One Ranch, Two Brothers

Co-written by BelleDayNight and Kitkats

Chapter Two

written by Kitkats

It was terribly old-fashioned. After the near explosion with the head owner of the ranch, Miroku had kindly shown Kagome to her room, which naturally, had to be in the same house as Kouga's.

"I have a question." She had said crisply as he pulled the wooden door open revealing a beautiful room complete with a canopy bed, cheery wood desk and drawers, and a large window that overlooked the garden in the back of the house.

"And that is?" He had asked simply.

"I don't want to be rude but, as I understand it there is a house of rooms that houses Sesshoumaru and the cook and any other worker that works here, and then there is this house which Kouga lives in with no other company, why did you have to put me here?"

He patted her arm, an understanding smile on his face, "I swear, he's more bark than bite. Though his bark is intimidating he does have a heart. It's just hard to reach, that's all." He winked at her, "I am here occasionally, just down the hall." He left her then, walking out of the room and down the hall to his own living quarters.

Silence settled moments later.

Kagome sighed and fell back onto the bed, the springs squeaked in protest, she supposed that this room had been vacant for a very long time. Thoughts ceased and her eyes drooped against her will, and the last thing she saw before she slipped into a well needed sleep was Kouga, his angry face, and sad glint in his blue, blue eyes haunting her dreams.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Dinner passed with Miroku, Sesshoumaru, and Kouga eating without the company of the new Veterinarian. The cook cleared the plates off of the long table and began rubbing it down with a rag and some cleaning product.

A tray of food was set aside for Kagome.

But when she still did not come and Miroku wandered off to his room, only Sesshoumaru and Kouga were left. Sesshoumaru glanced at the tray sitting on the now cleaned table, "I'll take this to Kagome." He said this while reaching for it.

Something odd surged through Kouga leaving behind a hot tingly feeling, and the unmistakable knot of anger tight in his chest, "No." He said in a snap like way, Sesshoumaru turned and looked at him, a brow raised in interest.

"No?" He asked as if he was unfamiliar with the word itself.

"It's out of your way, but since I was heading to my room anyways it would be easier to just drop it off." He explained this in a rushed voice, snatching the tray from Sesshouamru's hands and leaving the room

A shadow of Sesshouamru's true smile graced his face as he watched Kouga leave the room, he snatched a fresh green apple off the bowl arrangement on the table and took a bite of it, "Something is truly in the air..."

OOoOoOoOoOo

There was no knock.

No noise what so ever.

So when Kagome finally turned over, now snug under her covers, and opened her bright orbs she opened her mouth to scream. Standing in the doorway of her room was an outline of a man, the only thing that was to be seen about him was the glint where his eyes were.

"Oh my-"

Kagome never finished her sentence as the man moved forward with the grace of a cat, with quick smooth movements. He covered her mouth with a large callused hand.

"Hush." He commanded roughly, easing the tray onto her bedside table and clicking on the light, blinding both of them.

Kagome blinked rapidly and sat up, "What's going on?" She mumbled sleepily, she had changed into pajamas hours before and Kouga seemed to take notice of her light pink tank top, a little too much notice.

"Stop it!" She snapped seeing his gaze, "You're worse then you're brother." She mumbled while sliding under her covers. As soon as she did so she felt instantly safe, it was almost like she was hiding from Kouga, and his gaze.

"I brought you your dinner; you slept through it I assume. Know now that this cannot become a regular habit. If you want to eat then you eat with us if you skip the meal you don't eat. End of story." His voice was gruff and he stared down at the covers with obvious distaste.

"You remind me of the beast from Beauty and the Beast." She peeked from under the covers, over his shoulder to where the table with the food was, missing the black look he gave her entirely.

"And you," He wrapped his hand around her wrist and pulled her from under the covers, he leaned down until they were nose to nose, his eyes blazing into her own, "Remind me of the beauty, isn't that ironic?"

Kagome gulped at the sudden contact and all thoughts left her.

"I...uh...I mean-" She gave up on trying to speak.

Kouga smiled at this, "Exactly like the character, stubborn, and afraid."

Kagome raised her chin at this and gave him a cold glare, "I am not afraid of you." It was true, she really wasn't afraid of him. Kagome thought back to what Miroku had said about his bark earlier and agreed with him, she might not be scared but she was intimidated.

It made her so mad to think he was doing this to her.

"Not scared of me, yes I agree you aren't," His voice was a low purr as he leaned even closer his thigh pressing against her own, "Just scared of what might be between the beauty and the beast, if you know what this cowboy means." He abruptly released her wrist then and left the room without another word.

Kagome watched him go and as soon as he closed his door down the hall she fell backwards from her sitting position, "Good Lord."

Her heart was beating rapidly in her throat.

Not a good sign.

OOoOoOoOoOo

The sun rose over the hills the following morning and the three men were at the table eating a large breakfast just as it began to shine through the large open windows from the living room. Sesshoumaru snagged a bagel off the table and folded it neatly into a napkin then he tucked it away in his work shirt pocket.

Kagome, once again, was not present and he intended to save her something. Knowing Kouga would only be as kind, if it could even be called that, as he had been the night before. In other words, he wasn't going to give her anything to eat until mid-afternoon, Kouga had his rules after all.

You don't eat with him you don't eat at all.

The action did not go unnoticed by the blue eyed cowboy, "Saving something for the lazy vet are you Sesshoumaru?" He inquired coolly as he wiped at the corners of his mouth with a napkin before tossing it onto on his empty plate.

"Everyone needs to eat." Sesshoumaru replied just as coolly.

"She doesn't eat with the rest of us-"

"She doesn't eat at all." Miroku and Sesshoumaru cut in with a dull drawl to their voices.

Kouga pushed his chair back from the table, the legs squeaking as he did so. "That's enough, there's work to be done." He said gruffly stalking off from the room, Kouga went straight through the sliding doors to the back where Stable one was located. It held the best of his horses.

Miroku exchanged a smug smile with Sesshoumaru.

"He's uptight, no?" Sesshoumaru asked going to the door and glancing out.

"Very uptight."

"Wonder why?" Sesshoumaru muttered this, he closed the sliding doors and sat back down at the table, his plate unlike Kouga's was plenty full. Although he didn't exactly put it away as fast as the man did either, Kouga was the type that was always, always on the go. Sesshoumaru meanwhile didn't mind sitting around like he had all the time in the world, it didn't bother him at all.

Miroku stood up, "Well now that my big brother is going to be busy with Kagome and the horses all day, I'm just gonna sneak off to see my woman."

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes, "Did she finally give in to you're begging? Or is Sango still throwing pans at you and threatening to order a restraining order?"

"Nope."

"I could have sworn you told me she threatened to get a restraining order."

Miroku gave him a sheepish smile, "That was last week."

"Now she's just throwing pans?"

"She loves me."

"Right Miroku, right." Sesshoumaru's voice reeked of sarcasm.

Miroku straightened his shirt out of habit and patted at his hair, he fished a ribbon out of his jean pockets and tied back his small dark mane, he looked nervous.

"You're just jealous." He said with a mouthful of ribbon as he took it out and redid his hair, if only Sango could see how uptight she made him.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes and got up from the table. "You just keep thinking that way, but remember try not to be too in her face, not all women like men admiring their body and telling them why they like it so much, really. I've got to go check on Kagome. Kouga's probably taken a shot at her by now."

"Is there something going on between you two?" Miroku asked suddenly curious.

Miroku got no answer, Sesshoumaru left the same way Kouga had, leaving Miroku to wonder whether Sesshoumaru had heard him and ignored the question or had simply tuned him out.

OOoOoOoOoOo

He thought she had been sleeping but he had been wrong.

Kagome sat on the fence of one wooden stall, her tight jeans already on, a light blue button up shirt to finish off the worker look. Her hair blew as a breeze cooled through the open doors of the stable. The nose of one dark horse was in her hand, it rubbed affectionately against her as if they had been buddies for more then two minutes

Truth be told it was the sugar cube she had just given the horse that had put her on good terms with him.

"Sweet horse." She mumbled to it and patted his nose sweetly. She fished through her pen pocket for another sugar cube, "Very nice horse." She removed her hand and it snorted as if frustrated. She put the sugar cube out in front of the horse's nose and allowed it to raise its head and gently take it from her fingers.

Kouga watched all of this from the stable doors, he had his back up against one wooden door, his gaze locked on both the horse and her every movements.

So maybe she wasn't all that bad.

Kouga blinked rapidly, in disbelieve about that. So what if she liked animals, was an expert of swaying a horse in under two minutes, would give up breakfast to spend time with the animals, big deal. It didn't change the fact that he didn't like her.

He turned his back and walked off towards the house, blocking out every foreign emotion that was hurtling through his gut giving him a sick feeling in his stomach.

I don't like her, I don't like her, I don't like her...

Kouga sighed angrily, cursing Miroku to an early death for hiring this woman.

It had been a long time since he felt this way...

Reviews are always appreciated

Kitkats