?"

InuYasha sent her a macho glare that said quite plainly "I'm not pouting!"

"You got to see me naked, so we're even, right?" Kagome continued, sending her own glare his way.

"I saw nothing!" InuYasha insisted, a light blush staining his cheeks as his eyes darted away to look at his suddenly interesting toenails...was that a hangnail?

Kagome leaned in conspiratorially to Shippou, who was clinging to the wicker basket strapped between her handlebars, and whispered, "He did see, didn't he?"

Peeking up at her over the ribbon-laden handle bars, Shippou implored, "Leave me out of this!"

— — —

Unbeknownst to the small band of shard hunters, their progress was being surveyed with great interest a short distance away by two nearly shady characters. The man, a self-declared son of Buddha, watched them with the keener interest, fixated primarily on the young maiden. Kagome, as her companions called her.

The second party, a twitchy raccoon demon, stood by his side (or hip, rather), watching the group with apprehension.

"So I should attack the males, yes?" he asked, chancing a glance at the preoccupied monk.

"Yup," Miroku answered, watching with avid fascination as the young maiden tucked a piece of stray ebony hair behind her ear as she casually led her strange chariot down the foot-beaten mountain path. One of her male companions – the older, unidentified demon – ambled along behind her, wearing a scowl of deep thought. Occasionally, Kagome would scrape together enough courage to say something to him, only to be rebuffed by an irritated grunt from the demon. After much prodding from her, the demon finally responded coherently, exploding in a wave of angry shouts and curses that were most unfitting for a lady's delicate ears.

Kagome stumbled back a few steps, startled by his outburst, and seemed struck dumb for a few moments as the volley of insults flew at her, knocking the essential breath from her lungs that enabled her to respond. Midway through the lengthy tirade – just as Miroku was moving toward the edge of the cliff to come to her rescue – her shoulders stiffened and her brows knitted together. She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and...

He'd missed it. She had done something – obviously at a very high rate of speed – but he had blinked and it was over. Meanwhile, the subdued demon lay in his own tailored crater, dust rising up around his red-clad body and settling in his brilliant white hair in a coppery mist. After quite a bit of struggling ('Certainly not as sturdy as his facade,' Miroku thought), he managed to gain enough leverage to hoist his upper body out of the crater.

"Bitch," his silent lips formed.

Another instant later, he was face down in the crater once more.

Miroku smirked as Kagome loftily tossed her hair over her shoulder and marched away from the felled demon, manually wheeling her chariot down the rough trail as her companion collected himself.

"And during the confusion," Miroku added, eyes still firmly attached to the enchanting beauty who was now giggling quietly to the kitsune cub riding in the little basket suspended between the handlebars of her odd contraption. "I'll take the girl."

There was a brief pause in the conversation in which the tanuki fidgeted restlessly, eyes darting back and forth between the absorbed monk and the oblivious young woman that was the object of the priest's momentary affections. "B-but, Miroku-sama..." he began nervously, shifting his eyes until they settled on the monk. "You don't have to do things so indirectly..."

Now, Miroku spared him a glance.

"All you need is one blow of that right hand of yours!" the tanuki continued, quailing under the monk's seemingly easy gaze.

"Fool," Miroku proclaimed, shaking his head with disapproval. Looking at his companion with a twinkle in his eye and a smirk on his lips, he continued, "You should know well enough...They'll all die!"

--

The group carried on (InuYasha limping along in the back), determined to cover as much land before sunset. Kagome chattered on to Shippou – who, in turn, chattered back – and left InuYasha to sulk over his long dead (and recently resurrected) lover.

Kagome bit her lip distractedly as Shippou took his turn in rambling, glancing back at InuYasha who was gazing wistfully at the horizon. Was he thinking of Kikyou? Probably, he'd never worn that look for HER...

Not that she cared, mind you, but it was always nice to be THAT appreciated. And the title of "shard detector" was getting rather old...

"Ka-go-ME!"

Kagome blinked and pulled her attention back to Shippou, who had his little arms crossed huffily over his chest. "Eh heh...I'm sorry, Shippou. What were you saying?"

The little kitsune eyed her beadily. "What were you so distracted by?" he asked. Observant as he was, he probably noticed the way his surrogate mother's eyes fell shamefully to her feet and a blush spread across her cheeks.

"A-ah," she stuttered. What was a good excuse? She couldn't very well tell him she was looking at InuYasha, he would get the wrong impression and then...and then...

"The scenery. It's so beautiful from all the way up here, don't you think?" she finally conjured. There! Now he would think she was a nature lover, not a dog lover (she much preferred cats anyway).

Shippou snorted. "Yeah, that giant boulder over there had me riveted for a while too..."

Kagome flushed to the roots of her hair and pinched the snippy kitsune on his ear. "It's not polite to tease your elders," she scolded.

"Mean," he accused, rubbing his injured appendage tenderly to return the blood flow.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

Shippou halted his ministrations, ears twitching curiously at the new sound. "What's that?" he asked, squinting up the mountain side for the source of the disturbance.

Kagome blinked at Shippou. She didn't hear anything. "Huh?"

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE...!"

Okay, she heard THAT.

With a start and a wild scream, Kagome hurled herself out of the way, Shippou held protectively against her chest, as a giant...thing lumbered down the cliff face, carving a new path on its way.

"Yee!" Kagome screeched, landing face down on top of Shippou as InuYasha battled with their new foe. InuYasha's curses became more and more distant with each passing second, signifying that he had gone over the cliff with his enemy (but was at least still alive).

With a panicked scramble, Kagome raced to the edge of the cliff and peered over. She squinted into the ravine for any speck of red and finally caught a glimpse of one, pushing against what appeared to be a giant boulder.

OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGod...

"InuYasha!" she called frantically, wincing as a puff of dust and debris rose out of the bottom of the ravine.

OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGod...

What if he was hurt? What if he was dead? What the hell was that thing, anyway? Could he climb back up, assuming he was even alive? What would she do with all that ramen in her backpack?

Any other thoughts flew from her pretty little head as, with a swift knock to the head, all went black.

— — —

Author's Notes: The offer's still open to anyone that wants to continue this story for me. C'mon, you know you want to...contact me if you're interested.

. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .

– Feel the love. MirokuKagome.