La, the story continues with no reviews in sight. Frankly it's a bit disquieting to have such a quiet audience. But seriously, if you like it so much it robs you of speech, I'll not argue with it.

Enter Sesshoumaru having a bad day! It's soo wonderful to fluff his fur sometimes.

Inuyasha and cast are totally subject to my whims, whatever they might be, because Rumiko Takahashi hired me to babysit the lot of them until further notice. In other words, They're my test subjects for variuos experiments and whatnot. It's good to be delusional.

Grumpier Old Dog Demons

Slowly the darkness of the world began to lighten and the maimed dog demon's vision began to clear. It took him a minute or two before he managed to make sense of what exactly he saw. After all, it isn't everyday Sesshoumaru could look up to see the rain falling straight down at him without it actually striking his face.

If he was given to expressing anything like confusion, he might have raised his eyebrows and creased his forehead to display it, but since we're talking about the Ice Prince of the West, that didn't happen. Not that he was given the chance. A rather soothing and feminine voice interrupted his inner thought processes concerning the matter.

"So you've rejoined the land of the living, hmm?" the demon lord glanced over to view the speaker and hissed in pain. "Don't move around so much," the voice warned rather dispassionately, "You aren't quite ready for that much stress." A rather exotic looking human female crept into his view. "After all, you did just lose a lot of blood," she smiled ironically down at him.

Sesshoumaru glared at her. He most certainly was not happy with his situation. Somehow he had fallen into the mercy of some filthy woman of negotiable virtue, judging by her strange garments, and was too weak to violently protest the event.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" she asked him softly. "I can get you something if you'd like." His response was yet another icy glare. "No? Humph! I suppose not," her eyes shone briefly with some thought that amused her. "How 'bout moving? You want me to help you sit up? After all it can't be entirely too interesting staring at the rain through the canvas huh?" she smiled at him.

He blinked at the question. Would he prefer to be sitting up? Well, yes of course. He couldn't exactly see much in his current position. How was he supposed to defend himself from such an awkward angle? Sesshoumaru caught her eyes and nodded precisely. Yes sitting up would be more appreciable.

Aki moved to aid the much larger male with his request, if request it could be called. He hadn't exactly said anything. She mentally shrugged. With her brief experience with youkai thus far, she'd come to understand that most demons were exceedingly proud and arrogant. It was just their way. A bit of a defense mechanism she suspected.

Sesshoumaru hadn't realized just how straining simply sitting up could be. He'd nearly snapped his teeth at her when she moved to help him. That was before he'd tried to move to do so. How did he become so weak? Was it permanent?

"You've lost quite a lot of blood you know," Aki told him quietly without inflection. "It's normal to experience weakness afterwards, but it is temporary." She smiled slightly, no more than a slight upturning at the corner of her mouth. It was quite likely this particular demon was normally very difficult to read, at least from his facial expressions considering what she'd caught so far. Ice, and more ice.

Really, if somebody were going to choose one permanent expression to wear for the rest of their life, bored was not the one she would've chosen. It tends to be taken as an insult way too often. Insults are detrimental to the negotiating tables, and judging by the clothes of her patient, he was probably important enough to have to endure that incredibly boring occupation often. In such situations, attentively interested expressions are much more beneficial.

But even with that frigid look on his face, she could read him. The subtle quick release of his breath told her he was relieved. Aki suspected that if the silver haired demon hadn't been so wounded at this moment, even his breathing would be firmly under control at all times. If anything, the guy struck her as a megalomaniac.

Upon achieving a semi upright state, Sesshoumaru took swift inventory of his surroundings. A few feet away from him was a merry fire blazing under a strange pan filled with water. Beyond that, he was surrounded by a small break in the trees to which the "canvas" that hung blocking out the rain was tied. No one else was in the area besides himself and the strange girl. The human gently propped him up with her strange bag so he could reserve his strength for more important things.

She stepped back and straightened up with a small smile, granting him his first full view of his temporary caretaker. Her hair was long and brown, not the dark brown that was common among the humans he was used to seeing, but a light brown that was closer to the colour of sun-bleached wood used to build the huts of villages. Her eyes were not dark brown like the others he'd come across, but a strange shifting colour that was both green and brown, though it settled more towards green. She was short, but then all humans were short compared to himself. Her clothes were the most obvious statement of "other" about her. He might have been about to assign her to the category of very effeminate man if he hadn't just felt evidence to the contrary when she helped him to sit up.

Then there was the evidence from his other senses to consider. He could not catch her scent. She had been pressed right up against his skin in places and still he could not catch her scent. Sesshoumaru knew his nose was working; he could smell the forest beyond her, the fire beside her, but not her. It was disconcerting, but not all that had to be considered.

His instincts begged for caution, but he couldn't quite figure out why. The feeling was very specific when it was other youkai. And warning bells would be sounding in his head if there were miko nearby, but that wasn't what he felt when he looked at her. Yet more confusion plagued him.

He most assuredly didn't like this situation at all.

Aki observed him shamelessly as he studied her. She wondered what conclusions he would make, then shook her head knowing it didn't matter. The water over the fire began to boil, finally.

The former English tutor moved to make herself some hot chocolate. No point in starting a staring contest with a demon that was too proud to blink if something were to fly in his eye. Aki's smile flourished into a grin, now that was something to laugh about.

The demon lord started out of his ruminations when the strange human moved to the fire. "What are you doing?" he demanded in a croaking facsimile of his usual voice and frowned. That certainly didn't come out quite like he wanted.

Aki smiled at Sesshoumaru's frustration, "I'm simply fixing myself something warm to drink. I'm not too sure if you'd like it though," it was her turn to frown thoughtfully. "I don't carry tea with me as I personally don't like it. You're welcome to share this though."

Sesshoumaru was wary of accepting yet more help from such a lowly creature. What could possibly be the motivation behind such an offer? In his experience, humans did not offer aid to youkai without demanding some form of reciprocity. "Why?" Sesshoumaru was a taiyoukai of few words. She should be glad he had graced with just the few he had spoken thus far.

"Why what? There are a great many things that particular question could be asked for. Why is the sky blue? Why do birds fly? Why does the sun rise and set? I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific in order to receive the answer you're looking for." She purposely left her voice empty of the playfulness that would've normally filled that kind of speech. Instinctively she knew he would not respond well to that.

Sesshoumaru was quite taken aback. Not only did this little human not answer the question, she mocked it matter-of-factually. How dare she not show him the proper respect! If he weren't currently so weak, she would most definitely be very dead at this moment. Then again…

She did have a point. There were quite a great many different things he could be asking about. Why was she helping him? Why was she sharing her supplies? Why was she sheltering him? Why couldn't he catch her scent? Why was she so strange, both in appearance and demeanor? Why could she smile at him and keep all emotional overtones out of her voice? Sure he could do it, Sesshoumaru had spent many years perfecting the skills required to maintain his façade of uncaring indifference. But she looked much too young to have spent the time required to do so, and she was human.

In Sesshoumaru's experience, humans seldom bothered to cover their feelings. If nothing else, it appeared as if most humans simply allowed their emotions to rule them. It was their greatest weakness, but only one of many.

"So did you want some?"

Sesshoumaru reigned in his wandering mind. He had forgotten the offer of refreshment, but it was obvious she had not. He stared at her openly as she continued with her task and looked at him blankly. Her face was just as empty as any porcelain doll, pleasant to look upon but empty of life. The dog demon glanced down at the beverage in her hand. It had an intriguing smell. Richly sweet with a touch of silken darkness, his mouth watered slightly and he realized just how thirsty he was.

"You know, the fastest way to replace the blood you lost is to drink lots of fluids," she informed him thoughtlessly. "The majority of the body is made up of water."

He looked at her strangely; he'd never heard such nonsense. Then again, if one thought about it, it would explain why one was terribly thirsty after illnesses and injuries of great magnitude. Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and sighed quietly before nodding.

Aki smiled at him, internally dancing a happy dance. She hadn't even realized this had been a slight battle of wills until he'd closed his eyes. Really demons were way too competitive about stupid things for their own good. "Here you go," she chirped slightly, placing the crude little mug in his elegantly clawed fingers. "It's quite good, I assure you. And the warmth always feels good on a rainy day."

He looked down at the little cup in his hand as the warmth slowly seeped into his fingers. Sesshoumaru mentally groaned at the rather poor looking cup. He'd seen better-looking vessels in the homes of peasants. He sniffed in disdain, finding his senses inundated with the smell of the liquid the coarse cup held. He sampled the brown liquid, to find it quite sweet and vaguely soothing. "Girl, what is this?" he asked levelly, expecting an answer this time.

"That? That's a cup, it's used to hold liquid for drinking and such," Aki replied intentionally misinterpreting what he was asking.

Sesshoumaru growled in annoyance. Was this Human insanely stupid? Either she intentional misconstrued what he asked, which in itself is very stupid, or she truly didn't know what he meant, which again labels her to be very stupid. The first instance however, would mark her insane. No one intentionally annoyed a demon unless they had a death wish. "This beverage which you just made," he growled slowly losing his patience.

"Hmm, What about it?" she pouted quietly.

"What is it?" he growled again.

"Oh that," She smiled at him slyly, "that is what the people where I live call hot chocolate. You probably won't find much more of it any where around here."

"Are you intentionally misconstruing my questions?" the sentence left his lips before he could think to stop it.

She smiled warmly at him. "Are you intentionally rude to everybody or just the people that help you?"

"You must know that annoying a demon is tantamount to suicide," the demon lord informed her.

"I've annoyed my fair share of demons," Aki returned gently. "I haven't died yet."

"Do you have a death wish?"

"Are you gonna finish that?" she asked ignoring his question.

"Will you stop answering every question I ask with a question?" Sesshoumaru growled, quite annoyed now.

"Okay"

Sesshoumaru blinked. "Just like that?"

"Yep."

The dog demon mentally shook his head and stared at her, "What do you want?"

"Nothing."

"Nobody wants nothing," Sesshoumaru stated sharply. "What are you after?"

"Frankly, there is nothing you have, could have, ever will have or could do that I want." Aki smiled at his incredulous frown. "I want nothing from you. Not repayment for helping you, not protection from some crazy enemy or other, and not help for some quest I am on. There is nothing you could give me or that I could take. You have nothing of that nature to worry about."

He blinked at her, momentarily stunned. Then he got angry. "You obviously know not who you speak to wench…"

"I don't care who you are. I'm sure you're some demon lord used to people and demons attempting to use you for their own gain." Aki smiled sympathetically at him, "there is nothing in this world I wish to gain."

"That's it? I don't believe you."

"I didn't expect you to. You will believe what ever you want to believe no matter what I say so don't worry about it," Aki paused. "Your drink is getting cold."

Sesshoumaru looked down at his cup. She was right, the cup was beginning to lose some of its delicious warmth. He quickly drank half of it before leaning back and brooding into his cup.

Brooding is not a pleasant activity. It's dreadfully dull and only those of a particular nature can stand to do it for an extended period of time. Sesshoumaru did not happen to be one of these lucky few, though under normal circumstances you would not find him considering those who brood a lot 'lucky'. But then, under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be stuck with a strange human woman for company, wounded and facing an incredibly horribly made cup. A cup, which was the only disconnected thing, he had to stare at.

Under closer scrutiny, he was able to make out some strange sloppily made designs amateur-ly inscribed on the side of the cup. He found himself slightly wondering about the cup. Who made it? What did the designs mean? In fact, since there was nothing else he could do at the moment, he found himself utterly fascinated by these unanswered questions.

Aki noticed his pointed scrutiny of her cup. She wondered if he even knew how the little thing was made. She shrugged dispassionately, not that it mattered. "Do you like my cup?" she asked out of the blue.

"It is very poorly made," the dog demon stated shortly.

"Of course it is," she smiled at him, "my little brother made it for me."

"Well then he is a very poor craftsmen."

Her smile grew, "He was eight when he made it." The demon lord blinked. Did craftsmen begin apprenticeships that young? "And he wasn't a craftsmen, he was just a little boy that loved his big sister very much."

Her voice held warmth for the first time since he'd awaken to her. Sesshoumaru marveled slightly at the way it spread through the little dry area protected by the 'canvas'. "You speak of him as if he is no more."

"He isn't."

"What? Did he decide he didn't like you anymore?"

Aki smiled at him softly, "You will find, that while I will not answer your questions with questions as you requested, there are some requests I will not fulfill and some inquiries I will not answer."

The demon lord growled angrily. He had something scathing to say on the tip of his tongue when his senses warned him of danger and his whole body tensed in readiness.

Aki whirled around placing her back to the demon lord. There was something here. She slowly bent to pick up the iron skillet, wincing as the hot metal came in contact with her skin. Something was here that threatened her youkai guest. No one was going to undo her work while she was still standing.

She closed her eyes trying to sense the threat with her ears instead of her slightly blurry vision. One second stretched into many as she waited for some sign of where her opponent lay in wait.

There. The grass rustled with movement that had nothing to do with rainfall. Deftly she flung the hot water out of the pan in that general direction, allowing for as wide a spray as possible. Their attacker screamed in pain and shock, not exactly expecting to be hit with scalding hot water in the middle of the rain.

Aki then stepped up to the now very obvious demon and swung at its head with the pan, which gave a resounding ring on contact. The former English tutor stepped up to the demon and whipped out a pair of handy chopsticks to pluck the Shikon shard from the forehead of the dirty little thing. The demon began to shrink as she placed her newest shard in the plastic film canister that had been selected to hold shards and kept tucked in her jeans pocket. Giving the now smaller grass lizard demon a quick once over, she picked up its skinny little body, tossed it lightly in the air and hit it full force with the skillet. She stood there watching the demon fly like a baseball into the forest.

Aki sighed. Really just how many demons was she going to run into today? She sharply shook some of the water from her hair before stepping back under the canvas of the tarp she'd strung up. She returned the pan to its place by the fire and stuck her reddened hands under one of the larger runoff streams coming from the top of the canvas. Oh, were those ever going to hurt for a while!

Sesshoumaru watched her with veiled interest. He was slightly impressed with the efficient way she had dealt with the problem, though he didn't exactly agree with everything she'd chosen to do. He wouldn't have left the lizard alive. Then again, he probably wouldn't have thought to use the hot water and pan as weapons. That was truly a unique choice.

He was slightly disturbed by the acrid smell of slightly cooked flesh. It wasn't the smell so much as the lack of personal scent usually laced with such a smell. That and it somewhat bothered him she had incurred the injuries defending him.

"Why?" he asked again. Aki just gave him a look, not bothering to go into the whole thing again. Sesshoumaru had to choke back a slight tugging at the corners of his mouth upon catching her expression. Really, had he not learned that lesson before? "Why did you not kill him?" the dog demon clarified slightly.

"There was no reason to. If he were after you, I would've given you the option, but his having a shard meant he was after my shards and myself. It is not my way."

"You are a weak fool. He will come back after you."

"Probably. A fool, I may be, but I am not weak because I chose not to kill him. Death is the easy way out." Aki thought for a moment, "If it were you, you would've killed him?"

Sesshoumaru stared at her, "Of course, without hesitation."

"You would've killed him to keep him from becoming a recurring problem?" At Sesshoumaru's nod she continued, "That doesn't necessarily make you strong. In order to stop someone from becoming your problem you kill the problem. That's the same reason people commit suicide. Death negates a problem before it occurs; it ends the pain before it can grow stronger. Death is easy. Life is hard. Living is difficult as every new day that you live brings new trials and tribulations to overcome. Allowing your enemies to live opens that door for them to come back and be a bigger problem later, but every time they come back and you fight them, you become that much stronger. Allowing them to live also opens that door that you and them may possibly overcome your differences and become allies and friends."

"What if they kill you? What then?"

Aki smiled. "Then I suppose I am weak. If I could not survive the trials sent at me, then I was not as strong as I could be. True, it takes a certain kind of courage to kill a person, but it isn't the kind of courage best found in leaders."

Sesshoumaru found he couldn't argue her strange logic. The concept of allowing your opponent to survive in order to become stronger seemed rather round about and fool hardy. It was to be expected that a female concocted it. "Inspired choice of weaponry." He commented dryly.

Aki snorted, "You use what's available. And know well your limitations. My vision isn't the best, but the water would spread out to hit a large enough area to negate that. No matter how thick the skull of most youkai, I've found most of them become temporarily stunned with a blow from my pan."

"Then you've lost one of your weapons," Sesshoumaru noted the empty pan.

Aki smiled, "Ah, but I already have a replacement ready for use."

The dog demon raised an eyebrow at her. "And what pray tell, is it?" he inquired.

"Oh c'mon, I'm sure you can figure it out if you really think about it. Here's a hint it isn't more water," she winked at him. She had the audacity to wink at him. How dare she patronize him!

"Why don't you just tell me?" he growled irritably.

Aki pouted back at him, "You're not even gonna try? Now that's a big let down. It would've been a fun game. Oh, well. I guess it's back to the puzzle book for me." She sat down next to the fire and picked up a strange stick like thing and a pad of coarse paper.

He watched her slightly enraged at her staunch refusal to give him the answer. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

She looked up at him slowly, "Hmmm? OH this? It's a puzzle book. It contains a lot of little puzzles and problems that have to do with words and logic. The purpose of them is to develop good problem solving skills, or in my case to pass time not thinking about things I'd rather not think of," she finished dryly. "I'd offer to let you try to do some, but they're not written in Japanese."

"Nonsense, no human wandering wench knows how to write or solve problems."

"This human wandering wench knows how to write in at least three different languages. I've just about finished all these puzzle/problems. So your supposition is slightly incorrect. I also happen to know a lot more than that, but it doesn't really matter at this point as I highly doubt you're quite willing to swallow what I just told you." Again silence convened over the two.

Sesshoumaru stared sullenly out at the rain. It was incredibly strange not having his full strength. But that was only the beginning of his problems. Slowly he began to remember the events that lead him up to this situation.

His father's fang, Tessaiga, was now in the hands of his filthy half-breed half brother. And Said brother had used the fang to cut off his arm. Oh the world was most definitely against him. As if the humiliation of losing to the disgusting hanyou wasn't enough, here Sesshoumaru was spending time at the mercy of one crazy, willful, annoying human wench that didn't give a rat's ass who he was. What did he ever do to deserve such punishment?

His grip tightened on the clay cup in his hand. What's next? Was Jaken going to suddenly start singing old drinking songs again? It was bad enough the first time. Or better yet, was his little brother going to happen across him now when he was least able to defend himself? Just thinking about it made him want to cringe.

Finally all his anger and frustration that had been building up boiled over. He chucked the little clay cup at the nearest tree to be rewarded with a very satisfying breaking sound.

Aki looked up at the sound, first checking the demon lord that was her company. She noticed him staring smugly at something to the side of their little shelter so she turned to look. There smashed into tiny little pieces was the irreplaceable little mug her younger brother had given her on her birthday the year before he died.

Silently she set down her puzzle book and pen before getting up to retrieve a purple bandana from her bag behind the dog demon. Her hands shook as she walked over to the remains of her clay mug. Aki bent and painstakingly picked up all the fragments before wrapping them snugly in the purple cloth and tying off the ends. Quietly she replaced the bandana and its precious cargo inside her bag. Then she stood back up and walked away from her patient and out into the rain softly murmuring about firewood.

Sesshoumaru watched her every move. From the moment she approached him to get into the bag behind him to the very last view of her as she faded into the rain. It was actually at that first minute he regretted smashing what wasn't his. A regret that deepened when he failed to miss her shaking hands as she picked up the pieces.

Sesshoumaru wasn't heartless. Neither was he cold, he just hid what he felt for various reasons tactical and otherwise. At this minute, he found himself wishing he were. And all over a strange human that knew no fear.

He took a deep breath when she disappeared into the soggy trees. Her silent handling of the destruction of her cup rattled his nerves. He'd much rather she'd yelled, cried, anything but that quiet despair he saw in her eyes. The yelling would have left his ears aching, the crying would have left his nose burning, but this – this nothing seemed so very unnatural it left all his senses on alert and waiting for whatever he'd expected her to do in retaliation.

Sesshoumaru took another deep breath and caught the faint smell of blood that wasn't his own. It must be hers, he deduced. It didn't have the overlying personal tones blood normally had. He glanced back at the bag she had just messed with. There was a red stain on the flap of it. It was still wet. Again she had been injured because of him but not by him, this time for no reason.

It was a good while before she returned and the scent of blood was refreshed, as solid a confirmation of his suspicion as the stain on the bag behind him. "You've cut yourself. It needs to be cared for." Sesshoumaru told the woman, still working under the assumption that humans are inherently stupid.

Aki blinked in some modicum of surprised. The scratch was small and barely worth the effort to glance at, besides why should it matter to him if she cut herself? "That's nothing, you should see the stitches in my arm. Or the healing scar around my ankle," she boasted smugly.

"I was not at fault for any of those," he dismissed their relevance, though he was slightly curious as to what this girl did that she would brush aside any wound that wasn't life threatening.

"And you're not responsible for this one either."

"Woman, do not try to deny what I know is fact," it was then he realized he didn't know her name. More than that he realized he wanted to know it. "Girl, what is your name?"

Aki smiled at him kindly, "What does it matter? After you heal, neither of us is likely to see one another again."

"I would know to whom I speak."

"Ah but we often speak to people we don't know by name."

"I would know in whose debt I am."

"And I refuse any attempt at repayment."

"You're not going to tell me your name are you?"

"Nah."

"Why not?" Sesshoumaru sighed.

The enigmatic human smiled at him, "Because then you would attempt to track me down after all this is done for good or ill. Should anyone ever discover you were helped by a useless," she rolled her eyes, "and weak human, you would destroy me so I could not corroborate the story. This way I don't know who you are, you don't know who I am. It offers protection both ways."

"Did anyone ever tell you, you are extremely annoying?" the dog demon grumbled.

"Yes," Aki responded cheerfully. "But then isn't everyone to some degree?"

Sesshoumaru had to admit, she was right.